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Morris Minor Owners Club |
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Bridlington & Wolds Inaugural Rally by Chris Haigh
Keith and I were taking our caravan and modern car to the Brid & Wolds Rally at Sewerby, along with Molly, the 4 door saloon, to camp for the weekend. At least that was the plan. On Friday morning, while Keith was hitching up the caravan we checked the lights as we usually do before setting off on a trip. The brake lights were working but no indicators. So, while Keith was sorting that out I decided to go to the petrol station and fill Molly up. Problem number 2, Molly seemed to be filled with kangaroo juice as she hopped down the road. I turned round as soon as I could and went back home where Keith looked under the bonnet, fiddled about a bit and asked me to take her up the road to try again. The hopping and jumping were even worse! Time was getting on and we’d promised Sue that we would get to Sewerby about 11 o’clock so that we could “greet” the port-a-loos and make sure they were positioned correctly. I hurriedly phoned Sue and explained what had happened and that we would be a little later than expected, also that we would be without a Morris, as I didn’t want to risk travelling all that way with a hopping and jumping car!! We finally set off about an hour and a half later than planned and of course got caught up with the Friday traffic on the A1 and A64. We finally arrived at Sewerby at about 1.45pm and after a tour of the American Vehicles’ camping area, (this weekend was also Sewerby Carnival weekend and the cliff top next to Sewerby was rapidly filling up with American cars, a fun fair and on the Sunday, a helicopter providing 3 minute rides for £25, some people must have more money than sense!!) and a quick phone call to Chris (who we could see through the hedge but couldn’t reach) were guided into the correct place. First job, lunch, followed by putting the awning up and making the “West Wing” ready for Sue, Dave and Dale from the Northeast. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and waiting for the other campers to arrive. Other arrivals on Friday afternoon were Paul and Sheena with their caravan (no Moggie though, another poorly one), Graham, Jackie and kids, Sue and Pippin, Sue Dave and Dale and Brian with the Yellow Peril, plus members of North Lincs branch. Saturday dawned misty and quite cool. After breakfast it was a free and easy day when everyone did their own thing, Keith and I with Sue, Dave and Dale decided to have a trip into Brid for a bit of retail therapy. When we got back to Sewerby Maurice and Jean had arrived with their caravan and Rosie and Sandy were also there. Saturday evening was the “bring your own bbq”. Maurice and Jean’s gazebo was erected next to Paul’s awning and with our gazebo slotted on the end we had quite a large enclosed area for “socialising”. Maurice lit his bbq and everyone took their turn in cooking the food they had brought and settling down for an evening of eating, drinking, chatting, and general merriment. At about 9 o’clock Keith got our Boules set out and asked if anyone fancied a game, light was fading a bit by this time, but we went ahead anyway. The only takers were myself, Keith, Sue A and Sandy. Not too difficult to work out the teams, then, boys v girls. The system of scoring was quickly decided and we commenced play, Jackie was roped in as our adjudicator. The play was evenly matched for most of the game with the boys just drawing ahead to finish with a slight lead (one point). A second round quickly followed, but by this time the light had faded badly, in fact we were playing in almost complete darkness!!. Keith brought our camping gaz light over and we used that for a bit, moving it from one end of the pitch to the other according to the play. Then Sue came up with the brilliant idea of playing by the light of a Tuareg camp fire (a scented candle really), so we had the candle at one end and the light at the other. This proved a bit hairy as we kept hitting the candle and knocking it out. The second game ended in a draw, so we had a sudden death final, which the boys won. We should have started earlier. Still it was great fun. Time for bed Sunday dawned a lot brighter than Saturday and by 9 o’clock everyone was in position ready for the rallyers to arrive. There was a pretty good turn out with approx 35 Morris Minors from Northeast, West Yorkshire, Barnsley, Brid & Wolds and Lincs and North Lincs branches to name but a few. Sewerby Hall had used a marquee in the grounds the week before and Sue A had persuaded them to leave it up so it could be used for the rally. The tombola stall was duly set up in there and I had a little table with my cake on which I was asking everyone to guess the weight of. Teamwork arrived mid morning and set their equipment up in the bandstand ready for their performance in the afternoon. There was also a couple of performances from a comedian/Punch and Judy man, Professor Somebody or other, I didn’t catch his name. This really is a lovely setting for a rally, there is something for everyone. The hall and craft shops for mums to look around, plenty of superb Morris Minors for dads to look at and drool over and of course the zoo and farm for the kids. Not to mention a ride on the land train along the cliff top to the centre of Bridlington. All in all a “Grand Day Out” in the words of Wallace and Grommet. This was the first Bridlington & Wolds rally, it was organised to the nth degree and if this is a taste of years to come we’ve got some great rallies to look forward to. Our 2007 event is Fri 27th, Sat 28th & Sun 29th July |
Bridlington & Wolds
