2025 Event Reports

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Select an event Breakfast Meeting EATOC Norfolk Run Alysebury Events Stoke Mandeville show Kimbolton Sporting Bears Parson Drove car show Hardwick Airfield EATOC Lincolnshire Run EATOC Fish and Chip Run

Breakfast Meeting Ivy's Farm Shop by Giles Cooper

This was the first breakfast meeting I made it to - as I was working for the previous one.

It was a bright sunny morning but not overly warm when heading out and despite the SatNavs best efforts I ignored it for the first half and instead of taking its preferred route went straight up round Market Deeping and on to Spalding. At Spalding it was easier that before as all the traffic cones have gone and the revised roundabout is now open so then it was a quick run to the venue.

At the venue we hit a slight problem, they have had the gravel in the car park relaid and it is quite deep, attempting to get a light car reversed into a space resulted in the Tiger trying to dig a hole for itself, so I was very gentle on the controls to avoid having to be dug out later.

We had a good turn out for the event, Myself, Angus Grooby, Kev Greeves, Adrian and Mandy Spriggs, Steve and Heather Newman, Dom Eaves and Dave Tomblin, Mike Ramsdale all came in their usual cars. Griff and Rachel, and Steve and Paula came in normal cars - there were some excuses about dodgy knees, and maybe hangovers as to why we were two Tigers down.

Incidentally since selling the Locost last year Mike Ramsdale has now bought a new car - a Golf convertible, so get used to seeing pictures of that in the newsletter.

We all had a good breakfast and then (well for those who know me it was inevitable) there were a selection of very tasty cakes just begging to be eaten - so I had to have a slice…

After finishing eating we all had a good chat outside and watched the turnip tossing Llama - that isn’t a euphemism, it was throwing turnips. Then left having had good morning out and headed home.

So here are some photos from the day.

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EATOC Norfolk Run by Giles Cooper

The day of the Norfolk run turned out to be bright dry and sunny unlike the pub meeting a few days later when jumpers and coats were required.

A good number of us met up at the factory to get started, myself, Griff and Rachel, Kev Greeves, Steve and Heather Newman, Chris and Jay Coleman, Dan and Lucy Sneesby-Woodley, Angus Grooby, Adrian and Mandy Spriggs, Michael and Margaret Dewsbury, Dom Eaves (with Dave Tomblin) Mike Ramsdale, Carl and Carolyn Lumley, Steve and Paula Tuck and Andy Dunn.

This made for a pretty good turnout, one thing to mention is that Chris Coleman had only got his car working late the previous night having not turned a wheel for a good few months (this might be important). As we left I was occupying last place and due to the traffic lights and Elm roundabout ended up not seeing anyone for a few miles. I was slowed down as most of the distance between Outwell and Downham market I was following a tractor and a nervous motorcyclist which put paid to gaining speed.

Just after Downham Marked I turned onto the A10, I missed the instruction to take the first left and headed down the A10 before being told off by the satnav and it insisting that I needed to take the next road to get me back on track. This I did and following the route I came to a junction where a load of club members crossed in front of me??? Figuring there must be a reason for this I joined up with them and continued in a small pack until the stop at Swaffham. When we had stopped I found out that a road was closed hence meeting them in the ‘wrong’ direction. At the stop Adrian and Mandy left us but Richard and Caitlyn Gaze joined. We had also lost a couple of others but it turned out they had just missed the Swaffham stop and continued onto the pub instead.

The second part of the morning leg was fairly uneventful apart from we picked up Dave Sams en-route and a strange incident concerning Steve and Paula (see the next article), we got to the lunch stop at the Old Forge and then all had a good lunch. It must be noted that since Mike Ramsdale has swapped from a kit car to a Golf soft top he has now been promoted to ‘Official crash helmets storage officer’ as when we stop anywhere quite a few members fill up his (lockable) boot with helmets and sat-navs

At the pub we picked up Stan Burton who joined us for the second half of the run. Steve and Paula joined a bit later than expected.

After a suitable rest period we then continued on, slightly reduced as Andy Dunn, Carl Lumley and Michael Dewsbury also left the route. The afternoon left took us through some special (i.e. bumpy and grass centred) roads. All went well until we got to a small village where I heard the car behind me (Chis Coleman) come to a halt and failed to restart. We had a look at the roadside and it appeared the fuel pump had stopped working, unable to aid we had to leave him behind and continue on. I did get a message later that evening to say a loose wire in the fuse block had cut power to the pump so it wasn’t anything major. Considering the car hadn’t run for almost a year 130 miles before an incident was a good outing.

Continuing on with just Dave Sams and myself as everyone else just kept going when Chris came to a halt we arrived at Fendick’s about 10 minutes after everyone else and then after a break set off on the journey home.

Now some good news it was Lucy’s first trip out in the Tiger after Dan inherited it from his late (and much missed) dad. She wasn’t put off and said (on the day) that she would come out in the car with him again.

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Aylesbury Events by Charlotte Isaac

First a little bit about Bucks Cars and Coffee: this was founded to get my husband out of the garage and into the light. We arrange Sunday morning breakfast meets in the local community bringing together like minded individuals to chat over breakfast and make new friends who have petrol running through their veins. This group is open to anyone with a car obsession as long as you love it/!

If you book them, they will come. Much like Wayne's World, we made sure to book Bucks Cars and Coffee into our most local annual car show the Chiltern Hills Rally on 18th May.

It's based a couple of miles away from Aylesbury which is ideal for the majority of our members.

This is our second year at this event and it's huge! Filled with a variety of vehicles including EATOC's Lee Isaac in his Tiger Avon. He had a lot of attention (as per usual), he allowed some younger folk and some young at heart folk to carefully sit in his green machine too.

There were plenty of happy faces at the end of the day. The weather improved in the afternoon, perfect for enjoying the variety of food, drink and amusements on offer.

It would be fantastic if EATOC joined us next year or represented on their own club stand. You don't have to be vintage!

Lee will be showing his car at our local school fair and car show on 14th June. If you can please email buckscarsandcoffee@gmail.com for entry information. We are including in the £6 entry fee: free food and a chance to win a £60 valet pack kindly donated by The Motor Spa in Buckingham.

This Car Show will be a slightly smaller more intimate affair however it is very popular with the village and surrounding with a mobile pub, bbq and village fete games. So please book if you can, all monies made will go directly back into Stoke Mandeville Combined School.

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The Friends of Stoke Mandeville Fair by Charlotte Isaac

You know when it's June, everyone seems to have a summer fair on the calendar and this month, we had a cracker of a one. The Friends of Stoke Mandeville Combined School Summer Fair was on 14th June and they have been including a small car show for the past couple of years.

The show was luckily on the playground, so Lee in his Tiger Avon was there showing off as per usual. We had a total of 19 vehicles in the show, with two wrapped cars (a Lightning McQueen VW Up and a Spyro inspired Skoda Octavia), a few very noisy ones, some classics and even a very tall vintage truck.

The fair featured plenty of things to keep you occupied such as a mobile pub, and barbecue as well as village games including wellie wanging and water balloon antics far away from the cars.

The car show entrants were placed into a raffle to win a valet pack from a local detailer, the winner was not around to pick up his prize, however, he was very pleased indeed when it was delivered to him the following day.

As the day wore on, three prizes were awarded during the mini car show competition. The winners received winner plaques and a large bag of Haribo. Unusually the losers also got a plaque stating “loser” and a smaller packet of Haribo. The benefits of a small car show I suppose. 

The weather was perfect for the day and due to the King's birthday there was also an unexpected Chinook flypast at the start of the fair, so smiles all round.

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Kimbolton Sporting Bears by Giles Cooper

The weather forecast for this one said it was going to be hot, so ideally we needed some protection from the Sun as our allocated parking area was in the middle of the cricket pitch - so no shade forthcoming.

Having spoken to Jim at the factory we could borrow his gazebo - just one problem it is large enough for 2 or 3 cars to park under so too big to go in a Tiger… A phone call later and I had arranged for Mike to collect it in his Golf Convertible as this has a large-ish boot and fold down rear seat which is just big enough to get the gazebo in.

So come the show day we only had a few cars turn up (just 4 myself, Mike, Paul and Marion and Frank Thurston) but it meant we had plenty of space to put the gazebo up. When we did it was a cloudy and overcast morning and for a while we wondered if the effort had been all for nothing. At 11:30 the sun came out and the temperature rose about 10C we were glad we had it at this point.

Now onto the rest of the show report, it appears that after they were missing last year the organisers have taken the decision not to have the craft fair any more - this could be due to lack of interest by either the punters or the stall holders, and the number of general stalls seemed to be a bit less although that could be me.

The show ring was full of strange acts as usual but I didn’t really stay to watch them as I was more interested in the cars and food.

There were some odd cars and I am not sure what to make of a Rolls Royce fitted with a tow-bar(?) and towing a huge trailer with a pedal car on it - it also had the plate T111 UGC which was spaced with mounting bolts to read Thug make of that what you will. There was also a killer car with 26 plastic ducks, a plush cow and a model of the car stuck to the dashboard, have a crash and the toys would probably cause more injuries than anything else.

It was a good day and after we packed up on the drive home I did pass through a brief rain shower but otherwise the weather stayed good all day.

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Parson Drove Car Show by Giles Cooper

Well it is exactly a week since the Kimbolton show and the weather is slightly different. Gone is the hot dry weather to be replaced by cooler and a lot wetter conditions.

Well a lot wetter or constant rain from just after arriving for most of the day. Fortunately we had the gazebo which was to protect us from the rain rather than the sun. The turnout was almost the same as at Kimbolton Paul didn’t join us this time, instead we had Angus and Griff make the journey to the show.

Upon arriving the first thing was to get the gazebo up which we managed just as it started to rain, then we grabbed chairs and stayed put until the rain started to ease. At this point we could head out for a wander round the rest of the show field and also grab some food.

Normally the field at this show is filled with weird and unusual creations but the weather forecast kept quite a lot of them away. There were still a couple of oddities, including a vehicle (no idea what it started out as) with oversized bottle tops for hubcaps, and a lowered Lexus which didn’t seem to need all 5 nuts in the wheel…

Unfortunately for the organisers and stallholders the weather put a lot of people with show cars off, and the number of punters was similarly down. Who really wants to spend a wet Sunday walking round a field with a few cars. This is a real shame as on previous years there have been easily double the numbers there.

Finally at the end of the day we started to pack up - at which point the sun came out and it is was a bright afternoon. So we packed up the gazebo and headed off in the dry. After driving home I put the car in the garage, nipped inside for a drink and then went back to get the stuff out the car. As I got in the garage without warning there was a huge thunderstorm which lasted for the next 10 minutes. The British summer being as unpredictable as ever

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Hardwick Airfield by Giles Cooper

Well normally the journey to an event isn’t that interesting but this one was for the wrong reasons.

Coming out of Peterborough I passed the fuel station at Eye Green, going around the roundabout the back end of the Tiger lost grip - this was strange there was no rain, dry roads and a reasonably warm day, so nothing to make it slide. Then I noticed a pale coloured band on the road, someone had spilled a bit of Diesel.

I could now see a track of Diesel continuing up the road, so positioned the car to avoid running the tyres in the track and continued on. The trail was still on the road when I got to the Thorney bypass (one the bypass you could see where they had overtaken someone as the track swapped lanes. The trail continued on to Wisbech finally coming to an end at Elm Roundabout. They had been dropping Diesel for 17 miles.. (at one point I almost caught up with what may have been the culprit a van where is looked like it was raining below the back doors. Once I was no longer avoid Diesel spillages the rest of the journey was easy.

I arrived at the airfield around 10:15 to find I was the only Tiger there, it took a while but we did have more cars turn up Richard and Meghan Gaze arrived, followed shortly after by Stan Burton, The last two Tigers arrived after another hour (Chris Jones and ex club member Mark Copeland) who despite organising the parking area couldn’t find the entrance road to the site….

We had a good wander around the museum section which has various pieces of crashed aircraft and a selection of old WWII uniforms. Judging by the old uniforms either people were a lot smaller or the uniforms that survive as the ones not a lot of people could fit and didn’t get the wear (interesting idea?)

Later in the afternoon we moved from the parking area to park just outside the hanger. Inside the hanger it was fairly empty but outside there was a line up of half tracks, jeeps etc

During the afternoon we had a flypast of the BBMF Lancaster which was a highlight of the day.

Now I will mention one conversation, that apparently the club does not do enough for the members down in Suffolk as a lot of events are focussed on Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. I will state again, if you want to see events local to your patch then please suggest locations, venues etc. Yes the committee members mostly live in Cambridgeshire but we will add events to the calendar and we can see who turns up. We can’t guarantee numbers but more people have a chance if we give them options. To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, “Ask not what your club can do for you, but what you can do for your club”

Finally we all left on the drive home - which instead of Diesel I was stuck behind a 60’s VW Camper-van which proved hard to get past due to the average speed cameras.

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EATOC Lincolnshire Run by Giles Cooper

Before the run started there were some interesting discussions, the official start point was in Long Sutton but the route came back over towards Spalding. So for myself it didn’t make sense to go and add another 40 miles to the distance. So having looked at the route map I contacted Griff and told him I had found a lay-by just North of Spalding which we would wait for him at. To be told the route was going via Bicker (5 miles to the West). After a bit of discussion it turns out the route published wasn’t what he thought it was and so I was right…

Fortunately on the day he did follow the published route and myself, Angus and Steve Tuck all waited and then tagged onto the end of the convoy.

The first part of the journey went well until we reached some temporary road works. At which point we stopped at the traffic lights, and waited for I think about 20 minutes before we could get through. There were some people working on tree trimming which involved driving a cherry picker up and down the road slowly which closed the road off completely. Angus was behind me and stood up in his car surveying the road like the captain of a ship which I didn’t get a photo of - sorry.

Finally we got through the roadworks and continued onwards - only later to find another road closed due this time to a burst pipe as water was coming down the road. This time we had to turn around and find an alternative route - fortunately it wasn't a big diversion.

The best bit of the road was over the Lincolnshire Wolds where as we were relatively high up (180M elevation) and as the day was bright and clear we had fantastic views across the landscape all the way to the lunch stop at Brigg garden centre. Unfortunately at some point on the route we lost Frank Thurston - but he made his way home successfully, we found out later on.

After a good lunch (for a garden centre the food hall is huge) we headed back across the Wolds towards Coningsby and then south to the afternoon stop at North Kyme. Now I have driven from that road more times than I care to recall (at least 3 times a year for the last 30 or so years), But I have never had a need to stop at this pub and so I drove straight past it, realised my mistake and had to drive another 4 miles before I could turn around and make my way back. After the afternoon break we then headed home.

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EATOC Fish and Chip Run by Giles Cooper

Well we have referred to the Fish and Chip run as the Tesco Run (because it stops at 2 or 3 Tescos on the way). After this year we will call it the diversion run. With this and the Lincs run we have clocked up probably about 15 miles of diversions.

The day started off cold, dull and a bit damp when meeting at March Tesco, I got there to find Angus had arrived first after a 10 minute wait nobody else had arrived and so we continued to Ely. No road works so far.

At Ely we found some more club members,Dave Sams, Dom Eaves, Neil Smith, Richard Gaze and Steve Newman were all waiting for us. So after a break and comfort stop we continued towards Long Melford.

After navigating through Newmarket (I had mucked up the routing but we didn’t lose anyone fortunately), we kept on the road towards Clare only to get to the junction with the A143 at Stradishall. We should go straight over and keep on going but the road was closed and the diversion arrow said turn right. Fair enough so we started following the diversion and that was the last sign we saw for it, at one point my Satnav suggested turning into Highpoint prison but I ignored that instruction. After a good few miles we came across another sign for a road being closed. This one however only had a half width barrier and after seeing a car coming the other way I decided to chance it and we did get through.

We then drive another few miles until I noticed a sign to Clare, at which point we could get back almost on the route and finally arrived at Long Melford probably 30 minutes after we should have done.

We then added to the convoy with Paul Browning, Chris Jones and ex club member Mark Copeland. We also met members Peter Hinton and Mike Watson who had come across to say hello but not come on the run. We were probably at the pub for about 45 minutes before continuing on the route.

After a few miles we had an unscheduled stop, a blind (well I think it was blind) rabbit was sitting in the road directly in front of the car. I couldn’t drive over without killing it and smearing dead rabbit across the car which I didn’t want to do. So I had to stop and move it out of the way so we could continue onwards. Then I made a mistake and somehow ended up on the A14 for about 10 miles instead of the route, but everyone followed me - sorry. We did get back onto the route after some diversions and made it to the fuel stop at Stratford St Andrews to refill the car before the last leg to Dunwich Beach.

So we finally made it after diversions, closed roads, mistakes etc not an uneventful drive.

We got lunch and after a good break it was time to head home. Everyone scattered on their own routes and what did I find on my route home, more signs saying closed roads and diversions there must have been 10 sets until I reached the closed section, where the workman said he would open the road in 10 minutes so I just waited to get through. Then I reached the A14 and could just cruise my way home.

This year my car did the entire route under its own power!

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