Tripe June 2007

July 2007

Many of you have asked me whether I have the 6 back yet, so I thought I would take a piccy of all the bits I do have.

GROUP MEETING – 19 JULY 2007

MEMBERS PRESENT

Kathryn and Tim Sharp TR6

Martin and Sue Faulkner TR6

James Faulkner GT6

Graham Ransom Nissan Pathfinder (blocking up half the car park)

Paul Bowler Banksman for parking above Nissan

Linda and Mick Forey TR6

Roger Guy TR6

Andy and Claire Moltu TR6

Peter and Heather Hodgson Same Nipmobile as last 3 months

Dick Goodey Ford

John Edwards Dolley

Reg and Irene Bowler TR6

Dave Guzzetta TR5

Allan Westbury Ollie TR4A

Phil, Rachael and Hannah Gunn Stag

Tony and Ruth Richards TR6

Ben and Lisa Ward TR6

Martin and Jenny Ward TR6

Terry Pruce Rear Gunner in Pathfinder

John and Chris Day TR6

Steve Lambley TR PI of some ilk

Tim Jeffery TR250

Roger Corbitt TR6

Terry Goodlad TR3A

Mark Spence Rover

So this is it – the last one produced by Peter and Heather (although Martin and Sue have contributed the vast bulk of this month’s reporting – many thanks, both of you). It seems a long time since we did it for real every month. I looked back at the last time we wrote from America, and discovered that it was August of last year. I was preparing the 4 for its voyage and beginning to pack up tools and spares and no, I’ve not progressed the job one inch since. A sobering thought is that when we last did the publication of TRipe for real we mailed every single copy. Luckily the boss was sympathetic to the cause and didn’t enquire too closely into the unexplained loss of loads of stamps every month.

Fairy Tales overheard in the car park

Diesel Dick was trying to explain how he had been further delayed in getting his 4 back in action, and blamed it on Patsie’s broken finger. The broken finger meant that he was having to render assistance in various household matters such as additional washing-up, cleaning and cooking. He did give a fairly graphic description of her fall on her birthday immediately prior (!) to them consuming champagne, but my sources tell me otherwise. There are two versions, and you can choose which one you would like to believe. One is that she was lining up the front wing panels for Dick using her finger as a gauge, and Dick tightened one turn too many. The other is that she was adjusting Dick’s ignition timing when the bonnet lid slipped. Whichever is true Patsie, our good wishes for a speedy recovery as Dick is getting fed up of fish and chips from the shop every day.

Meeting Notes

Our leader, refreshed by his holidays, assumed the reins from deputy Ruth and we were treated again to the 3-day meeting. Many thanks to Ruth and to Sue for conducting and recording last month’s proceedings.

Wittering

No, not about Martin again, but about the Wittering Families Day on 6^th July to which we were invited and which some members attended. We had received a letter of thanks from the Station Commander (attached) to which Martin will reply. In his letter he will ask if we can rent one of their runways for doughnuts. Many thanks for fixing it all up for us, Mark. A full report from Martin and Sue appears later.

Reg’s 4A

After the appearance on the front cover of Triumph World of Reg’s 4A, we received an e-mail from the guy who sold it to Nigel prior to its transfer to Reg, in which he congratulated us for saving it from the knacker’s yard. Nice.

Castle Howard

Phil and Rachel went on their seeming annual pilgrimage. Just my perception, but is this a good event that the bulk of us just ignore?

Kimbolton Castle

Reg and Irene went to Kimbolton Castle earlier in the month (as did John and Margaret Martin). They recommend it highly. It’s an annual event organised for charity by the Rotary Club but isn’t specifically a motor show. They have crafts, dogs, (MGs?) and trade stands. Cam Followers and Nene Valley Groups were there, so there were some TRs amongst the many other makes. So plenty for us all to do. Maybe if you can remember, Reg, we can organise something next year if we have enough interest.

Members’ telephone list

This was circulated last month; an updated list will be published soon. We are moving, Ben and Lisa have just moved, so if you have any other changes tell Jenny H asap please.

Matters Green

To commemorate the retirement of Ian Evans from the Chairmanship of the Register TS2 has wandered the country in a relay from one group to another with its ultimate destination the International meeting last weekend. (I wonder where it was when the heavens descended?) Anyhow this epic voyage must have left an enormous carbon footprint, as the jargon goes, so we had to plant some trees – in fact 50 of them in the National Forest on 23^rd March. They printed a certificate (attached) which of course used some more good stuff - energy, trees etc – so we must now all undertake to walk to work for 3 weeks instead of using our cars to compensate for that problem. Life was so simple once.

International Weekend 20–22^nd July

Ah. Well. Erm. I could publish lots of photos of Triumph Nuclear Submarines or cars under water with hard-work contrived captions, but honestly I don’t feel like doing it. We lost our pleasure for the weekend, but too many people have lost their property, and, in some cases, their livelihoods. Hopefully there was no loss of life. See later for a blow-by blow of the Leicester Group experience as caught by Sue’s pen.

Raid – Wednesday 8^th August

Off we go to see the nice people at Derby Dales. Meet at the Faulkners’ at 7:30pm. Give them a bell if you don’t know where they are.

Barbeque at Dave and Dawn Gazetta – Sunday 12^th August

If you are going but didn’t put your name on the paper at the meeting, give them a call and let them know you’re coming. If you wish to go on the convoy run to the barbeque get to Reg and Irene’s any time from 12:30 for a 1:30 departure.

Other business

Although these were matters addressed at the earlier meeting I am leaving them in as they are still relevant and I suspect awaiting action.

John M asked when nominations had to be made for the post of national chairman. Duncan Jolly thought it was 60 days before the November AGM, which prompted Ruth to ask if we had any volunteers. Chris Cunnington will be standing, and there may also be other posts vacant.

Before he went to Peru, Paul had compiled a list of people who had recently ordered items of club clothing from him, then passed it on to the manufacturers who have since lost it. So if you are waiting for new togs, please contact Paul so he can pass on your order again.

Ashby Folville July Meeting – the Faulkner experience

Those of you who go to Ashby Folville will know that it is usually a very interesting evening, with many classic and unusual vehicles to admire, spread out across two fields. There was no reason to think that July’s meeting would be any different, so Martin and James set off in the TR6 full of anticipation.

They realised all was not as it should be when they started queuing for the car park some way from the village. After inching forward, they reached complete gridlock caused by the two usual fields both being closed due to flooding. This meant that the dozens of cars generally accommodated in the fields were all confined to the narrow roads. Many drivers had parked their vehicles wherever they could, often in the middle of the road, so making the congestion worse. The situation was finally resolved some hours later when the police arrived, complete with flashing lights, to sort it out. I just hope the local residents don’t use this as a reason to campaign against having the meeting there.

Incidentally, one car you don’t see every day is a Rover SDI with a 27litre v12 Merlin engine mounted up front. I would imagine that is a bit of a handful!

Martin and Sue

RAF Wittering family day – Friday 6^th July

This came about because Mark Spence (potential new member with TR4A) works at Wittering, and was involved in organising the day for servicemen’s families. He asked if we could take some cars there so, always keen to show them off, a contingent was arranged. It consisted of Reg and Irene (TR6), Phil (TR7), Colin and Ann (TR6), Dave Guzzetta (TR5), John Edwards (TR6), and Martin and Sue (TR6). I think if it hadn’t been on a Friday, we would have had many more cars. Most of us assembled outside the Queen’s Head in Billesdon, our old watering hole, although a couple of cars made their own way to Wittering. We were joined at Wittering by another 5 TRs from Camb Followers.

Security at the airbase had been increased following the recent terror alerts, so we had to book ourselves in at the gatehouse, then wait for Mark to escort us all into the site together. This was OK, except the guards on the gate were holding guns, which did un-nerve me a bit as they were about head height as we drove past them, being scrutinised by their owners. I made a silent promise to be good for the whole day.

Once inside, we were amazed by the size of the place. It was huge! There were hangars everywhere, with vast open areas, as well as the runways. Mark led us to an area near the runway where we parked up opposite some vintage Bentleys. As we were classed as exhibitors, we had been asked to arrive and get in position early, so had time to wander around a bit before things started, being offered very welcome free teas and coffees. While it was quiet, we could also look at several planes parked nearby, due to take part in air displays throughout the day. On the down side, airfields are always in high, open places, which meant unfortunately that we were exposed to wind that was strong enough to lean into without falling over. Due to the high winds some displays were cancelled, including a flypast by a Spitfire and Hurricane, some gliders, and model aircraft. Nevertheless, there was still plenty to watch.

Of the static displays, the one creating the most interest was an enormous American tanker plane, open to visitors. It was a strange sensation lying on your stomach in a confined space looking out the back of the plane above the panel that controls the movement of the fuelling nozzle while the plane is in flight. Not a good place to be if you get airsick.

The flying displays were fantastic. They included individual small planes doing aerobatics, a group of 4 planes doing synchronised stunts, a Tornado, some Harriers, helicopters, a flypass by a Typhoon, and the Red Arrows. We had a superb view, as there was far more space than people to fill it. As it is a military base, some of the planes flew over the spectators, which apparently they are not allowed to do at civil airshows, so their impact, both visible and audible, was much more spectacular.

The Red Arrows were definitely the highlight of the day. I had only seen them on TV before, and they did not disappoint. We were treated to 20 minutes of uninterrupted flying skill, ranging from tight formation manoeuvres to sights that literally took our breath away. Several times two planes approached each other from opposite directions, flying very low to the ground above the runway we were standing near. We still do not know how they managed to avoid hitting each other. Irene still hasn’t got over the shock!

The cars also generated a fair bit of interest, which is always nice to see. One little boy, looking at Colin’s car, commented to his Dad that “they must still use this old car as it’s got a current tax disc”. He was very impressed when Colin told him he did over 7,000 miles in it last year.

Despite the howling wind, it was a great day out. We were looked after very well by Mark all day, there was plenty to see, and people kept saying nice things about our cars. Finally, thank you to Mark for inviting us to this special day, and apologies if we have got any of the technical details wrong! If we are asked to go again next, (please ask us Mark, we’ll say yes) then we would highly recommend taking a day off work to go.

Martin and Sue

International Weekend 20 – 22 July

other plans..….

Friday started off fairly normally, with Paul and Terry setting off late morning in a van loaded with enough equipment and food to feed a moderate sized army for several days. Meanwhile, the hopeful recipients of said food were assembling at Andy and Clare’s, intending to convoy down together in the afternoon. Paul and Terry managed to get as far as Evesham before they hit the floods, with parts of roads being washed away. Very sensibly they warned the others not to set off, then headed back east, taking a long time because of floods and traffic. We understand the intended Friday evening meal was consumed with great relish at Andy and Clare’s – thanks to them both for hosting the impromptu evening.

Some of us, however, were blissfully (?) unaware of what was going on. Martin and Sue (TR6), James (GT6) and Will and Martha (MGB GT) were happily motoring north from Loughborough to pick up James’ girlfriend Danni near Lichfield just after lunch. We had heard there might be some heavy rain on Friday, but had no idea what was to come. If we had known then what we know now, we would have stayed put in Leicestershire! We do appreciate people trying to contact us to let us know, but the phone networks were struggling to cope with massive demand and the messages just didn’t reach us. Thanks for your efforts anyway.

With Danni safely on board, we managed to get round the top end of Birmingham to the M6 before we hit the queue. Thinking it was due to the roadworks we had seen, we pressed on hopefully. This was about the time the torrential rain started, and the windscreen leaks became troublesome, to say the least. The engine was also getting very unhappy with the slow speeds, sorted only by Martin revving it greatly, much to the bewilderment of surrounding vehicles. After crawling along for several hours, we were seriously thinking about going home again, but the thought of seeing everyone there and having our meal together was keeping us going. Little did we know! By early evening, we had got as far as junction 6 of the M5, where we decided to get off the traffic-choked motorway and cut around Worcester. The roads were now showing signs of flooding, still passable with care, but with many fields and side roads looking more like lakes. Having finally managed to phone Tony, we found out that Tim and Kathryn were already at Malvern, having gone through similar atrocious conditions. Another quick call to Tim helped us to find usable roads, but by now we had been in the leaking car for lots of hours and were soaked through and desperate for food. The pub we stopped at was about to stop serving food to let their staff try and get home, but they did feed us, despite us looking as though we had just finished swimming the Channel fully clothed. We finally got to the site at 10.30 pm, via the only accessible road over the top of the Malvern Hills, having left home at 1.30pm. As we dripped into the Severn Hall, Tim and Kathryn were there to greet us with open arms and big smiles. I’ve never been so pleased to see friendly faces! They did a great job helping us to unload the cars, and find a spot to put up the tents. Many thanks to you both. With the field waterlogged, the Register had sensibly decided that people could put up their tents inside, so we spent a warm, dry night in the Severn Hall. It’s a shame the music went on until 2.00 am, but at least we were out of the weather.

Friday’s torrential rain had subsided to damp drizzle by Saturday morning, which was a massive improvement. Chris Cunnington called a meeting to let us know what was going on, which was basically that the Register would be making the best of a bad situation. His talk made a lot of sense, showing that he was doing a great job in dire circumstances. Some traders had managed to get there, as well as a few TR owners, so it was decided to carry on as much as normal. This meant that lots of the peripheral activities were cancelled, but surprisingly the Concourse went ahead as many cars had turned up for it. Their last-minute cleaning was rather more frenzied than usual, with seats and other large bits being removed for thorough preparation. No surprise, considering what they had driven through to get there. We also saw two lovely big cakes, due to be cut on Saturday evening, to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the TR5/250. I hope there were still enough people there to make the celebrations worthwhile.

We wanted to head home for the evening barbecue, but were advised by locals that it was impossible to get out of Malvern, as they had all had a horrendous time getting to the showground. Expecting to be in the car for hours again, we decided to eat in the Severn Hall before leaving. Tim and Kathryn wanted to get off straight away, so left first. Thanks once again to Tim, who rang us once he had found a safe route out, so we could follow on. That would have been really good had we not missed a turning and ended up facing the deluge near Upton. Fortunately some local people told us how to get round it, and we too found our way safely to the M5, via some roads that had been completely impassable only the evening before. This time the weather gods were on our side.

Saturday evening was a lot more enjoyable. Paul still had a pig to roast and a ton of food to distribute, so Tony and Ruth kindly offered the use of their garden for our traditional International Weekend barbecue. This went to plan, with the usual plentiful supply of good food and good company. Thanks to Paul, Allan and helpers for doing their usual magic in turning a lump of meat into delicious roast pork, complete with crackling, apple sauce, stuffing and piles of vegetables. The only things missing were lots of TRs (although Andy and Jenny did come in theirs – well done) and the Malvern Hills in the background. The Sharps and Faulkners (complete with International T-shirts!) all managed to make it back from soggy Worcestershire in time for the party. You may think our esteemed group leader was leading the way in enjoying himself, aided and abetted by some red wine, I believe, but I couldn’t possibly comment. Martin W. was right when he said we are the best TR group in the country – we don’t let a little thing like a washed-out International Weekend spoil our fun, we just have the party somewhere else.

No matter how many Internationals there are, one thing is certain – we will all remember this one!

Sue and Martin

Calendar For The Next Few Months

August
Wednesday 8^th	RAID – Derby. Meet at Martin Faulkner’s 7:30pm
Sunday 12^th	Barbeque at Dave and Dawn Gazetta. Meet for convoy run at Reg and Irene’s from 12:30 for a 1:30 departure.
Sunday 12^th	TSSC Event - 24^th Sunshine Rally, Brooksby Hall
Tuesday 14^th	Ashby Folville
Thursday 16^th	LTRG

September
Saturday 8^th - Sunday 9^th *(John & Margaret Martin date)*	Lubenham Scarecrow Weekend. On Sunday 9th only classic cars can be displayed on the Green from 10-12 noon and usually they parade around the village at 12 noon. Let us know nearer the time if you want to come along. (Jennie & Andy went last year - fantastic!!)
Sat 15^th to Sun16^th	VSCC Donington
Thursday 20^th	LTRG
Friday 21^st to Sun 23^rd	Euromeet Italy
Sun 23^rd to Fri 28^th	Euro Tour Greece
October
Thursday 18^th	LTRG
Sunday 28^th	Last Run Out
November
Thursday 15^th	LTRG
December
Thursday 20^th	LTRG
January 2008
Saturday 19^th	LTRG Non-Christmas Dinner

Next meeting Thursday 16^th August 2007, the Rose & Crown, Tilton on the Hill.

Hope to see you there.

And Finally

Coming away from Andy’s the other day we saw a road sign that said “Humped Zebra Crossing”. I thought we could have a competition for what the graphic depiction of this sign should be, along the lines of a picture of a gate for a level crossing, a workman for road works etc. My entry is below.

Attached are copies of the letter from the Station Commander at RAF Wittering and the Tree Planting Certificate.

So that’s it then. We’ll get back to see you whenever we can, and please consider this as an open invitation to call on us whenever you are passing the metropolis of Oswestry or Welshpool. We’ll be delighted to see you.

Over and Out.

Peter and Heather