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Southern Concours Report

I arrived at Sherborne around 4:15pm Saturday, had a pot of tea and drove straight up to the castle, where I was admitted when I introduced myself. As I drove down the drive, I was delighted at the splendid venue, with the old house / castle reflected in the still waters of the lake on a beautiful sunny evening.

Nothing on site, but Nigel’s car and van were there. A text from him revealed that he had gone to the pictures with his wife and children, so I left him alone and went for tea.

Next morning I was up with the lark, and joined Nigel on site, much to his surprise, about 6:15 a.m. We began to set up banners and cones and a round gazebo on the lawn and soon were joined by other helpers and the club caravan, towed by an X5. Around 8:10, when a trickle of club members had arrived, I returned to my hotel to have a hearty breakfast and checkout.

On my return, the lawn filled up quickly with a well organised team lining up cars and Concours entries, alongside the children’s’ slides, bouncy Castle, Hog Roast, Waffle stand, Coffee shop and later an Ice Cream van. I began to wonder if this was a Regional event or a National one!

I was well occupied answering questions from members and enrolling a few new ones most of the day, but did have time to walk around and take a photo or two.

I also met a lot of old Southern friends who I had not seen for many years. This was a very friendly venue and everyone was enjoying it very much indeed. Sometime later, Jamal Blanc,the Club’s Vice Chairman, arrived with his family, and he was just as surprised as I was as the number of cars rapidly reached 150 or so.

A great event, so I will say no more, but just add my congratulations to Nigel and his team for one of the best club events I have ever attended. I am sure it will grow in stature with such an enthusiastic leader, hopefully helped with some more cash injection from head office in future. I will be recommending that it does.

Now for the images.