IOWMMOC BRANCH RALLY ISLE OF WIGHT STEAM RAILWAY, HAVENSTREET August 30th - 31st 2003 Report by Alan Peeling This years rally was very much based on our most successful previous rallies. It was held at the Isle of Wight Steam Railway, Havenstreet. This is an ideal site with the vintage steam trains helping to transport us all back in time; an addedbonus this year was the superb weather. | On Saturday 30th August 58 cars with passengers enjoyed a leisurely run across the island to Calbourne where we were all on display at the water mill.All agreed that it was an excellent venue and we all enjoyed the delights of the excellenttea rooms. The numbers on the run took us by surprise being 20 more than our previous best, but we just managed to fit everyone in. We were joined by a Land Rover fire engine and thekids enjoyed spraying water from the mill race using the appliances pump. We all made our wayback to Havenstreet to enjoy the traditional evening barbeque. The secluded setting at Havenstreet is an ideal location for our evening activities and for the campers. |  |
 | On Sunday 31st 97 minors and about 50 other classic carsattended and there was plenty of things to do for everyone. Some went on the train, there were vintage bus rides provided by the Isle of Wight Bus Museum into Ryde and over the downs toSandown, and some stayed on the rally site and looked at the cars and various trade stands.We again held an autojumble, rather grandly called the 2nd Annual Island Autojumble which proved very popular. An added bonus this year was that the Steam Railway waived their platform charge for the rally and this encouraged more visitors: islanders are notoriouslycareful with their money! We were pleased that Rosie Hamilton (MMOC PR officer) was able tocome to the rally with her husband Sandy, and she presented the awards jointly with Tim Lang, of Minor Magic, the rally sponsor. |
| As one of our cars (Barry Allen's aqua blue traveller) isgoing to the Lord Mayor's Show in London, we had an auction to raise sponsorship. Local traderswere very generous in providing items to sell and Andy Smith did a great job of separating people from their money! We raised just under 200, and it was great entertainment. |  |
As usual we met many of our old friends from previous years and hopefully have made some new ones; we look forward to meeting everyone at next year's event. We were particularly pleased at the effort that some people made to get over the water to our event. This year, despite having 4 cars make two ferry crossings from Jersey we gave the longest distance award to Joe Berriman who together with two other families travelled all the way from County Durham, some 350 miles and a ferry journey to get to our rally: a bigthankyou to one and all. The prize winners are listed below: SPECIAL AWARDS Best in show (C.S. Autoclassics Shield) | Ted Warrilow from Raynes Park with LGO 786, a 1949MM Tourer | Best Island Car (Barry Price Cup) | Brian Arnold from Shanklin with 298 AXF, a 1960 1000 Traveller | Best Home Restoration | No entrants | Minor Marvels shield (for best interior) | Linda Hyde from Skipton with EAS 951, a 19591000 2 door saloon |
CLASS AWARDS MM | Ted Warrilow | LGO 786 | Series 2 | Keith Adams | NRU 156 | 4 door | Keith Haig | NRU 156 | 2 door | Bill Tuck | KAR 779G | Convertible | Maurice Bromfield | AMX 521A | Traveller | Colin Whiffen | FYB 595K | L.C.V. | Tony Beasley Long | AMX 492A | Custom | Martin Roberts | KEG 605E | Modified | Janet Rudman | YFJ 64 |
The committee were again very pleased with the way the self-judging went as there was almost total unanimity in the choices for the various winners. Many thanks to Dave Richards for providing the photos used in this report. We'd also like to thank everyone who has sent feedback to our e-mail address, it's much appreciated! If you have any photos or comments, please send them to: emma@iowmmoc.org.uk
|