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A good crowd gathered at the Brewer's Fayre, Chippenham at the end of November.

Two of us went to the wrong place to start with so were a bit late but hadn't missed much.

We had pre-ordered the food which was amazing value with a choice of two or three courses.  Vegetarians were well catered for.

We had crackers with party hats, jokes and small plastic items. 

We were in a large bay window in a sort of U shape which made it very sociable.  The puddings were very indulgent!

We also moved around a bit to talk to different people.

Carenza

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Len drove his mini, I (Dawn) drove my Mayfair, and Nick and Jean went in Nicks Wolsey. So we had a nice trio of cars to show off, especially as the weather was so nice and sunny. 

The amalgamation of three events - the Mini, Classic Car and Classic Commercial shows, along with new content for 2017 - electric vehicles meant there was a good array of all types of classic vehicles.

There were a lot of trade stands to go round, also there was a big flea market, which you had to pay a fiver to get into so we waited until the end and got in for free to buy last minute bargains as it was winding down for the day.

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Although we had no club stand booked this year Jean and Nick attended.  Organisation of this long standing event this year switched from The National Mini Club to The British Mini Club.

Once we had found a suitable parking space (with other classic minis, not hidden among the ever growing ranks of BMW minis) the by now obligatory bacon rolls were sorted before touring the large trade area and concourse arena which was much expanded this year.  There seemed to be more club stands this year and these had been moved to a more central location on the show field, previously clubs had been located along the field behind the house away from the main show arena and last time the club had a stand at this event it meant a bit of a leg stretch to get to the mainshow arena (if there is enough support next year we’ll take the club stand).

Also in attendance was a replica of the Italian Job Coach complete with minis inside that was being taken on a charity rally in Turin a few days after the show.

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Starting as usual form Bowleaze Cove in Weymouth, but we were very disappointed as there was no breakfast laid on this year due to the hotel being full.

After a drivers briefing we set off, Nick and Jean in his Mayfair and myself and Len in his Equinox.

The weather stayed pretty good for the run so we could enjoy the spectacular views on the Jurrassic Coast roads and for the stop at the donkey sanctuary.

It started to rain just as we got to the Exmouth RNLI boat station at the end of the run.

There we all had ham burgers and the big raffle took place before we all set off home for the day.

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As every year, The Six Ex MOC support this annual event which whilst having fun raises much needed money for the Children’s Hospice South west for chronically ill children.

August 2017 saw club member’s heading towards North Devon for this 22nd year event which included Steve, Rachel, Dave, Alix, Len, Luke, Dawn, Nick and myself. Steve, Rachel, Dave, Alix and myself camped this year, away from the main group of event antendee’s, at Westacott Farm which offered more in the way of “the comforts of home” compared to that of the campsite at the Big Sheep. Including electric hook up to enable us to even have an oven!!

The Legendary Grand Tour is unlike any other motoring event in the country because it is not confined to a field but let loose on the roads of North Devon. What makes our event so special is that the Mini cars, which are at the heart of this event, do not drive off in groups of 20, or 1 every 3 minutes, but in a convoy one after the other. You could never call the LGT the biggest motoring event in the country, because it is restricted to 250 Minis, but when it is out on the open road in a convoy travelling at 30 mph, it is nearly 10 miles long and can take 15 to 20 minutes to pass, so it must be one of the longest. The convoy visits many different towns and villages across North Devon, in fact, it joins some of the towns and villages together. It brings thousands of people out into the streets to watch the mini’s go by invading housing estates where people are sitting on their front lawns drinking tea and sipping glasses of wine and waving flags from behind homemade banners. The spectators will fill lay-bys and they will be standing on bridges laughing and smiling and waving as the convoy goes by.

Over the past 22 years, the Minis have been taken into the hearts of the people of North Devon and that’s how the event can do what we does and get away with it. There is an incredible reaction from the children who drag their parents out to watch it year after year. They cheer and dance when they hear the mini’s coming, their Mum’s and Dad’s, Nan’s and Grandad’s smile and wave as they go by. Maybe it bring’s back a few memories of a time when they had a Mini and how the whole family squeezed into one to go on holiday. It is amazing to think some of those children who originally waved at the convoy all those years ago now have children of their own who come out and watch as it goes by. This year the crowds were even bigger than normal and we especially noticed this on the drive out from “The Burrows” on Saturday Night which ended up in Appledore.

This year the Six Ex Member`s raised over £550.00 towards the charity whilst dressing up at “Cardinals” in their mini’s for a second year. Some of the reactions we got was amazing and Miniworld Magazine even wanted us to pose for a photo for the magazine.

We all had a great weekend and look forward to attending the event next year on the Summer Bank Holiday in August. We look forward to seeing you there!

Rich Clark

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A late addition to the show calendar, we only found out about this event at South Cerney Extravaganza a couple of weeks before.  The show hasn’t been held for several years and numbers were down on what they had previously been although the organisers hope to build this up again in the coming years and have taken club contact details for next year.

Carenza attended on the Saturday and Jean and Nick attended on the Sunday with Jeans Cooper and a first show outing for Nicks new Wolseley 1300 which had been picked up the previous day after seeing it for sale at the South Cerney show.

Entry to the show was free for those displaying vehicles and included train tickets.  The line has been extended in the last year toward Swindon and work is now progressing to extend on toward Cricklade.

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Not a good start to the day for Nick as his Mayfair was found to be leaking petrol and had to be returned home for inspection by him and Paul.  The decision was made for Nick to attend in the BMW so all the kit from the Mayfair had to be transferred over which meant we were by now running a bit late.

We met up with other members at the big Asda in Swindon on the way.  Finding our way on to the site was not easy this year as the sign posting was not very clear as to which entrance we needed to use.

Once on site we set up the gazebo and put the display boards up, put the kettle on, and then . . . it rained!!!!

Not such a good turn out by other clubs this year and not so many stalls to look around . . . possibly because of the weather.

All in all a bit of a wash out all round.

This years’ club BBQ was hosted by Simon and Jen at their new house in Calne.  Nick took the small gazebo to put up in the garden (just in case) and was helped by the children to assemble it.

Jen had prepared some delicious salads to have with our range of meats that we had bought and that were cooked by Simon.

The weather was good to us this year and the sun shone with a little bit of breeze.

Myself, Nick and Rich Clark attended and Paul arrived with RAB which had just had his roof refurbished which we all admired.

Much discussions about minis (as you would expect) followed and a very pleasant time was had by all.

 Thank you to Jen, Simon and the children for hosting this year.