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Old Chair Chat
CHAIRMAN’S CHAT -
Sorry about the delay between my chats but we have been away for six weeks and busy preparing for the trip before this so I never got around to doing one .
Our trip to Europe involved travelling through six countries including the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia which was quite an experience. The countries themselves are lovely with a lot of forests, lakes and rivers but some of the road surfaces were absolutely terrible! The towns and cities were very interesting and we visited all three capital cities of Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn. We went right up to the Russian border in Estonia and were only the width of a river between us and Russia. There were queues of people, cars and lorries waiting to cross over and you need a permit so we didn’t bother!
We received a text from a certain person in the club which she sent at 2230 British time, as we were two hours ahead it was 0030 to us and we were fast asleep! (she is a good rally officer though).
Going back to the National Rally at Kelso – what a brilliant rally we all had. My
congratulations to all the medal winners in the Homecraft competition especially
the Group entry team, our Glamorous grandparent (well done Jen) and also the dogs
in the Dog show! We are now the proud recipients of three brand new shields – the
Silver Snail for most vans on site excluding the host group, the Group Entry overall
winner and runner-
My thanks go to the Scottish Chairman Tom Cribb and all those involved in what I thought was an extremely well run and enjoyable rally. Thank you also to those in our group who ran the before and after rallies at South Shields and Ambleside which were a great success with 139 vans at Bents Park and the full quota allowed at Ambleside.
On a sad note we have had the sad loss of two more of our members – Elsie Boast and Joan Robinson. Elsie was well known not just in our group but in but in a lot of other groups as well and I will always remember our very first rally at Braithwaite where she and Bob looked after us and made us feel welcome. Joan had been a member since 1988 and with George was a regular at most of our rallies. My sympathies go to Bob and George and I am pleased to see them both still rallying with us.
That’s all for now but with the A.G.M. fast approaching would anyone who would like to be on the committee please let Sheila know.
Happy rallying and safe journeys..............John
CHAIRMAN’S CHAT -
Having been gently (or was it forcibly) reminded by a former chairman that the Chairman’s chat had not been done for a while I thought I’d better get cracking and do one. The former chairman will not be named but he does take a lot of photos!
Starting with the sad news – we have all been saddened by the death of Tommy Forbes and you only have to look at the amount of members who attended his funeral to realise how liked and respected he was. He was best known for his friendliness and wicked sense of humour, I can still picture him at the many A.G.M. shows he appeared in, dressed in a variety of hilarious costumes, or sat behind a drum kit and a drum stick suddenly flying across the stage with Tommy in pursuit! Our sympathies go to Jen and all her family and I know we shall continue to see Jen at our rallies.
On a lighter note, is it a coincidence that the riots in Egypt started the day after
two of our members left Cairo? I have heard rumours that the lady member had a stall
in the market place selling left-
Looking back to our New Year rally I am pleased to say that everyone who attended thoroughly enjoyed the whole celebration and my congratulations go to the working party who put it all together. Having done this ourselves for the past few years I know how much hard work is involved.
Looking ahead we now have Rally Programmes from every other group in the M.C.C. so anybody planning trips around Britain this year and wanting to visit other group rallies contact either Sheila or myself for details.
That’s all for now – my unused (for a while) writing hand is worn out! Don’t forget we are still looking for hosts for some rallies –see rally officer Anne if you are interested.
Happy rallying and safe motoring -
CHAIRMAN’S CHAT -
Welcome to winter! I am sat here looking out at my garden covered in 3 to 4 inches
of snow and hoping and praying that it has all gone before our New Year rally at
Redcar. There are nearly 50 ‘vans booked so we should have a really good time with
excellent entertainment, food, music and party games etc. Hopefully there won’t be
any calamities like the Christmas dinner at Kirkley Hall where as you have probably
heard there was a power failure just as the dinner was being prepared for cooking.
This didn’t deter us or dampen our spirits at all – oh no – we are hardened motorcaravanners,
used to trials and tribulations! A huge order was sent out to the local Chinese take-
You should have all received your 2011 Rally Programme by now which is as varied and interesting as usual with some brand new venues for you to enjoy. Please note there are still some vacancies for hosts so don’t be shy – give it a try! Also note if you are going to the Croxdale rally it is limited to 30 ‘vans and you must book with Anne.
I am giving a trial to the diesel tuning system advertised on page 20 and although I haven’t been able to do a full fuel consumption test yet I have definitely noticed an increase in power with less gear changing. So if you are interested give Steve a call, mention the club and get £50 off.
I would like to finish by wishing you all a happy Christmas, a peaceful, healthy and prosperous New Year and safe motoring.
John Cottrell – Chairman.
CHAIRMAN’S CHAT -
Yes it’s me again – I was re-
I must mention again the success of the Tall S hips rally and congratulate everyone involved. We had around 300 ‘vans altogether travelling from all over the country and judging by the cards, letters and verbal congratulations we received everybody thoroughly enjoyed the whole event.
We also had 88 ‘vans at Bent’s Park which was ably run by Margaret Platt and her merry band of helpers. Once again we had visitors from the length and breadth of the country and although I wasn’t there (I defected to Germany for a month) heard that everyone enjoyed themselves.
Another successful rally was our return to Beamish Museum where we had 95 ‘vans – a lot more than we expected. This rally has been booked again for next year.
The new rally programme will be out soon and as you may have seen on the provisional
copy contains some new rallies for 2011 including a pre-
There are still some vacancies for the Christmas and New Year rallies, so come on and celebrate with us and I can assure you all you will have a really good time!
That’s all for now, so safe journeys and see you all at Shildon.
John Cottrell – Chairman.
CHAIRMAN’S CHAT -
The end of last month saw a lot of us heading down the A1 for the Golden Jubilee
National Rally. I think we all enjoyed an interesting and well organised rally, meeting
up with old friends from around the country and enjoying the varied entertainment.
Details of what we won will be in the News Letter or on Mark’s brand new web-
Going back to the National I must congratulate Margaret and Sheila for compiling the Northern Counties scrapbook which involved a lot of hard work but won 1st prize. I think a lot of our members will be interested in seeing this book which tells the story of Northern Counties from the inauguration in 1962 up to the present. We will be bringing it to every rally so if you want to see it just come and ask myself or Sheila. Many thanks to all those who provided information and photographs. Congratulations to all those who entered the Home craft section and other competitions and won prizes and especially those involved with the Group entry which was beaten by only one point into second place.
We have quite a lot of members celebrations in June but the one which definitely
deserves a mention is the 80th birthday of Bob Boast who along with the lovely Elsie
still manage to come to a lot of rallies in spite of a few health problems. Long
may we continue to see you both and keep them wheels (and legs) a-
Preparations for the Tall Ships rally are progressing very well in spite of the enormous amount of work and preparation involved. My thanks to all those involved and although we have some volunteers to help with the actual rally we would appreciate some more!
That’s all for now but I hope to see some of you at Prestwold Hall this weekend which is a further celebration of the M.C.C.’s Golden Jubilee. If not we hope to be at Seaburn but as a sixth grandchild is due that weekend we may not be there!
Happy rallying and safe journeys -
CHAIRMAN’S CHAT -
Hi Everybody
We are back from our annual winter trip to Portugal which we thoroughly enjoyed as usual but if you think that Sheila is looking sun – tanned, she isn’t – its rust!
We have been wintering abroad for eight or nine years so far and this one has been the wettest yet but at least the rain was warm!
We had a bit of a change from our usual wild camping this time by joining a Camping & Caravanning Club rally on a campsite at Albufeira initially for one week but I won 100 Euros at Bingo so we stayed for another week! We made some new friends and also gained some experience of how other clubs run rallies.
We met up with Gordon & Janice and Dave & Jean and spent some time with them. We also met Ann & Roger briefly before they went to join the same rally that we had visited.
We keep in touch with our club by text and e-
I would personally like to thank all the committee we left behind especially Sue and Mark (welcome to the committee Mark!) for all the hard work they have done concerning the Tall Ships rally. I feel guilty about leaving you all to it while lazing about in the (nearly non existent) sunshine but hope to see you all at Braithwaite and catch up on everything.
Bye for now. John
P.S. Don’t forget the National this year is the Club’s 50th and is an extra special one – so if you haven’t already done so – get booked up now!
CHAIRMAN'S CHAT-
Welcome to my first Chairman’s Chat of the New Year and I would like to wish everybody a happy and healthy one and safe journeys wherever you may travel.
We had a very successful Christmas Dinner at the new venue of Kirkley Hall which was like Christmas Past with its large oak panelled rooms, old pictures and antiques (and I don’t mean the guests). We had a quick vote as to whether we should book it again for this year and it was unanimously agreed.
New Year saw us back at Redcar and in spite of a few cancellations because of the weather there were 24 vans turned up through the snow and ice. I am sure everyone enjoyed the rally, from the fish and chips and dominoes on the first night, to the excellent Country singer on the next night, the disco and buffet on New Years Eve to the Day at the Races on New Years Day. I hope the couple who thought it was a real Day at the Races on the actual Racecourse weren’t too disappointed!
This was the last time the present New Year committee will be organising the rally and we are handing over to a fresh New Year team for this year. I hope you will support them as you have supported us over the last few years.
Sheila and I are off on our Winter travels again at the end of the month along with other members of the committee but we are leaving some very capable deputies looking after the group so you will still be in very safe hands.
So, once again a very happy New Year to you all and I will see you again in April.
John.