EVENTS 2002 (Page 5)

AUTUMN GATHERING Chatham     TOTALLY MG

Autumn Gold Run    Autumn Naviscat 

MGCC SE AUTUMN GATHERING - Chatham Dockyard 15th September

Hot on the heels of the South East Centre's Summer Gathering at Loseley came the Autumn Gathering at Chatham Historic Dockyard. There were three runs into the dockyard, we joined the one starting in a windy car park in Orpington with one other F , a T and a selection of B's. We collected our trusty tulip diagrams and set off in search of the winding country lanes of North Kent. A pleasant trip across the suburban hills followed with a stop for a "convenience" break in Cobham - sadly the convenience wasn't very convenient and was locked. So with cross legs we continued on into the Rochester traffic jam and finally the relief of the dockyard itself. The dockyards are quite extensive but the MG's had pride of place parking in the centre of the site bordering the choppy waters of the Medway.

We soon got JayPeG spruced up after the trip for the Premier Pride of Ownership competition up against Phil Bicknell and Richard Baker in their B's again. Due to the low number of entries the pre 1960 class was amalgamated with ours resulting in Colin Mulfords immaculate (original) TF winning top prize and Phil picking up the runner up rosette.

There is a lot to see at the Dockyards so, resisting the temptation of The Harbourmasters pub, we set off in exploration, learning about the "Wooden Walls" of the old warships and clambering through the cramped quarters of the submarine HMS Ocelot, which was the last ship built at Chatham and has now returned. 80 blokes in a 90 meter tube with very little in the way of washing facilities for weeks on end with no daylight and no where to sit down  - hmmmm rather you than me !. There was also a Naval museum , a warship in the dry dock, an exhibition of Lifeboats, various displays on shipbuilding, the Kent Police museum and plenty of MG's to look at as well. All in all a pretty good day out but there was a much lower turn out than the recent summer gathering - perhaps they were too close together or maybe the weather didn't look so nice.

Now there have been plenty of whinges about this event and I even heard quite a few grumbles at the event itself along the lines of "hmmmph - it's not as good as the Old Sandown do". Never having been to that event I can't really compare but certainly the three clubs are trying harder to get Totally MG off the ground. There seemed to be plenty of traders in the exhibition hall and spreading out in to the surrounding areas. There were boxes of old bits, new bits, T shirts, big  bits, little bits, complete cars, not so complete cars, books, dusters , badges, models etc etc all for sale to the MG enthusiast as long as he had a few quid in his pocket. The big traders were represented in the form of Moss and Brown & Gammons and all the clubs had stands with merchandise including MG Sport and Racing. There were some notable absences such as an MG Rover dealership presence and I didn't spot Mike Satur anywhere. In an attempt to broaden the appeal of the event Epsom MGOC had arranged a Concours/Condition/POO competition on the racecourse side of the stands in addition to displays of MG's through the years and a good display by the Octagon Car Club. There were food outlets including use of the racecourse facilities and a small bouncy castle for the kids. The whole day we were serenaded  by a local school jazz band from the terraces again organised by Epsom MGOC. Overall there seems to have been more of an effort to turn this in to an event this year rather than the simple Auto jumble of last year.

On the downside there is still a little way to go to encourage a full roster of traders to display their wares at what could be the  biggest MG event in the South of England. There needs to be more competition - autotests, gymkhana for people to get involved with (I understand there are insurance problems with Kempton Park over this however) - better organisation for the competitors - there was no reply to the competition entry form and we got lost when we arrived at Kempton and there was nowhere to sign in - no category parking in the competition itself meant it turned in to a bit of a free for all. It may also have helped if people could enter the competition on the day. This brings me to the subject of the  MG parking which was outside of the venue itself and not well organised so there was little opportunity towander amongst the other MG's that had turned up - an essential part of any show/event is to mingle with like minded folk. I wonder if the restrictions imposed by Kempton could mean a change of venue may be considered for next year ? Having said that I realise this is the first year Epsom have become involved and it certainly opened the event up a bit more - no doubt there will be a full de brief where ideas for next year can be brought up.

That's enough complaining - on the whole it was an enjoyable day and the sun was shining and people were spending plenty of money on the stalls but what they would do with some of the rusty old bits for sale is beyond me. There was plenty of interest in the static displays out front, the stalls and the competition entrants. The judging was very thorough and congratulations to Elaine Osbourne for pipping JayPeG to the MGF Concours post with WOF ! I'm going to have to polish out those stone chips on the windscreen for next year !.

It will be interesting to see how the event develops next year - There seemed to be a pretty good attendance - certainly when we arrived the car park was rapidly filling up with MG's and let's hope next year the few negative aspects disappear and the sun shines again.

An early start saw us circumnavigating the M25 in the morning mist and heading up the M11 in pursuit of our goal - the community centre at Over and the Autumn Gold Run through the Cambridgeshire countryside. We parked in a row of three solar red F's at the back of the community centre in a light drizzle before warming to our bacon butties and hot tea after signing on. 

First stop was the MGOC HQ just down the road at Swavesy. We managed to read the tulip diagrams perfectly along this one mile stretch. Enjoying MG Editor Richard Ladd gave us a guided tour of the HQ including the magazine layout, Membership area, studio, stores, workshops and a graveyard for rusty MG's out the back. It proved interesting to see where all the mags and parts etc come from as well as an opportunity to spend some more money in the shop of course. Unsurprisinlgy we spotted a Tahiti Blue MGF in the workshop with it's cylinder head removed - another victim of HGF no doubt. There are still several heritage MGB shells stacked up and exposed to the elements at the back of the workshop if anyone fancies a complete rebuild. A rare site in the rusty MG enclosure was an MG 1100 being renovated by one of the MGOC mechanics - yes people do bother to restore them after all !. 

We were then into the run proper and navigating by tulip proved not too onerous despite Cambridgeshhire Council kindly closing one road the day before the run!. We were soon turning in to Audley End House just outside Saffron Walden where we drove delicately on to the sloping lawns at the front of the house. As part of the agreement to use this house every car had to have a drip tray under it's engine - just in case. Walking around there were a few of the older cars with black deposits by the end of the lunch break. One new TF owner had his tray under the front bumper - I'm not sure what drips he was trying to catch there!. 

There were about 130 cars on the run, not quite as many as I expected, but they did range from a 1929 18/80 to the latest 2002 MGZS with the vast majority being Bs. The amount of F's seem to be increasing on runs these days in inverse proportion to the number of  Midgets which seem to be dwindling but there's a long way to go to beat the dominance of the MGB. There was only one pre war car out today and only seven from the fifties. The run is still young yet and not attracting the volume of cars it should to put it in a league with the Regency Run and Kimber Run but is a good attempt by the MGOC to fill a gap at the tail end of the season.

Audley End provided a great backdrop for the obligatory picnic on the lawn and the house itself was of interest (to those interested in old houses that is) and had a good collection of Victorian stuffed animals.  If ever you are up that way it's well worth calling in for a visit.

Setting off again we missed our first tulip turning along with just about everyone else but, after upsetting white van man by going too slowly, we managed to get back on the right route and headed off once more through the autumnal lanes and sleepy villages of Essex and Cambridgeshire. The early morning drizzle had cleared up and turned into a pleasant day. It was not long before we were back at Over where, indeed, it was all over but not before another cup of tea and a view of some ancient MG videos in the community hall.

This years season ended pretty much as it started with grey skies and light drizzle as we navigated our way to 197/008112 - or, as it is more commonly known , Houghton Hill Viewing Point. Set in the midst of the rolling South Downs there was, indeed, a splendid view as far as the misty rain would allow. As the magic hour of 11am approached a gaggle of MG's congregated - a Y type, a couple of brave T's , an A type - a collection of B's , a sole midget, one F (ours) . Some contestants , perhaps wisely, left the MG at home and turned up in their day cars. The appointed hour arrived and we rushed to collect our ordnance survey map points, hurrying back to the shelter of the car to plot them as quickly and accurately as possible. Forty five points had to be plotted ranging from Chichester in the south to Wisborough Green in the north. Faster plotters than us started to look intently at a sign in the car park which we thought odd until we got to point number 44 (008112) - hang on hadn't we got that one already - the first clue ended up about ten feet away from where we had parked !. Soon the cars had roared off in search of points and the car park emptied. We headed towards Chichester and the first of many clues. It seemed to me that some of the 1 point clues were a lot harder than the 3 pointers but then some of the 3 pointers were pretty difficult as well. We managed to find the answers at fifteen points and completely missed several others We never did find the telephone number hidden on the back of a 30mph sign or the "fighter" hidden on a Southern Water drain cover (the answer was "warrior"). We found two clues on Goodwood race track having shimmied through the tunnel but completely failed to find anything relating to the anagram SANSRUST (turned out to be SUSTRAN (which sounds like an anagram itself) in small letters on a footpath sign. 

We arrived back in Wisborough Green to draw in to the Bat and Ball pub car park and hand our sheet in with about 5 minutes safely to spare (you lose a point a minute if you are over time). Lunch arrived promptly and whilst we ate and chatted with fellow hunters the marking took place. We were surprised when the winners were announced to find that we were the runners up with 19 points to Doug Bush's 25 points so we didn't do too badly after all and received a nice rosette. The overall winner was Phillip Bayne-Powell who will have the difficult  task of preparing the next naviscat (a bit of a disincentive to winning !).