Greetham Gatherings by Roy
Greetham is a village a couple of miles off the A1 near to Oakham and easily reached by me. I first knew about these meetings when they were advertised in a motorcycle paper. From the A1 the route to the Greetham Community Centre was very well signposted. The road leading to the centre is quite narrow and there are also some parked cars as well, the road sign at the beginning of the road says “No through road “. Quite true as you turn left to the centre, there is a five-bar gate blocking the road.
Talking to one of the stewards they hold these meetings once a month on the third Thursday for the summer months only starting in May and the last one being in September. The cost per person to get in is £2, all profits go to the local air ambulance service. Last year they raised £4,000 but I was assured that it will be much higher this year. This gathering is for cars and bikes, plenty of both turn up of all age groups. I counted about 150 bikes and scooters on display; one row either side of the car park, sometimes when busy they have a third row in the middle.
The hall here has a tea and coffee counter, a table full of homemade cakes for sale plus a bar. Outside was another outlet doing hot food, this proved to be very popular all night. Wandering around looking at the cars I spotted a newish Morgan three-wheeler and a Bond Bug these had three wheels with one at the front, this one was interesting because it had four wheels not three. This centre does hold rallies here JAWA /CZ were here recently.
For any one unsure of what a “webster bond bug” is. The last know variation of the Bond Bug was produced by Mike and Gary Webster. between them they managed to acquire some original Bug moulds in 1990 and form the Webster Motor Company to produce the WMC four-wheeled Bond Bug.
They decided to produce four wheeled Bugs with 10-inch front wheels and 12-inch rear wheels although this one looks to have 10″ wheels all round.
The WMC four-wheeler was built on a similar ladder chassis to the original car but this new chassis was designed to take as many parts as possible from the Robin and Rialto allowing both the 750cc or 850cc engine to be fitted as standard. Many parts of the car were built to closely resemble the original Bug.
There were several older motorcycles on display; the show starts at 4 pm and vehicles were still turning up after 7pm, I was the first bike on display quickly followed by Ivan, he has a nice selection of bikes that he takes to local shows, he is very keen and displays at a show most weekends. I thought when leaving it could get interesting going down the narrow road meeting oncoming traffic but NO, the five-bar gate was open and you went out that way. Just after 7pm it started to rain this prompted quite a few two-wheeler riders to head off home, I went soon afterwards but got lucky and had a dry ride home.
This is a very well organised event; it has been going for nine years and next year I was told by a steward one meeting will be extra special to celebrate the tenth year.
This is a first-class meeting well done to everybody involved with running the show. I will go again.
For more details look up Greetham Gatherings on your computer.