With no Thursday camping this year it was an early start to miss the M5 Bristol carpark, don’t worry if they start charging per mile instead of the dreaded road tax, as you can spend all day on the M5 between Bristol and Tiverton and vice versa on a Friday so it won’t cost much for day out!
Being the second to arrive (leaner rider Frank beat us) it was up with the tent in lovely weather, get sorted and have lunch. The site (Hinckley Rugby Club) is just about perfect for a rally, flat large area for camping, good showers (after they had changed the timer) so they were hot in the morning, plus good size clubrooms. The food was very good and at a very reasonable price, the beer, well it was Green King, a brewery now run by accountants. None of the beers were exciting but all were OK, except one fruity thing they put on, it was only drinkable if you put a slice of lemon and lemonade in it! On the plus side, if you did suffer from the old camping constipation, Green King’s IPA is all you need as the next morning it will all be gone, literally…..their IPA is better than a pull through with a Christmas tree…
The Wheels team did their bit to help out over the weekend by running the driving test, and for some testing it proved to be, looking for the right coloured ring in the right bucket was harder than some thought it would be. Some seamed intent on destroying the course, some lost all of their balls and some could really handle their choppers, hitting the red round target with no problem (It’s all in the way you hold the axe).
Canterbury Cup winners. T.W.A.T.S.
The highway code test produced the usual result
and the maintenance test again was very close with the highest mileage being used to find the eventual winner. The silly games run by the London Sidecar Club, well, they were just that silly games and provided lots of fun. The disco proved popular with many strutting their stuff on the dance floor and there was a children’s entertainer, although there were several adults joining in with the Junk Band.
This Suzuki nearly won best Outfit, if only it was red and it would have been a winner.
Overall, it was a great weekend, if it is held there again, will definitely walk into Hinckley earlier so we can spend an afternoon going around the brewery ale pubs and craft ale pubs. It was a bit of a last-minute decision to walk in this year and we were only able to spend a short while looking around. The village of Barwell is an easy walk, with a CO OP, chip shops, takeaways and sandwich shop, also 4 pubs, 2 of which were OK.
The golfers in Hinckley have problems with their balls apparently, it appears their balls are regularly misdirected!
Here are some pictures of the Outfits attending, run-out and award winners. See you at Southam Rugby Football Club in 2024.
Pete won Oldest British Outfit at the Rally.
This Triumph and Hedingham won the Redo Jackson award.
If he he leaves his phone there, it is going to fall off…..
“What’s up Maxine” don’t tell me, “he’s still in bed”.
“I have found the problem with ya suspension Jak” “it’s the beer, ya need to stop buy that cheep lager”.
This is one very nice outfit.
Chaddy flying the flags.
Driving test winner, more cheese Gromit.
Helen, maintenance test winner. Lind, Adult silly games winner.
Rachel, youngest rallyist. The awards to be won.
Bob has done a little modification to his and Mary’s RX5, note the neat side door for easy of access.
Mr Consistent, overall rally winner. Mr Happy