Kent (old) News please look for updates soon
HERITAGE SHOW REPORT
For our first show of 2015 we were all eyes on the weather forecast but come the day it stayed mainly dry with only a few light showers early afternoon, we had 15 vehicles booked in and all 15 turned up which was a brilliant start to the show season, of those on hand we had 6 100e's, 7 Uprights as well as John F in his 400e camper and Ian with his Siva. Let's hope the enthusiasm continues throughout the year. Was a bit dissapointed in Tony only manageing 14 bus trips which equaled his tally from last year guess he will be back next year to see if he can get 15 trips in throughout the day.
Past events
It’s a quiet time of the year for us Sidevalvers, with only our Christmas meal taking place since the last magazine, but it’s hard to believe but
this was our sixth Christmas meal. How time has flown. This year 28 of us met up for a meal at Poppyfields in Maidstone.
Looking on eBay over the winter months, there have been several Ford Sidevalves for sale in Kent, all of which are unknown to
me, so either we have lost a few cars from members that I have never heard from or there are cars out there owned by people who are
not members. If you know of people out there who own a Sidevalve, why not have a chat with them and check them out? You never know,
with your help we may be able to get some new members to join our ranks.
The only vehicle stories I’ve heard about in our neck of the woods over the winter months are that Ray Perkins has sold his 107E and
replaced it with a E493A Prefect, and that Tony Nash has brought himself an Anglia 105E van.
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Southern Sidevalve Day
Unfortunately this year the Friars Rally, run by the Austin 7 Owners Club, which is where we normally hold our Southern Sidevalve Day event, isn’t taking place. As I first wrote, this, we hadn’t managed to sort out a suitable show to hold it at instead – but within hours before me sending in this article I received a phone call from the Austin 7 Club to say they have found a new venue for their show. So, after phoning half a dozen local members, we have taken the decision to stay with them for another year. The new venue is Bewl Water in Lamberhurst, which is still reasonably accessible for most Kent members. It’s also closer for anyone living in East Sussex, so it would be great for anyone from that area to come up for the day to join us. As usual we will be doing bacon rolls/teas & coffees, so anyone interested in coming along, please get in touch for further details.
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The first few months
As a Regional Contact I spend quite a bit of time from early January contacting show organisers to obtain dates, so that at our January monthly meeting we can work out which shows we are going to attend as a group. Hopefully by now you will have had entry forms starting to drop through your letter box or inbox on your computer – the latter
seems to be the way show organisers prefer to communicate nowadays as it obviously saves time and money. I don’t know about you, but when this happens it spurs me into thinking that the first show of the year isn’t too far away.
Talking of early shows, our first few shows for this year will be:
• Heritage Show: Saturday 28th March,
Detling, near Maidstone (Club Stand)
• Festival of Transport: Sunday/Monday
5th/6th April, Chatham Dockyard
• All Ford Show: Sunday 26th April,
Aylesford Priory (Club Stand)
You may have noticed that this year the All Ford Show falls on National Drive It Day, so we will be going out for a drive later in the year as we did last year. We’ve taken this decision as the All Ford Show is normally one of our best attended Shows.
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Keeping members informed
As you know from previous years, we will once again be producing our normal list of shows/ events. Hopefully this will be sorted by end February (I did say hopefully), so we will get a copy to you as soon as it’s done.
Keeping me informed
Talking of keeping you informed, it does work both ways. When you are sitting at home filling out your entry forms, plus in most cases 2 x SAE, this only enters you for the show, but if it’s a show where the Club are having a Club Stand then I still need to let the organiser how many Club members have applied. If you haven’t made any reference to the fact that you are a FSOC member then they don’t include you in their numbers for our Club stand. So, when I speak to an organiser and tell him I require x amount of spaces, they will often turn round and say ‘but you have only got four cars coming’, when in fact I may have eight on my list because you have previously told me in
conversation that you will be attending.