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[ SVVS
Lunchtime Meeting - The Cock, Headley - March 2014] ::
Please click on any thumbnail picture below to
see the full size picture. To return to the thumbnails please click the Explorer
"Back" arrow (top left of screen). The text below is by Chris
Cuss and photos by Bozi Mohacek.
SVVS
Lunchtime Meeting - The Cock, Headley - March
2014
By Chris Cuss
What a difference a year makes. On the same Sunday last year it was
raining 'Datsun Cogs' and only five damp members turned up in moderns.
This year was wall to wall sunshine with the temperature around 20C, as
warm as in Spain. Your reporter made note of some 25 cars parked outside
of the 'Cock' and could well have missed some as he was not sure if they
belonged to our members.
Sad to report that there were no pre-war cars present, perhaps they
are all still tucked up for the winter or being fettled. We are,
perhaps, in danger of becoming a classic car club but hopefully will
never lose sight of our origins. Your reporter was guilty of leaving his
1935 Riley at home on the grounds that it had been well used during the
week, whereas the 1994 MG RV8 had been hibernating since December and so
needed a blast through the lanes. Arguably the last classic MG, only
1800 RV8s were produced over a 3 year period and are quite rare these
days. However there was also a blue one in the car park owned by visitor
Chris Ralls who had come along with our member Graham Appleyard. Graham
had brought his much modified Mazda MX5 that always provokes a degree of
head scratching. Staying with the MG theme Cynthia Ireland arrived in
the 1952 TF that she and Michael purchased last year. There was also a
brace of MGAs, one which was owned by visitor Paul Desmond who hopefully
may join us.
Our membership secretary Peter Clark and Mrs Membership Secretary
each arrived in an NG, one with four cylinders the other with eight.
Aided or hindered by Tony Russell they soon hoisted the brand new SVVS
flag banner and very impressive it looked. Hopefully it will become a
regular feature of our outdoor meetings. Both of our lady Morgan owners
put in an appearance. First to arrive was Angela Hume in her coffee and
cream coloured 2008 Roadster, thankfully restored to health after being
savaged by a white van man who failed to see a queue of stationary
traffic. The other Morgan was the timeless 2000 model year 4/4 belonging
to the ageless Diana Willows (or should that be the other way round?).
We welcomed a trio of Daimler V8 saloons. The green 1969 example owned
by Alec Mackenzie and the red 1967 one belonging to Chris Seabrook. I do
not have note of the owner of the second red one.
Tony Spencer arrived in his latest Rolls Royce Silver Shadow. Will
How tucked his 1956 Lancia Appia into a slot at the far end of the
tarmac and made a beeline for the dining room accompanied by his
passenger, fellow Lancia fancier, Harry Scott. We had a brace of big
Mercedes; Malcolm Ward's 1989 500 SEC and Guy Fancourt's 1988 300E. It
is not often that we see two Jaguar XK150s but we enjoyed comparing John
Curtis's 1958 drophead coupe with the fixed-head parked opposite. Our
chairman's 1984 XKS HE V12 coupe takes up so much room that he had to
park on the upper level. In total contrast Gerry Barr's small but
perfectly formed 1991 Honda Beat can park more or less anywhere.
Hon. Sec. Malcolm Bailey brought his Opel Manta coupe along, Chris
Geary was close by with his 1952 Healey Tickford, Brian Daley had
brought his 1968 Triumph TR5 and completing that corner was a Morris
Traveller not on my lists. Mention must also be made of founder chairman
Derrick Graham who came in a modern and most energetic Doug Wright who
just happened to be cycling past when he saw the gathering and stopped
for a beer. It was a fantastic start to the season, far more like June
than March. The pub was doing a roaring trade with most forsaking the
dining room to enjoy eating an al fresco lunch. Let us hope that we have
many more such meetings this year.
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