Enthusiasts at the Gloucestershire Vintage and Country Extravaganza

22/9/2022

By Mike Peake

Yes, I Know! It was weeks ago! I’m very, very sorry!

Well, It’s BACK! Woohoo! After 2 years of plague-ridden abandonment, the best static show on the calendar was on again! Boy, have we missed this one!

Can you imagine the excitement in Enthusiast households across the country when Thursday morning dawned? Well, I say households, but I was in a caravan in Devon with the Fatbloke family enjoying a mini break due to finish on Friday. However, as the organiser of our stand at this event being the dedicated chap that I am, I left my family on the sunny Croyde beach and braved the traffic to come home early. Two and a half hours later, I was back at Chez Fatbloke and hitching up our touring caravan to the Mazda.

Now, it was with some trepidation that I pulled the caravan off the drive as Mrs Fatbloke wasn’t there to shout at me if the caravan got too close to the garden wall. Long term members may remember that the last time I did this without a shouty person, I demolished the garden wall and tore a hole in the side of the van. This was also playing on Mrs Fatbloke’s mind before I left Devon because she threatened me with violence if there was a recurrence. We needn’t have worried though, I drove off without a hitch. Well, that’s not true. Obviously there was a hitch holding the caravan to the car, but you know what I mean. I got the caravan off the drive without any problems is what I meant. (I’ll shut up now.)

Thirty minutes later I pulled onto the South Cerney airfield, incredibly, just as the rest of the gang turned up as arranged without any mishaps or anyone getting lost. Well apart from Jason Wright who was there 4 hours early and had to wait in the carpark for us. There was one surprise though. Little Paul Cheetham only turned up in a 1974 Rolls Royce Corniche!!! Yes, Little Paul! The young skinny short bloke! In a Corniche!! Well of course we were all insanely jealous and roundly abused him all weekend.

All together, we followed the marshal’s directions and pitched up exactly where we were told… honest! All accommodation and the social gathering Coleman was erected and set up in very short order. Alcohol appeared and Old Mother Cole’s kitchen opened to cook up a rather delicious meatball and chorizo pasta thingy. Old Mother Cole gave it a posh name, but I can’t remember it. It was gorgeous though.

We settled in for an evening of drinking, eating, frivolity, laughter and one minor wardrobe malfunction and had a jolly good night. We all love this show and all the friendly fellow campers and exhibitors. One of them even took the time to come over and tell us the time. Turned out it was 11.45 PM and he was in his pyjamas so he must have got out of bed especially. Isn’t that nice? Unfortunately, he moved his campervan the following morning, so we didn’t get a chance to thank him.

Friday dawned with clear blue skies and the promise of a very hot day. So, after much bacon scoffing, it was time to set up our stand. The club’s 2nd Coleman shelter was set up for the 1st time having been donated by Breezy Woodward. It wasn’t a new one and we discovered that one of the side poles was missing. So, we stole one out of the Coleman back at base camp and spent the weekend swapping it between the shelters as needed.

Exhibitors on the Friday were Gar Cole with his Transgender Mk1 Mondeo to be known now as Betty and the Holivan Junior 8 Caravan. He was supposed to be in his Triumph 2000, but he’d left the keys in the caravan lock overnight and they’d been stolen, and he didn’t have spares. Anthony and Pat Osborne had come for the day in their MGB, Tosh and Gus Brooks had bought Alison’s A35, Little Paul Cheetham in the bloody Rolls Royce Corniche (can you believe it? Little Paul in a Corniche? We still hated him for it), Windy Woodward in his Granada Estate, and Phil, Lorrain and Lucas Allin in Big Rov and Poppy of course

Jason Wright’s newly restored Triumph Herald 1200 was supposed to be here too, and we were all looking forward to seeing the fruits of all his hard work and I was secretly hoping that his attempt at spraying a car was worse than mine. It was not to be however, and we would all be kept in suspense for a while longer. You see, he was going to tow the Herald on an A frame behind his van, but it all went horribly wrong with the result being a badly bent front undercarriage and front end on the Herald. Of course, we were all very sympathetic and offered our condolences to Jason at his difficult time.

So, apart from Jason, who spent the day curled up in a ball crying in the corner of the Coleman, we all had a very pleasant time chatting and walking round the show.

Once the Muggles had all gone home for the day, we headed back to base camp. Some of the chaps decided they needed extra supplies and the closest supermarket was an Aldi. So, what car would you take to a budget superstore if you had the choice? Well of course it would be the Rolls Royce Corniche so, Little Paul was hijacked, and everyone bundled into the Rolls.

Supplies replenished, we settled in for another evening of eating, drinking, frivolity and eating cake and drinking. Little Paul even managed to achieve the “I love you I do” level of drunkenness so we put him to bed and retired ourselves knowing that in addition to all the Rolls Royce ribbing, we would now be able to chide him on the perils of trying to keep up with the big boys.

Saturday promised to be another scorcher, so we set off to pitch the stand, carrying the side of the Coleman with us. Anthony and Pat were replaced by Alan Ball in his MGB and his son Raleigh in his classic Mini 1000 as well as Eric Dalton in his Rover VDP all the way from Bonny Scotland. Sue and Graham in Humphrey the Humber Sceptre (Hillman Hunter in a posh frock) and Biscuit the dog also joined us for the day. Sadly, this was to be Biscuit's final outing with the club as he has since departed for the great dog park in the sky. Thoughts and love to Graham and Sue. We'll all miss him too.

We spent another day of topping up our tans, chatting, looking around the show until it was our turn to have a spin around the show arena with the other classic cars and I have to say, Enthusiasts of British Motors stole the show. Well to be more accurate, Seth and Henry Junior Stole the show.

One of the things we love most about this show is that in the evenings when all the muggles go home, the steam fair, Beer tent, food franchises stay open. All the exhibitors drive up from the campsites in various strange modes of transport to have fun on the fair and drain the beer tent before driving home again in their strange modes of transport. We were no different. There was a brief fight over who would get to go in the Roller, and we set off for all the fun of the fair.

Dad! What are you doing? Don't leave me!

Help! I think Dad is going to be sick!

Feck!

As I had been on the rides before, I nobly decided that my role of the evening would be to document the events for the blog and to hold any beer, dogs, bags that needed holding and anyway, I’d forgotten to bring any cash … honest … and despite much cajoling and taunting I was going to refuse point blank to ride the Waltzer ever again! Neither will Liam I think after looking very green, he poured himself out of the waltzer car.

I have to say that after a weekend of moaning about these new-fangled electric cars, they all seemed to have a lot of fun on, well, electric cars!

Lorraine got thoroughly over-excited about the whole thing too.

And others just got a little overtired and couldn't help but fall asleep wherever the fell. So did Seth.

There was one more bit of good news, Gar’s Triumph keys had been returned through his letter box with a note saying, “You’re lucky you know someone we don’t want to upset!” (I’m paraphrasing as I’m not sure that the grammar would have been as good as wot I rote was.)

So, despite his cuddly looks and apparent soft friendly and lovable nature, DON’T upset Gar. He KNOWS people. We all made a mental note to thoroughly read and digest the next tour notes.

Sunday was yet another scorching hot day as we set up the stand for the final time. Chris and Raleigh Ball had to go on a balloon ride and Eric Dalton had to drive back to Scotland so weren’t there. However, Andy “Two Pants” Perman turned up in what may be the last outing in his blue VDP Allegro as he has decided to sell it in favour of a modern MGF. Another very pleasant day was had. Before goodbyes were said and we all headed off to the various parts of the country we call home.

Thanks for reading and see you all again soon. Good luck to all the Chaps currently on the Scottish NC500 Tour - wish I could have been there with you.

Click below to watch the video from the weekend.