This year we decided to hold a combined club rally and chose to use Horsham Rugby Club again because of the excellent club facilities and the surrounding countryside.

The usual crew consisting of Ray and Caryl Chris, Mike and Sybil de Bidaph turned up on Thursday to tidy up and get things in order for the weekend. Brian Barrett drove up from Lancing where he lives to Warlingham to transport all the gear, food, marques, crockery etc which we use to make the event successful.

Reg Barnes was an early visitor who came to help but unfortunately we had already left but thanks for the thought Reg.

We had a very good turn out with close on seventy people and it was nice to see Claude and Rolly Van Gissle from the Friends of Belgium club and Jos and Joken Pelders from Holland make the effort to attend.

We had a new team in charge of breakfast Alan Gould and Tony Jeffries with a capable assistant. They made an awesome team and will now be a permanent fixture.

Sybil de Bidaph cooked the Friday Night offering and the Saturday evening buffet, Caryl made her signature dish of the curried vegetables.

We had a surfeit of cakes made by Penny Weare and Linda Jeffries which went down very well.

The music for Saturday night was arranged by Allan Ford and everyone enjoyed that as they were bopping into the night and as someone commented it was music from their era.

Alan Gould arranged a raffle which made £100. £50 went to breast cancer and the remaining £50 went to the Warnham Dog Sanctuary a local dog charity.

Sam Savage and Ray Chris were responsible for the Ride out which everyone agreed was fabulous it ended at the Bluebell Steam Railway, where those who wished to go, had a ride on the train. I negotiated a special price for over 20 people and lots more than that took the train.

I think there was only one breakdown, luckily enough right outside the rally site, Paul Preston’s 741. Paul got a lift in the support car and his daughter Jasmine hitched a ride in the sidecar outfit which Mark Alexander was riding. A few people got lost but they all made it back to the site unscathed.

Everyone had a fantastic time, I know because of the letters, emails and phone calls I received. Also, the food couldn’t have been that bad as I had many requests for recipes, even for the bacon and eggs!!!

I appreciate hearing from people as it makes all the planning and hard work worthwhile.

I saw quite a few new faces and we had several new members sign up for the club. It’s a pity more of the members don’t support our efforts, they don’t know what they are missing.

Finally I would like to thank everyone who helped make this the success it was.

See you all next year.