Ramblings

Apologies for not updating the site recently - work and life changes mean I don't have as much spare time as in previous years to update this.

At the AGM last October I stood down as Chair after 3 years, and let David Arnold take up the reigns. He's gradually finding his feet, with the first main event being our rally on 9 May 2010...... Blackberry Farm, Halland on the A22 near Uckfield.....more details under the RALLY 2010 page.

The plan is to have a club outing on Drive It Day on 25 April.....watch this space! I'm just waiting on route details so they can be advertised.

Our first outing is in just under two weeks time - Saturday 20 March 2010 at Pevensey Bay - the car park on the Beach as part of the Village Day. This has turned into a really popular event, so if you haven't booked in your classic then I'm afraid you'll have to be just a visitor.....but it's well worth a visit! In previous years there's been free classic bus rides to Eastbourne or Bexhill (donations are always welcome towards fuel!), an art exhibition, flower show in the church, excellent cakes from the bakery and meals available in the pubs and from the chippy.

May has been a busy month so far - started off with Magnificent Motors on the first bank holiday weekend, followed by our rally on 10th, then we were at Beauliu Autojumble celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Ford Anglia 105e, then it has been Cuckoo Fayre at Laughton this last bank holiday weekend.

The Cuckoo Fayre I think had the fastest sign up of a new member - Amy Betteley and her family - who asked us how they could join before we'd finished putting the banner up on Saturday morning! Welcome to ESMMC.

2009 has started off well - we had our last outing of 2008 on 27 December with some Minor forum members and we had a road run from Lewes all the way to the back of Crawley via Ditchling and Scynes Hill and we parted company about 3pm in Maresfield- we did about 80 miles in temperatures that didn't get as warm as 0 degrees! We were in the Anglia as the Minor was still engineless - I wished I was in the Minor though as we would have been warm in it!

First outing of 2009 was on 1st January to the Lavender Line at Isfield. It was fractionally warmer than a few days earlier, but not much. Tony made a wonderful huge pot of soup that really kept us warm that morning, and the station's cafe did a great trade in chips and tea! It surprised me how many motorbikes turned up that day, and to give his mum and dad a break I took Aidan for a wander and was teaching him all the bike marques!

It was a bit quiet for a few weeks, Jason finished off Braithwaite - our '58 saloon, as he has had a complete engine bay overhaul and many parts replaced, Steve finished off the convertible - not that they are both competitive about their engine bays or anything... then in early March we headed off to Brooklands for the Austin and Morris Day.

We met up at Buckbarn crossroads (A24/A272) and went off with a convoy of 6 cars - 5 ESMMC and Alan from Scunthorpe who was staying with friends in Littlehampton. We met up with more friends at Brooklands and had a great day catching up with people. We went for a convoy drive around Brooklands - which has changed massively over the past few years since Mercedes Benz bought most, if not all, of the site. We finished up parking on the short piece of banking left for photos to be taken just as the heavens opened and all photographers got soaked to the skin!

I rang Angela to nominate her as official club photographer and she said rude words down the phone at me - so I took that as a no! David braved the rain and did take a couple of pics which he then emailed to me (but the files are too big to put on here and I'm still not sure how to reduce them.)

21 March - we returned to Pevensey Bay for their annual show by the sea. More cars than ever were booked in - we had a lovely day in the sun - it was so warm, and made a lovely change from the sea mist and cold wind that usually envelopes us there.

4 April - Southern Classics had their spring show in Chichester. They had a last minute venue change and we went to Chichester High School for Boys instead of the College. Again, with the sun out we had a very pleasant day.

COMB are a band based in Worthing who performed at our 2008 rally. They were raising money to send 12 volunteers from their church (one of whom was in the band) to Malawi, Africa as part of a team sent by the short term mission charity `Soapbox'.

The aim of the 5 week trip was to build a kitchen for a school of 1200 pupils and to perform maintenance on the buildings already there. The team also spent the afternoons playing with children at various places around the town of Salima, including an orphan care centre were 250 orphans were cared for. Your donations made this trip capable and the Malawi Soapbox team would like to say a big thank you for helping them make such a big difference to the lives of children in Salima, Malawi.

If you would like to know more, visit the soapbox website and watch what the team did in 3 short videos. (http://www.soapboxtrust.com/).

The main event was our 2 day rally at Bentley Wilfdfowl in May 2008. We haven't tried anything as extravagant before - and as it was our 25th rally as well as the 60th anniversary of the Morris Minor we thought we'd celebrate!

We had a bar for the weekend, live music Saturday night, a Scalextric track running, vintage slot machines, various stalls and our special guest car - Gumdrop.

I was flattered by the comments on the MMOC forum and message boards stating that we had a better organised and more friendly rally!


	East Sussex Morris Minor Club About Us \| Club Calendar \| Events \| Ramblings \| Rally 2008 \| Rally 2009 \| Rally 2010 \| Related Links \| Home Ramblings 2010 Apologies for not updating the site recently - work and life changes mean I don't have as much spare time as in previous years to update this. At the AGM last October I stood down as Chair after 3 years, and let David Arnold take up the reigns. He's gradually finding his feet, with the first main event being our rally on 9 May 2010...... Blackberry Farm, Halland on the A22 near Uckfield.....more details under the RALLY 2010 page. The plan is to have a club outing on Drive It Day on 25 April.....watch this space! I'm just waiting on route details so they can be advertised. Our first outing is in just under two weeks time - Saturday 20 March 2010 at Pevensey Bay - the car park on the Beach as part of the Village Day. This has turned into a really popular event, so if you haven't booked in your classic then I'm afraid you'll have to be just a visitor.....but it's well worth a visit! In previous years there's been free classic bus rides to Eastbourne or Bexhill (donations are always welcome towards fuel!), an art exhibition, flower show in the church, excellent cakes from the bakery and meals available in the pubs and from the chippy. 2009 May has been a busy month so far - started off with Magnificent Motors on the first bank holiday weekend, followed by our rally on 10th, then we were at Beauliu Autojumble celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Ford Anglia 105e, then it has been Cuckoo Fayre at Laughton this last bank holiday weekend. The Cuckoo Fayre I think had the fastest sign up of a new member - Amy Betteley and her family - who asked us how they could join before we'd finished putting the banner up on Saturday morning! Welcome to ESMMC. 2009 has started off well - we had our last outing of 2008 on 27 December with some Minor forum members and we had a road run from Lewes all the way to the back of Crawley via Ditchling and Scynes Hill and we parted company about 3pm in Maresfield- we did about 80 miles in temperatures that didn't get as warm as 0 degrees! We were in the Anglia as the Minor was still engineless - I wished I was in the Minor though as we would have been warm in it! First outing of 2009 was on 1st January to the Lavender Line at Isfield. It was fractionally warmer than a few days earlier, but not much. Tony made a wonderful huge pot of soup that really kept us warm that morning, and the station's cafe did a great trade in chips and tea! It surprised me how many motorbikes turned up that day, and to give his mum and dad a break I took Aidan for a wander and was teaching him all the bike marques! It was a bit quiet for a few weeks, Jason finished off Braithwaite - our '58 saloon, as he has had a complete engine bay overhaul and many parts replaced, Steve finished off the convertible - not that they are both competitive about their engine bays or anything... then in early March we headed off to Brooklands for the Austin and Morris Day. OK - not an Austin or Morris - but as a brace of Maybachs is unusual that's why it's here! We met up at Buckbarn crossroads (A24/A272) and went off with a convoy of 6 cars - 5 ESMMC and Alan from Scunthorpe who was staying with friends in Littlehampton. We met up with more friends at Brooklands and had a great day catching up with people. We went for a convoy drive around Brooklands - which has changed massively over the past few years since Mercedes Benz bought most, if not all, of the site. We finished up parking on the short piece of banking left for photos to be taken just as the heavens opened and all photographers got soaked to the skin! I rang Angela to nominate her as official club photographer and she said rude words down the phone at me - so I took that as a no! David braved the rain and did take a couple of pics which he then emailed to me (but the files are too big to put on here and I'm still not sure how to reduce them.) 21 March - we returned to Pevensey Bay for their annual show by the sea. More cars than ever were booked in - we had a lovely day in the sun - it was so warm, and made a lovely change from the sea mist and cold wind that usually envelopes us there. 4 April - Southern Classics had their spring show in Chichester. They had a last minute venue change and we went to Chichester High School for Boys instead of the College. Again, with the sun out we had a very pleasant day. 2008 Ramblings below ........ As I have said elsewhere on this site, we have been to a lot of places this year COMB are a band based in Worthing who performed at our 2008 rally. They were raising money to send 12 volunteers from their church (one of whom was in the band) to Malawi, Africa as part of a team sent by the short term mission charity `Soapbox'. The aim of the 5 week trip was to build a kitchen for a school of 1200 pupils and to perform maintenance on the buildings already there. The team also spent the afternoons playing with children at various places around the town of Salima, including an orphan care centre were 250 orphans were cared for. Your donations made this trip capable and the Malawi Soapbox team would like to say a big thank you for helping them make such a big difference to the lives of children in Salima, Malawi. If you would like to know more, visit the soapbox website and watch what the team did in 3 short videos. (http://www.soapboxtrust.com/). Thank you again for your generous donations. PICTURES HERE also below - please scroll down the page The main event was our 2 day rally at Bentley Wilfdfowl in May 2008. We haven't tried anything as extravagant before - and as it was our 25th rally as well as the 60th anniversary of the Morris Minor we thought we'd celebrate! We had a bar for the weekend, live music Saturday night, a Scalextric track running, vintage slot machines, various stalls and our special guest car - Gumdrop. ESMMC Rally 10/11 May 2008 Top Left: travellers at our Rally Middle: the marquee and bar Right: Barry and his slot machines Bottom Left: Graeme of Classic Car Profiles Middle: Gumdrop Right: Toilet Monitor presentation Pevensey Bay - March 2008 Snow on 6 April 2008 - our Traveller on our drive throughout the morning Autorama - Tunbridge Wells. August 9/10 2008 We won Runner Up Club Stand as we were there for 2 days. No other club booked in turned up for the very very wet Saturday Club Night - June 2008 Seaford Martello Tower Museum MMOC National Rally June 2008 Even though we are an independent club it doesn't stop MMOC members from going to the National Rally. I was flattered by the comments on the MMOC forum and message boards stating that we had a better organised and more friendly rally! Canvey Island - Oct 12 2008 David and Andy have been top this show a couple of times and said there's a lot to see pics to follow - I need to work out how to make them smaller from the originals emailed to me