News
Calendar
Gallery
About Us
Links
Guestbook
West Lancs MG Owners Club
ToolBox
Discussion Forum
July Events 2004
September Events 2004
May Events 2004
June Events 2004
August Events 2004
EVENTS 2004

.Annual General Meeting
Treasurer Jamie Coventry (left) and retiring club chairman Tony Woods (right) present a cheque to a representative of Derian House Children's Hospice , Chorley - our adopted club charity.
Stoneleigh (right)
The new MG XPV in bright metallic blue drew lots of attention when club members weren't too busy buying shiny bits for their cars.


First mid monthly meeting of 2004
April 1st - Farmers Arms, Burscough.
New members Gill and Noel Skinner brought their newly purchased yellow BGT to join Ralph's B roadster, John's green BGT, Eric's Midget and Cam's MGA.
This is just before 8 p.m. and 15 minutes later it was dark and another 7 cars arrived. We moved into the warmth of the pub and trebled their takings during the evening.
January 2004
February 2004
Home
Events
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
May's Mid monthly meeting was at the Prince William near Dalton beacon. This was back to where we used to meet in the 1980s - actually next door at the Beacon Inn. Left shows members cars lined up in the car park - Right shows the same cars from the other end of the car park wilth the Prince William pub in the background.
Photos - Andrew Dickenson
Catton Hall on the 2nd May - Left shows Tom and Bill in front of the hall with their Midgets. Right shows the club stand come camp site - right next to the river - a lovely scenic show ground - but at 90 miles from home - too far for most members.
Cholmondley on the 9th - 2 photos of Bob with his MGB. Left - Bob tries to free his hand from behind the front bumper and Right  - Bob smiles relieved after successfully freeing his hand.
Photos - Nigel Malyan
KARTING EVENING - FRIDAY 16TH APRIL 2004
Paul Jackson organised this event at the Burscough indoor karting track. 8 teams of 4 competed in the endurance event - 20 minutes of qualifying warm up and then 90 minutes of racing, including pit stops for fuel and driver changes.
Seen before the racing (Above right ) are from left to right - Margie, Lisa, Mike, Ray, Jamie, Phil Myers, Darren Staniforth, Steve, Dave  and Scott Cunningham
Eventual winners were the Lawmen - Mike , Warren and Brendan Law with friend Steve. They finished 2 laps ahead of every one else despite Mike crashing heavily with 5 minutes to go - Mike was severly winded but quickly recovered for the prize giving (Above left.) Second place were some of Paul's work mates and 3rd place was the secretary's team (Cam and son Scott with Dave and  son Darren)(Photo left). Not being amongst the winners did not stop Ray  jumping hopefully on to the rostrum  - the photo (above centre) was taken just before the tomatoes were thrown.
Many thanks to Paul for organising this superb fun  event.
June 3rd - Mid month meeting Scorton Village near Garstang

A rainy day seems to have put many off this meeting. But the rain stopped in time for the evening run the evening and Nigel Malyan led the brave  out north of Preston to Scorton Village.

Photo left shows L to R - Brian and Carole Stafford, Martyn and Mrs. Griffiths, Andrew and John Dickenson, Lisa and Jamie, Mrs. and Nigel Spry , Richard with a little Malyan. Photo - Nigel M.
ASTLE PARK STEAM RALLY - CHESHIRE -  27TH JUNE
Tom led  a few of us to a new event for the club - with 1000 steam engines on display and with over 200 tractors, both Jamie and Eric were in their element.
Even I found it interesting and with cars being in a moniority for a change there were plenty of new experiences,The wet Saturday meant that I had to put my soft top up for the first time - but only when parked over night whilst camping. Photos above left - is it a bird, is it a plane? - NO! it's Tom trying to take off with Jamie's new car cover. Above right. Tom's Plastic Pig in the middle of our over night camping
Saturday 3rd July - Norwood Primary School - Southport
Photo left shows the small but select line up of cars on the school field. Eddie Rafter with his American cars was first in place  followed by Noel in his yellow GT. John brought both his GT and Alison's TF. Eric's red Midget was next, followed by my MGA - Jamie's Daimler arrived too late for the photo shoot. The line up was completed by a number of Motor bikes. The weather improved throughout the afternoon with plenty of customers to swell the school funds.. Only problem  - to quote Eddie " the brats with their interminable and uncontrolled footballs" . One hit my car and the kid was lucky to escape with his life!!
Photo - Andrew Dickenson
Photo above shows the line up from the other direction - the bikes can be seen at the end of the row.
Photo - Eddie Rafter.
Lichfield Cars in the Park - Sunday 4th August
Photo left - Lichfield club stand.
Jamie , Lisa and I had a long drive after the Norwood school visit - we drove down to Lichfield afterwards - with Jamie swapping his Daimler for his MGB . It had been playing up but he bravely drove the 90 miles to Staffordshire without a problem . Rain greeted us on the motorway but we soldiered on with tops down much to the amusement of passing motorists in their "proper" cars. At Lichfield we joined Tom and Bill & Olive and camped over night in the beautiful park just outside the city centre. Ray joined us for the Sunday show which was well attended . The sun shone all day and made a good little show.

Photo - Tom Ford
LAKELAND CLASSIC - LEIGHTON HALL  CUMBRIA SUNDAY 11TH JULY 2004
Once again the club visited this popular show near CARNFORTH in the LAKE DISTRICT. Tom and the camping party enjoyed a spectacular sunset on the Saturday night and good number of members cars were displayed on our stand in front of the Hall.
Spectacular sunset on Saturday night
Photo - Tom Ford
Panoramic view of our club stand on the Sunday - Photo - Peter Dobson
Baron's Rest Public House , Astley Village Chorley.- Saturday 31st July 2004
Jamie's brother Ray invited the club to bring their cars to his pub as a fund raising event for Derian House Children's Hospice , which is just down the road from the pub.
We were greeted by a beautiful day and a good number of members turned out to support the event, with Lisa and Olive manning thre BBQ.
Photo left shows a good view of the display with a variety of vehicles including a chopper motor cycle. Photo right shows Dave's TC as he arrived just in time for the final photo session. Photo centre -Top The Baron's Rest with Nigel Spry's LE GT in prime position. Photo Centre Bottom shows some of the kids from Derian House with their helpers as they visited the display of cars.        Photos courtesy of Allan Bridge , photographer from Astley Village (01257 231338)
PRIDE OF OWNERSHIP  EVENT AT CLUB EVENING AT BRIARS HALL- 15TH JULY
Over 25 cars lined up in the car park (See photo Left)of Briars Hall for the self judging of the Pride of Ownership. Nigel malyan won the Premier Class for the 3rd time and Peter Dobson won the standard class..
To add extra interest to the proceedings, Preston Pheonix MG Rover dealer brought along the MG X Power SV super car (See photo Right). This distracted the members from their judging for a while. I wonder how it would have scored against Nigel's MGB? Full scores on the About page. and in August's Mag.
Photos - Andrew Dickenson
TRENTHAM GARDENS - STOKE-ON TRENT - SUNDAY 1ST AUGUST
Yet another first for the club with Tom taking us to Stoke-on-Trent. Trentham Gardens is a massive place with a mile long artifical lake built by the Duke of Sutherland in the 19th century and gardens designed by Capability Brown (not Calamity Jane , Tom!!) . The toilets and shower blocks were excellent, the site having been a caravan site until recently. The show was quite small and entrance was easy with the exhibitor traffic separated from the public cars (Please note this Tatton Park and Andrew Greenwood!!) Tom, Jamie& Lisa, Bill &Olive were the usual campers with Brian & Carole joining the camping party after their good experiences in Wales. Both Ray and myself arrived on the Sunday morning and set up the club stand in the middle of what appeared to be a wasps' nest. Apart from the insects, we had a good day and driving the 60 miles back home in convoy on the A34/A50 was much better than the M6.
Above - Club stand at Trentham
Photo - Tom Ford
April 2004
March 2004. Thanks to Jerry Myers for arranging a club visit to the Jaguar factory at Halewood. 32 members turned up and had had a very interesting 2 hour tour of the X type manufacturing process. I am not sure if we will be converted to Jaguars rather than MGs but the X type certainly seemed well made
THE ANNUAL TREASURE HUNT - This year set by last year's winners (Ralph and Eric). 12 cars went out on the run (most except Moaneyanne Grumbly) and enjoyed the 20 mile drive. Eventual winners were David Bryant driving his twin-cam with Peter Dobson as his navigator. Obviously a combination of youth and experience is needed to win. Jamie and Lisa were equal on points but they travelled 3 miles further (and they went in a Mondeo).
MID MONTHLY MEETING - MAGHULL CONSERVATIVE CLUB - THURSDAY 5TH AUGUST
Tony Woods invited us to his club in Maghull for our August mid month meeting. It turned out to be one of the wettest evenings on record. I arrived at the Briars Hall car park in torrential rain in my proper car to see Peter sheltering in Tom's proper car after having just put his hood up on his MGB. Nigel and Paul arrived shortly after and the torrential rain turned into biblical flood proportions. We set off for Maghull and Peter followed me through Burscough where the A59 had turned into a river  - the water was over 1 foot deep. Tom, Paul and Nigel were nowehere to be seen when we got to Ormskirk - Peter stopped to wait whilst I carried on to Maghull. Nigel had taken the scenic route through a muddy river in Lathom and succeeded in redecorating his engine bay (Photo - Right). The rain stopped by the time we got to Maghull and good number of members arrived in their MGs (Photo -left). Amazingly, it was dry enough to play pitch and putt (photo -centre -) with Steve Ford winning with a score of 20 - Olive 2nd on 22 and Nigel 3rd on 24. (photos - Andrew Dickenson.)
WOODVALE SHOW -
SUNDAY AUGUST 8TH
Thanks to Nigel and Andrew for the photos.
Left and right shows two views of the club area - far too close to the public car park yet again!!
Below - centre -Jack and Thomas enjoy a break . Also in picture . Noel and Andrew at the back. Foreground-  Eric seated and Margie.
Below -right- Eric, Noel, Richard, Andrew, Ralph and John struggle to put up the gazebo (neither Alison nor Lisa were there - nuff said !!)
A summary of Nigel's comments on the show -

Toilets - awful - totally inadequate for a show of this size.
Getting out of the show - awful - queuing for over an hour just to leave.
Organisers note - Classic cars do not like queuing - they need a separate entry / exit.
Members comments on the shows on this site are welcomed - let me know your feelings about this and other shows by email and I will feature them on this page.
TATTON PARK - 6TH JUNE
Below - superb panoramic shot of the club stand in beautiful weather.
Photo - Peter Dobson
Photo above taken by the Liverpool Echo reporter and appeared in the Monday edition.
Out of the 1700 cars there - only Nigel's Herald was chosen - or was it the twins they were interested in?
Southport Classic Car Show - Victoria Park - 26/27th July

Photo - left - John's and Noel's GTs parked on a rather sparse club stand. Bad weather kept many away and it clashed with our weekend at Harry's place in Betws -y -Coed.
AUSTIN 7 CLUB MEETING AT BRIARS HALL - WEDNESDAY - 11TH AUGUST
The photo (left) is not our club meeting - although to look at the 16 club cars lined up in the Briars hall car park you could be forgiven for thinking so. Ralph, David Bryant, John and Gill and Noel are seen chatting in front of the club cars.
We were invited by the Austin 7 club to their open evening along with the Lancashire Motorcycle Club. Cars and motorcycles were judged by members of the other clubs - We were asked to judge the non MG cars and Tom and I reckoned the 1930 Morris Oxford was the best prented car. Tom's TC was judged the best MG by the bikers.
HOLKER HALL - CUMBRIA - SUNDAY 15TH AUGUST 2004
Above - left - club stand - but no gazebo - sorry -  it was in my garage along with the MG which was temporarily off the road..
Above - centre - it looked as though it was "Let's get Jamie " day .as the Malyan boys pile on!
Above - right- Lisa and Lynn relax in the sun - but what is a Triumph Herald doing on the MG stand !
TATTON PARK - AUGUST 21ST/22ND AUGUST 2004
Despite the heavy rains during the week and rain on the Saturday morning the ground at Tatton was suprisingly firm. We were allocated a very small plot for our stand and our 15 cars had a job fitting the space on the Sunday. This was partcularly galling when the stand next to ours was bigger and only had 3 cars on it.

Congratulations to Nigel for winning the best Rubber Bumper MG award  and to Dave and Jane Stafford ( photo right) for runner up in the same category.

Photo - Left

The Club stand on the Saturday

Photo - Right

The club stand on the Sunday
Photo - Left
The camping area on the Sunday morning with Jack in the fore ground.
Photo - Right
Tom's plastic pig hitched up and ready to go on the Sunday afternoon
with club members relaxing (L to R) Lisa , Jamie, The Stafford family and Cam.
Photos taken by Tom Ford

CAPESTHORNE HALL - MACCLESFIELD - BANK HOLIDAY MONDAY 30TH AUGUST 2004

This was the last show in August and Tom's camping party ( Bill & Olive, Dave Utley and Peter ) had braved the wind and rain of the Sunday night. We had made the decision to go to Capesthorne rather than Haigh or Hutton and it proved to be the right choice as the others were called off due to water logged grounds. The rest of us arrived early Monday morning to be greeted by rain and wind until early afternoon. Despite this we had a good turn out of  10 cars on the stand including guest Geogg Hume from Sale who claimed runner up award in the sports car class. The stand won the runner up award despite the minimal dressing up .
Photos of the club stand during the afternoon.

The rain had stopped - just about but it was still windy.

Can you spot whose car was the only one with the top still down through all the rain?
Mid Monthly Meet - Thursday 2nd September 2004
The Grapes - Croston
With September comes the good weather again - a lovely balmy evening with over 25 cars out on to the Grapes car car park . I am afraid that we did some what fill the area much to the disdain of one of the locals who had no room to park - but I am sure the landlord appreciated the increase in trade from his usual 4 people to 44. The Vintage Car club also arrived for their monthly meeting - sorry we took your spaces as well. Nice to see Rob's  Caterham 7 out for its first club outing . Notable occurrence this evening - Ray found out that his recent MGB acquisition does not do 50 miles to the gallon.
Cholmondley Castle - Cheshire - Sunday 5th September 2004
Photo - Left
Club stand in beautiful sunshine
with "castle" in the background.

Photo Right
A view of the show ground with the West Lancs stand in the middle -our flag certainly stands out.

Thanks to Tom Ford for these photos
Ray takes a nap -dreaming of MGBs that do 50 to the gallon - soon to be disturbed by rowdy kids!
Brian is caught "hoovering" out his car. Careful - Carole reckons you can do the same  when you get home.
WIGAN PIER - SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 4TH 2004
Reopening of Trencherfield Mill Steam Engine.
David Bryant had told club members about this event at the last meeting. A few of us decided to pay a visit not knowing what to expect. It was a carnival atmosphere in front of the mill, with brass band , ukelele band, folk singer , stilt walkers and more. Eric had arrived earlier in the morning and received a complementary lunch and afternoon tea
Above - Club cars in front of the Fair Organ - Tom has to run for it as it starts up with ear splitting volume!
Above - The 150 year old steam engine restored to concours condition. The 26 foot diameter flywheel turning for the first time in 10 years
Two more views of the front of the Mill - thanks to Tom Ford for these photos.
"Black & White " Picture
Ray's white 50 m.p.g. roadster in the background with Dave's black GT  at the front. Ray says the roadster is for sale - contact via guestbook.
OUR OWN SHOW
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 12TH 
FULL REPORT AND PHOTOS ARE ON THIS SITE NOW
(click here)
THE BETWS-Y-COED CAMPING WEEKEND -26TH/27TH/28TH JULY
Club member Harry Hockney decided to upsticks from Formby to North Wales last year and invited the club to use his new place for a club weekend. What a lovely setting Harry's new  guest house has. Just a couple of miles from Betws - y - Coed, Harry is turning the former farm house into a bed and breakfast and small camping area. Jamie & Lisa, Ray & Margie and Nigel & family bagged the 3 B& B places so the rest of us camped on the field alongside the house. We needn't have worried. Harry had completed the shower block and toilets just the week previously , with only the indoor pool heating to sort out the facilities were excellent. Soon the camping area was filling up - Paul and Lynn with Laura set up their tent first closely followed by Tom and Dave Utley( in separate tents - something about a gas leakage was mentioned), Brian and Carole and Warren and family. Sandie and I were not far behind and soon there was quite a good MG club village. Harry had a BBQ planned for the evening and after everyone had arrived from the afternoon trip Lisa and Margie set up the burner and Harry,  son  Dave and Pat soon had the lighting and music set up. With wine and beer flowing everyone joined in the quiz Harry had devised - i managed to win by fair means or foul - mainly foul).The pass the parcel game with a prize for everyone took on a new dimension after alcohol and even the kids enjoyed it. Suprise , suprise - Darren arrived on cue just before his car turned back into a pumpkin!
Photos - Nigel and Ray
Photo - left

Harry's place - Llwyn Onn , Pentrefoelas - phone 01690 770124 for special club rates for B&B.

Photo - right.

Paul was first to set up camp.
Photo - left

Looking rather lost - Laura was first to arrive at the party .

Photo - Right

Lisa and Margie start the burner on the BBQ
Photo - left

Lisa gets the butties out

Photo - right.

Lynn's ZR heads off in the distance as the others are just starting up the engines
Ray organised several jaunts into the Welsh country side on the Sunday and Monday
Widnes - Fair Organ and Vintage Rally - Sunday 26th September
After early morning drizzle everything cleared up by lunchtime and the stiff breeze blew the clouds away  - we even had some warm sunshine for an hour or two in the afternoon.
This show gets better each year - plenty of variety in the exhibits - you soon get used to the noise of the organs coming from every direction - some useful auto jumble stands and an interesting auction. Richard and I spotted some Lucas spotlamps in a box which we bid for and got after pooling our money.
Photo left and Right (Tom Ford)
The 10 club cars were joined by the unusual green 1500 MGA from Vale Royal Falconry centre (didn't know hawks could drive!!)
Girls weekend in Scotland
During September Margie, Lynn M, Lynn J and Lisa made plans to have a weekend away in Scotland. It is rumoured that it was originally Ray's idea to elope to Gretna Green with Margie and take a few of witnesses but he found that he was busy viewing another MGB on ebay.

Photo left - Margie, Lynn M and Lisa return from looking for handbags.

Photo right - Daytime activity -Lynn M, Margie and Lisa  hanging around on a bar - was the night time activity hanging around in a bar? Nigel assures me that Scottish crossbars are reinforced with titanium so there was no health and safety risk.
Photos - Lynn Jackson.
MID MONTH MEET - BLACKPOOL LIGHTS - 7TH OCTOBER 2004
Once again we are at the end of the outdoor mid month meetings. Another trip to Blackpool illuminations saw 6 MGs and a BMW travelling in convoy to enjoy the spectacle (?) of Blackpool's famous illuminated sea front. Peter, Martin & Margaret, Darren & Annette, Jamie & Lisa, and myself made the first meeting point in Tarleton  in our MGs. Nigel had some flimsy excuse for not bringing his MGB out of  premature hibernation (something about piles of builder's rubble in front of the garage - a likely story!). Chris arrived straight from work and took Nigel with him to lead the way.

Meeting up with Alan & Marianne on the North end of the prom we drove in convoy down the Golden Mile. Our topless MGs drew more attention than the lights ( Am I imagining it or are the lights less spectacular than they used to be.?). We managed a free run the whole way with only stops for traffic signals so no overheating . The traffic  soming from the other direction was mostly stationary - good idea of Nigel's  to go from North to South.

At the south end of the sea  front we stopped at a chippy for nourishment. It seemed that the whole of Lancashire's social services had arrived ahead of and taken over all the seating - so we had to eat standing out side - that is how chips were meant to be eaten isn't it?). Peter was tempted by bright shiny things in the shop next door and bought one of the brightly lit toys on the pretext of getting it for little Dobo at home - another likely story!
The weather was fantastic - perfect for the night time drive with the top down - brought back memories of journeys to Sandie's college in Poulton le Fylde in my Midget in the 60s - ahh - nostalgia.

Only downer of the evening - Martin had his car vandalised when he was in the nearby curry house - an expensive spray job is needed.
Photo - left
The view  through the windscreen of my car.
Difficult to see what is going on but I thought it was a pretty picture and I was driving with the camera in one hand - hence the shake!!



Photo - right
Nigel, Alan and Chris admire Peter's shiny thing!
September Events 2004
OCTOBER EVENTS 2004
FIDDLER'S FERRY PUB - WARRINGTON - 3RD OCTOBER
Five club cars made it to the very old Fiddlers Ferry Tavern. I had booked in 10 cars but the threat of rain obviously kept the others at home. They missed a good show - which was held at the pub for the first time. Pat, the licensee, picked out my TF as the car of the day from the total of 60 cars that turned up. We had our photo taken by the local paper - Widnes Weekly News - who gave is a full page spread in the next edition - Bob Atherton has a copy of it.
The weather was OK until about 1 p.m. when we had little rain. The clouds looked a bit black over Liverpool by 3 p.m. so we made our way home - hoods down for Eric , Bill and me. It didn't rain much until I got home although the Rainford bypass was very wet - must have just missed a heavy shower. - Tom Ford
Photo Top Left -( Tom Ford )
Line up of cars on the grass next to Fiddler's ferry pub

Photo - Left  (Peter Dobson)
Lunch time - the gang gather in case Olive has brought one of her apple pies

Photo Right - (Peter Dobson)
It looks as though Tom has conned Olive into polishing his car - which won car of the day award
NOVEMBER 2004
AINTREE FESTIVAL OF MOTORSPORT
50th Anniversary
NOVEMBER 19th/20th/21st

PHOTOS TAKEN ON THE FRIDAY
LOVELY SUNSHINE BUT VERY COLD

PHOTO LEFT - THE CLUB STAND IN THE CENTRE OF THE TRACK
PHOTO RIGHT - LINING UP FOR THE PARADE LAPS
We got to drive 4 full laps round the original grand prix circuit. Tom lead the way in his TC followed by Ray in the TF. Visitors from the North West Caterham club hitched a ride. Dave Bryant decided to make a race of it and went screaming past everyone in his Twin Cam.(could have been the passenger that was screaming!)

IN THE PADDOCK AREA

PHOTO - LEFT
BEAUTIFUL 1936 SS JAGUAR

PHOTO RIGHT
RATHER EXPENSIVE 1950s FERRARI GTO
PHOTOS TAKEN ON SATURDAY
CLOUDY & COLD
3 greats of Motorsport from the 50s were on hand to sign autographs as well as drive classic racing cars round the track - they can be seen in the photo left
From left to right,
Roy Salvadori , Tony Brooks and living legend Sir Stirling Moss.

Photo right - Brian gets his Stirling Moss painting signed by the man himself.
Photo left.
Great man - great car

Motoring legend Stirling Moss drives a few laps of the Full Grand Prix circuit in the
ex Fangio Formula 1 Bugatti
AINTREE MOTORSPORT FESTIVAL
SCROLLTO BOTTOM OF PAGE
Photo -Right.
Club stand on the Saturday .We were  joined by friends from  Preston MG Club.
Note unusual 1956 Swallow Doretti
on the end.
Note -Well done to Eric , Bill and Olive who made all 3 days  in their Midgets.

(Photo Tom Ford)
Photo - Left

What is that balloon over Richard's Coupe - is he running on gas?
(Photo - Tom Ford)
SUNDAY PHOTOS
COLD AND DAMP

Photo left. Nigel, our illustrious chairman made the effort and turned out on the worst day weather wise.. Wearing a strange hat for a dare, Nigel and son pose next to the 1950 Works  Rally XK120 of Ian Appleyard.

.Photo -Right - Stirling Moss drove a few laps in the same XK 120 .