Stonor Park 1999

The morning of the 6th June saw me drinking a hasty couple of cups of coffee before loading up Des Tighe’s camper with club stuff and setting of to Stonor Park. After having totally missed junction 6 on the M40 (there were three of us in the van and none of us saw it), we eventually arrived, meet up with the rest of the club and set up the stand. Breakfast was duly provided care of Gary Law’s Hot Dog stand (well actually Jackie Law’s camper van). Duly fed we took it in turns to man the club stand and wander around the sites.

I took the opportunity of catching up on a few names who have wrote in and to meet up with some fellow clubs, and much swapping of newsletters and chatter was had. There was a whole lot to see on the concours included a good many club cars (Andrew Searle came 3rd in his category) and a lot of browsing to be done in the many trade stands.

I managed to speak to Derek Bicknell with his white bug GAWSH (who wrote in last month and again below) and Fiona with her white bug Cynthia (also see this issue), Fiona has volunteered to help proof read this mag. In the water cooled section – Hannah Goodchild was entered with her pride and joy red golf Gti complete with new alloys and boy was it low!

All in all it was a good day out with fine weather (I forgot my sunblock and got burnt). It was a great chance to see a host of fine VWs and meet up with a range of enthusiasts from the dedicated concours entrants to those with less immaculate vehicles but just as much passion and enthusiasm.
The committee all hope to meet up with more members at future events and socials, so hope to see more of you this summer.

Louis Henwood

Stonor Revisited

After 6 long years in hibernating in the garage GAWSH was given a fresh start at life last November when once again I had need of a second car on the road. I had always promised that I would drive my bug through Henley and along the lane to Stonor again one day. It's easier than you might think, get yourself a dream and hang on to it and with plenty of resolve it'll come true.
So it was that I arrived at a little after 9am to be one of the early arrivals, lining up at the top of the hill overlooking the rest of the concourse, making up the end of the row of class 19, the Pride & Joy cars. I went straight to work on the usual 3 hour ritual of cleaning and polishing, that brought back memories of times spent preparing some of my earlier bugs for VW Action and Bug Jam many years before. It makes me smile when people look at Gawsh's white interior and ask "How do you keep it clean" they look surprised when I reply "I don't" then, with a brief pause, I quantify the statement with "I just keep cleaning it" !

Finally hunger got the better of me and Gawsh was looking about as good as he was going to get, so to lunch. I munched on a frankfurter whilst browsing the autojumble and trade stands, not a hard task for me as I'm only ever looking out for 'White' parts! I did pick up a couple items that I thought would help a little and had I remembered a wheel brace the chrome bolts would have looked wonderful, Ho Hum.
A couple of heavy showers thankfully avoided the timing of the Miss VW competition, somehow I think the number of brave young ladies would have been less had it turned out to be a wet T shirt event, no matter how popular it might have been with the boys.

That was followed up with the concourse presentation starting with class 1. It was great to see a familiar face step up to receive 3rd in class having only met Andy Searle and a few other members of the THE LTVVWC committee the previous week at the Runnymead picnic where I was made to feel very welcome to the club. Then on through the classes to 19. Pride & Joy is open to any make and model of car that are used as daily transport and indeed the line up consisted of Golf GTI, Modified and standard Beetles, A wizard Kit and a rare Porsche 911. 17 cars in all. The judging was made by each entrant voting for a their favourite. The winner of my class failed to collect his trophy and I noted that 2 of the GTi-s had already left for home but to hear my name read out as the 2nd in class was a true thrill for me.
A memorable day for many reasons and one that has set me fully on the path of attending regular shows once again. Thanks to everyone involved it running the event and in particular to those that shared the thrill of showing their cars. Aside from the increase in the numbers of visitors since my last show I was also pleased to see the fantastic high standard of concourse entries. I've got plenty of work to do before GAWSH is ready to take on the Big Boys. - One day… I Have a dream you know.

Derek Bicknell and GAWSH

Club Winner

Dear Jackie

Blackie (Peter’s black New Beetle - ed) won 1st prize in the concourse event, not alot of competition but I was very proud. Have decided to donate anything I get over to the London/Thames Valley VW club which I first joined in 1988. It might be good to use this towards a big midsummer 60's party nite. The Wraysbury Hall is perfect with a huge carpark , two village pubs etc. Its on B376 between Staines and Datchet.

I had a digital video camera and shot what I think will edit up into a nice Half hour film on the event at Stonor, I will add a 4 minute item I did in 1982 with Phillip Schofield at a Bug-In in New Zealand. I discovered and produced him for TV there and this was the first ever TV he did. I’m sure the Beeb will be interested. Thanx again for mentioning the Nu Beetle for sale.

Peter Grattan