TR Action London Group report for issue 352

David Boucher writes: Much has happened since our last report as our great leader, Mark Bulford stood down at the AGM to become SE Coordinator after more than 10 years in control. The group presented him with a picture of him in his TR4A at John O’Groats to show our appreciation and he has of course left a hole - sadly nobody stepped forward to fill the role so we are currently leaderless but the group of course continues.

The London Group were responsible this year for arranging the venue for Drive-It Day for the SE Region, this year at Brooklands which was very well attended with 16 cars meeting for our convoy to Brooklands and 23 cars on display. Next up, we had trip a to Goodwood for their Breakfast Meeting - some of our members didn’t get invites this year despite sending their entries in early but we still had a good showing including our Group Secretary's Westfield!! In early May, we had our inaugural ‘Wrinklies‘ Pub Lunch - this idea came out of chat at the AGM about members wanting more drive-outs as well as going to shows but as most of our members are retired, why not have a monthly mid-week pub lunch at a country venue? The first one was on the first Thursday of May at the Skimmington Castle, Reigate Heath and 9 cars with 11 people arrived in glorious sunshine for a leisurely lunch (see pic) - flushed with success, we planned for June only to be twice thwarted by the weather but will persist in July! Later in May, we had a great group travelling to Laon in northern France for their ‘Historique’ meeting - 9 cars with 17 people (not all in TRs I’m afraid) - and a great time was had by all, not least with the help of Alan Jones’s friend Cecile’s perfect French! This is a highly recommended event not too far from Calais with a full day ‘rally’ on the Saturday and procession around the town on the Sunday to which an enormous crowd turn out. The old part of Laon is well worth a visit too. A good few of us attended the Brooklands ‘Best of British’ gathering on Bank Holiday Monday but I felt there was a bit of a Brooklands ‘overload’ feeling amongst the members.

June so far has been a surprisingly quiet month partly due to summer forgetting to turn up! But we have had three early morning sunny Sunday breakfasts at the ‘Plucky Pheasant’ at Newlands Corner.

So I’m writing this just before the IWE when we have a good number of members attending with a reduced number of campers this year which says a lot about our membership! Our recent new venue for the first Thursday of the month at the Marquis of Granby, Esher is now very doubtful as it is rumoured to be closing at the end of June so watch your emails etc. for a replacement venue — don’t want you to miss out on our regular noggin and a natter over a beer so keep up to date on the website http://www.tr-register.co.uk/group/london for dates & times.