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ThamesMog
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Our first Thursday noggin of the New Year was a sad evening as it was the day before Arthur Neal’s funeral. In some ways though it helped as Mike Dulieu made us smile with his fond memories of Arthur. Several Centre members attended Arthur Neal’s funeral to pay their last respects. Arthur’s friends from across the Morgan world attended including Dixon Smith representing the Factory. Barry Sumner gave a fitting tribute and on Arthur’s behalf wished everybody that was entering the Exeter trial that evening nothing but clear runs. On the Centre’s behalf I would like to thank Barry for his appropriate tribute. Many Morgans were also in the car park paying their respects. Afterwards we all attended the new noggin venue for OxMog. I think Arthur would have approved.
This year we are celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of our Centre. We are planning to turn June into a month long celebration. As it has been pointed out to me June will be halfway through the gateway to the new millennium, hence an appropriate time to mark our anniversary. So how are we going to celebrate? The month will start off with Pamela and Mike Aldrich’s 30th Anniversary Dinner on 2nd June. The following weekend Sue and Geoff Giles will be taking us to Lord Nuffield’s home and of course the month culminates with the MSCC Autotest on 25th June.
Up until fairly recently we had one weekend spare. However I am very pleased to be able to announce that Jenny Gale has organised a visit to the Hollycombe Steam Collection on 18th June. Everything is steam powered including a wondrous fairground. Jenny has promised to take me on the steam driven horses provided I don’t keep asking for sweets or ice cream - I can’t wait! We also have a trip to a steam railway coming up organised by Terry Tedman. In the Summer Tony Hempel will be organising a joint F.H. Douglass/Thames Valley Centre Car Show. All these events will form part of our birthday celebrations.
In the latest edition of the Thames Valley Centre Newsletter (TVCN) Chris
Rowe begins an interesting series of articles about his first twenty-five years
of owning a Morgan. Ray Styles continues his 4/4 rebuild starting the difficult
part of putting the car back together! Subscription details are available from
myself (Centre Secretary) - credit card facilities are available for overseas
readers.
For sometime now I have been considering introducing a second Sunday noggin. My reasoning being that if we have one Sunday noggin in one part of our region, we should also have one in another area relating to our Centre as we do with the evening noggins. Bearing in mind some people can make lunchtimes while others find evenings better. Also some people would like to go to a pub where a Sunday roast is available, something the Queens Oak doesn’t normally offer. Some of you may know that one of our members, Robert Watson, owns a pub. Therefore Robert has kindly offered his pub as our second Sunday noggin and by the way he does an excellent Sunday roast. Please see dates and things for all the details.
At the January Sunday noggin at the Queens Oak eleven Morgans were in attendance, in brilliant sunshine. Jess and Pam Barkley came along and apparently are long standing members of the Centre. However, I have never met them in my time at the Centre. I hope you can both come and see us more frequently. Peter and Rosanne Kirby paid us a visit also, but in their case for the first time. At this noggin Chris mentioned that he had been a Centre member for twenty-five years – clearly a life sentence! Congratulations from us all Chris. In December Tricia Ramage and her boyfriend Andy joined the Centre. They are currently on the look out for a Morgan. I hope you are both successful soon!
Finally, I have news of two more events coming up. On the 26th March we shall meet at the car park on the A329, 200 yards east of the Belvedere Arms Hotel and about one-mile west of its junction with the A30 at 10:30 am. We shall then go for a four-mile walk around Virginia Water to welcome British Summer Time. Also please note that in April there is a trip to Brands Hatch for a 750MC race meeting that should feature some Morgan competitors. Please meet at Newlands Corner Car Park at 08:30 am on 16th April.
