2016 National Rally Report

This year's National weekend was held in Himley Park in Staffordshire and, helped by the glorious weather, it turned out to be one of the best in recent years. Thanks must go to Ann Blatchford and her helpers who had worked extremely hard to ensure that everything ran smoothly for the enjoyment of all who attended.

The weekend's events started on Friday evening with a welcoming tea and then supper at the rally HQ, the comfortable Himley House Hotel. Three alternative visits had been planned for Saturday morning and most people chose to visit the magnificent rose gardens at the HQ of David Austin Roses at Cosworth. Being just the right time for most roses to be in flower and with perfect weather everyone agreed that it is well worth spending some time there.

The club's AGM was on Saturday afternoon and being held in conjunction with the National weekend it was a great success and gave some of our overseas visitors a chance to hear how the club's business side is conducted as they would probably not travel just for an AGM in October as previously held. There were several major announcements made at the AGM, firstly concerning the resumption of the sale of spare parts to North America (see previous news item) and secondly preliminary details of our major events in 2019 to commemorate the centenary of the founding of Armstrong Siddeley Motors. More about that in later news items. Details of next year’s National and AGM were also announced. We will be staying at an hotel on the outskirts of Derby for the weekend of 7th/9th July 2017, visiting the Çrich Tramway Museum on Saturday and displaying the cars at Kedlestone Hall on Sunday. Further details will follow later.

Now the main rally event on Sunday was held in the grounds and entrance to Himley Hall itself, a imposing Georgian mansion. Many extra cars arrived just for the day providing a display of many more cars than we normally get to National rallies. At least four cars had not been seen at National Rallies before and there were club members visiting from USA, Belgium and the Netherlands. Concours judging commenced at 11am and what a difficult job that was due to the exceedingly high standard of entrants. Some of the winners are pictured here but full details of all awards will be published in the next Sphinx magazine. The afternoon concluded with many people sitting in the shade eating ice creams and listening to the highly accomplished local concert brass band.

Congratulations and thanks to all the organisers for giving us such a great National.

Posted in National on the 25th July 2016 at 3:01pm.