Chesham PoO

Tuesday evening 23rd July was the Chesham MG Club’s pride of Ownership event, and five members from our club went along to support our neighbours.

It had been a blisteringly hot day, so I was looking forward to the drive over in my MGA.  I had however, underestimated the amount of traffic trying to negotiate the Aylesbury ring road at 6 o’clock in the evening, so whilst crawling along in the queue I kept a watchful eye on the temperature gauge as it gradually crept upwards.   I had to turn on the heater for additional cooling, and as you can imagine, I began to swelter too.  However, we got though without boiling over, but the poor old car began to cough and splutter in protest – something it had never done before in the 5  years of my ownership.  However, when we got onto the Aston Clinton by-pass it began to run smoothly once more – I suspect the fuel had been beginning to vapourise in the full line to the carbs – and by the time I arrived at The Ley Hill Golf Club all was well again.

Having registered and parked up, I went in search of a desperately-needed  beer, and to join other members of AMGC who were attending – Brian Deacon and Karen Hall had arrived in their lovely Morris, and Dave Barton in the RV8, and we were joined later by John Mullins in his MGA coupe, so a good showing from our club.

Chesham is a larger club than us, so unsurprisingly on such a warm evening there was a good turnout – I reckon in excess of 60 cars – and as Chesham offer three awards in each category, the marking took quite a lot of time and effort, but Dave, John and I managed this in time to be first in the queue for food (excellent value!) which we enjoyed in the sunshine.  Brian was not so lucky – he was practically last in the queue and well ready for his dinner when he got it!

There was then a longish pause while the marking was completed by the organisers, but eventually they were ready for the awards.   And AMGC were in amongst the winners – Brian and Karen for Best Non-MG with the Austin, Dave 3rd in class with the RV8 and me for 2nd with the MGA.  A very enjoyable and successful evening, topped off with an uneventful cool drive home, and safely in the garage before the thunderstorm arrived!!