Morgan Sports Car Club Ltd
Registered Office, Dolphin House, Durford Wood
Petersfield GU31 5AW
Registered Number 2595917 England

Webmaster Bill Noble

Chairman's View

The DJ has just played “It might as well rain until September” by Carole King on the radio. How appropriate is that! The weather is never far away as a topic of conversation in the UK and whilst many parts of the world have suffered from the extremes of hot, wet and cold weather, here in the UK it has very much been a North and South divide. Unfortunately, where I live just about qualifies as the North and we have had the short straw as the weather has been very changeable since the glorious spell that we experienced around the time of MOG 2010.

However, it has not all been bad and in response to a question from Jean I realise that 7 out of the 9 speed championship events that I have entered since April have been dry. However, my last one in August was decidedly wet! It seems strange to finish my season in August when the championship runs until the end of October but we are on holiday for most of September and we have a number of commitments in the following month. Still, I have enjoyed my season which has included a couple of new circuits and one that I have not done for many years. The camaraderie and friendship is as good as ever and we have a few new members taking up the sport as well.

Ahh, September; the children are back at school, summer is almost over and if you have not yet been on holiday now is a good time to get away. As mentioned above, we will be on holiday in September but before we go away we shall be attending Morgans at Windermere. As many of you know, this is a cracking event and an established fixture in the Morgan calendar. Some surprise then that it is quite a few years since we last attended but owning a Morgan leads to a very busy lifestyle and in the last few years we have had other prior commitments. We are looking forward to it. On our return from holiday I am navigating in the Edinburgh Trial for Dave Sapp. This takes place in Derbyshire! Throughout the year you may have read several of Dave’s articles on Trials but this has not put me off; even the prospect of a wet posterior if we have to ford any rivers! However, there is one small potential problem for Dave (of which he is aware and has made contingency plans). In order to maximise my holiday time yet still get back in time to do the Edinburgh Trial I arranged my return flight so as to have a day in hand, or so I thought. I now find that we land into Gatwick airport on Friday morning, need a 4 hour coach journey to get home then have to get to the starting point for the Trial on Friday evening. Let’s hope for no more volcanic ash to spoil things. The good news of course is that as the Trial takes place during the hours of darkness my body clock will still be on daylight hours although I will have missed a night’s sleep.

So, what else am I missing in September? The Club Sprint takes place at Curborough when 3 wheeler and 4 wheeler Morgans will be out playing. Support is most welcome and as we need marshals why not offer your services (see last month’s advert and contact details for Simon Baines). It is not a problem if you have no experience as we can put you with someone who does. There are good vantage points to view the competition and the paddock is open to all so you can get up close and personal with the drivers and find out more about the requirements for this level of sport; who knows, you may be joining in the fun on the track next year.

The first of the Car Trials has just taken place in Lincolnshire and there is another one to look forward to this month located on the Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire borders (see CranMog advert). All the Car Trials, including the one next month, are held in a safe and non damaging environment. If you have not yet entered now is your chance but do not delay.

Recently, we had our grandson to stay. In between swimming lessons for him and attendance at a football match at Chesterfield’s new ground, where the home team gave a good account of themselves against a team from several leagues higher in a cup match, I took him for a day out to the Morgan Factory. As we went down in the Roadster there were several squeals of delight on the journey as I exercised the horse power from time to time. The highlight for Thomas was the chance to sit in and pedal one of the scaled down 3 wheeler Morgan cars in the factory’s showroom. As you might expect the factory was very busy, having stepped up production targets, but the workforce could still find time to engage with you briefly in conversation whilst continuing with their tasks. I never fail to enjoy my visits there.

Finally, I wish to apologise if you have written to me and I have not yet written back in reply. Be assured that I will be doing so when time permits, but this might be after my holidays.

Brian Lee