South
West

Below you can find all the South West Social Scene reports submitted for the most recent TR Action, in full. If you have any problems with the content then please contact the office. Should you wish to find your nearest group then please use our postcode search facility or visit 'We're Only Hear for the Beer' for listings of all group details. Please use the links below to find your report:

• Apple
• Cornwall
• Devon
• Dorset
• Somerset

Apple County

Trevor Parker

Following a successful year which has seen Apple County Group members participate in the Fougeres Rally with the French club, Automobiles et Patrimonie du Pays de Fougeres, and also the Tour de Touraine so excellently organised by Tony and Jennie Jeanes, it was back to the traditional Christmas Dinner at the Quarry Inn, Keinton Mandeville on the 7th December.

A truly excellent meal was enjoyed by all those who attended, the dinner being interspersed with a quiz composed of questions of mind-boggling complexity on subjects ranging from cars (what a surprise!) to pop music, with the evening concluding with a raffle.

See WOHFTB for the next club night dates, at the Quarry Inn.

Cornwall

Peter Rugg

Thanks to Julian and his little helper James for putting on another interesting and enjoyable slide show on all things TR in Cornwall over the last 40 plus years and some other motor sport gems. A sample picture from the presentation, with this report, shows members' TRs at a meeting of the Devon and Cornwall Group on 18th February 1973. This took place at the Cornwall's Gate pub in Plymouth.

We had a great turnout of members for the show, that filled half the pub and Adam the landlord provided some excellent refreshments. We had to compete with a MX5 owners club meeting that was being held at the same time but we made more noise!

Our first road run of the year to The Blisland Inn will have taken place by the time this is published and I hope you all remembered the earlier start time of 6.30pm with meeting point at 7.00pm which we will follow for all the runs through till September.

Another favourite event of spring will also have taken place, that being the 90th Land’s End Trial. I expect many of you were there to cheer on both of Phil Tucker’s TRs!

Events coming up include Drive It Day on April 22nd when we leave The Hawkins Arms at 10.30am and converge on the Dingles Fairground Heritage Centre along with other Triumphs from Devon. The May evening road run will leave the Garras Wharf car park (next to Truro Tesco) and arrive at The Lemon Tree pub in Mylor at about 20.00pm.

The French visit is still being discussed but this will now be an end of summer/autumn trip and probably just a day visit to keep down costs - please let me know if interested.

Devon

Graham Vaggers

Our Christmas meal was held on Sunday 11th December at the Smugglers Inn at Holcombe near Teignmouth; this was the best supported meal of the year with everyone enjoying an excellent meal and get together at the last meeting in 2011.

At the time of writing this report I am just back from the party weekend Limpley Stoke near Bath where members from Glavon, Devon, Dorset and Somerset Triumphs met up for this annual event. Once again it was an excellent time with Saturday being a free day for everyone to do their own thing before meeting up in the evening for the meal followed by a disco. Our thanks must go to Lesley and Sally from the Glavon Group for their time and effort in organising the weekend for us all.

Hopefully by the time you receive this copy of the TR Action I will have completed the diary of events for this year and had it placed on our web page but do please keep an eye on our web page as the dairy may need to be updated or amended periodically.

That’s about it for this report; until next time, take care.

Dorset

Steve Diamond

Dorset group brightened up a dull evening in February with a fun filled Auction with the added benefit that all the proceeds were going to the very deserving Julia’s House charity - a Children’s Hospice in Dorset currently struggling with finances, like so many other smaller charities. A major turnout of members with a vast array of items for sale and the enthusiastic auctioneering efforts of Tony, ably assisted by Karen, meant that we have been able to take Julia’s House a very well received cheque for £265. Many thanks to all involved.

It has to be said that this is a quiet time of year to report on and mostly we are looking forward. You will be reading this after some of us will have been exploring South Devon during our WinedUp weekend during which we are looking forward to meeting up with old and new friends from the Devon Group. Shortly you will be able to take part in our first Sunday run of the year (Drive-it-Day 22nd April) which will also involve our annual treasure Hunt – will anyone other than the Wilkinsons be able to wrest the shield from the grip of the Justices?

We have several events to look forward to in May, including a couple of Sunday runs and a mixed marque pub BBQ. AND we are looking forward to an evening with the Red Rose Group who we plan to meet for skittles during their visit to our lovely county.

With all this on offer as well as our friendly welcome and the opportunity to pick peoples brains about your partner’s niggling problem – no not that partner or that problem – how can you miss joining the members of Dorset Group for an event or two? Come along and try us out – people are doing it all the time - we welcomed Kevin Gallacher recently and are looking forward to seeing his TR6 out and about with the rest of us when the weather improves.

Somerset

Malcolm Dillaway

This is the seasonal period where nothing much happens, cars being worked on and prepared for the coming months. So what have we been up to since the last publication?

Our Christmas lunch at the Maypole on 4th December was very well supported by 29 members who enjoyed a carvery of roast pork, beef and turkey and a choice of puddings. With everyone fed and watered, Miss Wikipedia (Helen) provided a most entertaining quiz with prizes for both winner and loser the top prize going to Nick, Charmaine and family. Everyone enjoyed our good value Christmas lunch and looking forward to the New Year – with lots of events already planned – sure it will be a good one. New members Alan & Leslie Harold called in to have a drink with us; we hope to see them at some future date.

Dave Kreczmer reports on Le Jog, Saturday afternoon, 10th December, four members of Somerset Triumphs met at The Culm Valley Inn, Culmstock to operate Passage Control 1 – a much easier task than in previous years. The landlord was very accommodating and provided a suitable room for dealing with the paper work of 49 cars competing in the Reliability Trial and six Tourers. It was an enjoyable afternoon which was closed by the course car at 17.10.

Several of our group gathered at the annual 1st Day of the Year meeting at Sedgemoor Market, Bridgwater. It was good to see lots of old friends with an interesting cross section of vehicles. Sadly, rain was soon upon us so with an invitation to join the Taunton Historic Vehicle Group for lunch, we retired to the Puriton Inn and a fitting end to the day.

On the MCC 83rd Exeter Trial, Saturday 7th January six members of Somerset Triumphs rose early for their journey to Fingle Hill at Drewsteignton to provide marshalling of the holding area which is now becoming our regular task. Upon arrival we set up our field kitchen where Anne and Sue (Linda snoozing away the dark hours in the car) cooked our breakfast – eggs, bacon and sausages and tea/coffee to keep us nourished. The aroma of the food being cooked always attracts lots of comments from passers-by such as ‘no sauce on mine’ or ‘can I have my bacon well done please’. Away from the food for the task in hand, signing on and with daylight approaching the first bikes started to arrive. This year Tony had to record competitor’s numbers and times. By late morning the hill was running well with only one car returned to the bottom. As in the last two years class 0 now do not ascend Fingle but take the river valley track onto Hitchcombe, always good to see old friends and cars on this event. With the stage over Jeremy required the team to assemble on the grass with the bridge as a back-drop and photos were taken for the club’s Triple magazine. The day was one of the most enjoyable and I wish to write more on the subject of tail-lights, ovens, batteries, tom toms, jump leads, electric cars, France and Peugeots but unfortunately my hands are tied.

Our first meeting of 2012 on 11th January saw a new member attending Mark Insley from Uphill near Weston, who has just purchased a Green TR6; hope to see him out in his new acquisition in the future. Discussions at length on our future trips and Tony clarifying what we wanted to do on our planned Cornwall trip in April. More details on the web site.

In January, Somerset Triumphs joined Devon, Dorset, Glavon, and members of the Kennet and North London groups of the TR Register for the ninth visit to the Limpley Stoke Hotel near Bath. The weekend as usual started with the afternoon get-together with friends old and new for refreshments in the reception room. Friday evening we enjoyed a meal at The Hop Pole Inn with some members of the Devon group. Saturday morning following breakfast, some bright spark made the suggestion of a boat trip on the Somerset coal canal/Kennet & Avon Canal – and with 13 people (unlucky for some) made their way to Brass Knocker Basin and hired two Dundas Delight class electric boats from the Bath and Dundas Canal Co. Following a short boat handling instruction course (did anyone pay attention?) the armada cast off on our cruise towards the old wool town of Bradford on Avon, with Captain Competitive in the King class craft taking responsibility for the lead whilst our ship took the aft position. At 12.30 hours we discovered ‘Batteries not included’ and with our bar-code indicator flashing at its lowest level our mid-shipman Malcolm sent out a Mayday Mayday and he reported back that they said we had to reduce our speed! Up on the bridge everyone now became nautical experts with more knowledge than Jacques Cousteau and Thor Heyadal giving warnings of icebergs, subs, reefs, submerged wrecks and lighter-men. Captain Torchy nursed our ship to dock and the crew went ashore for lunch as the coastguard arrived with fresh accumulators – and with our boat on half-charge the Kontiki limped home to Brass Knocker Bay.”

Malcolm writes: Saturday night was the main event of the weekend and our group all gathered in Helen & Mario’s room for drinks before the meal. Getting seated in the dining room initiated the blowing up of balloons and launching them throughout the room, fun was had by all. I am not sure how much the raffle made but I am sure that the charities for the RNLI and Air Ambulance will benefit from the proceeds. Some managed to stay and dance the night away while others had a drink and talked with friends throughout the night. All in all a very pleasant and enjoyable weekend was had by all.

We would like to thank Lesley, Sally and the Glavon Group for the very well organised weekend (my first) and look forward to next year’s event.