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:

• Cornwall
• Devon
• Dorset
• Somerset

Cornwall

Peter Rugg

Another Christmas over and how many of your New Year’s resolutions have you broken already?

Please note there is no evening meeting in January as our first one is on the first Tuesday of February (7th) and on the first Tuesday of the month thereafter. We will continue to meet at The Hawkins Arms Zelah from 8.00pm onwards. From April through till September we will have our evening road runs and move about the county ending up at various locations.

I am pleased to say that many suggested routes and destinations have been received including some garden centres - do not worry, they are licensed! As ever full details of these events and others will be sent to you at the end of February.

I can give you advance warning of another spectacular slide show from Julian who has continued to sort out his massive archive of TR photos. This will be at the March meeting and will start promptly at 8.00pm.

After further discussion at the very well attended November meeting we are pressing ahead with a trip to Brittany sometime in the spring with an overnight stay in France. I hope to get more firmed up details sorted by the end of February.

Finally some good news for TR6 and TR7/8 owners who have not been able to enter the WESES Rally at Stithians Showground due to the 1972 cut off date. At the December committee meeting that I attend the date has been moved to 1980 and I am assured that TRs built up to 1982 will be allowed entry. So perhaps this year it will not only be Frank Batchelor in attendance – see photo from 2010 rally when TR Register were present.

Devon

Graham Vaggers

Here I am sitting here at the end of November writing this report for you all to read in January so with Christmas and the New Year over it is time to get back in the garage to do all the little jobs you planned to do last year but never managed to complete.

I will start this report with a round up of the last couple events in 2011. At our usual Friday monthly meeting in November we held our AGM and it may come as no surprise to you that I am still the Group Leader along with Kevin Byrne as treasurer, Peter and Jane Christie our social organisers and Dennis Hobbs as web support. There were plenty of discussions with ideas flowing in preparation for 2012 event diary, the Sunday lunches will continue and there will be a selection of new venues (along with some previous ones we have become acquainted with before) and also what shows/events to attend. Now I guess it is over to me to put the diary of events together and hopefully get it on our web page by early March.

The Lunch at the Red Lion was well attended with some of us meeting at the Exeter services before heading off for coffee at Fingle Glen Golf Hotel at Tedburn and then on through the lanes and some wider roads to our lunch stop. I would like to thank Roger and Maureen for leading this run. On our arrival at the Red Lion we met up with some more of our members and ended up with fifteen cars in the car park. After a leisurely meal and chat it was time for us all to leave and make our separate ways home after another great day out. That is about it for now.

First meeting in 2012: Friday 3 February at the Dartmoor Lodge near Ashburton TQ13 7JW. Come along and join us!

Dorset

Steve Diamond

Towards the end of October we were delighted to take up an invitation from the Wessex Group to a skittles evening. Both groups turned out in, what can only be described as, massive numbers – I think there were around 56 people to bowl! We had a great evening at the Elm Tree in Ringwood where we enjoyed a good meal and a chance to get to know members of a neighbouring group better. Wessex were very welcoming and friendly and we thank them for setting up the evening. Of course I must report the result (you’ll see why in a moment!) Due to the huge numbers we only managed two rounds and, at first, the teams looked very close with Wessex taking the first round by a few points; however... when it came to the second I have to say that we thrashed them. Now I could be gentlemanly and say it was “all square” i.e. a round each but, in all truth, I can’t see it that way! We look forward to meeting up again soon.

Thanks also to John and Janet who organised our last run of the year. At the very end of October a small but select group of eight cars took off on what I am told was a fairly typical John route (which, in my experience, usually means grass and mud, if not water) around Milton Abbas, Mappowder, Batcombe Ridge and Folke, ending in Sherborne at the Sherborne Hotel. Everyone enjoyed themselves and the meal and Bob, who was on his own that day (aaahhh), won the “spot the photo” competition which takes some doing whilst driving!

At our last meeting we ran a DVD of Peter and Marilyn’s experiences of Italian passes (Marilyn says these Italians are always making passes) and we were amazed by the run down the zigzags of the Stelvio. Peter has an ambition to get a group of us up there in TRs one of these years so I am not sure it was such a good idea to run the DVD in front of likely passengers! If you have not got time to go yourselves it is well worth exploring on Google Earth “Street View”.

In our next report we’ll find out how we all behaved over the festive season, if I can remember the festive season, and whether there is any earth-shattering news from the AGM. But, in the mean time, as you read this it is not too late to suggest a group activity for the year ahead and certainly not too late to resolve to get involved – the more the merrier – and we like to be merry! Happy New Year!

Somerset

Malcolm Dillaway

Wow! How quickly it comes round when one has to write another publication for the magazine.

Slowly getting our web site populated with information so you know who we are and where to find us; many thanks to the office for their patience and support.

The day light hours are getting shorter - soon be the shortest day. Cars are being readied for “hibernation” but hopefully not all… who knows we might get some nice days to blow the cobwebs away?

Not much to say about our activities since last time. We had a very enjoyable time at the Dunkeswell Memorial Museum on 6th November - very interesting hearing about what went on all those years ago. The weather was glorious watching the free-fall parachutists coming down to earth. Only two classics turned out whilst others decided on more modern modes of transport.

Some of us attended the Bristol Restoration show, good turnout of cars, had some fun watching the local Somerset Triumph Sports Six Club who won Best Club stand where they were stripping down a Spitfire in drag. Well done to them.

By the time you read this we will have had our Xmas lunch get together at the Maypole near Taunton. I would like to wish all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and look forward to 2012 being as enjoyable and successful as 2011.

Coming up:

Hopefully if weather kind some will venture out on New Year’s Day, think it is most likely we will meet up at junction 24 at Bridgwater where there is normally a collection of cars.

First meeting of 2012 at The Knowle Inn, Bawdrip will be on Wednesday 11th January.

Later in January some of us will be attending Limpley Stoke for the annual TR party weekend organised this year by Glavon TRs.