TR Action Report London Group presented for issue 272
Well what's been happening In the London Group? The main activity, apart from getting our plans sorted for SPA, Classic Le Mans, various pub runs, our group camping activities and of course our alternative club meet locations, was our Christmas Party. We were hosted at The Fox and Goose, just off Hanger Lane. All of us joined in the fun in true LG style and our Panto Fancy Dress theme was particularly good fun when queuing for drinks at the bar on a packed Saturday night! Our group members came in various disguises such as Captain Hook, a Psychotic China man, Prince Charming, The Genie of the lamp, Robin Hood to name but a few, oh yes and a few swashbuckling pirates thrown in for good measure. The evening went well, fuelled with lots of fabulous festive food and drink the Fox & Goose staff looked after us well. The evening's LG entertainment kicked off with an intro music quiz followed by feely bags as well as a spot the personality competition culminating in the annual London Group Awards accompanied with an explanation as to why each recipient had actually won.
The first award was the TR Nut, a TR model mounted within a large Brass nut, which is presented to the person who has exhibited the greatest commitment to all things TR. This year's recipient was Gerry Byrne, who, without doubt, has been our busiest London Group member since 'TTR4A' was returned to him from CTM early in the year. This was backed up with photographic evidence proving his attendance at every event we ran last year. Even without his beloved 'TTR4A', who has now gone off to Protek for a re-spray and fettle, he joined us for our January Pub run in his Audi. Thank you for your support Gerry.
Our second award was the Piston from Above; pretty obvious what this one is all about! It was awarded to Mark Ockendon, a recognised oracle on all things TR by the London group and an ex group leader. He received the award for when his beautiful, red TR6, which has been featured in Traction many times and is undoubtedly very carefully fettled, managed to break down, losing its brakes as far away from its home as it has been driven in the last 10 years in SPA, Belgium. Perfect!
Our third and final award, The Dipstick, is a beautifully presented dipstick in a mahogany frame awarded to the person who has made the biggest, most public boo boo in the past year. I myself am a past recipient of this award; I managed to get lost not once, not twice but on three occasions returning to the same location from the same start, all on the same afternoon and then I told everyone about it! Another past recipient helped a young gent load some wire wheels into his car, actually commenting on how nice they were, only to then realise that they had been nicked from his own car, and then told everyone about it! This year the Dipstick was presented to Buttons aka Chris Gleeson, whom you may recall from my last report on the Fireworks and the incident of the much anticipated 'biggest firework we have even seen' , which when ignited proceeded to gas all the onlookers with thick black smoke and emitted only a few generally unseen sparks. To be fair, as it was such a public incident this time he did not need to tell everyone about it! A worthy recipient!
In addition to the above awards LG member, Geoff Naumann, was presented with a framed reprint of the cover of TRaction 267 which featured his car on the cover, photographed whilst completing a rain soaked lap of the historic SPA track.
2014 is already shaping up as a great TR year for London Group but if none of these float your boat and you just fancy a natter over a beer you are most welcome. You can join us on the first Thursday of every month at the Rose of York in Richmond or the third Thursday at an alternative venue (keep an eye on the web site) - both kick off at around 9.00pm.