August started off with a run to the Sammy Miller Museum in the New Forest on the 5th, eight members enjoyed the run in good weather. There wasn’t an autojumble on this year so no bargains this time. The next weekend it was Popham Megameet where we have a club stand. The new booking arrangement is a bit laborious and the early arrival time put some people off. The forecast heavy rain didn’t materialise and we had about twenty bikes on display. Attendance seemed to be down overall which was probably due to the bad weather forecast.
The next run was on August 15th to Whitefarm Lodge Care Home in Whitton. We had been asked to make a visit because several of the residents had been motorcyclist and the events organiser for the home thought they would enjoy seeing and talking about the types of bikes they had owned. Six set off for the run to Twickenham on four Velocettes, a Norton and a BSA. We took the Norton and BSA as we knew they were bikes two of the residents had owned in the past. The visit was well received and brought a lot of smiles to faces, especially when the bikes were started up.
The run to the Brough Superior meeting on August 26th was cancelled due to the very bad weather forecast for the day.
September 9th was our annual Seymour Charity Run which is about 65 miles through the Oxfordshire countryside with a stop at Thame by the old Seymour premises. Good weather and an enjoyable ride with twelve bikes on the run. We had the pleasure of Jane and Roger Franklin’s company on the run. They had made the effort to ride down to join the run which was much appreciated by our Centre. I hope they enjoyed the run and had a safe journey home.
Kop Hill by Dennis Edginton
Kop Hill weekend weather was perfect, dry and sunny with a welcome light breeze and it brought the Spectators out in large numbers. As ever there was a delicious selection of rare and little seen cars and bikes such as the beautifully built Agli Vincent and the Seymour KTT Mk V111 as ridden by Andy Barrett
There were 12 Velocettes that ‘rode’ the Hill with 6 Velocettes displayed on our stand. It was especially great to see familiar faces from the Woburn, London, and S. Hants centres visit our stand during the 2 days. Tim Pottage brought his 1938 racing MOV, a really stunning little machine and he and Norman Bailie on his 1939 KSS Mk2 both rode the Hill on Saturday with Norman again riding the Hill again on Sunday. Other TV members to complete the Hill were Keith Cookson MSS, Mark Lomax Venom, Dave Peterson MSS and Roy Springate on his Rudge.We had considerable interest on both days from the Public with 3 possible new members for the VOC. The organisers of Kop Hill visited our stand and were most complimentary about the stand and how it was organised. On the Saturday Norman Bailie gave a live interview on local radio about the Thames Valley Velocette Centre.
It was a pleasure to see John Cobb’s record breaking 24litre Napier Railton, a truly wonderful sound for all car, motorcycle ‘motor heads’. And a big thanks to Robin for her very welcome lovely Lemon Drizzle Cake which went very quickly on the Sunday. A very memorable event this year.
Farewell to Dave Hogg
Finally one piece of sad news, Dave Hogg a member of TV Centre, passed away during the night on Thursday 13th September. The Centre has sent their condolences to Dave’s family and we hope to have more about Dave in the next issue of Fishtail.
