The Roadrun is
unexpectedly brought to a halt!
Photo: Steve O'Hara
A pictorial record of the
Roadrun on Saturday:
(thumbnails can be clicked
on to download an enlargement)
This year's West
Midlands Rally, organised as usual by Alan Withey, took place at
Dudmaston Hall near Bridgnorth in Shropshire. Alan cajoled and
encouraged over 20 members to bring their Standards, from the late Mike
Randall's 1934 Ten saloon, now in the safe hands of Roger Sims, to the
1960 Vignales of Patrick Brotherton and John Worby. A notable visitor
was the ex Bill Dolling Standard Atlas pickup, now owned by Keith Oliver
of Shrewsbury and nicely lettered for his business. The Webmaster
brought his 1937 Flying Twelve drophead and it made a fine sight
alongside John Matson's flyer; John came all the way down from
Scarborough. A new sight for most of us was Mike Wilkes' Flying Nine.
Eights and Tens were well
represented; Michael Gough came from Aberystwyth, Phil Hetherington from
Loughborough, Mike and Kate Sully from Derbyshire, along with other fine
examples.
The Saturday was hot and
sunny and the road run, led by Steve O'Hara in his 1935 Nine, wound its
devious way to Coalport in the Ironbridge Gorge. Here there were three
visitor attractions: Coalport China, the Tar Tunnel and Jackfield Tile
Museum. Many of us felt too hot and lazy to do much, so we had a
pleasant lunch in a pub or picnicked by the river. Sadly Mike Wilkes'
Nine succumbed to a misfire on the road run; Alan Withey stayed with him
while he was ferried back to Dudmaston to collect his trailer.
In the evening Alan had
arranged a meal at a Bridgnorth Gastro-Pub, but we were informed two
days before that it had gone bankrupt. He hastily made new arrangements
and we all sat down to a leisurely meal in the Danery Pub, with a room
to ourselves.
The Sunday was much
cooler, with rain. We stayed at Dudmaston all day. Some Standard Motor
Club members had a go at archery, although no-one could be persuaded to
balance an apple on his or her head for target practice. Another
attraction was a group of Downs Syndrome youngsters who put on a
twenties Chaplinesque performance of a melodrama, in the style of a
silent movie. They needed a period car, and Roger provided his Ten as a
very large theatrical prop. They were very good.
Best pre-war car was
Roger's Ten - Mike Randall would have been proud - and best post-war the
Atlas. George Thorn won the Eights and Tens trophy with his very
original Eight.
Thanks go to Alan and May
Withey for the organisation.
Some of the cars at
Dudmaston Hall on Sunday:
My apologies that all the
photographs on Sunday are not up to my usual high "Standard".
They were taken with a different digital camera, that I won't be using again!
( Lynda won it in a Christmas raffle!) It wasn't worth putting the
enlargements on the site. I have now put the camera in the bin!
Story credits: Steve
O'Hara
Except where annotated,
pictures credits: your Webmaster
