Jubilee Colours at a very wet Tatton Classic Car Show.

This year's Classic Car Show at Tatton Park, Cheshire was on the same weekend as the Diamond Jubilee Celebration and the Northern  Club were in a dilemma, do they celebrate the weekend at home or do they celebrate together in Tatton at the car show which they support every year?

The car show was over three days so it was decided that as many who could attend would do so and would join in her Majesty's celebrations and have our own street party.

Our Director, Tony Curran soon rallied what became known as "Tony's ladies" and we were mobilised with tasks and shopping to plan.

The weather forecast was watched with despair as it soon became obvious that rain and cold would be the main player in the planning and the huge plastic marquee that everyone dreads putting up was dragged out of the back of the garage and transported to Tatton. On Friday, The male volunteers arrived to cut the grass (only our pitch not the whole park), the official gazebo was put up and the barbecue and tables were in place.

Seventeen  cars turned up on Saturday and the club stand won second prize (out of eighty club stands) and we had a fantastic barbecue. We were joined by two Yorkshire sub centre members Sandy and Sally who had travelled over the hill to join us and very welcome they were too. Joe Beaumont led the toast to The Queen by opening a bottle of Moet which was given to him on his 21st birthday in 1977 (the Silver Jubilee Year). John Bowman's blue BJ8 won Best Austin Healey for Saturday and another trophy was added to his collection for his beautiful car.

On Sunday, fifteen cars turned up and it poured all day and was freezing. We  were very glad that before we left on Saturday the valiant volunteers decided to erect the "Beast". Would we manage this without a row? Yes we did. The teamwork was amazing, the old uns taught the newer ones what to do and the " Beast" was up in under six hours! (only joking!) Well, it poured and poured but the cars arrived and were duly displayed in a very royal manner, draped with bunting, flags and flowers. The tables were laid and the copious amount of food displayed. We had a traditional tea party with an amazing selection of sandwiches, cakes, pastries and trifle in very patriotic colours. The contributions from Barbara, Jackie, Claire and our master cake maker, Robert were fantastic and even I made a Union Jack tart (no comments please!). Matthew insisted on cooking the barbecue despite the rain and Joe contributed his famous "Chorley bangers".  At the awards presentation it was Tony's turn to win "Best Austin  Healey" despite having been towed in by my little Sprite due to the alternator packing up.

On Monday, we returned but had lost a few cars due to the cold of the previous day. John Bowman phoned in sick with a chill and was granted paid sick leave, others had joined families for the day but the core group arrived valiantly to eat the leftovers. The weather was better and more visitors arrived to see the cars displayed on all the stands. We ate Chorley bangers, onions and new potatoes, followed by cake, cake and more cake, eventually feeding visitors with the left over cake.

We dismantled the "Beast", tidied up, Tony said a big thank you to his ladies, especially Claire and Jacquie who supplied an endless amount of tea and coffee. A huge thanks goes to David for all his hard work and the  use of his van and to his wife Barbara for giving him so much time off to help the club. To Jonathon and John for the grass cutting, Mike for organising Tickets, Matthew for his enthusiastic barbecuing, George for keeping us entertained and all the other club members who joined us on this memorial weekend.

It was always going to be a tough decision as to whether to stay and home and celebrate HM The Queen's Diamond Jubilee or go to Tatton but we all think we made the right decision.

To finish the weekend off, the Organiser stopped Tony as he was about to leave and gave him another cup for winning Best Austin Healey for Monday. It must have been all the cake"................

  
                                                                                                               Caroline Curran  

      Thanks to John Bowman and Paul Johnson for this selection of photos from Tatton.  Please click on the photo to enlarge. (Hover on picture for caption.)