FolkMog Gymkhana day dawned with a little sunshine that got better as the day progressed. For once the forecasters had got it about right as they had said that it was going to be a ice day with the possibility of some rain in the early evening, which is pretty much what we got.
The Gymkhana team this year consisted of Ian Charity who, as always, gave us the use of his garden and worked like a slave to make sure everything went well, David Kennett who makes things to be used in the gymkhana and does this to a high standard, Me who did the scoring and Brian Turner who had lots of ideas but sadly passed away before the planning process was complete. Roger Tatton stepped in to the breach left by Brian and did a spectacular job on refurbishing the trophy, the attention to detail was magnificent.
There were several innovations this year.
Firstly, there was a theme which may or may not have been noticed by the competitors. In keeping with the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Morgan Motor Company all of the tests were marked out of one hundred. Did you all notice?
Secondly, there were seven tests not six and each competitor had to decide not to take part in one of the seven. This choice had to be made before taking part. That is, the competitor could not score really badly in a test and then decide to drop it.
Thirdly, we introduced a joker system. A competitor could ‘play a joker’ before starting a test and their final score, after penalties would be doubled
Finally we introduced a minor fun competition to find the best hat, male and female.
So lots of changes this year but some traditions carried on. People began to arrive fairly promptly and as usual much meeting and greeting went on before we could drag people together to walk the first three tests which were marked out and ready to receive competitors.
The first test was called Sir Lancelot. This consisted of a series of posts, at various heights, with hooks attached upon which hung hoops. The driver took the lance, brilliantly made by David Kennett and the passenger steered around the course while the driver attempted to pick up the hoops on the lance. Points were deducted for hitting a post and other misdemeanours. Terry Hunt did particularly on this test as he scored a maximum hundred and was playing his joker.
The second test was the blindfold drive. We had instituted a much more complex course but also a whistle and when the whistle sounded the driver had to stop or be disqualified from the entire competition. I was glad to say that the whistle did not sound throughout the day. Several competitors did very well on this test and some of the played their jokers. Pat Braithwaite, Liz and Ken Prentice and Caroline Page all scored maximum (200) points on this test.
Dunking was the third test and consisted of a pole (no not to do the plumbing), a tennis ball on a rope and a series of buckets in which there was water. The rope was attached to the pole and the tennis ball was half way along the rope. The idea was to circle the pole while dunking the tennis ball into the water without ever allowing it to touch the ground or pulling the pole out of the ground. Caroline Page and Ken Prentice did rather well at this test.
In the afternoon the first three tests were:
Coasting to halt which consisted of accelerating from a start position and then coasting to a halt without using the brakes and getting as close to a pair of cones as possible. This turned out to be the trickiest of all of the tests. Only one driver scored anything on this test and that was Graham Riley who scored twenty out of a possible one hundred. Everyone else struggled to get to zero.
The second test of the afternoon also proved to be difficult. This consisted of five objects about the size of a dinner plate on the ground. The driver had to drive forward running over each plate with a different wheel and the reversing so that the nearside front wheel went over the last plate. I think everyone knew that this would be a difficult test so there were no jokers played. Alan Braithwaite scored best on this test.
We had filched the idea for the third test of the afternoon from the Mog in Cornwall. There were three piles of tires into which the passengers had to throw wellington boots. The large boots went into the large pile, the medium boots into the medium pile and the smallest boots into the small pile.
During the lunch break, which was enjoyed in glorious sunshine, I had managed to collect everyone’s score sheet and get going on the scoring. Likewise as we waited for Ian and David to set up for the last test I managed to get up to date on the afternoon test scores. The dark horses at this stage were Graham and Liz Riley who only had three hundred and forty five points but had not yet played their joker. Tension mounted!!
The last test was a celebration of the one hundredth anniversary. The number one hundred was marked out on the ground and around the numbers were cones. The drivers and passengers had to drive around the numbers without crossing the lines placing golf ball on top of the cones. Graham and Liz went fairly early on, played their joker and scored a hundred and sixty giving them a total of five hundred and forty five. This made them the ‘leaders in the clubhouse’ for ages as car after car came in with less than perfect scores. What made it more tense was that Terry Hunt and Alan Braithwaite, who were tied for first place after test six with four hundred and ninety points were almost at the back of the field to complete the final test. This meant the Graham and Liz could win if Alan and Terry did not do well; Alan and Terry could tie for first place if they both did well. As it turned out Alan Braithwaite came in with a perfect one hundred on the final test while Terry scored seventy five.
So the winners were Alan and Pat Braithwaite while the leading male runner up was Terry Hunt ably assisted by Sandra. The best female runner up was Denise Hopkins assisted in the passenger seat by David. Roll your mouse over the pictures of the runners up.
What of the hats I hear you ask. Well several people had made an effort to pitch up in hats of various styles and flamboyance. Everyone got a vote for the best male persons hat and the best female persons hat and when the votes were counted the lady winner was Diana Biddlecombe and the Male winner was Maurice Cook. Well done to everyone.
Once everyone had gone we retired to Ian’s house for a well earned beer when the chap who had leant Ian the Marquee arrived and, noticing the ominous clouds, we decided to get that down and packed away before it got wet.
This was another cracking day at the Gymkhana and many thanks are owed to Ian and Dylis for the loan of their garden, for the huge amount of hard work and the coffee and biscuits provided before we started.
We drove home in our Morris, our four/four was having its engine replaced, in some rain but that cleared up as we approached the coast. Many thanks to Ken Prentice and Ian Charity for the photographs on this page.