Bingley Hall show 2008

This year I missed the Bingley Hall show due to other commitments. However, John & Daryl did visit and have provided the pictures. John has just e-mailed the following through, enjoy Daryl and John's report folks.......Rover

As I had to do an early shift at work, Daryl came to my work place at 3 pm so that we could go as early as possible late afternoon. Earlier I had asked him to buy me a blow up airbed from Argos as we would sleeping on somebodies floor for the night. Daryl bought me what I had asked for, but he left it in his car ! So we had to go back to his house in Burwell, pick up the air bed and a steering wheel for a mini directory member, after al this we finally got going. The trip up was uneventful, although I took a wrong turning (despite having sat nav on board), but this turned out to take us less time and distance. Once we had met up with Steveo we drove to a cash point on the way to Martin's house where the 3 of us would be staying.

During the trip to Martin's my mini decided to blow a fuse (top one in the box 35amp) it was replaced with no further problems. When we arrived at Martin's we all had a few beers and went to meet around 40 Staffsminis members at a local pub, after this we walked into town for their annual curry night (more beers!)

after a very bland curry and more beers, a few people went to where ever they were staying. The remaining 10/15 of us went onto the 'The Bamboo Club'lots more beers and Jagermeister and Red Bulls. After the club closed we all went back for more drinks at Martin's, and we had the first viewing of the Silver Ring rally dvd that would be playing on the SRR stand Sunday. People were starting to go home, Daryl and Steveo and I were still chatting till 6 am. Sunday morning and it was time to meet up with the East Coast mini club down the road at the local Tesco car park at 08:30 on my own while the others were still sleeping. On my way to the car park a fuse blew again, no traffic around so I carried on. Arriving at Tesco I washed the mini very quickly. We had a short journey to make before getting to the show ground but no one had a fuse! everyone had been warned about it and I fitted it in mid convoy. the back roads around the ground are perfect for minis and a little fun was had by a few.

When I arrived at the show ground I found out that I was going to have my mini on display on the top floor, to get up to the floor there is a large metal ramp on the outside of the building, once I was parked up I could start looking for the electrical fault. As the clock rolled around it was announced that the doors were to be opened early so all classic minis had to disconnect their batteries (something to do with health and safety). As the people started pouring in mini nuts were still polishing their cars, not me though, I went off to buy some fuses.

There was a very good turn out of traders many that you see at every show with the same items and deals, so I went to find some breakfast at the usual highly priced burger vans. All I bought during the day were some fuses, a hotdog for breakfast and some chips at lunchtime plus some raffle tickets. These were sold by the British mini club and the prize was a Mini Equinox with low milage on the clock.

On the way home Daryl and I had enough by now and couldn't wait to get home. Guess that's what less than 2 hours sleep does to you. The fuse didn't blow on the way home! until I had dropped Daryl off then it happened again (Yes I know Haynes manual say not to replace the fuse more than once without checking the cause, but I was dog tired by this time). Arriving at home I left all of my stuff in the car and staggered into my house, had a few minutes chatting to Kim, and then within 20 minutes of getting in, fell asleep on the sofa. Would I go through it again? YES I would, it was a great weekend.........Burt