News

2011 Regular Monthly Meetings

The 2011 Show Season is now over - it hardly seems that we were just starting - so our 20th year I think all would say was a success - see below for reports on what we got up to. And planning for 2012 is already underway. Of course regardless of our shows we always meet at the club’s regular “Noggin ‘n Natter” (8:15pm on the second Monday of each month) at the centrally located Royal Coach Inn, by the roundabout on the A259 coast road at Shoreham. We have a private area reserved for meetings at the back and you will always be warmly welcomed.

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2011 Shows

2011 SCS Christmas Dinner - 2nd December

Really the last event of the calendar year and a good time was had by all. About 50 people attended. This year it didn't snow or freeze, so all was well. As usual The Fox did us well and provided a really good meal. A raffle was held and most tables had a winner. We were pleased that Phylis Bennett was able to join us. As many will know her husband Brian passed away this year and Brian was an 'almost' founder member and our Membership Secretary for many years and will be missed. Phylis presented the club with a new trophy in Brians memory to be presented to the owner of the Best Car at the Annual Charity each year.

And so on to 2012.......

2011 Annual General Meeting - 16th October 2011

OK, not really a show but it was a lovely sunny day and as suggested a good day for a last drive to a SCS 20th Year event so their was a good showing of classics in the carpark. A reasonable attendence (if only we could getas many as we get at the real shows). Business was discussed and new committee members were voted in - to be reported on in the next Newsletter. Then we had a social time and had tea, sandwiches and lovely home made cake. Many thanks to all those who made the effort to attend and take part in the running of our club. Hope to see you and more next year.

2011 Autumn Show - Chichester - 25th September 2011

I think that it is fair to say that our final show at Chichester on the 25th September was probably the biggest and best of the Society's 20th Anniversary Year. The weather was perfect and the venue is very popular with car and non car people alike and consequently we had a cracking turn-out of members and visitors. I spoke to a number of "non car people" who took the opportunity to walk into the centre of Chichester and enjoy its delights. Shopping was mentioned!

Because of the unpredictability of the great British weather, our last show of the season is always a bit of a gamble. Get a bad day as we did last year and not unsurprisingly people stay indoors, but get a good day as we had this year and given that the general car show season is over, then we can expect a high attendance of cars and visitors. As happens at all of our shows we had many first time visitors with some outstanding vehicles.

I would hazard a guess that around a third of the hundred and seventy plus cars on show were first time visitors, with Mary mentioning that well over twenty new members signed up on the day. With such a great end to our show season, everyone is looking forward to next April at Chichester and our first show in our 21st year.

The Committee would like to say a very big thank you to members and friends of the Society for their support and commitment to the club's shows during 2011 and with plans for five more shows in 2012 well underway; we look forward to seeing you next spring.

Click here for (a lot) more photos.

2011 Late Summer Show - Worthing Rugby Club - 7th August 2011

It would be wrong to start one of these reports without mentioning the weather - it is the fearful thing that all committee members wake up thinking about on the morning of a show, especially when at Worthing Rugby Club as we park on the pitches and wet ground, rugby pitches and classic cars don't always make the best of friends - but at 7am it was a lovely day, clear sky - that didn't last long. By 9am it was raining, then the sun came out, then it rained, then the sun came out - this was going to be a fun day. At one point it was raining so hard the committee played "how many members fit under the gazebo"! We looked, we watched the clouds and it was a slow start - but by 11am arrivals started coming with tales of down pours on the way, but the skys above us cleared and a lovely afternoon followed.

As usual with our shows we got a lot of lovely and different cars, ranging from the small Citroens, Renaults and Austins to massive 5.7L Americans and every size of engine in between. We saw a number of new faces attending with cars we haven't seen before including a lovely young couple from France on tour in the UK with their bueatiful Citroen Ami 6 - only 600cc and they take it everywhere touring.

Other new comers were a Healey Tickford, a Willys' Jeep (in Army colours of course) and 2 VW Karmman Ghia's. As ususal there was a very good turn out of 60's and 70's vehicles and we had to start a new line for both. One of our club aims is to be a a friendly social group and as it was good that many people happy chatted and sat in groups in the sunshine just to chat and wile the day away.

There was a good turn out of autojumblers, an inflatable slide for the kids and a stand giving free assessments for back-problems who seemed to have a lot of interest - now that couldn't be to do with the fact that the average classic enthusiasts tends to lay on draughty cold concrete garage floors and try and undo aging nuts and bolts would it?

As it was a Rugby Club we were allowed to use the bar and a few took advantage of a cool beer in the sunshine. So whilst it was a worrying start to the day, it turned out just the perfect classic car show: Sunshine, lots of interesting and beautiful cars to look at and lots of friendly people to stand around and talk to about our favourite subject. Well this was the last but one show for this year so if you missed it, come along and met us at Chichester College on 25th September.

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2011 Charity Show - Brinsbury College - 24th July 2011

A better day we could not have asked for on our 20th Anniversary and Charity show day. Brinsbury is a new show site in our calendar so was a bit of a risk, but I think everyone who attended would be happy to say it was a great show.

We did clash with a number of other shows in the area, but that is something we have to take into account in the July/August period, but we had over 100 cars, many we have never had the pleasure of seeing at one of our shows in the past.

We also had a lot of new vistors who saw the signs and 'popped' in, many who expressed what a good selection of cars were there and "will we be back next year"? - hopefully.

The site itself is a pleasant area of countryside with fields around and sheep and other farm animals around for the kids to see. In fact those of us who arrived first thing in the morning had to move around the ducks who wandered around the site (they seemed to have got fed up with the arriving cars and disappeared fairly quickly).

There were many and varied vehicles to be seen from a small 3 wheeler Lomax to a 1933 Lorry.

As it was a special occasion there were special raffle prizes with 2 sets of tickets for the Goodwood Revival and a additional quiz with pictures of 10 'tail lights' which had to be identified. This caused some challenge and nobody actually got all 10 right but a good challenge was made with a tie break at the end. A fun time was had by all. And to end it all there was cake to celebrate our 20th Anniversary.

A list of all the winners will be published in the next 'Newletter'.

Again many thanks to all who attended and made it a special anniversary day for us and collect money for a special charity. (Watch this space for the amount raised).

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Bewl Water, Kent - 5th June 2011

Pay back for the lovely sunny show at Chichester and a challenging time with the site.

The day started with threats of rain and a forecast that said 'thundery showers' but who cared - Southern Classic aren't afraid of a bit of rain (are we?).

So we arrived to find that the promised return to the old field was a non-starter, true they had laid a nice firm base, true they had seeded grass some time ago, but unfortunately the rain we were threatened with now would have really been helpful some weeks ago as the grass had given up trying and the field was a big dust bowl. However, the nice man from Bewl said we could have the narrow field on the other side and we set out. Had we had time we would have moved along to the bigger part further along but time wasn't on our side, so note taken for another year.

Arrivals started early with a keen Rover owner being the first and from then on a steady stream of cars arrived to fill the field up. Even brave souls with no roof and not a lot of windscreen if it did rain. With a big tree and the field narrowing in the middle we did some rapid rearrangement and thank everyone for being understanding as we went.

Of course this is England in June so after a while the promised rain appeared but didn't dampen peoples spirits and brollies went up and everyone carried on chatting about cars and all manner of subjects.

Being the Bewl Water show we award the annual Courtney Cup to the "Best in the Show" which this year went a beautifully restored Royal Mail Van, not only was the Van itself impressive, but had its own postman, postbox and many interesting 'Post Office' items in the back. A well presented and interesting winner.

We had two clubs represented: The Skoda Owners and the East Sussex MG Owners - thankyou both. Due to the weather we called the raffle and awarded the other prizes slightly early and people started to drift away, but even with a drizzly finish there were still many who stayed and talked.

Many thanks to all who attend, with approximately 70 cars in attendence, and again you patience whilst we fitted you in the 'new' field.

A list of all the winners will be published in the next 'Newletter'.

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2011 Frog Hop to Alphen a/n Rijn

The trip really started on Sunday 1st May with many 'hoppers' staying overnight near Dover ready for the 8am ferry. A bright day greeted us which was a good omen as the rest of the week was equally sunny.

The ferry loaded quickly and we seemed to have a whole deck to ourselves. The journey was uneventful and everyone quickly settled into the hotel and meandered to the bar prior to a meal in the hotel. The hotel was just what was needed, good sized (in fact big) rooms, comfortable bar, good restaurant and good food. The days started with a 'eat as much as you can' breakfast and people went off to explore in groups of cars or singly.

In the evenings the we all swapped visit stories and recommendations for the next day. Well visited places were Kreckenhof - the large flower gardens, Delft, some even walked into the local town (and found canalside bars to laze around at in the sunshine on the way back!). The hotel has a very large bird park with every shape and size of bird you can think of (and colour) which was very popular - it was school holidays while we were there and our cars in the carpark got a good deal of attention.

All good things come to an end but this had a very good end - the last evening we had a canal/lake cruise dinner with the whole boat to ourselves. Beautiful sunny evening travelling through the canals and towns of the 'Green Heart' of Holland.

On the Friday morning everyone packed up, some went back to the ferry via the 'pretty' route over the dykes, some on a more direct route and 2 stayed longer to meet up with Dutch friends.

I think it is fair to say that everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable trip and thanks have to be given to Ralph and Eric for arranging it all.

Missed it and wish you had been there? - next years could be more adventurous and is already being planned - listen out for where it might be in the near future.

A full report will be published in the next 'Newletter'.

Click here for more photos.

The first show - Chichester Spring Show - April 10th 2011

The first show of the season was ....... BRILLIANT - literally - The sun came out all day meaning hats, sunglasses and suncream. There were over 150 cars on display, many new cars came that we haven't seen before and we made lots of new friends and members. Even the trees were smiling with a pretty cover of blossom (unless you had a soft top in which case cleaning blossom from the inside might mean you have a different view of that pleasure).

The day had a slow start but then many cars started to arrive with a constant stream all morning and a good turn out of Auto Jumblers with a range of things to buy from the 'normal' car parts, to numberplates (made while you waited), engine spark improvement gadgets throught to 'classic' suitcases to suit your car.

We had three car clubs showing covering Mini's, Morris Minors and 2cv's - the Pompey Puddle Ducks (2CV's) winning the prize this time.

There were the normal trophies presented some which went to first time attendees at our shows, so only goes to prove its worth coming along. As well as the raffle this year we started with an auction for a specially engraved cigarette lighter which had been donated to recognise our 20th Anniversary the year which raised £25.

And many thanks to the kind family who drove around the ground in their huge Winnabago Camper with me on the roof to take these 'ariel' photo's of the show!

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Late Christmas 2010 .......

The first 'event' of 2011 has taken place - The Christmas Dinner!!! OK, so it was last years Christmas Dinner which was postponed due to snow and ice.

58 members & friends met at The Fox in Patching for a very enjoyable evening - including Turkey and Christmas Pudding if they wanted it. We lacked crackers and a tree but that was probably OK for most as there was much discussion about classic work being done ready for the start of the shows (or how far behind the plans were due to the temperature in the garage).

Everyone had a good time, there was a good set of raffle prizes and looking forward to next years (or this years as it is already booked for December (if the snow and ice lets us).

Click here for more photos.