The weather forecast for Saturday 5th July kept showing it to be a cloudy and mild day – after some rather warm days earlier in the week, we were all looking forward to something a little cooler. The day dawned on the cloudy side. The good news was that the course was bone dry and beautifully prepared by our hosts.
We all set to and signed in. For some, Frank’s six tests were very popular as there was to be no reversing this year. Having signed in, a jovial mood descended whilst we munched on our picnics. After a brief course walk, we made a start on the competition.
Competitors, marshals and the scoring team set to. Watching from the side-lines, there seemed to be some excellent displays of very smooth driving with the odd power circle thrown in for good measure. All together, we had 11 competitors, one of whom was a new member who had never done this sort of thing before and appeared to thoroughly enjoy the afternoon.
Out of the 66 total tests driven during the afternoon, there were only 7 wrong tests. That equates to a success rate of 89% across the whole competition. Could this be a DonMog record?
After six rounds, we gathered round the score-board to see who had won. Third place went to last year’s victor, Peter Deans. In second place was Paul Fileman with Steve Thompson as this year’s winner – all in spite of a car that occasionally “failed to proceed”. The lady’s trophy went to Jan Fileman with Mary Topp as runner-up.
At the end of the competition, we retired to Richard & Jenny’s garden for the traditional barbecue – with a wonderful selection of desserts to follow – thank you to all those who contributed. And special thanks to Richard and Jenny for being very generous hosts for the barbecue.
Many thanks to our hosts, Maurice & Isabel, at Ingles Hill Farm, to our scoring team and to Ian and Mike for marshalling. As always, we are indebted to Frank for setting the courses and to Richard for coordinating the event.
Words & Pictures – Paul Fileman