Concours 1999 - Sunday 24th October

This years concours turned out to be a major fizzer with only 7 cars turning up: 3x Mk1 Sprites, 1x Mk3a Sprite, 2x Mk3 Midgets, and 1x 1500 Midget. Although several of our members did turn up for a look in their normal cars.

Without a doubt Saturdays dismal weather, coupled with a weather forcast for Sunday to be the same would have been the main reason. The irony was however, apart from a few morning showers, when our advertised concours start time of 9:00am came round so did the clear blue skies.

Organised in conjunction with the All British Display Day at the T.G. Milner Field in Eastwood, the original plan was to display the cars on the oval. Naturally we were not allowed on the oval, with the ground being so wet, all those car tyres would have turned the oval into a muddy mess, and I think the All British Day organisers would like to be invited back again at some stage.

We decided it wouldn't be much of a competition to go ahead with the judging and award each other a prize. So at this early stage we are looking at re-running the concours as part of our Christmas Picnic drive (full details will appear in the December Sprite Torque).

After enjoying the sunshine for a couple of hours someone suggested we should go for a drive, the popular choice being Fish & Chips for lunch in Terrigal. By this stage the day was really starting to warm up so the tops came down and we were off. We even talked a couple from the Hunter MG Restorers to tag along in their very original and never restored 1949 MG Y (at least thats what I think it was).

Naturally we stayed clear of the freeway and followed the twist but more fun old higway. We had almost made it to Gosford when the clouds and rain re-appeared. Hoods very quickly erected and we contined. As we got closer to Terrigal, the weather looked like it had settled in. Rather than try and find somewhere to have lunch in the rain, Jim and Janina Elphick very generously invited us all back to their house. Fish & Chips were still on the menu. The local fish shop would have been able to retire for the day after we phoned through our bulk order.

After a very filling lunch, and countless Spridget tales (and rumours started about the people who didn't show up for the concours) it was time to head off home.

Eriks Skinkis