Subject: bath gymkhana report. From: "Peter Jones" Date: Thu, 5 Sep 2002 07:52:08 +0100 To: "John Thomas" Shaft House, Shaft Road, Monkton Combe, Bath. BA2 7HN e-mail: info@edithwilmot.com Tel: 01225 837 545 (H) 0777 1901 730 (M) 01179 23 25 27 (W) Fax: 01179 42 444 (W) 20.5.2 The great Bath Gymkhana, May 2002. all text & ‘photos by Peter Jones At the committee meeting, that happened to fall the week before the event, item 9 on the agenda read “Bath Gymkhana”. The room fell quiet and all eyes turned to me, as the organiser, to give my report. The first snag was that the expected advert. in the May edition of the S.W. notes section of this illustrious periodical failed to materialize as, it seems, the relevant copy had been mislaid and the prequel that I had posted off months before had been, well, ignored. Faced with the lack of SW notes the editorial team swung into action and used the copy that had just arrived, intended for the June offering, instead and so no mention was made of the May events. The question as to why, if they can manage to publish notes on a two week turn round, do our HQ staff insist on a 6 week copy date is one to ponder. Whilst pondering such weighty matters consideration may also be given to the following: in that it is supposed, by the great and the good in the S.W. Committee, that the membership at large eagerly await that little buff trifold that we send out entitled “Calendar of Events” so that they can plan the rest of their uneventful lives round our exciting and exacting events program does anybody read it ? The upshot of these two inexactitudes was that I was able to report to the assembled committee but ONE solitary entrant (and that gleaned from our wonderful Web. site) and no marshals what so ever. “Will you cancel ?” “Absolutely NOT !” The power of advertising should never go underestimated. Many years ago, when I was still a young man, I took over an ailing Gymkhana at a place called Babdown on the Cotswolds. The number of entrants had steadily declined over the years to about a dozen so it was proposed to delete it from the calendar. I thought I’d have a go at revitalising it. In those far off days Safety Fast was a mere shadow of the multi-paged, glossy and colourful handful you are reading now and included very scant copy and a few reprints from old technical articles but precious little else. I wrote a glowing report of what a wonderful meeting it was going to be and, by chance, this was published the week before the event. I had 50 entries on the day; which rather strained the organisation not to mention the catering at the local pub. Anyway, back to the plot. The ever lovely Victoria and I set off on Sunday the 19th of May in the impossibly early morning to put up the “Castrol” arrows, make up & set out the tests, arrange the signing on sheets, score cards etc. then sit down at 9.45 and await the expected rush of entrants before the 10am start. It was a quiet time. Well we had 9 in the end (with three apologies; one for coming a week to early, another for arriving too late and the last breaking down on the way to the event). They ranged from a 1932 18/80 to a 2002 ZS. There were eventually 4 timed tests and, to keep the MSA happy, 4 un-timed “judgement” tests to go with them. Having so few entrants meant that the organiser, me, could have all sorts of fun changing the tests for each of the four attempts, first going forward, then starting at the finish to finish at the start (if you understand what I mean), then doing the whole thing in reverse gear and so on. Actually the reverse gear one might not be repeated as more than one competitor felt a bit “car sick” towards the end of that round, interestingly though more that one was quicker backwards that forwards ! The results, worked out by ignoring the best and worst score each test and averaging the other two (for no better reason than we had never done it that way before), were wonderfully mixed with Peter Tinknell (Midget) first then Dave Coppock (TC) Terry Grant (Midget), Emma Tinknell (Midget), Mark Rathbone (Maestro), Chris Moon (TC), Roger Stanbury (18/80), Suzanne Grant (ZS) and Martin Weaver (Midget). My thanks to Mark Rathbone (the only one to enter in advance but then, he is a teacher), Terry Grant (for bringing the Abingdon Works stop watches {the keeper on the SW ones was away that weekend and I would have been reduced to our electronic egg timer}), Dave Heath (who turned up just to spectator but as he had nothing to do worked out the results for me whilst I enjoyed lunch at the pub), the competitors who helped collect all the cones, poles etc at the end and to all those who considered four goes at eight “modern car friendly tests” good value for the £5.00 entry fee. Next year things will be different. I’ll put more effort into advertising for a start ! Photo Captions JAPEG 67 Suzanne Grant about to set off in her ZS, Victoria Jones with the stop watch. 68 Suzanne Grant, ZS, zipping round test 7 70 Martin Weaver has a small snag with his Midget. 71 Peter & Emma Tinknell enjoy the day on their way to an overall win 72 Roger Stanbury stops astride the finish line, surprisingly. 73 The oldest and newest cars 74 Dave Coppock sympathises with Martin Weaver. 75 Mark Rathbone, Maestro, receives his score on one of the “judgement” tests 76 Terry Grant “saving the planet” between tests. 78 Chris Moon, TC, scurrying round the bollards 80 Another of the oldest/newest entrants. Bit of a height difference at the bonnet level. 81, 82,83 & 84 Most of the entrants in dull pose.