We had a good turnout to the lunch - 28, of whom 2 were unexpected. Jackie and Peter Werfel from Penrith turned up, introducing themselves as reactivated Bears. A lovely surprise. New members attending were Paul Bonsall from Kirkby Stephen and Andrew Carrie from Livingston.

Sheila Dodds is always coming up with new ways of boosting funds. This time she brought along books which people bought for 50p and before leaving had even managed to sell her belt to Wendy! £13 was raised. The sale of ties and badges provided by Jim and Aly raised another £50 while the postlunch raffle raised £135. Thanks to all members for being so generous. The Dilston Show list is now full and entry passes will be sent out once I have received them. George and Sheila provided copies of the menu for The Wellington where we are to have a meal afterwards. Sheila spoke about St Oswald's Hospice and information from her local press was displayed on the boards. Knockhill Classic Speedfair - our attendance at this event has been withdrawn due to insufficient numbers to put on a good Club stand. Coldingham Gala - Jeff Ferris spoke about his local fair and invited members to attend. (Since the meeting there has been only one car offered so unfortunately there will be no Polar presence this year.)

Selkirk Show - George Dodds has again sponsored our Club Stand. Three cars so far but with the closing date before the next lunch anyone interested should contact me as soon as possible. Brian Short spoke about his presentation to Zoe's Place and the Certificate for £500 and the thank you letter were displayed on the boards. He mentioned that he handed over a teddy bear at the same time as the cheque and suggested that the club might do this as a matter of course at all presentations. Jim agreed to look into the costings of bears wearing a garment with the club logo. BVAC Dream Ride request as a raffle prize at Thirlestane - this was approved and it was left to me to identify which of the vehicles available would have 2 passenger seats and take children. (The withdrawal of all suitable cars prior to the event meant we were unable to offer a Dream Ride.) Next lunch and meeting at Auchen Castle - Sunday

Brian briefs the Dream Ride drivers

Barbara of CHAS accepts Fling donations after lunch

The Bears did a high profile attendance at Thirlestane - with a good range of interesting cars for the Dream Rides and a separate stand for awareness raising. The Dream Rides was very successful - in spite of all the four seater cars falling by the wayside. We lost the Lancia, the BMW, the Pontiac and the Le Mans Bentley - which was unfortunate. However, Nigel Stacey-Marks did persuade a friend from the Bentley Club to stand in, so we had a 1924 Bentley for the morning - and it was seen going out several times with a load of happy punters! In fact, we got a thank you from a chap in Edinburgh:

Dear Sporting Bears,

I was at Thirlestane today and had my introduction to the Sporting Bears. As a car enthusiast, your offer is a win/win situation. I paid money for a very worthy cause and realised a dream of having a ride in a 1924 Bentley. A fantastic car that would really separate the men from the boys and was brilliantly driven. I’m an advanced driving instructor, but couldn’t drive that car to the shops! During the entire run I’d a broad smile on my face, that still hasn’t abated. Keep up the good work and I look forward to a blast in one of your cars in the future.

Iain. Edinburgh

The most popular cars (fully booked for most of the day) were at opposite ends of the spectrum - the two micro-cars, the Messerschmitt KR200 of Julian Foster and the Scootacar of Grant Kearney at a fiver a go plus the two super-car Ferraris of David Noble (F430 Coupe) and Ian McMurdo (F430 Spyder) at £40 a go. We had other Ferraris, but for most it had to be one of those two - or the Replica Ferrari 330 P4 Racer of Mal Nicolson from Lincolnshire. The £50 for this one didn’t put people off at all and it was quite the noisiest car on the stand - but it got people’s attention! It must have cost Mal a fortune in petrol at 4 mpg, plus all the extra go-faster additive he was seen putting in. But that illustrates how kind people are - all those drivers had brought their exotic cars (some from quite far afield) to Thirlestane, given up their Sunday, paid for all their petrol and done lots of drives - just to raise money for REACT, our nominated children’s charity. I was talking to David Noble’s daughter and she was saying how pleased she was that her Dad was doing the Dream Rides and wasn’t it great that all the money went straight to the charity - which sums it all up really!

The other cars had a steady run of customers - with Gerry Mulligan’s Aston Martin DB7 being popular with the ladies and the usual crop of young lads wanting to go out in a Porsche or a Lotus. The classic E-type, TVR, Morgan and Cobras had their fans while Fiona broke Graham's "duck" with a queue waiting for the Honda when it returned. The place was going like a fair by the time I came on duty at 2 o’clock and didn’t let up until well after 4, with a lot of people still wanting to squeeze in rides at the last minute - especially in the micro cars. The demise of the PIN machine didn’t seem to cause a problem and we raised £2,180 from Dream Rides plus an extra £190 from Ann and Co. ‘rattling their buckets’. The £230 from Knockhill will be added to that, giving £2,600 for REACT, which hopefully the committee will ‘top up’. So, a good result - the fact that people knew what was going on this year and the extra publicity helped. It only remains to thank Fiona for organising it, all the drivers for doing it and the Polars who helped out - with the bookings, in the garage area or at the club stand.

Mike and I were on an MG Car Club MGA register run in the North Yorkshire Moors when we met up with Stephen and Anne Lane from Scarborough. My picture shows them beside their Dove Grey MGA 1600 at Castle Howard, one of the stops on the run. They joined the run on both days.

They have excellent taste in cars!

Fiona

We have it on good authority that our friendly Lotus, Noble and TVR Dealer and fellow Polar Bear “Fangio” Tony Abrams will be again competing in his Tuscan at Harewood Hill Climb and will have had to miss the Dream Rides at Thirlestane this year. Tony has been successfully campaigning his V8 Tuscan this season and is currently leading Class B, and also lying 4th Overall in the Dunlop Tuscan Challenge. This has many different models of TVRs competing (but probably won’t be many finishers?) and the Marshalls will be busy picking up all the bits that fall off!! (sorry Tony only kidding). Son and heir Richard will also be competing at Harewood in his suitably prepared Peugeot 106 ‘Rallye’ in the Road Modified Class. We wish them both Good Luck and continued success. Can I have your Autographs please? I knew you both before you were Famous! Don’t forget if you fancy a real value for money driving experience to remember, Tony is organising a further two of HHC’s superb Trackdays at Croft Circuit for invited cars only - Wed 11th July and Wed 19th September. Don’t miss out, come and join some of us other Bears and have fun without a speeding ticket. Give Tony a call at Hexham Horseless Carriages on 01434 601666, and if you are thinking it’s about time to change the car, Tony can help with that - with everything available from Aston Martin, Noble, Lotus, TVR, Audi TT, Merc SL and a stunning nut and bolt rebuilt Ford Escort Mk 1 Twin Cam - it’s a “BIG BOY's” toy shop! Keep it on the Black-Stuff!…

Jim