Date:	08 December 2000

The A's of Herts Tour 2000

by Alec Bayford

August 12th dawned bright and sunny, the weather was perfect for the 2nd A's tour . would anyone show up? The answer was yes. Russ, Lori, Michele and I arrived to find several Mini's waiting at the Fox Inn. We quickly set up and at £3 a head began to distribute the 1st stage instructions. More cars began to arrive and I felt a sense of relief that several months planning by myself and Russ hadn't been for nothing.

After a quick briefing to explain the pace notes, and some reassurance for those who were not so sure what to do, I climbed into Lori's MK1 and set off with Russ following. It was our job to marshal the event as well as to photo the cars in action.

The first stage was particularly twisty with nearly 60 miles of single track roads to negotiate. Me and Lori acting as lead car set off at quite a pace, nearly coming to a sticky end when we met a blue Eurobox, whose driver panicked on the exit of the blind bend we were approaching, a skilfully bit of avoidance from Lori, meant we missed the car.

At Barwick ford we set up the cameras and waited for the cars to arrive. First on the scene was Merv driving a yellow convertible; any fear of getting wet at the ford? none obviously as they barely slowed at all crossing the ford. Exciting stuff, this is the 3rd time in as many years that we've used this ford on an event but this was the first time we'd gone through it from the other side.

This now became something of a worry because the down hill approach is very quick, however on the exit you have to turn right around a grass mound. This is ok at normal speeds but our lot were very enthusiastic, several drivers failed to turn at all, instead running straight on up a private drive!

The nearest we came to a disaster was when David Hardingham arrived behind another Mini. Both dived across at the same time, coming the other way was a large lorry that prevented the first car from turning right, he shot straight on,David was already committed before we could stop him. Front brakes are useless under water and David slid several yards coming extremely close to the back end of the first Mini, that had begun to reverse out of the driveway. We held our breath at that point, luckily they didn't touch.

When several cars had passed we packed up and headed for the next vantage point to carry on filming; this was at a small humpback bridge where we met Lori. Russ then swapped over and demonstrated how high his Mini could fly before handing the car back to Lori, who continued on her way.

Next stop was at the half way point which gave everyone a chance to have a break, before they tackled stage 2.

Just before the end of stage 2 was another ford. We marshals had the difficult job of trying to get there before the first car, we only just made it.

Dinner was at the Crown Pub at Hail Weston, but a bit of a mix up resulted in a bit of a wait for food (they knew we were coming really), before we sent everyone off on the last stage which finished at Billing Aquadrome.

We arrived to find that Northants Mini Owners Club had set up an impressive area where we could party the night away.

Sundays entertainment was well organised by Northants, and I'd like to congratulate them on their support of the tour itself.

This leads me to a bit of a moan. We on the Committee put in a lot of hard work organising shows like this; with nearly 400 members in the Club it would be nice if more of you could be bothered to support us. When you analyse the numbers attending this event it's quite a shock to realise that out of 26 cars that did the tour only 18 belonged to As members.

Now I know that several members went straight to Billing, but that didn't support the Club. Surly the reason we all belong to a club is to enjoy being with other members sharing a common interest.

I also know people have to work on a Saturday but please don't complain that nothing new ever happens in the Club if you can't make the effort to show up.

Moan over I don't want to take anything away from those who enjoyed the event.

Next year?

You bet.