Tyne-Tees Centre member Nick Owens gave members and friends of the Centre a most entertaining and educational lecture on the Life and Times of The British Antarctic Survey. We met at The Gibside Hotel in Whickham on a cold Friday evening and were given a real treat.

Modest as ever, Nick started with a question as to whether any of us were ex-FIDS.

The reason for the question was to discover if any of us were members of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (the former name of the British Antarctic Survey) so he could be sure none of us could catch him out with superior knowledge. He needn't have worried as none of us even understood the question!

Nick gave us a fascinating insight into the workings of the Survey, of which he was the Director for 5 years until earlier this year. Let's put that into perspective. His predecessors were Shackleton, Hillary and Fuchs and they don't come any bigger than that in the field. We were told about the investigations into climate change and the wild life in the ocean and the conditions under which people from many nationalities work. We learned something about global warming, a topic fraught with opinions and argument but Nick steered away from the political side and simply explained that whatever the cause, global warming was a fact and a real worry for the future. Pictorial representations of wind and sea currents gave good indications of the mechanisms at work.

The lecture was superbly illustrated with slides and film to fully illustrate the conditions and as if on cue, as Nick was closing his talk we saw snow falling heavily outside. Scientist to the core, Nick esplained that what we were seeing was 'weather' not climate.

For those who didn't get to the lecture, they missed a splendid evening and we are grateful to Nick for giving freely of his time to come and talk to us, especially as he had been in Nova Scotia only the day before. One member said after the evening: "That was the best value for money I've had in a very long time" That summed it up perfectly. Nick is an active supporter of the work of the MS Society and our Chairman Peter Ebdon presented Nick with a cheque for £100 to go their work. Nick can be seen chatting in the interval then taking questions alongside Peter and finally offering his thanks for the donation to the MS Society.

On a beautiful sunny autumn morning, 30 cars gathered at the iconic Angel of The North for our final road run of the year. Organised by Chairman Peter Ebdon and his wife Lyn, we gathered our route information after signing on and paying our £2.00 fee, and set off on a lovely run of some 42 miles. As ever, we went through places we'd heard of but never seen and through places we'd never even heard of, on roads that were certainly designed to test gearboxes, clutches and brakes, not to mention the Navigator!
We arrived at The Highlander Inn near Belsay where the marshals strategically placed some cars at the front for viewing as people went by and the rest were parked at the rear, from where we all went in to enjoy a splendid Sunday lunch. David Hughes was the lucky winner of the prize draw and John Adamson with daughter Erica Ware scooped the generous donation of wine from the pub.
This was another super day provided by Peter and Lyn to whom we say 'Thank you'. Peter and Lyn would also like to thank the marshals who helped everyone get safely away from the crowded public car park at The Angel as well as to daughter Helen and son-in-law Mark who took over at The Highlander for parking duties; all in all, a jolly good team effort.






 
 
 

  
..and so to eat we went:
                   
 
 
 
 
 
While everyone else got on having fun and making a noise, Peter and Lyn's grandson Alexander Lewis caught up on his beauty sleep. He deoesn't know it yet but his gripewater is being subsituted with Redex to ensure he develops a proper sense of MG-mania.
                        
 

On a clear September morning 42 cars assembled at the International Whitewater Centre at the Tees Barrage. Committee member Dennis Hope suggested that as we had David Coulthard amongst us, having just won the Cockshoot Cup at Croft the weekend before, David might do us the honour of flagging everyone away. David was delighted to do so and hence he is the most photographed person in the following line up of beauties!


 
 
 
 
 
 
.... and of course, David having flagged everyone else off, Dennis Hope returned to see David safely away:

After the initial 15 or so miles crossing several bridges over the Tees in the industrial areas of Teesside the cars found their way through the splendid grounds of Wynyard Hall. Wynyard Hall is now owned by Sir John Hall with a neat twist in that the Hall and its thousands of acres were built from the profits of the coalfields owned by the Londonderry family and is now in the hands of the son of a coalminer. The cars are seen coming out through the Golden Gates - even if they are black!
 
 
 


 
After a lunch stop at Mainsgill Farmshop on the A66, the cars headed off towards the source of the River Tees, but not quite as far, to Newbiggin just beyond Middleton-in-Teesdale. They then returned to Barnard Castle for a cream tea at the splendid Bowes Museum.
 
 
 
Repeating his success in the 2010 Old Speckled Hen Run, Graeme Curtis, below, again took the honours for the car the Judge would like to take home. The Judge's duties were kindly provided by MIke Jones, himself a car enthusiast from the Museum, who took a fancy to Graeme's TD.

This was an event organised by Tyne-Tees Centre Committee member David Alexander with son Matthew. It was not possible without the generosity and help from TTC member John Brown who handed over a field and facilities on his farm near Belsay. John was helped by his wife Carol and we can't forget either the help given to David by his wife Lynda and daughter Emily. 

Whilst on the theme of help, David was very grateful for assistance with marshalling and scoring from Ian Graham and Bob Thompson. Thanks are also due to Peter Ebdon for the pictures.

It was a truly memorable day of great fun for the 12 drivers who turned up with their MGs. Some stayed later to enjoy a barbecue and everyone was agreed: it should run next year as well. As ever, we took the precaution of obtaining insurance cover for the event from the Motor Sports Association, but thankfully, as ever, we didn't have to call on it.

Fame and fortune await Keith Barnard who ran out the eventual winner.

Below, John Brown on the left is saying to Bob Thompson: "Y'know, I might not have to plough this field this year." Bob clearly gave a knowlegeable : "Oh arr!".








Unless you have very good eyes you probably can't see that the driver, Ian Whyte, is blindfolded. That perhaps explains the expression on passenger/navigator Noel Lindord's face in the close-up below - is it a smile, grimace or just wind? Ian seems to be blissfully unperturbed by it all.

Then it was Ian's turn to get his own back in Noel's TF85.














John Brown's driving blindfolded in his MGA whilst his navigator Matthew can't bear to look up. According to Matthew's dad David, Matthew has dyslexic hands and doesn't know his left from his right anyway so it didn't really make much difference! Otherwise known as a bum steer.

Tyne-Tees Committee Member Noel Lindford took over the responsibility for this year's event and what a good job he made of it. He started with a Radio Tees interview the day before and as a result many locals turned out to see the cars assemble in the Showfield Car Park at Stokesley. Everyone started the day at Howard's Cafe, which opened early for us and served hot drinks and bacon butties for those in need of sustenance before the journey.

We were honoured and delighted to be joined by Club President John Day and his wife Janet in their magnificent 1929 18/80, shown in the first picture below, with Janet perhaps looking for the key to start up.


However, all was well; they weren't lost after all.



The weather was dry and overcast at first, but by the time we got to the top of nearby Carlton Bank it was pretty bleak. John Day said that he was sure there was beautiful scenery out there but he struggled at times to see the mascot at the end of the bonnet!




So, the panorama of the Palatine County of Durham could not be seen from on high but once down below it cleared again and we enjoyed mostly good weather, as can be seen by some of the pictures at Hardwick Park in Sedgefield.



A short distance after the lunch stop drivers came into the former home of the Prince Bishops at Auckland Castle in Bishop Auckland, a truly historic site on the tour before pressing on to the finish on Palace Green at Durham Cathedral.


Durham Cathedral and Palace Green is a site and a sight that takes some beating for any event and we are delighted and very grateful to Durham University for allowing us to park there. Member Roy Kingan was awarded the trophy for the car the judge would most like to take home. Roy is shown with his 1938 TA, holding the trophy after the presentation by The Very Reverend Michael Sadgrove.

Gerald Breedon is seen below, sitting in the passenger seat of his 1947 TC with the owner from whom he bought the car some 46 years ago.

Our Centre Chairman Peter Ebdon with Noel Lindford completed the presentations by giving John Day a glass model of a Tiger Moth plane, made locally at the National Glass Museum in Sunderland. To complete the culinary delights of the day the Almshouse Cafe served us with cream teas to nicely round off proceedings.