The August 2016 Gathering

The August Gathering. Just when you thought things could not get any better – they just did! As with all Gatherings, part of the success is down to the weather, and we had a perfect forecast and a perfect evening. And yes, we exceeded our June turnout with about 55 bikes, over 130 classic vehicles and many more just visiting. Fantastic.

Despite the fact that we had expanded the show area for parking, we came close to filling that arena and so will maybe need to think again for future meets. There were simply too many vehicles worthy of a mention to include in this write up. Suffice it to say that there were a significant number of “new” vehicles (“new” in this context meaning we had not seen them at the Gathering before) and many of our regular friends turned up – and we thank you all. But I will mention a few marques that took the eye – An early 20^th century Renault, an Allard, a Ferrari, a Maserati, many fine MG’s, VW Campers, Jaguars, Rileys, Fords, Datsuns, Rovers, and many, many more. We seem to be attracting now a core number of Land Rovers and VW Campers, and long may that continue. In the bike park we had a beautiful Calthorpe single (not usually seen outside of museums but this is definitely an on-the-road bike), a Rudge, and many more fine machines.

We estimate that the meeting attracted more people than ever, probably close on 450, and at times the food and drinks providers were put under a strain, but the lessons learned from July had a positive impact. Again our thanks go to all who attended and all who form part of the service delivery – food, drinks, marshalling, collecting raffle and entry money. We are a small team but do it because we enjoy it. We like to make you welcome – so feel free to chat with us – we wear the fluorescent bibs.

A couple of points arose from the August Gathering. Firstly – several car owning visitors decided to park on the grass verge on the approach road to the Gathering, and enter by foot. The congestion this can cause probably won’t win us any friends in the village, so next time we’ll probably partition off those verges. Secondly, some people arrived by coming into Greetham through the gated section of Great Lane (i.e. from the north). We absolutely cannot allow this and must ask that you do NOT do this again. We can only run the Gathering on the basis that we exit all vehicles up this very narrow road in a one-way fashion, otherwise we cannot have the gates open at all, and without that we could not hold the Gatherings. So PLEASE, DO NOT ENTER GREETHAM FROM THE NORTH – i.e. down Great Lane through the gated section.

Pictures from this Gathering are posted on the Gathering website (www.GreethamGathering.co.uk). We shall only post the rarer vehicles as we may soon run out of web space. Please make a note of the next Gathering which is on September 15th – same time, same place, and hopefully with a repeat of the weather! Remember, that we donate our profits to the local Air Ambulance. Thanks again to our supporters – we remain optimistic that the success of this event will continue and we shall grow to be even bigger in 2016.  See you in September.