With the current run of hot sunny weather, we had no worries that the weather at the July Gathering was going to be perfect. Perfect weather means lots of people coming to enjoy the event – and that’s how it turned out. In fact, the weather was probably a bit too perfect as the heat was affecting everyone – but we are not complaining!
Nice weather means a nice turnout, and yet again the “Gatherers” turned out in volume. As the Gathering season moves on through the year, you might expect the numbers to continually increase. But that has not been the case in the past. June is the peak month and July tends to be a bit less – and so it was this year. School holidays and people away are the probable reasons.
However, we may have been down in quantity, but not quality! We had some amazing vehicles turn out – many we have not seen for a while and many we were seeing for the first time! This applied to both cars and motorbikes. We estimated that about 145 bikes turned up – again with over 50 being classics. Among those were classic Moto Guzzis, Bultaco, Honda, Yamaha, Harley Davison, BSA, Norton, Arial, AJS, Triumph and Suzuki to name just a few.
On the brown, parched, sun-bleached display field we had an equally impressive array of classic cars – numbering around 190. To name some of those included: a Maclaren (P1), Lea Francis, Singer, Jaguar, Lotus, Porsche, Triumph, Austin, Ford, Volvo, Mercedes, Morris, Vauxhall, Renault, and our faithful VW Campervan and Land Rover supporters. Take a look at the photos for a better appreciation of some of the vehicles that were present.
One of the things we do at each Gathering is hold a modest raffle. It’s only £1 a ticket and the raffle is a major contributor to our profits and thus the Air Ambulance. We consider that the Gathering is good value for money (after all its only £1 per vehicle to come in) so spending a £1 or so on raffle tickets does support the Air Ambulance. Please do support it. Oh, and one last plea to attendees – no more euros or out of date old £1 coins please. A few got past our money collectors this month and whilst it is possible to get them cashed it would be better for us if you did it, so thanks in advance for your consideration.
Finally – a big thank you to all the volunteers who helped us on the day, whether before, during or after the event. Whether marshalling the vehicles, collecting gate money, selling raffle tickets, selling hot food, cakes or teas and coffees, and of course the Rutland First Response team, we thank you for your continued support as the Gathering just wouldn’t be what it is today without you!
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