Latest News from Neil...


Apologies for not making Club Night last night, my V7 is putting up a fight which I am currently losing. To confirm what I said to Chris last night:

1. I'll hold all the passes, ring my mobile when you get to Crystal Palace and like Mr Benn's shopkeeper I'll magically appear at the gate.

2. The start venue is The National Sports Centre. It is well sign posted form all approaching roads and, if I recall correctly, there will be yellow signs with "L2B" on them guiding you in.

The full address is:

The National Sports Centre
Ledrington Road
Off Anerley Hill
Crystal Palace
London
SE19 2BB

There is a map on the official website www.london2brighton.org.uk

or you can try www.streetmap.co.uk, www.aa.com or www.tflgov.uk

all of those will provide a printable map of the area - posh people can just punch the postcode into their satnavs.

See you there - any questions just ring my mobile 07979 996960.







Saturday 4th October/Sunday 5th October 2008

 

The London to Brighton Land Rover Run is an annual event ran by the South London and Surrey Land Rover Club.  Each year they meet up at Crystal Palace Park and then make their merry way down to Madeira Drive in Brighton for a day at the seaside. Over the years other land rover enthusiasts have joined in and it has grown into a very big Landy event.  This year is their tenth run and this event is the last major event of the show season.  More importantly this year Aylesbury Land Rover Fanatics will be joining them.

 

The basic format for the event is:

 

Meet up at Crystal Palace park on the Saturday afternoon, when the marshals have got the site set up, at any time from 4pm and set up camp for the night.  There is a great party atmosphere in the park and there is a lot of socialising, meeting up with old acquaintances and making new ones. All this whilst trying to bang tent pegs into the foundations of the old palace – make sure you bring HD ones. Park authorities don’t allow open fires, so don’t bother bringing the bar-b-q, but there are plenty of eateries dotted in the local streets and plenty of pubs too if you don’t fancy doing any cooking.  Also there are no caravans/trailers as parking at Brighton would be an unmitigated nightmare – so it’s tents only I’m afraid.  When you arrive you take your pass (which will be sent to you prior to the event) and collect your run pack.  This has a set of instructions, your t-shirt and your run Plaque (which must be displayed to get onto the sea front at Brighton).

 

Early on the Sunday morning there is a drivers briefing before the vehicles start lining up to be marshalled onto the streets of South London, whilst all this is going on there are catering wagons around doing bacon butties and brews (again saves on taking cooking gear). At 9am vehicles are set off in small groups to negotiate their way down the A23 to Brighton, Clubs and campers get priority for leaving the site, Please Note - If you are not planning to stay overnight and just turn up on the Sunday you need to arrive at Crystal Palace for about 06.30am in order to join the club vehicles. If you arrive later you’ll just get lined up with everyone else. Land Rover spotting is the order of the day as you see every different type of Landy ever made en route to the seaside.  You are free to stop off and have break, most service stations and lay by cafes half at least half a dozen landys by them.  The CB chat on the way down is also very entertaining.

 

On arrival at Brighton you are marshalled onto Madeira Drive and parked up.  You can then peruse the seafront which will have Club Stands, including our own, Trade Stands, if you want to buy shiny bits, and various cafes if all you want to do is eat fish and chips on the promenade.  All this surrounded by hundreds of Land Rovers and their owners. There are trophies to win in every class of vehicle (all vehicles are looked at by the host so might be an idea to give it a clean before you go), the tug a 101 competition and a raffle (last years prizes were very good so take some spends with you) with the proceeds going to the nominated charity.

 

Once the awards have been presented you will be free to make your way home.  This may take some time as there are 800 plus others trying to do the same, so please be prepared to be patient, and then you can spend your journey waving at them all until you return home.

 

Since we have entered the club for a stand we get to do this for a discounted entry fee of £20.  (Please note - The fee only gets one t-shirt so if you want any more you have to buy them at £7.50 each).  ALRFC have not done this event as a club before, though several individuals have over the years, so this is likely to be something new for you.  Having chatted to the organisers they have challenged us to see if we will be the best represented club (for which we might even get an award) so I encourage all members to sign up and come along.  I’m confident you won’t regret it.

 

Admin:

 

This is a big event and to that end there is a certain amount of administration that needs to happen before the event can take place.  To that end I have attached an entry form to this post.  Can I please ask the following:

 

1.                  If you want to come along print off the form and complete as necessary (Ignore the entry fee bit – just leave it as it is)

2.                  Bring it along to Club night with cash or cheque (made out to the club) for the total amount (£20 plus t-shirt fees)

3.                  If you can’t make it to club night then please reply on here with a phone number so I can discuss what to do.

 

I’ll have spare entry forms with me at club night if anyone forgets theirs.  This needs to be away to SLSLRC before I go on my holidays (12th Sept) so I’d appreciate if members can do this on Club Night/AGM. If there are any further questions just post here and I’ll do my best to answer them as soon as possible.

 

Cheers

 

Neil Hallsworth