Adstock New Year

AII those stalwart VSCC enthusiasts who decided to attend the ever-popular New Years Day gathering at Adstock near Buckingham set off for The Old Thatched Inn in glorious sunshine on a bright frosty morning — but by midday the crowded pub yard was in the midst of the first of two snow storms.

Despite this, numbers were up on previous years, and the proliferation of “vintage” personnel was quite staggering. These included Anthony Heal, who will be 88 years old in February, arriving with his son Ambrose in the Twin-Cam Sunbeam, and well-known ERA exponents Duncan Ricketts and Tony Stevens arrived in the very rare Majzub blown twin-overhead camshaft Triumph Dolomite of 1935, the car which Donald Healey crashed; Duncan parked it right outside the pub with bonnet open for all to see the Alfa Romeo look-alike engine. George Stanton came in his “as found” 1924 Humber 8/18 Chummy with 14,000 miles in the clock.

The distance award went to Graham and Mary Brown who had driven up from Surrey in their 1937 Riley Adelphi, while Richard Sanders carried off the prize for the oldest car with his 1910 Napier; Linda his wife had sportingly brought along the family in their 4½-litre Bentley saloon, It was a very a good day with an excellent turnout of interesting cars, vintage motor cycles and people.