Royce Service and Engineering were proud to host the Ian Pitkethly Trophy Picnic Run this year, on May 20th.
A Great Picnic Run for Spring – Ian Pitkethly Trophy
Unexpected but welcomed was a dry although rather breezy day. Ever since the disciples of Hades have wished upon us the hosepipe ban they have ensured that we have been faced with monsoon conditions. May 20, however, managed to slip through un-noticed and 41 attendees in 15 cars were on hand. It was not perfect, a little cold, but it was dry.
Due, however, to the decidedly questionable weather, there was a significant absence of open cars, with Dennis Potter being the sole contender in his Special. Otherwise mostly Derby and Crewe saloons were theorder of the day but some fifth columnist slipped in with, of all things, a Honda substituted by Hilary in place of Clive Bracey’s 3/4½ in the hope that nobody would notice as they are both blue. Peter Edbrooke in his Derby three and a half had the oldest car and the balance ranged through to the organiser’s Flying Spur.
The day started with coffee and some truly exquisite home made biscuits at the Cricketers in Downside. In fact many people felt that it was worth turning up just to sample the wonderful biscuits.
Under some regulation dreamed up whilst rowing across the Styx, the organisation of this prestigious award falls on the previous year’s winners. Thus it came to pass that Guy Talbot aided by his wife Lynne and his daughter Anne-Marie planned a treasure hunt through the lanes of Surrey.
Guy gave a short briefing in the Cricketers before the start of the day’s activities and briefly mentioned that he had included some “tulips” in the directions. Unfortunately most people were so absorbed in sampling the Cricketer’s biscuits that this part of the briefing did not fully register and most people thought it was some sort of horticultural side show rather than an essential part of the directions.
Guy and his team came up with what they described as a simple navigation test and if that is the case then a number of us must be just that – simple. Our inability to understand what to do when presented with a “tulip” in the directions resulted in a number of us wandering aimlessly around the quite delightful Surrey countryside unable to find our way back onto the route.
Others were made of sterner stuff and managed to score full marks on the navigation section of the route. As well as following the directions and collecting various clues along the way, most people were also counting the number of cyclists they had demolished, as the same route seemed to have been chosen by every cycling club in the South East. At the end of the drive there was a short quiz on matters relating to Bentley cars and to the history of the club.
First prize of a bottle of Champagne and the Ian Pithkethly Trophy went to Royston and Jane Carpenter who scored a very impressive 17 points out of a possible 20. It seems, however, that they were blissfully unaware that as a result of their success, they have the dubious pleasure of organising next year’s event! John and Marian Clark came a close second and third prize went to new recruits to the club, of only two weeks, Andrew, Paul and Lois Vasini. Louis, who is only 11 years old, was in charge of spotting the treasure hunt clues and achieved an excellent score of 14 out of 15. Well done to you all!
Once again the event culminated at the premises of Royce Engineering and the picnic and prize giving were under their kind auspices. In deference to the weather we ate under cover in their spotlessly clean workshops and enjoyed Harry Waddingham’s eloquence as he presented the prizes.
The thanks of all of us who enjoyed a very pleasant day go to Guy, Lynne and Anne-Marie fororganising the event and to Paul of Royce Engineering forhosting the picnic and prize giving.
