...took place over the weekend of
Friday/Saturday 28th/29th June at The Social Club and Playing Fields in
Chinnor.
Unfortunately Scared of Heights had to cancel their
opening spot for the Friday night party due to a bereavement but local heroes Oranges
stepped in at a moments notice to fill the breach, so to speak. The small but
vocal crowd suddenly swelled (as it were) when Rose aka Miss Whiplash
turned up to ermmm...perform for our Gary and give Goffy some correction
which he, by all accounts, deserved but seemed to rather enjoy. Odd that. Unusual
Suspects came on rather late following this rude interuption but
proceeded to whip the crowd into a frenzy. Much like Miss Whiplash really... The Saturday day started off with a major panic as, after many
changes of plan, we were still trying to sort out a PA for the afternoon's
bands. Young Barry of Wycombe MAG however came through and saved the day and by
10.30pm we had a working sound system. Chinnor Bike Day proper then kicked off
with the usual Marshalled Run-In. Just over 300 bikes took part, starting at
Thame Service Station and, for a change the weather actually held up. After a
merry jaunt round some of the local Oxfordshire countryside, (no incidences this
year, I am glad to report) we arrived in Chinnor. From the completely opposite
direction to what most spectators were expecting! We were very grateful to
Amersham based Bike Cop Andy Martin and Thame Police for their assistance in
Marshalling. The boys and girls of Thame Air Training Corps once again did an
absolutely superb job of marshalling everyone into the show ground.
The big crowd (difficult to estimate, but at one point we reckon we had about
500 bikes on site) chilled out and the atmosphere got better as the afternoon
progressed. We had around 17 stalls of all types and the kids had fun on the
Quads and bouncy castle. Up on stage (supplied as usual by local hauliers and
heroes Verran Freight) we listened to some superb music from Unusual
Suspects, Zimmermann's Chicago Duo, Jazz Dad and Half the
Cat ably assisted by local funster Mark King who supplied the
'Fill In' sounds. Our visit from A Very Famous Person
unfortunately didn't come to fruition: I received a very apologetic 'phone call
from David Jason's agent saying that he'd been called back on to the set
of the new series of 'Frost'. Never mind, maybe one year.
One of the highlights of the day had to be the new and exciting,
if faintly ridiculous genre of motorcycle racing introduced for the very first
time at this year's Chinnor Bike Day: Funky Moped Grass Track Drag Racing. This
fiasco, sorry..tournament proved to be an enormous success being enjoyed
hugely by both particpants and spectators alike. Go
HERE for the full story!
As usual all bikes in the arena were considered to be part of the Bike Show and
judged accordingly - we don't differentiate between 'Show Bikes' and 'Others' -
AWOL's Blue and Steve Wilson
of Classic Bike Guide very sportingly came along and helped out with the
judging. The winners rode up to the front of the stage and parked up for the
'photo session. After much deliberation we picked these winners:
Best Modern British: Peter Scott's T140
Best European: Someone's lovely Ducati 250 Mark III If any knows this chap is, please let me
know as we've mislaid
his name.Best Japanese: Ken Well's very rare Chinese '59 Chang Jiang 750 flat twin
Yeah, the usual Wycombe MAG dubious choice, but we really liked this, so we had to give it something
Best Streetfighter: Will's ZXR
Best Modern: Loaring's '78 900SS Ducati (sorry, didn't catch the first name)
Hardly modern we know, but what the hell, we really like this one...
Best Chop: Grasscutter's A7
Best Off Road: Andy Killick's Millie Peed , one of the stars of the Funky Moped Grass Track Drag Racing
Best Trike: Doug Shorety's Subaru engined affair
The Rat Trophy: Tim East's rancid Reliant
Best Paintwork: Andrew Bradley's Harley
Best American and BEST IN SHOW: Martin Archer's Harley
We had a stonkin' raffle bike for this year's event - the best we've ever had: a beautiful '97 ('R' Reg) Yamaha SZR 660 single cylinder sports bike. We are extremely grateful to our new major sponsor:
for supplying this bike which was won by a chap from Princes Risborough. Click HERE to bring up the full list of winners.
Towards the end of the day many people grabbed a beer, laid out on the grass and enjoyed some superb '50's Rock 'n' Roll played by Mark King. The evening party kicked off with a fantastic performance by Dogfish. This was the first time we've featured this band - we'll definitely be booking this lot again. However, our favourite hard rockers Dirty Dogs rose to the challenge and claimed the title of 'Highest Energy Band' for the weekend. Superb stuff. The very hard working and exhausted staff of the Social Club finally turfed everyone out for further drinking and socialising back at their tents...
Our chosen charity, with whom profits from the event will be shared this year, is Thame Physically Handicapped, Able Bodied (PHAB) who very much got into the spirit of the event but running around the site on a curious three seated 'train' accosting all and sundry with programmes. Well done chaps! We haven't yet finalised profits from the event: early indications are that it isn't as much as last year which wasn't that surprising as we paid out a lot more for the bands and other entertainments. However, we do expect to be able to donate healthy cheques to PHAB and MAG UK in the not too distant future.
PRESS CUTTINGS: PRE-EVENT
Click here for an article about the
event in the Oxford Mail on April 9th,
here for a piece published in MotorCycle News on 17th
April,
here for an article published in The Wycombe Star on
30th.April and
here for a similar piece from the Thame Gazette
on 10th.May
We also made the July edition of Streetfighters
Magazine and we were included on the list of 'Recommended
Events' list in the 26th.June issue of Motorcycle News.
PRESS CUTTINGS: POST-EVENT
Oxford Mail printed a photo of the
event in their July 1st. edition and an excellent two
page review (NB 200kb) in their 2 wheels feature on July 3rd. and
The Thame Gazette also printed an article on 5th.July.
Click HERE for 'photos from
the 2002 event and HERE
for 'photos from the Funky Moped Grass Track Drag Racing.
Pete at Windsor
MAG also penned a nice article on their web site and we're looking
forward to Blue's review in BSH in
due course.
