Monthly Overview
March has seen another very wet and cold month with many fields and locations saturated due to the volume of rainfall we have had recently.
Nottingham Centre has seen their Easter Rally in Whitby cancelled due to the weather forecasts and state of the rally field – Sadly we have had to follow suit with our Easter Rally at Chatsworth (details below)
I have had the first samples back from the clothing supplier and the quality is really good, some feedback from Committee and ralliers at The Winking Man have been taken into consideration and I hope to see these available for member to purchase later this month once prises have been finalised.
I have also been asked to see about having car front grill badges made and have contacted the supplier of the ones I have on my vehicle and they have agreed to supply at a discount for multiple purchases.
The secretary is in the process of finalising arrangements for the A-Frame Covers for caravans, we may need to look at something for Motorhomes possibly if we are asked by our members.
Rallies
The Winking Man Rally was held 8th – 10th March
The Winking man was another FULL rally and seen all 13 Derbyshire arrivals all arriving in some very cold weather.
Many of the ralliers once settled in took advantage of the public house with a roaring fire, homemade food and vast range of beverages on offer.
On Saturday many of those on the rally visited the local towns of Buxton and Leek and then at night we were seated for a group meal in the dining room, followed by entertainment from Pete the landlord with Disco and Karaoke – there were many of variations in song choices including a eye raising edition of “Crocodile Rock”….
Flag was delivered by Craig Rolt – his first since joining the committee – well done Craig!
Peak Rail Rally was held 15th – 17th
The rally seen 29 arrivals and 1 non-attender with visitors from Nottingham Centre, South Yorkshire and Mid-West Yorkshire. We welcomed 1 First Time Ralliers – but they sadly left before flag so we were unable to present them with their plaque. If they attend another rally we will make sure their plaque is given to them then.
We enjoyed the local area including Rowsley and Matlock, many of the ralliers visited the local Indian Restaurant “The Shalimar” on the Saturday evening and sampled some of the wonderful cuisine which were filled with spice and flavours!
Flag was delivered by our Webmaster Denise Barber and due to Chatsworth Rally being cancelled we took the opportunity to give 9 of the already purchased easter eggs out to the children on the rally, the remainder will be given out at Buxton CAMC Club Site Rally.
Chatsworth Rally was due to be held on 28th March – 1st April (CANCELLED)
Sadly, due to a field visit to assess the ground conditions the Committee have had to make the difficult decision to cancel our Easter Rally at Chatsworth.
This has not been an easy decision, but we have made it early enough to try and give people chance of changing their plans for Easter.
The ground is absolutely saturated with water coming up when standing on foot and some places under water.
We are cautious that if we were to go ahead it would only end up being a mud bath and having units stuck. We also don’t want to risk damaging the ground that could potentially lead us being in a position that we could not be welcome back at Chatsworth in the future.
We appreciate that this news is not great, but we hope everyone understand the committee’s decision.
The treasurer has made refunds to those who have already paid their invoices.
To Finish…
Again, It’s still very encouraging to see the number of rallies in our 2024 programme full with waiting lists in place and also the amount of bookings we are seeing coming through on our WIX website dashboard.
Although we have had to cancel our Easter Rally, we have managed to increase some of the other places on rallies with waiting lists like Ashford in the Water.
Our next committee meeting is to be held Tuesday 19th March 2024.
Regards,
Scott Wanless
Chairman, Derbyshire Centre CAMC