Stoke Goldington Steam Rally and County Fayre 2010
by "Nuts"
There was as usual a good turnout of tractors in the static area, with over 100 entries and a great variety on display.
For
many of us the Stoke Goldington rally is the start of the season and
signals the beginning of warm weather. On
the 8th
and 9th
the rally took place. Saturday started cold and wet and got worse
during the day, where was global warming? In fact your correspondent
was forced to go to a stall and purchase thermal gloves, which were
not taken off all day. Stoke
Goldington always seems to be a pleasant and friendly rally with lots
of interesting items without being too large. Some members may not
know that the NBVTC organise and run the tractor section and the
working field. Despite
the cold and wet weather there were quite a few people about
throughout the day, but the evening was quieter than usual which was a
pity as the firework display was as ever excellent. The beer was very
passable as well. I noted that a certain key figure in the
organisation and son were personally testing the beers in the
evening. This attention to detail is probably why the standards at
this show remain so high. Sunday
dawned dry and warmer and turned out to be a good day, the crowd were
present in numbers and a good time seemed to be had by all.
The club tent was manned by volunteers all weekend serving beverages and a vast supply of cakes that the volunteers had made, very bad for the waistline but excellent on the taste buds. The club thanks all those who gave up time during the weekend to serve in the tent; it is an important part of both our fundraising for charity and our social scene.
The
tractor section is the largest section in the show. As usual there
was a good turnout of tractors in the static area, with over 100 entries
and great variety. The horticultural tractors again had a good
turnout with a variety of machines. I noticed that your editor has been
a trendsetter in this field as nearly half the entries were Bolens
tractors. In
the working area were some very interesting exhibits. A big Case and
Massey Ferguson 1200 particularly caught my eye and both sounded
magnificent. In one quarter of the field an excellent display of working horses portrayed another more tranquil era. What is impressive is the horses knowledge of the task in hand, as they seem to produce good work with very little instruction and should something go amiss are capable of correcting it instinctively. However the comparison between the gentle plodding horses and the Massey was quite startling. There was much ploughing taking place in the working area. On Saturday people were experimenting setting up equipment and making work some obviously hedgerow finds. On Sunday the second ploughing area was taken over by the competition ploughmen competing for the Lenny Wray trophy. A single class event that brings together a wide variety of equipment and skill levels. I was personally a little disappointed that there was no horticultural ploughing being attempted, something we must remedy next year. The food and craft tent had a good variety as usual and one could/did treat it like Tapas bar sampling food and alcohol along the whole length of the tents. I did think that if the rain continued the coracle maker was going to do some good business. John Starsmore had his excellent display of models here again this year that were attracting a huge amount of interest. One of the most impressive things about these models is that they are running all weekend with very little down time for running maintenance. And seem to do so show after show.
The
TVR club had a number of their powerful sports cars on display which
given the ground clearance and tyres it was good effort to get them
in to the field on Saturday... there are definitely more suitable
vehicles for this terrain.
A
number of these could be seen on the military vehicle section where
there was an impressive heavy haulage turn out; there were four big
Scammell recovery trucks, a Matador, and a Scammell Crusader. There
was probably no fuel for left within a 20 mile radius of the field. I
was quite taken with the Saladin armoured car a neat design with a
surprisingly advanced lower hull shape.
At
the other end of the field in the Vehicle Arena we had a very
interesting Vehicle Recovery Demonstration from two of our very own
club members, Bedfordshire Recovery and MC Services. Having parked
their vehicles at opposite ends of the arena the idea was to slowly
manoeuvre a double decker bus on to its side using the hydraulic
arms. Working together as a team and relaying message to each other,
one lifted the bus from underneath its side and the other ensured the
tension on the opposite side was kept taught so the bus didn’t
slide and collapse. After the main event another very interesting
demo was done this time lowering the bus on to a traffic cone which
held an egg the idea was to lower the bus on to the egg with out
cracking it, after various attempts there must have been scrambled
eggs for dinner that night.
Not
far away from the Recovery Demo we found club members the Markham
Brothers displaying the most unusual and interesting collection of
old bikes. There were ladies and gents bikes, butcher’s and baker’s
bikes, and a child’s Penny Farthing. Also with the display of bikes
was a literature board displaying the full range of Hercules bicycles
with prices starting from £8.13.0 for the Glido model to the most
expensive one Tour de France model at £27.16.6. There were also old
spanners and old bike repair kits. A most complete and very nice
display indeed. | p |
There was a good turnout of horticultural tractors on show.
Robin Warner on his International pulling his Newman.
Peter Groves and his Fordson E27N in the working arena.
A very nice Orsi ARSO hot bulb tractor. |
Ian Dominic heads the team who is using two recovery together to manoeuvre a double decker bus on to its side.
One of the Scammels with a full load arriving on Friday. The most unusual and comprehensive display of bikes was from club members the Markham Brothers. 
The ploughing competition on Sunday had a wide range of ability on display. The upper field was part unploughed and part recently cultivated making set up difficult and giving a big change in conditions half way down the plots. The majority of ploughmen had trouble with this but not all. It was obvious that the efforts of the trailed ploughs/ploughmen was on the whole noticeably better than the mounted plough entrants. Does this mean that a trailed plough is better in more challenging conditions or that the ploughmen are more experienced, or just lucky? Most of the mounted ploughs had a bad day and one has seen many of them plough a lot better than on Sunday however two or three gave the trailed ploughs a run for their money. One piece of preaching Ins and Outs is probably the least skilful part of the competition and an easy twenty points that are just being thrown away.
This Massey Ferguson 1200 was a mighty sight in the working arena. | The awesome sound of this Case was in stark contrast with the quite work of the horses! |
Max Cherry on his Fordson model N using a trailed plough on his way to the Lenny Wray trophy victory. |
Good weather on Sunday meant the ploughing match took place in glorious country side colours! |
Club member James Riding-Felce on his Fordson Dexta. |
Dave Hill with a mounted plough in his Nuffield. |
Best ploughmen of the day were in first place Max Cherry, in second place Roger Seidel and in third place Dave Hill.