Christmas Meal
Home Up Factory visit Club meet Castle Combe 1 Castle Combe 2 Stroke Association Christmas Meal

 

Christmas Meal
Cross Hands
Thursday December 8th 2005

On December 8th a small but merry band met in the bar of our regular Club meeting venue at 7.30 for the first Xmas meal we had arranged as a group. 18 people in total which was less than we hoped for but I have no doubt next year will be even better in numbers following this years. It was our chance to thank our wives and partners for putting up with, what is to some, “a waste of time and money”. So armed with drinks we went into the restaurant a sober happy bunch.

 Crackers were pulled and hats donned and the laughter began with Chris Varey’s festive cartoons he had brought, as the meal went on so did the laughter. We were in a very nice area with three other groups of diners who all looked a little, well stuck up, however Chris Goodchild found the “screamer ballons” we had were aimable, so a war of jet propelled proportions broke out with screaming ballons flying between every table to great laughter from the whole restaurant.

 A certain person also had us in hysterics as she burst in to laughter at the mention of “Megasquirt” .She had heard so much about it but had no idea what it actually was and no one was about to tell her the truth.

 In the Bristol & Bath club we’ve had an annual “Black Award” for the last couple of years.  The nomination papers for were handed out at the beginning of the evening, and every one secretly filled in the sheets.

So what were the Black Awards Nominations?

  1. Chris Bradley

The first nomination is for Chris who decided at the beginning of the season to take his engine out and tell the engine reconditioner that there was no rush. Several months later and a wallet hurting bill he got it back having missed all the good weather.

  1. Chris Bradley.

Chris’s second nomination is after getting the car fixed for the Stroke association day he then went out to prove how quick it was and after a spirited drive clipping kerbs etc he managed to make the fuel pump inertia switch cut out. This brought the session to a halt whilst he was recovered by the circuit staff.

  1. Chris Bradley.

Chris’s final nomination was after fixing the fuel pump problem on his car he took out a paying punter for his ride of a life time on the circuit where he managed break his gearbox in spectacular fashion locking it up in the process, but at least the guy got a quick ride whilst it lasted. To add insult to injury he had also been black flagged for breaking the noise limit for the track, it is unclear whether it was the exhaust , the gearbox or the screaming passenger who tripped the noise meter. This spelt the end of Chris’s day with a trailer ride home and more expense to look forward to.

  1. Chris Goodchild

Chris seems a popular name this year for black awards nominations. In this one Chris had encouraged Nick Cooke to buy a Westfield from Ebay. Nick drove it home without any problems whatsoever and took it to show Chris, Chris decided to bring it round to show me the car with Nick and upon entering the approach to the club house ( my garage) took the road a little too fast and hit the ramp up hard breaking the gearbox. A fine effort, which in my opinion, caused major embarrassment and laughter.

  1. Nick Cooke

 And finally the only person to be nominated every year the awards have been run. At the stroke association day Nick had a paying passenger for the “ride of his life” after a couple of fast laps Nick decided to go for it and at the fast Avon rise corner spun. Now a normal person would figure something was wrong with either the car or the driving, but not Nick who figured the answer was to go even faster the next time they took the corner. So approaching Avon rise again this time he span at an even higher speed going off the track into the field showering the passenger with mud. So the guy gets out eventually with his expensive suede jacket covered in mud. Incredibly he resisted the natural urge to strangle Nick and even claimed to have enjoyed the experience.

So there are your nominees.

The votes were added and a clear winner was found.  Due to work commitments in the USA the recipient was not able to be with us, so in an attempt to be like the Oscars we tried to ring him up in the States for a “live link” to get a few words. After drunken discussions as to what the time it was in America and after several attempts we came to the conclusion that it was never going to work so I announced the winners name.

By a convincing margin it was Chris Bradley for his number three attempt at notoriety who will receive his award at the next meeting in February.

A great time was had by all and when they kicked us out we all went home many not as sober as they went in.