Words and pics by Angela Royston, video by Richard Eden

Having previously attended this show which has keen club and enthusiast support, I wanted J33P to be a part of it all this year. So on the Friday afternoon before the show, some of those who had offered their services as stand volunteers and vehicles for display met up on the showground. We could not have asked for a better start with glorious sunshine and wide open parkland for the venue.

As first to arrive, Will was presented with a marked up rectangle on the grass and told that was J33P’s plot. Very soon Pete & Zelda, Richard and Kevin & I arrived and things began to take shape deciding where to park up vehicles and where to put Pete’s gazebo and our tents. Friday nights group was made up by Ivan who arrived bringing suppliers of newsletters and specially made J33P flags. The first of several weekend barbeques started along with a few beers.

Saturday started bright and early with the arrival of Cuffy to complete our vehicle display and Darren and Tracy to help out on the stand. Final touches were put to the stand and we sat back awaiting the arrival of the public. Soon after the show opened, Kevin was approached by one of the marshals wanting to know if anyone would be interested in taking part in the Twist Off competition in the main arena so of course Cuffy was volunteered as J33P’s representative.

The Twist Off took place twice on Saturday and once on Sunday with Mike doing an excellent job in coming 3rd in the competition behind some very well kitted out “factory” teams. There were a few scary moments when Mike decided to lurch the vehicle whilst having the front wheel high up on the ramp but it all added to his credibility and that of his vehicle. Most were clearly taken aback by the excellent performance of Mike’s Jeep leading the “factory” teams to make some hasty modifications to give themselves more movement.

Saturday ended with several of us having visited trade stands to buy the odd piece of equipment, clothing or such like. Several of us ended up at Devon 4x4 purchasing a total of 650ft of purple plasma winch rope in one go ! Will left us to go home meaning some minor changes to the stand layout in advance of Sunday.

Saturday was quiet at the show due to the England match taking place but Sunday was much busier with the car park filling up well in advance of show opening at 10.00am. The show was very busy on Sunday and there were many more visitors coming along to the club stand. It was great to see club members coming along to visit the stand during the weekend and have a chat and catch up. As always with this type of show, there is the opportunity to meet new people and put faces to names you have seen on the message board and not yet met. It provides a good chance for more people to find out about J33P although at times it certainly felt odd being the only group of Jeeps in a sea of Land Rovers.

We certainly camped in style with cold drinks, barbeques et al. The Royston children, and several of the adults, had the bonus of being able to watch the football, Dr Who and the Grand Prix as Kevin had rigged up a TV aerial to the roll cage on our green TJ – thankfully equipped with dual batteries making all this possible and still being able to start the engine at the end of the event.

Finally, a very big thank you to all those mentioned above who helped out by manning the club stand throughout the weekend. Although not on stand duty, Andy Harman did us proud by putting together a set of large display pictures showing various club members vehicles in interesting positions at events – these certainly caught the attention of those walking past. Hopefully this will be the first of J33P’s club stands of shows of this ilk.

Some pictures from the event

"Cuffy tries the ramp..."