This year we were to be without Paul Hitchen, as he had to work, so Paul kindly handed the passes to me. I missed the last meeting before the show date as I was having some work done at the house and was unable to get my car out of the drive, so a phone call to Ray Bentley organized the meeting point and the collection of the Club stand regalia from Paul’s house.

The rendezvous was to be at Hartshead Moor Services on the M62 to leave at 8.00. Sue and I were the last to arrive, so amazingly Ray and Helena, Alan and Marina, Fred, Nigel, Mike, Sue and I pulled out onto the M62 at 8.05 on Sunday morning. Without the map reading and directional skills of Jem at our disposal for this Leeds Capri Club jaunt to the land of the Red Rose, the responsibility had fallen in to my lap to try and get us there. I had studied the map and informed everyone of the intended route.

The journey passed without incident, other than that the speed kept creeping up from time to time and a comment was made by Ray on our arrival that speeds into 3 figures had been necessary to keep up. Sorry Ray!

We arrived at RAF Woodvale all present and correct at about 9.20, and were directed to the far side of the show ground to find our plot. A decent sized area was deemed to be ours, and the task of setting up the stand was begun.

The building of the gazebo proved to be quite taxing, as none of us could remember which numbered poles went where, but eventually success was ours. The banner, flags and bunting was child’s play in comparison, and Leeds Capri Club was established.

Ray and I stayed to man the stand and spruce up our Capri’s whilst everyone else headed off to find the loos and have a look round. We were expecting Babs and she duly arrived about 10.45, the police Capri receiving some rather unwelcome interest from the local Constabulary. A young and enthusiastic police officer asked her how fast it would go, Babs replied "70 miles an hour, officer!"

After their arrival, I decided it was time to have look around, and we saw Sean Emmett from the British Superbike Championship was there signing autographs. Last year Steve Hislop was there, but he has sadly died in a recent helicopter crash. There was also a motorcycle stunt rider giving a truly spectacular display on how not to ride a 1200 Bandit! The show was over when the back tyre blew from the lengthy burnouts.

Looking round the Classic Car area, there were many displays including probably the most expensive stand of them all belonging to the Ferrari Club of Great Britain. They had 16 cars, 14 of them red, all glinting in the glorious sunshine. The Mini club had an interesting display, their stand depicting a funfair dodgem car ride, and there were 3 other Capri Clubs there, Richie Boyes with the Liverpool lot, the Lancashire lot and Coastal Capri’s were also in attendance.

After lunch, a wander to the Anorak Zone was on the cards. The model railway enthusiasts always put on a great display playing with their train sets, the model boat tent revealed incredible detailing on the displays, but it’s the model aircraft boffins that never cease to amaze. Some of the planes cost on absolute fortune, and they are almost big enough to sit in. The biggest Anorak of them all however was the guy on the tannoy. He could describe each of the models that were flying in unbelievable detail right down to the undercarriage tyre pressures!

Ian Coulson.