A heavy frost on Friday morning greeted the advance party at the back of the pub, but by the time everybody else turned up, a nice mild weekend was brewing. The car park was soon full and with tents pitched, the village welcomed its annual invasion.

On Saturday, visitors travelled to the Coventry Transport Museum and also the National Motorcycle Museum, whilst others set out along the towpath to get some exercise and visit the many pubs. It was noted that a new pop up pub had arrived on the canal, serving gallons of gin; but that was only open on Thursday night for the pioneer core. Nigel had set up his home (The Eagle) as close to the village as he could to ensure that the Globetrotter trophy that he was collecting on Saturday night arrived safely to its new home for 2019.

I joined the canal-side walk and enjoyed all of the pubs but It was my first visit to the Blue Lias and as Christmas themed pubs go, it would be hard to beat. This was the only pub however that closed on Saturday afternoon, as all of the others were happy to serve food and drink all day.

£185 was raised via the raffle and is going to the Warwickshire Air Ambulance. Some of the prizes had obviously been donated from unwanted Christmas gifts, but eventually, we got rid of them all.

Apart from Nigel Green picking up the Globetrotter as mentioned, the Rally awards were:

Long Distance Male:            Tony Lawson

Long Distance Female:       Linda Henton

Long Distance Overseas:   Hans Mondorf and Walter Traspe from Germany

Tale of Woe:                         Dick Allen who had had a coming together with a lorry en route and was sporting a very battered sidecar.

And the quiz was won by Pete Hancock.

A local called Setch volunteered to judge the bikes on site and made the comment:

“I admire your commitment, both to biking and to turning up in our village every January to brighten the place up”

He judged Mike Taylor’s Pan outfit best on-site Paul Eastwood’s BSA the bike in need of care award.

Thank you to everybody who attended and joined in and especially to Paula and John for organising and the Saturday Night Buffet.

                      Tale of Woe Award