British Mini Day – Himley Hall 2005 British Mini Day Himley Hall 2005. This ever popular event organised by the British Mini Club saw a fantastic turnout of Mini enthusiasts from all over the country. All ages of Mini from the earliest 1959 Mini to the very latest MINI Cooper S was on display for fans to feast their eyes upon. It was wonderful to see many Mini variations at the show even a rare Scamp made an appearance.
9.00 clock saw Minis arriving on the show ground to the sounds of the Italian Job on the loud speakers. The roads on the way to Himley saw long convoys of new MINI's which was a nice site to see. Every Mini arriving had their picture taken and visitors had the chance to have them printed onto T-Shirts, Mugs etc - a nice souvenir of the day. Although we saw a bit of rain during the day it didn't deter the concours entrants. There was a superb turnout in the concours field including a fantastic example of the Britax Cooper, plus a very large turnout of new MINI's who were competing in 4 classes for the first time this year. Our top judges had their work cut out as all the Mini's on display were very top quality.
This was one of our busiest Himley shows ever with many of the show visitors taking up the chance to win a G rag classic Mini for an incredible £1. At no other show do you get this chance. Many of the UK's top traders were at Himley inc sponsors Mini Mania UK and Branson Auto, then we found Mini Mine, Mini Spares, Huddersfield Mini Spares, JJ Minis, Wood & Pickett & many more classic Mini traders plus Blue Bell & others representing the new MINI. Many of our forum members took the opportunity to meet up for the 1st time, a number of them meet at a hotel the night before. A very strange coincidence happened with the raffle Mini at Himley. We noticed at Mini Fair in January the winning ticket matched the registration numbers on the Mini. Well spookily it happened again. Ticket number 207 was drawn out and someone shouted it was the same as the Registration numbers on the raffle car. Turns out the guy who had the correct ticket actually asked for that ticket out of the raffle book. The big question is - will it happen again at Sandon Hall to make the hat trick!!
All the Mini Clubs put on a fantastic display with many of them taken the time to dress up their stands with the theme of the Fair Ground. Where they get their ideas from always amazes us but well done to all of you. 1st: Menacing Minis 2nd: Market Drayton Mini Owners Club 3rd: Nott’s About Minis. All the winning clubs received a trophy and cheque towards their club funds.
A big thank you again to our sponsors Branson Automotive
(AutoGlym) who again sponsored the concours. Prizes were awarded to the first three in each class with Branson kindly donating an AutoGlym pack to the winner of each class. Our Judges were overwhelmed with the quality of the cars on show again. They are so good that it often comes down to the condition of the windscreen rubber to decide a winner. It really is that close!! All winners go forward to grand final of the Premiership Concours at Sandon Hall. With 1st & 2nd placed new MINI's going through to the final it is looking like the competition is hotting up.
A massive thank you to everyone who continues to support our British Mini Days we hope you enjoyed yourselves and also a massive THANK YOU to our British Mini Club members who always help out on the day. You know who you are and without you all the shows would not be the success they are.
British Mini Day Himley Hall 2005 was kindly sponsored by :
British Mini Day – Himley Hall 2006 Himley Hall 06 - well that went well – please read the report to find out more .. Another British Mini Day and another major success. We were expecting rain all day and for some reason it managed to stay away. Apparently just a few miles up the road it was throwing it down all day. How did we manage that one!! The main event of the day, the UK's leading Mini concours - Premiership Concours went down superbly with many new entrants’ showing off their Mini’s which is always fantastic to see. The judges tell us that the quality is getting so much better again this year. The judge for the Rover Minis was amazed and the class really made him work hard to find a winner. Again this year the Classic Coopers were off such a standard that they would grace any AutoGlym concours. Did you see the Non-Original class? Just 3 points separated the top 3 cars. Won by Helen Hallworth with an incredible 194 points out of 200. Very close to the maximum!! It is always good to see the New MINI in concours, all the owners are starting to make a major effort with the MINIs and Oliver the judge took a very long time trying to decide the winner. Boy was it tough. We also had a major shock as 3 times Premier Trophy winner Chris Kryzwiec did not win his class this time so it leaves the Premier Class finals wide open in September. We had the chance during the day to meet Rob Marshall from MC2 Magazine. Which is a new magazine for the Mini in the USA? He was preparing a 2 page spread about the show for a future issue of MC2. Plus he was doing articles on 3 owners including Graham Harper and his superb Wolsely Hornet. We think the USA never saw the Hornet so it should be very interesting for them. Graham also had 15 years Rally experience in Minis and others so plenty to chat about. Talking off Rallying the British Mini Club sponsored Mini Rally car was on display outside the Club Marquee. Driven by Clive King who is doing incredibly well in this year’s Historic Rally Championship. Remember to cheer Clive on if you go to any of the stages. When you came into the showground what did you think of that superb hand painted Italian Job graphic on the back of that wagon. Was that incredible. Fancy driving behind that in your Mini, you would really think you was in the film!! Did you know you can see 130 images from the event at www.britishminiclub.co.uk
You must have seen the incredible raffle car. A superb 1992 Mini Sprite 1275 with only 15,000 miles on the clock. How do we find them many people ask? Well we are not telling!! It must have been the best we have ever raffled
and we seen about 30 Minis raffled at our shows. People were queuing up all day and some were buying £20's worth of tickets at time. What a bargain £1 a ticket for a return of at least £2500. The winner was a young lady called Mary from Derby. She was delighted and her family could just not believe their luck. Just wait until you see the Mini we have lined up for Sandon Hall.
The club stands put on their normal top notch display as always. Using the 70's theme it was won by Minis on the Chase who seemed rather pleased with their cheque. Milvar Minis 2nd and Market Drayton Mini 3rd. Well done to everyone. It was good to see a mix of classic Mini and new MINI on some club stands. We passed Doncaster MINI on the way to Himley. It is wonderful to see a convey of New MINIs on the road and they certainly did themselves proud with an excellent stand right next to MINI2. Staffs Minis, Rugby MOC and West Country Mini Club were some of the others on display. A MASSIVE thank you to everyone who came along and supported the British Mini Club. Also big thanks to our sponsors. Branson Automotive, Miniman, Mini Mine and many more.
The Premiership Concours results from the British Mini Day at Himley Hall.
It was a major success again with a full concours field on display to visitors. The quality this year was again surpassed our expectations. Full list of results ... A very big thank you to everyone for taking the time to enter the Premiership concours. The BMC were very pleased with the turnout especially with the number New MINI's who entered. Please remember that all Classic Mini class winners and the 1st & 2nd placed new MINI's all go forward to this years grand final at Sandon Hall In September. We look forward to seeing everyone at Sandon. The Premier Concours was again kindly sponsored by Branson Automotive / AutoGlym. Every class winner received a fantastic red AutoGlym holdall. Classic Mini 1959-69 : 1st:Alastair Gray 62 FUO pts 170, 2nd: Alex Tildesley YWP 435 pts 165 3rd:Simon Millward XFO 257 pts 138 1979-79 : 1st:Roy Besant ERW 940L pts 181, 2nd:Sam Foster EDH 116T pts 139 1980-89 : 1st:Phil Harper A900 JEA pts 157 2nd:Ruth Lowe F902 SNH pts 147 3rd:William Dudgeon E114 JLH pts 98 1990-2000 : 1st:Phil Smith H18 PSS pts 190 2nd:Steve Seeby M842 PRR pts 181 3rd:June Yapp P3 YAP pts 180 Mini Clubman (all Marques) : 1st:Wayne Brownhill TGK 250M pts 172 2nd:Jon Marfell PPR 674K pts 123 3rd:Vito Bilotta TEE 964J pts 119
Van & Pick up : 1st:Matt Harper MLG 537T pts 186 2nd:Kevin Edwards RJA 638H pts 156 3rd:Mark Williams WHN 635X pts 130 Variants : 1st: Trish Wheal OWP 477E pts 167 2nd:DOn Nunn SPK 220F pts 151 3rd:Jean & Graham Harper KJW 817d pts 140 Non Original : 1st:Helen Hallworth R151 EBW pts 194 2nd:Doug Mason G711 HNP pts 193 3rd:Barry Meeson pts 192 Classic Cooper & S : 1st:Bill Akester 720 EPY pts 194 2nd:Chris Krzywiec 581 MOL pts 191 3rd:David Ashton EDP 505C pts 186 Custom : 1st:Ghost Concept pts 193 2nd:Gavin Wakely FTP 258 pts 191 3rd:Mark Nunn M247 OAC pts 190
Limited Editions : 1st:Mark Wynn-Smith S456 YAB pts 197 2nd:Richard Sutton G160 NRB pts 195 3rd:Susie Tucker K627 VFV pts 183 Classic Cabriolet : 1st:Jane Hughes L4 OJH pts 170 2nd:Tracy Lippett M821 CLW pts 165 3rd:Carol & Ronnie Rodley 148 OXH pts 138 Working Class pre 1980 : 1st:Jason Mullock SFY 934T pts 155 2nd:Paul Dawes AOK 201T pts 105 Working Class post 1980 : 1st:Brett Harris R956 LOJ pts 161 2nd:Jenny Owen K3 JSO pts 159 3rd:Jon Richardson N102 UDA pts 150 New MINI MINI One : No entrants MINI Cooper : 1st:Nick Chilman M20 NJC pts 177 2nd:Lindsay Hayton OO03 LAH pts 165 3rd:Scott Stevens RN53 WRA pts 159 MINI Cooper S : 1st:Brian V Good L2 BVG pts 176 2nd:Chris Hall OO03 CWH pts 167 3rd:Jim Harris C15 PJH pts 165 MINI Cabriolet : 1st:Paul Bruce DN05 MHK pts 184 2nd:Mr S Smith BJ05 KXH pts 148 Special Awards Best Paint : M13 Coo - Rover Mini Cooper Best Engine : MLG 692H Mini MK2 Best Interior : 720 EPY Mini Cooper S, Best Presented : H852 JWR Best Classic Mini of the Day : OWP 477E Mini Countryman Best new MINI of the Day L2 BVG MINI Cooper S