THE 20th
OD INGGS RALLY: 18 - 19 March
by Peter Viner
Another very enjoyable rally has come and gone – the 20th but for
me it was my very first one. Looking back, it seems many months
ago that George Armstrong asked me if I would like to help him
organise this year’s rally. I had no idea what the work entailed
but I was happy to get involved having recently retired; at first
it all seemed rather light work with our monthly meetings at the
home of Des and Joy Hill; there was Des, Mike Newlands, George
and myself and we were guided in our planning by an excellent and
rather detailed check list that Charles Pellew had written some
time previously.
Things started to pick up towards the latter part
of 2016; our options for routes this year were restricted because
of the major road-works to the east of Port Alfred but mindful of
this George had already looked at possible options for Day 1 on
his trusty motorcycle, we discussed this in our committee and by
early January we started the detailed planning of the proposed
route. George announced that he liked to do this work as early in
the day as possible – for ‘early’ read 5am which resulted in me
creeping out of the house at an unearthly hour on a number of
mornings trying hard not to wake my long suffering wife up.
I found the experience of continually stopping on
the road every few kilometres to make notes quite disconcerting
if not frightening with lorries thundering by at high speed on
the N2 and R72. George on the other hand seemed quite relaxed,
perhaps because he was in the passenger seat, asking me to stop
here and there to look at the various options open to us. By
early February we had finalised Day 1 and were feeling quite
pleased with ourselves; our only concern was some on-going
road-works on the N2 but the contractors assured us that there
would be no problem and that work could be cancelled for the
rally. These assurances were dashed with the introduction of yet
more road-works and we had to think again so yet more early
mornings – we had to to plan Day 1 all over again. To add to our
woes Mike was diagnosed with a serious illness and was going to
have to undergo daily treatment in PE for many weeks. It is to
his great credit that he still managed to find time to arrange
the meal venues and to speak to our excellent sponsors and secure
valuable finance for the rally.
The planning for Day 2 proved to be easier –
George’s idea of ‘early’ became 6am and much of it was away from
the main roads and the heavy traffic. But of course I was only
the driver and someone to bounce ideas off, I was exhausted by
the time I got home but once home George had to enter all the
information into the Excel spreadsheets. I was full of admiration
for George – he had so much to do and there was little I could do
to help.
As D-day approached we enlisted the help of
Difford Keeton, he had volunteered to be the sweeper for the
event and we thought it prudent that he should be involved in the
final checking of the route. This was at a much more civilised
hour of the day – leaving at 1pm or 2pm to go round the route
proved much more agreeable. Despite all the meticulous attention
to detail we still found one or two minor errors both in the
signs on the roads, the distances and in the Excel
spreadsheets.
The final week was a hectic one, there is so much
to do and again so much fell to George. Friday started early –
Difford had kindly offered to do all the printing for us and
there he was at his office at 8am. George and I then set about
putting all the individual bags together for each contestant –
their route schedules, the self timing forms, numbers for their
cars and so on. Fresh batteries were fitted to the timing clocks
and all synchronised ready for the event. It was then a question
of loading up my Discovery with all the road signs for the event
and by 2pm we were almost done. We just had to get the club
premises ready for our visitors and the braai – all the
washing-up from the weekly Noggin the previous night had to be
done, the tables set out, the fires lit and the bar readied with
ice, water and nibbles, not forgetting the wine. Roger and Sue
Darkes joined Jackie and I in the task and we just about made it
by the time our first guests arrived – Basil and Tessa Vertue who
had travelled all the way from Johannesburg in their 1958 DKW. It
was a great evening and all bode well for the two days that
followed.
A number of people were on hand at Rosehill at
7.30 on the Saturday to support George in his role as Clerk of
the Course, the cars began to arrive and all the months of
planning were finally coming to fruition – there was an air of
great excitement as various competitors and their navigators
arrived to renew friendships with the members of other clubs, the
cars were scrutinized by George Galbraith and Rob Mears; people
started to synchronise their own clocks, collect their forms and
get ready for the rally. It was time for Mike Newlands and I to
set off to put out the signs on the route with Mike paying great
attention to the route schedule as we went along. It was
great to see all the cars along the route as we headed back and a
trifle amusing to see the occasional mistake where a competitor
was heading in the wrong direction. I collected all the morning’s
time sheets and delivered them to George who was being supported
by Myrna Pellew in entering all the details into the computer.
The afternoon’s route took the competitors up to Grahamstown
before returning to Port Alfred.
Of course the day did not stop there, I took the
time sheets up to George and Myrna who were still busy inputting
all the data. That evening we had an excellent fish and chip
supper at the Port Alfred Ski Boat Club and there was great
excitement when George arrived and posted up the results of Day 1
– I was sitting next to Bill and Shirley Martin who were thrilled
to bits to find that they were in third place – so much so that
Bill promptly bought himself another drink to celebrate.
Day 2 arrived, there had been some rain overnight
and the day was overcast – we were all there at 7.30 to get
things ready. Rosehill was a lot quieter on account of it being a
Sunday and one by one the competitors started to arrive. Mike and
I had planned to leave at 8am to set out the signs for the route
– there was just one problem – we had no signs! Difford as the
sweeper had collected all the signs on the Saturday and he was
still in Bathurst – we had overlooked the need to transfer the
signs from his vehicle to mine on the Saturday evening.
Once again Mike paid great attention to the route
schedule as we drove out to Kenton. We had just passed the Eco
Estate when Mike announced that the Horns Up sign was on the
right hand side of the road with no mention of it in the route
schedules - we looked at our watches and realised it was too late
to alert George because the driver’s briefing had already taken
place. One black mark for us organisers!
Mike and I decided to await the arrival of the
competitors at the Roes Restaurant where we had scheduled the
morning coffee and tea break. Mike and I stood outside and
watched the competitors go by – it caused one navigator who shall
remain nameless a moment of panic because she thought we were
marshals! Mike and I set off once more to complete the signing of
the route before returning to Rosehill where we went our separate
ways – Mike’s next task was to set up all the trophies and
organise the lunch at the Ski Boat Club whilst I went to the
finishing line to meet up with George to collect the time-sheets.
George then hot footed it back home to start processing all the
data whilst I waited for the final time-sheets to come in.
At lunch there was an air of excitement as we all
waited for George to appear with the results – not only had he to
input all the data and combine that with the results of Day 1 he
also had to print out the results and the individuals results.
George is to be congratulated for a great achievement.
Editors
note: Many thanks to Peter who offered to write up this report
and has given us a refreshingly different perspective - ie. from
the organisers viewpoint. Many thanks to George and all of the
guys who worked so hard to organise a very successful and
pleasant rally. Ron
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