The morning’s heavy rain failed to deter many of the South East MGs from the motorways leading to the small Surrey village of Betchworth. It’s not great in a small, generally older car, to be smothered in spray from giant lorries and speeding modern cars. However it is clear that many of our members are hardy souls and all arrived safely in the small lane at the back of Betchworth where Hartsfield Manor sat on an escarpment with rolling fields beyond.
An ideal location for the MGCCSE Annual Lunch and the MGs parked at the front of the house adding even more grandeur to the scene. That was where the “partners PoO” took place and the ladies and gentlemen viewed all the MGs placing them in three different categories – you’ll find all the winner listed below.
Our guest speaker was the inimitable Dr Ian Pogson, former chief engineer at MG Rover and someone who has experienced life in China where he was helping SAIC set up MG factories in the country. His humourous talk focussed on the differences in cultures but there was also a small amount of car talk and a smattering of Tommy Cooper jokes!
The return of the MGCCSE annual lunch after the years of Covid was a great opportunity, not only to all gather together once again, but also to present the club’s annual awards. John Davies had prepared them all and brought them to Hartsfield where the chairman, Tim Morris, presented them after lunch. You’ll find all the winners listed below.
In addition to Dr Pogson we were delighted to welcome the MGCC Vice-President Ian Quarrington and AR Online editor Michael Humble to the lunch. We were also pleased that MGCCSE President Derek Edwards and his wife, Anne, also joined us for the awards.
A big thank you goes to club secretary Austin Banner who organised the event, John Morgan for the slideshow and tech, John Davies for the trophies and William Opie and Tim & Liz Morris for the photos and video.
Partners’ Pride of Ownership
We asked the partners of the MG drivers on the day to judge our fun Pride of Ownership Competition – here are the results.
| Overall Winner and Most intereseting car | Derek Moore | MGYB |
| Best Car of the Day | Will Opie | MGC |
| Car I would most like to take home | Chris Leigh | MGA |
MGCCSE Annual Awards 2021
We were delighted to be able to present our annual awards for 2021 at Hartsfield Manor – these are the trophies awarded on the day:-
| Summer Gathering | Spirit of the Event | Derek Moore |  |
| Summer Gathering | Car of the Show | John Langford | MG Magnette |
| Banana Trophy | Best SE Centre driver at Brands Hatch MGCC Meeting | Andrew Young | |
| Alternative PoO | Overall Winner | Dave Naylor | MG L2 |
| Lingfield Trophy | Best results in all Naviscats | George Homewood & Rosemary Carr | |
| Social Championship | Best attendance at year’s events | Linda Hubbard |  |
| Pentathlon Trophy | Best result for entering most SE events | Simon Gray |  |
| Lew Wooster Trophy | Marshalling most events | Alex Lemon |  |
| South East Championship | Highest points scored, best attendance | Simon Gray | |
| It Could Have Been A Better Day | Member with worst event/ incident | Gwendoline Davies | |
| Tomato Trophy | Overall winner of Autumn Production Trial | William Opie |  |
| Andy Turner Trophy | Best article in SE Newsletter | Jon Glover |  |
| Concourse winner at Autumn Gathering | Anthony Clutterbuck | ||
| Club Member of the Year | SE Member with the most meritorious support for the club | Austin Banner |  |
