In 1968 I was rallying on Borough 18 events in a little Austin A35 trying to emulate my brother’s success in the MGA. Borough 18 was created by the amalgamation of Eltham & District Motor Club with Stairway Car Club [run mainly by Doug Sansom at SW Farmer & Son, engineers at Ladywell, near Lewisham, South London]. The Club sadly decided to copy Borough 19’s name change in 1964, by choosing the Borough 18 name in 1965, as Eltham was the 18^th London Borough.

About midway through 1968 on a Saturday morning trip to Westerham I spotted signs to a hill climb at Valence School for disabled children. I called in and offered help to the guys setting out the course and paddock. We got home about 8pm absolutely knackered but couldn’t wait to get back down there on the Sunday to marshal. What a fantastic experience. Quality car after quality car left the start line and screamed up the track to the delight of the onlookers. A bumptious official kept bleating out orders to us marshals when anything went wrong but we put up with him and stayed to the end. At this point I didn’t know whether or not to join this Sevenoaks club. I had little spending cash so I could not afford a share in a car for this racing sort of thing, up hills.

My brother and I spent several months pondering about our future in motorsport as we were getting bored with small rallies and one Sunday afternoon in 1969 we drove down a lane near Edenbridge and saw dust rising from a field on our left. It was a Borough 19 Jet Petroleum Autocross in progress and before we knew it, we went in to spectate and by the end of the day we had signed up as B19 members. I still went to the 1969 Valence hill Climb on both days and for years made it an annual pilgrimage.

By the time 1971 came around I had offered to join the committee of Borough 19 but had competed in so many Sevenoaks off road events, PCTs, autotests, etc as Borough 19 was an invited club, that many thought I was a 7Oaks member. I never won anything if there were good drivers in my class but I enjoyed the events tremendously. Well, apart from the Lorraine Barrow autotests in the 70’s at North Weald where the weather seemed always to be abysmal. (No change there then!...The Ed)

As a committee member of Borough 19 I was appointed to attend a newly formed Consortium of Motor Clubs made up of Rochester MC, 7Oaks & DMC, B19 MC and Tunbridge Wells MC to co-ordinate our motorsport in the South East. Basil Elkington and John Symes represented 7Oaks, I represented B19, Doug Jennings was there for TWMC and a most rude man named Pete Ingram-Monk was there for Rochester MC. Eventually we all got it together and put on a hill climb at Frant, just outside Tunbridge Wells and it was one of the most superb events of the decade in the South East. Sadly we were not invited back due to a change of ownership of the stately home and estate. A few of us still laugh at the things that happened at that event. Try and get John Symes to recall that adventure in the Acorn. (Over to you John….The Ed)

At this point in time 7Oaks and Borough 19 co-promoted a lot of Autotests and also PCTs at Layham’s Farm, Keston and Frylands Woods Scout Camp at New Addington, near Croydon where I had got in the good books with the warden after telling him I was a Queen’s Scout [actually a true fact] and thus he let us use his venue. I seemed always to be the Clerk of Course at these events and Basil Elkington was the Secretary but they seemed to go well and were very popular. I think it was in 1976 [Chin, that sort of ‘green’ person, will no doubt correct me] that there was the first Foot and Mouth epidemic and all rallies were cancelled. In desperation for motorsport the rally boys entered our co-promoted PCT at Layham’s Farm. Instead of the usual 20 we had an unbelievable 76 entries. Both clubs were looking at money from heaven. However, it was cancelled owing to torrential rain in the preceding week and we were not allowed to use the waterlogged venue. “Hell!” or a word to that effect, Basil cried, listening to classical music in the dark in his lounge, and I got plastered, really plastered.

John Symes became chairman of 7Oaks at some point and we built up a close association between the two clubs and to this date, even though John has taken up professional employment with the MSA, Borough 19 and 7Oaks have had a close and high regard for each other. Even back in the days when 7Oaks ran an annual race meeting at Brands Hatch, a lot of B19 members were helping as officials or marshals. Recently, B19 has had the opportunity of sharing motorsport fun with 7Oaks members at its trials and it is hoped B19 members will enjoy the 7Oaks autotest series this summer. Maybe 7Oaks and Borough 19 could get together and run a high profile sprint at Goodwood or Lydden Race Circuit but who knows what is in store for the future. It remains a continued nice ‘give and take’ relationship.

In 2004 Sevenoaks & DMC celebrates 50 years of existence and Borough 19 celebrates 40 years and they are still as close as ever, sharing a keen interest in promoting grass roots events and the further development of their members to go on up the ladder to enjoy their sport. The one thing about the two clubs is that they started as ‘Motor Clubs’. Many clubs say they are 60 years old or 80 or whatever but for most of their early years they were actually ‘Motor Cycle’ clubs which then expanded to include Automobiles, so they are really bending the rules quite a bit and refuse to admit it. As far as I am aware 7Oaks &DMC, as Borough 19, has always been a ‘Motor Club’ in the true sense of the word and that is an important fact!

Long may the association with Borough 19 continue and long may I be associated with Sevenoaks and District Motor Club. Congratulations on your 50 years. By the way, that bumptious official at my first Sevenoaks event at Valence School was John Symes. Well who else would it be?