Compost

If you read ACORN on the web then this will still be in time. If however like me you prefer the hard copy then it may have already happened. I’m talking about the Rally of Kent. This is your final reminder for this event and we need your support in marshalling numbers please. Just remember, it’s not running at night and it’s not Valentine’s night either so you’ll need to think of something else original!! Phone Chris Scudder to offer your help.

The Kent Road Rally went off very well despite the fairly low entry, 21 starters in the end but that’s still 42 people who by all accounts thoroughly enjoyed themselves. No real hiccups during the night apart from one little old dear who thought it would be fun to shine a bright light into the drivers’ eyes somewhere around TC5. Some of you will have seen the publicity prior to the event in the local rags, allegedly, one week saying how irresponsible it is to ‘night race’ around country lanes, the following week, a letter supporting us. I haven’t personally seen that one but I’m assured that it wasn’t written by a 7oaks member! Chin achieved his goal of getting a clear winner in the shape of Olly Smith and David Coles, their first outright victory. Mike Biss / Cath Woodman finished 2^nd, 1 minute behind the winners. I’m sure there’ll be a fuller write up elsewhere so I shall stop here.

The Scatter and 12car rallies are continuing well with the last of each happening on March 26^th and April 9^th respectively. Ian Crocker’s February scatter was very well supported with 10 crews competing and that was despite the date clashing with Maidstone’s awards night. It was good to see some new faces and some familiar ones in role reversals, i.e, the usual 12car driver decided to navigate for his usual navigator!! Does that make sense?? New 7oaks members and scatter virgins Olly Gausden and Andy Malone finished a very creditable 4^th overall, hope to see you again guys. Details of start venues can be found at the back of the magazine in the calendar. I’ve spoken recently with Tom Solomon of Maidstone and we’re pretty much agreed that next season we’ll do scatters on a Monday evening which should please some. The February 12car was run by Croydon out of Westerham Garage and finished at Whyteleafe football club. Not as well supported as previous 12cars with several regular 7oaks crews missing. I had a change in role and navigated for Chin in the Manta. A clever but sly crib sheet would be used throughout the event to define the route. Imagine a graph with A,B,C etc along one axis and 1,2,3, etc along the other. You then have a sheet with points defined by A1 diagonally down to J11. Each point would then show a single piece of navigation. For instance A1 might have a single spot height number, B7 could be a tulip and so on. We were going OK but then on one particular section the envelope said ‘go via A9 to J9’. I didn’t see the line below that said ‘avoid spot heights …….’ but that’s another story!! Well, A9 to J9 were tulips without balls and arrows but very sneakily, or so we thought, in the corner of each box was a number ranging from 1 to 9. These numbers didn’t relate to A9 to J9 but indicated the correct order to plot the tulips. So you would actually have to go via A9, B9, C9, F9, G9, D9 and so on. The fact that the nav worked going via A9 to J9 in order was clever and meant we missed a couple of loops that almost certainly had codeboards out on them and as I’ve said before, in road rallying, you must drive the correct route first and foremost, worry about being OTL later. That cost us a reasonable result as we weren’t that late at the finish. Good fun all the same.

There is still time to put your entry in for the Golden Jubilee Sprint at Lydden on April 10^th, a full day Saturday event with what should be a very interesting field of cars. Regs are on the website but can also be obtained either from myself or Andy Elcomb. Andy is Entry Secretary so if you want to enter at the last minute, which is OK but we’d rather have you on board earlier, give him a call and he’ll have the most up to date information on entries. Even before the speed season has started, we’ve seen two events cancelled only to be replaced by two others. The May 3^rd and September 4^th Lydden events have been cancelled. Only the May event was part of the 7oaks Speed League and that has now been replaced by a May 16^th date at the Lotus test track, Hethel. Hopefully, that’ll be the only change or cancellation we see this year. There is still a threat to the continued availability of North Weald Airfield. A proposal to develop the site has been put on hold for a year after 1300 groups lobbied EFDC saying how the loss is too great. So much goes on at this place throughout the week and weekends, but even I was surprised to hear that so many groups had voiced their concerns. It does highlight the real need to find a new venue and we are actively looking and thanks to those who have come up with suggestions …… the Bexhill posse!

I received a phone call recently from a lady from ITV1 regarding a new series called ‘Speed Sunday’ that is going to be broadcast live from Teddington studios at 2pm on Sundays would you believe. They are looking for audiences and obviously want people who are into motor sport in them, that’s where we fit in. The first date is March 28^th, it won’t cost anything to be in the audience but they do want your participation so if you volunteer you can expect a call from the likes of Jason Plato, Lee McKenzie or Matt Smith and if you have burning issues to discuss, you too can be famous for 15 minutes …… didn’t Andy Warhol say that? I’ve already sent Dawn this info so a fuller text should be elsewhere in this ACORN but you can phone CLAPPERS, the ticket office on 020 8532 2770/1, tell them you’re from 7oaks.

A very important piece of legislation is trying to be rushed through by DEFRA and the government at the moment. It concerns the use of ‘mechanically propelled vehicles on rights of way’ and the wish to ban them. When it was originally decided that the use of rights of way needed to be looked at in conjunction with the CROW Act 2000 (right to roam), a cut off period of the year 2025 was decided upon. How that can suddenly be reduced to one year is beyond me. LARA are due to report to the government later this year regarding the impact vehicles have on rights of way but the consultation period ends on March 19^th. Are the government scared that LARA will report that there is insignificant damage made to rights of way by vehicles? Bear in mind that out of the 120,000 miles of rights of way throughout the UK, only 5,000 are open to vehicles and that when the ramblers are allowed to roam freely an even lesser percentage of land will be open to vehicles. OK, I know that in 7oaks we are not engaged in 4x4’ing but think of how many forest rally stages involve driving down a right of way to get to the stage, or how a single footpath across a speed venue could see an end to the use of that venue. It is vitally important that we act and write to our local MP’s and the MP for Rural Affairs, Mr Alun Michael. There are template letters on the MSA website www.msauk.org and as March 19^th is right upon us, we need to act NOW.

Mr/Miss XXXXX MP
The House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

Dear Mr/Miss ….

The use of mechanically propelled vehicles on rights of way