Ardingly 6-7th July 2002

Imagine a Rushden Cavalcade, displaced 90 miles south with 90% of the mud removed; add a hint of sun and some rather more perceptible drizzle - and you have an Ardingly. Located between East Grinstead and Gatwick Airport, the show attracts a wide variety of the great and good - for example, EMLRA were located opposite the Dunsfold Collection. You can decide who's who.

 
Left to Right: 101FC Ambulance and SIII 109 RAF Ambulance (Mike Allmey), SII 109 Ambulance (Janet Goldsborough-Jones), 110 FFR Military Police (Mark Buddle), SIII 109 RAF Police (Dave Middleton) 

Our initial allotted pitch was deemed to be too noisy once the generators of the surrounding burger vans had all been started. A plea to the section organiser resulted in us being moved up the line a hundred yards or so to a pitch twice the size and considerably less noisy, to the extent that a normal conversation was now possible. The dining shelter went up, followed by the nets, followed by a bewildering collection of signs....

... some of which clearly should not be believed.

Saturday saw a pleasingly steady stream of people through the stand, and a great number of questions were posed, pondered and answered. At least this time I wasn't asked about the toilets (see Waddington). Several of the answers led to membership forms being handed out and, every now and again, the form being filled in and handed back with cash or cheque there and then. All of which goes to show that standing in the middle of the display looking suspicious pays dividends.

Membership Secretary John Butcher (camo jacket on the right) added his Radio 101 to the display on the Sunday (thereby spoiling the otherwise complete "blue light lineup") and started to relieve passing members of the public of membership joining fees so quickly it's made the photo go blurry.

The Ardingly Show is organised as a joint venture between Horsham Historics and the Morris Register, and so is predominantly a steam rally with various other vehicles (buses, motor cycles etc) tacked on, making it a good day out for the family. This is not that unusual for an event attended by EMLRA. What did strike me as unusual was the regular occurrence of nurses and/or doctors making a point of looking inside the three ambulances on the stand. Bearing in mind that Laurie Wright was just across the track with his Gulf 101 Ambulance, that made quite a concentration of military medical transport. Perhaps the same thing was happening for Mark and Dave with their respective police vehicles. If so, I dread the day someone turns up with a field dental surgery.

Having caught and staked out two vampires, Mark Buddle hunts for his third.
Presumably the white mine tape is the Garlic Impregnated variety.

It is ultimately another big one for the steam buffs. The trouble is, they're a bit too big and hot to argue with.