MVT Overlord, Horndean 1-4th June

Never mind all that mudlarking of previous events this year, the Overlord Show at Horndean proved to be an almost totally sunny event with a good public attendance - or if there weren't that many people then those that were, were all coming to the EMLRA stand and making the place crowded.

Following the display success of the London Gliding Club, the same formula was used again, i.e. amass a good display of vehicles - and then hide them all under cam netting. Just in case someone might want to look at them.

The advantage of all the netting is that it made an otherwise cramped display area (above) look interesting, and provided some much needed shade. Once the nets were up, the mine tape perimeter was dropped, making the whole stand an "open" area. As a result, a great number of people took the opportunity to have the "walk-through" tour, thereby winning EMLRA praise for having an interesting display.

Left: Dave Middleton and Arnie about to jump on Mike Timlett's already painful leg to see how much it hurts.

You may notice that it is sunny. Arnie - a member of the Gulf War re-enactment brigade - actually was melting in the heat. 

The arena displays included such gems as an under-16s motorcycle display team (very noisy), dog display team (even more noisy) and a junior marching band (just noise). On the mechanical side, there was also vehicle recovery the REME way and vehicle recovery by the local specialists. The REME way took about an hour to move two vehicles; the commercial outfit were able to roll a horsebox lorry over, stand it on its end and lift it out of the arena in the same amount of time. Time is money...

Left: Arena line up. What's that blue thing above?

Despite Overlord being an MVT event, the most prolific single club in the arena was EMLRA. The "light" vehicle display was, on occasions, almost totally EMLRA, but never less than half. This unexpected change of emphasis did cause problems for Mr Commentary (who should have been awarded Top Marks for his work throughout the whole event), but he never resorted to "and this is another Land Rover". He was able to spin out the skeletal amount of information from the entry form long enough for each vehicle to complete its circuit and would add anything he knew himself. The only fault we could pick was that the pair of V8-engined exhibits (Dave Simpkins' 110 and Mike Allmey's 101 Ambulance) suddenly gained an extra 100cc and became 3.6 V8s. That aside, everyone was told what everything was - right down to the push bike...

... and you thought I was joking about the push bike didn't you?

Meanwhile, Rob Short discovers dinner lurking in the back of George's Lightweight.

The whole nine yards: EMLRA dominate the Monday line-up. The poser is John Butcher.