ALBANY VINTAGE & CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE CLUB

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June 2006 Club News

Lower King | Squid Shack | Annual Inspection | Nunijup | Gymkhana | Trial | Calendar

The Great Woodanilling Albany Vintage & Classic Club v BMW Club of WA Gymkhana

The sky was a bit bleak and the temperature was a bit low, but the forecast was for a good weekend and that was quite right - we had a ball.

Slalom on the old BMBob and Mary with their truck/camper (inside were the soccer ball, witches hats and wheels) and trailer in tow with their bike and Andrew’s tied to it were at the Amity Tavern carpark. Warwick, Barry and Sue were already heading up the highway when John and Jan arrived with car and camper and after a brief chat - we decided to regroup at Cranbrook.

We were riding our BMW R100CS sidecar outfit for a change with camping gear strapped on the back. Trundling along at 90kms was very pleasant and before long we met up with the others. After coffee we all headed off to Woodanilling.

We arrived at the campground, which incidentally is very well kept and very cheap: we were only charged $4.00 each! The ground is a bit hard for pegs but perserverance and a sledgehammer did the job (no, it wasn’t quite that bad).

Andrew Haydock was there to greet us as well as Harry and Diane who’d already put their tent up - Harry and Diane are members of our Club as well as the BMW Club, there were also a few other new faces too. Then Don Ball from Katanning (used to be a Woodanilling resident until recently) turned up on his BMW. At least we’re now getting some reasonable numbers for the inter-club challenge.

After lunch we headed down to the Gymkhana area, which was behind the pub. Mike and Isobel had their camper set up with BMW Club gear available and a sausage sizzle for $2.00, shame we’d brought our lunch. While organising with Mike the program for the day, more and more BMW riders were arriving. Even counting Dave Ward (also a dual Club member) we were well outnumbered by the shaft drive brigade, and it was looking more and more like we would be shafted!

Then we were into it, starting off with a slalom race followed by a baton race (dropping rolled newspapers in buckets) - which was a great laugh, go-slow races, musical chairs (only on bikes), then a change of pace with a tyre throwing competition and also a tyre slalom race where you had to run around pushing tyres around the witches hat. Non-riders could enter these last two events.

Motorcycle Soccer
The final event of the day was motorcycle soccer (not for the faint-hearted). Our side consisted of Mary (captain), Andrew (vice-captain) and star goal-kicker and Nigel, a ring-in from the BMW Club. The first team to reach 4 goals was the winner. Our side won 4-3 with Andrew scoring the final goal in dramatic fashion laying down his bike in the process.

A few relaxing beers were next on the agenda as well as working out the winners and figuring out a fair way of distributing the prizes. Before long it was time for the BBQ dinner, $10 got you a pack which included a chop, steak and 2 sausages, and a good spread of salad, as well as onions and gravy.

The pub has a 44 gallon drum wood-fire which chucked out a good heat, and we sat around for a while eating, talking, laughing - very pleasant. It was time for the prizes to be handed out, and there were some great prizes.

The band started up and we thought they were quite good, can’t beat a couple of NZ Maori shearers belting out a bit of blues. Lefty was itching to get close to the mike and when the band had a break he was there! After a couple of numbers some of the band came back and jammed with him. But eventually they thought that they’d get back to the original format and pulled the plug on Lefty. Good fun.

Great pub the Woody, they also had new owners who were keen to do the right thing by us, whether you were in the bar or outside it was a great night.

Next morning we awoke to the sound of Don Ball buzzing the caravan park on his ultra-light. Breakfast and coffee were next on the agenda, we’d brought ours, but others who hadn’t feasted on a huge breakfast at the caravan park cafe which was excellent value. The caravan park owners had only been there for three weeks (came from Perth and were doing a sea-change (or rather an inland-change).

It was a great weekend and the ride home was in perfect weather.
Thanks to Bob and Mary who towed the trailer, and carried some gear. If you never went you missed out - but you never know it might be on again next year - so you’ll get your chance then.

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