For those members who were at last year’s 2016 Sprite Club Display Day at the Wigley Reserve will remember it was a cold,windy and very wet Sunday. So wet and windy that those who made the early morning journey gave up and went home by about 11.30.
But for 2017 it was a very different story at Wigley!
The sun was shining,the sky was blue and the temperature was heading up to the mid 30’s. I arrived at about 8.30 and Glenelg was starting to come alive with the usual mixture of cyclists,dog walkers and joggers.
On my arrival in the Magnette I was directed by Gordon to park next to Michael and Pat’s rather stately Rover P5B V8 saloon in the associate vehicle section. I set up my new MG Magnette display board on the excellent metal stand made by Gary Brock. Then,with Don and David’s assistance we erected the club banner. By now about fifteen cars had been already lined up by Don,Gordon,Gary and Michael. A steady stream of Sprites and Midgets and a wide variety of club members other cars continued to arrive over the next few hours.
The associate cars included an assortment of Big Healeys and Clubmans, as well as a Ford Capri GT,an MG Magnette, Rover P5B, Rover P6 V8,Alfa Romeo,Waler race car and an MGB GT.
A highlight of the day for me was to see that my red Sprite MK 2a that had been brought along by Bridget,the current owner.
It was the second Sprite I had owned and I hadn’t seen it for over ten years. I bought it at the 1990 Grand Prix auction held at Wayville and sold it ten years later in 2000.When the final hammer fell on my winning bid a young chap in front of me called Gordon Boyce turned around and asked me if I wanted to join the Sprite Club!
We had our usual voting slips for favourite Spridgets and favourite associate car. Don’s Sprite Mk.1 took out the Sprite & Midget section and Ian Hay’s Austin Healey 100/4 took the associate car award.
Total number of cars on display was forty one. Twenty six Sprites & Midgets and sixteen associate cars.
Thanks to the excellent turnout of cars from our club members and the Healey Club the 2017 club Display Day was a great success. We had great weather and plenty of interest in our cars from the public. Thanks to Don Cardone and all who played a part in organising a very enjoyable day at Wigley.
Ken Dutch 18-11-2017