The BMW Club East Anglia Section

With an early Sunday morning start Trace and myself arrived at Mrs Fordham’s in Fornham (how confusing is that ?) at 10.15 to pick up the keys to the village hall, by 10.30 we were starting to get things ready and were soon joined by Matt & Sarah who arrived to lend a hand.  The water boiler was soon set up so we had tea, coffee and biscuits ready for members as they arrived.  Tim and Dot arrived as promised and agreed to take on the task of logging items ready for auction as they were booked in, members started to trickle in at around 10.45 to check in their goodies and by 11.45 we had to put out extra tables as items for auction extended well beyond the expected amount, it was a lovely sunny day and the hall & car park was bustling with around 60 members, this really was looking like a success.  At 12.00 a buffet lunch was served, big thank you to Trace, Sarah, Pat & Jenny for all their hard work in the kitchen, big apology to Pat for destroying her fine display of pork pies, scotch eggs and sausage rolls in my haste to top up the buffet.

All fed and watered and due to the amount of lots, around 130, and with our auctioneer Mr Robert Bensley keen to get going we decided to start the auction a little early at 12.45, lot no 1 was a fine pair of Frank Thomas gloves, purchased by yours truly for a mere £4, Robert moved on through the lots at a good pace and a couple of the highlights from the first session were a battery charger which was originally used by Noah purchased by Mr Bensley himself, Cliff had a horn for a paltry £2, we will have to wait for Banham to see if Dave White’s feet hang out the bottom of his newly purchased two man tent and I’m sorry to report that despite my attempts to persuade Captain to purchase Mark D’s craven top box (1970’s I would guess) complete with go faster stripes that would have matched his DRZ 400 perfectly, it didn’t sell, I therefore expect to see it back at the next auction in a couple of year’s time.  After a brief respite for tea and cakes it was time for round two, more bargains to be had with a really diverse range of items being sold, these included a heated jacket, a GPS, a very interesting looking zigzag lock and mug with a lead which sounds a bit like me walking on Gorleston beach shouting “Brian !!! (he’s our lurcher) please come back” or words to that effect.

We also took the opportunity to raise some money for the East Anglian Air Ambulance and I’m pleased to report around £65 was donated on the day.

Thank you to everyone that came along to make this another successful event, as usual it was a team effort so thank you to everyone that helped out.

Mark Weavers.