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Friday

After a very long day, driving from one side of the country to the other (I'd just picked up Midnight Thunder's paintwork from Pageant), we arrived at the campsite at nearly 9.30pm - just in time to pitch our tent and go in search of the night's entertainment. This was duly found in a very large exhibition hall with a well stocked bar, disco and stage for the bands. Seems to me that large halls only ruin any music that is produced as, once again, (see BMF Show) nothing could be understood - not even the announcer (no he wasn't speaking Welsh!)

There were two good bands who played through to about 12.30 and the bar just seemed to stay open.... Outside, the fairground was giving rides on the Waltzer and Dodgem Cars (do you remember when we called them Bumper Cars?). There was a hall were you could have a go on the Mini Moto's for a fiver, which proved extremely entertaining. One chap was wheelying while going round the turns on one knee. Let's see him do that on the racetrack. Plenty of food to eat, including real Welsh lamb roast or burger - very tasty.

Saturday

Oh did we get up late today. Angie fetched up the teas from one of the stalls so we could start the day right. There were various places for breakfast - we chose the residential house. For six quid you got a huge full English with tea, orange juice, cereal and proper chairs and tables. Well, time to check out the days offerings outside.

There was a lot to offer for everyone. The Medieval battle exhibitions were popular with the kids, one who was heard to say "Look, there's Marion! Is Robin coming out too?" All a bit of a laugh, with the end of the display resulting in a charge towards the audience, who strangely backed away very quickly.

As always the stunts proved a crowd puller, with Sammy Mack, one of the riders, giving away a custom painted helmet to the crowd. That's the way to get the kids involved. The stunt track wasn't really long enough but the guys showed off their skills to great effect. Loads of smoke, stoppies, wheelies, large skids, flares, popping tyres ... oh, you name it and it happened.

The kids had a great time on the large inflatables, and there was a section for them to try out the quad bikes.   It's quite funny to see the adults having to disentangle the mass of quads coming together. Inside the main hall there was more beer drinking going on and a good idea about glasses and bottles was in place. £1 deposit on your glass and 10p deposit on your bottle. This meant that you were encouraged to not take out breakables on to the grassy area, as livestock, kids and glass don't mix very well!

While we were busy chatting away to various people, there was a loud introduction of classical music and then started a 1/2 hour drum exhibition by Jerome, a Frenchman who has been touring Britain since 1996 with an excellent demonstration of drum skills. He always plays with his back to the audience, so his bass drumming techniques can be seen. If you can do this then you must be really fit! Don't forget to applaud or he will give you a long hard stare - they're quite mad these drummers....You may see him at this year's Rock & Blues.

The Bike Show was well presented and easy to get around. Lots of great examples were on display, and you could generally predict who was going to win something. See below for a list of categories, winners and pictures. You could have a chance to win a new Yamaha R1 superbike for a quid, which you should never turn down! One thing I found out was the Royal Welsh Agricultural Showground is the Headquarters of Harley Davidson's Rider's Edge Motorcycle Training  Centre. Take a look  for more details. We did discuss the merits of Yamaha Wild Stars v Harley but never came to any real agreement. I'll have to try one and see won't I?

The night time brought more bands onto the stage with Fugitive and Totally Obscene playing. The results of the bike show were given, and we all enjoyed ourselves when the special award for innovation was presented to Huckle for his Fiat Flat Track, who promptly showed his willy but all 3 female photo journalists missed it (phew!)

Sunday

The Yamaha R1 Superbike raffle was drawn at 4.00pm and was won by 'Phil' who hails from Stoke on Trent. Sammy Mack's stunt bike's crankcase went bang, the Civil War was won by the English again and it all was a little bit wet - which is a shame as the previous two days were absolutely stunning.

After all that, we decided that, having not been to Wales for a long time, we should check out some of the local roads and ended up taking the mountain road to Aberystwyth! Stunning views all around but watch out for the slow lambs in the road. If you ever get the chance to holiday in Wales - I thoroughly recommend it.

Pictures of the winning bikes (if any are missing it's 'cos they left the show before we did!)

If there's any pictures you'd like to share here, e-mail nick@nlappage.freeserve.co.uk

See ya'll at the Roadrunners VSOC Rally

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Last modified: January 31, 2012