URAIDLA SUNDAY FEBRUARY 14, 2010.
ALL ABOUT ALL BRITISH DAY

If you like static displays of British Motor Vehicles, and you did not get to Uraidla on Feb 14 then I am sorry but you missed a fabulous day!
Your Club was given the opportunity to have the prestigious Centre Display area for a dual reason.
Firstly to show off some of the Club’s wonderful array of Historic machines but more importantly; as a memoriam to the Late Jim Underwood for having been one of our Club’s tireless workers with his wife, Fay representing us on the All British Day Committee for over 5 years.
So once we were told that we had this much sort after position our President Wayne sprung into action and asked myself and two other members in Gary Davies and Maurice Linehan under the guiding hand of Geraldine Hough to overseer this opportunity to show what we could do.
This did require a huge amount of discussions within the sub-committee over several weeks of solid sipping of Adelaide Hills best drops before we came up with the final plan, yes! We could do it.
The big unanswered question was “ How many MGs can we fit in the given space”; How big is this Space?
So a meet was arranged up at Uraidla and with measuring tapes and the borrowed Monarto motorkhana special measuring wheel we found out that the cricket pitch at Uraidla is not in the middle of their oval! Bugga! All we knew was that we could not park MGs on the cricket pitch but that our display area included the cricket pitch(over which we could not drive or park).
The All British Day contacts gave us a pretty good indication that we should be able to fit about 25 cars within this given area.
So now we had a pretty good, but still not final, idea that we needed to find some half decent MGs to show off! Actually I knew that all the cars to be part of the display would not disappoint!
The idea was to showcase “MGs Through Ninety Years” since the MG Car Company in the late 1920’s started to produce these wonderful machines.
A wish list of available cars was created and we are very fortunate that owners were very happy to include their MGs in this display. From 1930 “M” Type right through to the 2005 MGF/T; the MG ZR Saloon to the impressive MG ZT Saloon carried the marquee right until the British involvement diminished and Nanjing came onto the scene.
Not all of the cars seen were normal ABD entrants however once asked by myself or our special added sub-committee member Barry Bahnish, he was instrumental in gaining a number of significant cars he knew were sitting in garages and sheds just waiting to be driven up Greenhill Road.
President Wayne was insistent that we should put on a stunning display with a consistent display panel for each of the cars to be displayed. This was where the artistic talents came into play with wonderful effect!
Enter Front of stage: Team Gazza & Mazza! Words by Gazza & the rest by Mazza! What a team!
From a simple list of offered models of MGs Team Gazza & Bazza sprang into action, out came the MG Bibles; ”Original MGs(various models) by Clausinger & MG by McComb plus an assortment of other highly recognised MG reference books, and to work they got! Not only into the night but until 03.00 am some nights to produce correctly referenced words on 29 different models of MGs. Aha you noticed that I had now increased the display from 25 didn’t you!
Yes! I had by now increased the display to 29 MG’s hoping we could fit them all in!
And then I really tested their resolve by adding Wes Southgate’s lovely “P” Type during the last week when he kindly offered!
So now we had to place 30 cars in this tiny squashed football shaped , unknown sized area in the middle of an oval where the cricket pitch was not in the centre! What a challenge! Or was it a gamble!
Not to worry! We would get them into our area somehow; wouldn’t we!
And YES we did, the ABD Committee each year mark out the oval on the Friday and by midday I received a ring from Jamie Sandford-Morgan our liaison with the ABD Committee that the area we were to occupy had been finally been designated, it was OUR area! So I was anxious to see if the 30 MG’s would fit!
As I walked out towards the cricket pitch I could finally see the inner white line, and it was HUGE Much more than I had thought possible, a bit tight at the ends but GREAT! We could do something here!
And we did!
The final display area, thanks to the challenging task performed by the ABD we ended up with 3 by four metre areas= 36m area TO SPARE!, bloody marvellous we could uses this converted area for our pergola’s! and we did!. What a delightful group of members, wives& partners all talking and being close friends, some of them will remain so for some time to come, I am sure! Such is the MG fraternity!
All the MGB’s were a dedicated group with a dividing access lane between their cars and the other MG’s but still an important part of the overall display. They formed an important part in the memory of the Late Jim Underwood and his beloved Blaze MGB GT (this car has since been sent to a new owner in NSW)
From 08.30 onward MGs joined Bob & Shelley Bazzica with their “J Type”until we had the final feature car in place, Ron & Laura’s 1939  MG “TA” to complete the display.
Then the MAIN group of MGs had started to arrive, from 1946 MG TC’s to 2005 MGF & MG F/TF’s all wanting to be placed, all polished to show condition. What a sight.
The ABD Committee had given us two separate areas on both sides to display our cars, by far the single marquee club with a total of 40 more MGs to add to the impressive array in the squashed football group. 70 MG’s all up!
There are 3 avenues to walk to insect all of the 780 British cars and this for us is a wonderful walk down memory lane;”oh yes! I remember when we had one of those, or My Dad & Mum wanted one of those but we could only afford a ……….
The load speakers were on all day playing excerpts from various musicals or typical tunes of days past which we could all remember the words to! That shows we are a little bit older What! No Goon show this time though!
The sun shone all day and what a kaleidoscope of colour with the finest English chrome reflecting in the sunlight! So much so that we retired to the CFS shed for a latte and a sticky bun!
Then the day was nearly over and the ABD started the presentation of prizes, just before 03.00pm.
We were all waiting to hear who was judged the best MG in the display, this was a very stressful moment for Fay Underwood as she was to give a lovely boxed bottle of wine to the winner in memory of our Jim; and the winner was: Mick Mitolo and his beautifully presented 1955 1500cc MG TF. A worth winner! And yes it is RED; of course!
So MG ( Safety Fast )was the feature marquee for 2010 and really we all won!
I hope you all enjoyed the journey.
Mike Greenwood
Secretary of Registers

I have received some photo's taken by Dean Burnside

and now I have some more, these were taken by Fay Underwood....Thanks Fay!

MG Car Club displayed in Centre of the Uraidla Oval	Andrew Hayes arrives in his MG NA Racing machine! What a delightful sound!
All MGs must be polished on arrival!	Brian Golding drives his stunning MG TC from Murray Bridge to every Pre-War & T Register he can.
More MGs are arriving	Ian & De Denny's MGA Mk2
MGBs section in a Special Tribute to the Late Jim Underwood	Some of the early arrivals in the main group Western side
Some of the early arrivals in the main group Eastern side	More Western Main Group MGs