Irish Four Wheel Drive Club

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Billing 2000

Seven club members made the annual pilgrimage to the Billing Aquadrome near Northampton for the Land Rover Owner International show. This is supposed to be the biggest gathering of Land Rovers in the world every year, but some of the people from Northern Ireland reckoned that there was a bigger one at Drumcree this year :-)

Having spent the night at our esteemed chairman's house, an advance party set off on Wednesday morning for the 6.30 am ferry from Dún Laoghaire. This group consisted of Diarmaid Drennan and Damian Heneghan driving their Land Rover 90s, and Edwin Pratt, Paul O'Byrne, and Ivor Clegg in Edwin's lorry. On the lorry were Edwin and Ivor's red Prototype trialler (known to one and all as 'The Beast'), and Paul's yellow Eagle (often referred to by unkind people as 'The Bald Eagle'). Most of these vehicles were going on to Eurotrial in Switzerland on the following weekend.

Edwin and his lorry at Dún Laoghaire ferryport.

Upon arrival at Billing, we set about constructing the 'Irish Camp'. As there was a good sized crowd expected to come from Ireland, we cordoned off a decent sized area before the campsite got too crowded. It was lucky that we did, as everyone agreed that what appeared to be the biggest crowd ever camped at Billing this year.

Diarmaid very helpfully videos everyone else setting up camp.

Once the camp was established, we set off exploring. Many of the trade and club stands were still being set up, and it was nice to be able to browse through the show without being overwhelmed by the huge crowds that would be there over the next few days.

A nice relaxing lunch after a hard days 'work'.

On the Thursday, Ian Gregg brought in Paul's Land Rover 101 Forward Control, which is currently domiciled in England. This proved to be an ideal vehicle for cruising the event, as you can get a heck of a lot of people into the back of one of these things. (Incidentally, it's for sale if anyone's interested. Perkins diesel engine, and Irish registered. Contact- stufforsale@ifwdc.com)

The view from the lorry, out over the campsite. That's Paul's 101 in front of 'The Beast'.

The next few days were spent checking out everything that had ever been made to do with Land Rovers. Many people spent more money than they had intended on items that they didn't know they 'needed' until they saw them. Mervyn Colton and Malcolm Cooper arrived in Merv's 90 on Saturday, and they were immediately sent to buy new hats, so that they fitted in with the rest of the gang.

The owner of this 90 was very clearly unnerved by the approach of so many 'hats'.

Among the few non-Land Rover vehicles there, we found a very nice Mercedes Unimog. These are fantastic off-roaders, and we would all love to have one, but it wasn't until the next weekend at Eurotrial that we knew how much we really needed one (or at least some of the parts of one).

We really, really,really want a Unimog.

Monday morning finally dawned, and we packed up to head off to Switzerland. Everyone was well knackered, and we weren't even half way through the trip yet!

Ready for the trip to Switzerland.

As usual, Billing was a great success. We had bought off-roading gear that you only find at these sort of specialist shows, and we had got new ideas for driving and modifying our vehicles. Best of all, we got to meet up with our friends from the U.K. and around Europe (and elsewhere) that we only get to meet once a year, at the LROI Billing Show.

Rumours were rife throughout the weekend that LROI were moving their show to a different venue next year, but that the people who actually run the show at Billing would be running a Land Rover show there on the same weekend next year. Everyone that I spoke to about it said that they would be going to Billing next year no-matter who was running it, as they all thought that the atmosphere and the 'social life' at Billing would be impossible to reproduce anywhere else.

I know where I'll be. See you at Billing 2001 :-)