24 Reliant SABRE and SCIMITAR Owners’ ClubSlice 267 January - February 2016

The entrants for the Tatton ParkConcours round were:Kevin Bettany SE5aAndrew Collins CoupéSteve Feay SSTDave Green ‘Slightly’ modified CoupéTony Green Scimitar Sabre Mk2Roger Pennington SE6a

ROUND 2 – CURBOROUGH –NATIONAL SPORTING WEEKENDThis round of the Concours competitionwas somewhat different to Tatton Parkwith warm sunshine all day on theSunday to make the day even better!The only ‘down’ on the day was a phonecall I received from fellow judge Keithearly on the Sunday morning sayingthat he would not be able to make theevent due to his wife being poorly.Ten cars entered the competition witha couple of new cars entering for thefirst time, namely Huw Davies andMike Carr although Mike did enter his(now sold) SE6a in 2014.By mid-morning, there were ten cars inplace on the Concours ‘lawn’ adjacentto the marquee and with the possibilityof more to arrive I was starting to get alittle concerned that judging this numberof cars could be a real challenge.By chance Rich March (owner of acertain lovely ‘very’ orange SE5a and aprofessional vehicle detailer and ‘fluffer’by trade) strolled onto the lawn andoffered to help with judging. I agreedwith Rich that if any more turned upthen he may well be brought into action,but no further cars arrived so Richstood down, but his very kind offer wasgreatly appreciated.

2015 proved yet again that the Concoursscene within the Club is very healthy witha fantastic turn out of some beautifulcars. As last year we had a few ‘newbies’enter their cars for the first time andthey all did really well considering it wastheir first event.This year the two rounds were held atTatton Park in May and of courseCurborough in August.ROUND 1 – TATTON PARKWe held a Concours round on the Sundayat the Tatton Park Show, which wasorganised by Mike Simpson, High PeakNoggin Secretary. Thanks to Mike six carsentered the competition; four cars beingrelatively ‘local’, the other two beingAndrew Collins (Coupé) from Norfolk andRoger Pennington (SE6a) from Sussex,so not exactly local!Due to the huge distance between Norfolkand Tatton Park, I had suggested to fellowjudge Keith that I would do the judgingon my own as I was already in the areahaving attended the Committee Meetingand Members meeting on the Saturday.My thanks go to all the competitorswho took part as conditions on theSunday morning were somewhat wetand extremely muddy – not exactlygreat conditions to hold a Concourscompetition! The rain eventually easedby lunch time and the sun came outgiving us a glorious afternoon.After the competitors dried their carsoff and gave them a final wipe down,I managed to judge all six cars, but leftout a couple of areas, such as tyresand wheel arches as the groundconditions dictated that it was pretty muchimpossible to clean them and to judge!

RSSOC CONCOURS COMPETITION 2015

25Reliant SABRE and SCIMITAR Owners’ Club January - February 2016 Slice 267

only seems fair that contestants shouldbe rewarded with time spent on judgingand looking at every aspect of their cars.As usual, the standard of all the carswere exceptionally high, which makesjudging that bit more difficult as youreally get down to ‘splitting hairs’ betweenthe cars and it is only when you reallystart looking, do you see and findthe differences.The entrants for the CurboroughConcours round were:Bill Brighton Scimitar Sabre Mk2Mike Carr SE5aTony Carr GTCStuart Cole SE5aAndrew Collins CoupéHuw Davies SE5aBarbara Ganney SS1Mick Gaughran MiddlebridgeTony Lowe SS1Roger Pennington SE6a

So, after the two rounds, we are pleasedto announce that Andrew Collins is our2015 Overall Concours Champion with hissplendid red V6 Coupé. Well done Andrew!

It was great to see the return of theConcours ‘usual subjects’ to do battleonce again and as 1100 approached mostof the entrants had finished polishing,detailing, fettling and removing the grassfrom their tyres – well most!I noticed that Stuart Cole and ShaunPierce from the Berks Noggin werefinishing off the installation of a new setof stainless bumpers on Stuart’s SE5aand with only 15 minutes to go beforethey had to stop! With only a fewminutes to go, the last piece of rubbertrim was put in place and with a lastminute emptying of the car, he was readyjust in time.One car that was noticeable by itsabsence was three time Champion AsaHoolhouse and his beautiful SE6a.Asa had decided to have a year off,but hopefully he will be back in 2016.Judging commenced promptly at 1100and was finished at around 1400,which included lunch on the hoof anda couple of coffee stops; so around15 to 20 minutes per car. This mayseem excessive, but knowing how mucheffort goes into car preparation, then it

early on the Sunday morning saying

first time, namely Huw Davies and

of cars could be a real challenge.

but no further cars arrived so Rich

Right:(from the left);

Mike Carr’s SE5a,Huw Davies withhis yellow SE5a

(talking toRob Potter),

Barbara & IanGanney withred her SS1

and (far right)Bill Brighton’s

Scimitar Sabre.Photo: Kevin

Osborne

26 Reliant SABRE and SCIMITAR Owners’ ClubSlice 267 January - February 2016

May I take this opportunity to thankKeith Painter for all his hard work overthese last few years; it has been apleasure working alongside you.Also, my thanks go to all the competitorsover the years who have provided muchbanter, laughter and ‘mickey taking’ andI wish you good luck with your cars inthe coming years. I am sure we will catchup at future events.

Kevin Osborne

My thanks to Kevin for offering to takeon the Tatton Park judging and I wasdisappointment at having to leave him‘holding the baby’ at Curborough due tomy sudden family crisis over theCurborough weekend. Kevin carried onregardless and did his best to ease myconscience! Having judged just three carson my own at Bishop’s Stortford inSeptember 2014 I fully understand thescale of the task faced at Curborough!It has been a delight to work with Kevinand Sarah on the Concours over the lastfew years; I would like to think thatbetween us we have freshened up theapproach to the competition.Many thanks Kevin for finding yourreplacement and I look forward to anew era with Rich’s input.

Keith Painter

The Small Sports competition was closelyfought with only 15 points between allthree competitors, so 2016 should bevery interesting. The three SE5 class entrieswere also very close with only one pointseparating Huw Davies and Mike Carr.I mentioned earlier about the timelyintervention of Rich March at Curborough.After judging for a few years now, I havemade the decision to hang up myclipboard as a Concours judge. Thereason being is that I feel that I cannotdedicate the required time to helporganise and run the Concours judgingat our events, especially in the comingyear, where my Club time will be stretchedorganising the bigger Club shows such asthe Silverstone Classic and now two bigshows at The NEC. Add in my Committeeinvolvement and running of the SolentNoggin and my time has quickly run out!So, I would like to officially announcethat for 2016, Rich will be co-judgingwith Keith. I am sure that with hisprofessional detailing knowledge he willintroduce a new dynamic into thecompetition and settle into the judginggroove very easily; thank you Rich forstepping up to the plate.

Left:(from the left);Andrew Collins’

V6 Coupé,Tony Carr withhis GTC and

Roger Penningtonwith his SE6a.Photo: Kevin

Osborne

See the photo of the 2015 ConcoursChampion’s Coupé on the back cover.

27Reliant SABRE and SCIMITAR Owners’ Club January - February 2016 Slice 267

Although Roger Pennington scored in both rounds, his scores unfortunately couldnot be used in the individual car scores as Roger had presented a different car ineach of the rounds, hence Stuart Cole received the ‘Best GTE’ prize.

Roger Pennington

Tony Carr

Barbara Ganney

Best Sabre/Coupé Andrew Collins

Best GTE Stuart Cole

Best GTC Tony Carr

Best Small Sports Barbara Ganney

Best Middlebridge Mick Gaughran

Overall results for the 2015 Concours competition:

Competitor Class Tatton Park Curborough TOTAL POINTS

Andrew Collins Sabre/Coupé 352 380 732

Roger Pennington GTE 6 Series 285 301 586

Tony Carr GTC 0 386 386

Barbara Ganney Small Sports 0 376 376

Bill Brighton Small Sports 0 370 370

Stuart Cole GTE 5 Series 0 366 366

Tony Lowe Small Sports 0 361 361

Mick Gaughran Middlebridge 0 350 350

Mike Carr GTE 5 Series 0 344 344

Tony Green Small Sports 343 0 343

Huw Davies GTE 5 Series 0 343 343

Steve Feay Small Sports 330 0 330

Kevin Bettany GTE 5 Series 314 0 314

Dave Green Sabre/Coupé 292 0 292

Overall point accrued during the 2015 Concours competition: