Well, I suppose it's up to me to give a brief account of the AGM gathering at Rhyl in the absence of our illustrious scribe.

As many of you know, last year, Farnz put forward a motion to make the AGM more accessible to riders, and to make it less like a trip to the dentists while we were at it. Hence the celebration of 100 yrs of the Triumph engine weekender atthe Lyons Robin Hood Camp in Rhyl.

In all, eighteen members and guests of Yorkshire rose made the trek accross to North Wales, with the bulk of our riders going across together. Personally, I couldn't guarantee finishing work in time for the rendezvous, so elected to make my own way accross on the mighty T150V. As some of you have been pointing out to me on a regular basis, it's been way too long since I dragged the old girl out of the shed. To be honest, I've had a bit of a crisis of confidence in her since the piston melting episode, but now these fears are well laid to rest.

Friday afternoon, and it's a case of getting settled in our (varied) accomodation (anything from a luxury static to a refugee chalet from Hi-De-Hi) and go out hunting the rest of the branch and meeting up with old friends from other branches.

Peterfrombrid had persuaded two mates to make the trip down from Glasgow, Peternick and John made it clear from the outset that they were there to enjoy themselves and after a few introductory rums in our static, it was obvious they were going to fit in just fine.

Friday night in the clubhouse, beer was flowing freely as we had the first nights entertainment from a girl folk singer who, I doubt, quite grasped the irony of the rapturous applause as she left the stage,

1pm saturday was the organised ride out into the rolling hills of Denbighshire. 48 bikes took part in the 85 mile ride with a coffee stop half way through. Full credit is due to the organisational skills of Nth Wales branch for keeping so many bikes together without anyone getting lost or falling off!! Yorkshire Rose take note.

Back to the clubhouse for Saturday nights knees up with a great improvement of the entertainment front along with auctions, presentations (long distance award went to a German!) and and inter branch strong man competition. Full marks to young Claire on this one. Our youngest full member, and a girl at that, stood up there while bike tyres were loaded onto her arms. I should point out that we didn't leave it all to her, I had a go too, but came nowhere near winning.

It is the nature of an AGM that choose where and how you hold one, they are still going to be spectacularly dull affairs. The inportant thing is that Yorkshire Rose, having played a part in the conception of this weekend put in a good turn out. This format is now part of the club constitution and I would personally like to thank Farnz for putting forward the idea in the first place, and Trevor Stapp in NZ for providing the facts and figures that backed Farnz's argument.

Edna Page was unable to make the AGM this year, but has decided to stand down after 41 years on the National Committee. I know that some people have been unhappy with her performance over the last few years, but we must never lose sight of the previous 39 yrs or so when she has held this club together.

I should also mention that this event was Sylvia Halls swansong as Social Sec. (this position is now filled by Bryn Jones) Sylvia has worked tirelessly for the club for as long as I can remember and justly deserves the honorary membership she was awarded last year.

Bye for Now

Animal