Stag Rally

These I remember all about and can recall absolutely nothing. Except I believe they may have been organised by the South Beds MCC which was a club within a small group including the Kettering MCC (became the Corby and Kettering) which held non-badge invitation camps.

Then again I could be totally wrong according to Les Hobbs and Rob Winnett.

The Stag Rally was organised, not by the South Beds MCC [they ran the Hatters Rally near Luton organised by, if my memory is right, Keith Raft] but by a chap called Cousins and the club was more to the north nearer Peterborough. I attended several of their rallies at Thrapston and later at Aldwinkle and won the furthest travelled male 3 times. I also organised the Golden Eagle Rally.

- Les Hobbs

This rally was organised by the Hunts & District club, the Cousins that Les Hobbs mentioned is I think George Cousins. He had very thick jam jar bottom glasses. There is a picture of him, back to camera with the check shirt in the Stanford Hall camp photos from the Kettering & Dist club.

- Rob Winnett

The Rally was held at the Rose and Crown at Oundle, near Thrapston (a wonderful name for a town!). I went in 1973 or 1974 (or both!), on board a rather well-used MZ250.

The weather was tremendous and I camped opposite Snuffy and Porker. Unfortunately the hot and sunny weather resulted in me suffering a severe bout of hay fever. The Saturday morning was the first time I had ever had beer for breakfast.

The landlord of the pub was a fine man, thoroughly enjoying our company ... and enjoying even more the fact we were drinking his beer like there was no tomorrow!

The bobbies rolled up on the Saturday evening just to make sure there weren't any problems. The police were quite happy with the situation and as they got back into their car one idiot turned to walk into the pub, lobbing an empty pint pot over his shoulder as he did so - it left a nasty dent in the top of the police car. I don't recall what happened after that, but it did spoil the evening.

- John J

There is also a whole album of 1974 Stag Rally Photos from George Cousins.

Well worth the trip down Memory Lane!