Douglas Centenary Cavalcade, Bristol, May 27th.

[roy]

Hi,
   What a day, we had very heavy rain all day but did not dampen our spirits. There was a superb display of machines from all over the country, not sure of the exact number but in excess of 100, the oldest being John Caddicks 1907 The Douglas, to Don Browns 1957 Dragonfly Four (which won the Engineering Excellence award at the 2007 Stafford Show). 
The organisation was fantastic thanks to Reg Holms and his helpers. With temperature's dropping some 10 degrees in 24 hrs. we were all fed and watered with hot drinks by the ladies in the Kingswood Heritage Museum and also for the riders on the run there was hot drinks and snacks at the old Douglas factory, laid on by Knoor-Bremse SFCV Ltd, the present owners of the sight, they also presented an engraved Blue Bristol Glass Plate to commemorate the occasion.   
A day to remember. Roy.

[Ian]

Roy - sounds like a lot of VERY keen people in the Douglas ranks over there !!

[bluestar75]

Hi! Congratulations, it's a pity it wasn't more widely advertised. Shame I missed it, nobody answered my post. Nothing new with the weather, it's rained most years I've attended!  

[Dave]

Roy kindly sent in these photographs from the Cavalcade.

[Dave]

The last four photos were not displaying. Fixed - 2nd June 2007.

[graeme]

Looks like a great turn out. I would imagine that belt slip was much evident! Is the world's weather returning to a more normal pattern?

[Ian]

One thing I picked up from the photos is that we have missed an essential thing here with our rally we will have to fix next time one is run - bagpipes !!

[roy]

Ian, sorry for the delay in letting you know, but the piper just happens to be my youngest son Tim. 

[eddie]

What super photos - in weather that wasn't conducive to getting anything out - let alone a camera! The turnout was incredible, given that, for days, the forecast had been promising a deluge. For the benefit of those new to the Douglas ranks, I would like to point out that the captions on three of the the last four photos are not quite correct. The blue machine is not a Competition Douglas but a customised Mark5 (all Comps - except the works ISDT machines - had rigid frames). Likewise the next machine is also not a Comp - it looks to be a Mark 3 Sports in very original trim. The last photo shows the SW5 used by Dave Massam for vintage sprinting. Dave makes a point of keeping it in original trim - even down to the original gearbox with hand change, as he reckons there's no point in trying to compete against Henry with his out and out sprinter.