The 2006 International West Kent Run was another success.  As riders left for home they commented on the wonderful, friendly atmosphere that existed for the 6 days of the event.  Dozens of friendships were made or renewed on the camping field especially.  Participants mingled and socialised throughout their time at The Friars.

The route was appreciated and many complimentary comments were made about the standard of route marking.  That said, however, several riders missed one crucial arrow and followed the long route instead of the short route between coffee and lunch !  The extra mileage was almost flat, however, and so it caused no problems and several riders returned to Aylesford at least an hour earlier than they might have expected. 

Vaclav Churavy, from the Czech Republic (what a delight to see a good sized party from CZ again) took the opportunity to swim in the sea at Dymchurch. 

"In the Czech Republic we have no seaside !" he said.  His beautiful Praga BD with sidecar drew admiring looks from all who saw it.  He had a thoroughly enjoyable weekend and left The Friars to take a weeks holiday touring England before the long journey home. 

First-time entrant Karen Anderson piloted her 1911 Triumph successfully around the 70 mile short course.  She experienced some problems with the clutch operating mechanism but soldiered on in spite of them. 

The early part of the course included some stiff ascents and my Martinsyde had quite a job to climb them with a slipping clutch.  A bit of adjustment at the coffee stop - the steam railway at Tenterden - soon improved the situation and the rest of the day posed no further problems.

The entry list ran to 410 and was our biggest ever.  Usually there will be about 10% non-starters.  This year there were only 15 riders' packs left in the box so the pressure was on at the coffee and lunch venues.  The staff at both the railway, at Tenterden, and at Beech Court Garden coped brilliantly and I heard many complimentary comments about the standard of service from both. 

The sun shone and it was pleasantly warm throughout the day, without being uncomfortably hot.  Less than 10 machines broke down and the pick up crew were able to return reasonably early.  Their biggest problem was with the canvas covered Velorex three wheeler from the Czech Republic.  It had persistent gear selection problems and then the exhaust fell off !

The Sunday Show was well attended and there was a good selection of the participating machines on display.  The invited Clubs also put on a good show and there was plenty going on in the autojumble all day.  The gymkhana was well supported and very popular with the spectators.

We thank everyone who participated in the weekend - especially those who travelled a long way to be with us from the more distant parts of England and those who travelled from the Continent.  We sincerely hope that everyone enjoyed the weekend and will make the journey again to join us next time.  We had almost 90 overseas riders this year so we want to exceed 100 for 2007.

If you have any suggestions for the event we should be very happy to hear from you.  It is important to us that you feel that you are getting value for money.  If you feel that things need to be changed or have an idea for a feature that could be added to the weekend we shall be pleased to discuss it to see what can be done.

Best wishes
Alan Abrahams

I hope to publish a report by the David Davies, President of the VMCC just as soon as it is available.