Well, the event of the month was obviously the British Invasion in Stowe Vermont. As in past years, OVLR was down in force, bring with us the club expedition trailer to act as a base for our presence in Stowe. Unlike last year, where Mother Nature intervened to keep attendance low for the pretty cars, and a field all to ourselves, this year the whole operation was back on the pastureland, albeit in a slightly reduced fashion from previous years. However, from a Land Rover perspective, numbers were up again, with Land Rovers outnumbering any other specific type of British car. Rovers North was there with their Trials course. Many people tried out the course in a variety of vehicles. As usual, the eighty inch vehicles were in great demand, and generally racked up the best scores. The People's Choice Awards took a different turn this year. The power of organized suggestion reared its head and our members were encouraged to participate and vote. And vote they did. First for this rather eye-opening Jaguar in grey, price tags still stenciled on the spats. (the sheen of light rust almost blended in with the colour of the car, much to the horror of the other Jaguar owners!) Several Land Rovers and Range Rovers were suggested to add colour to the People's Choice parade the next morning. Later, (We waited an extra half hour to an hour so some royals could arrive to hand out some awards, but once a drop of water landed they were out of there...) Chris Francis started going through the winners. Eventually he got to Peter's Jag class, and Peter didn't even place. (OK, we figure it was fixed!) Well, a whole raft of us were standing around when they got to Series Land Rovers. The pair of 101's came in second and third place, then there was a pause. (Mr. Francis was probably choking) Then he announced Dixon Kenner won for Series Land Rovers with the long suffering Big Green Beastie. Many cheers from our section of the field, which caused some confusion amongst the other gathered people. Sensing victory, we hung around to hear who won Range Rovers. Dale Desprey with the Gin Palace! The LR crowd went wild! And the rest of the people there expressed even greater confusion. In other OVLR member showings, David Huddleson came in second with his TR-8. So, the Best of Class award went to the BGB for Series Land Rovers. Chris Francis was not pleased. In the drive past, his over sensitive microphone picked up "I don't understand how this vehicle won. It doesn't make sense. It must have been rigged. What's he mean by "new paint" It doesn't look like it has new paint...) Was parked in between a lovely Jag C type and a very nice Roller, though they didn't get too close to the 109. Sadly the Gin Palace didn't get there early enough Sunday morning for the field display and drive past. We hear that this is the last RTV for RN. However, another event that has appeared, courtesy of Chris Francis seeing a television advertisement stating that only some Japanese vehicle could play polo. Well, RoverPolo was born. RoverPolo is difficult to describe (grotto http://www.roverpolo.org for pictures, links and a quicktime movie of the game being played), but is essentially polo played with brooms, a large beach ball, and Land Rover, preferably over stressed 109 pick-up's with a dicey rear half shaft, yet solid enough to win the game! The idea is to drive in circles with the passenger trying to bang the ball towards the goal line, while the other team is trying the same thing. Driving over the ball is a no-no. Dinners were at one of the houses on Strom Road. Jeff Berg and Eric Riston opened their rental to Land Rover owners for a combined group dinner. Friday evening it was a host of pizza's brought in for the numerous people there. Saturday evening it became a lot more sophisticated as a full spaghetti dinner was prepared by numerous chefs and sous chefs. The meal was a great success! A great party followed afterwards that went on into the wee hours of the morning. All surplus proceeds collected for the meal were turned over to OVLR who used the money to help cover the cost of Saturday lunch (your classic tube steak meal) and Sunday breakfast (french toast, sausage etc) that were given away to all Land Rover owners in attendance (Part of our arrangement with the organizers to use the trailer at Stowe is that we are not to sell any food or beverages, so we have been giving it away for the past five or so years!). Oh yes, and the gallons of Tim Horton's coffee... However, on the topic of food we must mention one classic car owner. He came up to the trailer and saw this very lovely arrangement of beige, and otherwise earthtoned Land Rover shaped objects in a large wicker basket. He asked about them and was told he could take some if he wished. So he did. And then took several big bites out of what he thought were Land Rover shaped cookies. Nope, more Land Rover shaped natural soap for people to bring home! For most people, it was an uneventful journey to Stowe, though we must mention Jeff Meyer's trip. Only a mile from his destination in Fletcher Vermont, his newly rebuilt 109 was rear-ended by a brand new Ford F150. Jeff suffered a pair of broken tail-lamps. The Ford, we understand, was written off.

Volunteers & other help

Breakfast & Lunch: Dave Meadows, Don Millerm Eric Zipkin, Peter Gaby, Maggie Laughlin, Brian Martin Dinner: Bruce Fowler, Jeff Berg, George Bull, Joanne Cameron, Amiee Ingram, Judy Riston, Lori Sickley, Tom Riston (garlicman), Eric Riston, Jeff Aronson Other Help (Trailer set up and removal): Fred Joyce, Ted ROse, Mike Malone, rian Martin, Peter Gaby, Don Miler, Dixon Kenner, Dave Meadows Other help: Christine Rose, Mike Malone, Bill O'Hara Land Rover shaped soap (or biscuits/cookies for one chap): Lori Sickley

More Stowe News:

Rovers North editor, and OVLR member, Jeff Aronson has written an article on the British Invasion at Stowe this year. Jeff had this to say about OVLR:"The Ottawa Valley Land Rover Club had its usual large contingent of Canadian and US members present. Their food trailer proved almost as popular as Dixon Kenner's '64 IIA 109"SW, using methods later copied by Florida's election, his 109" won the Land Rover category of the People's Choice Award. We don't know what the owner's of the '34 Alvis, the '52 Singer, the '53 Sunbeam Talbot, or the the '62 Jaguar Mk1 3.8 thought of Dixon's victory, but organizer Chris Francis kept glancing at his own Range Rover for reassurance as he handed Dixon the plaque.Note: Clicking on Jeff's article will bring up the balance of his article.

Yet more Stowe news:

The local weekly rag "7 Days" has a column that repeats snippets from other papers. This is from Stowe Reporter, September 21. We have not seen the original Stowe Reporter article so we don't know if this is verbatim or a paraphrasing that puts a "7 Days" spin on the things.... "Stowe was recently home to the "British Invasion," a weekend festival that pounded hard on our Anglo heritage; one of the events was a Land Rover polo match, billed as the "first on the planet." If this idea sparks anxiety instead of amazement, then fear not: "Drivers were restricted to first gear, so there were no injuries to vehicles or players." We can't help but notice that Stowe and environs may be the only part of the state where there are enough Land Rovers to fill out a polo string and enough folks who know the rules to hold a decent chukker. Still, Land Rover Polo may be more fun to play than to watch: "The event proved so popular with participants," we're told, "that even when the crowd left to look at vintage cars, they played on."

"No matter who reported this event we should to point out that none of the participating rovers were from anywhere near Stowe or it's environs... real Stowe Rover owners would never be seen with riffraff like us....