It was a long time planning and I was kept well away from any part of the organising, so I just KNEW it was going to be brilliant! I was once told that 1020 does NOT need me to hold its hand and that it CAN do things for itself. Well, the 20th Anniversary Dinner Planning Committee, 1020's first ever committee, did such a fantastic job as to make this one of the hardest reports I've ever had to write because I might just run out of superlatives known to the English language!
There were a few ground rules laid out to me by Obergruppenfuhrer Lowe: A ‘gagging order' was imposed upon me so as not delay the disco with my usual interminable ramblings and I was to ‘meet and greet' at the doors all attendees before they grabbed their complimentary Bucks Fizz, courtesy of my friends in the Management of the of the superb Hotel Miramar.
Anne and myself found ourselves on ‘Table 1', the Top Table (I always wondered what that was like!) with MGOC Supremo Roche Bentley, for it was he, who had endured a five hour journey down from Cambridge to join us. Andrea and Patrick Cooke shared Anne's misfortune by having to sit next to me with major sponsors Roger and Pam Taylor of Phoenix Classics and Carole and Mike Rolls of Mike Rolls MG Services completing the circle and, as Roche presciently observed, a special time when a Rolls and a Bentley were to be found side by side!
Having survived the meeting and greeting, the guests all came to order and MC Hammer Lowe with his rover (or should that be MG Rover) mike = which I couldn't wait to get my hands on – took charge. I could just tell a military style planning campaign was swinging into action and everyone had to obey orders! With the gagging order imposed I judged I'd not be able to say everything I felt I needed to and with the bottles of wine on the table from Patrick Cooke, I'd probably would have had trouble remembering anyway (and I'd been up at 4am to drive to RAF Hendon to engrave the National Honey Show trophies returning just before 5pm when Roche hit town about the same time). I can put in print now what I felt at the time: