Moonshiners MCC

"Unplugged"

A chuffin' good rally

13th - 16th  March.   2026

    Well it's that time of year again, so without further ado it's off down to the banks of the river Severn.  The recent rain hadn't done us any favours, but fortunately the field drains well and it wasn't too muddy.   Surprisingly, for us, the control tent went up with only minimal hassle, and before long folks started booking in.  Now the plan was that everyone who booked in got a rally badge and a rally mug.   Going on previous years we ordered 125 badges and 144 mugs - thinking this would be enough, but no, for some reason quite a few more folks had pre-booked, and a good many turned up on the day.  I think the sunshine may have had something to do with the latter.   In the end, just under 150 folks had turned up, which meant sadly there were not enough badges and mugs to go around.  I do apologise for that, it was me that ordered the badges and the mugs, and it was me that underestimated how many folks would turn up.  In future I will overestimate such things, so hopefully it won't happen again.  There was a minor *issue* regarding the toilets being locked and a key fob needed to open them.  In the end I assured the gaffer of the pub that if any vandalism occurred in the toilets, then the Moonshiners MCC would bear the cost of any repairs.  Knowing that the kind of folks who attend our rally are not the kind of folks who tend to vandalise things, I felt confident with the arrangement.

    Friday night went as all good rally nights go, with folks catching up with faces they'd not seen for a while, and generally having a good time.   The pub once again put on a dedicated beer for us "Moonshiners - Chuffin' Good Rally" - this was a 3.5 % session beer, which went down very well.  As well as beer, there was food, and I have to say that every meal I had was excellent, and that includes the breakfasts too.   So being well fed and watered, it was off to bed.

    Saturday, and most people head off on the train, whilst I spent my time between the control tent, the pub, and generally looking around the field.  I suppose that doesn't really make for exciting reading, but I'm still not able to walk around much, but at least I made it to this year's rally.  The Saturday of our rally in 2025 was the day I came home from hospital.   The sunshine had certainly bought folks out, with more people booking in by the hour.  The free tea and coffee was proving as popular as ever, and we even provided a few free cakes.  We're too good to you lot sometimes.

    Saturday night and it was raffle and awards.   Now I may not have got all the names and such like correct, but you'll get the general idea.

Let's start off with "Best Bike" - and that went to Zac's Harley.

Next up is "Furthest Travelled Male" - and that went to Tony Lawson on his BMW outfit.

Some 256 miles, which is impressive, especially at this time of year.

"Rat bike" went to Ant Taylor and his Suzuki ( or at least it was once )

"Furthest travelled female" went to Mairi McConnell ( I hope that's right )

who did 188 miles to get here.

"Club Turnout" went to the Mayflower MCC

with the Rampant Squirrels and the Toads & Dogends coming close behind.

Finally, the "Best Three Wheels" went to

Daz & Trish with their Yamaha Diversion outfit.

A few photographs can be found HERE

    Thanks to all of you folks for turning up and making it a great weekend.  Thanks also to all the staff at the Unicorn who managed to cope with the extra numbers.  I don't know why we had almost double the attendance, I suppose that's just how it goes some years.  In fact we've had less than 70 folks turn up before now.  Anyroad - enough of me waffling on . . . . . . catch you in a field somewhere.

Cheers

^..^