Howard has asked me to put together this small article for the virtual rally programme.

The first thing that comes to mind is that at least John doesn’t need to worry about the grass being cut (one year it was hurriedly cut the night before, leaving mowed grass and mole hills everywhere!). Secondly Howard won’t worry about the key to the toilets for the campers. Finally we will be unaffected by rain.

ABO795 (our Ruby), has attended every single one of the South Wales Austin Seven Rallies and I see from the rally plaques I have that we started in 1977, the Queen’s Jubilee year, as part of a week long celebration near Caldicot village. So we called it the “Caldicot Castle Rally”. It attracted over 90 entrants but people used their Austin Sevens a lot more then, some of us were 43 years younger and the fact that it was near the Seven bridge also helped.

The rally moved, in 1984, to the Golden Grove pub in Carmarthenshire for two years, then we had a further two years in two locations on the Gower, before finally settling down in Bryngarw. This year moving to the virtual world!

I have stuck all my rally plaques on the side of a book shelf and all the mugs are on another shelf.  I am undecided which of these locations to put my computer on for this year’s rally!

Enjoy and thanks to the organising team

Harry Hales (Club Chairman)

Firstly a warm welcome and thank you to all of you who have made the effort to join us for this venture.

I never dreamed when I was sending out the entry forms for South Wales Austin Seven Clubs 2020 Bryngarw Rally in December and January that it would all be in vain. As a club we delayed the decision to cancel the rally, in the vain hope that we would be back to normal by June. “The best laid plans of mice and men” and like all the other Classic/Vintage Car Clubs in the UK we realised matters were beyond our control. This is the first time since 1978 that South Wales Austin Seven Club has failed to hold a conventional Rally. Perhaps this new venture is the future of the annual rally for car clubs? With this new way of doing things at least we do not have to worry about rain on Rally Day.

Although I am writing this as South Wales Austin Seven Club’s Rally Secretary, I must stress that our thanks for organising Ffotogarw must go to our club Editor, Howard Wright who came up with idea. This “virtual rally” may, hopefully, encourage many of our club members who cannot attend Bryngarw to support us with a photograph of their Austin in whatever its current condition.

Lastly a big thank you to all non SWA7C members who have joined us in this new venture.

John Williams, Bryngarw Rally Secretary.

Thanks for visiting our Ffotogarw webpage.  We just couldn’t have a real Bryngarw this year so here’s the next best thing.  A chance to “virtually” view cars that would have been at the real rally. 

We’ve displayed these in the order that they were received and Pat and Stuart Phillips have worked wonders with some web wizardry to create the slide show.

A very big thank you to all the entrants and particularly those non-members who have been regular visitors to Bryngarw.

Let’s hope that next year we will be back to normal and be able to enjoy all the other benefits a “real” Bryngarw brings.

Howard Wright