We hosted our popular annual bike show, in conjunction with our good friends at Barnsley MAG, at the Dodworth Miners Gala, at Dodworth Miners Sports & Social Club, Dodworth, Barnsley on Sunday 1st July. In addition to Wakefield & Barnsley MAG, the Royal British Legion Riders Branch also brought along a good number of bikes on their stand.
We arrived early from 09:00 onwards and erected the Yorkshire MAG Stand shortly thereafter, which we then proceeded to populate with lots of MAG promotional material, leaflets, posters, copies of the Road magazine, together with Wakefield MAG products for sale.
The wind was an occasional problem, but with the stand well anchored down and most of the paper based stand material suitably weighted down with fairly hefty metal side stand plates, it took some fairly heavy gusts to shift stuff. Unfortunately, when it did, we all had to run around desperately trying to catch paper and leaflets before they disappeared into the sky. Fortunately, this only happened a half dozen times .... or so !!!
The weather was overcast and quite cold (well, it was only July !!!!), but although it looked like it could rain, it never actually did (unlike nearby Wakefield where it was apparently raining). With the stand set up, we then waited for the show entrants to start rolling in, which they started doing in considerable numbers after 10:00.
We had 42 bikes in the show at any one time, with many more comings and goings over the course of the day. This year, to avoid getting caught out, we had printed out a huge number of winning category certificates, from which we would choose based on what was in the show, for a maximum of 9 category wins, together with an Overall Best in Show. We had three show judges this year, with Steve (Wakefield MAG Rep), Barnsley Bob (Barnsley MAG Rep) and resident British bike expert Bill, having the very difficult task of awarding the different category winners and overall Best in Show. The decisions to be made were very close in many areas.
Several potential category winners left the show early (chap on the absolutely mint Orange Bandit please note) so couldn't be included in the judging, which is always a shame, but one person's loss is anothers gain. Those difficult decisions were eventually made and these were:
Another excellent show and we were undoubtedly the most popular attraction at the Dodworth Gala. We did amazingly well with our product sales too, with 2 bike flags, 1 bandana, 1 beanie hat, 3 patches and 4 stickers sold, making £61 for the branch funds (which gets donated then to the MAG Fighting Fund). We also took one membership renewal and sold our last remaining YPR ticket (which had been pre-booked for collection at the show). A great result. We also handed out a fair few calling cards and MAG literature, so hopefully have generated a bit of interest in MAG.
Thanks to everyone who turned up and made our Bike Show the overwhelming success it was. And of course, a big cheer to the 8 lucky show winners !!
A great team effort from Wakefield & Barnsley MAG branches.
A huge thanks goes to all our volunteer marshals who put the stand up, manned it throughout the day, helped run the show, and packed everything back up again. A huge thanks also to Leeds MAG, Colne Valley MAG, Sheffield MAG, members of York Bike Night, South Yorkshire Sidecar Club and the Royal British Legion Riders Branch for supporting us.
We will be hosting another bike show next year, so hope to see you in 2013.