The past year has been dominated by the 50th Anniversary celebrations of the Austin Healey marque. For Thames Valley Centre, these kicked off with the Classic Motor Show at Alexandra Palace in March, but really came to fruition at the end of July with the week-long programme of festivities culminating in the two day festival at Thruxton. It's been a wonderful year!

The birth of the marque at the London Motor Show in 1952 gave us a natural theme for this year's Classic Motor Show at Alexandra Palace. Our objective was to recreate the Healey Hundred exhibit from the 1952 show, and though we say it ourselves, we thought we did rather well. Plenty of detective work was required to establish the "look" of the stand. Surviving photographs allowed us to authenticate the general appearance despite the confusion caused apparent changes to the layout through the course of the 1952 show - no two photographs seems to be entirely consistent! Signage was another key issue. Once again photographs provided clues, but none were detailed enough to reveal the whole story, so we had to rely on reasoning and deduction to fill in the gaps. However, the stand itself really took second place to the car, and we were fortunate indeed that Neil Williams of Eastern Centre volunteered his wonderful 1953 ice blue BN1 to form the centrepiece of our exhibit. The icing on the cake was a visit by Stirling Moss who generously posed for photographs, signed autographs and shared his reminiscences of racing Sprites in days gone by. Memorable stuff!

The international AH50 celebrations themselves were centred on Wokefield Park near Reading, right in the heart of Thames Valley country, so it was especially pleasing to see so many members turn up to enjoy the various events through the course of the week from 28th July to 3rd August. Thanks to the efforts of the national organising committee, we witnessed one of the greatest ever international gatherings of the Austin Healey Club, being variously treated to the extremes of the English weather, thrilled by the quality of the racing at Thruxton, astonished by that unique exhibition of historic Austin Healeys, bowled over by the warmth of the friendship generated between the various nationalities, and finally relieved that it all went more or less according to plan. Many of you lent a hand at some time during the course of the week, while others gave their support by taking part, so it has to be sincere thanks to everyone who took part.

The rest of the year was relatively 'normal' by comparison, but no less important to all of us. Our events calendar kicked off in April with one of a series of occasional Sunday lunchtime meetings, this time at a pub in Woolhampton. The turnout may have been low - but they were a select bunch! The next event was a Treasure Hunt in mid May organised by Norman Truscott. It was a nice day and Norman's efforts were rewarded by an excellent entry, all of whom found their way to the finish. This was followed by another Sunday lunchtime meeting near Henley in June.

The August bank holiday Monday found Thames Valley Centre lending support to the MG Car Club's Car Show and Fete at Abingdon, always an enjoyable event. I'm pleased to say we had a good turn out of Austin Healeys to continue our 50th birthday celebrations, including appearances by Don Morley and Mike Garton who used to rally and race Big and Little Healeys respectively. Thanks are due to David Plews who volunteered his services on the day to get our cavalcade together. Sorry I was late!!

The year was rounded off by an enjoyable Quiz Night - courtesy of Rob Fenton - at the "Queens Oak" at the beginning of October, followed two weeks later by another Sunday lunchtime gathering, this time at the Ace Café on the North Circular Road in London. Unfortunately, the weather for the Ace Café meeting was absolutely foul which rather curtailed the turnout, so we must try again next year.

Finally, let me close by expressing the Club's thanks to my fellow Thames Valley committee members for all their efforts through the year. In particular, I must mention Norman Truscott who has expressed a desire to retire from the Treasury this year after several year's of dedicated service. Thanks also to Alan Cross who joined us to lead the continuing development of Thames Valley's web site and who has established an email address list for all interested parties so we can improve our ability to communicate quickly and effectively. Alan has put a lot of effort into both ventures, and I'm sure the Centre will reap the benefits more and more in the years ahead.

Here's to 2003!

Nigel Unsworth, Chairman.

Annual Review of 2001 HERE