Cruisers' Gloom

The Sunday, August 5 Mid-Summers Picnic car show by Bexhill-based 1066 Cruisers Hot Rod and Custom Car Club had been hanging in the balance.

Everything had depended on the weather showing a last-minute improvement before the planned Sunday, August 5 car show.

Club chairman Kim Freeman had warned on Saturday, July 21 that if the weather didn't improve and the show field at Horn's Corner near Catsfield did not dry out the event, which attracts hot rods, custom cars and classic American cars from across the south east, might have to be cancelled.

Now he says that following a site meeting the Cruisers' committee has decided with regret to cancel the show.

"The present condition of the show field and forecast bad weather were the determining factors."

He added: "We will be back next year - weather permitting."

The irony is that with pre-entries at a record high plus the anticipated influx of cars which turn up on spec on show day, the 1066 Cruisers had been predicting a bumper show this year.

Kim Freeman had previously warned: "Having experienced the wettest summer since the turn of the last century, the 1066 Cruisers have been anxiously daily checking the long-range assorted weather forecast.

"We are facing the worst decision we have had too make, whether to cancel the popular Custom Car Show, try other possible last-minute venues, many of which are in the same position, or like those intrepid Carry On films, 'Carry on Regardless'."

The chairman said: "It has been a realization of my worst dreams. Not in my wildest dream did I even consider that the large volume of rain we experienced recently, could have this potentially detrimental effect.

"Compared to the farmers, our problems are small. But you can't reconcile with mother nature."