Land Rover Monthly – October 2019

BILLING OFF-ROAD SHOW 2019

The showofficiallystarted on theSatur-

day, but thecampingfi elds set within the

glorious Northamptonshirecountryside,

were fi lling upby the Friday morning–

and some keen beanseven arrivedat the

start of the week.

I arrivedat lunchtime on theFriday, set

up camp (Ed: what he meantto say was

parked hiscaravan) and had a slowwalk

around, asexhibitorswere busysetting

up. The beertent, whichwas obviously

openat this stage was well-stocked with

localreal ales. So I stoppedfor a cheeky

pint before continuingmy walk.

The Riversideoff-road course was

already in fullswing on theFriday – the

Lakeside course only openedexclusively

for theSaturday and Sunday. It was gr eat

to see fr eshly-mudded LandRovers head-

ing back to the campsite in theevening,

ready to take on Lakeside the next day.

Billing isworld-renownedfor its off-

road course, which as manyof you know

Brilliant Billing

Steve Millerreports from his caravan parked up

at a sunny and muddy Billing

That’s one way

to cool down

has been running on this sitefor over

25 years. This year theexcellent off-road

enthusiasts were once againexpertly

managedby the many marshals and

judgingby the smilesof the drivers,

everyone has having a great time.Regu-

lar showgoers and LRMreaders know

the chief marshal, CharlieThorn. This

year Charliecouldn’t make the show

due to illness and we look forwardto

seeing himfi t andwell for 2020. Charlie

worked hard behind thescenes prior

to the show but hadto handover the

chief marshalreins to Barry Holt and

Matt Drew, who, along with theirteam,

did anexcellent job. Dueto the heavy

rainfall priorto the show, water le vels

had dramatically increased andcaught

several petrol engine LandRovers out. I

saw a well-and-trulystuck 101Forwar d

Control!The in famous mud run howeve r

made most people look likeoff-road

drivinggods as itwasn’t astough as

100 LANDROVER MONTHLY

T

HIS was the third

hosting of the Billing

Off-Ro ad Show and

no one willever forget

the 2018version for

two reasons.Firstly it

was the hottest sum-

mer ever. Secondly

we set a Guinness World Record for

the longest parade of LandRovers

ever. The official numberfor therecord

set is 640 thoughwe had nearly 1000

LandRovers in theattempt. Topping

that effort would be near impossible...

Still the organiser s, Richard and

Sarah Arr owsmith,worked tirelessly,

along with theirsons Edward, Julian,

and daughter Imogento try and ensure

that 2019was no anti-climax. Ican

confidently declare it most certainly

wasn’t. As afamily-organised show,

they certainly know howto look after

theirweekend and day visitors.