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Weather at Billing?/Billing reviews


Zed0

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well i whent there Thursday and camped on the farm, it pelted down all day friday and the river is on its limit, wellies are defo needed. To be honest we came home last night (friday) just had enough of it, even if it had been dry i dont think it would have been worth more than one day there. I thought the show was prett poor and we walked the hole thing in little more than an hour, it just seemed a lot less than the normal Biling, even the off road cource seemed less fun, with all the rain i would have thought it would have been a blast but sadly not.

not sure i will go next year and i normaly go every year for 4 day's..

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Yep, have to agree with you Suggs, really wasn't worth the bother. I know the organisers can't help the rain but it did seem smaller and not so well laid out (not that the layout was ever that good). Walking back to the car park at 4:30pm some of the stands had shut up shop and a lot weren't open until mid-morning.

Can't see where the improvements promised by LRM/Billing were - although granted I didn't camp or use the "facilities" so can't comment on those. Seemed to be more security around and the wristband thing was a good idea.

I think the organisers/LRM relied too much on it being "BILLING" and the only show of the summer. I really don't think they bothered about the punters at all.

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Went today, (say hi if you saw me, had my black Disco3 with a mashed up rear passengerdoor, daughter in backpack then pushchair)

I have to say I wasn't impressed one bit. The arena had very little going on and the trade stands were badly oragnised took me ages to find Kevin and buy a dash console.

Not going again, poor venue, poorly oraganised.

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well that was an experience.......

not a good experience, but an experience nonetheless.

like Tony C i had great fun getting up there- took me five hours. Was going up the A420 when they closed it.. no diversion- just closed. Then i ended up in the sticks- drove for an hour to find i was totally surrounded by a river and all 5 routes forward were blocked- saw at least 20 cars stranded. Eventually a very nice chap called Tim (who i am hoping will appear on here at some point in the future) agreed to tow the volvo through- so with air box disconnected and high revs and water over the bonnet i got through- car was absolutely fine about it- never missed a beat. having water over the bonnet was not something i would wish to experience twice in a volvo though (i did switch the engine off sharpish mind when it got that high- thank god i was on tow)

Billing was a bit of a disappointment to be honest. Parking was a nightmare- just drove round the site until someone random pointed me in the right direction- no signs- nothing.

there were a few stands around and some faintly interesting stuff- mainly from SiR and northen Chris etc and the smaller boys. i would haev gone into scrapirion for a nose but they wouldn't let me admittedly muddy dog in. aah yes the mud

now i can't blame the site management for the mud but it was not fun- up passed my size 13 boots at one point and the dog was just a ball of mud. there was no discernible layout and no map. really felt for Anton at OEC who seemed to have been allocated a puddle to trade from- he was certainly making the best of it, but it can't have helped trade.

i briefly looked in on the show ground but there was really nothing interesting going on- the most "extreme" (and i use that term carefully) thing i saw was someone driving over upturned skips. rest of the time it was quite dull.

it's really disappointing that the UKs largest LR show can't conjure up anything interesting- where were the people winching over 15ft sewer pipe? where were the comp safari boys doing some speed stuff? where was the properly difficult course with "taxis" to take people round?

the saving grace was the social side of things- really nice to see some faces outside of off road "events"

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Guest diesel_jim

I agree with ^^^^^^^

the "parking", was atrocious! the chap said to me "just follow the car in front", and we ended up nearly back in Northampton! it took about 10 minutes walk to get into the main show, which isn't much, but it is when you're carrying lots of goodies!

the annoying thing was that i saw vehicle just abandoned parked on any available bit of grass that i'd just seen driving up the A43, so having to park light years away was annoying.

and the wristband thing! i got handed it by a kid in on the main gate, so thought "ah, this must be for re-admissions", so when i eventually got into the main area, a "security" woman asked me where my wrist band was....

"in my car",

"you need it"

"well, i'm not trogging all the way back to get it!"

i picked it up when i dropped some of my goodies off, but had no hassle from not wearing it.

the show was Ok. usual stuff there, LOADS of mud! but that wasn't the organisers fault. the LR driving experience looked rather like the G4 challenge... cars driving over metalwork and stuff /yawn/

I managed to nod a "hi" to the folk on the X-Eng stand, but i had a pair of 110 galv'd side sills on my shoulder that were digging in, and with the mounting brackets in my hand i couldn't wave, but "hello" to Si and the blond haired chap that grinned and nodded at me! :D

Like Pugwash said, the A420 was shut, but as i live near there i had a bit of local knowledge, i drove around and ended up right at Acorn Bridge (where the road was flooded) it was about 2.5 feet deep! the shogun went through OK, but i felt sorry for the 3 cars that were floating there! yes, they were literally floating, the wake from me driving (carefully and slowly before anyone mentions it!) was enough to make them bob about like little floats! shame they'd left thir windows open, they were (already!) filling up with water.

Will i go next year? depends on weather... if it's sunny and dry i might! i'm glad i took my wellies today! :lol:

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Guest WALFY

Well I went up today. Left home at 0630 :o arrived at Bling at 0930. Had a bacon sarnie and cup of tea. Wandered through the mud pit. Met up with Jim ( Pugwash). Tried to find the Shires club stand. Wanderewd around a bit more. Finaly found the shires stand at the back end of beyond :angry: . Surely they should be with the rest of the clubs not tucked away.

Met Andy from ORRP. He who performs miracles with coffee/tea in 7S. Had a long chat.

Went to see Si and Nick on the X Eng stand and have a good chat.

Had a good chat and catchup with the staff of Gigglepin. Good to see them doing so well.

Went to Scrapiron to see the chaps from Iron Goat. Who I nmet in Canada last year and promised I'd meet them and return this year for some offroading. But they were out and about so missed them. Shame. Will have to mail them about going back out to Canada to go tailling with them.

Over all. What a load of pants. Perhaps because of the weather or the fact that the bloke in the arena doing the commentary was a complete T *sser. Every other word was Scorpian this Scorpian that. Get a life they are not the be all and end all of off road kit.

Will I go next year. Not sure. Depends on the weather and if some mates are going. Not the best show in the world. Definitely living on a reputation :o .

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I had a good run their and back, the mud was OK as just sploshed through, the stands were in a muddle could not find some of them, found the SLRC stand met up with Jez FF Dan etc.

Bought some springs from Si, missed Chris (Exact fab) shame as would have liked to catch up with him again.

As for the food stands what a load of carp, and the wrist bands what a joke, we arrived 5 up in my wife’s 307, drove in said I was trade with a pass and they waved me through parked up near Vinnies restaurant, walked around show for 2 hrs then took stuff back to car, then little Hitler would not let us back in because we had no wrist bands, told him we had not be issued any, he called 4 other jokers on radios and walked us up to the main gate who could not give a ****, we did get some wrist bands eventually but only 3 they did not bother about the other 2.

Worst show yet.

I bet Richard Green had a smile on his face, after seeing the weather as I think Kelmarsh would have been a wash out.

Peter

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Went up on Friday - torrential rain on the way up but at least the motorways were open in the morning.

The site was quite muddy / flooded when we got there at about 1130 - water levels in the river and the lakes were the highest I've ever seen and the Nene was on flood alert apparently. We were directed to park right near the entrance so was chuffed with that as we didn't have to walk too far!!

I had my 4 year old in tow and he'd never been - so we had to check out everything and visit all the toy / model land rover stalls on the way.... ;)

Managed to hook up with a few faces I knew Anton and Paul from OEC, Kev Baldwin (thanks again!) from Mud Stuff and had a good long chat with Frank Elson from the mag - what a lovely chap!

The weather was atrocious - I don't think it stopped raining all day and some of the traders were starting to flood - but to be fair the whole country was under a severe weather warning and the site is right by the river so there really wasn't much that the organisers could have done about that anyway. Having worked at Glastonbury this year, Billing was a doddle. Only gripe was that there were still a lot of vehicles driving around in the pedestrian / show area.

I was pleased to see more security about - we were checked in properly and given wristbands - my son was entitled to free entry but the staff gave him a blank band and a pen so that I could write his name and my mobile no. on it in case he got lost... ;)

The arena was dead whenever we went past - but again I think that was down to the weather.

Took us nearly 6 hours to get home though just south of Bristol - most of the arterial routes were shut / flooded / blocked with traffic so we just took it steady and landed back here just before midnight.

Next year I'll be camping as it was far too much to try and do in one day with a little one in tow. I thought that overall it was a good show which was let down badly by the poor weather.

Matt

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thats the thing, you cant blame the weather on anyone but normaly ill stay at the show for 3-4 days and walk around it twice a day and still find things id missed, this time we went around once then found our selfs saying we must have missed a big chunk out somewere only to find we hadnt!!

the food as far as i can tell was all run by the same outfit " Food lovers delight" and was either Jerk chicken or Burgers all looked pretty bad to be honest, what happened to the stall that sells the nice bigets and tosted sarnies. seemed to be little choice and exspensive, i dont mind paying over the top if its nice but my son payed £4 for a bacon roll and it was a lump of fat, he's a human dustbin but even he chucked it in the bin..

as white 90 says, cant see what would be there for a weekend this year, even if it had been dry i dout we would have stayed more than the day, ultimatley i was there from Thurs to Fri and the trip cost me about £300 with food fuel camping etc etc and i only spent £35 on my Landy, not to mention two days off work and im selfemployed so also lost to days money...

i think the show does live on its past rep and has now run its cource, i think next year LRO should do the new show they had planed for this year and Biling should be put to rest...

H

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thats the thing, you cant blame the weather on anyone but normaly ill stay at the show for 3-4 days and walk around it twice a day and still find things id missed, this time we went around once then found our selfs saying we must have missed a big chunk out somewere only to find we hadnt!!

the food as far as i can tell was all run by the same outfit " Food lovers delight" and was either Jerk chicken or Burgers all looked pretty bad to be honest, what happened to the stall that sells the nice bigets and tosted sarnies. seemed to be little choice and exspensive, i dont mind paying over the top if its nice but my son payed £4 for a bacon roll and it was a lump of fat, he's a human dustbin but even he chucked it in the bin..

as white 90 says, cant see what would be there for a weekend this year, even if it had been dry i dout we would have stayed more than the day, ultimatley i was there from Thurs to Fri and the trip cost me about £300 with food fuel camping etc etc and i only spent £35 on my Landy, not to mention two days off work and im selfemployed so also lost to days money...

i think the show does live on its past rep and has now run its cource, i think next year LRO should do the new show they had planed for this year and Biling should be put to rest...

:huh::huh:

H

I agree for me billing was the definitive land rover show ,we tend to judge present shows on past billing experiences we have all had some great times at billing ??? where do we go from here ?
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Brilliant show!!

Okay, so it was wet and muddy but the wellies and raincoat took care of that ;)

Let's face it - we're Land Rover people so mud is good, right? :lol:

Met some people from the forums at CRAG on Saturday - mainly from Land Rover Addict and LRUK - but what a great bunch of folks :D

The ORRP-ers were in fine form, as ever, last night and I had great chats with some of the magazine folk in the beer tent.

Was talking to Anton and Trevor at OEC as well as Dave Marsh at Qt and Derick at LRS Offroad - these guys know their stuff ;) I wish I could've spent more time there today - just couldn't get round everyone.

Poetic justice to see Scorpion in the middle of a lake :D

I'll be back next year - LRM have done a great job and are much more genuine folk than the previous organisers.

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Dave

what would you say that has been done then?

the stalls as I saw it were oddly placed with fronts then backs next to each other

widely spaced out to give the impression of a larger event.

some club stands on their own with others lined up.

loads of vehicles driving along the access roads.

no extra toilets that I saw.

goods being stolen from the traders (survival essentials) we knew by kids on the morning it opened.

we left the site at 1249 after entering at 1000 and having seen all the stalls a couple of times at least.

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No - I've been before in '99 '00 '02 '05 and '06 - if I remember correctly.

This was my 5th time.

White 90 - I reckon some of the odd stall arrangement you noted was probably due to no-shows; but who knows/cares - the key players were there and were overall happy with the show, given the weather.

With better weather next year, the 60th Anniversary Billing should be a blast ;)

If the weather is the same it will be a splash and a splosh :D

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Just had iain (Dreadnought110) on the phone he was called down to billing this afternoon to recover his works trade stand! Apparently the site is awfull and all exhibitors struggling to leave and the organisers have washed their hands of them!!! Pictures to follow when he gets home!

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I've just got back.

The site is a mess, Vans were stuck, quite a lot of stalls were sat in 4" of mud and water. I was there from Thursday and it rained pretty much constantly. It definitely seemed quieter than previous years in terms of trade stands, there wasn't really anything that interesting. It was good to chat to Si though, and meet Fridge and Jez.

Today saw the best weather of the weekend, which was very welcome.

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I had a laugh and even the misses could see the funny side of the constant rain it was nice to be able to camp in a decent size space and seemed very well organised on that side even if the camping baliff bloke was an officious tw*t

I felt sorry for the traders as the kit they did put out got trashed by the mud and rain.

Yes the food was dire

I got there Thursday and left Sat PM as weather was due to get worst an we ran out of dry clothes and the Dogs were fed up with being completely wet all the time and had trouble getting them out of the caravan.

Nice to see the shires, Freelander club, Gigglepin, North, Bearmach and loads of other old friends I only get to see at Billing

all the people that were suppose to collect stuff didn't bother to phone or collect there stuff

I still find it funny seeing people aimlessly driving round obviously showing off :rolleyes:

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I was there from Thursday and had a good time, mainly because I was in very good company!

The site was extremely wet and muddy:

2007_0721billing_07_0147.jpg

2007_0721billing_07_0151.jpg

...and the show was a lot smaller than in previous years, but at least the toilets and showers felt adequate for the numbers this time. Which was just as well, because the only sign of the promised improvements in those areas was a couple of uncompleted shower blocks which looked to be converted static caravans.

The demarcated camping spaces were a big improvement on previous years. Unfortunately I had a large Irish family with feral children on one side, but I suppose someone had to be next to them. That aside, there didn't seem to be as much pond life around - compared to previous years, I saw very few people driving pointlessly around at night or starting up barried end of life Range Rovers every half hour in order to rev the nuts off them. I guess all those sorts of people must be very loyal to LRE :D

Finally, here's a picture of Scrapiron's bridge of waffles. They just had to have a bigger one than anyone else, didn't they? :lol:

2007_0721billing_07_0114.jpg

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this was the farmers field on Friday, standered vehicles were struggling to get about..

The field was a lot worse than that today, I was camped just to the left of your photo, in the DOC area. caravans and vehicles with road tyres were being towed out with the farmer's fastrac.

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Finally, here's a picture of Scrapiron's bridge of waffles. They just had to have a bigger one than anyone else, didn't they? :lol:

2007_0721billing_07_0114.jpg

Like the posh "scorpion extreme barrier system" as seen (and stolen off) hundreds of building sites -should have been orange really :lol:

Was the plan to prevent small innovative companies sneaking in and trying to nick all their unique ideas and producing them cheaper and of inferior quality? :rolleyes:

or was it more of a you're not bling enough, you're not coming in sort of thing? :ph34r:

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Spent 3 days there, everything got wet and muddy but the Mrs., the dogs and I had a good time.

Marking out of camping emplacements is a vast improvement.

Plenty of carrymores around for rubbish. Much better.

Cleaners struggled to keep up with the muddy toilets but did their best.

I think numbers were down due to the weather, I think we'd have seen far more people had we been in a heatwave.

I thought that there were plenty of dealers, the missing ones were the non-landy ones, which in my opinion is a blessing.

I think it's completely unfair to judge and slate the show on the basis of a two hour visit on Friday morning. It is and always has been far more than a trade fair, it has a huge social side to it too.

Those who went and made the best of what they had and the circumstances they were in and still had a good time are what the show is all about :)

Just my tuppenceworth

Mo

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Agree with some of the comments saying some of the stands were closed but it really was so horrible - would you put all your carefully chosen stuff for sale out in a foot of mud?

I loved the fact that you had to look around to find the stalls you wanted - I have been moaning for years that every year it was the same layout and nothing new I spent ages wandering about looking at the stands and even I saw loads of things to buy. (no not clothes!)

I think anyone who went on Friday probably saw less as many of the stands were closed up - but what would you do in the pouring rain with the busiest days to go? :unsure:

I have been going for years and it is the first time we have been really enthusiastic about it! Apart from the food which was revolting and I only had a crepe which to be fair is not that hard to make....

Definitely loads better than LRW which you could get round in about 10 mins!

Vic

(Juls wife)

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