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Weather at Billing?/Billing reviews


Zed0

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well after talking to my employer... they aren't impressed with the new organisation nobody cared for the trade stands?? and blimey was it a mud bath though it was good fun watching people use any method of getting off!! even towing a laden 130 with caravan with a disco towing an ifor williams trailer!! :hysterical::rolleyes::rolleyes:

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Went today - mud wasn't as bad as I expected, given the weather recently. Ended up parking the pug in the back of beyond then tried to take the range rover back to the show ground to deliver it to Jez and Zuzana on the shires stand. Thought we might have to wait for someone to come out with a permit (although apparently they weren't bothering to check them earlier in the weekend), but wasn't expecting to get turned back before we even got there by a couple of marshals who'd been told not to let any more vehicles into the showground even if they did have permits (apparently because there were too many in there already). Back to the parking area on the opposite side of the several hundred static caravans and walk back...

Wandered through the show ground, which was, as others have said, fairly uninspiring, and found the shires tucked away in a corner. Met Jez, Zuzana, Jon and Nay (and a couple of other shires people I didn't recognise - so sorry if you're on here and I should have!). After a cup of coffee we wandered across to the X-Eng stand to pick up the welder Si was minding for me (thanks Si) - didn't really talk as he was doing a brisk trade and we were heading back to the car park half way to Northampton with Zuzana to get the Range Rover... I think Zuzana, armed with an exhibitors wristband and permit did manage to get the truck back to the shires, but by this point we'd had quite enough of route marching in wellies and decided we couldn't be bothered returning to the show ground.

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Am I reading the right forum? Are landrover owners worried about mud? Are we going there for traders or do we have friends we can speak to or even better meet new people? Boys , give me a break, I had a great time, bought loads of bits and pieces and saw loads of interesting things.

Dont park at billing, park outside and walk in

Wristband? :ph34r::lol:

Daan

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I think it was the weather that killed it. It was a good day today, just that we still had the mud. I went over to the SLRC on the saturday night.

It went ok for us (CRAG), untill I was leaving and a motorbike rode into me. He said it was my fault and I said not, but anyway, I said I would would swap details for the insurance to sort it out. This is whay he said "Do I look like I have f***ing insurance" So I left him there with a smashed up bike and me with a dented wing.

Paul

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My first Billing, so nothing to compare it to, but we loved it!!

Yes, the mud was awful, and traders were getting peed off. Silverline shut up shop on Sunday morning and I couldn't blame them. Brunel's stand was a washout - my 110 was there having her intercooler fitted at the time. But Jon moved and all was well again.

Toilets and showers were better than I expected and a credit to the cleaners who never seemed to be away from them.

Didn't see all the stands in 2 days there. We missed a fair bit. Plenty to look forward to next year then!!

For me, the best bit was juist walking round the campsite in the evening looking at all the LR's. None were the same. Very relaxed and friendly.

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I really enjoyed it.

With the weather and mud - it seemed to remove the need to see every stand, examine every car, and get the best bargain, and concentrate on the social side.

Friday lunchtime was a bit of a low though with the weather.

I though it was ironic that the one stand I couldn't be bother to trek though the mud to, was Trailmasters - they were well flooded, and must be hoping bad luck doesn't come in three's.

I did get a really nice ali hawse for £20 which I was well chuffed with.

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we had fun - met lots of really nice people enjoyed great company lurking on the Shire stand (with the obvious exception of Moglite :lol:) , lots of people to say hello to and assault with a variety of truly obnoxious (and possibly illegal) eastern european liquids (sorry about that :blink: )

apologies to anyone for hangovers/possible blindness/dog slobber/talking carp we may have caused :)

mega star of the weekend has to be Geoff - thanks mate, we will look after her :)

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i have to say theres a lot of people moaning about the show but i think your missing the point. i was there from thursday to sunday had a fantastic time only saw half the show but that was mainly due to a broken ankle in plaster so i spent nearly all weekend sat in the shire shed but then i did go for the social side any way. many thanks to all those that helped me out trust me crutches and wheel chairs are interesting in that much mud but i don't care i loved it. a special thanks to top secert dave for giving me a lift and towing the club trailer.

see you all next year (two working legs with a bit of luck)

mike

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We had a great time. I got to meet loads of the offroaders Si talks about meeting at events, its always good to put faces to names.

Its also good to get positive feedback about the products and thoughts on modifications. The black X-lites seemed to go down well and Rogue Vogues rangey sparked a load of interest in the springs.

We got off lightly with the weather where we were I think, at least we weren't ever under water, although I aspire to a big waffle bridge of our own one day.

Apologies to those I may have offended during a heated discussion about my squashed box (!!?!!) I look forward to meeting you all again soon, hopefully when I may be sober enough to remember all your names. Si seemed to make big friends with Dans dog despite him stealing Si's chair and covering him in mud

Sarah R

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Was there on Friday all day 9am till 9pm, Wet and miserable but can not blame the organisers for that.

Sunday afternoon, weather was good, morale a lot better,

Clothes stands packed up on Friday as stock was being ruined, can't blame them either!

It seems to me that the only real criticisms I can find rest firmly on the head of Billing site it's self!

None of the security / gate staff new anything, or seemed to care one little bit about what was going on, no one gave a toss whether you had a car pass or not, or even a ticket! They let anyone in and had no concern what so ever!

Looked like they were Mildly miffed off with either the showground owners, or their jobs or both, some little Hitlers occasionally picked on someone trying to get from the camp site, over the bridges to the show ground and gave them a hard time before just letting them through anyway :angry:

Toilets as clean as possible considering the conditions.

Flooded stands ignored and no attempt made to help, (this SHOULD have been done by LRM) some people went out themselves and arranged hay bales to be delivered, not hard for the organizers to have done this!

But on the whole not much different than previous years, would not say it was any worse or better just different in different areas.

The biggest thing I would do though is use as litte Billing staff as I possibly could.

Lara.

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Twas good fun, good to meet up with forumers and such like, and watching Jez & Dan wandering round in a state of extreme refreshment was great spectator sport. :lol:

The quality of the event for me was mainly down to the people there - the organisation and "show" was as lackluster as ever. Yes we are all off-roaders and can cope with a bit of mud, but if I was trading I'd be p*ssed with the organisers for basically watching half of the stalls sink in the mire. At Glasto they had tractors loaded with hay bales doing the rounds non-stop 24/7 keeping the traders afloat and the main paths passable, and tractors with tankers pumping out the worst cases to keep the mud & water at bay. I saw one golf buggy with one hay bale at Billing, I think they maybe put 10 or 20 bales out throughout the whole site. Surely they could do better than that <_<

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I had a good day spending lots of cash and meeting some heroes

Thanks in no particular order:

Mr & Mrs Jez for making me feel most welcome, Fridge and Moglite for more of the same, SimonR for his generosity and understanding, Paul Wightman for spending a good half hour discussing the finer points of UK offroading with two geeky oiks he'd never met before, dirtydiesel for going above and beyond (I owe you in a big way), Neil Whitford for conning me into entering comps agianst the big boys, Gigglepin 4x4 for some bargains, and my mate Si for putting up with yet more abuse in the line of friendship

Oh yeah, the weather; wear wellies and all your problems are solved

Lewis :)

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Surely they could do better than that <_<

They did pump 16,000 gallons of water out of the main trading area during Friday night, but agreed we could have done with the straw bales on Saturday to try and prevent the mud getting churned up under foot, by time it arrived on Sunday all it was good for was building a straw 'crust' on top of the mud.

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I was there from thurs to sun with Landyman luke and a few others my first time and i thought it was good, ok walking round the show was fun ;) and i didnt see anything that really caught my eye but it was good to look at a few trucks wanted to eye up.

I was the lanky streak of pi$$ with luke so hi to jez, fridge and si (anyone else i may have met on saturday morning when i was a little hungover :lol: )

Enjoyed haggling at the mud stand and i think the campsite entertainment was brilliant, hi light for me was watching a corsa crawl past a p38 showering it with 30ft roostertails and finaly making out B)

I must say the social aspect was much betterbut that is what i go to events for if i want to buy something i ring companys or go online.

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What you really need is a big blue tarp to keep you and the drinks dry :D

We had a really nice time despite the weather, socialising in the Shires stand. Got a lift with John whos classic restoration vehicle was creating a lot of interest :D , Mike made a nice cuppa, Naomi supplied the chocolate and ivy, Dave seemed to take great care of my little dog Lennox (cough, cough), Lennox was licking and depositing fur on anybody who came close, Jez was giving away free samples of vodka with great results :wacko: , Andy kept blaming the smell on dog :moglite: , and the others just chilled and looked the part .

Left the stand for about an hour to look around but for us it was more about socialising and meeting friends again

And I drove away in my nice new shinny Range Rover so I was more than happy :i-m_so_happy:

Zuz

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