Author: Webmaster South-Essex-Center

SAD NEWS – JIM ALLWORK

Carol Doore has contacted me and it is with deep regret that I have to let you know that her father, Jim Allwork, passed away on 3rd June 2026 aged 97.  We are sending our very sincere condolences to Carol & Trevor Doore and their family.

Jim & Babs rallied with South Essex for many years and attended Jack Sanderson’s Bowl Your Balls rallies for some years.  One rally I particularly remember, is when the BYB rally was held at Panfield.  On the Saturday, one of the hottest days of the year, Babs stayed out of sun watching with all of us from under the canopy and Jim played with Carol Sanderson.  They went on to win the competition and Jim was so pleased, such wonderful memories.

I am sure that many of us will have our own memories but I will always remember Jim’s lovely smile whenever we met on the rally field.

Jim & Babs also rallied with the East Kent Centre for many years and there is a tribute on their page.

Carol has let us know that her father wished for it to be a family affair and we send our love and heartfelt wishes to the family for them to remember their special memories together.

Beverley Walker                                                                                                                                    Chairlady  SECC

Changes to the Facebook group

Two announcements today. First, Kevin Piggott has kindly agreed to take on looking after the social media content on Facebook and the website. As those who know me know, I am more technical than a creative, so I will continue to handle all the behind the scenes and Kevin will concentrate on keeping the facebook content up to date and informative. So any content queries, please contact Kevin.

The second announcement is that this Facebook page will be going public in a couple of weeks time. The Caravan Club have suggested that if we make this page a public ‘Friends of South Essex’ page we could attract more people to rallying with us. As this is a private group at the moment, I wanted to give people time to find out what we are doing. ALL THE PREVIOUS POSTS will still only be visable to those who were members at the time I switch it over. The person who wrote the post, will have the ability to make it public if they want.

I feel, and have convinced the committee, that this Facebook page is a great way of showing what we do and the fun we have, so please, all those who post now, please continue posting and anyone else please join in.

If this trial period of going public causes too many problems with moderating (i.e. spam posts), I will go to plan B and switch it back to private but allow anyone to become ‘members of the group’. This will allow us to control who can post a lot easier. I hope this all makes sense.

Longest Day Rally 2026

Join us for our Longest Day Rally, taking place from 18–22 June 2026 on the scenic Rally field at the lovely caravan site, Homestead, Weeley. This is a five day rally, as requested by many members, however you can choose to stay as many nights as you wish.

Ideally situated for visiting Clacton, Walton, and Colchester, the site also benefits from public transport available just outside.

There is also a well-stocked Caravan Spares shop on site, with a 10% discount for ralliers—sure to be something in there you didn’t know you needed.

As Sunday is Father’s Day, 21 June 2026, flagpole will be held on Saturday evening.

Book online now. Our original booking system is back up and running, providing a more effective solution, easier to book, and easier for marshals to confirm—thanks to Tony Harrison Smith.

Book today to support your marshals, support your committee members, and support your Centre.

For Rally Marshals – Online Booking system changes.

First a bit of history. Last year, the software that the online system was written in was updated and that stopped our online booking system from running properly without a re-write of the program. So we bought in a simplified system where the online bookings went straight to the rally marshal and they handled replying to the raller and printing out individual booking slips.

This has not proved popular and Beverly asked me to re-write the programs so that the old system can be re-instated.

The first half of the online booking system is ready to go live. This is the bookings going into the database and then onto the marshals rather than straight to the marshals. All new bookings will go through the new system as of later today (14/5/26).

The second half is the ability to print out 4 slips per page and the weekly report showing marshals who has booked on their rally. This will be rolled out on a rally by rally basis for those already booking and available straight away for those booking from next week.

The reason for the roll out is that I have to manually enter all the previous bookings for each rally and this will take a couple of weeks or so. I will start on the rallies that are about to run and work my way through the list.

There may be a few teething problems, so please bear with me.

Tony Harrison-Smith

Webmaster.

Clare Priory changes

For those going on the Relax at Clare Priory 4th-7th June 2026 rally, please be advised that the rally is now closing at Noon on the Sunday and everyone has to be off the field by then. For more details, contact the marshals.

MID SUMMER MADNESS RALLY BOOKINGS

MID SUMMER MADNESS RALLY

3rd – 6th JULY 26

Come and join us for 3 days at White Rodings for a little Madness.

Friday to Monday

Booking available from 24 April 26

TERRY DOES NOT SEEM TO BE RECEIVING EMAILS OF PEOPLE BOOKING ON THE ABOVE RALLY EVEN THOUGH WE KNOW THEY HAVE BOOKED

IF YOU HAVE BOOKED ON, PLEASE COULD YOU EITHER PHONE (number in rally book) OR EMAIL TERRY TO LET HIM KNOW.  terry_brockman@hotmail.com.

Marshals  –  Terry & Lorraine

terry_brockman@hotmail.com    

Asst: Marshals: Toni & Roland Hooper &  Bev & Alan Walker