Not the Alton Bus Rally and Running Day 15th July 2012

Its been a funny few days. On wednesday morning I received a text message telling me the event had been cancelled due a waterlooged field. I felt quite upset really. I have done a litlle bit of preparation for this but good friends of mine have done a whole lot more and quite frankly we were gutted. My plan for 14th July was to help out in various Rally preparation tasks but as this was not required, I looked for someting else to do. I then remembered a friend telling me about a beer festival in Tonbridge, so I looked up the details on the internet and decided to go there instead. Then thursday evening I discovered this too was cancelled due to a flooded field. Well i'm now doing some work at MHR instead.

The Alton Rally organisers were meanwhile working furiously to contact everyone who had entered vehicles, trade stands etc to inform them of the cancellation by every means possible, phone calls, emails, text messages. Over the next few days it was then decided to have a small presence at the rally site in case people turned up who didn't know about the cancellation. This has now grown and a mini event will now take place.

I was due to be selling MHR tickets at the rally site but will now be at Alton station doing that.We expect that we will still get a large number of MHR visitors anyway. I will go to help out at the rally site in the afternoon.

The information about the Alton Rally mini event is reproduced below.

Dear Visitor,

On the advice of Alton Town Council we have had to make the difficult decision to cancel the 2012 Alton Bus Rally & Running Day scheduled for Sunday 15th July 2012 due to the waterlogged field at the rally site.

Under normal circumstances the field at Anstey Park drains very well and is firm, even during wet weather. However the above average levels of rain that have fallen on Alton during the last three months have unfortunately taken their toll on the field which is now soft and unlikely to be able to withstand vehicles being driven on it.

We investigated alternative sites on hard standing in the Alton area but regrettably none were big enough for an event of our size.

We would like to thank everyone who has entered a vehicle or stall to the event or who was planning to visit the event and we apologise for any inconvenience the cancellation may cause you.

We have tried to publicise the cancellation as widely as possible and we have contacted everyone who has entered a vehicle or stall to the event by email, text or phone.

We have every intention of running next year's event on Sunday 21st July 2013 and we hope to see you there.

Kind regards,

Claire, Colin, Paul B & Paul H

Alton Bus Rally & Running Day Organising Team

Not the...

Sunday 15th July 2012

We were concerned that not everyone will find out that the event had been cancelled and some people may still turn up at Anstey Park for the event. Also some people would be in Alton for the weekend as there were bus events scheduled in Alton on both Saturday (still taking place) and Sunday. Therefore rally staff will be at Anstey Park on Sunday where there will be a few buses on display and we will be operating a limited free bus service from Anstey Park to Alton and Medstead & Four Marks Stations which will connect with Mid Hants Railway trains. The Mid Hants Railway (Watercress Line) will be operating an intensive three train service between Alton and Alresford using two steam locomotive hauled trains and a heritage Diesel Electric Multiple Unit. In addition our friends from the Medstead Depot Omnibus Group have kindly agreed to open their depot especially for us on Sunday between 10:30 and 16:30 for guided tours of the depot and the buses that are inside. Whilst we realise that this is not the Alton Bus Rally & Running Day we hope that it will provide something for anyone that turns up to see and do.

Please note that there will be very limited car parking at Anstey Park and no car parking at Medstead & Four Marks Station. You are strongly advised to park at Alton Station.