Andrew and Hilary Murfin organised a splendid day of celebrations to mark the 10^th anniversary of the current South Yorkshire Natter on Sunday 18^th February, but before I tell you about that, pour a drink and let me bore you with a potted history of the Natter so far.

How it all started
The beginnings came about when Brian Lewis, Chairman of the then North East Centre, (later changed to the Yorkshire Centre), set himself a target to re establish a Natter group in the South of our area and had published in Safety Fast! a letter asking for people to come forward and get the ball rolling. I thought about this for a little while, on the one hand I wanted to have a local natter, but on the other hand I was well aware of the hard work and time commitment necessary to establish a new group.

If you want something good to come out you have to make a contribution, so off went a letter to Brian volunteering to help start a new Natter. After searching around for a suitable venue we decided on a start date of the fourth Wednesday in February at the Mason’s Arms in Thorpe Hesley. The inaugural meeting took us by surprise when forty seven members turned up and queued outside the door of the small TV lounge.

Clearly there was a need for a new natter!

Brian welcomed everyone in and I agreed to become the Natter Leader. Over the next few months with numbers fluctuating, we received invaluable help and support from Brian and Val Lewis, Bob and Lynne Douglas, Tony and Margaret Whitworth and the MG world’s universal friend, Alan Dakeyne, all experienced Centre organisers.

The Natter Leaders
For the first three years I took on this job myself, but we all agreed for various reasons to have a change of Natter Leader every two years – no job for life!

For the next two years Pete Long handled the job and put in a lot of hard work keeping everyone informed of what was going on and organising our part in Centre events.

Pete handed over to Keith Pinder, who organised our meetings really well and used his sense of humour to great effect in the public speaking part of the role.

Mike Breedon came next, fitting the task in expertly between his working commitments that took him overseas quite often and at short notice. Mike always made sure the Natter was sorted before disappearing on another trip.

Our current Natter Leader is Andrew Murfin who has taken to the role with great enthusiasm and created a 10^th Anniversary event to be remembered. Andrew’s organisation and polished public speaking have become features of his first year in office.

The Venues
We started out at the Mason’s Arms in Thorpe Hesley and this venue served us well for quite some time. The Landlord and Landlady provided good food and good beer and iced the cake by displaying hand drawn sketches of various MG models around the room we used. The natter was soon growing too big for this venue and after the Landlord retired we moved on to the roomier facilities at the Wortley Arms in Wortley. Our own room upstairs offered us scope to have talks; slideshows etc and invite visitors to our Natter nights. Alas, at short notice the pub went the way of many and was closed for a few months for refurbishment and restaurant conversion, obliging us to find new premises quickly.

Our current home at the Spencer Arms in Cawthorne came to the rescue and again provided us with an upstairs room, good food and a warm welcome.

The Highs
In ten years of thriving and growing there have been many highs and to mention them all would be a marathon, but here are a few of the basics:

Runs have always been popular and our first run took us from Thrybergh Country Park one evening around the local area and finished at the Black Lion in Firbeck.

Since then there have been countless runs local and overseas including Le Mans, European Events of the Year and the extra special European Tour in 2004 organised by Keith and Eileen Pinder, covering on average 2,500 miles in two weeks.

New Year’s Day has become firmly fixed in the calendar for a social run usually starting with breakfast at Langsett.

Just after the natter came into being the Compass Run was initiated by Stuart Mumby of East Yorkshire bringing together all four natters from their start area to finish together at a chosen venue and South Yorkshire has supported this joint event every year.

These runs helped to forge South Yorkshire’s reputation as ”Motoring Gannets” when almost all started with or finished with, (and often both) a meal.

The South Yorkshire Fun weekend evolved as a camping event and provided us with an opportunity to have social events on the Saturday and car events on the Sunday. The weekends have often had a theme and have included diverse subjects from the Alternative Olympics, the Battle of Trafalgar and to the Year of the Dog. The social events part has included a touring party bus, a canal cruise and an evening’s greyhound racing. The car events have given us treasure hunts, pride of ownership and naviscats.

Quizzes are prominent in natter nights and many have been held over the years where a trophy has been won together with the “honour” of setting the next quiz.  The natter went on to donate the Patrick Heap memorial trophy to the Yorkshire Centre to be presented to the winning team in the Inter Natter Quiz.

There have been many inter natter and a few inter club challenges. Ten Pin bowling was popular for a while and SY usually won the inter natter nights.  Indoor karting was another area for success for the SY team. Racing in endurance events SY proved victorious on each occasion between natters. Inter Club karting events, Indoor and Outdoor, organised by the Alfa Romeo Owners Club also provided us with an outright win, keeping the MG flag to the fore against other clubs.

Natter members, under the guidance of team manager and South Yorkshire member Mike Breedon helped in the pit lane when Ecurie Safety Fast! became the outright winners of the Birkett 6 Hour Relay race in 2003.

There have been visits to various places of interest including an MG factory tour at Longbridge, Classic Car Show at the NEC and later this year there will be a weekend visit to Stratford Upon Avon.

South Yorkshire’s Christmas celebrations have always had a “different” take on the meal, ignoring the traditional turkey stuff the natter has set about alternative Christmas fare and visited Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish and even English themed restaurants for our festivities.

The Lows
Mercifully there have been few. Over the ten years we have faced the passing of two members. The first was Peter Carrigan who had joined the Club after purchasing a convertible Magnette which he was putting some finishing touches to. Peter only managed a few visits to the natter and had not quite finished the car when he passed away suddenly. In a twist of fate this unique car did turn up a couple of years later with “new to MG” owners John & Shirley Gibson who joined our natter.

The second was Patrick Heap, who with the rest of his family was a staunch and popular supporter of the natter. Patrick was a quiz fan and on first joining us he helped SY win the Inter Natter Quiz. After his passing the natter provided a trophy for the Quiz in his memory.

The Features
The natter has provided a broad spectrum of interest for members with people active at various times in racing, rallying, sprinting, hillclimbing, autotests, marshalling, show cars, touring, social events and universally, eating.

The natter has regalia with the Yorkshire Centre logo and customised South Yorkshire add ons worn proudly at all events.

There has always been tremendous help and support between members old and new with advice, shared experiences and practical assistance.  By far the most appreciated feature of this natter has been the comradeship, friendliness and overall willingness of everyone to “muck in” and make our events the pleasure they are.

The Anniversary Celebrations
Still with me?  Good, here is the report of the Anniversary event I promised you.

The celebrations day was the 18^th February 2007 and we all gathered at our current natter venue, the Spencer Arms at Cawthorne in the morning. There to greet us was ample supplies of coffee, tea and mince pies, yes; they have got to know us well by now.

Andrew and Hilary had plotted a scenic run to take us to the second of our natter venues, the Wortley Arms at Wortley. But what’s that saying about the best laid plans of mice and men? After a few miles of country roads and excellent scenery Andrew’s run was thwarted, the first of our entrants, Tom & Louise, were stopped on a narrow lane. “You can’t come along here today,” said the workman, “we have to repair this telegraph pole and need to close the road” By this time a dozen more MGs had caught up and began to perform a U turn en masse. But which way now? We pulled over into a nearby pub car park to sort out the way when a young lady in a Citroen stopped her car and said “Are you going to the Wortley? Do you know the way?” It turned out that the young lady worked at the Wortley and was expecting a convoy of MGs, how is that for fate?

We gratefully tagged along behind the damsel not in distress and arrived at the Wortley in good time. Here we were served with more refreshments while our Natter Leader, Andrew, judged a Concours D’ Etat for the engine bays in the car park.

Off we went again by scenic route, this time without detour to the scene of our first natter ten years ago, the Mason’s Arms at Thorpe Hesley. Joining us here from their home in Lincolnshire were Tony and Margaret Whitworth, old friends of the natter and Tony a former Chairman of the Yorkshire Centre.

Champagne (or soft drinks) awaited our arrival, together with pork pies (well this is Yorkshire) to keep us going until our next gastronomic treat.

We had a nostalgic roam about inside the rooms we had used originally at the Mason’s and were pleased to see they still hung sketches of MGs on the wall of “our” room. The membership has grown since those days and the room seemed incredibly small to us now.

Mason's Arms, Thorpe Hesley
click on pictures to enlarge

That one completed the tour of our natter venues and next stop was the Whitley Hall Hotel where Andrew and Hilary had arranged a really good lunch for us.  First job though was various photo calls in the car park as all the MGs arrived, the final display causing some attraction to other people at the restaurant.

The lunch was served in a private room, just right for the numbers there. Andrew at several points before, during and after the meal got to his feet to keep us all informed of the day’s happenings.

Andrew announced the results of the Concours D’Etat, best MG engine bay was won by Ron’s TD and best non MG by Marjorie’s Freelander.

There followed an excellent speech by Hilary who said a few words about her observations of the natter and some individuals within the natter. It was to these individuals that Hilary presented a specially made pin badge with the Centre logo and the words “South Natter Founder”, a gift really appreciated by the recipients.

			Marjorie	Ron
Mike	Pete	Geoff	Pauline	Eileen
Keith	Graham	Sharon

Whitley Hall Hotel - Lunch and presentations
click on pictures to enlarge

Finally, a draw was made when all the bottles of wine from Brian and Val’s kind donation and a few more besides found good homes and no one went home empty handed.

The whole event was a truly memorable one, superbly organised by Andrew and Hilary Murfin who worked hard for several months for the rest of us to enjoy.

Mike Breedon spoke for all of us by thanking them both at the end of the afternoon.

by Geoff Norcliffe