The National Rally is the main focus of the Club's calendar and it's more than 10 years since we last visited Rockingham Castle. Still home to the Saunders Watson family, as it has been for over 450 years, the Castle was built on the instruction of William the Conqueror and was a royal property for more than 500 years. It is one of the few properties able to boast almost 1000 years of habitation. We have negotiated a specially reduced entry fee of £6.50 per head (from £9.50) which enables visitors to explore the castle and grounds. As well as enjoying the castle and its grounds, members will of course be able to see a wide variety of Peugeots. Just how many is up to you so please show your support and bring your Peugeot along – all conditions and ages of car/pick-up/vans are welcome. This year we will welcome special guests from the Netherlands Peugeot 404 Club who will join our National en-route to Ireland so we hope that all CPUK 404 owners will make a special effort to be there to exchange tips and experiences. Members also have the opportunity to pick-up a trophy for their pride and joy, vote for others, take part in the raffle and explore the auto-jumble. If you would like to have space to display your own auto-jumble, please let Alison know in advance. A reminder to 2012 trophy winners: please return your trophies to CPUK Chairman - Ian Kirkwood by the beginning of August.
This year our National Rally was held on the 9th September at Rockingham Castle – where does the year go? - and it was good to see so many members and guests attending some or all of the weekend After a hearty breakfast we made our way from the Castle Sleeper hotel to Rockingham to set up and on opening a steady stream of Peugeots converged on “the tilting lawn” at Rockingham Castle. A delightful venue greeted us. A large lawned area, surrounded by mature trees and leading down to the formal gardens and castle itself was a suitably impressive setting for our display of Peugeots of all ages. Plenty of space was available for the cars as well as the Club's gazebos which displayed such goodies as the trophies, the raffle prizes and a selection of nibbles to keep the wolf from the door until the Castle's cafe opened. A fine selection of vehicles were on display, ranging from Janette Horton's 1907 Lion which John drove put-putting across the grass to Roger Turner's new 508 Hybrid which sneaked silently into place on it's electric motor. Saloons, hatches, estates, cabriolets and coupes made a fine show and Rob Briggs' 202 pick-up and Rob Exell's 504 pick-up were welcome additions which together represented Peugeot's commercial output. This year we were lucky enough to have the Dutch 404 Vereniging club joining us as they passed Rockingham on their way to Wales for a week-long holiday on their “Celtic Trail” event. They had brought over 12 cars, all 03 and 04 series and the occupants looked remarkably wide-awake considering they had just disembarked from an overnight ferry! We were largely lucky with the weather. The sun initially shone but unfortunately didn't last all day and by the time of the raffle and trophy presentation, many of us were sheltering under umbrellas. Ian Kirkwood had secured two excellent raffle prizes courtesy of Peugeot Motor Company; a weekend's loan of an RCZ and a 208GTi. What an experience for a £1 investment! Amazingly, the winning ticket for the RCZ was drawn by Mike Lynch who had arrived in his – yes, you've guessed it – RCZ! He kindly put the prize back to be re-drawn. What was quite unbelievable was the fact that the replaced RCZ ticket was won by the same persom who had also had the lucky ticket for the 208Gti. There were lots of people who'd bought tickets - honestly! He too kindly relinquished one of his prizes but who would have predicted that it would have taken so many attempts before 2 'free' cars were awarded for a weekend's jaunt? All in all, the Rally was a fitting occasion to celebrate the legendary 205's 30th anniversary and it was fitting that the Car of the Show award went to Mick Huntley for his immaculate Cti. Many thanks to all those who participated and hope to see you at another event soon! 
