Changes

Hi all,

A few changes at Numberplates.com.

After a couple of years of sterling service, young Adam moved on to pastures new just before Christmas.

Adam played a big part in helping to develop content for the site and getting it to where it is today. We were sorry to see him leave and we hope he does well with his new project.

You may have noticed a bit of a lull with news items and blog posts etc. Sorry about that, but we've been a bit short handed - but don't panic, there's light ahead. We're about to welcome aboard a new person who will help us keep you up to date with all the latest number plates news and gossip.

Watch this space for an introduction very soon.

Er... oh... and please bear with us in the meantime. We'll do our best to keep up!

Changes

Hi all,

A few changes at Numberplates.com.

After a couple of years of sterling service, young Adam moved on to pastures new just before Christmas.

Adam played a big part in helping to develop content for the site and getting it to where it is today. We were sorry to see him leave and we hope he does well with his new project.

You may have noticed a bit of a lull with news items and blog posts etc. Sorry about that, but we've been a bit short handed - but don't panic, there's light ahead. We're about to welcome aboard a new person who will help us keep you up to date with all the latest number plates news and gossip.

Watch this space for an introduction very soon.

Er... oh... and please bear with us in the meantime. We'll do our best to keep up!

Pudsey on a plate!

As you'll no doubt be aware, the BBC's annual Children in Need fundraiser will be taking place next week and it just wouldn't be the same if we didn't jump on the bandwagon and tie in a reference to number plates somewhere along the line.

The obvious candidate, of course, is PUD 53Y, as illustrated in the picture to the right. Pudsey was introduced as Children In Need's mascot in 1985, and the live telethon has been running in its current format each year since 1980. However, annual BBC appeals for disadvantaged children have been running since 1927; at first in the form of a five-minute radio broadcast which raised £1,143 - over £27,000 by today's standards. Last year's televised show raised over £18million, but the total as of June this year stood at over £30million.

Other related number plates could include W6 GAN / WO07 GAN (Wogan) and APP 34L (Appeal).

If you would to donate to Children in Need, please visit bbc.co.uk/pudsey or phone 0845 733 2233.

08 Number Plates to hit the streets

I know, I know, we've only just had the 57 plates released, but bear with me a moment. A few of my sources tell me that the 08 number plates will be available for release by the end of the year. A couple of people in the building seem to know a thing or two about number plates, so I'll go with them on this one.

The announcement throws up a whole host of possibilities with regards to forming legible number plates from the combinations. Any four-letter word ending in 'OB' is a possibiltity - 'boob/BO08', 'slob/SL08' and 'knob/KN08' are just a few of the wonderful words you can spell on your car number plates as of March 2008.

As it happens, we did have a picture to accompany this article. In fact, I think we still do, somewhere. It involved a young, female member of staff posing with a 'BO08 JOB' number plate in a rather predictable position. That'll make you bookmark this blog.

Car registrations - Be a sport

The Rugby World Cup is over. It seems that England didn't kick the odd-shaped ball over the big H-shaped thing enough times. Well, at least now I know which one Tommy Williamson is.

We're quite a sporting lot here, as you'll have seen from our latest magazine. Luckily, there's quite a lot of sport-related car registrations available. Yes, you knew this would end up being about number plates again, didn't you? You should have realised this by looking at the name of the blog. Naughty.

On the subject of rugby, there's the rather obvious RUG 6Y available, as well as J12 TRY, R10 UGH, and, if you're feeling particularly brave, P4 NSY. Football has a much wider scope for combinations of car registrations, with 1 FC, S7 OKE, HEN 12Y, EVE 270N and V111 LLA amongst just a selection of fantastic football plates available.

In fact, sporting plates are a consistent performer in the car registrations market, and have been amongst the most popular type of registration sold for a number of years. There may be lots of Everton fans in the country - perhaps as many as twenty - but there can only be one who owns EVE 270N. It's a great way to show that you're the biggest fan of all. And no, I didn't deliberately leave two letters off the end of 'fan'.

The new magazine - it's a Stirling effort

Well, it's been a while. As much as I'd like to spin a yarn of how I've been busy fighting off a great army of lions with spears and clubs, thrashing away until the skin eroded from my knuckles, rendering me unable to blog, the truth is that nothing happens in the world of personal number plates. I mean... they're just there. Having said that, it inevitably means that in order to keep up a regular stream of blog posts, you're going to get quite an insight into the workings of my mind. I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing.

Jovialities aside, the latest issue of the Regtransfers magazine has been released, featuring exclusive interviews with British motor racing legend Sir Stirling Moss and Olympic gold medallist Tessa Sanderson. It's a perfectly-timed sporting issue, what with England's rugby team playing in their second successive World Cup Final this coming weekend. Apparently, if they kick that egg-shaped thing over the H-shaped thing more times than the other team (who may or may not be South Africa), they win. I think. Back on the subject of the magazine, you can request a copy here.

As the BBC news bulletin stated on Good Friday, 1930: "Here is the news. There is no news."

Number plates gallery revamped

Just a quick one today because someone seems to have stolen a few hours out of the day. It really should only be about 11am. If it was you, give them back. It's not big or clever - it's just childish and silly.

We're updating the gallery on Numberplates.com as we speak. It's a fairly long and tedious job, but it's certainly looking much better. There's a whole lot of new pictures to add, including ones which have been submitted to our competition over the weekend as well some photos we took in West London a little while ago. The end result will be a plethora of photos of quality number plates for you to peruse at your pleasure. If you've got any photographs of number plates, please do send them in to us.