Registration Numbers Club

Holker Hall Rally 2005

The Registration Numbers Club annual rally was held, for the second year running, at Holker Hall in Cumbria over the weekend of 2/3 July 2005. Twenty four members and partners enjoyed an excellent meal at the Lymehurst Hotel in nearby Grange-over-Sands on the Saturday night and almost 80 vehicles displayed a splendid range of cherished number plates on the following, pleasantly sunny, summer day.

We were joined this year by several members of the Porsche Club, Lancashire & Cumbria region, who brought along some very nice examples of these exotic cars - most sporting very nice plates as well. One member even brought a restored vintage Porsche tractor along on a trailer. Yes, they did make tractors at one time.

The annual rally provides a meeting point for members from all over the country to get together for an informal chat, an exchange of information and to participate in a light hearted competition where members registrations are placed in different classes - best No.1 plate, best prefix plate, best name plate, farthest distance travelled, etc. - and are voted for by the members themselves. A selection of trophies are awarded to winners and a raffle, with donated prizes, helps raise funds to support the club.

We are indebted to several registration dealers for sponsorship of our not inconsiderable costs - marquee hire, site rental and trophies - and without whose financial assistance our rally could not be as successful as it is.

The cherished registrations market does seem to be currently experiencing a lull in sales and many dealers have had plates for sale for many months. Special offers abound and some real bargains are to be had at present - some dealers are even inviting you to make an offer. Do an internet search yourself and you'll see what I mean. Whether this is due to the present high street trading situation, or whether the market has become saturated, is not really clear.

One thing is sure, people generally have less spare cash due to increased mortgages and the recent hikes in council tax and energy costs. The moral could be: buy at a bargain price now before prices increase again.

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