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Ponderosa War Weekend


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Spent the majority of today at Ponderosa but left a little before the end as the weather had turned bad for a short while and I had seen everything that I had wanted to.

 

This was a new event for me and it was good to see a number of different vehicles while I must say well done to all those that helped build the site up ready for the event, the wartime village looked great!

 

It's also interesting to see how different shows do different things with the top part of the arena being closed up while the vehicles were trundling around the arena but then it being opened again to let you take a closer look at things. Also liked that there always seemed to be something on in the arena with the different re-enactors all taking turns to attack each other.

 

Below are a few pictures today starting with the smaller/medium vehicles.

 

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Tar for the pictures I went as well on Sunday and had intended to take some pictures after I had some grub. It started raining while I was eating met Rick aka eddy8men listened to his tales of woe. Say no more if he wants add anything I'm sure he will

 

Here are a few more, will post up some more later on as it's dinner time now :D

 

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As you can see there were some very nice vehicles in attendance.

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There was indeed. A thousand thank you's to Stuart who must have put many hours and many gallons of midnight oil in the process of organising it. Hopefully one day we will have an event to equal Beltring in the North and judging by how this one has grown, this could well be it in years to come...

Very impressed with all the exhibits, came in the Zil on Saturday and Bernadette on the Sunday. The M18 Hellcats were fantastic to hear and see in particular.:)

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Is anybody else having trouble uploading pictures ? I have been trying for the last half hour to no avail ???
not sure if its related but I am finding the site very slow tonight. Its taking ages to refresh pages :-(
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A cracking show, well done Stu and everyone else involved in putting it on. Shame on those who promised support but didn't show up, the loss was their's as they will be lucky to find another one up here to match this weekends event. I'll post some pics once I've had chance to sort through them. Good to put some faces to names from off here too.

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Where's my Ferret :-)

 

Yes, it was a really great event, thoroughly enjoyed it! Weather couldn't make up it's mind but we got plenty of doses of Hot sun. Great battles and Pyrotechnics, after seiving earth out of my beer that is :-)

 

Great to meet a few guys from the forum, Ferretkitt, Berna, Bob and timbo to mention a few names (In no particular order :-D)

 

MT

Edited by Toolman
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Where's my Ferret :-)

 

Yes, it was a really great event, thoroughly enjoyed it! Weather couldn't make up it's mind but we got plenty of doses of Hot sun. Great battles and Pyrotechnics, after seiving earth out of my beer that is :-)

 

Great to meet a few guys from the forum, Ferretkitt, Berna and timbo to mention a few names (In no particular order :-D)

 

MT

 

Here you go Matt, along with a few more of my shots. I was going to say hello but everytime I came past you were talking to someone so thought it might be rude to interrupt you. Then the rain came so I decided it was time to go home.

 

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Scott

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This was a nice event...i made it along with the wife sunday afternoon for a couple of hours....

 

Only 1 Land Rover which is unusual but i guess they cant be at every show...mind you, lots of Jeeps as always..:)

 

weather was a bit hit & miss but enjoyed it none the less...

 

i got a few photos too... will try and get them on later...

 

cheers

 

Mike

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Went along with the family on Saturday and had a good time. What set the show apart from others I've been to, where vehicles tend to be static, was the action in the arena. Seeing and hearing tanks move is a lot more impressive than seeing them sat still.

 

The commentator in the arena did a fine job had plenty to say and seemed to know his stuff, well done that man.

 

Well done also the the re-enactors and whoever else set up all the mock buildings, trenches and bunkers in the arena, there must have been a fair amount of work in that.

 

The only downside was that some vehicles were out of bounds to viewing for large portions of the time due to the events in the arena, even if they weren't taking part at the time. But I don't suppose you can have the vehicle movements and people around at the same time. Not sure they had the 130 advertised vehicles there but I wasn't there on both days so can't be sure.

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Hi All,

 

First of all a very big thank you to all the military vehicle owner's,re-enactors,stall holder's, piro team's & all the helper's that turned up on the day/day's to help.Lastly to all the staff at Ponderosa who have worked tirelessly.Probably due to the heavy rain on friday, the vehicle number's were well down with the amount that were booked in 214.We were well up on last year's figures with 127 on both day's.Stormin i believe you answered your own question there :-D But as one vehicle owner said to me, it's not the quantity it's the quality.We defo had quality with 36 British ww2 vehicles inc anti tank guns & heavy artillery.A rare D2 cat dozer,US6 studebaker truck & two Russian PT76 tanks on their first outing's.A good number of ww2 armour inc a M24 Chaffee,two M18 Hellcats, German Marder tank (not a 432 copy) four halftracks inc a very rare complete M14 halftrack,two daimler dingos.It's always good to see a saladin armoured car displayed with two very well restored ferrets.The highlight's for me was seeing my good friend Simon's AEC militant pulling the other 5.5" howitzer & Ken & Adam driving the cat D2 around the arena with Adam being applauded by all the armoured guy's.The ww2 armour driving & firing display around the arena, at both slow & high speeds was fantastic.Lastly the main re-enactment battle on the Sunday was outstanding,with three 25lb pounders & four ww2 tanks firing & driving along with three halftracks & a dingo.With Ken & Adam driving their halftracks straight through one of the mock houses.We had a very good crowd turn out on both the days.Where already planning next year's July show with the promise of alot more ww2 armour so watch this space.Lastly i'd just like to personaly thank Eddy AKA Rick,who was desperate to attend the show & desperatley tried in vain to attend with his Bren carrier.Even to the point of asking me to ask any of the owner's with heavy transporters at the show if they'ed pick it up for a good fee CHEER'S MATE.

 

stu

Edited by happydayz123
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well done stu you and your team put on a belting show, i heard lots of people in the crowd saying they felt honoured to be there which is something not often heard these days.

i went with the family on sunday and even managed to drag the wife along and much to my surprised she really enjoyed the battles i think it had something to do with the use of so many piro's, those fx guys put on a very realistic display. she even wants to get involved in the battles next year :wow:

 

the reason i couldn't take the carrier was that after a hard days graft getting it running and steering (just) ready to take to the show on sunday morning, i found that the trailer i'd hired was an inch too narrow. there's only me could do that :red:

 

looking forward to next year.

rick

 

ps. i'll make sure the carrier fits next time

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I'm still picking bits of that house out of the M3... Pictures will follow in due course, but it was such a shame that the weather deterred many from coming along.

I managed to hold the whole German armoured column up with the D2 on the Saturday 'parade', Adam had to have a push from the 101st boys on the Sunday....

This is/was a very very good show, supported by someone with all the right intentions. Whilst this thread is a show report, i must add my thanks to Stuart, Brian and the rest of the team who organised the event. I was only involved on the edges, but was very conscious of the sheer amount of grunt, brain power and patience which has gone in to setting it up.

The highlight for me, unquestionably (even beyond getting the CAT, Stude and M14 there on their maiden outings) was getting a ride as a gunner in Kev Burden's tank - and yes, pressing the fire button 5 times during the Sat battle. An experience i will never forget and i suspect will only be equalled when the sherman is doing the same thing.

The CAT, Stude, GMC, WC62, M3, M14, Slat, DT and Ford script are all back in the care home getting ready for Croft next month.

Rick, it was good to meet you, sorry the carrier didn't make it,but there's always next year when hopefullyi will not be saying the same thing about the sherman. With a fair wind we should have the WC16 and the Carryall there as well......

Ken

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