February 2026 | Issue 787 | Page(s) 3 | Gaynor Cauter
Storm Grotty (or whatever it was the French called it) obviously didn’t rate Herefordshire as a worthwhile target because having battened down the hatches and awaited the worst… nothing happened! Not so much as a puff of wind, let alone 100mph gusts. I feel sorry for our members in the West Country and the Channel Islands, not to mention those further north, all of whom bore the full force of Grotty, because here on the Welsh borders it was a light dusting of shortlived snow and then it was back to business as usual.
The good news is that our Area network goes from strength to strength, with three more being set up as we speak. Down in Devon, Patch Jobson has taken on Area 5 and is busy rebuilding this dormant JDC region so, if you live in that beautiful part of the world, why not drop Patch a line at patchjobson@me.com? Travelling further north, Nigel Dodman is busy setting up an ambitious new Area 45 to cover Cumbria and Northumberland, straddling a huge area of England, from coast to coast, and in the process filling the gap between our very successful Areas 18, 19, 11 and 62 and the Scottish borders. See Area News and the Calendar for details of Nigel’s first event in May and please give him as much support as you can by emailing him at nigeldodman@aol.co.uk. With an Area the size of his, I suspect Nigel’s meetings will be of the travelling show variety, so look out for details soon.
Finally, that brings us to Scotland and one of the biggest areas of all. Graeme Crawford and Susan Metcalfe have worked hard to cover their huge Area 55 from their bases in Aberdeen, but it was crying out for someone to take on the Highland region and Inverness. Enter Graeme McIntosh, our new Area 56 Scotland Highland representative, who will be rallying the troops in the far north. You can reach Graeme at gmacsjag@gmail.com – he’s waiting to hear from you!
What with Nick Vocht’s new Area 141 Estonia and all the latest UK ones, I’m beginning to wonder where next? JDC Area 666 Falkland Islands… who knows? We’ll have to ask Club Director Mick Duffy because I understand he was stopping off in Port Stanley on his way back from a penguin-spotted expedition to Antarctica.
Before I sign off for another month, the news you’ve all been waiting for – booking details for our 70th-anniversary weekend at Brooklands are now available on the JDC website at https://www.jaguardriver.co.uk/book2026. You will also find a double-page spread in Club News with a QR code to scan and all the information you need. We will be updating this month-on-month until the big event on 11-12 July.
Gaynor
