Searching for water and more: BBC Radio Devon Motor Rally

Fitz (L) and The Range CEO Chris Dawson (R), in front of Chris' Rolls Royce

“Hi”, I said to a hotel receptionist in the lobby of a busy Plymouth hotel. “I’m from the BBC and, well, do you have any water I can use, please?” I asked, holding up an empty water container to prove my point and continued, “We’re putting up some flags up on The Hoe and we need some water for them, please”.

Looking back, I can quite see why I got an odd look as if to say “What the hell are you on about? Flags don’t need watering”. Sensing the confusion, I carried on, “the flags have bases and we need to weigh them down”.



Silence. By now, two couples were behind me, waiting to check out and looked just as confused as the poor lady on reception.

“Fine”, she replied after an uncannily long silence as if to say “sod off”, “I’ll go downstairs and have a look for you, as we have an outside tap”. She took the water container out of my hands and disappeared.

Five minutes later she came back up the stairs. “You’ll have to come down here” she said, looking around to make sure nobody could see this conversation, like we were about to deal drugs or something. “You’re not really meant to come down here, but I can’t carry it back up”.

Righto. Down to the basement I went, collected the (half-filled) container and went to leave. “Oh, by the way, is it OK if I come back here, say, five more times please?” I asked, with a nice smile.

“No”.

Dammit. I heaved my way back to The Hoe, found Emma who filled the weights up and said something to the effect of “only five more lots, Daniel”.

Let me rewind a little. You probably won’t remember it, but last year I was invited down to Plymouth to help out with a car rally that was being organised by one of BBC Radio Devon’s presenters to raise money for charity. I got to write a nice piece on the day for the station’s Facebook page and generally helped make sure the day ran well.

I was invited back again to do the same thing again this year. It worked quite well for me: I got to go to Plymouth for the day and look at some great cars and write about them, plus I’d make some more contacts and have a fun day. Only this year it seems as I’d also have the unofficial title of “water boy” added onto my name.

David greeted me as I arrived and informed me that I would be counting up the cars, introduced myself to Emma [Clements, acting editor at the station] and helped to put up the gazebo.

Didn't take any pics - thanks rain - so here's Dawlish from the train instead.

A little while later, Emma asked me if I wanted a challenge, which turned out to be finding some water. The opening is from the first (and closest) hotel I could find; after that another three hotels refused, until I eventually found one that would be willing to let me use their water supply repeatedly.

“There’s one problem” the receptionist quipped as she showed me where the kitchens were located, “we don’t have an outside tap so you’ll have to use the sink”. The container wouldn’t fit into the sink, but there a jug, so it took a while, and during the five subsequent visits my trousers got quite a soaking – not that it would matter later on in the day when the heavens opened…

Flags up, I got a chance to look around (and do the car-count). If I said there was a wide variety of vehicles then it would be an understatement. For instance, a chap bought a flatbed Morris Marina (“I got pissed with him at a party and asked him to bring it along”, Fitz said cheerily as it went by), various American trucks, Ferraris, Cortinas… you get the idea.

After scoping out interesting cars, I went to interview their owners (and to look inside some), but just as I started to do this, the heavens opened, and I was forced to retreat to the gazebo alongside the other members of ‘Team BBC’ and a few of the public who didn’t have coats. Fitz had left the hard-top of his replica Cobra at home on account of a tweet by yours truly earlier that day saying how good the weather was, and later likened his car to “the world’s fastest pond”.

Fifteen minutes later, the majority of the exhibits (many of them without roofs) had left, leaving a few of us to go own ways. I, meanwhile, had the prospect of a long and wet (yesterday I discovered that my shoes leak) trudge back to the train station ahead of me. That was until Janet – assist to the head of the BBC in the South West – offered to give me a lift back to the station.

A premature end to the day, yes, but still, a good day was had by all. Over 200 vehicles turned out, and over £2,000 was raised for Children in Need. I believe next year’s event is already in the planning stages; I’ll be there for sure. Will you?

Thanks to David FitzGerald, Janet Hopkinson, Emma Clements for an enjoyable (if a tad wet at the end) day in Plymouth. Special thanks also go to the Grosvenor Hotel in Plymouth for letting me pinch their water.