After twenty-three years of trying to get to the IWA Northampton Spring Rally – always frustrated by the day-job – Tim Coghlan finally got there this year. But only because he had been invited to open it! Here he takes a lighter look at his first impressions of this very enjoyable cameo canal-festival.
There is a saying – perhaps made more appropriate in view of the Royal Wedding on the day preceding my opening of the three day IWA Northampton Rally – Three times a bridesmaid, never a bride! In my now rapidly approaching 23 years of running Braunston Marina, I have been involved in organizing nine Braunston Boat Shows and now the ninth Braunston Historic Narrowboat Rally. Regardless of with whom we have organized those events – and they have include the IWA – it has always been my task to find the celebs to open them, to brief them, and sometimes even writing their lines. They got all the glory for a ten-minute turn-up, when my team and I had done all the weeks and months of work. It all seemed so very unfair. But with my invitation to open the 2011 IWA Northampton Rally, it was at last my turn to turn-up and pose, and to say a few choice words. The bridesmaid was at last the bride!