THE last time anything was written about Classic and Specialist Car and Bike Night at the Red Lion in Shobrooke and its counterpart the Vehicles Of Interest Gathering at the Lymington Arms in Wembworthy, all was still scheduled to go ahead, albeit with the situation under constant review.

With the way the Coronavirus situation has developed, however, it has fairly obviously been necessary to call a halt to both events for the time being. Not all is lost though…

While the meetings have had to stop in the real world, they are very much still active in the online one, primarily via the Classic and Specialist Car and Bike Night Facebook page.

This can be found at: www.facebook.com/rlcarbikenight and is a public access page so does not require a Facebook account to view. Of course, to maintain a page, one requires content and here the event organisers have turned to the past for some inspiration.

Some of you may have heard of the late, great Bill Boddy MBE, founder editor of the famous “Motorsport” magazine. When asked by his publisher how he intended to keep the magazine running through World War Two with no racing to report on, “WB” responded that the solution was simple; he would simply fill the magazine with racing history instead!

It is this example which the organisers of Car and Bike Night intend to follow in maintaining their Facebook presence. The page will be filled with regular posts from the event’s extensive photo archive, a resource that is unlikely to be exhausted any time soon!

In addition to trips down memory lane, there has also been a suggestion that “virtual” Car and Bike Nights could be hosted through the Facebook page. This idea, and how it might work, is still in the very early stages of planning but it is certainly a possibility. Anyone with thoughts on this should get in touch via the page.

Another concern is, of course, making sure that, once the Coronavirus threat has abated and the meets are able to resume, the pubs are still there to host them.

To this end, the Facebook page will also periodically contain updates on their situation.

At the current time, the Lymington Arms has unfortunately not felt able to continue with its takeaway service, but the Red Lion in Shobrooke remains very active. In addition to its takeaway food service, the Red Lion now has the "Pub Is The Hub" initiative.

This is a pre-order shop which allows you to order, via the pub, grocery items it can obtain from its suppliers. Please telephone 01363 772340 or email: [email protected] for more details.