When you approach the Cornbury Park in Oxfordshire, you are immediately struck with the peace and beauty of the grounds. The approach to Lord Rotherwick's stately home (and our rally site) was flanked by huge numbers of deer, the stags looking particularly majestic this time of year with their antlers in full spread. There are four types of deer to be found in the grounds (even a Japanese breed). They reside mainly in the Wychwood forest, and are managed by a head stalker Jim Brannan. He could be found during the event 'stalking' around the stands and the bikes early in the morning taking in the rally. In the beer tent on Saturday he was enjoying the bands and the beer with the Estate manager Richard Watkins and other residents of the estate.

The earliest mention of Cornbury Park is in the Domesday Book, where it was recorded as being adjacent to Wychwood Forest. The Park became included in Wychwood Forest as a royal property, and a keeper, normally a royal favourite, was appointed. He was responsible for the provision of royal hunting facilities and the supply of the venison to the royal kitchen.

The earliest mention of a house in Cornbury Park is the 'Close Rolls' of 1337, when the exchequer was ordered to pay for "a stone wall about Cornbury Park, a post towards the King's forest there, a house called 'Logge' of stone and timber in that park, and a dike of wood forty feet broad by the circuit of the park, and two deer leaps in the park".

The present owner, Lord Rotherwick, spends much of his time in refurbishing the park to its former glory. Amongst other things he rebuilds and maintains 30ft of the said wall a year. They breed the deer to provide a good quality standard of buck and stag trophies for visiting stalkers. During the twilight hours of marshalling the event you can see the deer inspecting the bikes and tents by moonlight under the beautifully kept stands of chestnut trees and the lime tree avenues designed by Capability Brown. With Bleinheim Palace as it's neighbour it certainly is a treasured setting.

What more can you ask for, for a rally site. A party in such a beautiful setting is guaranteed a special touch.

With people travelling from Germany and France to be there, the Autumn Nabd'ness Rally is getting to be known by bikers far and wide.

Clubs vie with each other to win the best club attendance , trophy, such as the Grandfathers MCC, Sad Bastards MCC, Swiss Chalet MCC and the Caladarians MCC. Some of the clubs bring more special occasions of their own to celebrate at the rally, such as birthdays, enrolments and such like.

Friday evening started in fine style with 'Bex Marshal' first up on stage with her acoustic set and followed closely by numbers from her and her band kicking the Friday night into full swing. Top rock DJ Russ Page entertained us in-between bands until 'Bleeding Hearts' took to the stage with raw Levellers type rock that really got the party into overdrive.

As we were doing our own bar this year the beer flowed faster than ever due to the NABD pricing policy of £1 per can (Stella & Newky Brown £1.25). Thanks go to Rick and the bar crew who kept it flowing with extra beer runs to keep it stocked up. The marquee filled up quickly and, with more people than ever, it soon became a party to remember.

Despite the horrendous weather we endured on Wednesday and Thursday while setting up for the event, the weather for the weekend was sun, sun and more sun.

The Saturday entertainment was filled to overflowing with the bike show, and arena entertainment of our own making, plus in the marquee some brilliant bands played live, keeping music as the theme for the weekend alive an kicking. We had Mojo, The Beer Monsters, Charlie, (with his mixture of music and comedy), and Stevie with his mandolin, and of course Russ Page playing requests and entertaining the crowd as only he knows how. For the kids (and there were loads on site) to keep them out of mischief we had the bouncy castle and a sheep hunt around the site, as well as kids stalls and games.

The evening fell upon us all too quickly and The Beer' Monsters' (winners of the Battle of the Bands), came on, using the whole marquee as their stage doing all sorts of antics. They were followed by the winners from last year 'Freewheeler'. The rocking rhythm of The Rock Doctors to finish interspersed with Charlie and Stevie (even doing a duet for the first time). The party then went on until the early hours with a sing-song from Amanda and Phil who had brought along their guitars.

The trophies this year were handmade by Nighthawk Leather, they were out of this world, Kev and Trish did us proud.

On Sunday the deer slowly meandered back around the site as soon as it was quiet in the morning. With various colours, due to the different breeds, showing against the mist in the morning light the herd was lead as always by 'Persil' the large white stag.

All in all, this year was the best rally I have had the pleasure to visit. There were many problems behind the scenes, but it all didn't seem to matter this year, it was just 'Cornbury' as it should be. Lord Rotherwick flew in from the Czech Republic and had a sneaky look around before a visit from a friend prevented him being more prominent at this year's event. His plane did some aerobatics in the sky for all to see and we all waved a big thank you to him from the ground. He was once again happy to share his garden with us and has invited us all back for another party.

Thanks goes to everyone who helped to make this year's .Autumn Nabd'ness my most enjoyable to date, with all your running around and grafting like maniacs. Roll on next year for more surprises in store....

Best Club Turnout went to the Caladarians MCC

Furthest travelled trophy {on a bike of course} went to Paul Cadel from Bonn with 790 miles

(Unfortunately the detailed list of trophy winners for the bike show has been mislaid. I know that Tony Tofield from the Kent/London area won best-adapted trike as he took me on a spin on Sunday, A bolted on scooter/trike conversion done by Eurotech with an under side engineered to perfection with added suspension and technical bits).

All the trophies were claimed. The free raffle prize was a donated set of tickets to the Caladarians MCC Rally.