The Great Yorkshire Traction Engine Club held its 25th annual rally at the splendid Duncombe Park site on the 4th & 5th of July. The rally moved to this site at Helmsley in 1990 where it has been held each year since with the exception of 2001 when it was cancelled due to the foot & mouth epidemic. Big engine numbers were down a little on previous years 33 being present, although no fewer than 7 which had been booked to attend, didn’t make it due to a variety of maintenance reasons. One of these was Sentinel steam wagon No 6079 which is owned by club member Robert Goodwill M.P. who is Under Secretary of State for Transport, although he was still able to bring along his rare Fowler K5 ploughing engine which spent its working life in the Czech Republic. An extra engine being at Duncombe for the first time was Michael Davison’s Marshall agricultural No 17134 Mary Margaret. This was one of 5 Marshalls on show, the star among these being John Bolton’s 7 n.h.p. engine No 35554 Old Lass which was at only its second rally following completion of a 13 year restoration which has brought it back to as near as possible the condition in which it left the Gainsborough works when built in 1901. Another engine making a first appearance was Foden D type tractor No 13784 which has recently joined the Dunford stable and travelled all the way from Wakefield under its own power via Potto from where it was accompanied by Burrell showman’s engine Lightning II on the trip through Bilsdale to Helmsley. Ten other showman’s type engines were on display including Aveling & Porter No 8601 Albion which was due to make the 125 mile road trip from Coast to Coast in celebration of its centenary. Commencing on the 3rd of August at Silloth on Solway and hopefully reaching the east coast at Hartlepool by the 6th, raising funds for the Great North Air Ambulance along the way. This year miniature engines actually outnumbered the larger ones with a good variety of over 40 on show. The crew of one of these were involved in an unexpected event when at the culmination of the Saturday morning engine parade Martin Gell got down on one knee with ring and proposed to girlfriend Amy Shea, although somewhat overcome she was very happy to accept ! Martin is chairman of the Northern Miniature Road Locomotive Society who presented the Karl Doran memorial trophy for the first time, which went to Chris Dalquen for his half size Garrett4CD tractor. Once again there were excellent displays of tractor, commercials, cars and stationary engines and steam powered baling and wood cutting in the working enclosure. Saturday evening saw the ever popular run down to the market place before the return to the rally field where entertainment continued into the night, including Graham Atkinson’s show stage.