Saturday afternoon of January 14th, saw a terrific rollup of 25 Corvettes, for the first Event of 2012.  There was a nasty rumour circulating that Nev Solomon had promised to streak around the Arena if we couldn’t get that amount of cars, so he brought all 3 of his Vettes, as did Keith Hosking. Close call Nev!!

There were Members we don’t see very often and also some of our new faces from 2011.  After a few mix ups, we managed to all make it to the Exhibition grounds and hang our banner in a corner of one of the classic old grandstands.  We met the very organized and energetic team of Whitey and Carl from the Bandits, who explained the agenda for the evening and then looked after us royally for the rest of the evening.

We had safe parking for the cars, free entry for 45 x Adults (value of nearly $500), as well as Bandits promotional gear and loads of photos.  President Pete, who is now a fully fledged “Media Tart” like Peter Beatty, was in his element, beginning with throwing the opening Ceremonial baseball to the keeper to commence the evening.  He was easy to find with his Uncle Sam hat firmly in place and spent the evening frantically networking and giving interviews!

Only about half of us had been to a game before, but with Whitey’s help, we all got a good idea of how the game went pretty quickly.  Our Brisbane Bandits were playing the Melbourne Aces for a spot in the semi finals, so the pressure was on.  We scored a home run in one of the early innings and lead from there on, with the final score being a comfortable 11 to 3 win.  They begged us to return the following day for their final match, as we were now officially their “Lucky Charms”.

The Corvettes did a half time drive across the arena, with the Official Mascot riding in Peter’s car (Ali was driving) and flags and banners flying in the cars following behind.  Pete did a running commentary on the microphone as we drove past.  The Bandits will send us a copy of the video, so can’t wait to see it, as the spectators said it looked terrific!  Food and alcohol were pretty pricey, so we will know to come prepared in future.

Atmosphere was great – lots of loud music, clapping, singing and cheering.  The kids were embraced too, with games and prizes to be won in the intervals between team change over’s.  A really great Family night!

We all headed home around 9.45pm, with a scenic tour of the city and a cuppa stop at McDonald’s on the cards to finish off a great evening.  Thanks to all who came and the consensus was we would like to return next year!

A big Thanks for those members that came along and made it a great night,

Special thanks to Ernie & Sally and photographers Ernie & Mike