Winning MG Marshall

By Andy Sherratt 26/06/2024 - 15:59

I still find it quite hard to believe that I am the massively lucky winner of MG Marshall – a 1975 Midget raffled on behalf of Help for Heroes having been restored by AutoLass with many parts donated by MGOC Spares, I certainly didn’t expect to win when I bought tickets, but hoped I would.

I have been a car enthusiast all my life, with MG playing a very strong part in that enthusiasm. My parents, and particularly my Dad, were car enthusiasts having a 1931 MG F-Type Magna seater as their first car – OD3012, they used to use it in local events organised by the MG Car Club of which they were very long-term members.

My first memory relates to their next car, an Austin Metropolitan which they bought after placing an order for a Frogeye Sprite but weren’t able to get one for a long time as initial production was all going to the USA. The Metropolitan was still at home when I was born but by then to have space for my brother and I Mum and Dad had gone back to an MG with a Farina Magnette – 501SMB.

Cars have always been in my blood, my Dad bought Autocar magazine every week throughout his life, keeping all the back issues, and I started looking at the pictures in them even before I could read. When a teenager I read through all the road tests of cars I would like to have, with the various iterations of MG Midgets being particular favourites. For all sorts of reasons a Midget was one of those cars I always wanted but never got round to owning.

Over the years I have had a variety of cars, but only a couple of MGs, a Metro Turbo bought for my wife which was great fun and a TF 160 I bought as a temporary car to use whilst looking for my next long term daily driver – I ended up keeping it for much longer than planned because it was so much fun, selling it to my brother afterwards.

I love classic cars and have a Mini and Lancia Fulvia, and through the classic car community had met Jody Bevan – Autolass – at an NEC Classic Car show. I started watching her videos when she was restoring the Morris Ital for the raffle prize prior to the Midget. I bought a couple of tickets for the Ital but do remember saying to Jody when I met her shortly after the draw that I was slightly relived not to have won!

When Jody got the Midget to restore my interest was certainly raised, watching the videos with great interest – a prize I would be very happy to win! The charity chosen are very worthy so I bought a couple of tickets, mainly because I wanted to support the efforts being put in by Jody and her team, but also because of the good cause. When the MG watch was shown as a runner up prize I bought a couple more tickets because I remembered my Godfather had one and let me wear it when I was about 12 or 13 years old (he owned a Morris and MG dealership near Jody’s workshop). In total I bought 6 tickets for the MG Marshall draw.

I shared many of Jody’s social media posts about the raffle, with one of my posts being “I want to say please don’t buy a ticket because it will reduce my chances of winning, but this is such a good cause please buy lots of tickets”!

The day of the draw my grandchildren had been staying with us so I hadn’t had a chance to look at any social media, or even my messages. When they left I glanced at my phone and saw a message from Jody asking me to call her. At that point I mentioned to my wife about the draw – she didn’t know I’d even bought tickets! I called Jody and she told me the amazing news that I had won the raffle – it’s hard to describe how that felt, but obviously excitement was a really strong element.

After storing him over the winter I’m planning lots of adventures in MG Marshall, the main one booked being the REVS Community Pilgrim tour in South Wales in October, an event I’ve done a couple of times in the past. I want to use Marshall to continue to support Help for Heroes and similar causes and as such will be attending some Mission Motorsport events where they offer rides to ex-servicemen.

A Midget adventure awaits!

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