The Mk1 Golf Owners Club History 2024
2024 was predicted to be a big year for the Mk1 Golf and it lived up to the expectations!
2024 saw the 50th anniversary of the first models starting to roll off the production line. 2024 saw the 40th anniversary of the end of production of the original hot hatchback - The Mk1 Golf Campaign and 2024 saw the Mk1 Golf Owners Club reach its 20th birthday.
To make sure the significance of the iconic Mk1 Golf history was recognised, event planning for the Mk1 Golf Owners Club Team began in February. We drew up ideas which involved which shows the Club would attend, how we'd make the Annual Gathering special and how the show season closer would be celebrated.
As always Ultimate Dubs was the show season opener and was held on Sunday 10th March. The Club moved into the main hall and it seemed everyone had Mk1 Golf fever! On display were cars belonging to Jamie Briggs's Club sponsored drift car, Reece Robinson's modified yellow, Dave Baker's Orange People Choice winner 2023, Joes Speight's Mars Red OEM+ and Best GTI winner AG 2023 and Joe Knight's totally standard black Campaign.
Just to make sure that everyone got the "50th"message we introduced a new range of clothing for the year.
AutoCulture (formerly Elsecar At The Races) was next up on Sunday 14th April at Donnington Racecourse. Re branded and re-launched the Club supported our good friends Simon & Jess as we took along no less than 9 cars for another indoor stand.
May's main event was of course Stanford Hall held on Bank Holiday on Sunday 5th, it was a place where the 'great and the good' of the VW world came out to show their various models and as you'd expect the Club was there with a very large 50th display in front of the main house.
Cabrioanna baked some special Mk1 biscuits too!
Hugh Coffey aka 'Shughy' attended from Ireland and secured the 'Best Stock GTI' trophy, a very well-deserved win which puts him into the 'Super Class' category for 2025 - the ferry ticket has already been booked!
Squeezing in another show in May we attended Edition Reloaded at Sywell Aerodrome, Northampton on Sunday 12th and we teamed up Zeoriginals.
8 - 9th of June saw the ever-popular Bristol VolksFest, Birches Farm, Long Aston, Bristol. Taking the load off our Event's Manager for a short while it was hosted once again by Richard Hill aka Richyhill.
Next up was The Big One - the Annual Gathering held 26 - 28th July 2024
Back at Stratford Upon Avon Racecourse for weekend, build up for the fun began on the Thursday for some with ferries bringing owners from Ireland and trailers loaded with cars from Scotland. The Events Team arrived at the racecourse on Thursday and began the preparation of the site, followed by the ever-popular curry, yum!
Back for a second year was the Friday Night Quiz featuring general knowledge, music, Mk1 Golf and Club History questions - there was something for everyone to answer. The Scottish team with their 12+ members won the bragging rights.
The Quiz Night was a busy affair as evidenced by the bar takings and a few people were nursing sore heads when the Saturday meeting was held at 11am. The Drive Out briefing was held first followed by the Club's AGM.
This year's Drive Out location was Gaydon Motor Museum.
A change in the Team took place. The Chairman, Simon Berry (36thCrazyfist) stood down after 7 years and was thanked for all the effort and hard work he'd done during that time. In his place Dan Perkins (Dano) returned to the role for a 3rd time.
Ansar Mahmood (Ans4r) stood down from the Social Media Manager role but will remain part of the AGM team. Anthony Muskett moved from his Merchandise Manager role and slid into the Social Media Manager slot. Nick Weir became all things Merchandise, making stock development, storage and distribution of the club's shop sales much slicker. We also lost James Satchwell-Orme from the team.
The rest of the Team remained in their respective roles.
Chairman - Dan Perkins - Dano
Treasurer - Richard Stringer - Beany
Secretary - Grieg Harvey - Macca
Events Manager - Anna Bebbington - Cabrioanna
Events Support - Sharon Daniels - His Boss
Events Support - Andrea Keepence- Keyte - Andibeagle
Membership - Richard Dale - Wmk1rickdale
Website Manager - Adrain Daniels - Lhasadreams
Social Media Manager - Anthony Muskett - Anton_cabrio
Design Manager - James Cowell - james18wpc
Merchandise Development, Marketing & Sales Manager - Nick Weir - Nickveedub
Club Historian - Dan Perkins - Dano
Regional Host Coordinator - Dan Perkins - Dano
New members to the Team were James Cowell who has been doing great things in the design department including the 2024 clothing range, the hatchback information boards at the Annual Gathering & NEC were professionally put together and the 2025 calendar was a colourful affair and well presented.
At the meeting the Regional Hosts who were present introduced themselves so that anyone who didn't know them could speak to them about their local meets. Regional Club stickers were discussed and Hampshire region came out on top thanks to the efforts of Mike Wallis (Retsil Evad) and were awarded with an events gazebo for the 2025 season.
Simon Berry updated members on the Mk1 Golf Insurance in partnership with Peter James Insurance. Policies taken out through the year have so far exceeded our expectations, probably due to the excellent policy cost and the additional benefits attached to it!
You can find out more information about our bespoke insurance by Clicking Here
Thanks were given to Billy Sandhu for arranging the Club's 20th birthday cake and the charity samosas which raised £60. Ross Murray donated £100 towards the cost of the cake as a 'thank you' for all the assistance given following the breakdown & recovery of his car after the 2023 Annual Gathering while on the way back to Scotland.
Greig Harvey gave an update on the extensive discount partners available on the forum.
Anna Bebbington thanked Andrea Keepence-Keyte & Sharon Daniels for their support at shows and informed members about the NEC Classic Car Show stand being located opposite the Wheeler Dealers stage and it being a larger layout than previous years. New on the calendar was to be the Silverston Festival held over the August Bank Holiday weekend - more on that later!
Club finances were discussed and the Club is in a healthy position with savings in the bank.
The forum and all things I.T. were covered by Adrian Daniels.
Rick Dale reported that membership fees would be remaining the same at £20.00 a year - which is an absolute steal when you consider the discounts available. If you aren't a paid member, you really should be asking yourself - why am I not a paid member, I could make significant discount savings and keep the club alive.
Paid Membership totals at the time of writing stood at 1533.
Find out about Membership Here
Simon Berry was once again thanked for his commitment to the Club and everyone wished him and his partner Ilaria well for the impending birth of their first child in October.
At 1pm everyone gathered for the start of the Drive Out to Gaydon Heritage Motor Museum. The museum was where the Club began 20 years ago when the first meeting was held as the Campaign Register on 26th September 2004.
The drive was about 35 - 45 minutes away (or more, depending which route drivers took!). The Club arranged for free entry for all Club members which pleased everyone.
The tally for the Drive Out was -
Hatchbacks - 47
Cabriolets - 43
Caddys - 0
Mk2 Golfs - 2
Beetles - 1
Scirroco - 1
Mk4 Golf - 1
Total for Mk1 Golfs this year = 90
For the 10th year running Matt Bedworth aka MDB Images took photos of all the cars arriving at the Motor Museum and later put together a video of the weekend.
Saturday night's disco and fancy dress went off as usual and bar takings were very good!
Pictures of fancy dress & disco here
Sunday came round quickly and everyone was out washing and polishing their cars nice and early. The weather was HOT and no rain arrived to spoil the day for a change.
Results of the Show & Shine can be found Here
Trophies were sponsored by Peter James Insurance
Winners of Best Region - Hampshire
Peoples' Choice Award sponsored by Crazyquiffs - Richard 'Beany' Skinner
Mk1 Golf Owners Club Team Members 2024
Due to the generosity of Club Members we were able to raise over £600 and made a donation to the year's chosen charity - 'Helen & Douglas House', a hospice for terminally ill children in Oxford.
Next up on the calendar was a new event for the Club - The Silverstone Festival. Held over the August Bank Holiday weekend, classic cars and classic racing cars were displayed and show which kept visitors busy for 3 full days. Track racing was brilliant to watch and VERY loud. Camping was available but the constant heavy rain on the Saturday certainly tested the 'fun' element of it! One thing that did lift the spirits on the Sunday was being able to drive round the circuit to experience the layout, all at a very modest 30mph!
While some members were at Silverstone others were getting ready for the 2024 Kilkenny Tour in Ireland. Organised once again by our Ireland Regional Host, Hugh Coffey (Shughy), he led the group round the route, stopping off at dealerships, photo locations and hotels along the way.
The discussion as to whether the North West region was too big to provide a local meet to the members had been held many times in the past but on 4th September the Mk1 Golf Owners Club Yorkshire region was formed and Damon Lemon (Jif1) was its first Regional Host.
Next up was Merseyside and North Wales region on 6th September and Paul Hodson (Paul Hodson) took on the role of Region Host for that area.
Lancashire and Cumbria remain as the North West region with Dan Perkins (Dano) covering the host's role.
It was hard to believe that the Mk1 Golf Owners Club had reached its 20th birthday. Formed out of the Campaign Register, a group initially devoted to the last '1000' runout models called the 'Campaign'. The Campaign Register became an all-encompassing forum for all models of Mk1 Golf. The forum serves owners very well and to this day is a central data warehouse for build threads, discussions and questions relating to the preservation and restoration of the Mk1 Golf. Facebook has taken over the social side of the Club, the forum is still maintained and an excellent resource for owners trying to solve maintenance issues.
If you've never had a nosey around the forum you can reach it Here
If you'd like to see how we've progressed over the year, take a look at a series of videos Here
Last up once again was the show season finale at the NEC Classic Car Show, held 8-10 November, the Club secured a larger than normal stand which allowed 6 cars to be displayed.
The stand cars were - a silver Series 1 GTI LHD, one of the first 22 to arrive in the UK to showcase the new GTI, XYE759T (owned by Rajan Paymaster)
A red Series 1 RHD which was a UK press car, LBD2956V (owned by Graham Welch)
A yellow Series 1 LHD owned by Jon Leonard
A black Series 2 Campaign, A868HCM owned by Joe Knight
A white Series 2 heavily modified and AGM Best In Show, HIG 47 owned by William Skelton
A silver Series 2 Campaign A309WMW owned by Hugh Coffey.
All good things must come to an end at 5pm on the Sunday evening cars blared their horns to indicate that the show was over. Hasty packing up and the scramble to depart the halls began! It was amazing to see how quickly everything got broken down and packed away.
So, from us all at the Mk1 Golf Owners Club we'd like to thank you once again for your continued support. As the year closes were are at a Paid Member high of 1571 (up 106 members 23-24) and 39,155 registered members since the club formed in 2004.
What's occurring in 2025? Keep your eyes peeled on the forum, Facebook and continue to link in with your Regional Hosts for local meets.
Until next year - See you!
2024 saw the 50th anniversary of the first models starting to roll off the production line. 2024 saw the 40th anniversary of the end of production of the original hot hatchback - The Mk1 Golf Campaign and 2024 saw the Mk1 Golf Owners Club reach its 20th birthday.
To make sure the significance of the iconic Mk1 Golf history was recognised, event planning for the Mk1 Golf Owners Club Team began in February. We drew up ideas which involved which shows the Club would attend, how we'd make the Annual Gathering special and how the show season closer would be celebrated.
As always Ultimate Dubs was the show season opener and was held on Sunday 10th March. The Club moved into the main hall and it seemed everyone had Mk1 Golf fever! On display were cars belonging to Jamie Briggs's Club sponsored drift car, Reece Robinson's modified yellow, Dave Baker's Orange People Choice winner 2023, Joes Speight's Mars Red OEM+ and Best GTI winner AG 2023 and Joe Knight's totally standard black Campaign.
Just to make sure that everyone got the "50th"message we introduced a new range of clothing for the year.
AutoCulture (formerly Elsecar At The Races) was next up on Sunday 14th April at Donnington Racecourse. Re branded and re-launched the Club supported our good friends Simon & Jess as we took along no less than 9 cars for another indoor stand.
May's main event was of course Stanford Hall held on Bank Holiday on Sunday 5th, it was a place where the 'great and the good' of the VW world came out to show their various models and as you'd expect the Club was there with a very large 50th display in front of the main house.
Cabrioanna baked some special Mk1 biscuits too!
Hugh Coffey aka 'Shughy' attended from Ireland and secured the 'Best Stock GTI' trophy, a very well-deserved win which puts him into the 'Super Class' category for 2025 - the ferry ticket has already been booked!
Squeezing in another show in May we attended Edition Reloaded at Sywell Aerodrome, Northampton on Sunday 12th and we teamed up Zeoriginals.
8 - 9th of June saw the ever-popular Bristol VolksFest, Birches Farm, Long Aston, Bristol. Taking the load off our Event's Manager for a short while it was hosted once again by Richard Hill aka Richyhill.
Next up was The Big One - the Annual Gathering held 26 - 28th July 2024
Back at Stratford Upon Avon Racecourse for weekend, build up for the fun began on the Thursday for some with ferries bringing owners from Ireland and trailers loaded with cars from Scotland. The Events Team arrived at the racecourse on Thursday and began the preparation of the site, followed by the ever-popular curry, yum!
Back for a second year was the Friday Night Quiz featuring general knowledge, music, Mk1 Golf and Club History questions - there was something for everyone to answer. The Scottish team with their 12+ members won the bragging rights.
The Quiz Night was a busy affair as evidenced by the bar takings and a few people were nursing sore heads when the Saturday meeting was held at 11am. The Drive Out briefing was held first followed by the Club's AGM.
This year's Drive Out location was Gaydon Motor Museum.
A change in the Team took place. The Chairman, Simon Berry (36thCrazyfist) stood down after 7 years and was thanked for all the effort and hard work he'd done during that time. In his place Dan Perkins (Dano) returned to the role for a 3rd time.
Ansar Mahmood (Ans4r) stood down from the Social Media Manager role but will remain part of the AGM team. Anthony Muskett moved from his Merchandise Manager role and slid into the Social Media Manager slot. Nick Weir became all things Merchandise, making stock development, storage and distribution of the club's shop sales much slicker. We also lost James Satchwell-Orme from the team.
The rest of the Team remained in their respective roles.
Chairman - Dan Perkins - Dano
Treasurer - Richard Stringer - Beany
Secretary - Grieg Harvey - Macca
Events Manager - Anna Bebbington - Cabrioanna
Events Support - Sharon Daniels - His Boss
Events Support - Andrea Keepence- Keyte - Andibeagle
Membership - Richard Dale - Wmk1rickdale
Website Manager - Adrain Daniels - Lhasadreams
Social Media Manager - Anthony Muskett - Anton_cabrio
Design Manager - James Cowell - james18wpc
Merchandise Development, Marketing & Sales Manager - Nick Weir - Nickveedub
Club Historian - Dan Perkins - Dano
Regional Host Coordinator - Dan Perkins - Dano
New members to the Team were James Cowell who has been doing great things in the design department including the 2024 clothing range, the hatchback information boards at the Annual Gathering & NEC were professionally put together and the 2025 calendar was a colourful affair and well presented.
At the meeting the Regional Hosts who were present introduced themselves so that anyone who didn't know them could speak to them about their local meets. Regional Club stickers were discussed and Hampshire region came out on top thanks to the efforts of Mike Wallis (Retsil Evad) and were awarded with an events gazebo for the 2025 season.
Simon Berry updated members on the Mk1 Golf Insurance in partnership with Peter James Insurance. Policies taken out through the year have so far exceeded our expectations, probably due to the excellent policy cost and the additional benefits attached to it!
You can find out more information about our bespoke insurance by Clicking Here
Thanks were given to Billy Sandhu for arranging the Club's 20th birthday cake and the charity samosas which raised £60. Ross Murray donated £100 towards the cost of the cake as a 'thank you' for all the assistance given following the breakdown & recovery of his car after the 2023 Annual Gathering while on the way back to Scotland.
Greig Harvey gave an update on the extensive discount partners available on the forum.
Anna Bebbington thanked Andrea Keepence-Keyte & Sharon Daniels for their support at shows and informed members about the NEC Classic Car Show stand being located opposite the Wheeler Dealers stage and it being a larger layout than previous years. New on the calendar was to be the Silverston Festival held over the August Bank Holiday weekend - more on that later!
Club finances were discussed and the Club is in a healthy position with savings in the bank.
The forum and all things I.T. were covered by Adrian Daniels.
Rick Dale reported that membership fees would be remaining the same at £20.00 a year - which is an absolute steal when you consider the discounts available. If you aren't a paid member, you really should be asking yourself - why am I not a paid member, I could make significant discount savings and keep the club alive.
Paid Membership totals at the time of writing stood at 1533.
Find out about Membership Here
Simon Berry was once again thanked for his commitment to the Club and everyone wished him and his partner Ilaria well for the impending birth of their first child in October.
At 1pm everyone gathered for the start of the Drive Out to Gaydon Heritage Motor Museum. The museum was where the Club began 20 years ago when the first meeting was held as the Campaign Register on 26th September 2004.
The drive was about 35 - 45 minutes away (or more, depending which route drivers took!). The Club arranged for free entry for all Club members which pleased everyone.
The tally for the Drive Out was -
Hatchbacks - 47
Cabriolets - 43
Caddys - 0
Mk2 Golfs - 2
Beetles - 1
Scirroco - 1
Mk4 Golf - 1
Total for Mk1 Golfs this year = 90
For the 10th year running Matt Bedworth aka MDB Images took photos of all the cars arriving at the Motor Museum and later put together a video of the weekend.
Saturday night's disco and fancy dress went off as usual and bar takings were very good!
Pictures of fancy dress & disco here
Sunday came round quickly and everyone was out washing and polishing their cars nice and early. The weather was HOT and no rain arrived to spoil the day for a change.
Results of the Show & Shine can be found Here
Trophies were sponsored by Peter James Insurance
Winners of Best Region - Hampshire
Peoples' Choice Award sponsored by Crazyquiffs - Richard 'Beany' Skinner
Mk1 Golf Owners Club Team Members 2024
Due to the generosity of Club Members we were able to raise over £600 and made a donation to the year's chosen charity - 'Helen & Douglas House', a hospice for terminally ill children in Oxford.
Next up on the calendar was a new event for the Club - The Silverstone Festival. Held over the August Bank Holiday weekend, classic cars and classic racing cars were displayed and show which kept visitors busy for 3 full days. Track racing was brilliant to watch and VERY loud. Camping was available but the constant heavy rain on the Saturday certainly tested the 'fun' element of it! One thing that did lift the spirits on the Sunday was being able to drive round the circuit to experience the layout, all at a very modest 30mph!
While some members were at Silverstone others were getting ready for the 2024 Kilkenny Tour in Ireland. Organised once again by our Ireland Regional Host, Hugh Coffey (Shughy), he led the group round the route, stopping off at dealerships, photo locations and hotels along the way.
The discussion as to whether the North West region was too big to provide a local meet to the members had been held many times in the past but on 4th September the Mk1 Golf Owners Club Yorkshire region was formed and Damon Lemon (Jif1) was its first Regional Host.
Next up was Merseyside and North Wales region on 6th September and Paul Hodson (Paul Hodson) took on the role of Region Host for that area.
Lancashire and Cumbria remain as the North West region with Dan Perkins (Dano) covering the host's role.
It was hard to believe that the Mk1 Golf Owners Club had reached its 20th birthday. Formed out of the Campaign Register, a group initially devoted to the last '1000' runout models called the 'Campaign'. The Campaign Register became an all-encompassing forum for all models of Mk1 Golf. The forum serves owners very well and to this day is a central data warehouse for build threads, discussions and questions relating to the preservation and restoration of the Mk1 Golf. Facebook has taken over the social side of the Club, the forum is still maintained and an excellent resource for owners trying to solve maintenance issues.
If you've never had a nosey around the forum you can reach it Here
If you'd like to see how we've progressed over the year, take a look at a series of videos Here
Last up once again was the show season finale at the NEC Classic Car Show, held 8-10 November, the Club secured a larger than normal stand which allowed 6 cars to be displayed.
The stand cars were - a silver Series 1 GTI LHD, one of the first 22 to arrive in the UK to showcase the new GTI, XYE759T (owned by Rajan Paymaster)
A red Series 1 RHD which was a UK press car, LBD2956V (owned by Graham Welch)
A yellow Series 1 LHD owned by Jon Leonard
A black Series 2 Campaign, A868HCM owned by Joe Knight
A white Series 2 heavily modified and AGM Best In Show, HIG 47 owned by William Skelton
A silver Series 2 Campaign A309WMW owned by Hugh Coffey.
All good things must come to an end at 5pm on the Sunday evening cars blared their horns to indicate that the show was over. Hasty packing up and the scramble to depart the halls began! It was amazing to see how quickly everything got broken down and packed away.
So, from us all at the Mk1 Golf Owners Club we'd like to thank you once again for your continued support. As the year closes were are at a Paid Member high of 1571 (up 106 members 23-24) and 39,155 registered members since the club formed in 2004.
What's occurring in 2025? Keep your eyes peeled on the forum, Facebook and continue to link in with your Regional Hosts for local meets.
Until next year - See you!