Bio – Brian Hoskins

Name:                                 Brian Hoskins

Position:                            Webmaster

Centre Member For:     9 months!

Introduction

I was a little worried about the prospect of creating this bio, because generally committee members are established rallygoers with years (dare I say many years 😮) experience under their belts and a huge repository of good stories to tell.
On the contrary, I am a new rallygoer, with only 9 months club & centre membership, and 6 rallies to my name.

Well… is that really true?
Not quite…

You see, my parents were rallygoers.  Which means I was a rallygoer – as a child.  We toured all over the place when I was a child.  Me, my two Sisters, my Mam and Dad.
We were with South Wales centre then, and we were out and about with them I would say most weekends.

 

 

 

 

 

I was a shy boy, as a child (and still shy now!), but I made friends with a little group and that friendship continued for many years.  In fact, one of the friends I made while rallying is still my best friend to this very day!

Rally Memories

I have fond memories of my Grandad, who was also a rallygoer (now sadly passed), singing 🎵Chips! Chips! Glorious Chips!🎵 as he cooked us up a lovely lunch in the caravan of a weekend.  Going over to his caravan for a lunch was always a highlight.  And these are memories that can’t be taken away from me.

I don’t think I would be able to pick my favourite memory of rallying as a child, since my best experiences were so many and so varied in nature.  But here I will relive my memory of the role I played in victory against the Northants & Rutland T.O.W. team at a Welsh National.  First, to give the backdrop:
Northants & Rutland had a legitimate Tug-of-War side, which they brought to the National every year.  And, every year, they would beat us.
The Northants & Rutland’s tactic was to hold us from the whistle, nice and tight, and they had the skill, technique and fitness to ride out our offensive for as long as it took.  Then, when our stamina and morale were depleted and spent, they would begin their counter-attack.  I remember in particular one member of their side, who occupied the #1 position at the front of the rope.  He would wear a baseball cap, faced front, and when his side was ready for the counter attack, he would turn it to face backward.  That was his signal that they were going to pull us out.  And this is what they always did.

This particular year, I had been training and competing with Llantristant T.O.W.  and I joined the South Wales side for The National.  The South Wales side had trained hard for many months leading up to the event.
When the day finally came we made it into the final against Northants & Rutland.  Our side was confident, and we were lead out to the tune of bagpipes against the illustrious Northants & Rutland side.  There was great anticipation in the air, and the memory still gives me goosebumps to this day!
The scene was set for a battle.  And a battle is what we had.  But there would be no casual turning of the cap for Northants & Rutland on this day.  The South Wales side were a trained, organised, and physically fit team, determined to win.  We would put them under tremendous pressure.  And, after a back-and-forth battle, we emerged victorious! 😁
To defeat a legitimate side like Northants & Rutland was a spectacular experience and a great rallying memory that I will treasure forever. 😊

The Next Generation

I was keen to try and give my Son Oliver a taste of the fond memories I’d had rallying as a child.  So I talked to my Wife Nerys about it and we decided to buy our first caravan – a used Elddis Xplore 495.  By today’s standards, this is quite a primitive caravan 😂 but it’s working for us and we intend to carry on with it for many years to come.

Our first rally was Dan-yr-Ogof caves in the first weekend of May, 2023.  More than 20 years after rallying with my parents, I was now rallying for the first time as an adult and as a parent myself!

I think the next generation of rallygoers are really important.  If rallying will continue into the future, then the children of today are going to be the ones to take it forward.  In my first year of rallying I have been surprised at the apparent lack of children at many of the rallies we attended in 2023, and it is my hope that we can work to change that for the better going forward.  There were some rallies with a good turnout of children, so the membership definitely has some strength in that regard.  It’s just that we need to persuade their parents out to join us on more rallies.  😊

My Role on the Committee

It wasn’t my intension to join the West Wales Centre committee in my first year of rallying.  But an opening came up for the webmaster position, and I knew that this was an area where I could genuinely help the centre.  I don’t do web development itself professionally, but I work as a full time electronics & firmware Engineer.  Firmware is the software that runs on devices.  So I have a strong grounding in software development generally, and I do have experience outside of my day job with web services development specifically.  These are the skills that I intend to bring to West Wales Centre.

You won’t have noticed any change in our web services as of yet, but by this time next year I am hoping to have launched a brand new web platform, and you will definitely notice it.  My intension is to make it much easier to browse, book, and pay for rallies.  I have lots of ideas in this regard, and I am highly motivated to implement them 😊

See you out there

I’ll leave it there for now, but I look forward to seeing you out there.  As mentioned earlier, I have a shy personality.  But despite that I am keen to talk to new people and make new friends.  So if you see us 0ut and about, feel free to come over and say hi.