Sunday 3rd July

For three days at the beginning of July every year Meccano modellers from all over the world descend on Skegness for their international show, Skegex. This year saw the 30th such show and it was the biggest and best yet with models not only filling the theatre at the Embassy but the foyer as well. I was invited along to present the prizes for the best models as judged by fellow model makers.

First prize went to………. I will tell you about that later

All the prize winners at Skegex 2011

Models on show ranged from the simple and small to the huge and complicated with every combination in between. There were model makers from literally just down the road to those who had travelled a long way to get there. The furthest being Australia and you can’t get much further than that.

If you have never owned any Meccano I would imagine it would be difficult to appreciate how much work goes in them. Of course the large models are impressive but as we all know size isn’t everything. Some of the smaller models, particularly the steam engined, were so detailed and so beautifully made they were verging on being works of art. I could easily understand why some of the models had taken many years to complete, and in fact some had still to be completed.

10 years on and this model is still not complete!!

With such engineering knowledge and attention to detail it is hard to understand why we are not world leaders in engineering and manufacture. That gives me an idea.

I will write to the Prime Minister with the following suggestion;

all school pupils study Meccanno from the age of 5 to 16 as part of the National Curriculum.

That way we might inspire a passion for tinkering in a generation of young people which will then encourage them to train to be the engineers and designers this country so desperately needs.

On behalf of Cath and myself I would like to thank everybody at the exhibition both the organisers and modellers for their very warm welcome and kind words.

And finally..

First price winner

The prize for the best model in the show went to the biggest one there so maybe after all these years we know the real answer – yes it does matter!!