The History of Cornish Mini Club & The Riviera Run

1993 - Cornish Mini Club is formed by Ian Callaway and Mark Finch.

1994 - Cornish Mini Club's first big event is held called 'The South West Mini Day' it attracts around 150 minis and is held at Dobwalls Theme  Park. This was the brainchild of the then Treasure Dave Collier.

1995  - The first ever Riviera Run is held at Porth after MiniWorld Magazine contacted the Cornish Mini Club. At this time membership numbers reached 50 and this later reached its highest point in 2002 with 75 registered  memberships.

1998 - Trudy Watts stands down as Club Secretary.

1999 -  Ian Callaway retires as Club President and long standing club members Mark and Bridget Manhire step in as Club President and Club Secretary.  Anne Allison also becomes the Club Editor in the same year.

2000 -  The first year the Cornish Mini Club attends Major shows as a Club including Wadebridge Wheels Show, Castle Combe and Silverstone Shows.

2002 -  Club Photo shoot is held at the Eden Project and the venue is later used for one of the Monday Runs as part of the Riviera Run.

2005  - April Milne takes over as Club President while Mark Manhire takes a  year off after the Clubs 10th year involved in the Riviera Run.

2009 - Brett Donnelly becomes Club President.

2011 - Tony Page becomes Club President and Jenni Richards becomes Club Editor.

2014 - Mini Mick takes over as Club President.

2015 - Ben Borman becomes Club President and Andy Brammall becomes Club Secretary.

2016 -  Andy Brammall steps down as Club Secretary after the Last Rivera Run is held at Newquay View Resort in Porth and Dave Osborne takes over as Event Organiser with his wife Karen for the new location of the Riviera Run for 2017 at Pentewan Sands.

2017 -  Our First Riviera Run at Pentewan Sands organised by Dave & Karen Osborne goes off without a hitch and gets amazing reviews from the show visitors and from Mini World with a 3 page write up in their Magazine. 

2018 - The Cornish Mini Club celebrates it's 25th Anniversary with the Riviera Run returning to Pentewan Sands on the early May Bank Holiday, drawing its biggest number of show visitors in over a decade!

2019 - Riviera Run at Pentewan Sands was an awesome show, the Campsite was sold out of accommodation with more visitors and traders than the previous year.  

2020 -  The 25th anniversary of the Riviera Run was postponed to 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic. A virtual Riviera Run hosted by Karen & Dave Osborne took place on our Facebook page which went a little way to consoling all our disappointed Riv Runners.

2021 - The 25th anniversary of the Riviera Run postponed again due to the Government’s roadmap and Covid-19 restrictions on events, re-scheduled to the early May Bank Holiday in 2022 fingers crossed! 

2022 - Riviera Run at Pentewan Sands was a great show and the campsite was sold out of accommodation although daily public attendance was slightly down from pre-COVID numbers as the weather on the Sunday wasn't great but it was similar numbers to the 2018 show.  The introduction of an open car show on the Bank Holiday Monday showed an attendance of 91 mixed cars.

2023 - Many say it was our best Riviera Run so far! Caravans sold out very early in the year, attendance was up from last year, great atmosphere, weather was mostly kind to us, a thoroughly good time was had by all.

2024 -  This was our biggest show to date with 404 cars on display on Sunday with a mix of 232 classics and 172 modern minis with a site visitors of 1,489. Caravans were sold out by February, camping pitches were very close to being sold out and we all had great weekend.