Hi Althulas. Thanks for your suggestion. I will give that a try--after I find a very strong person who can release the latch! I've had the top for several months now, so the problem is not that the top hasn't "broken in" yet.
I'm in Northern California--San Francisco Bay Area--a bit far away from Oxfordshire. ;-)
As for pics, I've added one to my avatar. As it suggests, I use "Bugsy" to carry all sorts of things.