Heart Of England Rally

It was Dave Scattergood's rally birthday; exactly a year since he had attended his first rally and lazing in the sunshine on the cricket pitch at Coleshill Hall Hospital he voted the Heart of England rally as still the being the best rally. The Heart of England Rally is held appropriately in the heart of England, Coleshill, by the Birmingham Sidecar Club who, with a membership of only eighteen, really put on a well organised event catering for families.

On Friday night I took Steve White over on my Honda and we spent the evening with Paul and Lynda (500/4), Graham & Karen (550 Suzuki) lazing around on the grass drinking warm beer and autographing Steve's plastered arm.

Saturday morning we were joined by Lucy (125 Honda) and Dave Scattergood (750 Suzy) and we rode into Tamworth for a swim and some dinner. On returning to the site we joined Dave Lester (750 Norton), John (Z1), Steve Brown (650 B.S.A.) and Andy (500 Kawa) in soaking up the sun, drinking beer and admiring the beautiful outfits that included 3 Goldwing/Palmas and a Moto-Guzzi V7 from Sweden. My favourite was a kneeler Triton outfit with (4) coupled dye brakes and leading link forks.

We were joined by Dave Cockerton (750 Honda) later in the day and we watched the gymkhana events ; these included all types of gaes for solos and outfits followed by some field games for the kids and grown-ups. Lucy won the ladies sack race after being forced into the sack by Dave and Graham (no innuendo intended) and a few of us attempted the wheelbarrow race.

The evening was spent boozing at a local pub and meeting new friends. Dave Cockerton and Steve White were talking to a young couple with a 750 B.M.W. and discovered that they knew Dave Scrivens and Mick Ayriss. They were duly invited to visit the club and did in fact do so a couple of weeks ago. I met a couple of lads from the Coventry Antelope and was given some useful addresses for when we tour the South of France next year.

Films were being shown back at the site but a few of us retired early, only hearing the storm that was raging over Brum and washing the bikes for us. But Sunday dawned another lovely day and although a lot of people decided to head home, there were enough of us left to compete in the games which included slow bike races and welly flinging. Karen was bullied into entering the Miss Heart of England contest but the judges (members of the SSK of Sweden) picked the wrong girl.

It was a very good rally; it gave Dave Cockerton and myself a chance to look up some members of the last club that we had met in the Island and for Graham to astound us all by flying a kite from his bike. What better way to spend a hot summer weekend?

 

Terry Reynolds