Crooked Spire Rally

The first Crooked Spire Rally was held at the Manor House Inn, Wingerworth Nr. Chesterfield. It was organised by the Honda Owners Club, and later on by the Crooked Spire MCC.

I went to the rally with Fat Barry Warrener. He's still about on the Rally scene. Both of us were on Honda 175's. I should have known better but I had agreed to share Barry's tent. When we started to put it up he said he had borrowed it from someone and had never actually tried it out! It turned out to have no sewn in ground sheet and appeared to be two different tents loosely attached together to form one not very big nylon/cotton "THING". That wasn't a problem at first because it was only raining (heavily!) It did become a problem later that night when it started snowing, because even then I had this thing about not liking sleeping in a snowdrift!

Another tip for snowy weather ... make sure handlebar muffs (Remember them?) are left pointing downwards as frozen snow is difficult to remove in the morning and does nothing to improve either your hangover or your temper!

The Manor House was actually a working farm and the bar was in what seemed to be the lounge of the farmhouse. It was quite cosy in there I seem to remember.

It was at this rally I first met Arnie the farmer from the Tees Tornadoes. He had one of the early Honda 750/4s with Dunstall pipes and it was painted PINK! Arnie spent most of the evening under the table semi conscious holding onto the table leg. When it was closing time it was a hell of a job to get him to let go of it and at one stage we were going to bring the table back to the campsite with Arnie attached. The landlord spotted us so we eventually separated him!

The Rally was held in and around Chesterfield for about ten years and I enjoyed all of them. Dave Banks and Peter Kitts who organised it are still out and about at Rallies most weekends.

- Ted Trett