Dark Wet Cold Dull and Gloomy Rally

I went up with the Rising Moon MCC from Flint. I was a member of the Hotpoint MCC and we met in the Hot Point Club in Deganway, N Wales.

                   

- Chaz

I only went to one Dark Wet Cold and Dull rally in '78. I had a KH 250, a rubbish sleeping bag and a 2 man tent without a ground sheet. Someone gave me a bit of polythene so I wouldn't get wet from the ground and the rest is a blur, sort of. I know I didn't sleep well because I was cold, and as for the rest of it, well, half an oz of rocky and several packs of beer made sure I got home thinking I'd had a good time.

Bloody hell, I was a nutter!!

- Chaz Nettleton

Being a full time rally biker from the 70s onwards I took my then girlfriend Dot to the 1978 DWCD&G rally on my KH 250 Kawasaki.

We arrived mid evening on the Friday, pitched the tent close to the perimeter of the field for some unknown reason, then shot off to the pub a short distance from the rally field.

A pub full of happy bikers is one of the best places to be but I was shocked to find all the ornaments and pictures etc had been screwed to the walls and woodwork.

Next day we spent some time talking shyte to other rally goers then we nipped of into the nearest town for further refreshment.

Saturday night was getting a bit blustery just before we set off back to the pub and by the time we returned a small gale has developed which didn't subside till the very early hours. I spent most of the night holding the tent poles as the wind was so fierce it literally stripped pissed and unsuspecting rally blokes tents from their pitches only to be caught on the barbed wire of the adjoining field.

The strange thing was, most of these chaps were so pissed they didn't even notice that their tents had gone.

This was in the pre sown in ground sheet days of camping and that is one rally I never forgot.

- Fritz Yarwood

Start of quotation We spent a lot of time clinging onto our tents... End of quotation

- Phil Wilkinson

(From Phil's intro to the Dark Wet Cold Dull and Gloomy 1978 passage in his book "It's Only The Dirty Ones We Don't Want.")