Thanks for the memories!
By John Dickinson on 6th Dec 13
As a man once said, Nostalgia aint what it used to be!
Except when its in TMX that is. As you can see on pages 24-25 where we take a nostalgic look back at the 1982 Scott Trial.
It came about after our long time Yorkshire correspondent Barry Robinson was clearing out his attic and came across a box filled with dusty black and white negatives.
The first folder that Bazzer prised open just happened to be that Scott Trial from 31 years ago and as you can guess, the attic clearing took a nosedive as he began looking through this long-forgotten treasure trove.
After scanning one or two of the pics, Barry fired a couple off to TMX and, of course, we were straight into Scott mode. This was towards the end of the Rathmell v Lampkin era although there were plenty of others around to give them both a good run for their money.
Back in the office we were soon giving it lots of verbals, "Look how young Rat looks...Don't remember Shep riding a Bultaco...Is that a 200 or a 240 Fantic?...Remember JR's chinstrap helmet...”
Just as I'm sure, plenty of you will do on studying the pics.
I actually remember quite a lot about the 1982 Scott – although I can't for the life of me remember what I had for breakfast this morning.
One of the sections I visited that day was Grand Canyon and just finding a place where you could see any of the action, due to the huge crowd crammed into that natural bowl, was the first problem.
Mart arrived ashen-faced riding slowly and was surrounded by team and family who administered drinks and aspirin.
Turned out he'd had a massive crash on the moors and been all-but knocked out.
Typical of Mart he went on to win the trial.
One other memory that year at Grand Canyon was that a bunch of riders were snarled-up near the summit of the climb where there was effectively just one line, the width of a sheep-track.
Then up the section sped a young Richie Sunter in third gear and he just swung his mount (Montesa?) in a wall of death ride right round the melee to a roar of approval from the crowd.
These days local farmer Richie of Healaugh, near Reeth, is father of John, Mark and, of course, Katy, all now veterans of many Scott trials each with Katy having inspired several girls, like Emma Bristow, to have a go at the toughest of all one-day trials.
All the above memories just by looking at a single photograph. One of the pics shows an RTL-mounted Chris Myers steaming past a broken down Harold Crawford – I can tell you an ace Scott story about Chris and a rear-wheel spindle nut...
Meanwhile, what the heck did I have for breakfast this morning?
