He was one of the old school
By John Dickinson on 1st Aug 07
As motorcycle sport loses an old friend, we look back at the life and times of Peter Howdle, a real champion of motorcycling.
MOTORCYLE sport sadly lost an old friend last weekwith the death of Peter Howdle. The name will mean nothing to youngerreaders but the older generations of riders will have fond memories ofPeter who reported for, and was actually a founder member of, theweekly paper Motor Cycle News, when it was deeply involved inmotorcycle sport.
These days of course, MCN has sold its soul to‘born again' road-riding heroes who like to brag loudly about 'gettingtheir knee down' on any summer Sunday at any bacon butty van you careto name. I've had the misfortune to listen to them. But back in theday, during Peter's stint, which lasted from the 1950s right up to thelate 1980s, the Wednesday paper was always a 'must read'.
You see, Peter was a motorcyclist of the oldschool and what he didn't know really wasn't worth knowing. He had donethe lot, covered road racing, motocross, trials, enduro, at all levelsfrom club meeting to Grand Prix. And when young and fit he
had done it all on a motorcycle, rushing acrossEurope on a Sunday night aboard some rattling, vibrating, oil-leakingBritish-built two-wheeler in order for him to hit deadline.
Before he finally retired in 1989, I was fortunateto do a bit of travelling with Peter, or ‘Monsieur' as he was known tocolleagues, owing to his speaking French like a native. This wasbecause he virtually was a native, actually having been schooled inFrance as well as having worked in Paris before joining MCN.
MCN and T+MX were technically rivals back then butin all honesty, this was only at boardroom level. The groundstaff onboth papers got on like a house on fire. The reason is simple, we wereall off-road sport enthusiasts! We even did one another favours, whichwould probably have been sackable offences, like delivering eachother's films (long before digital was invented!) and helping out withresults.
A confirmed smoker, I don't like to think what hewould have made of today's draconian 'smoking at work' laws. Back inthe day, when you were only allowed 200 duty-free fags, if he wasflying (or driving) to a Sunday event abroad, Peter would buy hisallowance on the way out and then proceed to smoke the lot in aweekend, so he could buy another 200 to bring home. Now that's what Icall dedication to your addiction. Not too much fun if you were sharingthe hire car though, as I can personally vouch for!
And, as a dyed-in-the-wool journalist, henaturally liked a drink. On one occasion, we flew to Barcelona for thelaunch of a new Montesa trials bike (the 242 I think) as one did in theglory days of Spanish trials. I had left my car at Peter's house and hedrove us to Heathrow. Hard to believe now but there were few directflights to Barcelona from the north, even 20 years ago, and driving toHeathrow from oop north was a pain. Anyway, on the flight back, we weregiven an upgrade and handed a brandy apiece. When Peter discovered thattop-ups were not only free but also unlimited, it goes without sayingthat I had to drive him home...
He wasn't always on the Christmas card list of theprofessional photographers at events though, particularly at WorldChampionship trials. Many's the time that a snapper had arrived early,jealously guarded his pitch and waited patiently while the unfanciedrunners rode the section. Then, just as the star rider approached, uppopped Peter at the crucial moment, right in front, took his pic andthen departed, with a quick apology but with his shot in the can!Infuriating though it was, it was totally impossible to remain annoyedwith him as he was simply such a nice man.
Malcolm Rathmell had him good and proper on one day though.
Peter understood that Malc, a Bultaco rider at thetime, had just signed for Ossa and agreed to meet him on his returnfrom Spain at Heathrow for an interview. On arrival, Peter wassurprised to see Malc appear with Montesa importer Jim Sandiford.Thinking this was just a coincidence, he tried to usher Malc away for acoffee and when Jim went along too, Peter didn't know what to do - andMalcolm didn't let on what had really happened. He had, of course,signed for Montesa, which explained Jim's presence, but Malc let Petersuffer in silence for quite some time before cracking...