Special Feature: TV Gold!
By Sean Lawless on 4th Nov 15
For nine glamorous, glorious years Kickstart brought trials into living rooms across the country like some sort of prime-time television colossus...
A prime-time terrestrial TV slot, over 13 million viewers, world champions, wheelies, bunny hops, Radio One DJs, former Blue Peter presenters and even an incredibly irritating theme tune – Kickstart had the lot!
For nine years Kickstart was the public face of observed trials. It may have had bugger all in common with the realities of the sport but that really didn't matter. Trials was being beamed into millions of UK households and, boy, was it popular.
Promoter Nick Brittan's brainchild, the first Kickstart was held at Donington in 1979 and I remember it well, right down to little details like my father – always a big man with a big appetite – lumbering up behind a bloke tucking into a full English breakfast in the hospitality tent.
Slapping his plate-sized hands on the man's shoulders he boomed, "where did you get that mate?" "Er, sorry, it's a special!" replied a shocked-looking Dave Lee Travis, Kickstart's original presenter. DLT – the Hairy Cornflake! Well, it was the '70s...
And try as it might, Kickstart never – in my mind at least – shrugged off that '70s kitsch feel, something not helped by the awful theme tune (a little number called 'Be My Boogie-Woogie Baby' by Mr Walkie Talkie).
That first year saw '79 world trials champ Bernie Schreiber bring home the bacon – and pocket £500 – for Bultaco from Rob Shepherd's Honda and the Ossa of Mick Andrews. And the Curse of Kickstart also claimed its first victim – Martin Lampkin. Doug's dad finished fourth but, thanks to over-zealous editing, it was a case of blink and you'd missed him. "To be honest, I can't remember much about it," admits Mart. "I know I got stuck between two logs and that was the only bit they showed on telly!" He wouldn't be the last rider whose efforts ended up on the cutting room floor.
Kickstart stumbled across its prime-time slot by accident while Nationwide was off air but its instant success with the viewing public meant it was given pride of place in the TV schedules. And if BBC bosses had been worried about it being a flash in the pan the 1980 event was an even bigger hit – thanks almost entirely to one man!
Mike Greenough, then a TMX staff writer (whose career eventually soared to the dizzy heights of Dirt Bike Rider editor!), had trailed home eighth the previous year but his return to Donington was the stuff of legends. Mike was a big, flash Lancashire lad and couldn't do anything quietly – including crash!
In the second heat Mike hit the eject button on his Majesty Yamaha at the top of the log tower. The resulting header had viewers spraying their tea across living rooms the length and breadth of the country and Eric Kitchen's shot of Greenie bailing made for a classic TMX front page.
It almost stole the glory from John Reynolds who took the win on his Suzuki from a Mont-mounted Nigel Birkett. Birks still remembers where he went wrong. "I lost it on the wall of death section. It was made out of big wooden slats and you had to stay above a line. It had been pouring down all day – it was like firing up the side of a big ice cube. It came to the final and I couldn't stay above the line but fair play to him, JR did."
By 1981 Kickstart had a new venue – Lord Hesketh's estate at Easton Neston – and DLT had been replaced by former Blue Peter man Peter Purves. French trick rider Jean Pierre Goy won after Schreiber knocked over the bunny hop board but the American fired back in '82 to win from that year's world trials champion Eddy Lejeune.
Kickstart was all about time taken with dabs and fives replaced by dreaded 20-second penalties and it was this speed element that proved to be many a rider's downfall. "It was a really hard event to ride in because it was pretty hit or miss," recalls John Lampkin. "Invariably it was raining and you had to ride across things like telegraph poles which looked easy but left no room for error. You had to compromise between trying to go quickly and not make any mistakes."
John failed to make the final in '83 but he was in good company – neither did Steve Saunders – as Schreiber returned to make it a hat-trick of titles, winning from future three-time world trials champ Theirry Michaud. That year also saw another typical Kickstart 'incident' when Lejeune drowned his full factory Honda and disturbed a rare adder. The competition was held up while the adder was moved to safety but the delay didn't help Lejeune who was forced to retire with a terminally sick steed.
Lampkin had his day of glory in 1984 when he beat Saunders to the top spot – although, despite its undiminished popularity in TV land, Kickstart hardly made him a household name. "I wouldn't say I got mobbed in the street afterwards," says John, "but it was great for me and Fantic and my sponsor at the time Roy Carey." And there was a delayed reaction of sorts. "I played golf a couple of years ago with some lads I'd never met before and when we started talking about off-road biking they immediately brought up Kickstart."
Lejeune finally won the event in 1985 from Saunders and Lampkin before Norwich Union replaced Lombard Tricity as title sponsors and Saunders ran out winner (and pocketed a cheque for, you guessed it, £500) in '86.
The Beeb pulled the plug on Kickstart in '87 but it returned in '88 with a new format that paired adults with schoolies before an adults-only 'Grandmasters' finale that was won by Italian star Diego Bosis.
And that was it! As quickly as it appeared Kickstart was gone. The reasons for its demise are shrouded in the mists of time but it's thought a lack of sponsorship and TV scheduling problems combined to sound the death knell for Kickstart. Never again would the strains of Be My Boogie-Woogie Baby be heard on British television...
Roll of honour
1979
1 Bernie Schreiber (Bultaco)
2 Rob Shepherd (Honda)
3 Mick Andrews (Ossa)
4 Martin Lampkin (Bultaco)
5 Clive Smith (Bultaco)
6 Alan Wright (Suzuki)
7 Derek Edmondson (Montesa)
8 Mike Greenough (Montesa)
1980
1 John Reynolds (Suzuki)
2 Nigel Birkett (Montesa)
3 Dave Thorpe (Bultaco)
4 Rob Shepherd (Honda)
5 Mick Andrews (Majesty)
6 Peter Oakley (Majesty)
7 Ady Morrison (Fantic)
1981
1 Jean Pierre Goy (Fantic)
2 Bernie Schreiber (Italjet)
3 Kiyoteru Hattori (Honda)
4 Eddy Lejeune (Honda)
5 Jean Luc Colson (Montesa)
6 John Reynolds (Suzuki)
7 Vrjo Vesterinen (Bultaco)
1982
1 Bernie Schreiber (SWM)
2 Eddy Lejeune (Honda)
3 Colin Boniface (Bultaco)
4 Curt Comer (Montesa)
5 Pete Cartwright (Italjet)
6 Kiyoteru Hattori (Honda)
1983
1 Bernie Schreiber (SWM)
2 Theirry Michaud (SWM)
3 Bernard Cordonier (SWM)
4 Nigel Birkett (Majesty)
1984
1 John Lampkin (Fantic)
2 Steve Saunders (Armstrong)
3 Bernie Schreiber (SWM)
4 Tony Scarlett (Yamaha)
5 Bernard Cordonier (Fantic)
6 Mark Hicken (Fantic)
1985
1 Eddy Lejeune (Honda)
2 Steve Saunders (Honda)
3 John Lampkin (Armstrong)
4 Eric Lejeune (Honda)
5 Jonny Andersson (Montesa)
6 Jerry Cragg (Fantic)
1986
1 Steve Saunders (Honda)
2 Eddy Lejeune (Honda)
3 John Lampkin (Fantic)
4 Tony Scarlett (Yamaha)
5 Eric Lejeune (Honda)
6 Ryan Young (Beta)
1988
1 Diego Bosis (Aprilia)
2 John Lampkin (Beta)
3 Steve Saunders (Fantic)
4 Tony Scarlett (JCM)
5 Olivier Clamagirand (Aprilia)
6 Davide Marchi (Aprilia)
Cruelty to children?
Junior Kickstart ruined my life
"Sean Law-less, Sean Law-less, came second-to-last in Kicksta..." THWACK! Before he could finish his song my rapier-like left shot out, connecting first with lip, then teeth, as a fine mist of blood coated the inside of the minibus window. It was 1985 – a full four years after my one-and-only appearance on Junior Kickstart – but the scars still ran deep.
Okay, so I'm stretching the truth a bit – it was more a roundhouse right and there was very little in the way of blood. But the fight in the back of a school minibus did happen and, even today, when a certain carpet fitter drives past me in the street I'm treated to a blast of a song cooked up over 23 years ago.
Junior Kickstart was a natural spin-off from the adult version. The entertainment value was still sky-high but there were a lot less overheads when dealing with nippers – start money being just one of them! It also featured some soon-to-be-famous competitors – includeing Steve Colley, Graham Jarvis and Dougie Lampkin – and provided some classic comedy moments.
Remember the combined forces of the Northampton St Johns Ambulance Brigade falling down a muddy bank as they rushed to the rescue of a crash victim? And a few years back Junior Kickstart was ranked fifth in the Observer Sport Monthly's top 10 funniest sports shows (one place behind Salmon Run with Jack Charlton)!
I took part in the second Junior Kickstart – held at Easton Neston in November 1981 and broadcast the following Boxing Day. My fellow competitors included eventual junior class winner Rob Sartin, Paul Edmondson and John Shirt so I was serious out-classed – but when your dad was editor of Trials and Motocross News you did tend to get invites to all sorts of things that bike skills alone didn't qualify you for.
To say the event didn't go well for me is a bit of an understatement. In practice I fell off the seesaw (a crash that appeared in the News of the World colour supplement) and in the main event I clouted a pole on my 125cc Fantic and fell off. Still, I wasn't last (that honour went to Ray Syson who failed to finish the course – but he was on a TY80!) so it was in high spirits that the Lawless family tuned in to BBC1 on Boxing Day afternoon for a spot of primetime Sean watching...
My moment of glory lasted a full 10 heavily edited seconds, culminating in Peter Purves uttering three little words – "he's blown it" – but the shame remains to this day. Still, looking on the bright side, I did get to meet Little and Large!
Kickstart collection
Nigel Birkett
"The format was a good idea - a mixture of time and observation - and the programme was great promotion for trials even though it wasn't trials as we know it. The sections weren't very difficult but when you had to rush that was when you made the cock ups.
"Kickstart did a world of good for trials and I was definitely more recognised after it but, trouble was, people thought that was all we did."
Colin Boniface
"It was 1981 and one of the sections involved riding over a VW Beetle. Because we were going against the clock I tried to go over it a bit too quickly, my front wheel missed the off ramp and I landed a bit too hard – my handlebars then slipped forward in the clamps which wound the throttle wide open and I disappeared off into the bushes where Sammy Miller found me!
"Appearing on Kickstart didn't exactly make me famous but it did put a smile on a few people's faces."
Steve Saunders
"My memories of Kickstart are really good. It was something the average bloke in the street could relate to – it was easier to understand a 20-second time penalty than trials scoring and riding in and out of buses and through skips was definitely entertaining.
"The amount of people who still talk about Kickstart even now is fantastic. There was something very special about it.
"I wasn't recognised in the street after it – I didn't turn into Robbie Williams overnight – but most people you speak to have seen it at some time or another and it was great for trials, even if we probably didn't appreciate that at the time."
