What a great place to be!
By John Dickinson on 4th Oct 07
JD enthuses about the Isle of Man after his trip to the Trial des Nations and, sadly, says goodbye to a Manx legend, Geoff Cannell, who passed away recently...
FIRST of all, congratulations to the British girlsteam which so successfully defended their Trial des Nations Trophy inthe Isle of Man last Saturday. Becky, Donna and Maria had a lot ofpressure riding on their shoulders following last year's victory and itsays a lot for the team that they were able to shrug it off and winwith ease. The individual World Championship will surely follow...Becky!
The whole event was a great show all round for the Peveril club's organising team who simply put on three excellent trials.
The only disappointment I would voice was the factthat there were precious few spectators to witness the show. It reallywas a disappointing turnout but I don't really know what you can doabout that.
I do know however that it didn't have to costanyone the earth. The dear-old Isle of Man Steam Packet companyactually had some cracking offers on the go with genuinevalue-for-money ferry-hotel deals for drivers, riders or those, likeme, simply hot-footing it.
Due to a variety of reasons beyond my control, myinitial plan of spending four days on the Island was slashed to thedistinct possibility of my not getting there at all.
However, a last-ditch plan allowed a Sundaymorning crossing (departure from Heysham, 2am!) as a foot passenger onthe ferry at the co st of just £33 return. Probably the best £33 I willspend this year.
And that even takes into account the fact that theHeysham-Douglas crossing is, for some reason I have never been able tofathom, the longest three and three quarter hours in the world. By wayof comparison, a recent eight-hour flight to Florida appeared to takeless than half the time, and eight hours sitting in a pressurised cokecan is not really the peak of excitement.
On the return Douglas-Heysham trip Sunday evening,sitting with numb-bum in the cafeteria, I glanced at my watch and itwas 9.20pm. Three hours later I checked again and it was 9.21.Eventually, aged 84, I tottered down the gang-plank and staggered to mycar. Incredibly, it was still a Ford Mondeo...
Even taking all this into account it really was agreat decision to spend half my life on a ferry in order to watch thesingle day's action. The Brits really made a superb effort and Toni Bouwas simply stunning...
nLIKE many of you, I was shocked to learn of thedeath of Manx motocrcycle legend Geoff Cannell, as reported in T+MXlast week. Geoff was quite simply Mr Motorcycling in the Isle of Manand his contribution to the sport immense and it was almost inevitablethat he was working hard, doing his bit for a motorcycle event, theTrial des Nations, even as tragedy struck.
To many he was the ‘Voice of the TT', tooff-roaders he had simply been around forever and was a formermulti-Manx Trials champ and rode every weekend he could. I first cameinto contact with Geoff over 30-years ago when riding my first ManxTwo-Day trial.
From then on our passed crossed while notfrequently, certainly regularly, either when I went over to the Islandor when he visited the mainland to catch some motorcycle event. I sawhim just two weeks before his death when he came over with old palStuey Clague to watch the British Trials Champs at Brimham Rocks. Iremember thinking: ''Geoff looks exactly the same as he did when Ifirst met him years ago!''
When I remember people it is always the amusing things that come to mind and I have a great memory of Geoff.
There was a Lakes Two-Day Trial years ago whichwas a very wet one and the rivers were in full spate. After severalindividual riders had drowned their bikes, the Manx gang, whichcomprised Geoff, Stuey and very likely Peter Christian and MichaelOwen, decided to carry their bikes across.
Several of us witnessed the following with interest while we decided on our own course of action.
The Manx boys arranged themselves four to a bikeand Geoff was upstream during one crossing and suddenly lost hisfooting on the slippery river-bed.
He actually went underwater, was washed underneaththe bike by the current and came up absolutely soaking, with hisglasses skew-whiff looking for all the world like Eric Morecambe infull flow.
You may well read much-more learned and soberobituaries of Geoff, a man who devoted his life to motorcycling, but tome personally, that moment will live forever.