SCOUT MOOR

Hi folks.  I’ve been sat in the garden now for about 10 minutes thinking of a way to start this, yet another epistle on inane drivel.

Here goes.  The old girl has lost her home for the moment, lambing season you see.  So she is nicely tucked away in my garage.  All I had to do was change the oil and she was ready for business.  One of the swivel house arms was a bit iffy, but I thought ah what the hell, it’ll do one more do.  Sod it, so that was all the preparation the old girl received.

Not so with 1 Amp. Whilst trying to find a misfire one day, he revved the thing up and the poor thing dropped a valve.

One always hopes for the best in these situations, but I’m afraid that wasn’t to be.  An almost total engine rebuild was necessary.  Anyway we got stuck into it and he was ready for Scout Moor too.

Squirrel on the other hand decided to re-ring his thoroughbred, what a flyer it is going to be now.  How he nurses that thing.  Why, I’ve heard that he keeps his engine warm even when it is not running by stuffing a blanket in the sump (sorry Mick, I couldn’t resist).

Anyway by fair means or foul we were all ready for a right good do.  1 Amp had decided to hitch a lift on the back of Ian Bartram’s wagon.

So the W.W.T. was in full force. Squirrel with the Range Rover and Trailer, me and  Pete in the love bug and Ian bringing up the rear.  

As we climbed up to Turn village the mist thickened, and by the time we reached the quarry we couldn’t see a hand in front.  Anyway we all passed scrutin.  They all shot off for a walk while I was signing on.  Fortunately Lea and Will arrived at this moment, so I said “Come on Fluff, let’s go for a walk”.

I enquired if Will was coming too but he said “I walked it enough yesterday, sod off”.

Ah well, off we went, I don’t know why we went anyway, we couldn’t see anything.  Then the rain came.  By the time we had trailed round the course we were all wet through.  We had  a run round as well, so by rights we should have been really sure of the course.  I say should, wait till later.

Glen McKeith came back after the run-round, his hands were blue.

“Hey Glen, do you want to borrow my glubs?” I enquired.

“No thanks, I can’t hold the steering wheel with those sort, I’ll buy some”.

“Neither can I Glen, that’s why I offered them, teehee!”

“Sod off”.

Now it’s a bit since we’ve had a seat belt fitting.  As you may recall, every Tom, Dick, Pam and Mint Nurse had sat in at the expert/novice, so some belt tightening was required.  I can see the feathers ruffling now.  Steady girls, I was the last to sit in the passenger seat, so that’s why it needed tightening O.K.

So Lea tightly secured, we decided to go for our first run. It wasn’t bad.  We couldn’t see much and catching Rod Depledge through some electric failure didn’t help the visibility at all.

The next lap was going great right up until the next to the last bend.  I must have had a mental blank.  Over the little bridge, up the hill, now for some reason I thought it was straight on.

“No!” shouted Lea.

“Bloody hell” I murmured.

I slung the old girl over and she came to rest at the top of the biggest hill I’ve ever seen.  Anyway I fired the old girl up and shot through the line.  PHEW. . . “I didn’t bloody like that” retorted Lea.

“I wasn’t right keen myself” I whispered.

The third run went as smooth as silk, and we did our best lap of the day, 4.14.  After this I decided to make a few checks.  I’m glad I did, the arm on the bottom of the swivel house was hanging off.  I tried to tighten it, but unfortunately two of the four bolts had stripped.  I decided to have another lap.  That went O.K. but the arm loosened again.  I tightened it once again and had another lap.  This time the third bolt had stripped.  That was that.  I had to retire.  The big sad eyes crept over Lea’s face, but when I showed here what was hanging off, and reminded her of those drops, she agreed it was silly to carry on. So we packed the old girl away and watched for the rest of the afternoon.

Quite a few had retired, including Squirrel, who had lost his oil pressure.

I stuck around until almost the end, but decided to go early.  I thought I had better limp the old girl home, and limp I did.

My usual thanks to the marhsals, the organisers and the landowner for making a superb comp course and an enjoyable day’s sport.  I am only sad that I didn’t finish.  Congratulations of course to all the winners.

See you all soon

Clive Cocks

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