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to the Archive indexRun organiser, Peter Green, was forced to re-schedule this event to 24 November 2002 due to the very severe weather on the original date.
I arrived at the venue by 10am, closely followed by Pete Smith and then Peter Green with the tea and coffee making facilities. Unfortunately the beverages took an eternitiy to materialise due to a badly behaved gas stove.
Other members soon began arriving. Neal Green and Steve Cobb were riding 'real' motorcycles, as was Carl Harper, although when he came to a halt he promptly fell off. Carl Squirrel arrived with Billy Doy and Brian Bailey, all with mopeds [or at least Carl's mount did have pedals]. The remainder of the participants were all in attendance by 10:30.
We embarked at 11am, with Peter Green urging us to stay together. As usual, David Evans was the trail-blazer. There was however a major difference to the norm: riding a very nice Phillips Panda, his tarmac burning was severely curtailed. The first casualty of the day was Brian Bailey's NSU Quickly, which developed a whiskered plug after only half a mile. We continued to follow David Evans reverently, with Steven Gleed and Laurence Coates acting as ramrods, Rowly Yates style.
We all reached the Beehive pub at Hadleigh at 11:50. During lunch Peter Green asked the pub landlady to choose the best bike. She duly obliged, fortunately opting for a machine with pedals. As the recipient, Pete Smith received the nice trophy for his 'original' New Hudson, we all noticed that his hitherto sullen countenance instantly changed to an almost smiling grimace.
After being fed and watered, we set off together on the homeward journey. Again David Evans took charge although one member had forgotten to turn his petrol tap on. Upon reaching Capel St Mary, a number of foolhardy lemmings decided to follow Carl Harper on his 'boil in the bag' Honda. These unfortunates hadn't noticed that Carl was reading his map upside down. The wayward travellers were soon rescued by Steve Cobb, but not before they had run the gauntlet of Steve and David's verbal tirade.
As we reached Copdock, my thus far obedient AV3 came to a halt. Peter Green saved the day by providing a brand new plug after my two previous plug changes proved fruitless. We continued back to the start without further problems, where it was found that Neal Green had not returned. Good old Dad had to take him a supply of petrol! One noticeable absentee on the day was Mark Daniels. He had travelled abroad in an attempt to lessen the Dutch Moped Mountain. Finally on behalf of us all, may I thank Peter Green for a very enjoyable day.
Riders were as follows: Peter Green - Raleigh Wisp; Pete Smith - New Hudson; David Evans - Phillips Panda; Bill Doy - Norman Nippy; Brian Bailey - NSU Quickly; Carl Squirrel - Puch M50 Grand Prix; Steven Gleed - Zündapp; Laurence Coates - Mobylette [rust bucket]; Carl Harper - Honda Motocompo; Steve Cobb - motorcycle; Neal Green - motorcycle; Paul Efreme - Mobylette AV3
First published, February 2003