When I declared a couple of weeks ago that I intended to bring my column to an end, I had forgotten the secret pleasure that I enjoyed when I saw up to 50 postings and over 3000 views of a particular column through the week.
Unfortunately, when writing this column I never know for sure what subject will generate so much enthusiasm/venom/anger/interest/controversy – though I suppose I should have known that it would be the Pre 65 Scottish.
I’ve been reading through the posts made following last week’s column and perhaps should make clear my own views that may have been misunderstood. As far as the Scottish organisers are concerned, that’s both the Pre 65 trial committee and also the main trial committee, I have always got on with them all personally very well indeed. That includes both the current organising groups and also the groups from the past.
You need to remember that as well as having been to every Scottish since 1978 (by no means a record), for a good number of years I wrote virtually all the content and designed the lay-out of the Scottish programme when it was a pull-out supplement to the main edition of TMX. I’m not looking for praise as it was part of my job, but for that reason alone I needed to have a good relationship with the committee, and as far as I am concerned, nothing has changed since then.
My headline term last week of Pre 65 Scottish Entry Spiked is of course used by journalists to mean that once a piece of paper has been used or considered or rejected, then it is literally spiked for future referral and certainly is NOT a derogatory term that refers to my entry having been refused. As far as I am concerned, my entry to this year’s Pre 65 was considered along with all the others and I failed to be accepted. OK, no problem with that, I shall still be at the trial and will enjoy it. I can’t complain as I have already had 11 rides and I know that many more have entered many times and have yet to be successful.
I hope this has clarified a few points.
Avondale Management’s Sheffield Indoor Trial last week was a cracking affair. Earlier on Saturday morning I had decided to give the event a miss as I had been to all the previous 15, but come half one, the urge to drive to Sheffield overcame any other thoughts and I set off an hour or so later.
And I’m very glad I did. For some reason or other, I reckon that this year’s event was one of the best. Because it was not a championship round, the riders seemed more relaxed, though I was concerned at the large number of crashes that happened through the evening.
Fortunately nobody was hurt but down on the floor level there were many sharp intakes of breath as we watched riders crash off bikes from some significant heights.
Filling the halftime interval is never easy and after last year’s disappointment of the non-appearance of Danny McAskill due to injury, it was great to see Steve Colley back in action with a short version of his stunt show and what was unique for Sheffield, to have a band play was great. Katy Bullock, no mean rider on a trials and motocross bike, together with her band put on a great show and I’m sure they appreciated the rare opportunity to perform in one of the UK’s premier Arenas to a near full house. That privilege doesn’t happen very often at the start of a show business career.
Some 16 shows on from the first Sheffield indoor trial, the event seems to be as popular as ever, which is testament to the excellent promotion that Neil Crosswaite and Martin Lampkin with their team provide each year. I hope there are many more.
Neil reckons there is no need for the event to be a World Championship round and if future events go off as well as this year’s did, then he has a valid point.