Harry Ingham’s letter about Frank Richardson (OBM February) brought back memories to a few of us in the Manchester Eagles Motor Club.
I joined at the age of 17 in 1960, so didn’t know Harry, but the Marple Scramble would have been at Booth Farm, where we ran trials and scrambles until our move to Crookilly Wood Farm at Bredbury, near Stockport, and that was where the TV scrambles were shot with those famous commentaries by the legendary Dennis Parkinson, who often attended our annual club dinners and awards evenings.
Bill Barugh, Reg Pilling, Ted Ogden and Johnny Cox were all members I’ve had the privilege to meet over the last 58 years, and Ted always took an interest in us when we started sidecar racing in 1963. To him we were ‘youngsters’ just having a go.
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In those days, things were run on much more amateur lines, with none of the politics and with respect for those who had gone before.
Johnny Cox was small in stature but a giant in motorcycle riding, whose style from trials to road racing we all tried to copy. He rode a Matchless G45 to good effect in the Manx Grand Prix.
I enclose a cartoon, still on the clubroom wall, that was drawn many years ago when the Lord’s Day Observance Society was trying to stop Sunday sport.
I’m now in my 75th year, and the Manchester Eagles Motor Club is still going strong. There might not be so many of us now, but we can still boast our own clubroom. Some of us still compete in various events, but we all look forward to Old Bike Mart, which reminds us of the past as well as keeping us abreast of what’s happening today.
Long may it continue!
Pete Bramhall,
Stockport
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