"Despite
counter attractions of the Football World Cup and the Wimbledon Tennis
Men's Final on Television, 93 members and guests turned up for the
annual VSRA,.....Oops, sorry,.......WSRA South Eastern Lunch at Bulphen
in Essex on Sunday 9th June.
2007 President, Jack Geran was making his second official appearance as
our new "El Presidente" along with wife, Janet as he had
missed the Southern Lunch at his "Home Track" venue,
Bournemouth, owing to being in hospital at the time.
THIS time, Jack made sure that he would be at Bulphen, resplendent
with
his Chain of Office and had arranged to be driven up from Devon on the
Saturday
and spend the night at Ye Olde Plough so that he would be there in time
for the lunch. It worked a treat this time, although after a hearty
breakfast at the hotel, Jack almost couldn't face the huge lunch served
up to us. This suited us fine, as my wife, Edith went round the table
collecting all the spare meat for our German Shepherd dog, Susi (at
least she SAID it was for Susi, but I thought I recognized some of it on
my plate the following evening!).
There was a display of Rayleigh Rockets photographs and memorabilia,
courtesy of Terry Stone, and even a programme of their Dinner Dance in
the '60s where the drinks everyone had ordered were written down and
Terry went round to collect the outstanding bills!
Uncle Len Silver was there still smiling after his recent "Match
Race" at Rye House where he beat former World Champion, Michael
Lee. Len had cunningly worked out how long it would take him to cover a
lap of the Hoddesdon circuit and how much quicker Michael would be, so
Len's race would be over two laps, whilst Michael had to do three and
the wily promoter took the chequered flag in first place. "That's
the most fun I've had in years", said Len, so look out for another
"Match Race" coming up featuring "Rocket Len Silver"
and a top-class opponent. Yes, Len has proved that old
saying,......"Once a racer, always a racer."
After lunch, everyone filed out into the large gardens where Jim Gregory
and Terry Stone had a couple of Douglas Speedway bikes ready to fire up
and everyone drooled as the Duggies burst into life. As years go by,
starting a Speedway bike by spinning the rear wheel, becomes even
harder, so Jim has developed a small starter machine like the GP Road
Race bikes and that has done away with all the bruised knuckles and tyre
burns on the forearm that you got when trying to start the bikes
"by hand".
As usual, at these get-togethers, everyone had a great time. George &
Linda Barclay were hard at work selling badges, shirts & T-shirts
for the Museum Fund, "Cherry" Stone and his ladies were busy
selling raffle tickets, and by the end of the afternoon, as everyone
wandered off to watch the Football Final and the Tennis highlights, both
the Association and the Museum Fund had benefited from our members generosity.
Check your copy of Inside Line Magazine for the next event and come and
support the WSRA,........The World Speedway Riders'
Association".
OK, Vic, Hope you are practicing your Italian.
Ciao,
Bert