November Club Night

Nick Lilley, Wednesday, 20 November 2024

The last Club Night of 2024 was undoubtedly the most popular with well over 60 people filling the room. Our speaker, John Young, related his travels in his trademark unassuming style. There was nothing out of the ordinary in popping over to Finland to a rally for the weekend. For him possibly not, for me it would mean several months of planning, bike maintenance, girding of loins and psyching oneself up. He took us into Russia, a country for which he holds an obvious affection, then across North America, around the Great Lakes and New England. His trip may not have followed his original plan but his enviable ability to adapt and overcome setbacks is testament to his character. John was accompanied by his much modified bike.

Over the years we’ve had quite a few travellers visit. Back in 2014 we had Nigel and Sharyn Tailyour, a most unlikely retired couple who would have looked at home in a Home Counties golf club but had been assisted by a Russian biker gang as they made their circumnavigation. In 2013 we had Nathan Millward and Dorothy, his 105cc Australian postal bike returning home from Australia. In 2012 Paddy Tyson told us about his 20,000 mile trip down the Pan-American Highway. More recently, in 2023, Sam Manicom related his tales travelling, with minimal preparation, north to south, down Africa.

In our own club some undertake extraordinary rides. I think with especial fondness of Ken and Sandy Hubbard rode everywhere from Nordkapp to Morocco and every country in-between. And of course the young Martin Nee who made it all the way to India and possibly beyond. Ordinary people do extraordinary things which makes them a little less ordinary. In 99 cases out of 100 the only thing stopping us joining them is us.

After the fish supper (not sure what the fish was), an exceptional number of certificates were presented, four of them F1RSTs.