The best part of a hundred Falcons, family and friends celebrated the clubs fiftieth birthday with a "celebration run" on the 28th June. The route started at "The Crown and Falcon" in Puckeridge, where it all began back in 1948. Then it was off through the Hertfordshire countryside for a barbecue at Shooters, via as many of the clubs old venues as Mike Furse and Mike Hayward could fit in. The trials types were able to indulge in a little off-road work, as four "sections" were included, although as the run was a non-competitive occasion I probably shouldn’t call them that!
We had a fantastic variety of cars assembled at the start, representing most aspects of clubman machinery. Original “Falconer” Derek Fleming was driving Primrose, lovingly prepared for the occasion by it’s custodian Neil Bray, who was behind the wheel of his modern Skoda trials iron. We were also privileged to have “The Runner Bean” taking part, driven all the way up from Cornwall by Clive Kalber. How lovely it was to see this famous car back in it’s home area. The “Bean” was built by John Tucker-Peake and was often driven by his son Adrian who came down from Bromsgrove for the run.
Then there was a whole variety of “kit” and “home-built “cars. There were no less than four of the Cambridge built Dellow Replicas and derivatives, in the hands of Geoff Jackson, Reg Taylor, Mike Pearson and Clive Booth. Joint organiser Mike Furse was in his Racecorp and Simon and Matt Robson had Mike’s old Tempest. Neil Masters was in his Locust, now very familiar at our Autotests. There were quite a few other “Lotus 7” derivatives, one of which had the misfortune to whole it’s sump on the way to Puckeridge. I suppose that’s always a risk with such a low slung machine.
On the way to the outskirts of Stevenage the route passed many of the old Autotest venues, so familiar to senior members, before coming to the “The Chequers” where the club met for so long. Then came Knebworth Park, the scene of so much club activity in the 70’s. Then came the first off-road section, a nice gentle up-hill track near the Rush Green scrap-yard. This was a bit over-grown but was quite smooth although a bit muddy at the top. This gave the Leete family their first taste of a Classic style section and a classic style technical problem when the undergrowth pulled the heater linkage away from its mounting, necessitating Michael getting the tools out to fix it up out of harms way. This was shortly followed by another track down into Whitwell. This was nice and rutted with a fair bit of mud. It was run down hill which may have been just as well without any recovery! Uphill this could qualify as an interesting section if we could run a real classic in the area.
Skirting Luton, and passing Kensworth and Edlesborough, there was a rest halt at the Eaton Bray fishery where a super cream tea was on offer. This had been prepared by Dorinda Pearson and family and was served up by the local scouts. The “off-roaders” were full of how they had enjoyed the “sections” but there were some surprisingly clean trials machines who had given them a miss, preferring to take in lunch at one of the local hostelries!
Cliff and Gill Morrell had experienced problems with a half shaft pulling out on their 1954 Sunbeam Talbot but with some help from Arnold Lane had managed to fix it so they could continue. Derek Fleming was really enjoying his outing in Primrose, revelling in the extra power of it’s present Kent engine compared to the original side valve! Lyn Camp had been having problems with drive belts on her Rover V8 trike and having got through two, and having only one left, decided to head for home and go to the finish in her daily driver. This really was some fantastic machine. I wonder what the MCC would say if she entered it in class E!
Then it was up on to the downs for another off-road section at Nettleden. Tunnel Hill was very nice to drive. The steep walls either side of the track made it very exciting and there were some super ruts near the top to spice things up. Arnold and Andrea Lane were enjoying the off-road bits in their PCT prepared Mini, running near the back they ran into a restless local and had to indulge in some PR work with help from Mike Pearson. Tunnel Hill was one of the hills used by Tucker when he ran a “conducted trial” in 1981.
The route then explored very narrow lanes as it circled Tring Park, going up the famous Aston Hill and passing Dancers End, another pre-war hill climb venue. There were a few red faces here as a few well known trials navigators got well and truly lost! Hill Farm was the final off-road track, another section from Tuckers conducted trial. This was nice and boggy at the bottom before a tree rooty, overgrown track. Another potential section!
The day finished with a barbecue at Shooters, with president Ron Warren cutting the birthday cake. We had been lucky with the weather but it was a little cold for mere mortals to take a dip in the pool although Kevin wasn’t put off! A super day. Lets not wait another fifty years for the next one!
