Brighthelmstone Rally

13th March 1992 - Brighton & District MC

I forget why we, (myself, Neville & girlfriend), pulled into the Little Chef on the A23 approaching Brighton, as it wasn't a particularly long or arduous trip to the Brighton Racecourse, but stop we did and Neville pointed out a seagull's splat on his arm, reminiscent of an incident that happened to me in Cornwall some years before. It wasn't long afterwards we were ensconced in the Grandstand bar.

Due to the warmer than usual weather, I had elected to take my tent this year, and forego the enforced 'chumminess' of sharing a stable with the rest of my club. This was the only occasion I took my tent to this rally. I wish I had continued to do so as I actually managed to 'hook-up' with a young lady a couple of years later and had nowhere private to go.

As in previous years, we were visited by the Morris-Dancing Women in the Friday evening. Their folk band went down quite well and, also as usual, they had as many rallyists as possible joining in some reels. Most of which proved just how many people can't tell their left from their right.

Puker had brought along his erstwhile girlfriend, Miriam, along again, but this year she maintained a more modest level of behaviour and only displayed her upper charms, apparently no longer chained to her nether regions.

I was surprised that there was at least one scooter club present, considering the (alleged) reputation for mods-v-rockers meetings at Brighton in the past. They kept themselves to themselves, on the whole, and no inter-'gang' violence was ever going to happen.

Although I didn't go on the run on Saturday, I did video most of the bikes that left on it. It took ages for them all to leave. There were still a number of bikes dotted around the accommodation to takes pictures of, including a few hybrid scooter/bike creations, which looked very odd to me.

After a while, people started returning from wherever they had been and, eventually, the party started getting under way once more. The disco was as much fun as always and the wet t-shirt stayed at the t-shirt level this year, despite Miriam being in it.

On Sunday, the usual suspects were having to make adjustments to their machines for the trip home. One guy even had a cordless drill with him to rectify some fault with his sidecar.

None of our party having such concerns, we had a smooth trip home, the weather being just as overcast as it was for the trip there.

- Phil (the Spill) Drackley