Cobbler Rally

Organised by Northampton MCC at a farm site near Litchborough, Northamptonshire.

I spent a couple of days in a Red Cross hostel in Inverness instead.

- Ted

This was always a smallish (select!) event, with quite a few families in attendance on their outfits. In fact I seem to remember that it was run more along the lines of a sidecar event.

You could walk up the road to the village and use the pubs there, but one of the attractions of the Cobbler Rally was the Micro Brewery at the farm which produced "Litchborough Ales". Needless to say we managed to get through quite a lot of his stock!!

It was on the way to this rally in 1976 that I managed to write off my Honda CB500T. As usual I had decided to go the long way round and had gone up to the Claymore Rally on the Friday. That year it was at Fortrose on Black Isle to the North of Inverness. On the way back South I crashed on the A9 but, despite all the hold up, Barry Clark who had been riding with me still managed to carry on and call in to the Heart of England Rally and then go over to the Cobbler. I spent a couple of days in a Red Cross hostel in Inverness instead, nursing a broken collar bone, and then got the train home!

- Ted Trett

 

Here is a note from John Jocys who did make it to the Cobbler that year.

Start of quotation I can't remember a HUGE amount - probably because of the excessive amounts of excellent Litchborough Ales I was drinking.

I recall the 1976 Rally as being held in beautiful weather - a typical English summer weekend, without the rain.

A buffet type meal was provided by the organising club on the Saturday evening. Entertainment was from a local folk group, The Prince of Wales Rattlers. Very good they were too!

It was a rally I promised myself I would do again, but like so many promises it was broken. End of quotation

- John J