Last Rally

Organized by Cloggers MCC at a pub in Atherton, Nr Leigh in Lancs.

This was a local rally for me, a quick jaunt over the M62 from Bradford, then up the M61. The camping was in a field behind the pub, behind a bowling green. Control was in a stone built outbuilding at the early rallies. I remember that it looked as though someone was, or had been, rebuilding an old car in there. All the bits and pieces seemed to have been shoved in a corner out of the way of the Bike activities. I bet he was pleased!

We had a good turnout of Dean Valley club members there for the first couple of rallies.

The usual plan of action was to do a pub crawl round Atherton and end up back down to the rally pub for the evening session. Richard, "King Dick" found out that the Friendly Inn at the bottom of the Town didn't live up to its name, they wouldn't serve him (no leather jackets!). They were a bit shocked when they missed out on serving the next twenty or so people that were following him!

Food down at the rally pub was very basic, nothing more than pies and sandwiches. There was a burger van, but they only sold burgers and chips. Strange that!

Derek (2) and myself decided we wanted better than that and ended up in "Sidroys" restaurant. This was the top place in Atherton and we only got in without a booking because we said we would be finished before they needed the table because we had some serious drinking to do! Steak with all the trimmings followed by death-by-chocolate. I think the waitress decided to take this literally and served us with about half a gateaux each and a large jug of cream! We faced up to the challenge and cleared the lot, but it was a bit of a problem finding room for any more beer after that! It probably saved us more money than the meal cost!

There was always quite a few of the rally pub's regulars in attendance and they would have fitted in at any of the more lively Rallies! I was amazed by their reaction to any Beach Boys record on the jukebox. They were straight up onto the tables pretending to be surfing. The whole pub was doing it by closing time. I hate to think what it cost in spilt beer and broken glasses.

The last Last (or I suppose not the Last?) was cancelled at short notice. Fat Barry Warrener and myself didn't hear about the cancellation and turned up anyway. We had a great night, the regulars were as wild as ever, a few bikes turned up for the rally and we just carried on without the organizing club! The landlord let us stay in the bowling clubs portacabin, so we didn't even get the tents wet! The only downside was that it snowed on the Sunday on the way to the Rivington Barn biker meeting just up the road near Chorley.

- Ted Trett