THE OTHER ISLAND GUERNSEY 1972






 During the partying at Jersey in November 1971 the Guernsey Club members were trying to
persuade us (the RAF) to come their Island for a trials team competition in early 1972. Nobody
was at all keen on that night crossing by sea so I borrowed the last Valetta C1 piston engined
transport and the game was on.





 The press met us on arrival and once again we were made to feel very welcome by all. Guernsey
is traditionally a "market Garden" community with thousands of acres of greenhouses which
 produce flowers year round and the famous tomatoes which are exported all round Europe. As
we flew into the Island the devastation of last November's storm was still evident where the gale
force winds had ripped through the greenhouses scattering glass all round the Island.


The trial was organised as a 1 Day affair for the Fuel Suppliers Trophy and was a morning and
afternoon event on the Sunday. Saturday was spent touring the Island, looking at the damage
and finding a lot of potential sections, and enjoying a lot of quaint little pubs that the tour guides
had planned in the route.



Bucktrouts has the sign and the awning out front


 A quick aside, to mention Bucktrouts, who were a major company in the Island owning all manner
of things but one that I shall always remember them for was that they had a distillers license and
could bottle under their own brand name. They had a magnificent building overlooking the harbour
in St Peterport, and if you were lucky enough to be invited for a wine tasting it would start in this
room with the big bay window. Later you would be invited to take the lift which took you down to
the cellars below sea level. They were beautifully furnished with all the bins along the sidewalls
with bottles of Chateau Mindblower and prices to match! Anyhooo, when the Island was invaded
by the Germans they put all their best wines at the back of one of these cellars and bricked it up.
The Germans never discovered the false wall and after the war no one remembered it either. About
1970'ish during a clean up it was discovered/remembered and reopened. Apart from all the superb
wines there was a barrel of Jamacian white rum that must have arrived around 1939/40 and had
been sitting there unmolested for 30 years. The white rum had taken on a yellowish hue from the
barrel and was duly bottled and sold during the 70's and 80's as "Liberation Rum".The RAF Battle
of Britain Flight has one bottle at RAF Coningsby in Lincs. The contents are still the same color but
the last time I saw the bottle the top appeared to have been tampered with?





 With all the touristy things done and a bit of practice along the route we are ready for the trial on
Sunday. Well organised and laid out everybody had a great time and the variety of sections was
mindblowing, giant climbs, mudholes, nadgery, rocks on the beach, sand, and long meanders
through the heather and root strew hillsides.




No! it's the picture not the WHEEL!!!..... dam those Akronts are Crap!

 The event was won and lost around the back of the airfield in a giant mudhole behind a pile of
tires. Ted Thompson and I had been riding round together and it was neck and neck with me
holding a slight advantage. The mudhole was one of those deep black ruts that come all the way
up to the axle. All the lines through the swamp had been explored but it still seemed to favor the
slot on the last lap. I dropped in and managed to power through with a lot of arse wiggling and
took a dab on the tree root pile on the uphill exit. Ted wasn't quite so lucky and took an earlier
dab but his boot got stuck in the goo and came off and despite some frantic centipede work his
little legs weren't long enough and he ended up with a five and a lost boot!

 Overall we finished with 3 in the top 4 but the rest of the team went to pieces either through
alcohol abuse or inability or both. 

We will be back!



Tony Down