Putting the record straight on the Conquest

May I be permitted to apologise to George Ridgeon and others with reference to George’s letter in last month’s OBM on the Cotton Conquest ridden by Dave Browning, Roger Corbett and Rod Scivyer in the mid-60s. I must say the phone line was one of the worst I have ever come across so I am not surprised that we both got the wrong ends of our conversation, perhaps we should have emailed.

Anyway, the Conquest in question was not rebuilt by me but by its owner Ian Clarke, a VMCC member, who did a write-up on his rebuild in a recent VMCC magazine. What with Covid, I have not seen Ian for a couple of years, but I am sure he will have done a superb job on his Conquest. Although raced internationally in 1965, 66 and 67, I have never managed to find much information on results or how the boys did, except for one of them crashing it in Alicante in, I think, 1966. As this is the only one of the two Conquests still in existence, it would be nice to have a bit more of its history.

The other Conquest, as correctly noted by George, was ridden to third overall and a class win in 1965 by Peter Inchley and Derek Minter and again to a class win in 1966 ridden by Peter Inchley and Reg Everett. It was ridden in 1967 by Paddy Reid and Bill Southcombe but failed to finish. This bike seems to have completely disappeared after Paddy took it to Singapore.

Meanwhile, I wonder if the rider in the above photo could get in touch.

Mick Turner