More on Braithwaite
With reference to Jeff Waller’s letter in the May 2002 issue, regarding Pat Braithwaite. I rode in the 1962 Hampshire 100 and still have the results sheet. It records that Pat Braithwaite, number 121, reached the first checkpoint on time, then was 18 minutes late at the second check, then there is an ‘X’ for the third checkpoint, and then no further results. There is no indication what the X indicated – it may be that he was out of time or had missed a signature check in between the time checks, as retirements were marked with an R.
I was in home territory, only living a few miles from Bordon, though it was a very long way for Pat to ride from Kettering to Bordon, before starting out to tackle 100 miles of Hampshire’s back roads and the long green lanes on the chalk, at average speed of around 23 miles an hour. Winner that day (and on many other semi-sporting events) was Maurice Spurging on a 500cc HT5 Ariel.
A clean timesheet was essential, while places were decided on the total time of a number of special tests, e.g. time to start a dead engine and ride a short distance, a brake test, coast downhill and stop between two lines, and others. I was only 2½ seconds behind the winner but that put me in eighth place – the previous year I was runner-up and perhaps I tried too hard to win this time. It was a superb event with 160 riders entered, held in July, with the usual excellent organisation by the Sunbeam MCC and the late Ralph Venables.
I was riding a 1961 Greeves 24TD, a really reliable bike, and which I consider the best of the Greeves trials bikes; I did own a later 24TE Mk.II, though I felt it was never as good as the TD.
In the following year ‘P Braithwaite’ is listed in the results of the Dorking and District semi sporting trial. This was a longer event of 120 miles and a bit tougher over the green lanes of Surrey and Sussex, where in midsummer the muddy clay could still be very wet.