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Always wanted, your stories, trial reports etc. Ever fancied your chances at being a writer, send us your contributions via our Online Contact form, or to email at the bottom of the page. Amusing incidents, descriptive narrative of a particularly brilliant clean you had on the most difficult section of the trial, anything along those lines considered for inclusion.
I cannot remember the year but after competing in the Alan Jefferies National Trial a group from the West Leeds club called at the Tennant Arms in Kilnsey for refreshments. There were many well-known persons present and I pointed out to the late Neville Crowther father of Nigel that amongst the numbers was the late J V Smith twice World Moto Cross champion in the company of the Lampkin brothers. After BSA folded Smith emigrated to Canada and then the USA and was obviously on a visit to the UK I called in to the gents for a call of nature and as I exited the man himself entered.” Mr. J V Smith” I said and as he looked I pointed out that he did not know me personally but I had seen him compete at Post Hill in the 1950s. What was remarkable was the response that he remembered that he had rode twice an amazing comment when one considered he had competed in possibly thousands of events throughout his career. From the1920s to the 1960s Post Hill was famous through the country in the motor cycle off road world
Those years he rode were between 1954 and 1956 and I was a schoolboy of 13 or 14 at the time and Smith I assume must have been serving his National Service at Catterick Barracks North Yorkshire. The first time he rode the course went directly over the hill but the following year the West Leeds club extended the course with a cutting to the left halfway up the hill and a leg out to what became known as the hairpin and re-joining the old route at the top of the hill before the bomb hole drop. Scrambling as it was called at the time was extremely popular and there were thousands of spectators in attendance especially on the hill so much so that on one occassion I ventured into the woods descent to witness the riding there. That descent was steep rutted and a series of drops made more difficult with turning to the right with a deep mud hole at the bottom. From the cobbled junction at the return track (the return track was used back to the start in the original part of the circuit racing in the 1920s and 1930s and one must
assume the woods descent was too severe for the bikes of that era) Smith launched the BSA Gold Star down the track and as he landed on the back wheel he skilfully turned the bike towards the mud hole where upon he pulled a wheelie and rode through the mud on the back wheel on a machine that weighed a ton compared to modern moto cross bikes a style of riding well before it became the norm.
Needless to say on both occasions he blew the opposition into the weeds and I was privileged to witness this star performance.
Paul Whitaker
PS. We are unable to verify the years of this account; the late Arnold Teal a past president of the club who farmed on the outskirts of Leeds and was the scrambles secretary for many years unfortunately had a fire at the premises and the majority of the records and documents were destroyed. A few were retrieved but sadly do not cover those early years.
Send your contribution to trials@westleeds.co.uk