"The Wazygoose"

By Brian Edwards

I was interested to read Dave Blanchard's article in last month's Sporting Motorcyclist on the Wayzgoose Trade Barons and Press Trial which l rode several times when it was held at Brands Hatch and in fact our team at Mottingham Motorcycles won the team award one yearn not for our meritorious performance, but for reasons not readily apparent to us.

Amongst the many prizes of whisky, anoraks and other items donated by Motorcycle News and sponsors each year, the team award this time was a private visit to Nick Mason's (of Pink Floyd fame) fabulous classic and very valuable vehicle collection housed in a big old school in Kings Cross. The collection was breathtaking and featured many famous cars that had been ridden and driven by well known competitors to win major events. Amongst the line up was the 250 GT Ferrari that won Le-Mans and a works Suzuki ridden by Barry Sheen along side many other very special and rare machines.

At that time l was working for Thorn Radio Rentals display department where l used to make training films, so had regular use of a professional video camera which l made use of the film the Wayzgoose in its entirety. After riding the event for some years it was both interesting and amusing to walk and film the sections and to see the antics of those taking part. The film was made and shown in its uncut and edited version to everyone in the Kentigon after the meal to much mirth and amusement. I still have this video tape as a record of the strange goings on in the woods of Brands with men dressed in tights as fairies and other peculiar outfits riding weird vehicles wallowing in mud and rolling with laughter. As Dave indicated this was a truly wonderful event and much missed by all those who took part in the mayhem.

The awards were many and given for things like being Drunk on an empty head, Dirtiest rider, Brands Scoop, Miss Print, most spectacular crash and all sorts of other bazaar happenings. Yes there were awards for the most dedicated performance, but it was basically a fun day out for the Press and trade with any prior success penalized to begin with by loss of marks. It was noticeable that some competitors had already imbibed before the start which affected their performance and those who had not certainly took full advantage at the lunch.

As Dave indicated in his article the whole event was very light hearted and great fun and something relaxing to look forward to each year and sadly missed. After lunch and the film it continued with more imbibing chatter before coming to a happy ending. Wow what wonderful memories.