Gino's Travels: Norton National Rally Morpeth

Wednesday, 31 July 2019

Norton National Rally Morpeth

Last weekend was the National Rally in Morpeth, we set off Friday morning and had a better run down the M90 (boring) and Edinburgh bypass(even more boring) than last week. We picked up Alex who was Guzzi mounted just past Pathhead, heading down the A68 and the less congested A697, an excellent motorcycling road. We stopped for Lunch at Coldstream at the first pub as you enter from the North, very basic food and I won't be stopping there through choice again.
It was an enjoyable run down to Morpeth and we arrived and I missed the turning making me crabbit, we bumped into David and Anne who pointed us in the right direction, Alex and I were carrying spares for David as he'd called the Norton Emergency services the night before so we could transport copious amounts of spares relevant to the sparks department (all the parts really!)
We got the tent up just before the rain started, biblical type rain and not an arc in sight. Everyone started arriving, great to see everybody as it seemed a while since we had been at a National meeting, Bert and Laurenne despite having a stable of desirable bikes showed up on a brace of Honda 90's, don't know how they have the patience. Into Morpeth for a mediocre Italian on the Friday, Phil insisting we took the dodgy route which I'm convinced never saved time but ensured we got soaked!
Back to the Rugby club, drink taken, sleep followed.
Saturday there were a host of runs to go on but we hung around, helped David get his sparkless bike sparking again and talked gallons of hot air. We went into town on the Saturday afternoon for a meeting with the Mayor and to judge the bikes, I was asked to judge a category so I picked singles, mainly as I don't have one and therefore couldn't be biased. Nick Clarke had trouble getting his well ridden and used Inter going (injuring Alex's leg in the progress) so he didn't make in time for the judging otherwise it would have been that, instead I awarded it to a clean single who's owner seemingly "was fed up winning prizes" should have told me and I'd have given it to someone else.
Saturday night we had an Indian before heading back to the site for more nonsense and some alcohol abuse. The mighty Tay Valley Branch won branch turnout which was brilliant, Fiona won Long distance female on a Norton and the youngest on a Norton so three prizes for the TVNOC!
One of the London guys had let his bike fall on his leg so I asked Anne to take a look at it, luckily enough as she sent him straight to casualty and it transpired he'd ruptured a blood vessel in his leg and it could have been serious if not treated , Florence, sorry Anne was kept busy dispensing advice to sore legged guys, sometimes its good to have a medically trained person there, thanks Anne.
The run home on Sunday was fine until Pathhead, heavy mist, crazy traffic and rain made riding in and through Edinburgh very hazardous. Seemingly Liverpool were playing soccer against Napoli at Murryfield in Edinburgh, now we are all panicking about climate change can someone tell me how that makes sense, transporting 60,000 people by plane and car hundreds of miles to watch 22 overpaid people kick a ball for 90 minutes, answers on a postcard please, by the way I don't care really about the climate change bit, just the insanity of it all and the fact the bloody roads were busy !
Overall a brilliant weekend and my thanks to the organisers