Always BY J. P. B. SHERRIFF
Page 51
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the "Bridesmaid"
'THREE times a competitor, three times a
runner-up, three times to the same man. Such is the unenviable record of Mr. James Kay, Dunfermline Corporation Transport Department. Mr. Kay is a driving enthusiast who competes each year in the Dunfermline LDOY event, and although always finishing second, returns a score which is frequently better than Class B winners from other centres. This year his 52 penalty points was the third best score in the Dunfermline event, but he was still second to Mr. F. Burke, Dunfermline Co-operative Society, who for the third year won his class last Sunday and will appear again at the Bramcote Final in September.
Mr. Burke's 49 penalty points looked good enough to win the TATA Cup until another of last year's finalists, D. Ferguson, of Montague Burton Ltd., won Class E(1) with only 42 penalty points and retained the custody of this trophy. British Railways with 12 entrants were the largest single concern in the competition. It had five of the six vehicles competing in Class F(1) and took the first three places. It also won Class H and Mr. W. Blair from the Glasgow district won the Regent Trophy for the A or B licence driver.
Best team
This year Dunfermline presented a shield for the best team and for the third year in succession the city's transport department was in first place. The local committee successfully bridged the gap between the end of the competition and the prizegiving by running an event for owners and managers. These competitors were required to run through the course driving 6-wheel
tippers. The results, although not published, were on a par with the best returns of the main event with Mr. J. MacAllister, BRS Dunfermline, just beating Mr. J. Hutchison, an owner, by one point.
The most common fault during the day was the failure of drivers in all classes to stop astride the finish line at a cost of 20 points. In some cases this could have made a difference between being first or last.
Most difficult test
What appeared to be the most difficult. test was No. 3, the loading bay, which by the end of the day had been christened "Beechers". Certainly it was here that many fine performances came to grief. This test stimulates conditions experienced by heavy commercial vehicle drivers in their daily work. They are required to put modern vehicles in to an eighteenth-century type of loading bay. At Dunfermline it was soon apparent that this was the test to watch and crowds converged on the loading bay. Crowd control became difficult despite the excellent arrangements.
The Dunfermline committee went into great detail to ensure a smooth-running event and before the prizegiving Mr. A. Havard, deputy director of freight planning, THC, complimented the committee on the excellence of its organization and paid special tribute to Mr. G. L. Steele, clerk of the course, who had managed to make up halfan-hour's delay caused by inclement weather in the early stages.
Before leaving Dunfermline I learned that Mr. James Kay will be at the national finals —not to compete, but to support the man he cannot conquer.