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IT WAS LIKE a scene backstage at the Miss World contest with the finalists nervously waiting for the results.
Page 37
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But these contestants weren't long-legged lovelies. They were the eight lorry drivers who had battled against the top truckers in the land to reach the last stage of the Commercial Motor Lorry Driver of the Year Competition.
The gruelling day-long run-off had left its mark. Road driving, highway code and road safety questions and tricky vehicle manoeuvring tests had demanded high skill and concentration.
Nerves were on edge and the non-smokers were fiddling with their fingers, the smokers puffing away.
And it wasn't the first time on Sunday that they had sweated out a result, for all eight finalists had to win their class contests earlier in the day.
Then came the moment they had worked for — and only one man could be the winner.
While the crowd milled around outside the chief steward handed over each driver a slip of paper giving the final places.
Study your own and the other contestants' scores carefully, they were told. You will then have 15 minutes to register a protest if you think you have been unfairly or wrongly marked.
Heads down, they looked at the sheets in silence, carefully totalling their points and cursing the mistakes on which they had been penalised.
And then one looked up and said: "Who is Mr Allott?" "That's me," said the small man in white overalls sitting in the corner of the steward's caravan.
It was all over bar the shouting and the other seven gathered round 53-year-old 'George Mott, of the British Oxygen Company, to offer their congratulations to the new Lorry Driver of the Year.
After the backslapping and handshaking had died down the chief steward asked if there were going to be any protests at the decision.
"Not from me," said one. "He won it fair and square," said another. "What for?" asked a third. The tension that you could have cut with a knife a few moments earlier had gone.
All that remained was to go out and face the crowds and the prize-giving. And after those nail-biting 20 minutes waiting for the result that was easy.