LORRY DRIVER OF THE YEAR
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WEYMOUTH ROUND
A Spoonful of Sugar for Tate and Lyle
TT was a wet and blustery start for the 1966 1 Lorry Driver of the Year Competition on Saturday. The honour of holding the first round again went to Weymouth where the eliminating contest was organized by a very enthusiastic road safety committee chaired by Ald. Mrs. I. A. Leigh, Weymouth's new organizing secretary. Ex-RN Cdr. Basil Dodds was the only person who didn't seem to mind getting soaked by the frequent showers.
The day began with assembly in the rain at Dorset County Council's repair depot at Charminster, with about one third of the 60 or so entrants submitting their vehicles for the voluntary maintenance test. As this test is quite separate and does not count in the competition proper, one wonders why more drivers do not take advantage of the excellent facilities provided for what amounts to a free examination of their vehicles.
More homework needed
At least one entrant wished he had done a little more homework on the questions on the Highway Code and the Road Traffic Acts. The 15 points he lost in this section certainly cost him a class win and he also stood a good chance of becoming Weymouth's overall winner. How disappointing to put in a really good driving performance with less than 100 penalty points lost over the three tests and then drop 15 points on answering fairly straightforward questions.
The total entry this year was lower than in 1965, mainly because Service entries dropped from 20 to three. The official explanation was that the Army had planned large scale manoeuvres over the weekend, but one is also drawn to the conclusion that withdrawal of the Services class last year (military drivers now go into the appropriate general class) has made the competition less attractive for Army units. After all, Army vehicles are invariably designed for road and cross-country work and they are not strictly comparable with equivalent length commercial vehicles.
A large convoy
A most impressive feature of the Weymouth contest—held as usual at Westham Coach Park—was the arrival of a large convoy—mostly tankers with one or two flats—from Tate and Lyle depots at Bristol and Keynsham. Talk about a spoonful of sugar: Tate and Lyle almost monopolized the prize-giving ceremony with class wins in C and D, the team award and the top award for the best maintain d vehicle. They needed a fair-sized lorry to carry away, their haul of cups! And the noble borough engineers' department must be particularly pleased that one of its drivers, Sydney Ley, carried off the much coveted champion driver's trophy.
Remarkable anomalies
The competition still produces some remarkable anomalies: in class G, for example, there were only two entrants. Thus the second man collected an award even though he amassed a total of 917 penalty points. ' J.M.H.