Tailor's Men Cut Leeds to Size
Page 70
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TO stand by the results sheets when a
L.D.O.Y. contest is almost over is to tune in to high drama and comedy. "How on earth did they penalize me over 400 marks for that one test?" . . " That marshal moved the post but I wasn't going to hit it, I'd judged it just right"
"I was just creeping nicely up to the wall when the engine surged—it's been doing it all day" At the Leeds contest on Sunday, inquests were justified to some extent. For when the crowd had gone home the .oiganizers realized the penalties were extraordinarily high. They traced the fault to the width-judging test, in which vehicle widths had not been deducted from the driver-indicated widths before calculating penalties, so all marks were about 170 too high. A re-check next morning produced a new overall runnerup, C. O'Reilly, while in Class B the runner-up, W. B. Walker, was found to have the same penalty total as winner A. Abbott. But the position here remained unchanged since Abbott had done better on the tie-deciding road and code tests. All other positions remained unchanged from those announced at the prize-giving.
The results error was unfortunate, for it had otherwise been a good day at the grounds of Montague Burton Ltd. Some competitors recalled that last year's contest dragged on to 7.30 p.m. but this year the organizer, F. H. Woodward, with the enthusiasm of a master cutter (though he is, in fact, Burton's dispatch and transport chief) cut the road route from 26 miles to 10 and duplicated the time-consuming manauvring tests. The result was that the 138 competitors completed the tests, the nine heat winners (not the lone serviceman) competed for overall honours
in three Class B Austin vans belonging to Montague Burton, and speeches and prizewinning were completed, all within nine hours.
On the unfortunate width-judging test, nine drivers who negotiated the markers without mishap forgot to stop astride the line at the end—even though there was a halt sign facing them.
Class G winner, H. Firth, could have had a better score than he did. His first run back into the loading bay looked perfect, but he thought he had touched the wall and so drove off in disgust. Officials called him back and allowed him to reverse into the bay again, classifying his first effort as "one shunt ". He got to within 21 in. of the rear of the bay the second time. Best on the bay test was A. Townend, class E2 winner, who got within 5+ in. of the wall with his bulk concrete carrier.
Out of the prizes for the time since he first competed in 1960 was the 29-yearold owner of Brian Watt Transport Ltd. Previously, as a competitor in class El, Mr. Watt had gained two firsts, a second and a third. This year he brought his other two drivers and vehicles along and competed himself in Class D. Class El still went to a Brian Watt man, however, with D. Gibbs taking over where his boss left off to beat 19 other competitors and go forward to the final.
Also qualifying for thc final, although it is not obvious from the result, is T. Whitehead. He finished third in class D, 21 points behind the winner. He goes to the final under the new rule introduced this year, as the highest-placed boxvan driver when his class winner was a "flat".
Overall winner was E. Moreman of British Oxygen Co.—a driver for 17 years but competing in only his second L.D.O.Y. contest. J.M.