Roadholder 370 - October 2018

34 love our own bikes, yet most of us never get to have our machines picked out. The job of the judge must be incredibly hard. I remember in the old days 'concourse' judges based their choice on perfect originality and scrupulous cleanliness, resulting in machines which looked like they had never turned a wheel. At least these days, it seems to be based on a little more practicality with good marks going to machines which do appear to have actually been ridden to the show. On the subject of competition, there were three challenges at Norvil's open day. There was a 'guess the weight of the crankshaft' and our own John Green of Shenstone Branch won a box of chocolates for guessing 'how many ball bearings in the jar'. The third competition was a Norton-based quiz which I drew up, which only a couple of people had a go at, as everybody said it was too hard! I'll do it at a future club night and see how we get on. Norvil made everybody very welcome with hot and cold drinks, biscuits, cakes and crisps etc. freely available. There were extended tours of the workshops and spares departments, with Les and Sue Emery and the staff answering technical queries. Pete Lovell and Jim Reynolds spent time reminiscing with groups of visitors near our gazebo and I, also, saw several visitors had the pleasant but difficult task of attempting to place all their purchases safely on the back of their bikes before their journey home. All in all, a very busy, hot but very satisfying way to spend a Sunday. The lucky winners of 'Best Norton and Best Norton Runner-up' Shenstone Branchmembers' Commandos Shenstone's John Green receiving his jar of ball-bearings for guessing the number of chocolates in the box, or was it the other way round!