Devon TRF Group Forum

That would be great Brian, thanks 

TTR wrote:

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Olly Cooke (RIP) and Adrian Harris are two of the names I associate with the setting up of firstly the DEvon & Cornwall TRF Group and then a split to each County having their own. Meetings at the Rising Sun with a ride and maybe a BBQ before the meetings. All very civilised

Adrian was about to recycle his collection of early Newsletters (his wife Gill was the first secretary I think) but I rescued them for posterity and wiould be happy to pass them on.

I recall that, when I was secretary, I did some research into the Group's background for the Newsletter. I will try and look it out.

Brian

 

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Fantastic pics

Brian can I share them in our North Yorkshire TRF group, please

Great to show the TRF heritage of yesteryear  

Johnnyboxer wrote:

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Fantastic pics

Brian can I share them in our North Yorkshire TRF group, please

Great to show the TRF heritage of yesteryear  

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No problem - go ahead!

The photos were from Adrian Harris and I just found his accompanying note:

"The photos are both from the mid 1980's and are both Mid-Devon runs. 

The 2-up bike crossing the ford is me, with my now wife and former Devon TRF treasurer Gillian. PS. I still have the Red Honda XL250s shown !

 The pubstop lunch was from the days before the suggested  max of 6 riders in a run. There wasn't enough room inside for us to sit inside that day !" 

Brian

PS He hasn't got the Honda now and sadly, because of ill health, has given up riding altogether so we have lost a great riding buddy  

My eyes have gone a bit wobbly after scanning through a 3" pile of old DTRFG Newsletters looking for Adrian's article after failing miserably to find anything in the dark recesses of my very large PC hard drive 

But, I found it in the October 2006 Newsletter   I just hope members find it interesting! Anyways up, here it is:

Adrian Harris submitted the following group history:

My first memories relating to the Devon & Cornwall TRF centre around a chance meeting that Ollie Cooke, Mark Matthews, Simon Padley and I had with a TRF officer at the Bristol dirt bike show one year. When he convinced us, and one other who volunteered to be chief group rep, to form a local Devon & Cornwall group. I can't remember this volunteer group leader's name, but he lived in a flat in Ashburton which is where we arranged to have our very first meeting.

Although many turned up at that first meeting and all looked promising, sadly that man went to ground along with all our recently acquired set of definitive maps. This was a really bad start and held up further progress for a few months until Ollie Cooke volunteered to hold the fort.

Ollie Cooke did a stalwart job moving the group forward and building a strong membership in a short while. This quickly exceeded 40 plus members - which caused lots of havoc on the run days (no limits on numbers back in those heady days!).

After holding the fort as group rep and chairing the meetings for a few years since its inception, Ollie eventually relinquished the superb job he had done in guiding the newly formed Devon & Cornwall TRF to Martin Cooper, who was a very keen and enthusiastic Plymouth based rider and therefore slightly more central. Meetings were still held at the Rising Sun near Ashburton, a great country pub, who always accommodated us in the most amicable way, right up until it burnt down in a fire one night (not our club night I may add!).

Shortly after the D&C TRF group formed properly. It was decided to produce a monthly newsletter, mailed to all members to let them know about runs and peoples contact details, etc. These newsletters also always carried superb run reports, which were written by the run leaders (there were often two, for reasons which will become apparent shortly) and accompanied by a great set of photos.

The 'best' photo, usually someone burying their bike in a stream or ditch, would always feature on the front cover.

The mag was subscription based and after this first issue, it was noted that the £2 fee was not enough to cover its costs, so for a while it had to be reduced to bi-monthly.

Issue 2 noted this and as most members loved all thing bike related and off-road, it also carried a nice feature explaining what a long-distance trial was and supplied a full list of that years LDTs with contact details.

Later that year our group organised the first of many successful barbeque/trail bike treasure hunts as PR for attracting new members. These always started from the Rising Sun and, after riders showed their road legal docs when signing on (and coughed up a fiver), they were provided with an A4 map of the area with various lanes and clues, which when followed correctly would provide at sensible pace, a nice 45-60 minute adventure trail ride. Followed by a great social evening whilst choking on McBurger's finest (well, have you ever seen Adrian's cooking?).

Issue 6 raised the issue of obtaining tabards with TRF written on, the reasons were many. Firstly, it was to signify that we were an organisation being sensible, as opposed to a group of hooligans tearing around, which, sadly, we may have seemed like at times due to the enormous number of riders who would often turn up for a run. This was the other reason we need the bibs , so that riders knew who was leading the day and also who was tail end Charlie.

When more than 30 turned up, we used to split into 2 groups and do the run in opposite directions. This sped thing along a little and also allowed us all to meet up at the same pub lunch stop to exchange tales.

On one early run around seven fairly well-prepared Hells Angels turned up, thankfully on trail bikes. As you can imagine the run leaders that day, of which I was one, were initially rather anxious. It wasn't as if anyone was going to tell them they couldn't join in!

It was decided to put them in my group of 17, which was quite a lot of riders and bikes to look out for. However, our fears were unfounded, they were a great bunch. They couldn't ride, but took it well, loved every minute and provided lots of laughs.

Issue 9 reported that the previous month's group meeting only had a turnout of 4 members, despite the huge numbers on runs. 2 fantastic run reports were supplied, one from John Gibbs who, with fellow Devon & Cornwall TRF members, joined up with the Dorset group for a Portland-based ride, which was part of a thank you for taking them out previously. The other was from Ollie Cooke who had enjoyed lan Ford and Steve Staples South Devon run which had led to 'Lawrence' drowning the bike and almost himself as well, near Denbury. A great photo shows Lawrence dragging himself (but not the bike) out of the river. It was noted that copious Guinness and sausages set everyone up nicely for the afternoon.

I haven't been able to date the year of these newsletters, only the months, but I assume from much of the content that it must have been before the current drink driving laws, judging by many of the lunch stop descriptions!

By now runs were as frequent as two per month and spread over most of 'our' area. Martin Cooper normally led the Plymouth starts. John Gibbs the Exmoor and North Devon jobbies. While Ollie Cooke and Adrian Harris usually took the big groups that always wanted to do South East Devon. The middle area of Devon was normally covered with great gusto by Simon Padley.

Simon's wife Lynn was good enough to be the club secretary by then. A post she held for many years helping out. GilI Putt (now Gill Harris) took over for a couple of years.

Gills position as secretary for the Devon & Cornwall TRF I can date to an extent, due to an advert in newsletter issue 18, which was dated as May 1989. I note also that Ollie Cooke was still Group rep at this time, but I am sure the group had been around for well over 2 years by then.

I know I held a responsible post for a few years (in fact probably twice - once at the beginning and then a few years later - as Ollie got his own back on me for initially volunteering him in his absence!) - but for the life of me can't remember what!

Adrian Harris

27 September 2006

Jerry atterick wrote:

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Photo above
Adrian Harris, nknown, unknown, Paul Lawrence, Mark Matthews (deceased), unknown, Simon Padley, unknown, unkown

River xing, Adrian Harris and wife, Gill, Paul Lawrence (I think?)

I was at the start of the TRF.
One of our most entertaining leader trail rides was the local chapter of the Satan Slaves. (they were useless off road)
One of them, Steve Sin**** became a lifetime friend (he has become ridiculously respectable)

We fell by the wayside, at the time got into enduros for many years.

Our first visit to neighbouring counties was Somerset.
Ollie, Adrian (pink moon boots, I kid you not), myself, Simon Padley and Mark Matthews from Devon.

Somewhere, Ive got several photos of our first S Devon days run, led by Ollie.

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Sounds great fun in the early days, far less interference from the health and safety police.

More interesting stuff though.

thanks

And where was this photo taken, I don't recognise the location.

There's a Bank Square looking like that in this clicky link:- Dulverton

Martyn