COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

COMBAT AND COMPETITION
aircraft moments before starting the engines. So near and yet so
desperately far from freedom.
After that effort they were both transferred to Colditz where
Lome became one of the glider escape team.
That summer there were problems out in Korea. Soon it began to
look as if Britain would be at war again. As things got worse our
prewar members recalled the fiery horseman. According to legend he
was to be seen in times of national emergency, a fearful apparition,
galloping soundlessly along the Burway 1 at dusk. It was said that he
had appeared in September 1939.
But we never saw him in 1950.
When I set out for the Nationals my crew chief and sole crew
member, a captain in the Gloucesters, was under threat of imminent
recall from leave. A great worry. But the newly acquired Alvis 1250
sports saloon seemed to be even worse. It could hardly cope with the
hills and in the middle of Congleton, with the rain bouncing off the
cobbles and cascading down the streets, it boiled over and gave up the
ghost.
Two cheerful characters from Camphill answered our call for help.
Harry Midwood and Bungy Baker. They turned up in Harry's
aluminium bodied Ford V8 ex ambulance. A petrol guzzler, but great
fun to drive, with quite a performance in its day.
"Silly old fool," said Harry in an audible aside, with scant regard
for my finer feelings towards the marque Alvis. "Buying a car like that
for towing." Then he grinned at me. "Best cut your losses and sell it
here and now. There's a garage across the road." And then, with a
generosity which took my breath away - "Don't worry we'll see you
through the Nationals with this old bus."
And they did too, in more ways than one, because my army
crewman was recalled the following day, and so Harry and Bungy
became my crew as well.
On the first night I ran into Nick Goodhart, and was introduced to
his brother Tony - another Naval officer. Known to my crew, ever
after, as The Bearded One.' The two Goodharts had made a team
entry in the RN Gliding and Soaring Association Mul3 and my old
ETPS colleague was full of enthusiasm.
There was a different feel about this competition. The weather for
a start. A strong southerly wind gusted through the trees on Eyam
Edge. It swirled across the camping area, shaking the tents, and
provided a brief spell of soaring on the south face before the rain.
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