When I was a kid in 1976 I joined a team called Diemme in Italy. i was 20 and pretty much living a sheltered life. Italy was a long way from ChCh NZ. My first race was at Misano and my bike was lost in Transit. I still went with the team and it had been snowing. Phil Read was there along with Ago, Bonero etc. Read had an enviromentally unfriendly fur coat on featuring 100 dead fox's! I wandered about and came upon this guy that was kinda talking English and as I was bloody cold ( no one in NZ said it was winter in Europe ) so when he finished I said to him " do you speak English". It was Nick Harris and Ive gotta say a Oxfordshire accent to a young Kiwi sounds like Chinese!!..Weve stayed mates ever since including going to football matchs when he was a director of Oxford united FC. A better man you couldn find and well versed in his craft. Stavros is more flamboyant and me old mate Kieth H was bloody brilliant. My nieghbour is Kev Magee and his research on the box here makes him an assett. I just can't stomach the guy in World Supers that yells and screams like a girl in labour..sorry is it Emmett...Brrrrrrrrr...

There was an Aussie guy that did BBC commentary on WSB for one very long year!! he had a really high pitched voice, awful he was, he also is on one of the WSB DVD reviews early on 2002/3?, cant remember his name though
Nice story about Nick Harris and your early GP days Stu.
Readie, a fur coat, 2nd wife and Dave Hiscock hiding there somewhere? Oh and Martin ? forget his name tall guy in blue!

Photo Copyrighted to Graham Etheridge, racebikepics.

Lutonboys fur coat was a match for his roller at the time. It was a bit of a one upmanship game that was going on with Bazza. It all seems a bit silly looking back.
And, I think the "girl in labour" is Jonathan Green who has been working along with Steve Martin in the World Supers commentry that we get here in SA. Gavin Emmet does the MotoGP along with Nick Harris.

Oh yeah! Jonathan Green, used to do Britsh Superbikes also... truly terrible!!
Gavin Emmett thanks for that, he's pretty good with Nick Harris.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by picblanc
[B]

There was an Aussie guy that did BBC commentary on WSB for one very long year!! he had a really high pitched voice, awful he was, he also is on one of the WSB DVD reviews early on 2002/3?, cant remember his name though


Wasnt it Lee Diffey or Stiffey, something like that.

Leigh Diffey is another of Channel 10 Sydney's in-house mosport guys. bio's here: http://ten.com.au/rpm-crew-leigh-diffey.html .Thanks for the welcome, folks. Name's Murray, small town kiwi originally, Sydney since '79.

Graham, I think you mean Martin Brookman?

Isn't (who the f--k is) Charlie Cox part of the team doing Top Gear (Australian version)?

You're right. I wasn't aware of his history. He's not Clarkson, either, although he's trying....

Hi guys, ive been lurking & reading this forum for several weeks now. Thank you for the great pictures & memories.
Some of the knowledge you share is a real insight.
I was a mechanic for a mate in Club racing in the 80s, we did Marlboro Clubmans & Manx GP.
He later went TTF1 racing but by then I was married so couldnt spare the the time.
I must dig out my old programmes & magazines, shame I dont have any photos I can share.

Cheers guys

Welcome to the Forum Downhill , it would great for you to dig out your history and share with us --- hope you don't find it an ' uphill ' task

welcome to the old farts club Who was your mate , we might have met

Thanks for the welcome.

I used to 'spanner' for Phil Armes.
Good times, worked hard & played hard. Some great memories. I wont bore you with too many though, I promise!
Even though ive moved away from where we lived (Norwich) we still keep in touch. Saw him a couple of weeks back.

The name rings a bell just trying to get the grey matter to bring something up

Hi downhill

If memory serves, wasn't there a chap named Armes (Colin?) running meetings at Snetterton? (Being you were at Norwich and all). Was he related to your mate?

Warm welcome from me as well, Murray. Marlboro Series, Swann Series, and Sydney in the late seventies: we must have collided somewhere at a circuit or weaving round a bar ! What was the newspaper you worked for ?

Your thinking of the Stanley Arms near Liverpool mate. Good little pub that.

Doh! you know me too well

I'm thinking of The Ley Arm's , Kenn near me in deepest Devon

Yes, Colin is Phil's Dad. He used to do a lot at Snett, was also high up in the ACU & was heavily involved in the British GP (Silverstone & Donington) & the IOM TT.

He used to get sent to foreign GP's as the ACU representative too. I went to Le Mans in 1983 & he was there as on the Jury & to offer assistance to the British lads riding.
What a weekend that was.......Alan Carter won the 250 GP after Tournardre (?) fell off when leading. Al had fought his way through from about 10th after a duff start.
In 500's Haslam 3rd & if I recall correctly Stavros & Keith H both also in the top 10.
Then to complete a fantastic day for the British fans, Mick Barton(?) got a podium in the sidecars. He was on a conventional outfit against all the 'worms'.
Down a few beers too.........

Sadly not nigel , my mate from the UK had sadly polished my best bottle off on monday night having read some of the other commenst sounds as if this Nick Harris Character ( and yes Fu I realise he has nothing to do with Harris Perfomance products , apart from surname , but that is the only reason I remember him ~ & yes Stu I take what you say on board mate, but to me he just does do commentary that well ~ not that I could do any where as good of course )
I have to make an admittion here , as I think I was probably talking about the whininh commentary on Wsb/ WSS more than MotoGP although NH still gets high pitched. to be fair I do not miss acertain B nutley wail when he got excited . If this still doesnt make sense Nige I 'll get my coat !

Welcome downhill you saved me typing this! although I dont rememebr much of Phil ( rememebr he started racing and was quite successfull at club and nat lavel or at least when I saw results lost touch with racing in general,in 84 after I retired and went to work in Bermuda). IIRC Colin was Clerk of the course both at Snett and Silverstone , Donnington GP was after my time and sadly I never got to the TT I always rememebr Colin being fair ( he as the first to put points on my Int licence) and a genuinely nice bloke and not officious in any way... I hope he is well.. if he is pass my best wishes on to him and the family I also seeem to remember his wife was something to do with snett, or was it N&DMCC? was her Name Marie?

Hi Murray, good to see some more antipodean interest on here!
I'm a pom now living in NZ but becoming very Kiwi-ised, where abouts are you from in NZ?

Yeah, remember the Armes family fondly, raced against Phil a few times at some of the non championship nationals (race of aces, Revetts nationals etc.) also remember Phil having an almighty highside coming out of Sears in front of me at one of these meetings.
Remember Colin not smiling too often, although very approachable, especially compared to the dictator commonly known as Jim Parker (who I believe is president of the ACU now?) used to be head of New Era, which used to have some great other staff including Yendor's ex wife Brenda.

Yeah, its OK Jay I've had a few Mac Golds to decipher!
Was thinking about Barry Nuttley, who I found annoying at times, especially when he used to sound like he needed to clear his throat!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Russell Burrows
[QUOTE]Originally posted by picblanc
[B]

There was an Aussie guy that did BBC commentary on WSB for one very long year!! he had a really high pitched voice, awful he was, he also is on one of the WSB DVD reviews early on 2002/3?, cant remember his name though


Wasnt it Lee Diffey or Stiffey, something like that. [/QUOTE]

Yippeee!! yes that was him Russ, well done Sir!!
Not my cup of tea as a commentator. :\

That was him Mike!! how many times am I going to be reminded of him before I remember him!!
Got a pic of him helping Steve Parrish in 1975, when Steve rode the Harold Coppock bikes, Roger (BigRog) spotted him if I remember rightly?

I'll hold the door!!....

Who can you see?

Photo Copyrighted to Graham Etheridge, racebikepics.

Photo Copyrighted to Graham Etheridge, racebikepics.

Going for the record again!!!

WWW?

Photo Copyrighted to Graham Etheridge, racebikepics.

Nearly there!!!

where

Brands Powerbike International 78?

I'll go with John Newbold, Stan Woods and Tony Rutter all obscured by Christian Sarron, and then Marshall, Potter, Sheene, Hartog & Alex George completing the front row. I'll have to leave the rest to the more knowledgeable members of the forum (after all, I was only 5 at the time). If I remember correctly (and if I have the correct meeting) this meeting was covered by World Of Sport, and Dave Potter had a bit of a high speed tumble. I wonder if the footage still exists...

Andy

Blimey!! Andy you make me feel reet old!! All good till Christian Sarron (Patrick Pons) 1978 it is.

Oops, I wasn't sure whether it was Sarron or Fau. I got it completely wrong.

Andy

Warwick Nowland's been doing a bit on WSB on Eurosport this year and he ooohhhs and aaahs like he's on a roller coaster at times. Not my cup of tea.
Julian/Toby are excellent, as is Stavros/Charlie, but both on the same race! I prefer J/T of the two, but always try and see what Suzie's wearing before it starts....

What I can recall about the Armes family is that they were were very kind and helpful!!! Particularly Marie who was a real brick if you were in the shite ( which I often was). Compare that to the other Nazi's like Vernon C and turning up at Snetterton was like a breath of fresh air.

Armes family.....



wasn't Marie on the scene when Bazza had his big Silverstone practice smash IIRC?

Hi fugee Ok #18 Dudley Crammond #34 Bob Smith #171 Nigel Hunt #36 Roger Nicholls

Now your being to clever!! we had this one before!!? :\

Correct and the computer says nooooooooooooooo better than that --- got the prog

WONDERFUL SERIES, I WAS FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO WIN THE LAST SERIES 77/78, WHICH GAVE ME ENOUGH MONEY TO EMBARK ON MY EUROPEAN JOURNEY

Hi Gang

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I have just heard that Roger Nott passed away last week quite sudden I had seen him this year at Aintree and had some good conversations about the past and mentioned about him sliding off in the lead of the 1974 senior manx on the mountain on the last lap I am sure some will remember.

He was a nice bloke and I am sure will be remembered on the forum for his exploits on the club scene in the 70,s etc.

Regards Mark

Marie is one hell of a lady. She was always there to help & could solve most problems.
At the TT (Colin, I think was Clerk of the Course or Assistant CofC) she used to be in the pit lane & was the 1st to get the news of any breakdowns....or worse.
She was often the person who had to break bad news to families & pit crew.

Another job she was asked to do by the ACU was repatriating injured (or worse, sorry for being morbid in this post) riders. I remember her going out to Belgium after the GP at Spa when Kev Wrettom was tragically lost.




On that picture from Snett I can see Mr Parker (wheres the pink Rolls?? ) & it must be Nigel Bosworth in Black with his back to us......looks like Ian Newton over to the right of the picture.

Yes ESSEXBOY, Colin & Marie always parked their caravan near the entrance to the Paddock & Marie heard the crash as it happened on the way under the bridge into Woodcote. IIRC it was a free practice day with no Marshalls. At least Marie, as an ex nurse (Sister I think) could get some good first aid sorted before the Ambulance arrived.

Not really worked for, lowbuck freelance that was mutually beneficial. A friend of mine did the layouts for this one-man-band paper out of Palmerston North called the Manawatu Sportsnews. The guy who ran it was named Wally, from memory, and while I was hanging out with my mate, I put it on Wally that I'd report the races if he'd contribute to my expenses getting there, which he agreed to. A great time was had!

Hi Lambo, all over NZ actually, but I came to Oz from Palmerston North, after being born in Sth Island and living over the years in Dunedin, Oamaru, Wellington, Auckland and Hamilton. Bred with itchy feet, y'see?

What part do you live in now?

Now living in Te Awamutu, since January, but was living up in The Bay of Islands previous to that. Got a bit bored up there (too far from the motorsports!!), loving it down here in the Waikato though.

Nigel

sad news indeed,i remember him well.