Paul, in his blog on environmental mats, has cleverly stirred up valid concerns for how we are or are not following the rules, regulations and codes laid down in the ACU Handbook. As a licensed motocross clerk of the course, running just one event a year, for this annual occasion I have to be well conversed with the contents of the Handbook, or at least know how to navigate it. But to pretend I have every detailed rule at the ready to throw at anyone in contravention of it would be silly, and I doubt even Dennis Slaughter MBE would claim this ability. The theme that runs through the Handbook is that the Clerk of the Course is the person responsible for everything and everyone connected with the event. This includes environmental, safety and medical matters. Thus, a C of C must be someone who is capable of seeing the big picture, applying common sense and making judgements, many of which in the heat of the moment will in hindsight be wrong. All his technical and other specialist

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The cancellation of any of our sporting fixtures is a disturbing experience for all concerned. – paricularly if it is a last minute decision.For the riders, psyched up and ready to go, then suddenly deprived of their weekend blast, it is very frustrating. For the organisers however, it is perhaps nearer to heartbreak The work of probably months in preparing for the meeting, is lost. Even if the meeting can be rescheduled later, much of that preparatory work will have to be repeated. When the decision has to be made to “pull the plug” over the contrary nature of the weather there is always the nagging question: “could we have run – if…?”

   Over the last two weekends we have had successive cancellations – both due to weather; bringing snow and frozen conditions - which, had the Almighty been just a little more indulgent to us,would have certainly taken place. One was arguably the most important Centre trial of the year – the “Phil King” National. Those of us who

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Every set of regs insists in bold letters on their use, our environmental officer brings them up at board meetings with monotonous regularity, and then we all go home and forget all about them. I am, of course, talking about environmental mats. Why do we do this, and what could be the worst case scenario of our continued apathy toward the enforcement of their use?

I have today added an extract from the FIM Environmental Code Handbook about environmental mats here. Surely, the very fact that the World governing body has laid down a minimum specification for these items no longer gives us the excuse of ignorance, not that this would ever have been valid.

So apart from the fact that very many riders do not know what actually constitutes an environmental mat, why do many continue to use an old piece of carpet, cardboard, or not even bother at all? Why should they, when they know that the warning about possibly losing their ride will not be enforced? Why don't clubs enforce the rule?

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All of us in the Eastern Centre can bask - just a little – in the glory of Dennis Slaughter`s  well deserved recognition by the “establishment”. “Dennis MBE” - it sounds pretty good to me  and how often do motorbike and motorcyclists of all varieties  get much of a fair deal nowadays?  Yet, by the same token, Dennis`s “gong” was awarded to him alone, as due regard for his own achievements and total loyalty to his club and their most famous venue – Cadders Hill at Lyng - surely one of the most eminent motocross circuits in the land.

Essentially, the man himself, is a great character whose life has been centrered around his cherished sport.From his own successful racing days in scrambles and grass track over fifty years ago, he then turned to the organisation of meetings and then the administation of the sport at both Centre and National level as it  evolved into motocross . For years he was an active member of the ACU moto-cross committee and   became its

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Motorcycling - as indeed the ACU itself – arose from the late 19th century bicycling boom and the consequent attachment to bicycles of the then embryonic internal combustion engine.As ever, technical improvement has since ceaselessly carried on during the following century- plus. During my own involvement, the sport - which is usually the pace-setter of technical progress - has brought such changes as to make machines of my own early days, seemingly as primitive as the ox and plough.

Sometimes I am asked in which discipline of motorcycle competition has seen the most advance. Most people assume it is in road-racing but I am not so sure. If you take theTT as an example, the current stupendous lap speed of 130mph plus, is wondrous – yet nearly fifty-five years ago, Bob Macintyre lapped at over103 mph on a machine of half the engine capacity, shod with skinny tyres (and those moreover lasted eight laps) on a road circuit which was very much tighter and rougher than today. No, I

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