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I'm assumming that a lot of folk live near the Bebside, the marquee had a shed load more folk in it than were camped up. We were entertained by 'Forgotten Roots' who rattled out punk numbers followed by the 'Steve Gilroy Band' with the usual Rock Covers. |
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Late on and we crawl back to the tents, dozing off around 2am I hear some mad woman wandering the site shouting my name, ah, that'll be the missus. |
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Aside from stopping in Morpeth and asking two 'amused' policemen where 'Beblington' is, 'I think you mean Bedlington dear'. She got so lost in Bedlington that she got pulled by more police, driving round a roundabout more than twice generally arouses their suspicion. They radioed the station to see if anyone knew of an unnamed pub with a field next to it with tents and some bikes. Luckily someone knew, perhaps the guy in the gas station works nights in the cop shop. Saturday and it's Egg run day, well after some brekkie in the nearby 24 hr Asda, a fine and handy thing to have near a rally. |
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The setup of this egg run is different from the 'normal?' egg run in that all the bikes meet up then parade round a circuit visiting seven or eight pubs en route who have been collecting eggs. The eggs are then distributed by smaller groups on the Sunday. |
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From 11am bikes started to appear outside the Bebside, more and more and more arriving by the minute, it was a bit of a marshalling nightmare as the road was still open to traffic. Eventually around 500 bikes were ready to roll. |
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Skida and myself left early to find some places to take photos, an overbridge over the dual carriageway seems like a good spot with a clear view, it was still half an hour until the run started so we went down the pub. When we returned I seemed to have walked through two blokes carrying a large sheet of tracing paper, either that or the fog from the tyne had wandered north. Peering into the distance we could see white blips and not much else. Of course taking photies in the fog IS of course ideal conditions. |
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There was no police escort this year, apparently the excuse was that the Police's insurance company wouldn't cover outriders on public events, are we feeling the effect of this increasingly litigeous world in which we now live? It wasn't a problem really, the marshalls managed to stop and start 500 bikes seven times wtih considerable success, however not have police motorcyclists to 'bunch' the run at roundabouts meant a longer wait for the locals, most of whom were pretty patient. |
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We headed for Blyth main street where the Saturday market was on, loads of people lined both sides of the street to enjoy the spectacle. I'd decided to clamber up on a ten foot brick post to get a better vantage point, the general enthusiasm of all the folk who asked 'when are the bikes comin' was an indication of the acceptance of the run by the general populous. This was run number 12, or 13 so who were we to let the public down Despite Skida's temptation to leave me up a post he did eventually help me down, after all I'm not as young as he used to be. Click Here For Page 1 Click Here For Page 3 |