OK OK heres a picture to end the day

Before Hackney Marsh's were going to be an Olympic stadium they used to accomadate sports of a different kind. Dogs and Bikes. This picture marks a return of my Mate Quinny to this blog. No Rock Oil Jacket this time. But check out my Chequered Strip down the side of my Leathers. In the back ground you can just make out a guy with Ginger curly hair. His name was Terry and he was East Londons finest. He would be to happy tell you that you had 'a degree in dressing up' or ' if your not here to race you'd better FO'.

Anyway Terry's job was to pick 4 riders of a similar ability to go out and do 4 -6 laps and grade them as they came back in, so the fastest would move up a group and the slowest would move down a group. He was good at his job and still had the mental capacity left to throw out the odd insult when required. Not easy as there were often around 30 riders to rememeber. (check out the queue in the background.)

My other memory of Hackney is that it is the place where Oxford Junior rider Paul Muchene lost his life in a second half race in the mid eighties. He was a really nice guy and used to turn up to practice with his bike hanging out the back of a Mk 1 capri with his dad at the wheel. RIP Paul.