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UNCONNECTED RAMBLINGS OF A MULL STEWARD.It was with a feeling of having an honour bestowed on me when I willingly accepted Alison’s request that I write a piece about being a Tour of Mull steward. However on reflection I realised she had inherited her fathers ability to get you to feel that you really wanted to do as you were asked. It is actually doing what you are told willingly. Only after, do you realise you didn’t really have an option. So I reflected on what drama and highlights I could recount during my 21 years as a steward and came up with the worrying conclusion that there were none. The most amazing item was that I became aware that at the 2002 Rally I came of age. For the third time I had reached my majority. In the past regretfully they had not been the point at which I had progressed to greater successes. My 21st birthday followed 2 years in an Infantry Battalion where I had the time of my life and enjoyed every minute of it. 21 years of rallying had been brilliant and had given me much to look back on and savour but I reached a plateau and a few years into my attempt at a second 21 , Ian Grindrod who had been my catalyst in achieving some very satisfactory results, became a professional and moved to bigger and better things. The prospect of establishing a new relationship and also building a new car hovered. After believing Ian implicitly when commanded “Flat over crest, 50 right tightening” and he being inevitably correct, when he “suggested” it was time to retire as I would hate going down hill I again never questioned his judgement. I have been going down hill ever since. At this point I was commanded to become a steward for the Tour of Mull. It was of course a very discreet suggestion that my vast years of experience could be useful to the organisation if I would condescend to be a steward but anyone who new Brian realised that you were not expected , nay even allowed, to decline. Any way that team had an extraordinarily attractive nucleus of ladies. I had only been successful at one sport in which I could keep going all night without feeling inadequate so perhaps this was an opportunity to look to new successes. I did appreciate that perhaps I had been unaware of the good things in life that I had been ignoring but any ideas of a spell of womanising faded, for I recognised that it was time I accepted my responsibilities in a positive manner and Ann and I got married. So after being “Gods gift to women “ for all that time he still had only made one aware of it and I was taken out of the frame. If ever there was an opportunity to be a dedicated steward this was it. I read the blue book nightly, listed 101 ways to confuse organisers and achieve success unfairly and studies the technical aspects of rally organisation but for what? Apart from one brush with the organisational team when they attempted to impose the Chairman of the Rally as a last minute addition to the team in case we found contrary to the views of the Clerk of the Course in a problem that actually never came to be, we have had nothing to do. Well nothing other than routine advice on organisational matters and it must reflect well on the expertise of the whole committee that being a steward is tantamount to a holding a sinecure. So what are the highlights of being a Steward on the Tour of Mull? First it means that each year I have the perfect excuse for visiting the delightful island which both my wife and I feel has become our second home. Not that we need any excuse but those who don’t or wont understand, or have only visited lesser islands and cannot grasp the wonders of the Mull scenery and people can at least can accept I have a duty to perform. Whether your interest is the island or the rally this is the event that has everything. The rally is as exciting as the scenery of the island. The competitors are not only dedicated to the sport but also each other. A sense of camaraderie exists which I have never experienced anywhere as strongly in my 40 years of competition, organising and stewarding. On top of this the team have an exceptional dedication from the Chairman down to the Marshals. For 12 months they commit themselves to this one Rally and probably because of this, put on a rally that everyone loves. Manchester has just hosted the Commonwealth Games and because of the way it has been organised and the attitude of the people involved from management to competitors to marshals and spectators it has become the friendly games. But in creating atmosphere they are only beginners. Our team have 33 years of learning and get better every year. So please keep up the high standard .Let each Tour of Mull be another year when I and my fellow stewards have the pleasure of reporting back nothing but the very high standard from every aspect and I am sure we are all justified in claiming that the Tour of Mull is the “Rally of Friends”. Trevor Roberts |
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