David Langford’s letter about the TT races on the Isle of Man (Memory Lane, April 6) brought back some happy memories for me.

Jack Middleton sponsored Bob and Jenny Beales (a husband and wife sidecar crew) while he was landlord of the Trigger Pond Inn at Bucknell, near Bicester, towards the end of the 1960s and into the 1970s.

My driver, Tony Greening, and I were racing from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s and took part in five TT sidecar races on the island. We finished in four of them, and collected three replicas.

Some of those pictures on the wall in the Trigger Pond Inn were of our machines.

Built by Trevor Ireson, of Swindon, they were equipped with over-bored and tuned Triumph Bonneville motors, over-bored and re-stroked BSA A10 Road Rocket motors or, in the last one, a 746cc eight-valve Weslake motor with a five-speed Albion gearbox.

Having been retired now for nine years, I doubt I shall ride the TT course again. Like David Langford, though, I would love to do so, once more for old times’ sake.

ROGER PARKER
White Road
Cowley