In 1963 I suggested to Alan that we should attend the SMAE control line committee meetings held at the John Snow pub in Soho (John Snow discovered that Cholera was spread by contaminated water and the pub is built on the site of his first fresh water pump) so that any new rule changes would be spotted early and accomodated into the models and hopefully give us an advantage.

At the meeting we met Norman Butcher who was at that time on the committee. I asked Norman if he knew of any rule changes for the coming year and he said: Look it's like this, control line is old fashioned and radio control is the way to go as it's more like the real thing."

What a Bombshell! So on that understanding we didn't attend any more committee meetings.

Doing a bit of research I reviewed the heat times for a number of Class B Team Races and worked out that the average speed of a model, with one pit stop assumed, was often below 100 mph.

So if we could run an oversized ETA 15 at an average of 100 to 103mph without stopping we would get into most finals although not necessarily win. already I could see a string of final's coming our way! The FAI specification allowed me to use the same airframe for both classes just upgrade the engine, fit a larger venturi carb and add a 30 cc fuel tank.

All we had to do was go and practice to prove it and in practice we consistently timed the B racer at 103mph for 85 to 88 laps which was fine as all we needed was 70 laps range for a B heat. Our next stop was the Watford Skunkworks where we asked Ken to prepare a special oversize capacity ETA 15 and to comply with class B rules I asked for some documentation to show to the the judges. Ken said he would engrave the engine head to show that it was an engine modified for Class B.

The idea of the oversize diesel was so radical for some teams we were threatened with all sorts of disqualifications to stop us getting to the finals but the threats never materialised.I asked Ken how he prepared the oversize 15 and he replied that he just looked for an over spec liner and piston. He said that he had had several engines go out oversize and it made no difference to the performance.

At Hayes we placed 2nd in the Rat Race with the oversize ETA. This was another example of the universal model - this time we used one of the FAI models for Rat Racing and I remember that we survived one of the worst line tangles I've ever seen in racing at Hayes. At one stage our racer was in a vertical dive with the lines all tangled above our heads but we managed to untangle only to get into another tangle two laps later. Somehow we all survived. The problem was caused by inexperienced pilots climbing too high on takeoff before levelling out and of course the wide range of speeds of the different aircraft in a Rat Race doesn't help.

The action shot of Richard King in full flight shows how in a Rat Race the mechanics had to run from the pilots circle to start the engines at the start of the race.

We entered for the North Western Area Rally and placed 3rd but when the model was processed it was over weight by 1 &1/2 grams - this was incorrectly reported as 1&1/2 ounces in the Aero Modeller! Had I just wiped the racer down it would have been under weight.

In 1962 I had made a promise to Les Davy that Alan and I would win the Northern Gala in 1963. This was quite a rash statement made with the Wharfedale guys standing around just after they had won the trophy.Three weeks before the Northern Gala I started on a new model based on the Wharfedale Tigress but with alloy engine pan to make it easy to swap airframes. The racer was finished and sprayed on the Friday evening, assembled on Saturday and we left at 5 30am on Sunday for the Northern Gala. We found ourselves in the first heat with no time to test fly when I mentioned this to the other two pilot's who protested that they din't want to race with me but the race marshal said that the race should go ahead and the end result was that we won the heat with a time that stood for most of the day. After previously watching the National's finals and the elbowing and barging between Les Davy and Johnnie Hall, I expected something similar in the final and I wasn't disappointed - this would be the "War of the Roses" with added attitude. The last time I experienced this degree of aggression was in the race with Ray Gibbs. However Alan dialled in the perfect engine settings so we had the edge on speed and the pit stops were all first flick starts and so we won the Northern Gala and the Wharfedale trophy as we had promised

In the class B event we recorded third fasted time and we finished third in the class B final's.

At the end of the season, because of our win, we had to attend the SMAE annual dinner at York to collect the Wharfedale trophy, diploma and gold badge. This was also the chance to collect silver and bronze badge's from previous rallies. On the Sunday we had lunch with Henry J Nichols. After lunch Henry left before us only to return 20 mins later having picked up my coat by mistake as our coats were identical. Of course without his keys which were in his coat, Henry couldn't get into his car and had to walk back in the rain to change coats and reclaim his keys. He was not amused!