Mike Naish: “I wish to introduce you to the ACU Southern Centre Rights of Way Officer and Grass Track Steward, Keith Lee”.

Mike Naish: Where do you originate from Keith ?

Keith Lee: “Well, I was born in Okehampton where my father was a Police Officer. It was a sporting family and I readily took to all sports but excelled in Boxing, Tennis and Squash to County level.”

“I had about one hundred fights at middleweight including contests in the RAF, and won the South West Championship in Devon and also for the RAF in the Inter Services contests. I played tennis to county level and on one memorable occasion I actually beat the Wimbledon champion, Virginia Wade. I had been picked to carry the Olympic Torch during the Olympics held in Britain in 1948. I ran from Kingskerswell to Torbay carrying the Olympic flame for the opening of the sailing. It was there that I met Virginia and we had a game of tennis in which I beat her. I have to say she thrashed me the next day on a return bout!

MN: What was your first Motorcycle and your first Trial ?

KL: “I was stationed in Plymouth during my time in the RAF, I was on the maintenance of Sunderland flying boats. I went to Greens of Plymouth and bought an ex-WD 350cc Royal Enfield side valve with a box sidecar. I paid £10 for it. With Eddy Haines and Bill Pemberton we went practising with it, in solo form, up on Dartmoor. At this time I was teaching in Okehampton. Of course in those days there was nothing to stop you riding over the moors.

My first Trials bike was a 1954 round frame, 197cc DOT with the heavy Earls front forks and swinging arm suspension. I bought it from Kings of Oxford. I took it from Okehampton on the outfit to an Exmouth Trial on Woodbury Common in the mid 50s. The trial started at the Half Way House as I remember. Everybody laughed at me for having a swinging arm and said I would never get any grip, so after the event I took off the back end and grafted on the rear end of a grass track bike to make it a rigid. Then I sold the DOT after putting the swinging arm back and moved to a 197 DMW. I won my first award on it at the Mortonhampsted Trial in April 1956.

Sometimes I did not use the outfit for transport and after one Otter Vale Trial at the Hare and Hounds I clipped on a pair of cycle lights to ride home in the dark.”

MN: What bikes did you have after that?

KL: “In the early sixties we had moved to Exmouth and I bought a twin cylinder Triumph which I put into a Cotton frame and trialled successfully. I had done an apprenticeship as an undertaker and had learnt about coffin making, following this I started up a building firm, it was then in 1965 that I bought a Triumph Tiger Cub. At that time Sammy Miller was riding a Bultaco and I quickly realised that the Bulto was the bike to have. I had three or four in the 1970s moving from the 250 up to the 325. I liked to buy them in a crate so that I could build them up myself. If you bought them unassembled you did not have to pay Purchase Tax.

I rode in all the nationals of the time and one day I saw Nick Jefferies with a Honda 250 based on the XL Model. I tried it out and knew I had to have one so I got a Honda XL and converted it for trials. I loved that bike it really suited me. I had an early glassfibre tank from an Ossa which saved a lot of weight compared with the steel tank. I nearly won the Greybeards from Sammy one Year. The ‘Devonshire Dumplings’ all rode as a team that year. That was Brian Trott, John Born and Ivan Pridham and myself. On that occasion Sam beat me by one mark but only because he rode a muddy slot section twice on the first lap when it was easier.”

MN: When did you become a Steward?

KL: “In the mid 1970’s I was asked by Walter Baker and Jim Courtney if I would like to become a steward at competition events. I followed them to all events, scrambles, grass track and trials, so that I could become proficient in all disciplines. They were good teachers. I still am a grass track steward at the age of nearly 75.”

MN: What do you consider to be your biggest achievement ?

KL: “I had joined the ACTT, the Association of Classic Trials Cars which ran classic Long distance Trials for both cand bikes mainly in North Devon. I had a Norton Wasp outfit. which I had bought as a Rhind Tutt manufactured scrambles outfit with a Norton Wasp 900cc plus engine. I converted it to trials, and with my passenger Paul Collins in the 1990s we won numerous awards and the ACTT Championship  three years running. We also did some enduros on it and of course the Exeter trial.”

MN: And what for the future?

KL: “I gave up competing when the ‘BSE’ crises was on us. I sit on both the Dartmoor and Exmoor national parks committee to represent all motor groups. The problem with the new rights of way legislation is not going to go away and as a consequence I can see ever increasing problems in using Green Lanes, RUPPS, BOATS, Rights of Way etc which nearly all are becoming reclassified as no-go areas for all vehicular traffic. Of course it has not helped when all the unauthorised practising went on. Take ‘Simms Hill’ for example. We used to use it years ago about three times a year. We informed the local parish council and residents of the dates and times and we gave donations to help the Ilsington Church Roof fund. That was fine, but nowadays you get trail bikes practising every Sunday up and down, up and down and of course the village has changed, with people coming in from outside the area to retire and they just do not want the noise and inconvenience every weekend.

I will carry on for the time being and keep everyone informed through the Gazette as and when there are any significant changes.”

Thank you Keith for your time and I hope all goes well for you in the future. Mike Naish

More Mike Naish interviews HERE

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