The Sandfield Ride

In 1982 Sgt Mick Strong came up with an idea to race around Donnington Park Circuit in aid of charity. The idea of the ride was to complete a 1000 laps on two motorcycles in 8 hours using 10 riders.Norton Motorcycles provided three motorcycles for the ride.

The charity chosen was the Sandfield Unit at the City Hospital, Nottingham. An officer at Nottingham Traffic Wing had a severely handicapped son who attended the unit and we all thought the money raised could go to the unit.The Motorcycle Section plus several other officers from the Traffic Wing all put in an enormous effort and raised in excess of £2,500.00p.

The day of the ride (early March 1982) was quite an event as most of the riders had never ridden on a race circuit before. Starting at nine in the morning they were 'flagged off’ by Nottingham Forest manager,Brian Clough and players from both Nottingham Forest and Notts County Football Clubs. (Both teams were doing quite well in those days!!) During the ride every possible weather condition took place including thunder and lightning. There were several spills but nothing serious and the machines were returned to Norton in one piece but a little battered. A lot of behind the scenes work was carried out by officers, wives and friends, ensuring that the riders were well supplied with hot drinks, food and encouragement.

The money raised was presented to the Sandfield Unit at a special reception at the Force Headquarters, Sherwood Lodge later in the year as shown in the bottom picture on the right.

A truly memorable day.