Text & Results to follow, Poland, Parc Ferme, viewed from the man made Ski Slope.    East Germany wins in worst year for Brit Teams.   East Germans gave a display of reliability skills, determination & consistency on MZ machines.   The 42nd ISDT was held between Sept 17 to 22 at Zakopane in Southern Poland.   314 Competitors started.   Britain failed teamwise by the machines used, however with some fine individual efforts by Trophy Team man Johnny Giles Triumph 490 & Gordon Farley on a 350 Triumph, seventh out of nine teams echoed failure for stagnant machinery developments.   Britain's Vase B team lost a man & came 16th out of 23 teams whilst the All-Army Vase A Brit Team lost all & finished 21st out of 23. Generally electrical or mechanical failures covered most of Britains's retirements.  138 riders were to collect unpenalised on time efforts awards.   Course distance amounted to 985 in miles.   17 Countries were entered Austria (13, Belgium (5), Canada (4), Czechoslovakia (27), East Germany (250, Finland (8), France (11), Great Britain (30), Holland (16), Italy (22),Poland (30), Russia (27), Spain (12), Sweden 2(4), Switzerland (2), USA (8), West Germany (60).   Silver Medal was taken by Welsh Privateer Billy Mills 499 Royal Enfield who went through with a clean sheet only to lose 6.69 Points on a special test.   Two British Privateers took Bronze, Dick Sutton 490 Triumph & Tim Pritchard on a 175 Husqvarna.   Even the first day seemed to be steeped in disaster, Billy Mills's Royal Enfield refused to start within the specified minute & even for the 2 days prior to start that Greeves of Trophy Man Jim Sandiford became moody re whether it would start or not & Jim had to withdraw & be replaced by Scott Ellis 343 BSA.   Ellis retired early with electrical problems & Ken Sedgeley then had problems with his 250 twin Suzuki..

Treasured item from Brian Catt's Attic!!! thanks Brian.

Mick Andrews Ossa 250, Best marks for Britain for British Entrants Mick Andrews, John Harris, plus Peter Gaunt on a Suzuki took Gold, 2 out of 3 Brit entrants were on Foreign machinery to cope & compete.  The daily Courses radiated fro Nowy Targ which was positioned outside the town.  Rain for once was not a mud-stuck problem, however the lack of it resulted in hard rocky going & Brit. 3 Man Royal Marine Team of Jim Terrell, Jim Bartlett & Tom Gould all retired on their Tiger Cubs with collapsed front wheels.   Trophy team by now was one man short, then Sedgeley's Suzuki packed in & Vase B took a knock then Army Vase A team lost Peter Lasota 250 Greeves with a sheared flywheel key, Eastern Bloc machinery began to look far more developed & reliable plus rideable!.

Gold Medallist Hans Weber 250 MZ of Winning East German Trophy Team, by the first day announcement East Germany seemed sitting pretty, Italian Trophy Team entered for first time since 1963 lost Alessandro Gritti 175 Morini from Trophy Team when he broke his collar bone & Polish Trophy teamster Jerzy Warchal 125 WSK packed in with a broken gearbox.   Unexpectedly Austria showed in second spot, Austrian Puch machinery from 49 to 166cc was nearer the front since they won at Bad Assee in 1960.   Czechs were trying to deal with East German domination and at end of first day had Vase A topping the list with West Germany Vase team on small machines second.  Don Hitchcock struck his Air bottle with a prodding leg & chipped a bone & hence withdrew, Mick Andrews had to switch over to a spare Coil when he had trouble.    Second day no trouble other than when a Swedish Team protest over a slave clock timer was upheld & they retained their clean sheet, Brit Trohy Man John Lewis's 500 AJS had carb plus timing problems.  Third Day after hectic work John Lewis also dropped out, Ken Heanes Triumph cruised back to retire with a well rattled engine, subsequently blamed on Polish Petrol Quality.   Half ISDT event gone, half British Team already out. 

Roy Peplow 490 Triumph chatting to Jack Stocker.  Walkie Talkie Radio transmissions of German plus Russians were protested over & a Polish Army unit was brought in to jam their channels.  Fourth Day, wednesday Fred Care, Mick Noyce Mick Soames all left the event with electrical troubles on their 440 BSA's, Ted John's 500 AJS Big end left the machine clanking & stopped, Gordon Norton left with a strained ankle & a rare fully functioning British machine, 500 AJS.   Talk of a 'jinx' should concentrate on machine faults.

W Germany  H Trinkner 125 Hercules.  5th Day Austrian Johann Sommerauer 166 went out with a broken frame which was to cost 100 marks per day for the last 2 days.   Uproarious protests over walkie talkie useage was again raised, only Russia remained in favour of them being allowed to continue being used.

Johnny Giles 490 Triumph.  East Germany were leading on the end of the 5th day followed by Czechs & Austrians, Czechs other teams remained well ahead in the Vase tussle.

Peter Gaunt on his twin 250 Suzuki still going well for Britain & his Gold.

Sweden's  S Skogsmo 350 Husqvarna

A Lichtenberg E Germany on 75cc Simson

K Statzinger on Puch 125, that excellent  Austrian team performance frightened Eastern Bloc Teams expecting to cruise to a win.!

Czech Vase A man J Jasansky's 402 Jawa, highest performance in special test just 2.16 points from maximum bonus.

Russian W Gorulko retiring 4th day on his 250 Kowrociec, pictures tell stories.

Fritz Selling on 360 Greeves with his father standing by him, he retired on day 4.

Torsten Andersson Sweden Trophy man on the Husqvarna 350, always a great competitor.

V Leasak 175 Jawa of Czech team made it home to Silver medal with gearbox problem.

W Pogajnis with a little Russian 50 ccc Riga retires with gearbox problem.

L Specht 125 Zundapp of the West German Trophy Team.   The certain runner up spot for Czech Trophy contestants came to grief when an exuberant Petr Valek using 175 Jawa fell off with 2 laps to go & could not restart, so Czechs went to 3rd.  A delighted Austria took second spot.