RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31974, 29 April 1969, Page 24

RANDOM REMINDER

FLAGGED OFF

You, they said, can be flag marshal for the races. He agreed—and he was sorry. For when the drivers arrived at the track with their cars the door of the shed was securely locked and the man in charge of the meeting was adamant: no flags, no racing. So two of them dived into a fastish car and drove back to town, got the secretary out of bed—a late sleeper, he—and demanded the key. They raced back, opened the door—and were confronted with another door, securely locked. The drivers shuffled their feet and looked restless. This time they telephoned. The man at the other end said that was the only key he had. They should try X. They, raced

there. X didn't have it, but he telephoned Y and Z and nearly all the others in the alphabet. The twentieth call did it. They drove across the city, got the key, whizzed back to the track and opened the second door with a flourish. There were no flags inside. The drivers had eaten their lunch by this time, but this did not prevent a certain unpleasantness. Indeed, some looked ugly. But the two heroes were not yet beaten. They rushed off to the home of one of them and while one ransacked clothes cupboards and a stuffed box ottoman, the other plunged into the tomato patch and wrenched out stakes. One hacked as the other tacked and they produced a variety of coloured flags—everything but a chequered

flag. Then the other remembered a little old dress of his wife’s. So they dashed there, pleaded their case, won her consent and cut a generous square from the skirt. It might not have done for Fangio, but it would serve. The excitement—or it may have been the reek of mothballs—was too much for one of them. He felt suddenly sick and went to bed. And when the other had loaded all the flags, he couldn’t make the car start. It took ages to get a taxi. They didn’t get much racing done that day and they hardly had to use one flag. But we are informed that the social gathering afterwards was a beauty. There will be a special vote of thanks for the refreshment marshal anyway.