SCRAMBLE RIDER

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32706, 8 September 1971, Page 32

SCRAMBLE RIDER

Two races

in Aust.

The leading Christchurch motor-cycle scrambles rider, G. Sword, will leave on Friday to contest two rounds of the Australian international moto-cross series—the first at Adelaide on Sunday and the second at Melbourne seven days later. Sword, aged 26, is making the trip at his own expense in the hope that the incentive provided by the international riders will help him regain the form he was showing before his disastrous crash in France in June last year.

A radial nerve was severed in his right arm and it was paralysed from the elbow downwards. Since returning to New Zealand. Sword has ridden with a steel brace and a wrist support—to the amazement of competitors and spectators alike. The use of his arm has gradually returned and he now no longer has to use the brace.

“I have now got about 90 per cent use of my arm,” he said yesterday. “But my form has not been improving as it should. I need to get more confidence.

“The stimulation of this top-class competition will help me get back in the groove. At present I am enjoying my racing but I am not really going hard enough at it.”

Among his rivals in Australia will be the New Zealander, I. Miller, the English international, R. Owen, and the leading Scottish rider, J. Aird. Sword, who spent three years racing in Europe, knows them all well.