Memories Of Preben Eriksen When I Was A Teen

[tomcat 21]

 

Hi to everyone,

Having just received my very first copy of the wonderful Backtrack Magazine,

which I confess I only purchased due to the Preben Eriksen piece, I was taken

back to a little village called Witnesham and the arrival in our road of one

Preben Eriksen.

John Berry had decided to sign Ben, as he was and still is known to us Witches

fans, to race for the 1979 Ipswich Witches.

Ben moved into our road, staying in a Bungalow with an elderly Landlady, who

hailed from Yorkshire I believe, she had the Yorkshire attitude, tell it like it is.

Anyway, it didn't take long for the young speedway fans amongst us to go down

and basically start making a nuisance of ourselves... we had a speedway rider

in our road.... it was speedway heaven for us.

In the end myself and my best mate Trevor, ended up being employed to wash

Bens bikes and racing gear, boots, helmet etc. It was a labour of love and even

when the temperature was freezing, we would be there, in overalls and wellies,

ready to get those bikes sparkling clean for the next meeting.

Ben didn't pay us any money, but did pay us in other ways, like signed posters,

trips to various shows, I clearly remember him taking me to the Wheels Show at

the Suffolk Showground one weekend.

Apart from being a very friendly and good natured guy, he had a wicked sense of

humour too. Like the day I got my first new motorbike, a Yamaha DT50, which

was a road legal MotoX type machine... I took it proudly down to show Ben what I

had just got, whereupon he promptly nicked the thing and roared off up the road on

one wheel..... with the biggest grin you have ever seen. He then came back a few

minutes later, suddenly shinned up the drain pipe and planted my brand new AVG

full face Moto X helmet on his landlady's tv arial..... knowing I probably couldn't

get up there to get it down... Not funny you may say, but you had to be there to

hear the banter going on... we gave as good as we got with Ben.

One day, Trev was washing the bikes, nylon overalls tucked into his wellies... Ben

comes home and promptly gets the hosepipe and fills Trevs overalls up with water...

tucked into the wellies there was nowhere for it to escape from... he looked like

a Michelin man...

Ben would also 'Get' the landlady's pet dog too... if it yapped at him, he would get

his Red & white striped wooly hat and stick over the dogs head, complete with

elastic band to keep it in place... that stopped the thing yapping.

Then there was the 'Revenge' nights....like the Apple Turnover bed we made for him.

He had played another prank, so between myself and his landlady, we decided to

seek our revenge... Ben was racing for the Witches, at Exeter if I remember correctly,

so while he was away, we made him an Apple Turnover bed, complete with a mop

sporting a wig in a spare set of leathers, tucked up in there and a layer of cornflakes

all over... you should have heard him swearing as he tried to get into half a bed....

with cornflakes crunching on his bare backside....

And I won't even start to talk about the women..... naughty Ben....

 

Those were the days, I don't suppose that fans get the chance to get involved in stunts

like that these days, but to me, Ben Eriksen was my hero and one heck of a friendly guy.

Glad to read he now has a successful business and is doing so well for himself.

Apart from the fun side, he taught me a lot about the racing side, preperation, even

how to recut tyres, as they used to do back then.

 

Thanks Backtrack and Thanks to Ben for the memories...... something I'll never forget.