The Place

hello .i just thouht ide look up some history of derek brindley who ran retford motor club .retford is my hometown and remember the names derek and barry ? brindley . ime sure he had something to do with a carpet shop in retford .so far ive got this info .Remember Derek Brindley in late fifties riding an outfit made by Brian Bulmer of Bawtry the passenger was Jack Waugh of Harworth/Bircotes. They used to practice on old Bawtry airfield. any help would be great .cheers fred

i thought it was Fred Brindley,wasnt Derek the youngest son ? ,the only riders that i heard of running a carpet shop was the Binghams

^^ What Bruce said. That sounds like Fred, wasn't Fred mayor somewhere too?

it was bruce, binghams carpets on carolgate ,from that found this ,Sandra Tomlin , oh yes . . . Retford Motor Club used to have lots of sidecar men - and a woman ofcourse --. . . Ian McDonald, Dennis & Julia Bingham all the Brindleys (Fred,Barry, John and young Derek) Stuart Rich, John Jackson and ofcourse the greatest of them all Dave Saville !! My Dad was mechanic to Mac in the Weslake days , my job was cleaning the leathers then I progressed to fairing repairs !!

1983 TT Practice - Ballaugh - Barry Brindley and Chris Jones behind Webster and Hewitt

fred bcj wrote:hello .i just thouht ide look up some history of derek brindley who ran retford motor club .retford is my hometown and remember the names derek and barry ? brindley . ime sure he had something to do with a carpet shop in retford .so far ive got this info .Remember Derek Brindley in late fifties riding an outfit made by Brian Bulmer of Bawtry the passenger was Jack Waugh of Harworth/Bircotes. They used to practice on old Bawtry airfield. any help would be great .cheers fred

It was Fred who ran the Retford club. a great man and a true gent. He ran a company called Sabre Engineering in Ranskill and I think the late great Dave Saville was his business partner. Yes the 3 sons all raced sidecars as did Fred in his day. The carpet connection is Dennis & Julie Bingham, they still live local to Retford.

i don't know how i forgot about sabre engineering .my brother lived next door in the signalmans house and used to go to the christmas parties.i had some lathe work done there for a circular saw in 1990 ish remeber the bikes in reception but forgot who owned it.

SABRE - SA(ville) BR(indley) E(ngineering).
That's what I was always led to believe.
Could be wrong......

think SABRE tools still exist ,in Station Road,,not sure if any of the originals still work there,

just talking to my bruv .they started building houses on the site 18 years ago or so.but says the fellow over the road at mattersey garage also raced sidecars .i remember watching 2 stroke solo's being warmed up and run down the road .another name thats poped into my head from the 80's is anton brett who used to passenger

fred bcj wrote:just talking to my bruv .they started building houses on the site 18 years ago or so.but says the fellow over the road at mattersey garage also raced sidecars .i remember watching 2 stroke solo's being warmed up and run down the road .another name thats poped into my head from the 80's is anton brett who used to passenger

Is the fellow at the garage Andre Witherington?

Bloke with garage was Martin witting ham
Derek Fred Brindley was a real sidecar fanatic . Mayor of Bawtry. Had a dodgy heart , passenger ed him on TT parade in 93 only found out about his heart afterwards.He survived another heart attack at nurnberg ring in 96, still owe for the helicopter ride . Unfortunately he died in 98. Used to race a gold star outfit when he raced and think scored world championship points on it. Used to enjoy life to the full but some antics best not made public but had a habit of drinking your pint if you left it unattended

I believe Derek Brindley still owns the Bulmer Goldstar,bought it off Ashley Brooks some years ago.

this is great stuff.i moved away from retford for work in 1992 when i was 20 but love the place and the history .ile have to ask me dad next time i ride up to see him .as he used to go to the tt and cadwell regular

Hi all, Fred Brindley, was in fact Derek too, as is his youngest son. He was, as you say, the first mayor of Bawtry. The photograph is of Barry at the TT. Derek Jnr now operates out of the original Sabre Engineering site as Arrow engineering. The factory at Ranskill was sold and houses built on it. The other driver who had his car repair place opposite at Ranskill is Martin Witherington, his place has also now been built on. There were indeed many sidecar stars in the Retford Club family.