Yewsix of the Moors

One of the star performers of early 1920s trials riding – a gold medal ISDT winner among many other successes – Billy Moore was later part of the organising team.

Those who watched the recent documentary about fundraiser Captain Sir Tom Moore, the man who celebrated his 100th birthday during the Coronavirus pandemic by walking laps of his garden and in doing so raised over £30 million for the NHS, will have seen some brilliant, pre-Second World War footage of the Scott Trial.

This was included because it transpires Captain Sir Tom’s uncle was Billy Moore, shown, who was an event regular and star performer in the trial, always on Scotts – the model which Sir Tom was to go on to ride himself, too, him being pictured in the programme with a post-First World War Scott in, presumably, the 1950s.

Poor Billy’s fate was revealed; in 1935 he was found dead, in his car, in his garage, and 15-year-old Tom and his father carried his body into the house. The emotion was still raw for the recently knighted centurion, 85 years on from the traumatic event.

Tom was already an arch enthusiast and despite his uncle’s sad demise, his two-wheeled enthusiasm endured and endures – the programme reunited him with a two-speed Scott (incidentally the VMCC’s famous ‘Reed Scott’, originally registered DN 9, now BDN 498), among other machines.