If you come down to the backwoods of Egremont on the first weekend of August you are sure of a big surprise. The 13th Iron Ore Rally drew 250 visitors to the town, warmly welcomed by organiser, Grant Hollis and loads of shops and hostelries in Egremont, and though they they may have looked scary in their tattoos and provocatively bedizened jackets, they are gentle, friendly people, here for the crack and the evening’s entertainment, this year provided by Tabla Rasa, and support good causes like Air Ambulance and Meningitis Research. Terry Scholes from Sheffield, for example, brushed off his 76 years as he biked it over from Sheffield, as sprightly as he was when he first started going to rallies as a kid of 58. This is what keeps life sweet for him, averaging 16 rallies a year, including Ardnamurchan. Candice was back, sewing sexy slogans on jackets and judging the best bike competition, admiring Brian Delamere’s 1979 model. It’s style more than speed, you see. Bernie and Joe, selling Crazi-things, were doing a roaring trade in bad dream catchers, as essential in Egremont as mosquito nets in tropical climes, while Keyleigh and her parrot, Marley, were just besotted with one another.