Although he had delegated his secretaryship he was always there and always willing to venture an opinion – but not this time. Taff had been fighting cancer for some 18 months and was unfit to travel. He finally lost that fight on Thursday the 5th of November, but not after he had followed the rally’s progress from home.

He was one of the original team of four in 1968, led by the late Brian Molyneux, who had the foresight and the tenacity to initiate, and thereafter run, one of the most logistically complex and demanding rallies in the British calendar. And the rest as they say, is history.
There was always something of the ‘naughty schoolboy’ about Taff. Despite his professionalism and attention to detail, there lurked a wicked sense of humour under the apparent veneer of bonhomie.

His views may have been controversial at times, but they came from a deep compassion for his club and passion for his sport, although conversely, his appetite for the Island of Mull waxed and waned in sympathy with the weather. For one thing Mull has in abundance, is weather!

It was indeed a great pity he didn’t make the 40th just last month. ‘Taff’s Caff’ was quiet this year, normally a bawdy and noisy retreat for the die-hards, it was strangely quiet and will never be the same again.