Calum Duffy won the 2003 Philips Tour of Mull in his MkII Escort and when presented with his trophy at the prizegiving on Sunday evening, this is the Poem he delivered on the stage.
Its that time of year again,
Where men become boys and boys are men,
Leaves are giving up their fight and growing rusty on the trees,
Falling to the ground making a slippy carpet,
Hot soup seems to be on the menu more these days,
Day turns to night a little faster,
For a week and a day our island seems fit to burst,
The rally arrives and spectators develop a thirst.This year wet again, beautiful cars by the dozen,
‘Should favor the 4wds’ is what they say,
I think they were blinded by the shiny paint,
For there was a little Mk2 whose driver is no Saint,
Flying through the air landing on the grass,
My poor little brother has a very sore arse.My heart wanted to win but my head said no!
But in a joint decision we decided to have a go,
Up the 22 miler with sweat on my brow,
Flattened a hedgehog, skiffed a sheep and nearly became a cow,
13 seconds faster, could this really happen?
Del thought ‘Oh no, now he’s really going to try’,
And we did, it took everything we had and more,
It wasn’t easy as Neil was driving well,
Once again it was the last stage and we went like hell,The finish couldn’t come fast enough,
As we passed through the winners were Del and Duff,
But as a close family team it was slightly bland,
For Friday night’s tragedy was still heavy on our minds,
And with that in mind, I would like to say:
So many times we drive these roads,
Sometimes slow and sometimes fast,
But there’s a certain spot where now as we pass,
We will tip our lids to you O’ Bonnie Lass,
Always in our hearts and our minds: Sue Cameron.
Calum Duffy, October 2003
