THE WALLABY TRACK WITH LIONEL MUSSELL
MURPHY IN THE GRAVEL PIT
PART 2 OF LIONEL ’ S DISASTROUS ADVENTURES WITH MURPHY , AS TOLD IN HIS BOOK , TRAVELS WITH MURPHY …
We used to race the old Triumph around a disused gravel pit . If Dad had thought it would be a dangerous bike for me to manage , I ' m glad he never saw us racing in that gravel pit without helmets and missing trees by the skin of our teeth . We learnt more about handling bikes than could have ever been taught by any driving school .
We had another old bike there – a New Imperial I think it was – and when the engines got too hot and seized up , we would let them cool down until we could spit on the motor without the spit flying straight off , and then it would be on again . Murphy must have been going through a ‘ be-kind-to- Lionel ’ phase because we never came to any harm , despite the horrendous risks we used to take .
As soon as I reached my 17th birthday , I wanted a car . Having very little money , I settled on a 1929 fabric-bodied Morris Minor that was on show outside a local wrecker ’ s yard . It should have stayed there because this was the chance Murphy had been waiting for to show his stuff .
It arrived on a truck – an omen in itself . That evening , Dad and I went for our first drive and were getting along very nicely when something overtook us as I slowed for an intersection . The something turned out to be one of our back wheels , which trundled on for some time before bouncing to a stop in a ditch . The car continued for a little while on an even keel but subsided onto the back corner amid a shower of sparks as we lost speed . This was the first of many adventures with that car , with Murph honing his skills during every outing we took with it !
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