[ogden]

Plug time:

This time next week it's the Grand National bike meeting at Castle Combe, near Chippenham. The only two-wheeled race meeting at Combe this year, it also happens to be the next round of the North Glos road race championship.

The event's running all weekend, with races and parades on Saturday and Sunday. As well as (most of) the usual club races there'll be classic races courtesy of the Lansdowne Classic series, featuring pre-1963 GP bikes ridden by names you might have heard of (Mike Edwards included); British F2 sidecars, featuring all those blokes you saw on the podium at the TT; Parade laps from the likes of John McGuiness and Steve Parrish; Paddock displays of classic and modern machines... a proper old two-wheel festival kind of thing.

Oh, and the star attraction: Me, being a hero. Or a zero. Or maybe just sitting in the paddock glaring at a black Yamaha that won't work, wishing I'd picked a cheaper, easier hobby.

All that for a tenner a day, plus an extra tenner if you want to camp. It might not even rain.