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The £100 wager set by Duncan Marston, when he bet that his small Ransome portable "Little Lucy", Works No. 27268, could cut a length of wood quicker than Bill Bird's Allchin, Works No. 1527, caused great interest at this year's Strumpshaw Rally, held on the May Bank Holiday weekend. As the sun shone down on the flowering chestnut trees in the beautiful parkland setting, a large crowd gathered around Bill Bird's saw bench at lunchtime on 27th May. Both engines had a good head of steam as they faced each other with the bench between them. East Anglian Traction Engine Society secretary, Hugh Dyson, was appointed official timekeeper and stood with stopwatch in hand. First on the belt was Bill's 7 n.h.p. Allchin "Felicity". It took just 42.98 seconds to slice through the log, with Bill himself skillfully winding the handle on the bench. Bill's second attempt took 44.84 seconds. The belt was then coupled to "Little Lucy", Duncan manned the regulator of his little engine and Jonathan Wheeler was "in charge" of the saw bench. Duncan's other crewmembers tried to make life easier by laying the log on its side to make it only half as thick. This caused great amusement with the crowd, but the officials soon made sure that the log was positioned correctly for fair play. "Little Lucy" was now at full pressure and the flywheel began to turn. When full speed was reached, Jonathan began to turn the handle on the bench and the little portable began to "bark out" so loud that she could be heard all over the rally field. The stopwatch read 45.56 seconds as the blade appeared from inside the log. "Oh dear, Duncan" said Slim the commentator, "You'll have to do better than that". But alas, the second attempt took 52.65 seconds and Duncan lost the wager. Duncan took the microphone to admit defeat, thanked Bill for accepting his challenge and agreed that the Allchin was probably the better engine for the job, now being £100 lighter than he was 52.65 seconds ago. Bill Bird thanked Duncan for the challenge, and said he was pleased to hear him admit that the Allchin was the better engine. Furthermore he would not take Duncan's £100, but would double the wager to £200 for another challenge next year, with the Allchin on the saw bench against Duncan's Davey Paxman Traction Engine. Roll on Strumpshaw 2002.
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 Mail : hughdyson@engineer.com or Pat.Freeman@tesco.net Created : 20/6/01 Copyright : East Anglian Traction Engine Society 2001
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