committed to THE CREST

when he fell in love with them because he still has the programme. On August 2, 1948, Toosie’s father, a keen motorcyclist, took the five-year-old to watch the Bluff Grand Prix, run on public roads in those days. Toosie got involved in bikes as soon as he could and went on to enjoy a long and illustrious racing career in and around Durban, winning the Natal Motorcycle Club’s hillclimb championship in 1982 and ’89, as well as being runner-up in ’84, ’85 and ’87.

All-in-all, he’s owned 31 motorcycles, six of which have been from his favourite marque – Norton. Today, he has three of the old British machines – a 1929 500cc

Model 18, a 1955 500cc Dominator twin, and a 1957 500cc International. Each took Toosie between three and 10 years to lovingly restore to better than new condition.

Toosie was a successful businessman throughout his working life, but had to overcome one dreadful hurdle along the way. When he was in his mid-30s, he had a stroke that was at first diagnosed as a tumour. “They gave me no chance of survival but I did, although for three years I couldn’t talk until I learnt to again. Throughout that time, I could still ride bikes as well as anybody else, and did so as much as possible!” *