GUY SINGER’S questions about the 1969 Farnham Lions road trip to Moscow brought a very swift response and a lot of detail. You will recall Guy bought a commemorative postal cover recently (pictured right) and was intrigued to find out more about the event.

“I can identify three of the signatures on the card as Ron Macey, Dave Woodage and Pat Doherty,” writes Phil Williams. “Not sure who the fourth one is.”

However, Graham Cann felt it could be Ernie Gudge but another name put forward was Phil Davis.

But really setting the full story right was Geoff Jeal: “Back in 2004 when I was PR officer for the Farnham Lions, I had an agreement with the Surrey and Hants News that, to celebrate the-then 35 years of Farnham Lions, I would produce a series of 26 articles, one a week for six months, to celebrate this milestone.

“Many of the members took up the challenge to write about their memories of their time in the club, which was a good cross-club involvement.

“With a great interest in motor sport and a trip to follow the Monte Carlo Rally route on my bucket list, I decided to write the article on the club’s road trip to Moscow and back, with much help from Graham Cann, still in the club today.

“I attach with this email my original press release hoping it covers the unanswered questions you have.”

Below is Geoff’s release in full and I think it makes for very interesting reading. I wonder why the trip was not repeated in subsequent years?

An incredible journey to Moscow and back.

When you think of great adventures through history, people like Hannibal, Scott of the Antarctic and in modern times, through the medium of television, Michael Palin with his epic journeys from pole to pole, but seldom would four young men from Farnham Lions immediately come to mind – unless you knew better, of course.

In the autumn of 1969, the Farnham Lions Club had been in existence for only about 18 months and the minds of its members were exercised to quickly establish a high profile within the town.

Well, eight days in September 1969 certainly did that and at the same time changed the lives of these four men when they set off across the English Channel on the start of an epic challenge to drive to Moscow and then get back, all for charity.

It was agreed any proceeds from the adventure would be donated to help build a swimming pool at what is now the Ridgeway School.

Months of meticulous planning went into the trip – no cross-European motorways with their regular fuel stops, few detailed road maps of the Russian sector of their journey, no mobile phones to keep in touch with loved ones back home and cross-border traffic was not as easy as it is today, with border guards often needing persuasion that this really was for fun. In short, very few opportunities existed to make such a journey an easy one.

But none of this deterred the-then Lions president Ron Macey, the vice-president Dave Woodage, and Lions Pat Doherty and Philip Davis. Firstly, they needed a car! Simple, one might think, but the days of commercial sponsorship were not as commonplace as they might be today, but nonetheless the competitions department at the Ford Motor Company was sufficiently inspired by their enthusiasm to lend them a rather special Ford Zephyr.

The standard engine had been replaced with a 3.0 litre V6 unit; special wide tyres and a 30-gallon long-range tank had also been fitted. The vehicle was, in fact, a development car for the later to be announced 3.0-litre Capri, a real thoroughbred. Its only road miles were the previous week when it had been entered in the London-Istanbul rally!

Routes were planned, overnight stops identified, and border control regulations studied, all vital pre-planning before they set off.

So it was that they took to the road on the morning of September 13, 1969, with the mileometer recording 5,829 as they left Farnham. A crossing from Dover to Zeebrugge in Belgium, with the compliments of Townsend Thorensen, and the first chance to get a customs clearance stamp on the specially-produced certificate they took with them to record their progress.

From here their journey took them to the Belgium/West German border crossing at Aachen on September 14 and across West Germany to reach the East German border at Helmsted, and on through much of that country before nightfall. Their arrival in Poland appeared to catch the authorities unaware, because as their official stamp shows, the first one given was in fact dated August 14, but with the mistake spotted the correct date of September 15 was affixed.

Too easily would we take quality fuel for granted if this adventure were completed today? With unleaded fuel of consistent quality widely available, we wouldn’t worry unduly. Not so in the ’60s. Available supplies of adequate-quality fuel had to be carefully sought out and on more than one occasion the intrepid four had to be content with fuel of a very agricultural nature – in fact, green kerosene.

Their target of Moscow was reached on September 15, where they stayed overnight. Further overnights were spent in Minsk, Or’ol and Kiev. Life was so dysfunctional in Russia at the time that some meals and accommodation were paid for in Coca-Cola and cigarettes.

Some free time was obviously taken to recharge flagging souls and not least of all to check the car over for its return. Not forgetting those back home, our intrepid travellers took time out to send some postcards back home.

Included in these were a series of 50 specially-printed envelopes, containing a ‘Greeting from Moscow, Russia’ card, all of which were signed by the four drivers. These 50 cards had 15 different stamps affixed to them and are now safely kept as one of the most memorable pieces of club history.

Cards were also sent from Belgium, Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia, all arriving safely at The Jolly Farmer, now the William Cobbett in Bridge Square, where the Lions met on a regular basis.

It is not a matter of record when first-day covers were introduced but surely such a collection of philatelic history is one to treasure.

So it was off again on the return leg, this time experiencing Czechoslovakia on the way home during September 19. It was here they got lost. Stopping a bus in an isolated area, they persuaded the driver to help them. After discussing their predicament with his passengers, he led them on a circuitous detour of the area to put them back on the right road and then by a different route into West Germany on September 20.

The Belgium border was encountered seven days after it was first crossed and the ferry back to England left Zeebrugge later that same night. After a welcome few hours’ sleep, the port of Dover was reached early on September 21 and then the spurt was on to get home for breakfast.

Apparently this was achieved in good time as verified by the stamp of the local constabulary, and the certificate shows their official police stamp was attached at 0705 by what looks like a signature of Sergeant Futcher (?) number PS 591.

This time the miloemeter had a reading of 10,091, indicating the car had travelled a total of 4,262 miles in just eight days, an average of 532 miles per day. Put another way, an average from start to finish of 22 miles per hour – a magnificent achievement today but even more so 35 years ago.

And while talking about achievements, were there any proceeds left for the swimming pool fund? There certainly were, and the Lions Club donated a magnificent £900 to swell the coffers. That £900 in 1969 is close to £10,000 in today’s (2004) terms.

I caught up with Pat Doherty, now a successful retailer in The Borough, to get some first-hand memories of this exciting adventure. He admitted one of the major factors in deciding to go was for fun, and it had been. The journey through East Germany had been a bit tense because of their social unrest but he had found Russia less so, although the general way of life was terribly chaotic and disorganised.

His memories are too many to list here but the overriding one is that he is glad he had done it!

As Guy’s commemorative card proclaims, this was the ‘First Farnham-Moscow Run’. I wonder if today’s Lions Club members have ever thought about making a return visit?

* “Subsequent to his membership of Farnham Lions, Philip Davis became a Liberal politician, standing for that party in a general election in Farnham, where he came within a very few hundred votes of Maurice Macmillan, the standing MP, son of Harold.

“Quite a shock at the time. I designed and printed his election material, as it happens,” also comments Graham Cann.