The Great Airport Race

If you flew with Tony Fall, you'd be introduced to The Great Airport Race. He had been taught it by Raymond Baxter in the 1960s, when they travelled to drive Rally Cars in, among other places, Monte Carlo.

Playing this, he'd sit, quivering with excitement, on the edge of his seat in the terminal building waiting for the flight to be announced. The idea was to be first - everywhere: Baggage check in, passport control, boarding, disembarking, at passport control, collecting baggage. He was 67, looked 53 and behaved like a 23 year old, only with more energy. Here's a picture of him from earlier this year:



Here he is driving a Datsun:



And here he is getting disqualified from the 1967 Portugese Rally for slowing down as he approached the finish, pulling his wife into the car and driving in - in first place - with his arm round her:



Tony died this weekend, in East Africa where he was working with the organisers of the East African Safari Classic Rally. He was a friend to this blog, and will be sadly missed. His father lived to be 100. Tony should have, too.