During the spring and summer of 1995 my brother Manley and I entered our old Series 2 88” into the Warn Challenge. This Winch Challenge was run by Vince Cobley who became a good friend after the event and it was an off road challenge centred on teamwork and off road driving skills.

On a wet muddy weekend in March we won our heat with ease, the Series Land Rover left younger and better equipped 90’s and 110’s well in its wake. Feeling very confident but not complacent Manley and I looked forward to attending the final later that year, November I think it was.

When Mano and I arrived at the final which took place at a fledgling Land Rover Experience Centre in Rockingham our Series 2 with its “battered” Ramsey Winch induced some amusement. As we sat in the bar enjoying a pre event pint of ale we witnessed “knowing” smiles at best and outright derision at worst. One competitor came into where we were sitting exclaiming” There’s a Series 2 out there!?”, going onto finish with “they haven’t got a chance”. I looked at Mano and we exchanged knowing smiles. Three days later we had won handsomely here at the final, our prize of a gleaming new Warn Winch as well which secured us a place in the International Warn Adventure in Morocco.

This is where this picture comes into the story. Somewhere in the Sahara near Daya El Maider we stopped after a dusty day and someone, I do not know who, took this picture of us but it now graces the walls in the homes of our families. We finished fifteenth here in the desert after a couple of weeks of tough exciting competition.