Simon Woodward

Alan Goodsell

I first met Simon in 1983, we were both on the same course at Mid Kent College studying engineering. We used to encourage Simon to do 'wheelies' across the college car park on his RD350LC. From about late 83 to about 89 I used to be in a group of  friends with Simon, Keith Wells and Howard Hunt (who sadly died in a car accident in 86). I remember those teenage years fondly, being out till the early hours of the morning doing nothing in particular. Howard got home one morning to meet his dad coming out the house to go to work – don’t think his dad was pleased. I also recall a late night rally experience in a local hop field in Simon’s Ford Escort. Later I got a motor bike and would meet up with Keith to ride over to Simon's as he had bought a house in Iwade with Karen. I vaguely remember a scheme to breed pedigree cats (Persian I think) and after spending the evening at the house with all the kittens jumping all over me I used to ride home wheezing! Simon decided to get back into motorcross so we all went to one of his first races. Simon was always really competitive and this was no exception - he was doing really well right up to the point he fell off and broke his collar bone. His biggest concern at this point was that the St John's ambulance wanted to cut his motorcross jersey off! After college the engineering industry was pretty slack, both Simon and I ended up working at Ketlon UK, an engineering company making gearbox components. Simon was a 'setter' and I remember one day he got his hand stuck in a machine he was setting, breaking a couple of knuckles. We spent about a year there, I went to a heating design company and Simon went to ARC. I lost touch with everyone after I joined the police service. Ironically I found out about Simon's sad death through a work colleague who, as it transpired shared the commute into London with him. I'm sad that I was so close to bumping into Simon again but never got catch up with him.

© 2008 Mark Woodward