“There’s some sponsors on the pitch. They think it’s Freight Rover. It is now!”

On the day, on arrival the hotel, we were given an soft-cardboard folder with various bits and bobs in it: a match programme, a letter from George Simpson, the managing director of Freight Rover, and some information about Sherpa vans. I think we were given our match tickets for the final separately in the dressing room.

According to Wikipedia, George Simpson, aka Baron Simpson of Dukinfield, gained a reputation in the 1980s and 1990s for turning round failing companies, but notes that “as CEO of Marconi plc he presided over one of the largest collapses in British corporate history. He has been on leave of absence from the House of Lords since 2004”.

Back in 1985, we never met the man, we just had this letter in our welcome pack. I presume he would have been presenting the trophy and meeting the teams along side Elton John.

Here though are some sample pages from that marketing brochure – I am really amazed at how dated the vehicles look – and very un-luxurious by today’s standards. If popular demand ever demands it, or I get an urge to be completist about it, I will add more scans of the other pages from the brochure.

Highway Yellow for me! Or maybe New Beige. I can’t decide.

I note that the publication is numbered FR90A – the FR being an obvious reference to Freight Rover. The cardboard folder our info pack came in also carried a publication number: FR81. Clearly, someone had a good admin system going on.