Episode 3

First to arrive at the barn is Bobby Williams from Surrey, bringing the powered wheelchair that opened up a whole new sporting career. Bobby had always loved sport as a kid, but competing on the football field with his non-disabled friends was tough. When he discovered powerchair football, it was a complete game-changer. Fast, physical and fiercely competitive, the sport gave him independence, confidence and a team of his own. For years, this chair has taken the full force of matches: spins, crashes and heavy impacts have left it battered, scratched and mechanically tired. Now stepping back from playing and moving into coaching, Bobby wants the chair restored so it can be passed on to a new young player, lending someone else the same life-changing opportunity he was given. It will take the expertise of Dom Chinea, with a little mechanical help from David Burville, to strip it back, rebuild its frame and refresh its electrics so that it can be ready once again for the rigours of the court.

Next through the doors are brothers Pete and Eric McCready, carrying a fragile flag with an extraordinary romantic history. In 1951, their parents – just teenagers at the time and both avid speedway fans – attended a race night at White City Stadium in Glasgow, home of the Glasgow Tigers. Amid the roar of the engines and the smell of fuel, they met for the first time – a chance encounter that would shape the rest of their lives. Years later, when the stadium was threatened with demolition to make way for the M8 motorway, their father couldn’t bear to see a piece of that history destroyed. He famously shimmied up the flagpole and rescued the very flag that had flown above the referee’s box on the night he met his future wife. Now stained, torn and peppered with holes, the flag is in urgent need of conservation. Textile expert Rebecca Bissonnet must stabilise and clean the delicate fabric before mounting it for display in order for it to be returned to the Glasgow Tigers as both a tribute to a lost sporting venue and the remarkable love story that began beneath it.