A couple from Danbury have vowed not to give up their 17-year quest to find a special trophy after a search by the BBC proved unsuccessful.

Mary and Ron Hensby, of Runsell Close, appeared on BBC's The Search programme.

They are looking for the Roger Maskell Memorial Trophy, which they had after Mr Maskell, Mrs Hensby's brother, died in a professional motorcycle race in September 1967.

The trophy was made by Colin O'Reilly and Ken Buckmaster, friends of Mr Maskell's, to commemorate his memory and was due to be presented to a rider at the same event the following year.

But Mrs Hensby's mother died during the year and the family felt it would be too traumatic for them to present the trophy.

The presentation was made to a motorcyclist on their behalf and the family lost track of the cup having never seen it.

After one unsuccessful search Mr Hensby, 67, began looking six years ago but had little success.

Then the family found out about the BBC programme after seeing a piece in a Gazette sister paper.

Although the BBC did not manage to find the trophy they reunited Mr and Mrs Hensby with Ken Buckmaster and Colin O'Reilly, whom they had not seen for 33 years, and who had put together a copy of the original cup.

Mrs Hensby said Mr Maskell lived for motor racing: "He absolutely loved racing. I started to feel I had let him down not seeing the cup.

"He would be so proud to think that they had done that in his memory. It's keeping his memory alive."

Mr Hensby added: "I still haven't given up. I'm still determined to track down the original."

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.