I am so sorry to hear that about Merv, when I was a young apprentice of 16 riding to work on my Norman B3 along White lion road Amersham a young Merv would flash by in the traffic on that same 250 Rudge!. I have seen him blow Yammaha stink wheels in the dust in a straight 250 race and win. You speak on alignment I remember telling him that his wheels on one of his 250 Rudges were out of line, his reply was 'thats my cadwell club circuit bike there is only one lefthander'. Merve was never a guy to take silly risks, years ago when Ben stated racing on his BSA C15 his ambition was to beat Merve in the upto 58 250 class. Finaly in his last year on the BSA he did come first in a race and Merve was second, Ben was over the moon! I saw Merve later in the day and he said (and I belive him) 'I could have overtaken him but he looked a bit to hairy and unstable'.
Here are a few pictures of the damage to Merv's 250cc Rudge.