MORE than half a century has passed since Bette Knight sat on the handlebars of her husband's motorbike while he rode the Wall of Death blindfolded.

But the Newport great-great-grandmother remembers it as though it were yesterday. She said: "If you thought about the danger you wouldn't do it, but it was a terrific thrill."

Mrs Knight, 92, was born Bette Nelson on April 1, 1910, in St Mary's Street, Newport. And she recently celebrated the birth of her family's fifth generation - with the arrival of great-great-grandson Dylan McKinstry.

Bette's daughter Jean Hill lives just around the corner in Maindee, while granddaughter Linda Rogers and great-grand-daughter Hayley McKinstry live in Weston-super-Mare and Burnham-on-Sea.

Bette first saw future husband Rudy Knight at Weston Wall of Death in 1934. She said: "I wanted to do it the first time I saw it. They asked for volunteers, but my friends wouldn't let me.

"When I was introduced to Rudy later I thought 'I've seen you before somewhere,' but I didn't realise where until he mentioned that he was a rider."

It wasn't until after the war, when offers for Rudy to tour in Europe began arriving, that Bette saddled up herself.

She said: "The first time I rode solo my husband had to leave - he couldn't bear to watch. "There's terrific pressure when you first do it, and you must ride straight. If you lean over then you'll fall.

"I would sit on the handlebars while he rode blindfolded, but he wouldn't let me do the same for him."

As well as the Wall of Death, Bette - stage name The Beautiful Antoinette - rode the Globe of Death, where the motorbike is ridden upside down on the inside of a sphere. Rudy used to finish his act by riding the Wall with a lioness in the sidecar.

"She loved it and knew exactly what to do. She used to enjoy it because the speed of the bike cooled her down and would purr as she went round.

"Sometimes we did a trick with three riders on the wall at once called the pursuit, but the timing had to be very precise - if one of us touched, we'd all fall down," Bette recalled.

Bette and Rudy left showbusiness in 1948 so their sons could get an English education. After the loss of her husband in 1989, she moved back to Newport two years later and now lives in Eveswell Court, Maindee.

"It was an adventurous life and interesting. "All my life people have been saying 'write a book' but we never got to write it," she added.