Happy anniversary

Many scooter clubs around the country are celebrating certain milestones in their existence...

The big clubs of that time such as Burnley and Pendle, Modropheniacs or York SC to name but just a few helped keep scootering alive.

Recently I was waiting in an airport and noticed someone wearing a 35th anniversary T-shirt from a scooter club. With time to spare it got me thinking firstly how many clubs have ever been formed and secondly how many are still around today. If you think about it clubs have come in waves since the early days of scooter ownership and the explosion of them in the early 1980s.

The majority that formed in the 1950s are long gone or if not are in the main only reminisced by surviving members. Many fell by the wayside as scooter ownership tailed off and were replaced or drifted into sport-oriented clubs as the scootering map changed. Again these clubs also succumbed to the big decline of scootering in the 1970s. By that time the scene had gone underground and as a whole became more localised, most certainly regional. The big clubs of that time such as Burnley and Pendle, Modropheniacs or York SC to name but a few helped keep scootering alive. All were in prime position to grow rapidly after the late 1970s Mod revival.

That they certainly did with the membership of some going into the hundreds. They were joined by a huge influx of newly formed clubs that sprung up in just about every town and country throughout the land. There were thousands some with just a few members in smaller communities whereas in cities there could be several clubs within close proximity of each other. Numbers didn’t matter too much – it was the coming together of scooter owners that was more important. Clubs were making scootering stronger and almost certainly helping the rallies to thrive.

Though there was a certain degree of rivalry the majority of it was light-hearted. In the era of the rally patch, many flight jackets would have the club logo as the centrepiece. No matter what rally you were at, instantly you knew where someone was from just by looking at their club patch. It was something you wore with pride and though to a certain extent tribal, it didn’t mean you couldn’t mix with scooterists from another part of the country. Those days are now long gone; not being part of a club but the way we dress. Not that you can’t go round covered in patches – just that it’s more out of fashion with today. The trend now is to wear polo tops or hoodies adorned by a club logo. Maybe this is why it is easier to notice them as you’re not trying to find it hidden under vast swathes of rally patches.

What is more prominent and gets me back to my first comment is how many now display an anniversary of some sort. Any club that was started in the 1980s will certainly be celebrating at least 30 years since it was formed. The more time goes by the more the members seem keen to put over the fact. And why not? any scooter club that has stood the test of time should be proud to have done so. It doesn’t matter whether it has all its original members or that some have joined in later years. What does matter is that they’re still here and going strong.

A scooter club is like a rock group that has been around since the 1960s, some of those that created it are no longer present but the band are still performing. They are vital to the continued success of the scooter scene not just at grassroots level but nationally holding us all together. No one expects a club to run to strict rules and have regular subs collected as that can put some off. That’s fine if a club is run in that fashion and most of the time the funds raised go back to members by way of such things as a backup van for rallies. If that way of running a club is not for you then there are plenty around that are just there to bring local scooterists together.

Whichever type of scooter club someone wants to join then that’s entirely up to them, perhaps some not wanting the politics a big club sometimes entails. It doesn’t matter if you’re joining a club that has decades of history either. All clubs lose members over time and without new ones would eventually cease to exist. What matters is that they continue to keep the backbone of scootering strong. As time continues to march on we will see more and more anniversaries come and go.

Many clubs now celebrate by means of an event inviting everyone to join the party. Perhaps they are trying to put a message across to everyone – look how long we have been going or survived. Good on them if that’s the case, but I suspect it’s more of being proud of what they have actually achieved.

It would be impossible to calculate just how many scooter clubs have been created since the Lambretta and Vespa first hit the UK mainland over 70 years ago. Just like it would to see how many are still in existence. Whatever that amount is or even if a club has only been formed for a few years what’s most important is that they are still here. So to all those about to celebrate a certain milestone in their history this year or the next: happy anniversary.