Adding more to the Guiver story

I have read with interest your two letters regarding WF Guiver in Sutton and I can add the following. I was a customer there in the

1960s and the man in the brown coat that Ian Thoburn mentioned in his letter in OBM438 was Vern Havers. He was a grasstrack rider and had a Tiger Cub, C15 and

B40 racers. My reason for being a customer was my first Tiger Cub, a 1957. When I bought it, it had a square barrel and oval head. In Guiver’s shop there was a glassfronted display cabinet with a brand new square cylinder head for £3 17s 6d which was more than half a week’s wages at that time (I have seen second-hand heads go for £600 now). I did somehow manage to buy it.

I became a regular customer and went to grasstrack meetings with Vern in his hand-painted black and yellow 300E van – why those colours I never knew. At the back and underneath Guiver’s shop was a workshop which was almost like a dungeon and that was where Frank worked. He rarely appeared in the shop. Guiver’s did not offer MoTs and if one was needed Frank had to ride the customer’s bike to Pearsons cycle shop in Sutton High Street for the test. Eventually he left Guiver’s and went to work at Pearsons which was a Mobylette agent.

Maybe this will stir some more memories,