we spoke to...
1 1. Geoffrey Bottoni (a.k.a. ‘Jo Kerr’ – Joker) J and Olivier Courtois C (a.k.a. ‘Babos’ – which l oosely translated means m ‘Hippy’). Geoffrey G and Olivier had h ridden in from t he French town of MontbeliardM near the German/Swiss border. The fellas set off on the Thursday and had taken a leisurely approach to the 1030-mile round trip using Olivier’s laminated route map! At the event, Geoffrey won the award for furthest travelled male as he’d taken a slightly longer journey when he set off to meet Olivier at their rendezvous start point.
2. Darrell McPhee from Yalding. Darrell had made the short ride in on his beautifully restored 1959 Lambretta Li150 Series 1. Darrell explained that he’d had the nearside side panel signed by Phil Daniels when Phil was over in Brighton in October 2018 developing material for a forthcoming documentary about the 40th anniversary of Quadrophenia.
3. The Darkside collective. Amongst the group was Matt Down, a Drum and Bass DJ with ‘The Darkside’. Along with Matt was Justin Searle (black t-shirt). Justin pointed out that there was another member of the group also called Justin Searle (white GTS). Justin Searle (black t-shirt) explained that he had the bragging rights to being ‘THE’ Justin Searle of the group because he was three days older than (white GTS) Justin Searle!!! Nick Murray, a.k.a. ‘Wookie’, was in the group. Nick had recently completed the Vespa World Days ride to Hungary and the Euro Lambretta ride to Poland, a total journey of around 3000 miles! Marie Doherty, a.k.a. ‘Chinese Marie’, was also enjoying the atmosphere and contributing to the banter!
4. Michael McLean, Ralph Norcado, Paul Edmondson and Peter Arnould of Englands Own S.C., Essex. The fellas were all wearing their scooter club t-shirts and laughed at the question about the grammatical correctness of the apostrophe on the t-shirt. “The badge was designed by the original members in 1984 and the name is an allencompassing description of the club. However, we’re not sure if the original members who designed the badge and founded the club got the apostrophe right. Thirty-seven years later it’s still in debate, but we’ll come to a decision soon!”
5. Alison Richards (a.k.a. ‘Shirt-Steps’) from Lost and Found S.C., Pontypridd, Karl Hillberg of Distant Echos S.C., Barry Island and the rest of the team. Alison explained that Lost and Found S.C. is a non-scooter club, meaning that it doesn’t do scooter politics. “Anyone can join us. We don’t engage in all that scooter club political nonsense, we just love scootering!” Karl added: “We’re the same. There’s only one rule in our club and that rule is that there are no rules!”