Before legends were made…

We all know the story once someone has become established on the scooter scene, but before that...?

Heroes come in many guises, and we often don’t know the significance of people we’re lucky enough to be involved with when we’re young, impressionable but not easily overawed. The main dealers in our area were all motorbike salesmen or, in one case, a pushbike salesman, who had expanded into scooters to take advantage of ‘the current craze’. They didn’t really understand what they were selling or how the machines worked. Luckily, those of my little group that rode Vespas got to know a Scotsman who sold Vespa parts out of his garage in Long Eaton. He really knew his stuff, any problem you could explain or any part you could describe and he knew exactly what you meant. He kept us entertained with stories about the evolution of the Vespa scooter, the different marques and the differences between those marques. So much so, that if anyone had arranged to ride over to his house to collect some part or other, there would be a mini-procession because there were always others who would join the ride over just to hear his tales. I don’t remember what his prices were like but I do remember he didn’t just deal in money, he had a good barter system running. He’d swap parts with Eddie, who worked in an abattoir, for joints of meat and with Spud, whose mum worked at Palitoy, for Action Man figures and other toys for his children… and his name was Norrie Kerr.

The Lambretta riders, meanwhile, were getting to know a Lambretta racer known as Dave Webster. They would bring us tales of this man’s adventures on the racetrack and his ambitions of achieving 100mph on a 125cc scooter. Of course we laughed… but not for long. The Lambretta riders learnt that Dave was racing at Mallory Park so we decided to have a day out and a group of us set off to watch. Norrie was probably racing that day too, but when Norrie talked about racing… he did so in such an unassuming way that we thought he wasn’t really interested in it; just goes to show how ignorant we were! This must have been about the time he was winning the British Scooter Championship! When we got to Mallory Park we realised that not only did we not know which race Dave was racing in, but we didn’t know his race colours either. Any sport is improved if you have someone to cheer for but, undeterred, we settled in to watch the day’s racing.

The first race started and three dozen or so scooters roared off at walking pace in a blue cloud of two-stroke oil. At the first corner they all kept their throttles fully open, not one of them slowed down; they didn’t need to, they weren’t going fast enough! About half of the scooters managed to complete the first lap and just a handful finished the race. The later laps were like an obstacle race as the scooters that were still racing weaved in and out of those that had not made it. The rest of the day’s racing became background to us as we enjoyed our ride-out to a grassy bank in sunny Leicestershire. We never went to a scooter race again; perhaps we should have? On reflection, I think our expectations were too high. We lived within hearing distance of Donington Park and we all knew how to get in for free, so were used to watching world-class motorbike racing. My favourite was the sidecar combination, a madman throwing himself about on a tea-tray on casters, held on to a low-level superbike by a bit of fairing.

We always knew Norrie had ambitions to open his own shop but when we heard that Dave was going into partnership with him we were really pleased. The shop could become a unifying destination for the two different marques in our group and we could ride over any time and spend time with our new friends. We went to the shop, Midland Scooter Centre (MSC), then based in Long Eaton, quite a few times when it first opened. It was always full of Scooterboys from around the area… but we’d now lost ‘our’ Norrie and Dave, as they had to spread themselves around other Scooterboys who, like us, really enjoyed their company. In hindsight it was obvious that we couldn’t have been the only boys to discover these two giants among the scooter scene.

The rest, as they say, is history. MSC went from strength to strength. Norrie left to start VE UK and Dave was taken from us all too soon with prostate cancer. To this day, VE is still the epicentre of all things Vespa, running from Masons Place Business Park in Derby, and MSC still goes strong with a shop just off the M1 at Stapleford and a new showroom in the centre of Nottingham. It is worth popping in if you’re passing; the staff maintain the friendliness and expertise of the initial venture, will help with anything they can and they carry a great stock of parts.

I don’t remember what his prices were like but I do remember he didn’t just deal in money, he had a good barter system running. He’d swap parts with Eddie, who worked in an abattoir, for joints of meat and with Spud, whose mum worked at Palitoy, for Action Man figures and other toys for his children…