The Hampshire Union
Geoff Stephens passed away in July 2018. He was a kind, generous, multi-talented man who was a great track competitor with a wealth of knowledge in tuning two-stroke engines. He was very open-handed with his expertise and knowledge, helping to write the history of the Wildcat/Rafferty Newman, as featured in previous issues of Classic Scooterist. The following article was compiled with his co-operation prior to his passing.
Hampshire Union Scooter Club was formed in the mid-60s by a group of South Hampshire scooterists – one of whom was to become my future brother-inlaw, David Bowen.
Starting off as a breakaway club from the Companions Portsmouth SC as the Portsmouth Rebels (yes, scooter clubs failed to co-exist amicably in those days, just like modern times!) they later changed their name to become the Hampshire Union Scooter Club with members mostly native to the Fareham area.
GEOFF'S BACKGROUND
I became involved with the Hampshire Union through David, who was racing Wildcat scooters supplied by Rafferty Newman. I started going to race meetings (high speed regularity trials as they were known back in 1968) just to help out. Other prominent members early on were Pete Hockley, Brian Birchett and Tim Manhire. The ladies of Hampshire Union included Pete's wife Val and Brian's wife Sue.
The Hampshire Union SC will be forever associated with the race track exploits of the Rafferty Newman Wildcat racing team, as this local club became the recruiting ground for their works riders. The club was supported by Les and June Rafferty and Ian Newman. Les Rafferty was the Wildcat engineer and he and two of the Rafferty Newman mechanics (Dudley and Raggy) were competitors at the race meetings.
Les had started tuning with the Ariel Arrow two-stroke twin motorcycle and, after ‘Raff's' became a Lambretta dealership, it was an obvious logical progression to tune the Lambretta two-stroke engines. These tuned Lambrettas were to be supplied, free of charge, exclusively to the local Hampshire Union SC for them to race on the track and thus, to act as an advertising medium for Rafferty Newman. This led the Hampshire Union SC to challenge the pre-eminence of the premier scooter sporting club of that time – the Bromley Innocents SC – on the racing circuit.
RACING DAYS
The Hampshire Union club riders later gained a new recruit in the shape of myself, Geoff Stephens, after I proved my prowess racing my own private entrant Wildcat Vega in 1969 at Lydden. Les and I became great friends, regularly sharing after-hours engine tuning activities in Raff's workshop.
I started to race for Hampshire Union at the last meeting of 1969 at Lydden Hill in Kent. Pete Hockley, who was a very fast rider, ended up being the joint scooter racing champion of that year along with George Pierce of Bromley Innocents. The Bromley Innocents were considered to be the top club at the time, so this was a great achievement by all involved at the Hampshire Union.
Pete Hockley, who was also a Rafferty Newman mechanic, built the first racing scooter kneeler sidecar outfit during these early days of the Hampshire Union and did very well with Dudley as his partner.
The club expanded in the late 60s/early 70s and some notable names include John Barlow, Pete Hinsley, Alan Crickmore, Tony Wilcox and Dave Tooley, who all became sidecar champions.
HAMPSHIRE UNION AWARDS AND THE LOSS OF LES RAFFERTY
It's hard to say which year was the most successful for the Raff's/Hampshire Union partnership; however, in 1977, both the 1976-1977 LCGB Champion Club and the BSRRC Champion Club trophies were won by the club. The BSRRC trophy was subsequently presented by the members of the Hampshire Union to Les Rafferty as an acknowledgement of his efforts on their behalf. As events were to unfold, this was to be a very poignant memento indeed.
Membership ebbed and flowed over the years and we saw Graham Oliver become Group 5 Specials Champion, Dave Hayward the Group 6 Specials Champion and Hampshire Union become the National Scooter Racing Club Champions in the late 70s. Members at this time also included Graham Richmond, Chris Harley, Steve Collett, Richard Arm and Kenny Stratton.
I became Group 3 Champion in 1977, but sadly my friend Les Rafferty died of a heart attack that year aged 48 and did not live to see me lift the trophy, having used the engine so expertly tuned by him.
MORE CLUB EXPLOITS
Hampshire Union continued to race on into the 80s and 90s and team member Steve Ives won the Group 3 and Overall British Championship.