Dover Saints Scooter Club

Dover Saints History Pt2

By Mau Spencer

THE SAINTS

MOD OR ROCKER?

My memory is even worse than Roger’s, but I’ll try my best to provide a little more history. My brain cells seem to remember taking up the reins as secretary in late 1968, but I’ll come onto that in a minute. During the 60s, I lived in Temple Ewell and used to hang around with the local youths. Our main meeting place was Kearsney Abbey. I first got the taste of riding a scooter from Ian Worzell (who used to live a couple of doors away from me in Church Hill). He had a red/white Li 150 Series 3 and I owned a BSA 250cc motorbike at that time (yes, I was originally a Rocker)! We were friends in those days (much like Phil Daniels and Ray Winstone in the film Quadrophenia) and I was always jealous that the girls always gave him and his Li much more attention than my old BSA. The final nail in the motorbike coffin was arriving at places during wet weather being soaked to the skin or covered in engine grime, whilst Ian was protected by his Parka and scooter legshields – the bike had to go!
Anyway, this situation resulted in my first encounter with Bill Adey and Dover Motorcycles. It ended up with me purchasing a gold and white TV 200 with a slightly unusual number plate (2986D – it would be worth a fortune if I had it now). Because the number plate ended with a ‘D’, it often used to get mistaken for a 1966 scooter, whereas it was, in fact, a 1964 model – but I wasn’t going to correct anyone who got the year wrong!
Anyway, I was now a scooter owner. I still to used frequent Kearsney Abbey with my mates and on one summer’s night we were chatting in the car park, when we heard the sound of a number of two-stroke engines. Within seconds, around 30 scooters roared into Kearsney Abbey and swamped us. I ended up chatting to Richard (Dicky) Dight who had a Series 1 skelly. Before long, this band of scooterists decided to head off somewhere else and I was invited to join them. This was to be my first experience of the Dover scooterists and we headed off to the cliffs behind Dover Castle overlooking the harbour, where we met up with at least the same number of scooterists again. I remember that a game of football ensued – before someone managed to kick the ball over the cliff’s edge.
My memory indicates that this was during the summer of love (1967). I was hooked with the thought of riding with these guys at that time and spent less and less time with the local village lads. I had moved on and spent most of my spare days and nights meeting up with them, either in the Market Square, or at the YMCA. I found a wide range of new friends – some of whom still ride with the current Dover Saints today. Malc Anderson (or ‘Alcy Malcy’ as we used to call him) used to be the source of constant hilarity (not intentional on his behalf, I must admit). I lost count of the number of times we extracted him from hedges and fields. One particular Saturday still sticks out in my memory. We were all coming back from a disco at St Magrs and riding along the cliff top coast road. It was about 11pm at night and all of a sudden, Malc came by like a rocket on his Silver Special and disappeared into the distance. As we came around the sharp bends behind Dover Castle, there was his scooter, embedded in the crash barrier – but no sign of Malc. A search ensued and we eventually found him lying in a field with a flock of sheep watching over him. I think the amount of alcohol in his body made his torso so relaxed and rubbery that he didn’t hurt himself.
Lots of other local scooterists stick out in my mind, Ted Townley, Pete Hoffman (Christian’s dad) Ian Best, Tony Hillen, Adey Cook (a real toughie who enjoyed kicking seven bales out of anyone who wanted to take him on), Pete Commons, Alan Thomson and Mick Wathen. There were so many of us, that I can’t remember everyone’s names, but we mustn’t forget Phil Brown though. Our first meeting came when I met up with Alan and Mick in Aycliffe one evening and was asked if I’d mind giving him a lift (it was his pre-scooter days then). From that meeting we formed a lasting friendship.