Dover Saints History Pt2

By Mau Spencer

THE DOVER SAINTS
I think it was 1968 when a group of us decided that the Dover Saints should be reformed. I can vaguely remember Bill Adey pointing me in the direction of Roger’s mum’s house in Church Road, so that I could pick up all the club’s bits and pieces (as I recall, after Roger moved on, the club slowly sank in the history books). The stuff he gave me included a few stickers and the last couple of original legshield banners. One I bought myself and the other was sent of to the silk screen printer for a reprint, never to be seen again (maybe this was Roger’s original banner that has caused him and I so much banter over the years – we’ll never know).
At that period in time, the place we all used to meet was the YMCA in Leyburne Road. It was here that the first meeting to reform The Dover Saints was held. I ended up as Club Secretary and Pete Commons was appointed Club Chairman. I also remember that Ian Best was also on the committee, but (my memory lets me down here) I can’t remember who else. I don’t know what happened to Ian, but he would be a good source of information if anyone knows his whereabouts (and please let me know as well!). The club consisted of virtually all Lambrettas with perhaps only three or four Vespas at the most. Most of the Lammies were older Series 2 or Series 1 models and the lads used to try and disguise what they were by removing all the panels, mudguards, etc. A popular front mudguard replacement was the chrome strip type.

MEETINGS
Although committee meetings continued to be held at the YMCA, the actual club meetings were held at Temple Ewell Village Hall – very convenient when you live in the village! There was no parking outside the hall itself, so I spoke to the ‘very nice’ landlord at the George & Dragon Pub who allowed scooterists to use his car park (and of course we then used his pub instead of the other two pubs in the village (The Fox and The Donkey). We had full use of the hall and all its’ facilities. This included the downstairs section which housed the village’s Working Men’s Club and all the facilities not normally available to everyone who hired the hall. We could play darts, table tennis, plus many other activities – including a ‘super-duper’ full size snooker table.
The hall was to remain the club meeting place for as long as my involvement with the club continued and we had many good times there – not only with club meetings, but with the odd event of our own chucked in for good measure. My cousin Roy worked on the Dover Express at that time and we managed to get a reporter out to Temple Ewell to give The Saints a bit of coverage in the press. This worked well and even more scooterists joined us to swell the club even bigger.

ACTIVITIES
The Saints during the 60s met most nights of the week in the Market Square, albeit unofficially and you could reckon that there would be around 30 scooters minimum every night of the week. During the 60s two-way traffic flowed through the area from the seafront and way up the main street. One of the ways we used to amuse ourselves was to see who could ride up to the seafront monument and back to the square in the quickest time possible – and if you didn’t deck your silencer around the Market Square roundabout on the way back, then you were disqualified!