In the second part (read part one here) of the Noughties flashback, it would be wrong for me not to mention rallies like the Legendary Mersea Island: a rally that’s run continually since the mid 1990s.

Mersea has rarely had National Rally status, but most people that attend it would agree that as a stand alone rally, it is always extremely well supported. Many of its visitors prefer it to a regular National Rally. In much the same way, Camber Sands ran right through the decade, but only held National Rally status four times. It didn’t really alter the numbers of attendees or their enjoyment of the event.

In the 1980s, the tag line ‘National Scooter Rally’ meant everything to most Scooterists – it doesn’t carry quite the same importance for many riders though nowadays.

Scooterists enjoying day trip ride outs in the Noughties were well catered for too. In the North, Gingers extremely popular Egg Run ran every year through the whole decade (and beyond). And in the South, there was the Great London Ride out – two events creating a massive spectacle for onlookers and riders alike.

A few more of my memories of the years are…

2005

The launch of the Vespa GTS 250, and sadly the final Holiday in Holland rally. A vibe you can’t really sum up in just words. This year also saw the final end of season visit to Blackpool’s Cala Gran venue.

2006

A bitterly cold pre-season rally to Llandudno. It was the first ever official pre-season not to be held in England.

A bit of confusion caused a date swap during the summer – The Run to the Shires rally at Weston on Trent was delayed by 11 weeks to accommodate the Cleethorpes rally; coincidently 2006 was the only year in the decade that Cleethorpes wasn’t given National Rally status. This year also the final Shires rally visit to Weston on Trent.

Darkside Rally

By far and away the biggest thing for me in 2006 was the Darkside rally to Belgium. A very small low key event organised by some top old school scooterists that embraced modern automatic scooters, in a surreal little venue. The season ended with no official end of year run.

2007

Possibly the wettest UK summer on record. After an 11-year gap, a return National Rally to Margate was on. Scootering’s musical hero Buster Bloodvessel came out for an afternoon’s drinking with us all in his home town.

A new venue was found for the Run to the Shires rally at Catton Hall, although it was cancelled literally days before it was due to happen because of severe flooding, and was rescheduled for later on in the season.

A second visit to Belgium for the next Darkside rally was again my highlight of the year by some way. Cleethorpes and Exmouth had a date swap this summer with a new official campsite being used at Cleethorpes.

2008

For the first time in a very long time, there was no Pre-Season rally. Easter was particularly early that year and the Easter weekend journey home from Great Yarmouth was a cold and snow covered one for most. What few of us realised was, that this was to be the penultimate National Rally in Great Yarmouth and the last ever one on a Bank Holiday. A sad end to a legend of the 1980s and 1990s rally calendar.

This summer saw the launch of the Vespa GTS 300; the biggest and fastest model yet was its claim.

2009

A new venue for the Pre-season rally was Marton Mere holiday camp in Blackpool.

Weston-Super-Mare was back on as a National in this year (last used as a National in the late 80s). And the long running Run to the Shires rally returned to its original home at Buxton’s Bull i’th Thorne venue, and taking back its original title of ‘Run to the Hills’ rally.

An end of season rally to Morecambe with confusion over the custom show and night venue, hinted that yet another legendary rally town of the 1980s and 1990s may soon be off the list of large scale National Rally towns to visit.

Run to the Hills/Shires

2005 Shires – Weston on Trent
2006 Shires – Weston on Trent
2007 Shires – Catton Hall
2008 Shires – Catton Hall
2009 Hills – Bull i’th Thorne (Buxton)

Pre-season events

2005 Whitby
2006 Llandudno
2007 Morecambe
2008 N/A
2009 Blackpool (Marton Mere)

End of Season

2005 Blackpool (Cala Gran)
2006 N/A
2007 Southport
2008 Morecambe
2009 Morecambe

Euro Vespa/Vespa World Days

2005 Austria, Worthersee
2006 Ity, Turin
2007 Italy, San Marino
2008 Sicily, Cefalu
2009 Austria, Zell am See

Euro Lambretta

2005 Austria, Leutschach
2006 France, Issoire
2007 Germany, Neckarsulm
20 Sweden, Hasslo
2009 England, Lincoln

LCGB Best Supporting Member Club Championship

Modrapheniacs S.C – best supporting LCGB club (5 years in a row) 2005-2009
Modrapheniacs and Darlington S.C. dominate the decade 00–09 of B.S.M club championships.

The lat great Jonnie Bolland manning the Isle of Wight gate

Noughties factoids

The Noughties decade hosted 89 National Rallies at 22 different venues

Bridlington, Woolacombe and the Isle of Wight were the only three venues used as Nationals every year in the Noughties

But if we add in the regular visits we had to Cleethorpes and Kelso it would mean that just those five venues alone, would make up over 50% of all Nationals in the decade

This statistic would remain the same right through the 2010s decade too

The 2002 Scottish National rally to Hawick, was and is, the only National Rally ever not to have a commemorative rally patch printed for it

Ride safely and reminisce fondly SLUKers

Words and photos: Col

Flick through Col’s Rallery above for loads more photos…