Region 17 history

Gypsy

Gypsy

Registered User
For many years region 17 was tied either with Sussex ,Essex and East London.
17 Was also the region number for East London until becoming vacant around 1989.Also vacant at that time was region 18 which was South Downs soon to become Sussex Coasters.As an aside East london were not amused at region 17 taking there number when vacant so became region 69 around 1990.
Around late 1989 region 17 as we know it appears on the Club map with Fly Preece as Rep,meeting at the Hook and Hatchet ,at Hucking ,and The Frog and Bucket Ide Hill nr Sevenoaks.
1990 -91 saw Tony James appear as Rep and Kev Cripps as asst rep.
Meetings were King William the 1V union street Canterbury and Frog and Bucket.
A camping weekend was held at The Share and Coulter pub near Greenhill 8th and 9th August 1992,all usual activities were on offer and the price then was ?5,members /?6 non members.
Another held the following year.
Tony and Laura remained Rep until 93-94 when they had an accident ,from then on Bear,with Bob as his assistant took over and organised the 1st Indoor Harley show and Rally at the Crest nightclub and Little grove holiday camp Isle of Sheppey. Ago's Harley shop of Cornwall sponsored the show along with the Crest nightclub. 1995 when the region had the indoor show...
Mr Paul parslow presented the prizes,,,
Guess the cake weight ,,Del boy
3 County borders best attendance ,,
Best Flat head (71 Servicar) Amanda King,,
Lightweight,,,350 Tracey Lee,,,
Sporster xr1000,,,,Split pin,,,
Best Big twin,,Panhead,,,Harpic,,,
Best in show Shovel ...Bootsy..... In this year the region raised ?2,277 for the Trauma Unit at Kent and Canterbury hospital,where Tony and Laura had been treated.
Bear remained Rep up until 2000 ,during which time the region held several other Rallies and bike shows on the Isle of Sheppey. Sadly Bear died in February 2002 a great loss to all that knew him and the Club.
Tony and Amanda King were now reps 2000-2004 and also had a rally in 2003 ,also Tony got the region involved with the bike shows at Chatham Dockyard.The south east motorcycle shows at Detling and a few camping weekends.
Big Al became rep in Sept 2003 and along with Rallies on the Isle of Sheppey at the Rugby Club,and Football Club as well as the South east motorcyle show at Detling plus the Steam fair. Big Al was involved with supporting the Wind and Fire shows at Grizzly's Folkestone,the first being 2005 . Also the Christmas parties are still held at Layzells every December. At this time Chris Long and Vince James,Pete Stupple were assistant reps. 2009-2010 saw Sue Manning as Rep and Chris Long and myself as assistants. Then 2010-2013 Kev Bolden was Rep and Little Bill and myself as assistant reps. The region held another Rally at Ashford Rugby Club. That about brings everything up to date, the region has been very active over the years and lots of riders have attended many Super Rally's across europe and also supported the various regional rally's . Many assorted rideouts and trips get organised and even Garage Party's to help each other with bike repair build jobs. Hope this has been helpful to you. Sorry if anything has been missed out .
Feel free to add any memories you have .Cheers Gypsy
There is a thread on Club history running in the beer tent as well.:wink:
 
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Re: Region 17 history

Thanks for posting this Gypsy, really appreciate all the work you're putting into gathering information regarding the history of the Club. :)
xx
 
Re: Region 17 history

Updated the History section at the top of this thread..
 
Re: Region 17 history

My first 'involvement, with the club must have been in early 98, at that time,although not yet a member,I went along with some other potential members to the at that time 17 meet at the Duke of Kent (I think) at the end of the Thanet Way nr Faversham.after joining, other meets over the years were, The Chequers at Stone Street (twice over the years if I remember correctly) also the Wagon & Horses Charing (also twice) as well as the Bell St Nicholas, the Plough Swaleciffe, the area after spitting into 3 areas also met at the 3 Squirrels Detling, the Sun (somewhere nr Detling...or was it Bobbing..I'm getting old,sorry) also the long standing meet at the Pied Bull. There have also been informal meets at The Dancin' Dog Iwade and the Sun St Nicks.

Edit...actually my very 1st meeting with R17 was at a Detling show,where at that time I was a member of AMOC, HDRCGB R17 had a stand near ours, and Tony and Manda King were there with the Servi, also pipe smoking Bill,with a Blue Electraglide (I think) can't really remember if Sportster Ron was there,it's a long time ago. In my opinion, Region 17s recent success stems from when Big Al took over as Rep, I feel it was down to him that we had the success that came after. :)
 
Re: Region 17 history

The three squirrels pub gradually became what i can only call interesting ,especially the AGM we had there dimly lit and a sticky stage with the odd stripper wandering about. A bliddy great thunderstorm finished the night off .The Sun inn was at Bredgar Chris certainly been a few different pubs used over the years...:wink:

Updated top page .:wink:
 
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Re: Region 17 history

A trophy presented to Chris (Sooty ) a member from the 80;s and early 90;s
at the Sheppy rally and custom show 1992 at Longleat, and he kindly lent me a copy of the 1992 calendar .
This can be viewed in the history section of the beer tent

Sooty's Trophy.2jpg.jpg
 
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Re: Region 17 history

Small information update about the 1995 bike show at Crest Nightclub added to top page,..:wink:
 
Re: Region 17 history

Shame there is nothing in the events calendar since 2011. Unless I am missing something. No disrespect to you gypsy. Maybe just not completed or deleted after the event
 
Re: Region 17 history

This is the history of the Region 17 section Brigg ,the Calendar has not been put up since 2011 .Will have a look at it in 2014 and at least put the basics in...
 
Re: Region 17 history

There are now Video clips in Video section of the website ,Region 17 Rally and indoor bike show 1995.....:wink:
 
Re: Region 17 history

Hi Gypsy

I have found some more memorabilia from the early 90's

Have tried to message you, but not sure it succeeded!

Let me know if you would like photos, or I can bring it to a meet?

Cheers

Sooty
 
Re: Region 17 history

Just as a side note back in 96 some of the region .rob short,bob pal, Jez, Tony James,lorrie,myself along with Paul Parslow London and others did a crazy camping weekend at the lakes. Abbsailing, climbing,kayaking doing the Viking paddle run around kayaks in the middle of a freezing lake. Playing team hide and seek, as a lot of ex forces among us it turned into a full on who's the better solider ect which our team won when Tony pulled out a night scope. general madness was had by all. I was blamed for blowing up the camp site as a parting reminder on a good weekend:D
 
Re: Region 17 history

Oh yeah....I remember that, Steve Kickstart and I christened you "the Claymore Kid" for a while (or at least until our hearing came back).
 
Re: Region 17 history

I was at a few do's in the early days I went to the Littlecote Rally Ribbo
 
Re: Region 17 history

Littlecote was a nice site, think the last one was 2002 ? Expensive site from what I can remember as we had to bring in everything
 
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