A5 HISTORY PAGE

Home History Gallery Guestbook Links News n
A brief history of the Club, as I know it –

Being born and raised in Aldershot, scooters, mainly Lambretta’s, have always been around town.

The earliest vivid memory I have, was aged about 9 years old (1972) There was a Lambretta parked outside Aldershot Football Ground. It was black and chrome, all Modded up. As the ‘70’s progressed, most scooters in and around Aldershot, were by then, cut-down skelly’s. Yet they still attracted attention when they passed by.

As a youngster growing up, I became influenced by my friends older brothers and sisters. They were into Motown, Northern Soul, All-nighters, and of course Lambretta’s. In 1979, I had left school and got a job, then Quadrophenia came out. I already knew people from Aldershot, who were in the film.

By 1980, scoots were everywhere. In 1980, I bought a dog of a Vespa. A 150 Special, from Bournemouth, for Ł90, ended up with an SS 180 engine in it, with a Sportique headset.

The A5, only became familiar to me in ’78. Although they had been going a lot longer than that, but that story is for John Barnett to tell. By 1979/80 the A5 were on the Rallies, and already had a reputation for violence and taking on all comers. Then all too soon, they almost began to fade away.

In 1984, the (mainly) Farnham boys, along with some of us from Aldershot kickstarted the A5 back into life again. The ‘80’s A5 met every night at The Half Way House, pub in Heath End. (Thanks Colin & Edna, for putting up with us) The A5, was now back, going on all the rallies, all through the rest of the ‘80’s, and managed to dodge their old reputation. There’s too many names to mention everybody. But, if your reading this, you will remember the good times we had.

The very late 80’s early 90’s were very quiet. The start of the NSRA membership system, not knowing where a Rally was until the last minute etc. People drifted away, marriage, mortgage, children, the usual things. Yet there were still a few of us who clung on.

In about 1996, I heard that there were some scooterists/mods were meeting at a pub down the road, so I went along. Nigel Jones and Timmy Castles were there. After a few weeks, the Mods left, but we were still meeting every Sunday at the Shepherd & Flock in Farnham.

Within weeks, the number of scooterists and ‘old scooterboys’ increased, so we decided to form a club, starting from scratch with a new name. Not spring-boarding off previous reputations. So The Tribesman SC came into being.

The club grew from strength to strength, and had over 40 members. They were doing all the rallies, Euro-Rallies, Custom Shows, Euro-Custom Shows, parts fairs, you name it they were there (photos in Scootering prove this)

Then one Sunday at the meet, it was decided that due to all the ‘old school’ scooterists of the ‘80’s getting back into it, the A5 patch made an appearance on the club shirt. By the next rally, the Tribesman logo had completely disappeared, and the club became just A5.

Credit must be given to Nigel. He always organised us. The Do’s, rallies and events, were his handywork. Even though I organised some events, Nigel has been brilliant.

Over the past few years, we have been through some pubs, The Alfred, The Shepherd & Flock, The Twesledown, The Tumbledown, The Old Ford, and now we meet every Sunday THE CRIMEA ALDERSHOT.

Strangley enough, I have tried to be brief, as this has been difficult, as there is so much I could say about our exploits. Many of you know the Clubs history since the 90’s, so I would like to say Thanks to everyone over the last 25 years.

It has been Brilliant!!

Myk Smith