Riders gear up for a seaside shindig
Graham Craddy, organiser Mark Beveridge and Mick Corr
HUNDREDS of scooter enthusiasts will be revving up in Hartlepool this weekend for a popular annual event.
Upto 500 riders are expected to attend the hugely popular event at the Staincliffe Hotel, in Seaton Carew, tomorrow.
Enthusiasts are expected to travel to the event from as far afield as London, Cornwall, Yorkshire and the Midlands, while a large contingent is also expected from north of the border from the Glasgow Ghosts Scooter Club.
The event, dubbed Partying with the Pixies 2013, has been organised by the A19 Scooter Club, which has its base at the Spotted Cow pub in Elwick Village and boasts a full-time membership of 20 scooterists, as well as having links with associate clubs including the Hartlepool Scooter Club.
Headlining the event on Saturday night will be popular North-East band, Heavy Mod, which went down a storm at last year’s Hartlepool Beer Festival and will play a set of their trademark cover versions of music popular with the scooter set.
A line-up of top DJs will play everything from Mod classics to Ska and northern soul in two rooms at the Staincliffe.
Organiser Mark Beveridge told the Mail that success in previous years has prompted the club to extend this year’s event into more of a scooter rally with the introduction of a custom scooter show and concourse, where scooterists can show off their machines and have them judged, as well as a parts fair to help riders keep their vintage Vespas and Lambrettas on the road.
Mark, a 48-year old self-employed courier from Sedgefield, is married to fellow scooter fan, Mandy and has two grown up daughters who are also into the scene.
He told the Mail: “Seaton Carew is now seen by many scooterists as the start of the scooter rally season, even though it’s usually pretty cold in February and not everyone who attends arrives on a scooter.
“But over the years people have been arriving earlier and earlier, with some people coming on the Friday night, so we thought we’d give them something to do during the day on the Saturday before the main evening session and a scooter concourse and parts fair are always popular at rallies.”
Scooterists will pay £1 for the daytime session, which gets underway at 11am and will include entry to the custom scooter show and parts fair, as well as the chance for an early music session with some of the events DJs on-hand to add to the atmosphere.
The evening session, which is priced at £5, payable on the door, gets underway at 7pm and is billed to go on until “very late”.
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Weather for Hartlepool
Sunday 19 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 9 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 9 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North
