NICKNAMES PART two

NICKNAMES PART 2

CHAPTER 63

( Photo 1 ) . This is a group photo of our week long trip around Wales in 1980, which we called jokingly ( THE WORLD TOUR OF WALES), this photo was taken in Trentam Gardens which oddly enough is in England, from the left is myself ( Phil Frog ), Brian, Wobble, Gaenor, Judith and FFenella, Trem took the photo.

RHINO.

No photo available

Rhino was a biker from Bristol and a regular rally goer.

I have no idea how he obtained his nickname, he was friends with Joss and Simon Batey.

CHERRY.

Cheryl Jones

( Photo 2 ) . Cherry at one of the beach BBQ`s party's we held at Nash Point.

Cherry’s birth name was Cheryl so her nickname is easy to explain, Cherry was a sister to Wobble and P.J.

Sadly Cherry is with us no longer, and passed away in 2016.

WENDY. (Wendy, the rocks are falling).

No photo available

Wendy’s nickname came about on a warm summers evening, some of us where down at Southerndown beach, just chilling sitting beneath the tall sea cliffs.

The cliff faces at Southerndown are known to be very unstable and large sections of the cliff regularly fall onto the beach and into the sea.

While we were sitting there under the cliff enjoying the our chill time, suddenly without warning large pieces of the cliff face began to break away from the cliff face.

The rocks of all sizes started to fall like rain, everyone immediately ran towards the safety of the sea some 100 meters away, luckily the tide was on its way out this evening or we would have been swimming fully clothed out to sea, we left all our gear behind, there was no time to grab anything.

We all got clear of the falling rocks and boulders, well except for Wendy that is.

Wendy just stood there, with her back to the cliff watching us all run away towards the shore, she was heard saying above the sound of the crashing dirt and boulders “ THE ROCKS ARE FALLING”.

She just stood there, not moving from the same place from the beginning of the rock fall to when the very last rock rolled to a stop, somehow all the heavy rocks missed her, and she just had dirt in her hair, once the dust had settled and the rocks stopped falling, we rushed back to grabbed what gear we could salvage and dragged Wendy away from the cliff.

And that is how Wendy attained her nickname.

ELVER

no photo available

Elver got his nickname from the very first Elver rally in the late 1970`s.

He managed to be the winner of the Elver ell eating contest, which is held at every Elver rally.

He was successful in eating the most Elver ells to win the first prize, and from that day on he was referred to as Elver.

( there is a note referring to Elver in the blog Chapter 62 ( THE ELVER RALLYS ))

(Elvers, often fried, were formerly a cheap dish in the United Kingdom. During the 1990s, their numbers collapsed across Europe.

They are now a delicacy, the UK's most expensive species, An Elver is a young eel, which swims upriver from the sea to it’s long term home).

LAWSON.

Steve Lawson

( Photo 3 ) . Lawson with his finger up his nose again.

Lawson is Steve’s surname, no-one called him Steve, there were to many Steve’s in our circle of friends to be called by his first name, if you did call out the name Steve, half a dozen people would turn around, confusing for everyone.

Lawson had a terrible habit of sticking his finger up his nose every time someone took a photo.

Lawson rode a black Honda CB 650.

DIVY (DAVEY) THE WILFMAN

David ??????

No Photo available

Divy was a Aberavon biker, he was last seen at the Knights arms in Porthcawl in the late 1970`s.

Divy once miss-said the word Wolf-man and said Wilfman instead, this slip of the tongue gave Divy his nickname.

VIC BURNS

Vic ?????

No Photo available

Vic was another Aberavont biker and a friend of Divy, he too was last seen at the Knights arms in Porthcawl in the late 70`s.

The vic burns was a kind of a joke, people would say vic burns, if you put it on your balls, this was a very funny thing to say if you were drunk or high, it always got a smile or a laugh.

Vicks-Rub (VapoRub) is a Rub Relief Eucalyptus Ointment Balm Gel that is used for Congestion Cough and Colds.

SHADES

Rob Cross

( Photo 4 ) . Shades on the right wearing his shades in the night-time, and myself from the look of it sitting on a barbed wire fence at a rally somewhere in England.

Shades obtained his nickname, by constantly wearing dark shaded glasses, which he never took off even in the night-time, in or outdoors, and when he was riding, he was never without them.

Shades rode a white plastic toy called a Honda VFR 750 , a very fast plastic toy.

P.J.

Peter Jones

( Photo 5 ) . PJ, smiling at one of the beach party's at Nash Point, the photo was taken off the cine film, ( I can actually remember what Pj was saying to me when this photo was taken), he said "Frog, your going to fall over the bike if you get any closer", strange thing to remember from 40 odd yours ago.

P.J. is short for his full birth name Peter Jones, I have never known anyone to call him anything else, even his family called him PJ, including his mother.

PJ rode a Honda CB 550.

FENELLA THE WITCH

Chris ????????

( Photo 6 ) . Fenella on the left of the photo and Judith on the right, somewhere in North Wales, possibly near Criccieth or Balla lake.

Her real name was Chris, I am not 100% sure where the nickname came from, maybe because the way she dressed, she resembled a Welsh witch with her dark wild hair.

I can remember one event involving Fenella, at the Vine rally in the early 80`s, we were at the Village hall, the rally disco was being held there instead of the beer tent.

The club running the rally had one of the party games just for the girls ready to start, games/competitions like these were always held at all the rally’s we attended.

It was time for the girls Wet T-Shirt contest, which was always welcomed with great enthusiasm.

Fenella volunteered with some of the other girls to go up on stage for the competition, all of us that knew Fenella started shouting (BURN THE WITCH) and strangely everyone in the building joined in with the chant of (BURN THE WITCH, BURN THE WITCH), there were more than 200 bikers shouting with one voice, the chant vibrated around village.

Everyone in the hall started to point at Fenella, while the chant continued, she was a good sport, and took it all in her stride and treated it as a joke, and joined in by casting pretended spells at the crowded hall.

BUCKET

GARETH THOMAS

No photo available

Bucket obtained his name in 1966, while he was at school, I know this for a fact because Charles Lewis was a good friend of bucket’s, and was in the same class as him in school when the situation of Bucket achieving his lifelong nickname.

The lesson they were both attending was a history lesson, and the subject was Thomas Becket.

Thomas Becket was the archbishop of Canterbury from 1162-1170, he was murdered in 1170 by the knights of Henry the second of England.

As the surname Becket is a rare name in Wales, the children in the class made a joke of the surname by changing it from Becket to Bucket.

And Gareth Thomas having the surname of Thomas somehow in the mindset of the class of children connected it with Gareth’s last name of Thomas and that in a strange way is how he was called Bucket from that time on.

I have mentioned Bucket in a previous Blog Chapter 16, called "Hare Krishna", it is an account about the time Bucket jumped on to the Hare Krishna monks touring bus outside the Knights Arms in Porthcawl, and disappeared with them on the bus for a few days.

Sadly Bucket is no longer with us, but like I have said before, none of our friends will be forgotten until the last person says their name for the last time.

BEAKY

KEITH DAVID

No photo available

Beaky was from Tondu, a small village a few miles north of Bridgend town.

Beaky had very long hair, and was a regular biker down at the Knights arms in the early to mid 70s.

He picked up the nickname Beaky because he sported a large hooked nose, this nickname was always used as a friendly description, and not used as an insult.

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( Photo 7 ) . Some of the LAZY RIDERS MC mentioned below.

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BUBBLE

JOHN WEBB

( Photo 8 ) . Bubble.

Bubble, was a large person, possibly carrying to much weight for his BMI rating, back in the day we would call him fat, but calling him Bubble was a nice way of putting it, his ride was a Suzuki GS1000.

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YETI

ANDREW RICHARDS

( Photo 9 ) . Yates at some kind of motorcycle training event at Brigend trading estate.

Not sure how Yeti obtained his nickname, but everyone called him by this nickname.

Yeti was known at times to wear a jacket and trousers made up exclusively of old cloth beer mats, the type you find on the top of bars to catch the spilled beer.

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BRUNO

SHAUN BRUNO

( Photo 10 ) . Bruno, possibly at the Randy Rabbit Rally somewhere in England.

As it is obvious to see, his nickname Bruno is his actual surname.

He rode a Suzuki GS1000.

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WING-NUT

KEN SOMETHING or OTHER

( Photo 11 ) . Wing-nut at the front of the Tug of War.

Wing-nut was an English biker, in the late 70`s he was serving in the R.A.F., he was transferred to St Athens air force base in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wing-nut frequented the Knight's arms in Porthcawl.

His nickname came from the size of his sticky out ears.

He rode a blue Suzuki GS 1000.

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SHEZ

SHERIDAN COUTER

( Photo 12 ) .

The nickname is a corruption of his Christian name, he rode a Kawasaki Z 1000R.

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BRIMBLE

SHAUN BRIMBLE

PHOTO

( Photo 13 ) . Brimble in the middle of one of the many games held at the rally's, in this case the ever popular Tug of War game.

Brimble is just Shaun's surname, he rode a Suzuki GS 550, and he later upgraded to Suzuki GS 1000.

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WOODY

###### WOODWARD

( Photo 14 ) . Woody attempting the ramp game at a rally, the bikes used for this type of game were usually donated by the club hosting the rally, normally an old bike that sit at the back of the garage and not used anymore, of course these bikes are worth a small fortune nowa days.

Woody is a corruption of his surname Woodward, he rode a Suzuki GS 850.

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PAUL MERCHANT

LURCH

( Photo 15 ) . Lurch at a bike rally somewhere in England mid-80`s.

Lurch was a big man and had the nickname that originally came from the american sitcom called (THE ADDAMS FAMILY) because of his size relating to the giant butler in the TV series.

I have been told that he never took his bike driving test, but all the same he still rode a Honda CB 750.

The last time I saw Lurch was when myself and Wobble were trying to get into a night club called Shimmers on Market street, Bridgend, late 80`s or early 90`s.

Lucky for us Lurch was one of the bouncers on the door or we would never have got inside.

Sadly Lurch is no longer with us, he passed on in 2015.

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MONOGRIFF

/////////// GRIFFITHS

( Photo 16 ) . Mong-Griff .

Mong-Griff, I personally did not know this guy or remember him from back in the day, I have been told that at the time he act`d a bit stupid, or has it was said back then he was acting like a mong, and his surname is Griffiths so Mong and Griffiths somehow became Mong-Griff.

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Peggy

Alison Pegg

( Photo 17 ) . Peggy is the middle of two of her friend facing the wrong way, the girls are engaging in one of the rally games, if you look closer at the photo you will see that both of Peggy`s legs are tied to the two other girls, her nickname comes from her surname.

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NIFFTY

John White

( Photo 18 ) . Niffty was a regular at the Knights Arms in Porthcawl in the late 1970`s and was still riding at his passing in November 2023 at the ripe old age of 71 years.

His origin of his nicname as been lost in time.

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Lazy Rider Group photos

( Photo 19 ) . Phil George leaning over wearing the check shirt, from the left at the back of the rope, yates , Bruno, Bubble and Lurch on the rope.

Some of the other Lazy Spiders at a Tug of War game at a Rally somewhere in England.

( Photo 20 ) . left to right, Dai Miller, Decker stood side on, on the rope Judith in the background, then Alison and Minnie at the front, Mark Thomas aka Tiny stood in the background wearing glasses, sadly Decker as passed away.

( Photo 21 ) . Yates sat on ground with back to camera, Bruno about throw something at the camera, Wingnut leaning over towards the bike, WAG aka Warren Griffiths stood in background behind wing-nut, with Beaker pretending to fix a problem with the bike, wing-nut`s GS 1000 on the left of the photo, also Brimble, Mong-Griff and Bubble in the background.

If anyone as anything to add to the blog or corrections to anything I have written, please drop me a line or phone, txt me, after all this all happened more than 40 years ago so it is possible, I have forgotten to add someone of mixed them up with someone else.