RHYL 2003

The day started off well, the sun was shining, the roads were relatively clear, the scoot was packed up ready to go, just had to take a quick ride up the A1 to fill up and then start my journey to Sunny Rhyl.

As I pulled into the Shell garage on my shiny P2 I bumped into this lot, they'd obviously seen Quadraphenia a few times so they made a run for it!

The journey was pretty uneventful and I was soon(ish) riding through Rhyl to check out if there were many there. There were a fair number already there for a Friday so it promised to be a well attended rally. The only problem was that there was no campsite, so there were scooterists riding all over the place to find a B&B or a campsite that would let them on.

Friday night went fairly well with about 250/300 people in Brunels, which was the main venue, there was no trouble getting to the bar and the music mix must've brought back memories for a few aging baldy blokes as the dancefloor was pretty packed for most of the night. The mix was just about right with equal amounts of Northern, Ska and Indie with more than just apinch of the old rally favourites thrown in for good measure. It's been a while since I've heard King Kurt, SLF etc, in the Do's, and the old and bold certainly seemed to enjoy it as wreckin mania seemed to take hold, maybe we'll soon see the return of the grass skirt and waterpistols. Ah, the good old days eh?

There was another Do in the Orange Peel, run by Kelvin, once Brunels had started kicking out, which went on til 3am, so off we trotted and danced again to a lot of tunes you don't seem to hear anymore. THE DANCEFLOOR WAS FULL! Hopefully the DJs will take note and start to play more of the old rally favourites, and not just the same stuff all the time.

Friday was gone and Saturday was soon upon us, so with a sore head and a mouth like Ghandi's flip flops I managed to drag my way into Rhyl to see what was on offer during the day.

There were roughly 200 scooters parked along the prom which was an impressive sight, and more were turning up all day. There weren't many dealers there, which didn't really matter as all they seem to sell these days is chrome anyway, but if you are into chrome then you were in luck as there was plenty on offer, oh and stickers for your mobile, 2 for a pound! The bargain of the day was 1 litre bottles of Castrol TTS for a fiver, I bought 2 and saved myself £11 over the normal price which was nice.

Onto the custom show. There were about 40 scoots entered and to tell the truth they were all well turned out, but I haven't got a clue what won, my kids favourite was "Tiggerific" which has been around for a while now, but my personal favourite was "Italiano Borculo" as pictured, nothing over the top just a well thought out tidy scoot. Still don't know if it won though!

After a couple of hours mooching about it was off to get ready for the night Do, once again to be held in Brunels. It was much busier on the Saturday night and a lot more trouble getting to the bar, the old classic of not enough bar staff again. There was a band on but I didn't really pay much attention to them, from what I can remember though they weren't that bad at all, they had quite a few people on the dancefloor anyway. The rest of the night was pretty much the same as the Friday with the same mix of music but with a lot more dancing, all in all a good night. Once kicking out time came there was an exodus to the Orange Peel with Kelvin doing his stuff once more to an appreciative crowd. Three o'clock reared it's ugly head and that was it for another rally, with only the ride home to look forward to.

It's been quite a while since the last rally in Rhyl, so with this year being a success maybe they'll do it again next year, I hope so!

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