Mau Spencer interviews Norman Ronald an original member of Team S Equipe.
Where were you born Norman? I was born in Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire, where my father came from; my mother was from Nottingham and they met when my father was doing war work at Chillwell, Notts. They got married and moved to Newton-le-Willows, which was near where my grandparents lived in Bootie. Brother John and I were born there. Then, when I was around seven or eight, we moved back to the Nottingham area to be near our mother's family and have lived around here ever since.
How did you get into scooters? My father was an engineer working for the Government, testing tanks and all sorts of other things. He was always mechanically minded and in our family it was never about sport; for my father, it had to have an engine, so we always used to get taken to motorbike trials and scrambles (John remembers being taken to The Scottish Six Days Trial). We went to places like Aintree and Mallory Park for the post TTs and other events.
Father had a Scott Flying Squirrel 500cc and then a James Captain, but it was a bit too big for him. In the late 1950s Lambrettas came onto the scene and he bought a scooter - from memory an LD150cc. Around that time, the Lambretta Concessionaires were trying to get a foothold into scootering; they advertised in various papers around the country, asking if anybody was interested in forming a club. My father went to a meeting and that was when the Nottingham Lambretta Club 'The Bowmen' was formed.
There used to be a club night during the week and a club run every Sunday. In the winter it tended to be closer to home, but in the summer they used to go fiuther, to places like the east coast and as a family we would follow the event in the car. When I was 16 or 17, I got my first bike, a second-hand Puch Cheetah which I ran backwards and forwards to work for a bit. Then I got a new Honda 50 when they first came to the UK. After that I bought a Vespa 150 (UNN 221). Don't know why I bought a Vespa.