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Woodside Avenue, Eastleigh. SO50 9ES

History

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For the first year or so, the Club held its Friday evening get-togethers in the canteen at what was then Camper & Nicholsons shipyard in Northam. The venue chose itself for two reasons, one was that Mr. C.A.Nicholson was the officer commanding the Home Guard Recce platoon
from which the Club was formed, the other reason was that a shipyard provided many hiding places for motorbikes, necessary lest the police should have visited. You see, petrol was strictly rationed for use on essential journeys only and not all people regarded attending the Club as essential. I remember well standing outside the canteen door seeing a black Ford V8 saloon, of the type used by the police, cruising into the yard causing a bit of a panic until it was seen to be Bob Oakley coming to the meeting in his fathers taxi. Not many police cars were about in those days but it was not unknown for one to get on to the tail of a member on clubnight, if it happened on the way to the meeting it was necessary to abort but if it was on the way home, and in the blackout, it was easy for a motorbike to shake off a car by switching the lights off (lights were no help anyway) and taking a number of turns in quick succession.