An amateur film of the two day Whitley Bay Scooter Rally held by the Lambretta Club Northumbria and taking place in the Churchill playing fields in Whitley Bay in Septemeber 1960. Members of the club wearing matching overalls helping out to make sure the days runs smoothly by both setting up events as well as adjudicating the many races. They also take part in a number of tug-o-wars. Crowds enjoy the games, and the film ends with a woman in mayoral chains handing out trophies and prizes....

An amateur film of the two day Whitley Bay Scooter Rally held by the Lambretta Club Northumbria and taking place in the Churchill playing fields in Whitley Bay in Septemeber 1960. Members of the club wearing matching overalls helping out to make sure the days runs smoothly by both setting up events as well as adjudicating the many races. They also take part in a number of tug-o-wars. Crowds enjoy the games, and the film ends with a woman in mayoral chains handing out trophies and prizes. The film opens on a sequence filmed in reverse with a man standing in a field and a scrunched-up poster for the ‘Scooter Rally’ is thrown at him. He unfurls it for the camera and holds it up to the camera. Title: Whitley Bay Rally Title: 1960 Phantom scooter ride through Whitley Bay to the Churchill playing fields passes a number of temporary RAC directions signs to the rally site. At the Churchill playing fields men and women dressed in matching white overall set up for one of the games or trials, two men work to pour line marking paint from a wheelbarrow into a large metal bucket, flags are set up by other members of the team. Large buckets of water are poured into a trough. A member of the ‘North Region Sports Club’ begins his attempt to complete the course that includes having to take apart and put back up a barrier, crossing over a seesaw, which he falls off but is caught by two men in overalls, and across a set of cobbled stones as well as riding through the trough seen being filled earlier. Around the edges of the show ground a large crowd watching, other riders also attempt to complete the obstacle course, one of the competitors appear to be wearing a square cardboard suit. A line of waiting competitors stands to begin at the start line. From an overhead raised platform two teams of men complete in a game of tug-o-war on the showground below. Another scooter begins the obstacle course followed by another tug-o-war with one team made up on men in overalls. The trials over the men and women in overalls begin taking down the obstacle course and empty the trough. A suburban garden with colourful and ornate flowerbeds changes back to the Whitley Bay Rally and a woman being carried in a rubber dingy, nearby two others do a jig. The dinghy, still containing the woman, is carried away. A line of scooters rides around the field changes to the show ground where men and women in overalls stand beside a series of poles stuck on the ground at the start of another obstacle course. Some of them speak with riders waiting on their scooter for the race to begin. A flag is dropped, and the race gets underway with riders weaving slowly around each of the pole in their lane. A second and third race, this time filmed from the raised platform. Those in the overall set up for a new trial, the race gets underway with competitors expected to get of their scooter to race back and forth collect items laid on the ground before finishing the race by jumping to the finish in a sack. As always, those in overalls stand watching over proceedings, several races are filmed. A man climbs the ladder to the raised platform, a group look over several scooters parked up. A sticker on one of the scooters reads ‘The Five Leeds Lambretta Club’, a man works on the engine. Parked beside the show ground dozens of scooters, one carrying three people rides past in the background. A sign reads ‘Guess the Milage of this scooter’; standing beside it said scooter. Two men in a tent and visitors wondering around the rally field in the rain with umbrella’s up. On the showground competitors compete in another event, a relay race with one rider racing across the field and across a plank of wood to be replaced by the second rider who races towards the finish but has to get off the bike, those in overalls gather around each scooter. At the end the scooter has to ride back to the start carrying a total of three people on it. From the raised platform several large marquees set up around the playing field, crowds gather around the show ground waiting for the next race to begin. A number of scooters perform a synchronized routine for the crowds, one scooter rides around with someone holding onto the front of the vehicle. Another tug-o-war is followed by an event in which scooters ride around the show ground and suddenly stop, each rider jumping off to try and pick up a flag which have been placed in the centre of the field. Many knock each other over in order to get a flag. The race is repeated, each time few and few competitors. The dingy seen previously is bought over and filled with water, again competitors race to get what’s in it. The sequence is repeated several times with fewer competitors each time. Two men speak to a crowd surrounding them via a microphone, nearby a woman sets up trophies and prizes on a table. An older woman in mayoral chains hands out the various prizes to winning competitors. One young woman is presented with a sash which reads ‘Whitley Bay Scooter Girl’. A bouquet is presented to the older woman who shakes hands with the man standing beside her. The film ends on a group of men and women, many in overalls, posing together for the camera. End title: The end