*UPDATE*
The following feature was moved over from our Archive site on 5th December 2024. A computer bug killed lots of our old features, so the most important ones are being moved over and revitalised as much as possible.
If there’s something on the old site that you want to see brought back to life let us know.
Are you missing the rallies?
It’s the middle of winter, Christmas is looming and now is the time to start thinking about the 2025 BSRA National Scooter Rallies and all the fun we’re going to have.
Scooter rally dates
If you’re up to date, you’ll know that the Easter National is in Scarborough but we’ve posted the BSRA scooter rally calendar flyer here as well. You can find out more info about each one here.
The late Paddy Smith pictured here at his home in France in 2016 with a patch he’d been commissioned to make for Brutus Jeans
Our resident ‘Rainman’, Col worries me at times. Like most of us, the poor lad hasn’t been on a rally since the final National of 2019 in Southport. He’s a great lad is Col and knows everything there is to know about the National Rally scene (all packed away into his overworked photographic memory) but sometimes his random facts astound me.
He phoned me up a few weeks ago sounding concerned and said “Now then Iggy, I’m sure you’ve been like me, having a few sleepless nights recently?” Which makes me a bit worried. He went on… “You know as well as I do that in just a couple of weeks time it’ll be the 40th anniversary of the very first Paddy Smith rally patch?” Err, well to be honest I didn’t Col.
Anyway, here’s what Col has to say…
In the early 1980s, it was fairly common for scooterists to sell scooter club patches and sometimes legshield banners to fellow riders. This was usually to help part-fund the scooter rally they were attending at the time.
Where it all began
40 years ago this weekend, the National Rally was held in Great Yarmouth, and attending it was a certain scooterist called Paddy Smith. He was loaded up with some very basic cloth patches that he intended to sell. He’d printed them to commemorate the rally. I’m quite sure neither Paddy himself – or anyone else for that matter, could have dreamt what a phenomenon he was about to start.
Great Yarmouth
The rally (way before my riding years started!) was apparently very well attended (2000 approx) and went down well, with camping at the legendary St Nicholas seafront campsite. The following year the rally was promoted to bank holiday weekend status and followed the same format on different bank holiday weekends every year from 1982 through to 1991. It changed from 1992 onwards but that’s maybe a look back for another day.
Basic but popular
Paddy’s handiwork for the 1981 rally was a white circular cloth patch with single red ink depicting a Lambretta silhouette. It was possibly the most basic-looking item Paddy ever made. But, they all sold out immediately. This prompted him to make more rally patches and merchandise, and with the exception of just a couple of rallies, he made a patch to celebrate every National Rally for 18 years up to the end of 1999.
The six or so patches he made for the 1981 season all looked very different in shape and size. The Colwyn Bay final run of the year patch didn’t even have a scooter image on it.
1982
This year’s Paddy Smith patches were a mixture of round and square in shape and started to incorporate the trademark four different colours of ink Paddy went on to use. Among the collection was another patch without a scooter image, this one was for a pirate run to Torquay in May.
1983
Things changed in 1983, it marked the start of a matching series of patches where the font and layout stayed the same all year and the scooter images used were simply modified photos of scooters taken at previous rallies, although the scooter’s colours would often be changed
1984
By 1984, the scooters shown on the patches were now all their true-to-life colours and a couple of the country’s top customs were immortalised on them in ink. Paddy’s long-running “On the Run” t-shirt first made an appearance in ‘84, it used a font that was styled on the Lonsdale clothing logo. A t-shirt cost £3.75, a sweatshirt cost £5.95 and the official rally patch set you back 50p.
1985
Patches from this year showed just how popular cut down and chopped scooters were at that time on the rallies. The Isle of Wight August Bank Holiday rally patch went on to become the best selling Paddy ever. The D.I.S.C 85 Donington rally patch was also a massive seller
1986
More iconic custom scooters are shown on the 1986 range of patches. Paddy also made an end-of-year patch with all the rallies and dates listed, but due to the last two rally venues changing as the year went on, the pre-printed patch ended up being incorrect.
1987
If you attended all the Nationals in one particular year (and bought one of Paddy’s patches at each run) he would give you the final one for free upon showing your jacket covered in the others. In a sort of ‘buy 8 patches get 1 free sort of deal’; a saving of 50p was somewhat dwarfed by the effort and cost of attending all nine rallies.
1988
The 1988 season had only eight Nationals, the patch Paddy made for the Exmouth rally had a fault with the ink, and after one wash on a jacket, the patch faded, sometimes beyond recognition. Paddy was only too pleased to replace any worn ones free of charge, and always looked far more amused than embarrassed when swapping them! Yet more iconic customs adorned the patches.
1989
For me, 1989’s patches were the best designs; a clear and simple layout, but really neat. Another year with only eight National Rally patches. The first four rallies all had a red scooter on the patch. Paddy described the period from 1983 through to 1989 as ‘the Golden Years.’
This t-shirt was made by Paddy years later and showed the different styles of font used on the patches between those years.
1990
It’s the start of a new decade and it must go down as the most artistic and well-thought-out style of all Paddy’s designs. When all nine rally patches were put together in the traditional 3 by 3 square. The backdrop of the patches formed a map of the world/globe.
1991
The patches made for the 1991 season had a subliminal message too. When laid out, the background formed a number 10, to acknowledge Paddy’s 10th anniversary of patch-making.
Wandering around the rally campsite back in those days, it was highly likely that the scooter emblazoned on the patch you’d just bought would be on the campsite fully loaded with luggage. The rider, having just had the same adventure getting to the rally, that you’d had yourself (definitely ridden not hidden).
1992-1995
The patches Paddy made from 1992 through to 1995 were a bit abstract, often with not a full scooter image on them, but always bright and unmistakeably Paddy Smith Designs.
1996
This year saw the first and only year that the patches depicted a scooter with its owner sat on it, many of the patches were quite dark in colour as well.
1997 and 1998
These patches were quite plain in comparison to previous years. Sometimes patch designs doubled up, so the same actual patch covered more than one event with just the venue’s wording being changed.
The final ‘Paddy’s Patch’ year
1999 was Paddy’s final year as the official patch supplier. He’d decided to retire from that particular business and go into teaching art for a while, before moving to France with his family. In 1999 he came out with more abstract designs and patches to commemorate sporadic rallies.
A massive drop in sales and other work commitments meant that Paddy would call time on his regular patch-making, for a number of years anyway.
Time flies
Time can be a frightening thing. The main reason for me asking Iggy to publish this little article is to highlight the fact that not only have 40 years passed since the first Paddy rally patch but Jonnie Bolland (RIP) and Daz Groves at Crusader Promotions have been producing and selling the official rally patch now for far longer than Paddy did (equally good they are too) and yet the Crusader patches still get referred to by some as ‘Paddy Smiths’
Back in the 80s many of you reading this were in your teens or early 20s – thirty or 40 years of age seemed ancient, and yet here many of you are now with 30 to 40 years of riding under your ever-tightening belts. Time is indeed scary.
Paddy handing out prizes at his final Sun Run in summer 2017
RIP Paddy
Paddy Smith’s sad and very untimely passing back at the end of 2017, left a hole in the very fabric of scootering. I was very humbled when Andy Gillard allowed me to do a small tribute in ScooterNova Magazine (issue 7) about the day Paddy allowed me to make my own patch on his sacred screen printing machine.
Geek or unique?
I consider myself a geek on all things scooter rally memorabilia related, but without doubt my collection of Paddy Smith patches are my most valued possessions. I have many of them hung in picture frames on the walls of my home, in more prominent places than pictures of family members!
More than just cloth
It’s not just about a 4-inch square piece of cloth with four colours on it. It is about the memories and the people I’ve met on the adventures picking those patches up.
What’s your favourite?
Have any of you Slukers out there got a favourite Paddy Smith Patch, or ever had a scooter featured on one? Let us know in the comments section.
Ride Safe
Col
