Club History

The Welsh Coast Motor Cycle Club was founded 1976 in Porthcawl, a small harbour town some miles east of Swansea in Wales, by three motorbike enthusiasts. Some years later the club moved to Swansea, and is settled there since then. One of these three, John, is still a club member today. Another one, Dai, was killed by a bike crash on his way to the rally of the Dutch section in 1998. The traces of the third are lost somewhere in the past. 1978 the club had the first rally, some years later the first winter rally. since then the club traditionally works out 2 annual rallies, one in June and one in November.

1986 the Dutch section was founded and since then is well known with a good reputation. The Dutch members live spread all over the country. Welsh Coast M. C. C. Isalmaen (this is the Welsh term for the Netherlands) holds the annual Clog's Rally in September. In 1999 Welsh Coast Norway and in 2000 Welsh Coast Ireland joined our community.

The other day about 1990 or so Balzi and Werner had been at a party in the club house of a local club near the Dutch border. And while we were pumping beer in our throats, Werner suddenly noticed a very exotic back patch. It displayed a strange red figure and a name: Welsh Coast M. C. C. Swansea.

In these days we were not trained in recognizing number plates, but outside we had noticed a bike with a yellow plate, and so we were impressed by this hard bastard, who did that long ride, while it was a pretty cold and foggy winter weather. We said cheers, but accidentally there was no close contact to this man that night. Nowadays we know: the bloke's name is Peter, he is a Dutch Welsh Coast member, lives just across the border, and in that special night he had arrived by bicycle...

Some time later we met a nice girl in our area, and she told us, that she had close contact to a club from Wales, which also had a branch in the Netherlands. This was Anette, and she told us about this Welsh Coast M. C. C. Anette gave me a copy of the Clog's Rallies invite 1991. Balzi had no time or desire, so Werner drove there with another friend, and was pleasantly surprised. It was a superb warm welcome, although Werner didn't know anybody there. Nobody asked, where he came from and what he wanted there. They just asked for his name, therefore they knew how to call him, and then he belonged to the crown like any other. Except the Dutch, there were many bikers from Wales, but also from Norway, Belgium, and Germany, this was in fact the most motley bunch Werner had ever seen at a bike rally, and the weekend went by much too fast. When he came home, Werner knew for sure, that he was about to write a new chapter in his life. During the following time, he always tried to keep good contact at least to the Dutch club, and he definitely decided to join that bunch some day.

In July 1994 at the rally of the MC Hoeselt in Belgium, Balzi, Pino, and Werner shaked Hands an agreed to raise up a German branch of the Welsh Coast M. C. C. Pino, although living in Germany, had been a member of the Dutch branch for some years, and Balzi and Werner at first joined the Dutch club in 1994. In winter 1994/95 we made the decision to run the Easter Party, which had been a just a camping weekend for members, as an organized event. This should become the start of a new independent German branch.

We found a suitable camp site, and sent invites to the other sections and good firends in Germany and Europe. We calculated everything for about 40 people. Despite of winter weather, we later counted 55 (fifty-five) persons from 5 different nations, all of them by bike, and the three founders and Tina, who meanwhile had joined us, cared for them from Easter Friday till Monday around the clock. On Friday we and our guests invented the "confetty drinking", and it works like this: everybody had brought a bottle with an alcoholic product of his country, and all the bottled had different colours, and every bottle went from hand to hand. Very interesting, especially later at night.In a lack of experience we had made a completely wrong calculation with the beer, so we had to buy the whole stock at the local Aldi. The marquee had 3 x 6 meters, and so the half of us had a dry place during the all-day snow and rain. We worked our arses off, but we and our guests had so much fun, it was the stressiest weekend in our lives, but also one of the best, and we are still proud to have done this. This was the start, and since then we grew slowly, but steadily.

In 1995 Werner accidentally met Heinz and Wigbert of MF Total Normal, an he learned, that they had a club house, which sometimes was let to other clubs for their events. We went there to have a look, and we agreed to have the Easter Party 1996 right there. So we had the Party at the Potzenhof for the first time, then not in the hall, but in the club's room of Total Normal. We had as many guests as in the year before, but thanks to the local circumstances, it was not that stressy (but stressy enought, I can tell you!). At this Party Pascal got his patch, and then used to be our youngest member for several years.

From now on there was a really good friendship between us and Total Normal, which is lasting till today. In 1997 the party was in the hall for the first time, and for the first time we had live music. On Saturday night about 150 people joined the party, Berny and Sabine meanwhile were with us, Stoffel got his patch, and it was a superb party.

1998 Markus had become a member, and we had so many guests, that on early Saturday night all the food was eaten. Fortunately we have a very flexible drink dealer, whom we here and now finally wish to express our warmest appreciation. At this party the Prisoners from Kassel played for the first time, as they did at every Easter Party since then.

We decided to make the frame of the 1998 Party a standard, and till now we managed to keep this standard. Meanwhile we also have the right equipment for serving some hundred people from Friday to Monday. The Easter Party 2001 had a little sensation on Monday morning: there still was a little food!

In August 2000 all sections together had the Millenium Rally. The preparations took two years in advance, and the coordination across the different countries was sometimes not easy. But we managed it, and it was a success. A great experience for us all was working together with all the other sections, the common work welded us together, and we had lots of fun. Generally the international contacts are one of the best features of our slighty extraordinary club life.

Meanwhile the club has got branches in several European countries: Wales (original), Netherlands (1985), Germany (1995), Norway (1998), and Ireland (2000).