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An extract from "Bucklering" The journal of
the Buckler Register -- many thanks to Stan and Peter
Where Do You Want To Drive
Your Buckler Today?
The Buckler
Register was formed by Malcolm Buckler (Derek Buckler's son)
with the valued assistance of Stan Hibberd
The Buckler
Register History
by
Stan Hibberd and Peter Silverthorne.
The first part
of this "history" took us to the point where Malcolm and
I
were in touch by telephone. Our phone conversations
and correspondence then became a very regular feature, many
of our early chats centred on whether there was enough interest
in Buckler cars, or enough cars still in use to make the creation
of a Buckler Register worth while. We evidently thought
there would be, and in December 1971 Malcolm contacted the
750MC who printed "a nice appeal" for Buckler enthusiasts
owners to get in touch, in their December Newsletter, this
may have generated some further interest because on the 8th
of February 1972 Malcolm wrote to me "well I can now say that
the Register definitely exists as I now have another two keen
members as a result of a very small advert in Motorsport this
month" he then wrote " if you buy Hot Car in April you should
see an article about the Register" As can be seen from this,
once started we soon had some momentum, this was helped by
the publication by Malcolm of his first Buckler Bulletin in
March/April 1972.
 The first ever
Register meeting was held at Bristol on the 23rd July 1972,
at Mollie Buckler’s home and then at the Coronation Tap (a
cider only pub) in Redland Bristol, no surprise to report
that my memories of this meeting are a little vague,
I
have seen it reported that I was there in NAC 344 and that
Brian Malin was there in BLY 618, also I have seen reports
that Bruce Sutcliffe was present, as I recall there were no
Buckler cars at this meeting and certainly it was well before
we knew Bruce, about all that I can accurately remember was
the pub and the cider and meeting Malcolm and Carole and Mollie,
and Keith and Simon I think, also there was Duggie Hyde who
then owned a Mark V Buckler later sold to Max De Redder who
I believe has very recently sold this car again after 30 odd
years.
Malcolm’s Bulletin
of October 1973 reports good publicity in Hot Car Magazine
On the 23rd
of June 1974 Malcolm staged the second meeting of the Register,
this was centred, on the Tally Ho Inn at Eversley, this meeting
was announced in Motorsport Magazine, this led to some frenzied
'phone calls from New Zealand by Bruce Sutcliffe to the Tally
Ho pub, they in turn passed on the numerous messages to Malcolm
and begged him to ring Bruce to stop the flow of calls!
Malcolm eventually managed to contact Bruce by 'phone (not
to be done lightly in those days-it costs) from my then house
in Cannon Lane Maidenhead, before we left for Eversley, so
was born the Register/New Zealand connection.
The event saw
two Bucklers present Brian Malin's Mark V BLY 618 and my own
Mark VI NAC 344, a pleasant view and chat session in the pub
car park, I think I remember Mark Cook being there, was followed
by a very well attended sit down lunch in the pub lounge.
Then came a treasure hunt around the leafy Berkshire lanes,
which in true MCC style produced a deep water splash to test
our ignition systems. This meeting was a leap forward
in Buckler matters with the imminent New Zealand break through
uppermost in everyone’s mind.
The 15th December
1974 featured a meeting for Register members in the West Country;
it was organised by Simon Ambrose at the Ambrose family's
home at Bristol. (I think Julia and
Keith had more to do with the organising !!! ed)
In June 1975
Stan and Mike Hibberd attended the TT races at the Isle of
Man, while there they met Bruce Sutcliffe and his wife, over
from NZ and staying with Malcolm and Carole at Fairy Oak,
after the TT races everyone moved over to England, the Sutcliffes
and the Bucklers to Axminster where they prepared Malcolm’s
recently acquired Backbone Buckler for the meeting held at
the Crown Hotel, Winsford in Somerset, this was on the 22nd
of June 1975, this was in fact the meeting attended by Bruce
Sutcliffe, I was present with Henry Allen and my DD2 rolling
chassis 5 KBH on a trailer, Brian Malin had his Ashley DD2
there also and the Bob Halls DD2 was running about giving
test drives to members, Malcolm’s BB was resplendent in a
new coat of light blue paint applied by Keith, Malcolm and Bruce
and was undoubtedly the star exhibit, I can remember tea in
the village Hall but not much more I'm afraid.
Rugby was the
venue for the Register meeting on the 20th June 1976 the first
of many meetings to be held at the Rugby Autocar premises;
this venue was secured for us by Ken Malin and served us well.
Buckler Bulletin
No 22 of October 1976, Malcolm proposes a proper Committee
be formed and asks members to offer themselves to serve on
this when formed, Stan Hibberd offered to become the first
Register Secretary.
The first Committee
Meeting was held at Woodcote Cannon Lane Maidenhead on the
16th of January 1977.
Our Register
Meeting was held at Rugby again, at the Rugby Autocar site
on 22nd May 1977, this featured some mild grass trials sections
and a gymkhana type of event, the organisers had to discourage
some members who wanted to stage a Buckler sprint on the site
roads, some difficulties about insurance and RAC affiliation
!
The National
Classic and Collectors Car Show was staged at Alexandra Palace
on the 8th to the 10th of July 1977, this was another important
milestone for the Register, two cars, the Bob Bennet Mark
VI and Malcolm’s Backbone prototype were exhibited on the
Buckler stand, which was right next to the main stage in the
exhibition hall. Our luck was in at this show, Malcolm
was in the right place at the right time, so the Daily Mail
printed a full-page article about Bucklers generally and the
Backbone in particular, brilliant publicity for all things
Buckler, and at our first major show. This was 1 believe
the first attempt by anyone to organise a prestige Classic
car event on this scale, in my opinion it remains the best
of it's kind although it has been widely copied ever since,
none of the imitators has captured the magic that this show
introduced, we are still friendly with some of the people
we met there in the 1970s, Pat from the Allard Owners Club,
Jem Marsh etc etc, Bette Hill was there to open the show,
what an event, they are mainly Autojumbles nowadays with a
show tacked on to bring in the punters. A lot of Buckler
members attended and our stand was a real credit to the Register.
The second
Committee meeting took place at Mike and Sheila Furse's home
at Chartridge Lane Chesham on the 30th October 1977, we still
have the agenda and copies of the reports discussed at this
meeting on file, but no minutes of the meeting.
Our usual
Rugby meeting took place on the 14th of May 1978, this was
to be the last in that series of meetings at the venue which
had served us well, it was a memorable meeting, well attended,
with the debut at modern events of that most important of
Bucklers the works prototype 90 MOR 456, Peter Silverthorne
and I had an interesting trip to Rugby with a slightly overheating
90 prototype and NAC 344 alternating on the trailer, the event
was perhaps our best of it's kind, everyone was taking turns
to drive the Bucklers present on the tests and attempt the
Trials sections laid out on the Spoil Bank.
Our second
show at Alexandra Palace was from the 15th to the 17th of
September 1978, our stand, not as well positioned this time
saw four Buckler exhibits, the prototype 90 racer MOR 456,
Bob Bennett’s Mark VI, Brian Malin's "immaculate Mark V chassis"
and my own DD2 rolling chassis 5 KBH, again a lot of interest,
a lot of visitors and lots of friendly faces from the previous
year, shortly afterward Ally Pally was gutted by fire and
1 think that was the end of that particular show venue for
some years.
In issue
No 34 of the Bulletin in July 1979, Malcolm was asking if
anyone was willing to take on the publication of the Newsletter.
The Register
made it's debut at the Knowl Hill Steam Fayre, we were well
received, and this event and subsequent ones attended there
proved very productive in finding Buckler people, ex employees,
owners, cars, the lot, a very good video was made at the show,
this captures the atmosphere very well, it was so popular
that we took part in this event for ten years - happy times.
Buckler
Bulletin No 35 of November 1979 was to be the last one produced
by Malcolm Buckler, this concluded a very important solo effort
by Malcolm, his seven years hard graft as Bulletin publisher
and events organiser, had played a major role in the growth
of the Buckler Register, from some early chit chat on the
phone to a strong, exclusive club catering for those owners,
former owners, race drivers of Buckler cars, it also rekindled
a lot of interest amongst former Buckler employees all of
whom had fond memories of the Company and it's cars.
Issue
No 1 of the Buckler Register Newsletter was published in July
1980, this Newsletter a joint co-promotion of Peter Silverthorne
and John Orpin aided and abetted by Stan Hibberd, was to continue
for 18 years, being involved over that time, on Newsletter
publication, organising shows and running the Register, gave
the three of us some idea of the efforts Malcolm must have
put in over his long stint. The new Newsletter was a
success and the Register grew, cars were turning up at the
rate of two or three a year, our understanding of Derek Bucklers
achievements as driver, car designer, car builder increased
steadily and is generally more widely acknowledged than ever
before. If you read through the Newsletters from 1980
to 1998 you will see the history of Bucklers emerge as it
was researched this continues in Bucklering (our present Newsletter)
published from 1998 to date by Ken Green. Now as always
the Registers health and effectiveness can be gauged by the
quality of its publications, looking back to 1972 has been
a pleasant chore, long may it all continue.
Stan Hibberd
/Peter Silverthorne 15th April 2003.
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