More Unscrambled Six

When David ventured into the world of film and TV, he turned to people that he knew to help him. One such character was Clive Noy, who first met David back in the mid-1950s when they were starting out in scrambling. 

‘When I first met him, I used to go to a coffee bar in Colchester and I didn’t know at the time, but he came roller skating there. He could root anybody out, which is one of the reasons why he was so good in the film industry - he could find anything, anywhere. This particular night I’d parked my old van just round the corner and it was late at night when I came out - around 11 o’clock. I got in the van, started it up and put it in gear and it went ‘clonk’ and flew out of gear. So, I thought, “Blimey, my gearbox is going.” So, I try again. Put it in gear just about to go off and ‘clonk’ it jumps out of gear again. I opened the window and heard these blokes laughing. So, I look out and it’s Dave and a couple of his mates. They’d put a length of catapult elastic around the gear lever, so every time I put it in gear it flew out again!’ 

When David was scouting around for people to work for him at Bickers Action, Clive was one of the first people he sought out. At the time he was coaching at Ipswich Witches Speedway. ‘I started by spraying cars for him and then he took me along to a film he was doing - Watcher in the Woods - that was in the early 80s. We were going along one day in an old Bedford cattle truck, and he said to me, “If we get stopped, we haven’t got the MOT or anything like that, so, bang on the side and say, “Sorry mate, we’ve got cows in the back.” Sure enough, we get stopped and I’m banging on the side and he shouts out, “Shut them bloody cows up!” And the copper sends us on our way!’   

‘Dave always liked his team to be active, he didn’t like people on set to see anyone sitting about. So, he always found us things to do, though this didn’t always pan out as he might have hoped. One time, he asked me to paint the trailer. When there was a break in activities and people came over to the trailer they got covered in wet paint!’ 

‘Dave had a hell of a memory. I was sitting with him and Dick Keen Soper a few years back and he said, “You bent my Gold Star.” and I said, “Yeah, that’s right. I hit a tree stump on it. I’m sorry about that.” and he said, “I didn’t half get into trouble about that.” Well, Dick says to me, “When was that? Recently?” and I said, “No, it was about (19)56!” That’s what he was like.’