The madcap antics of modern day gladiators on motor bikes have ended a 40 year tradition in the Ongar area.

For bikers, used to riding out into the Essex countryside on Wednesday evenings in summer since the fifties, have been banned from their traditional haunt, the White Bear in Stanford Rivers.

Landlord George Scott was due to close his 17th Century pub completely last night in a bid to discourage a small "lunatic fringe" of motorcycle show-offs who have ruined the weekly rally for hundreds of others.

He said: "It saddens me to have to impose this ban because 98 per cent of them are responsible people who behave impeccably but the others who congregate opposite the pub are spoiling it and they're not even my customers."

Complaints started last summer about bikers speeding along the London road to Stapleford Abbotts and in other villages around Ongar.

There were even reports of time trials monitored by marshals with stopwatches at the Passingford Bridge roundabout.

Police pledged a crackdown but the situation has worsened with allegations of leather-clad bikers even doing wheelies down Ongar High Street.

Round Table chairman Jeremy Lewis said he counted 70 bikes on the move between Chigwell and the town one Wednesday evening in addition to hundreds parked at the White Bear.

He said: "As I approached the pub I felt quite intimidated. I slowed to a safer speed as several bikes coasted across the middle of the carriageway, daring me to encroach on their territory and was forced to stop.

"This wasn't the main road through a quiet Essex village but a gladiatorial arena and I edged forward, driving slowly, running the gauntlet of their eyes."

Landlord Mr Scott, a retired chartered accountant, has even appealed to the bikers to stay away through their "bible", Motorcycle News, and has given out 350 leaflets in his car park.

He said: "There's no disorder in the pub or car park. The bikers, some of whom are policemen, ride out here and drink coffee and Cokes while they admiring each other's machines.

"But the behaviour of the troublemakers has been getting stupid and dangerous. I have offered to pay for a police presence to stop it but they say it's my responsibility. Yet one evening when they sent a police car everything was orderly."

Mr Scott intends to impose the Wednesday night biker ban from May to September in future and will refuse to serve them when he next re-opens the White Bear on a Wednesday evening on July 14.

Insp Peter Hesketh, of Epping, said: "The vast majority are very reasonable and pleasant people and it is all being spoiled by the relative few.

"However, although Mr Scott can't be held responsible for the behaviour of people outside the pub boundaries, the situation is his problem and offering to pay for a small police presence won't solve it.

"We are co-operating with the traffic police to tackle the behaviour of motorcyclists on roads in the area."

The Wednesday night meet is a tradition that started when pedal cyclists from the East End used to ride out to the Essex countryside; they were eventually replaced by motorcyclists.

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