CY or WN

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Posters seem to enjoy the Word Association thread, so maybe the following game(s) might appeal. Just something to maybe engage the attention during quiet spells. I watch a lot of old telly shows and very frequently see car registration plates ending in CY or WN, which are of course Swansea registrations. I wondered why and the conclusion I reached, correctly or otherwise, was that, when film makers shot outdoor footage where car registrations could be seen, they needed something anonymous and were supplied redundant plate numbers by the DVLA to use. Being located in Swansea, I guess they opted to use a lot of local plates.

Anyway, I thought we could have a competition to run to the end of the season to see who spots the most CY or WN plates on TV shows. If you play, you can post the show on which you saw them on here and also the number itself if you have time to note it.

The second game is simplicity itself and started with the staff of my company years ago. The challenge was to spot vehicle registration numbers when out and about from 1 to 999 IN ORDER - just the numeral itself but it has to be in order. For instance, you might see a "2" but that doesn't count unless you've already seen "1". When you have seen "1" THEN you can move on to "2" but not before.

There must have been 20/30 people playing this but only ONE person (Gill) managed to go from 1-999 in sequence and it took many, many months. BUT BE WARNED. If you do this, do NOT do it whilst driving. One of my guys was driving a car with 4 other members of staff in it. They were in a stop-start queue when he noticed a number on a car coming the other way - a number he had been waiting weeks for. In his 'excitement' he failed to notice that the queue had come to a stop and ran into the back of the car in front!! Luckily it was at crawl pace but it still cost me a claim on my company's car insurance. :(

Anyway, if you do play along, post your HONEST :) progress on here. There's a tenner for the first one to 999 but I reckon my money's safe!!
 

Behindthegoal

Key Player
Good game, good game! Now I'll just settle down and watch all the epis of The Bill and The Sweeney for starters.
When I was nobbut a lad we used to live near Epsom racecourse. Every Derby Day for years our gang used to stand on a certain corner and start our number collection. All those rollers with cherished numbers. We probably got as high as 20 in one day. But within a week we'd packed it in - till next year.
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Good game, good game! Now I'll just settle down and watch all the epis of The Bill and The Sweeney for starters.
When I was nobbut a lad we used to live near Epsom racecourse. Every Derby Day for years our gang used to stand on a certain corner and start our number collection. All those rollers with cherished numbers. We probably got as high as 20 in one day. But within a week we'd packed it in - till next year.
Played a mini version of the second game when I lived in Spain. I used to go to Gibraltar every 2 or 3 weeks to top up supplies for our restaurant. I'd buy duty free booze for the bar and cigarettes for myself. I'd then go into Safeways (now Morrisons, I believe) and buy British foodstuffs for those fragile customers who couldn't do without stuff like Heinz baked beans with their breakfast. :) Topped up with duty free gas before driving home so it was always a profitable trip - particularly as the duty free allowance was multiplied by the number of bodies in the car.

But here's the thing. Gib being a small place had very few (in comparison with the UK) vehicles, so low numbered registration plates abounded. The trick here was to spot GB 1, or whatever the letters were (can't remember now) and it took about 3 years before I finally saw it. Turned out it was on the Governor's limo. But I loved Gib and would happily live there if I could.
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
If I don't see the numbers before, I know I'll see them when next I visit my ex lady friend and her daughter in Bridgend. Her daughter has the registration T1RVY (Turvey) on her car and her mother has T2RVY, which I found was available and suggested she buy. There's a bit of poser in us all. :LOL:
 

Borini

Key Player
Working for a government dept that deals with personal registration numbers....
When I see one on the road they all read the same.


TWAT:eek:
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
There was a guy at school whose dad had a Morris 1100 whose registration was TWO 222. Think that's cool to be honest. Does anyone remember the funeral limos run by Williams the Dead in Mansel Street/Walter Road? The letters all began with COO with numbers 1 onwards. A humorous threat to someone who'd upset you in those days was: You're cruising for a ride in a COO car.
 

The Blobster

Prediction Champ
Working for a government dept that deals with personal registration numbers....
When I see one on the road they all read the same.


TWAT:eek:

If that's what you think of private plate owners you can make your own way to the liberty in future :mad:
 

Jackflash

Midfield General
Staff member
There was a guy at school whose dad had a Morris 1100 whose registration was TWO 222. Think that's cool to be honest. Does anyone remember the funeral limos run by Williams the Dead in Mansel Street/Walter Road? The letters all began with COO with numbers 1 onwards. A humorous threat to someone who'd upset you in those days was: You're cruising for a ride in a COO car.
Bit like the funeral director who bought a new hearse. Everyone was dying to have a ride in it.
 

Behindthegoal

Key Player
Off the mark: a red Porsche SUH1M. Must be a lawyer?
I see that TWO222 plate quite frequently, Ivor, in Swansea West, not on a Morris 1100, though. I don't think I've seen one outside Haynes Museum for yonks! I'll look out for it and report back.
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Off the mark: a red Porsche SUH1M. Must be a lawyer?
I see that TWO222 plate quite frequently, Ivor, in Swansea West, not on a Morris 1100, though. I don't think I've seen one outside Haynes Museum for yonks! I'll look out for it and report back.
The guy might well have sold it on after all these years or if he kept it would have transferred it from car to car as you can. I seem to remember that the owners lived in/near Manselton all those years ago.
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Typical!! I start this off then don't see a plate for yonks. Then a couple of nights ago I spotted SV15 OCY on the latest episode of "Shetland". Think it was on a Ford Fiesta.
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
I can see the CY, Ivor, but you’re bending your rules to call it a Swansea reg! Must be 750 miles too far North!
But this is the whole point. Aren't CY and WN registrations still Swansea as they used to be or has the whole system changed? I used to see lots of those plates on re-runs of old shows such as The Sweeney, The Avengers, The Persuaders, Minder and so on and none of those were set in Swansea.
 

Behindthegoal

Key Player
Oh, do keep up!
In 2001 we got a new car reg system - my favourite at the time was LA51GYT.
The first two letters signify the area, Lx London, Cx Wales etc the digits specify the (half) year and the last three letters are completely random, except if they spell a word DVLA will hold them back for sale as a cherished number.
When we first moved to Swansea we couldn't get over how often we saw Swansea reg nos on TV. I've escaped the flu so far, that would've been an ideal opportunity to watch reruns and score points in your comp.
I'm stuck on 24, looking for 25 in the other one.
 

Jackflash

Midfield General
Staff member
CY & WN are still issued by the DVLA on age related vehicles,old vehicles that have been refurbished but had no reg. docs.
I think CY & WN went out of general registering by the DVLA in the mid/late sixties. I think EP replaced them.
 
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