I had one very like Dodegy's. My father bought it new and ran it for about 20 years until just before he died in 1987. It had become unusable due to its old 2 stroke Villiers being just about impossible to start. I immediately took it over, replaced the magneto (the cause of the hard starting), fitted new rings and re-bushed the strange governor butterfly valve in the intake pipe, and it became a first-pull starter again, for 18 years. By then it had become hard to start again - the second-hand magneto I'd fitted in 1987 had given out. The only other work it had needed in those 18 years was a second-hand replacement spring for the impulse starter - I don't think I even replaced the sparkplug after the initial repair job in 1987. I hate 2 stroke mowers, so when the magneto failed I dumped it on the nature strip, still in pieces.
The Villiers engine was amazingly light and remarkably easy to start, but I find impulse starters very unpleasant to use. The thick aluminium base was completely free of damage or maintenance requirements through the machine's 38 years of regular use, but it was ridiculously heavy - I'd say the whole machine weighed as much as a Honda, despite a very much lighter engine. The rear catcher had no maintenance, but was not particularly effective by modern standards.
I acquired that machine in 1987 to replace a Kirby-Lauson engined store brand (perhaps H.G. Palmer?) mower which I had by then detested for about 15 years, after buying it second hand in a run-down condition, which I never remedied. The SupaSwift was a big improvement on the Kirby-Lauson, being far more powerful and having an at least somewhat-effective rear catcher, compared with the strictly ornamental nature of the store brand one. However two magneto coil failures in a mere 38 years is a pretty poor record in my opinion, and the stink and uneven running of the Villiers was pretty awful. I bought a 30 year old Briggs-Victa to replace the SupaSwift, and I wish I'd done it about 15 years sooner. That 1976 Victa Impala 4 was the first good mower I ever owned. I moved from that to a 1984 Honda, which was another big step up, and is still my favourite mower, though I've upgraded its cutting system, and I use a 2007 Honda HRU in winter because it can handle wet grass.
All that is quite possibly off-topic, but my point is that by the standards of the time (1960s) that SupaSwift-Villiers was quite a good mower in my opinion. By the standard of a good Briggs mower, its engine let it down, mainly due to it having a British magneto - but those good Briggs mowers didn't arrive until ten years later. A ten year life-span as a good mower by the standards of the time, is a pretty good record.
