Addiscombe Cycling Club

Another Period of Declining Membership, 1995 to 1999

Pat Mundy had been a hardworking official of the club for much of her 44 years of membership. She had organised the annual dinner since 1963 and despite recent illness had helped Eddie with the January 1995 function. Two days later everyone was both shocked and saddened to learn that she had passed away. If that was not a bad enough start to the year the club was to lose two more stalwarts before the end of 1995. Joan Pitt, wife of trackman Ron and sister of Eric Hall, at one time our track secretary, Gazette editor, and promoter, died suddenly in May. Then in November came the tragic news that John Smith had collapsed and died while setting out on a club run. “JB” as he was affectionately known, had joined the club in 1946 and been a tower of strength over the years, encouraging others, leading runs, organising and racing to a very high standard as this history shows. He was President from 1984-1992. A collection amongst members in his memory for Mayday Hospital’s Heartbeat Appeal raised £345.

Arthur Ellis
Jim Trenowden
Graham Axford

The veterans help keep the flag flying!

Reverting back to the beginning of 1995, the younger members continued to score well at cyclocross. Steve Bayliss (pictured) finished 4th in the Junior National Championship at Nottingham, was 3rd in the Inter-Area Championship at Reigate, including a team win with Mark Tunnell and two others forming the London team. Bayliss was 1st U16 in the National Duathlon trials at Bisham Abbey (3.5 km run & 15 km bike), and was selected as a member of the GB team for the European Duathlon Championship where he returned from Hungary with a silver medal for 2nd team, and an individual placing of 6th.

Mark Tunnell took the National Championship for U12’s at Sutton Park, Birmingham. At the year end, riding in the South of England Championships at Basingtoke, Steve Bayliss finished 1st junior with brother Mark 6th junior, Mark Tunnell 1st U14, and Rob Young, our highest placed ’cross rider in senior events throughout the year, finished 12th.

Colin Davies
Steve Bayliss

This was the year the UCI dispensed with separate categories for amateurs and professionals, not that it affected local road races. Graham Hughes & Steve Bayliss finished 1st and 2nd respectively in the Kent League 60 miles Junior Championship; Mark Tunnell achieved the only other win in 1995. Three members went on a trip to Belgium where Mark Bayliss finished 10th with Hughes two places behind and Steve Bayliss 25th. Tony Nana riding well became a 1st cat. rider and Alan French, Dave Kennett, Arthur Ellis, Rob Young and Paul Tunnell all gained 2nd cat. licences. Also competing that year were Kevin O’Brien (2nd claim), who out-performed everyone in the Handicap races, Karl Brooks, Brian Paterson, Paul Williams, Rob Pilling, Alex Ford and Rod Yarr.

On the track Graham Axford was our most consistent rider. He won an 8-lap Veterans’ scratch race and after being placed 2nd in the heats of the Summer Series at Herne Hill, went on to win the final. Axford, a notable character of that period, also tried out various disciplines and at the other extreme decided to tackle the RTTC Championship 24-hour time trial where sleep deprivation proved his major problem. After an unscheduled roadside “kip” (or two) he eventually finished with 348 miles. A month later and he was competing in the 200 metres sprint in the World Masters championship.

Thirty-eight members rode time trials with seventeen recording personal bests. Angela Barry (riding for the second year, retained the women’s 10 & 25 trophies). Mark Tunnell, aged 11, rode a tandem 25 with father Paul steering and they broke club record with 56.40. Arthur Rayner, a keen time-triallist in his younger days, put up incentive awards for members achieving personal best’s over 50, 100 and 12 hrs. These awards continued for several years with differing TT incentives. In the Hampton Triathlon comprising a 400 m swim, 20 km cycle and 5 km run, Steve Bayliss, finished 2nd Youth and his brother Mark, 1st Junior and 3rd Senior.

The number of our riders entering MTB races was less than other years. Rob Young had shown his strength in the Eastway Summer Series, some weeks getting placed, twice crashing out, and eventually finishing second overall in the Experts Class. Despite breaking his collarbone, Rod Yarr was our only competitor to enter the National Series finishing well up in the Sports Class.

Rod Yarr with the Cyclocross trophy. Designed and made by Mark Phillips, a sculptor, this award is affectionately known as “the Hernia trophy” due to its weight!

By 1996 Addiscombe’s general secretary was Glyn Durrant who was also secretary of BCF Surrey Division and therefore well versed with the shenanigans taking place at National level. Despite members nationally having elected Tony Doyle as President of the BCF, members of the Board made it clear they would refuse to work with him. Briefly, this caused unease within the Divisions and some clubs and riders delayed re-affiliation. Surrey, along with a few other Divisions, engaged in discussions with the CTC regarding the latter taking over cycle racing in Britain and running it on a more professional basis. In the meantime the Surrey Cycle Racing League, under the guidance of Keith Butler, arranged their own insurance cover and did not affiliate to the BCF that year. The League continued to flourish and members were assured of a good season’s racing.

Mark Bayliss and Graham Hughes attended a Sports Science programme, funded by the Sports Council, at Chichester Institute. Hughes then got off to an excellent start with his road racing finishing 2nd junior in the 55 km Klijte of Belgium and a 1st and 3rd in 80 km 3/J races run by the Kent League. He also won two stages in the Junior Tour of Wales, pulled off a Surrey League win in a 2/3 cat event and finished 31st overall in a 4-stage race in Belgium where he was a member of the South East Centre of Excellence team. Later in the season he got a placement at Leeds University and the club was sorry to part company him. Jason Simpson was another to win a Kent League event this time over 70 kms round the Sevenoaks Weald. Arthur Ellis too was riding strongly in both road races and MTB events taking various veterans’ awards in the latter. He competed in the first mountain-bike Tour of Britain.

Mark Bayliss in time trial mode.

Rob Pilling was placed 2nd at both Dunsfold and Hellingly in 3rd cat. races and with Jason Simpson, Dave Kennett & Paul Tunnell rode the Surrey League Easter 3-day for 2nd/3rd cats. The Bayliss brothers were clearly two of our faster competitors training for triathlons. Early in the year, Steve finished 4th in the Junior National Championship at Birmingham and competing in the World Junior Cyclocross championship at Montreuil, France, finished 51st. His potential was clearly noted and he was selected to ride in regional and national teams.

Rob Pilling promoted the club’s Surrey League event plus an open 1st cat. road race as a memorial to John Smith. Support for time trials was fairly low-key although new members, in particular Dave Palmer, were making encouraging progress. Of the club’s ninety-six members, twenty-two participated at this discipline during the year with eight recording personal bests. The President’s 10 received a good entry, Talan Borkett, riding off with the Handicap trophy.

Paul Tunnell had tried to generate interest in track racing by organising a trip to Calshott track. Son Mark (pictured) achieved a gold and silver in English Schools’ Area championships and two silvers at ESCA National level. He also raced at Crystal Palace, riding with the Under 16’s, and new member Alexandra Hardy was performing well as an Under 12.

Phil O’Connor, by now a highly respected sports photographer with less time for riding a bike, was using running to keep fit and ran the London Marathon in 2h 55 mins. During the previous winter O’Connor had proved popular with his clubroom talk based on his life as a press photographer. His photographs continue to appear in specialist magazines and the general media worldwide.

Mark Tunnel

Colin Davies, managing director of an optical company when not out on his bike, chose to ride the 839 miles to a business conference in Milan, raising over ÂŁ3,500 for the charity Cancer and Leukemia in Childhood. The ride took him eight days, celebrating his 50th birthday en route. His wife, Barbara, drove the support car – and brought him home in time to be back at the office!

The year finished with Rob Pilling 6th overall and Mark Tunnell, 1st U15 in the London Cyclocross League. Steve Bayliss finished 37th in an event in the World Cup Series in Belgium.

Despite the racing activity, numbers attending the weekly clubroom meetings continued to decline and most times the dozen or so members congregated on a very sociable basis in the kitchen. Other clubs, not only those specialising in cycling, were making similar comments about their inability to attract new members. Apart from special evenings, club-night support has continued to decline as the Internet has provided a fast means of exchanging news and ideas.

Two founder members died in 1997, Pip Heathfield and Fred Armstrong. Heathfield had retained his interest in the club’s activities and his wife and family donated a trophy in his memory. His favourite distance in his active days in the 1930’s had been 25 miles so for the first two years the trophy was awarded to the fastest club member in the Open 25. It now moves around the different disciplines at the discretion of the President. Fred Armstrong had been “the quiet brother” in a large family (all members at one time or another), but as Jim Trenowden summed up the two more active brothers, in the 1950’s Sid had been Club Captain and Runs Leader and Fred his back-up guy, doing an excellent job looking after those who fell by the wayside. Although a stroke ended Fred’s cycling when only in his late 50’s he was always pleased to see members who called by.

Looking back to this period, membership and racing activities may be considered rather quiet yet reading through the archives the club was strong enough to continue its tradition of supporting many of the Associations to which it annually affiliated: Eddie Mundy, President of the Road Records Association 1994-2001 and their Records secretary, Stan Brown, treasurer, and John Watts, recorder and archivist of the Southern Counties Cycling Union, Glyn Durrant secretary of BCF Surrey Division and Chris Watts secretary of RTTC London South District. Members would also be promoting four Open events (two time trials, a road race and a cyclocross) in the club’s name in 1997 plus a Southern Counties time trial, two Surrey League events, two of the “Beastway” evenings, a criterium at Crystal Palace, a round of the RTTC’s National Time Trial Series and the RTTC National 50 miles Championship.

It is fitting when mentioning the 50 miles Championship to acknowledge the fine result board by Cyril Hinton. He produced and manned a result board 16 ft wide that could easily be seen by those at the rear of the large school hall where several hundred had gathered for the presentation on what proved to be a very wet morning. Sean Yates, recently returned from a professional career on the Continent, proved a popular winner. Even if the club’s promotions were slightly exceptional in 1997 there continues to be a reasonable involvement in the Associations. What must be remembered is that without the backing of the member clubs these Associations and their much-needed road and track promotions would die out.

The Open 25 was a memorable one in 1997 in that we received 168 entries and the 120-field closed with 1.03.25 – our 13-year-old Mark Tunnell (pictured). By operating the RTTC Reserve Scheme, introduced in 1995, 117 started and 114 finished. Past members Hilda and Ken Bush, domiciled in Nottingham, were on holiday in Sussex and volunteered to put out all the signs at crack of dawn. They so enjoyed meeting up with everyone again that they came back to assist in following years.

Mark Tunnel

Graham Hughes was once again highly placed in road races, as were young Mark Tunnell and Alexandra Hardy in their age groups in circuit races. Tunnell won the Home Counties English Schools C.A. championship and for a second year topped the BCF National Points series for U14’s.

Whilst there was no competition over the longer distances for the club time trial championship, Jason Simpson had another rewarding season recording 57.08, 1.56.08 and 4.12.39 (3rd place in the Southern Counties 100), before he suddenly sold up his equipment to buy a house. Tracey Wearing took the ladies’ 10 and 25 trophies. Mark Tunnell won the SCCU Junior BAR.

Jack Griffin, at 90 our most senior rider still awheel, left his Higgins tricycle at home one day to try hot air ballooning! Meanwhile Sid Armstrong, just a few months younger, participated in a sponsored walk over 8.9 miles, and note, he also walked from home to the start and back, another 6.5 miles.

The beginning of 1998 saw quite a few administration changes. Glyn Durrant moved across to the Norwood Paragon to take a bigger role assisting Keith Butler with the Surrey League and Joyce Smith took over the Presidency from Chris Watts. Rob Pilling acted as both Chairman and road race secretary, Paul Tunnell general secretary, while Nick Mann, became the new editor of The Gazette and introduced multi-colour for the first time. Mann managed a spectacular crash while out training by riding into the rear of a works lorry – the type with flashing lights and big reflective stripes. Everyone was thankful when he was finally discharged from hospital. He reported a lady witness later saying the impact had reminded her of a Tom and Jerry cartoon but unfortunately, he had not jumped straight back up. His face took considerably longer to recover than Tom’s ever did in the cartoons.

Even if Paul Tunnell did manage to win the bulk of the trophies in 1998 in time trials he was well supported with members who rode in a spread of events from Essex to Hampshire. Jim Trenowden received congratulations on achieving the status of 1st King Vet in the now popular SPOCO series.

The Clarencourt 4-up 60 km team trial trial attracted two Addiscombe teams. The “A” team, Dave Palmer, Rob Pilling, Doug Rollins and John Sadler finished in 1 hr 35 mins 33 secs. (pictured). The “B” team, Ron Halfacre, Graham Morris, Keith Knight and Steve Hehir, face the timekeeper.

Dave Palmer, Rob Pilling, Doug Rollins and John Sadler

Although some years earlier the UCI in their apparent wisdom had deleted all tandem records from their books the 1937 ride remained a challenge. A tandem pair from the Leo R.C. made two attempts at Manchester Velodrome on the British and World Hour Record of 49.991 km set by Ernie Mills and Bill Paul in October 1937. The closest the pair got was 49.375 km.

Doug Rollins decided the way to Alicante in Southern Spain was best by bicycle. With his partner driving his back-up vehicle he organised his route with plans to meet up with other clubs en route.

Other awards to come the way of Addiscombe members were Southern Counties’ Badges of Honour for Arthur Rayner and John Watts and, at the same function, National RTTC committee man, Dave Stalker, made a presentation to Chris Watts of their Gold Badge of Honour for thirty years’ service to the Council. The 100-year history of the Southern Counties C.U. was written and published by John Watts with the layout and printing capably handled by Graham Morris. A short account of the club’s many successes within the SCCU was also written for The Gazette.

Cyril Hinton produced the artwork for the 70th Dinner

A celebratory 70th Annual Dinner opened the year of 1999. Founder member Bill Paul made the journey from Essex, but Sid Armstrong and sister Vi were unfortunately laid low with ‘flu and unable to join the party. Newcomers Keith Knight and Mike Rivett each went home with a trophy and the evening was greatly enhanced by the presence of Michael Hutchinson, Cambridge University, winner of the Open 10, and Steve China, API Re-sprays, winner of the Open 25.

Cyril Hinton produced the artwork for the 70th Dinner

From thereon, certainly as far as the President was concerned, things seemed to go rapidly downhill and her anxiety over the future was expressed as, for various reasons, the club struggled to get officials. Joyce Smith was left running the club with various hats on – President, Chairman, acting secretary, treasurer, not to mention the weekly chore of the clubroom. She even gamely put her name forward as promoter of the 2000 Open 10. Her main supporting officers, apart from the usual diehards, were relatively new members, Keith Knight handling road racing and Dave Palmer on the time trial front. Only one new member joined in 1999 but this did not stop members racing and the club continuing to promote to its usual high standard, even if it meant encouraging past members and friends to assist, frequently resulting in a grand reunion after the event.

After three years of promoting the 1st cat. J. B. Smith Memorial road race it was decided to concentrate efforts into promoting the event as a 3rd/4th cat. race under the Surrey League banner. Along with the Evening Handicap road race this honoured the club’s commitments to the Surrey Cycle Racing League. Keith Knight and Paul Tunnell both rode so well in these events they rose through the ranks to claim 2nd cat. licences before the season was out. They were supported by 4th cat. riders Mark Bayliss, Doug Rollins, Nick Mann and Steve Hehir.

Keith Knight, Paul Tunnell and Nick Mann took the team award in the Open 10. In the Open 25 nine members finished, Doug Rollins and Steve Hehir recording personal bests. The RTTC Championship 50, held in Essex saw an Addiscombe team competing comprising the two Davies’s, Steve and Colin, with Paul Tunnell. It could not have been all doom and gloom in 1999 as two teams rode the Clarencourt 4-up team time trial and 3 teams rode the end of season Redmon G.P. 2-up. In the South East SPOCO series Jim Trenowden gained a King Vet bronze award.