These notes will of necessity be rather briefer than usual since South DC have already lost two open events of long standing on the A303 at Andover because of major works at one of the roundabouts there as well as having to postpone the only 50 mile event on the A3(M) due to lane closures on the north bound carriageway both sides of the Ham Barn Roundabout.
In addition the long time promoter of the three open events on the Isle of Wight over the Easter weekend passed away during the winter and, although these were eventually run by another club member there were only 65 entries in all which was rather disappointing.
My own short spell in hospital at the beginning of May for a complete knee reconstruction has also meant I did not have the time (and indeed the inclination) to think about starting these notes until a day or so before the deadline for copy.
Earlier in the year Shirley Cobley unfortunately was involved in a serious accident at Bosham Roundabout (A259) when a vehicle changed direction without signalling & caused the pair of cyclists in front of her to take avoiding action which resulted in her touching wheels & falling on to the pavement to her left and sustaining injuries to her pelvis.
This was just before she was due to go to America to stay with her son but she was determined not to let this put her off going there in a wheelchair.
I spoke to her on her recent return and she is slowly getting better.
Jack Brown was another who suffered injuries when he was hit from behind by a car this despite the fact it was in broad daylight on a straight piece of road between Petersfield & Midhurst and he was wearing brightly coloured clothing.
Notwithstanding another setback he is racing again and indeed when I saw him at the Hampshire RC 10 in the early evening of 30th April he had just completed his second event at this distance that day in 26.27 having done 24.39 in the Bath CC morning event - this on one of the windiest days for some time.
Nik Bowdler made it a winning start to his season with a fine time of 23.20 in the a3crg Hardriders 10 on the old A3 with Steve Walkling 3rd in 24.08.
Steve moved up to 2nd place in the Sotonia CC event on 26th March with a much improved time of 21.53 and wife Lesley was fastest lady rider with 24.43.
Terry Icke had a series of good times & placings in the next six weeks.
He was fastest Veteran in the East Dorset CA 24 miles event with a time of 56.30 for 7th place, was 3rd fastest a fortnight later in the same associations 27 Km race withn addition 37.51, 4th fastest in CC Weymouth 10 (21.33), FOS in 8th place with 22.19 in Hampshire RC 10 (beating Steve Walkling by one second) and 6th fastest and FOS in Bournemouth & District Women's CA 25 with 57.54.
In this latter event Ray Hughes was 2nd (56.46) and Dave England 2nd FOS (1.2.33 and Glenn Longland 3rd FOS 58.16.
Ray had earlier won the Lea Valley CC 25 (58.00) and the Bath RC 31 miles (1.16.17) as well as being third in the North Hants RC 18.5 miles with 42.34 (2nd FOS + 9.41.
John Woodburn was FOS in this latter event with + 12.07 (48.49) and had won the 1st Rudy Project Series event over 25.55 miles on Target Time + 11.20 (1.6.50), achieved the same result in Series 2 race at 15 miles +9.19 (38.47) but had dropped to 4th place in Series 3 at 33 miles.
In addition he was FOS + 9.18 in the Hounslow & District 10 in which Chris Long (now with PBScience.com) did 21.39 for 8th place.
Lionel Veck (Hampshire RC) the second oldest HLM in the Group reaches his 95th birthday in the middle of June.
He was racing into his eighties until a serious accident stopped him cycling altogether but over the years has been riding a static bicycle on rollers to achieve a degree of fitness.
I am told by club mate Peter Dawson, who has a motorised tandem, that it is hoped that Lionel will be on the back of this unique machine on his actual birthday and they will ride over one of the flat local 10 mile courses to mark the occasion.
If this ambitious project goes ahead I will try to get a photograph of the pair of them for publication at a later date.
Three more group members (Les Janman, Fred Shepherd and Stan Dackombe) have all achieved Honorary Life Member status in the past few months - HLM's now number 22 of our current membership of 160.
Les is still a member of Bognor Regis CC but ill health in recent years means his racing days are now over although he is still much involved in club activities and able to do a spot of marshalling if required.
Fred, who with his son David holds the unique distinction of being the only father & son combination to have won the Group's BAR competition, has not ridden a bike since a serious accident several years ago is still seen occasionally at local race headquarters if David is in the field.
Stan (ex Harlequins CC), known to me since my early days in the Group when he was a very fast short distance specialist, currently lives in West Wittering and is still seen pottering around the lanes near home.
Incidentally David Shepherd changed clubs at the end of last year and so has transferred his VTTA membership to Surrey / Sussex group as his new club (GS Stella) are keen to enter a team in the one-off Open 24 Hour championship to be run by East Sussex CA at the end of June.
There has been the usual drop out in membership at this time of the year with about a dozen or so not rejoining for various reasons but we are pleased to welcome five new members in Gary Burley (Andover Whs.), Simon Craig-McFeeley (a3crg), Alan Emmott (Fareham Whs.), Brian Grierson, (Sotonia CC) and John Lovell, Vectis Roads CC to our ranks.
Finally would Group members please note that the Group's 25 mile Championship due to be run in the Andover Wheeler event scheduled for 8th May will be decided in the August Bank Holiday Sunday Group event on the Bognor Course P901.
Ken Blowe
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