Event Volunteers

 

These volunteers were nominated for their efforts in organising and supporting grass roots British Cycle sport.  These events can cover the whole scope of races organised by British Cycling members including Road, Track, BMX, MTB and Cycle Speedway.

Margaret Dick (Central)

 

By Josie Heffernan:
Margaret has been a key figure at Hayes Hawks BMX Club for over 12 years, and her continuing efforts have been instrumental in the club being as popular and successful as it is today.  She is not only the Membership Secretary, but Club Welfare Officer and an integral race day Event Official.  Margaret officiates at Regional, National and European level, when she is not kept busy with the Hawks.

 

One of her most important roles within the Club is the fact that Margaret is the first point of contact when new riders and parents come to the Club sessions.  She provides all the information that both parents and riders need to get them started in our sport.  Margaret also sorts out all the children with hire bikes, helmets and gloves at every club session, alongside taking Club subs.

 

If the kids have a spill or need anything, it’s Margaret they go to.  Margaret has also attended a Good Practice Child Protection course and A Club for All which are needed for Clubmark Accreditation as a Go-Ride club.

 

The overall role that Margaret plays within the Club is huge and it makes you wonder if there would be a Hawks BMX Club at all without all her hard work.

 

Steve and Susan Parsons (East Midlands)

 

By Jonathan Day:
Steve is heavily involved in organising and co-ordinating the region's road races.  He spends endless hours of his own time to ensure that the racing programme in the region runs as smoothly as possible.  He spends a lot of time ensuring that the regional board is focused on the key issues that arise, Steve organises all of the board meetings.  On top of all this Steve still races on the track when time permits.  He is still the leader at Scunthorpe Poly CC and is the clubs Go Ride coach running weekly sessions on a Friday afternoon. 

 

He also ensures that the training nights run smoothly and is often seen riding the derny.  In addition he has also worked hard to ensure that the resurfacing of the track at Quibell has been successful and he spends lots of time down there making sure that everything is kept clean and tidy.  Steve also managed to find some money to replace the bikes that suffered fire damage in the container fire in June.

 

Sue works quietly behind the scenes supporting Steve in all his work but she is also heavily involved in some key areas.  Sue is a track commissaire and helps to run the Scunthorpe Track League.  This year it has been re-born and Sue has been the driving force behind the organisation of the events etc.  When Steve and Sue’s daughter got married in the summer they were both at the track league on the Friday night working hard and the wedding was on the Saturday. 

 

Sue is also treasurer for the regional board, she manages this role well and provides regular reports to the board members regarding the finances of the region.

 

Max Pendleton (Eastern)

 

By Nigel Hampton:
Since 1987 Mildenhall CC promoted a one-day grass track meeting, which has grown into a three day cycling rally. The 'Mildenhall Cycling Rally' attracts thousands of cyclists, of all disciplines, and is second only in size to the Cyclists' Touring Club York Rally. 

 

Max has been promoting the rally for years on behalf of Mildenhall CC.  As a promoter the rally is one of the key events within the Eastern region.  It’s not just about the grass track racing that runs over the August bank holiday, but the social side that makes this event a real success with families.

 

Peter Harrison (North East)

 

By Peter Root:
Peter has been a member of the Gosforth RC and a stalwart of British Cycling for many years. He returned to the North East Board in 2004 as Chairman and since then has striven to raise the profile of the division, leading by example by forming a partnership with Newcastle City Council in 2005.  The aim of the partnership is to promote a major criterium in the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne this year which will be a round of the National Elite Criterium Series in 2007. Peter has also sought sponsorship to promote a Premier Calendar event (the Beaumont Trophy) in 2007.

 

Bill Greenalgh (North West)

 

By Alex Scoular:
Bill was one of the founding members of CDNW seven years ago. It was set up to provide coaching and racing at the then newly opened Preston Arena and since then the organisation has not stood still. The two areas that CDNW has been immensely successful in are providing a Criterium league, and a Road Race league for grass roots cycling. This is the part of the sport Bill is passionate about.  He has turned around the North West racing calendar to the extent that there is hardly a weekend without racing, and we are now in a situation where most weeks there is an opportunity for seniors to race at least three times.

 

Bill single handedly organises the SIS Criterium league every Thursday evening and co-organises the Recycling Road Race League. He arranges the marshals with the host clubs, books the NEG motorcycle marshals, commissaires, lead cars, first aid, and judges, for every event. At the event Bill manages the sign on for around 100 riders and will assist at the finish and for the primes. This year there has been 19 events in the Recycling Road Race League calendar and 21 SIS Crits. Bill has also been involved with National Criterium Series events and Premier Calendar events in the North West.

 

In total, Bill has been involved in volunteering at cycling events for over 40 years in the North West.  This has been in various capacities, including marshalling, commissairing, as well as event organisation.   

 

Rob Lyne (South)

 

By Dan Coast:
Rob has taken on the role of organiser of the Southern Region Castle Combe race series in difficult circumstances and has enabled a race series that was going to fall by the way to continue and flourish. He has ensured that the 17 events all took place, including liasing with the landowner, all the contributing clubs, of which there were five when he took over and now there are seven.  A vital mid-week competition has been maintained thanks to the voluntary work of Rob.

 

Vern McClelland (South East)

 

By Roy Page:
Preston Park in Brighton has had a track since 1887 and it feels like Vern has been promoting and officiating there from the beginning. He has been on the committee of the Sussex Cycle Racing League from when British Cycling had County based Divisions, despite his working commitments which take him away from home for long periods of time.

 

As a member of Worthing Excelsior, he takes up the position of Track Secretary for the club and has been a regular competitor in road, track and time trials. His participation has been maintained through the support he has given his three children to progress in the Sport with his daughter Katherine medaling in the National Junior Points Race in 2002 and 2003.

 

From his supporting role to Ken Wells at Preston Park, Vern became a Regional Track Commissaire and then took on the promotion of the regular Wednesday Track League. His promotional work was extended further up until 2004 where he promoted the Hove Park Circuit Race series in addition to the track league before Crawley CC stepped in to assist with this promotion. Due to these events being local events, it meant that Vern carried out the officiating role with the support of helpers as well as dealing with general promotion duties.

 

Vern’s interest in supporting young people in the sport has seen him become a coach for Preston Park Youth CC which means he also ends up as Commissaire for the youth stage race and regional track omnium that the club promotes each year. His commitment to continued professional development has seen him take up opportunities to become a Regional and then National Road Commissaire in 2005. In addition to this he has now become a National Track Commissaire and was seen assisting with the officiating at the National Youth Track Championships in Newport in 2006.

 

Showing the diverse events that Vern is willing to assist with, he was assistant commissaire at the Regional Road Race Championships back in May and was recently Chief Commisaire for the inaugural Croydon Youth Games Road Race.

 

Tracey Leggett (South West)

 

By Mark Adams:
Tracey has been a tireless contributor to Decoy BMX club (Exeter) and the main organiser of the Regional and National competition rounds. Despite local opposition to competitions being held at the track she has gone out to the locals and the local authority and negotiated the continuation of their competitions, noted not only for the quality of the events but also for the great atmosphere and friendliness.

 

Tracey has been ensuring that this for the past five years in addition to her role as secretary and the promotion of Go-ride within the club.

 

Rob Lally (WCU)

 

By Bill Owen:
Rob started organising all sorts of cycling events in 1980, with cyclo cross as his first love. During this time he owed a cycle shop and helped out youngsters with equipment, training and experienced advice.  In 1996 he was diagnosed with a brain tumour, which curtailed his competitive cycling, it was while recovering Schmoo introduced Rob to the WCU board, taking over the job of cyclo-cross co-ordinator. 

 

This he saw as a way to put something back into cycling. He always made a contribution in meetings, standing up for cyclo cross with great vigour, making sure cyclo-cross did not miss out.  During his term of office despite a continuing battle with ill health he completely revised cyco-cross in Wales, Wales now boast an excellent season with superb courses and good facilities, The number of riders taking part has increased, yet it still retains a friendly atmosphere.  He has introduced a large number of youngsters to cyclo cross through the schools championships often giving them their first taste of cycle racing. 

 

Many have gone on to take part in the league and join local clubs.  When he took this over there was only a handful of entrants, this year there were over 100.  It is not just cyclo cross that has benefited from his time and energy as he has worked as a marshal, mechanic, commissaire and organiser in Mountain Biking, and Road Racing.  Rob works tirelessly to help, his health allowing whatever is needed even making tea.

 

Pete Biddle (West Midlands)

 

By Nick Yarworth:
Pete first became involved in cycling in the 1950s as a competitor, before promoting a few events throughout the 1960s.  It was while supporting his son in competition that he became a Commissaire in the late 1980s and since that time has turned out to officiate RRs on the majority of weekends during the seasons. 

 

More recently he has been one of a declining number of RR officials in the old Midlands area, and has played a key role in their events being able to continue.    He has also officiated at many of the mid-week Shropshire and South Staffordshire RR League and Wolverhamption Track League evenings, and remains keen to keep learning as shown by his willing attendance at the various refresher training sessions for officials.

 

Virtually all of his work has been within the old division area of Midlands (Shropshire and South Staffordshire) – an area for which he maintains a keen loyalty to this day and is proud of the role the various parts of the area has had to play in the history and development of cycling road racing. 

Pete has been involved in Regional committee work at various times throughout this later period, being one of the most regular attendees at committee meetings.

 

He demonstrates an enthusiasm for the sport and the views of its competitors throughout his work, and is supportive of the efforts of others in organising and promoting events, particularly for the benefit of local riders.  Despite his own obvious commitment to the sport he is always quick to thank his wife, June, who works with him throughout all his officiating roles.

 

Lesley Barratt (Yorkshire)

 

By Peter Root:
Les is a Regional Commissaire and regularly officiates at events in East Yorkshire. He is nominated for this award by the Yorkshire Board in recognition of his efforts in support of the Beverley Town Centre Criterium and National Elite Men’s and Women’s Road Race Championships in 2006. Les was in charge of securing the circuit for the criterium and the main straight for the road races. Having spent all day securing barriers for the circuit race he then lead the team which removed all obstructions prior to the market in the town square the following day. The job was completed at 5am when Les moved on to work on the Women’s RR championship.