Published on: 20th January 2014
Club info: www.westlothianclarion.co.uk
Each month we will be putting the spotlight on one club from each Region for the Club Newsletter. This month its the turn of the West Lothian Clarion! Read all about the club below.
West Lothian Clarion
West Lothian Clarion is a section of the National Clarion. The National Clarion Cycling Club formed in 1895 and has some 25 member sections throughout the UK.
The West Lothian Clarion cycling club formed in 2008 as a result of like-minded local cyclists looking for a way of developing their own ability in the company of others. Over the last six years the club has grown to 252 members including a strong youth and women’s section.
The first time I met the Clarion crew was at a youth training session in Linlithgow s
ometime in August last year. Matt Ball, the clarion secretary and coach was leading the session but rather than your typical introduction he began the by shouting something that sounded like “Boots” to which the response by the riders was immediately “Spurs”? Initially, I thought this was a bizarre but innovative form of the bike, helmet clothing check, I was intrigued!
Unbeknown to me at the time Clarion riders traditionally greet each other by saying "Boots!" and respond by saying "Spurs!" It comes from when Clarion newspaper editor Robert Blatchford, used to sit in the barracks late at night telling stories between friends...to make sure their listeners were still awake, the storyteller would say 'Boots!' those still awake would reply 'Spurs!', the story would continue. 'Boots and Spurs' continues to be the Clarion call to this day.
This story typifies the nature of the West Lothian Clarion club. They are one of the friendliest and welcoming cycling clubs I have come across which is not surprizing have the motto of “good fellowship”. In my opinion a good and successful club should have something for everyone and the Clarion make this a priority with club activities taking precedence over other activities. The club has regular social nights at the local boozer as well as on bike activities like day trips and generally riding a bike for the love of riding a bike, rightly so!
In May 2010, the youth Go-ride club was formed for riders aged 6 - 15 with the aim being to give riders the opportunity to improve their cycling skills in a safe, traffic-free environment. With 7 qualified coaches, and more being trained this year, the youth section is going from strength to strength. The club has over 70 youth riders with the majority of them U14 so whilst they are still young I predict we will be seeing many more clarion riders on radar in no time. 
The clarion women’s section is one of the strongest in the country. Driven by a number of active members the success is down to a mixture of coaching and mixed club runs. Coaching adults is still relatively rare in cycling clubs but the women have identified that coaching helps to develop the basic riding skills whilst gaining confidence in preparation for club rides. Based on the social model of the clarion mixed rides are popular.
West Lothian clarion is not just a social club they love their racing too. The club will organise 6 open events in 2014 including; the RAD tour, Lang Wang hilly TT, an open 25 TT, an open 3/4 road race, an Audax and the Kingscavil hill climb
As well as organising open events the clubs social directive insures a significant number of club confined events. As well as 10 individual TT’s and a 2 up TT the club puts on a race series. Riders participate in the club's 6-race series which incorporates road, grass track, mountain bike and cyclo- cross race in traffic free locations. The points are accumulated in a season long league table with trophies awarded at the end of the season.
