November 1999

Club Hill-Climb

In bright but windy conditions, the North End hill-climb championship saw a large field of riders competing on the traditional hill: Hope Mountain. Mike Garner emerged the winner, battling against the gale force headwind at the summit to record 8-01. Barry Bucknell was second with 8-33, while Roger van Egmond recorded 8-44 to come third. Mike then tried to be the first person down the hill as well, only to get a chance to closely inspect a local wall! The wall was unavailable for comment.

Full results are available from http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ruvic/bne/results_hillclimb.htm

Club Dinner

I make no apologies for reminding members that club dinner and prize presentation tickets will be on sale from me for the remainder of this month at the reduced price of £14, before going up to £15 on the 1st of December. To qualify for the reduction, you must have paid for (not merely ordered) your tickets. The dinner is on the 11th of December, at the King’s Gap Court Hotel in Hoylake, starting at 7:30pm.Willi Moore and Bob Memery will be the guests. You can contact me through any of the media at the bottom of this sheet.

Club Cyclo-cross and Hot pot

The ever-popular club cyclo-cross event will take place on Saturday the 4th of December, leaving the Mills at 9:30. Venue for the race is currently undecided, but afterwards we will return to The Rigger pub in Elton for the traditional hot pot lunch. All welcome.

Club Weekend 23rd-24th October

We met at the Mills for 10 o’clock on a dull Saturday morning just as it started to rain, and it looked set for the weekend. Harry and Doreen were there to take our bags and once everyone was ready we split into two groups. One group (going all the way by road) was Alan and Marina Johnston, with Keith and Carol Boardman. The rest of us were going to rough it a bit, and so we went our separate ways. Some 15 of us made our way to Corwen for lunch, but at Saltney footbridge Geoff Brandt, James Hartley and David Berry realised they had come with the wrong group, and they should have gone with the roadies! Geoff told the lads it would be alright because he had a map and could find a route to Llanrhaedr. We made our way up the Sun Spot, where those who hadn’t come for the weekend turned off, which seemed quite appealing to me as the rain was getting worse.

After lunch in Corwen we started to make our way to the rough stuff. With a little persuasion Geoff, James and David decided to tackle some off-road (which was lucky really ’cos we needed Geoff’s map to find our way). The track took a change for the worse after riding through a river (or over the bridge as some chose to do), forcing all the ‘roadies’ to get off and walk, as well as some MTBers. Once back on the road we descended down a road with the wind and rain in our faces. With the time only about 2 o’clock, we decided to ride to Pistyll Rhaeadr to finally view Jack’s waterfall. On our way we passed a couple on a tandem: when we next stopped to cape up, they came past us again, then round the next corner we found them in the hedge. We stopped to help them then continued on to Llanrhaedr, where we informed the owner of the tandem shop of the accident so he could go and pick them up. Then on to the waterfall - 5 miles uphill to Pistyll Rhaeadr. We had our pictures taken at the waterfall as proof we’d been there, then stayed for a drink in the café before returning to Llanrhaedr, where Harry and Doreen had left our bags in the Wynstay Arms and the Vicarage over the road. Looking forward to a warm bath - but none of the rooms had hot water, so after a quick wash in a cold bath (What - all of you in the same bath?! Ed.) we went downstairs for our meal. Here we met the people who had come in cars, apart from Chris Smith, who, once he had found the right Llanrhaedr got to the pub in time for last orders!

Sunday morning, and after breakfast we all met in the car-park to make our way home - by road, because the weather was taking a turn for the very worst. Keith and Carol waved us off as they were staying an extra night. The journey was not without complications: we had several punctures, and after crossing Saltney bridge a touch of wheels brought down Mike Daly. We arrived at the Mills cold, wet and hungry at about 2 o’clock. Harry and Doreen were there with the bags, and after something to eat we made our ways home.

Thanks to Harry and Doreen for transporting the bags and to Jack for organising the weekend.

Mike Garner

Annual General Meeting

The 1999 Annual General Meeting will take place on Thursday 9th December, immediately after the normal monthly meeting. As well as the election of club officials for the coming year, a decision will be taken on how to spend the £4,000 prize from this year’s highly successful Isle of Man Week. As many members as possible should turn up to ensure the meeting is as representative as possible (any suggestions that the cash will be divided up between attendees are a bit hopeful!)

Wanted

Young members James Hartley and David Berry are both on the lookout for a second-hand turbo or rollers. Contact them on 342 1668 (James) or 648 8923 (David) if you can help.

RTTC Champions Night

The 1999 Champions Night will take place on Saturday 8th of January 2000, at the Assembly Rooms in Derby, where the Birkenhead North End will be awarded the trophy for winning team in the National Junior ‘25’. If you are interested in going along to cheer on our lads, then ring Pete Byrne on 336 5804.

West Cheshire Dinner

The WCTTCA Dinner and Prize Presentation will be held at the Heatherlands Restaurant on Sunday 5th of December. Tickets are £9 (£5 for juniors) from Jack McAllister. After many years as organiser this is Alf Jones’ signing-off event before handing the reins over. With a mid-day meal this dinner is always worthy of support.

Jack McAllister

VTTA Merseyside Group

The 1999 season saw more success for the North End in VTTA competition. Mike Daly came 6th in the Group Championship BAR, with +0.865mph. In the Group Championship on Standard, Bill Hanson overcame his early-season ban(!) to take the title with plus 126m50s, Chris Neukom was 8th with plus 33m34s, and Mike Daly was 9th with plus 28m21s. The same three figured in the Group Championship on Time as well: Chris was 2nd with 7-51-00, Bill was 5th with 8-00-48, and Mike was 10th with 9-08-39. Well done all.

Info supplied by Doreen Mahar

MLCA Prizegiving

Rachel Heal is the in the market for a trophy cabinet to house her haul at the MLCA Golden Jubilee Dinner and Prize Presentation:

† Association Records

Jack McAllister

And Finally…


After queuing for half an hour, Andrea Tafi finally got his photo taken with Mike Daly.

Previous Newsletters: January February March April May June July August September October
Email me about anything in here