Fantastic time had at reunion
Published on 22nd March 2007 in News
22-03-24 GT
By all the 60-plus who attended, the reunion for members of the old Goole Wheelers Cycling Club - at the Blacksmith's Arms in Hook last Friday - was regarded as a great success.
Though it is some years since the club ceased to function, the event attracted former members from all over the country, many of them winners in their day of events locally and beyond in the Wheelers' successful decades which followed World War II. Many of them now of pensionable age, some are still cycling while others roam the countryside now on foot, as fell-walkers and ramblers.
Among those who had travelled furthest were Corbett Bunting (from Southampton), John Abdy (Middlesex), Paul Butler (Henley on Thames), Derek Cutts (Sussex) and Steve Peck (Derby). Others attending included brothers Alan and Ken Brown, Les Scott, Dave Simpson, Brian Hunt, Don Sweeting, Brian Alp and Dave Simpson.
That so many ex-members put in an appearance covering so many eras was a triumph for the efforts of the reunion organisers Les Ellin, Colin Abdy, Mike Donoghue and John White.
In the only moment of formality during the evening, Colin Abdy toasted 'absent friends' - those unable to attend because of other commitments, and former members now deceased. He also paid tribute to the late Clarrie Guest, whom he described as 'the Father of the Club' in the Fifties and Sixties.
And, poignantly, among others present was Joan, the sister of popular club member Colin Chessman, who was fatally injured in a road accident while competing in a Goole Wheelers time trial in August, 1959. (22-03-24 GT)