Page 9 - DLNjun2016-1007
P. 9

De Laune Rider Admits Extensive
                  Doping and Gangland ties!

A prominent ex-De Laune rider has admitted taking performance-enhancing
drugs during their successful racing career and subsequently having
friendships with, and doing some work for, South East London gangsters,
including Eddie Richardson of Richardson game fame. (Historic note: The
Richardson gang were Kray rivals – it was the 1966 murder of Richardson
gang-member George Cornell in the “Blind Beggar” by Ronnie Kray that led
to the Kray’s fall from power. The shooting was, allegedly for homophobic
remarks made about Ronnie but more likely that simply exacerbated a feud
related to the shooting murder of a Kray gang-member in Catford and
revenge shooting of a Richardson gang-member at the same, Richardson-
protected, club. )

His comment on doping – “I’m not proud of it. What I am sorry about is I
didn’t do enough of it.”

I thought that title, and the intro, would get your attention more than my
original, rather boring choice of “Kings of the Road – A Journey Into The Heart
Of British Cycling” by Robert Dineen..!

I was enjoying this book, more on that later, when I arrived at page 113 and
the Ex-De Launie pitched up on page 113, with a name-check to De Laune
appearing on page 115. For those less naïve than myself, better-informed
or good at puzzles it may not be a surprise that the rider in question is Reg
Barnett. For those who don’t know, Reg had a very successful track career
and cut his racing teeth at Herne Hill and Crystal Palace among other venues
before an international career, and eventually the professional ranks beckoned.
Reg is adamant that, although he studied the subject while racing abroad,
he was clean as an amateur and only used the drugs to transition from track
to road-sprinter, confounding pundits who didn’t think he’d make the switch
– but, as he pointed out, they didn’t know about his pharmaceutical advantage.
The gangland connections were, as he explains, just the result of knowing

                                                       9
   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14