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DE LAUNE CYCLING CLUB

FOUNDED 1889

Sponsored by EVANS CYCLES (UK) Ltd. & SPECIALIZED CYCLES

De Laune News     February 2001        No. 823 -72^nd Year

www.delaunecc.org

THE PRESIDENTS REPORTS

First of all, I hope you all had a good Christmas and, like me, you are looking forward to the New Year. From the feelings I am getting from our members, things are starting to buzz. We have members who are volunteering for jobs in the club, with new ideas.

At our last committee meeting, we had Ben Neville who volunteered to run the club road race, and to be the Road Race Secretary. Well done Ben. I said in my previous reports that we have got to make sure that people like Ben get the support from all members, and not be left out on a limb. At the same meeting we had an application from a lady to join our club, and better still, who would be willing to look after the club canteen, if we had enough members turning up on a Thursday. More details later on this one.

Did those of you with computers, see the photos of the club Christmas Lunch ? All in splendid colour on our web site? Well done Mike. From the reports I got, it went down very well. I had to give this one a miss, as I could not face the road race around Crystal Palace to start with. Alan Rowe, informs me that he thinks he is reasonably fit, but he kept going off the back. I was told that it was, allegedly, a dead heat at the top of Anerley Hill between Mat Goods and Ben !! I hope we get a full report on the lunch in this edition.

I think that Mark and Jason Ballamy and Mike Peel should get a pat on the back for the way they are keeping members in touch with what is going on in the club. The last edition of the DLN was full of news and articles. It is up to us, as members, to let people know what is happening. We have articles from as far as Australia, thanks Suzanne. Thailand, thanks to John, and the USA, thanks to Gary, and one from someone who lives in a Hartley, Kent, whoever that is ? I have not heard a word from our correspondent in Herne Bay lately, is he still with us ? Bless him.

This month we are sending out our best Saga ski racing team to Austria (our only team ) to do battle again with the San Fairy Ann CC. We compete in many disciplines. Fast down hill. Slow down hill. Who gets up the quickest, and wine tasting. We are very strong in the latter !!!

Look out for names like Roy Savery, who falls down the quickest. Twitch Shambrook, who never falls down, and Brian Saxton, who never gets up. It is going to be hell !! Look out for the report.

Kav.

I am sure you would like to join me in congratulating Nick Kinsey on taking third place in the Nation Cyclo-Cross Veterans Championship held at Sutton Park, Birmingham yesterday.

Well done Nick...

Mike Peel

PS This was actually the first proper Cyclo-Cross event that he has done - all the rest were on his Mountain Bike!

Who?, What?, Where? and When? of:

John Walker Kavanagh - always known as 'Kav' - was born on the 22nd September 1934 and joined De Laune CC on the 16th December 1954.

National Service was beckoning and at the age of 18, forsaking his theatrical calling, he was called up into the Army where he ended up as a driver and squandered many hours in Egypt. He spent a relatively quiet time defending King Farouk from his bad habits, got a few miles in and quickly became the leading light of the St George's Cycling Club (based in Cairo) - there were only three of them!

Following his de-mob, he stayed down south and, as the Musical business was in steep decline, he started to look for 'proper work' and ended up in the motoring section at Pride and Clark's. It was at that time that he transferred his cycling allegiance to the De Laune, never to look back. Numerous jobs followed which included working in the Tool Section of Gamages in Holborn; he then turned to selling Fire Extinguishers and later to selling 3-in-1 Oil - some of you may remember the Christmas Stockings that magiced their way to Club bun-fights. John eventually settled down in that stock-in-trade job of cyclist's - Life insurance. Yes, rather than buy a policy from Roy Savery he joined the same Company and made sure that 'if Roy didn't get you, he would'.

John progressed through the ranks, and changed job descriptions with the same speed that the Company, Imperial Life of Canada, changed its name. His robust personality and quick wit must have stood him in good stead for he ended up as top dog in the Training and Compliance department. After 20 years service, John has now retired on a healthy pension (by taking his own advice). His long-suffering wife Pat was also in the Insurance line, working for Commercial Union, at their Maidstone office. John and Pat are very proud grandparents. Nancy, their only child, now has three children, Jasmine, Calum and baby.

As stated, John joined the De Laune in the winter of 1954/5 and very quickly got into the Time Trial scene. In his first year he competed at all distances including partnering Arthur How on the tandem and competing in a 12-hour race, in which he achieved 237 miles. Over the coming years John won many events including the Club Challenge Bowl nine times, and set several Club Records - both solo and tandem. He first broke the hour in 1957 with 58:56 and became the fifth De Laune man to achieve a sub-hour ride. For the record, the first was Alan Jackson, whose best, in 1953, was 58:16. Two years later Geoff Sinnett rode 59:55. The 3rd person was Tony Purser, 59:45 in '56; Dennis Tarr was 4th, also in '56 with a 59:22.

'Kav' had a come back year in 1974 and reduced his '25' time to 55:01. Arguably, one of his best rides was in the Viking Medium Gear event where he went very close to going under on a 72" fixed in the 1959 season. In the late fifties and early sixties 'Kav's' Lambretta scooter, with racing bike attached, was a regular sight at events; most people still rode out to the events with their racing wheels tied to their handlebars. John quickly progressed to a bubble car, which transported him all over Europe on camping trips, before moving up to big cars and becoming a life long Citroen devotee.

Like his contemporaries, Savery, Saxton and Peel, he joined Blackheath Harriers and completed in many road and cross-country races. His dogged determination achieved a best marathon time of 2hours S4mins in the 1989 London Marathon. In recent years he has had a few problems with his knees and, these days, does more walking than either cycling or running. Lots of his walking cronies are from the cycling world, especially from his adopted club, San Fairy Ann. John has also organised skiing trips for the same cycling-based crowd; they mainly go to the French Alps, although the other year a few went to Banff in Canada.

John was/is one of the best speakers that we have ever had in the Club -having been honed from an early age, his timing and delivery are quite superb. These days he is getting more reluctant to speak (getting old or shy?), which is a great shame for all concerned. One of his most memorable turns was when he was acting as an impromptu interpreter for our good friend Ramon Saiz. The occasion was a supper held at Blackheath Harriers HQ; John had everyone rolling in the aisles as he spontaneously translated Ramon's impeccable English back into pigeon Spanish.

One of John's hobbies these days is his carp. Pat's garden, which is her pride and joy (she keeps it immaculately), contains a large pond, of swimming pool status, which is full of Koi. The current inhabitants are not as old or big as their forebears - as unfortunately a neighbour, looking after the fish during one off the 'Kav's' summer camping holidays failed to do just that - resulting in several thousand pounds worth of exhibition Koi passing on!

In case you haven't worked out what a GPS tracking device is (see first paragraph) it stands for Global Positioning Satellite. This is a hand held device that locates your position within a few metres - often used by boats and ships. You can also enter the location of where-you-want-to-go and it will guide you there. On one of his recent walks 'Kav' was seen to be having trouble setting the thing up and a little old lady offered him advice, but not before his party had set off and disappeared into the distance, never to be seen again!

He loves his gadgets and has now embarked on a new hobby, surfing the World Wide Web - so look out for super fast e-mails from a super fast old member.

2001 - A race odyssey
(apologies to Arthur C Clarke)

Hello and a happy new year from your new Road Race Secretary. I hope you all had a restive festive season and are now looking forward to the forthcoming race calendar.

The early season reliability trials are underway (check press/website for details) and I hope as many riders as possible will have made it out to at least a few, if not all of them. For any of you who have missed them but would like to do some catching up the club runs are still functioning every Saturday (D. Haynes 020 7277 8648) and Sunday (J. O'Brien 020 8674 7611) as well as a new feature: James Peckham will be doing a Tuesday evening training ride leaving Crystal Palace at approx. 6.30pm. He plans to stay within street lit areas and finish at the clubroom in time for the new roller/weights training sessions that commence at 8.00pm. Those interested should contact James via the usual methods.

Anyone who wants an introduction to road racing should get along to the Eastway circuit on Hackney Marshes for the Ciclos Uno Winter Training Series that are held every Sunday morning. They are £5 a go, no license required and all categories are catered for. Races commence from approx 10.00am.Times and dates are as follows: J/V @ 10.00am, Main race @ 10.30 (usually 1 hr + 5 laps), January 14th, 21st and 28th. I did one on the Jan 7th and spent the whole race in 'full on attack' mode. I won a prime (proving how good rollers are for your speed) and tried a solo break with 2 laps to go, managing to hold the chase off until the last 20 metres….. arse! finished 4th. Excellent training and very good fun.

Our Evans/Specialized sponsorship money will again be covering race entry fees for the South East Road Race League and Surrey League races; I hope to have the requisite forms very soon along with the full calendar. Those riders interested should contact me so I can forward the registration forms to you - for SERRL races you have to have registered with them or your race entries will be returned unprocessed (This may be the same for the Surrey League, I'll check). The De Laune Cycling Club is responsible for organizing/marshaling the SERRL event on 1/4/01 (no joke!). We will need drivers, marshals and riders for this event so if you get in touch with me as soon as possible with your preferred choice it will be greatly appreciated. If as many of the non-racing side of the club as possible could offer their services as drivers/marshals it would free some of the racers to race. It is imperative that when our club promotes an event it should be highly visible within the entire structure of the event. PLEASE SUPPORT YOUR CLUB.

There has been a lot of positive talk over the last few weeks for the coming season, about becoming a more team based racing squad. I hope it can all come to fruition, as it would be to every rider's advantage to know that once they are away in a break, all their teammates will be busy blocking any attempt at a chase - and not leading it!

Any of you roadies interested in a training camp? I have a venue in mind (Aldermaston, Nr. Newbury - very close to the Hampshire Downs for hills and handy for the A4 dragstrip for your speed training along with lots of lovely lanes to avoid the traffic). Let me know.

Lastly, once your racing season has started and your placings come flooding in, let me know how your getting on or, even better, write reports for the DLN, as I'm sure all club members hearing of your/our successes will be given fresh impetus for their own endeavours.

Yours in sport
Ben Neville 020 8692 9918 or b.neville@lcp.linst.ac.uk

The President Reports 2

The De Laune Saga Ski Racing Team is back from the slopes. You would have been proud of us! We had our normal inter-club competition with the San Fairy Ann CC. and we hammered them in all sections: The Fall Section - which was led by our own Roy Savory! All I can say is that he was spectacular. If you lose one ski, you get one point. If you lose two skis, you get two points. Roy was going for the double points every time, bless him.

In The Flying By the Seat of the Pants Section it was a close thing between Mike Peel and Brian Saxton. Mike lost points from a few spectacular falls, and going backwards which did not help in his section. Brian did not have a fall, so he told me, but you know what a bull sh........ he is!

We have found out over the last few years that one in ten will have an accident in the group. You cannot get away from this average, so when the first one goes down and cannot get up, you heave a sigh of relief. Unfortunately it was Tich Shambrook who took a bad tumble this time, and has damaged a ligament in his leg. It stopped him skiing for the last day, but it did not stop him going out for the drinking competition that night. We hope you are on the mend Titch.

You have heard the one about the man who lands in New York, and his luggage lands in Moscow! It had to happen to our group. Lost cases, lost ski boots, and lost skis. It was a case of " sorry, but your luggage will follow on the next plane" - tell that to Johnny Dods, and see what he has to say. He lost the lot, and had to borrow bits from everyone. It all turned up half way through the week, however. All he had of his own was a pair of goggles and a pair of gloves. Brian Saxton told him how he could manage with one glove and a roll of Sellotape, and it worked.

Kav.

CLUB TIME TRIALS 2001

Please note that the OMA 10 has been moved to Sunday 2 September.

Novices 25 Sunday 1st April G25/47 08:05am
Start South Holmwood, Mill Road

Summer 25 Sunday 10 June G25/18 06:55am
Start Pease Pottage

Fred Peachey Mem 25 Sunday 15 July G25/45 06:00am
Start Kingsfold

OMA 10 Sunday 2 September G10/42 07:30am
Start North Holmwood, Spook Hill

Autumn 25 Sunday 16 September G25/47 08:00am
Start South Holmwood, Mill Road

Club Hill Climb Sunday 30 September 11:00am
Start White Lane, Titsey

From the desk of Garry Birch
To: Mike Peel Subject: RE: Christmas Lunch

Wow............

This web site is as they say over here.....AWESOME

Thanks for the photo's and the effort you are putting into the site to make it very enjoyable for us ex-pats. So many faces I don't recognise. This won't do at all, I have to get more info about these people. What's with the clubroom roof, leaks? Roller racing looks like a good alternative to the crit, it was harder to pass than in the Monaco GP. Please thank Quill personally for the dismount photo, it brought a huge smile to the face.

Garry

To: 'Mike Peel' Subject: RE: Christmas Lunch

Mike,
It brought a tear to my eye; even if there wasn't any indoor racing this year...

Thanks for the message, truly sorry I couldn't be there. However, I fly home tonight (not so sure about the temperature - kindly pointed out at the bottom of the site; it's 28 degrees here today...).

Have a great Christmas and a fabulous New Year and I hope I may catch up with a few De Launies during the couple of weeks I'm in the UK. Perhaps you should all organise a ride over here...?!

All the best,

Chris Gordon-Coker

The Team C-X Champs is at Eastway on Sunday 11th Feb, at Eastway, starting at 11.00. I'd really like it if we were able to put at least 2 teams in, maybe 3 - this will be the start of a big De Laune showing for this year. Don't worry if you're not feeling so fit right now, this is more of a team-building exercise. Results will follow.

And a plea for help - I've been asked to put a judging team together for it - I've got 4 so far, but could do with another 2.......if you can help, I could do with you there by 10am. It's not difficult, but needs concentration!

Many thanks

Bill Wright

Hear This

Not only do we have a Pub quiz team, but one of our members was spotted by another of our vigilant member on the "BOX" recently taking part in the Quiz show 15 to 1.

Watch this space for a full report coming soon.

PRODUCED by MARK & JASON BALLAMY
DISTRIBUTED BY BRIAN SAXTON

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