DLN Feb 2002

OFFICIALS
PRESIDENT JOHN KAVANAGH 40 Beverley Road Barming Maidstone Kent ME16 9JP 01622 726959	SECRETARY PETE HARRIS 91 Ashbourne Road Ealing London W5 3DH 020 8997 7852	TREASURER JAMES LETT 102 Park Road Kingston Surrey KT2 5JZ

I WOULD like to thank The Argus for publishing cycling news and results each week. Very few papers cover either cycling or other so-called minority sports.

Did you know a Welsh junior cyclist won three world championships this year? The first was in mountain biking, the next in road time trialling and the third in road racing. How many other British sports have a triple world champion in 2001? She is Nicole Cooke, aged 18, who hails from Cardiff. She was not even mentioned on the BBC's Sports Personality Of The Year programme.

Michael Schumacher did get a mention but he finished second in the German sports personality awards. The German number one is Erlk Zabel, a professional racing cyclist, who was not mentioned by the BBC either. More Germans go to watch him than Schumacher.

The first sporting event to take place in Afghanistan after the Taliban were expelled from Kabul was a cycle race, with 20 riders taking part over a distance of 40 kilometres. Thanks once again for reporting cycling news. It will not be long before Great Britain has a winner of the Tour de France, which The Argus covered very well when it visited Brighton in 1994.

Thank you very much for sending me a copy of "A Century Awheel" as requested by my son Jamie.

I am not sure if he told you that we have family connections with the De Laune through my father, Percy Reeve. He always spoke of the Club with great affection and we did go together on one or two occasions to Herne Hill in the years immediately after the end of the war. The old De Laune routes into Kent and into Surrey held special memories for him. Apart from club outings, country teas (with wasps!), and the meeting place and rendezvous, he said very little about his own involvement in the De Laune. He must have dropped out of membership when he married and moved to north London in the 30s. We have no mementos, alas. This is not surprising because my grandfather's house in Battersea, where my father lived when he was a De Laune member, was completely destroyed in the Blitz.

You can imagine my delight when I found that my father was mentioned in Mike Rabbetts text and listed as captain in 1923! I pored over that marvellous photo of the Club on the road, wondering whether it was taken just before or just after the first war and, if after, whether he was riding that day. If you do happen to have membership dates and any other snippets I should be delighted to know. By the way my father died in 1999 just short of his 98th birthday. Much of his retirement was spent in Somerset where he continued to ride a cycle into his 80s. The De Laune spirit still had a grip.

I certainly congratulate you all on the production of the History. It is a treasure trove of interesting memories and a fascinating piece of social history.

CHARLIE CURTHOYS
The funeral service was held at St Stephen's Church, College Road, on Monday 21 January 2002. There were estimated to be over 300 people in attendance. The cortège was followed by about 30 cyclist and the De Laune riders were at the head. A tribute to Charlie will be appearing soon (has now).

A few of our riders prior to departing to see Charlie off.

HELP NEEDED
Drivers and Marshals are required for our promotion of the South East Road Race League event on 7th April 2002. This race will be held on the Sevenoaks Weald circuit with the HQ at Weald Scout Hut.

Once again the club will be covering race entry fees for the South East Road Race League series.

Rider Registration Form
Available from me. The small part is to be filled in and kept by the rider and to be handed in when signing on for the race along with your BC Racing Licence. The large part is to be completed by the rider and sent to SERRL, 18 Darrent Mead, Sutton at hone, Dartford, Kent, DA4 9EH along with a cheque for £6 (payable to SERRL). You must affiliate individually, if an entry from a non-affiliated rider is received by the SERRL it will be returned and the rider not entered.

Race Entry
I must have your entry at least 16 days before the proposed race date so the rider can be entered using the correct form and qualify for club funding. All you have to do is ring or email. Entry on the line will be available should all the places not have been taken with pre-entries at a cost of £10.

Always ring the SERRL hotline the night before a race to check for any changes to the programme, 020 8301 0060 (answerphone message).

Update from the Committee - January 2002
To keep club members better informed in 2002, the Committee aims to provide regular reports to DLN on the most important matters covered at meetings. We have previously kept you up to date via articles from secretaries, but occasionally we must acknowledge that we have either notified you too late or not at all. With more and more members now on-line, sometimes we have relied on email and the web, but not everyone has regular computer access.

As a club, we have been in a minor crisis over recent years: clubroom use has been down, club events have often not been well supported and we are short of younger racing members. As a result, the committee has been spending more time 'fire-fighting' than planning ahead, which has made things difficult for everyone. We believe that the club has begun to turn the corner, so we hope you'll notice the improvement in communication, in membership and, ultimately, in success.

Subs
First of all, subs are now (over)due! Cliff Steele is maintaining the membership database this year. Please send remittance to Cliff at
23 City View Court, Overhill Road, East Dulwich, London SE22 0PZ.
Rates are: ordinary £31, full time students £15, associate £18, juniors £15, juveniles £6.

New kit
A new kit design was voted in at a Special General Meeting on 13th December 2001. It is based on the Italian team strip. It is still in blue, brown and white, although the brown only appears on the club badge. The design can be viewed on the club web page. By the time of going to print, we hope that the kit may already have arrived.

To ease transition costs, the Committee has agreed to pay £10 towards clothing costs to the first 30 members who order clothing (£10 per member rather than per item of clothing). This will be funded from the sponsorship donation from Evans. If more than 30 people apply, the Committee will review this discount.

Sponsorship
Evans Cycles and Specialized UK have kindly agreed to continue to sponsor us in 2002. The sponsorship package includes:

· Up to eight Specialized frames on loan
· Kit bags for frame recipients
· Discounts for all members - 10% off non-sale items at Evans shops, 20% off Specialized frames or bikes, 40% off other Specialized equipment.
· £1,250 cash

To get your 10% discount, simply show your membership card at the shops. To get the discount on Specialized goods, you must go via mail order or the web. Quote our De Laune membership number (on the membership card) and Mike Rice's name to qualify.

In addition, the club may be able to negotiate extra discounts on equipment. If you feel you deserve to be awarded some form of equipment at a discounted rate, please make this known to the Committee. We will consider all applications. We do ask, however, that you make any claims via the committee rather than directly with Evans.

If you have any views on how the sponsorship deal should be administered to help the club, please let the Committee know.

Frame Awards for 2002
Frames have been awarded to Matt Goodes, Ben Neville, James Lett, James Lyon, Steve Price, Ross Fryer and Pete Jenn. Pete will get a Corrado track frame on loan (a new option for 2002), Ross an S-Works mountain bike frame, the rest E5 road frames. We wish them all every success.

As you can see, we have only awarded seven frames so far. If you feel that you merit the loan of a frame, contact Alaric Lester as soon as possible for a frame application form. The Committee intends to decide whether to award the last frame at its meeting on 7th March (subject to availability of frames).

Team Photos
Once the new kit and sponsorship frames arrive, we will be arranging some team photos, maybe even a club-run to parade the new strip. All members will be welcome. This may happen before publication of the next DLN, so if you want to participate, please contact Pete Harris for details.

National Masters Championships
The National Masters track championships will be at Herne Hill this year, 1st - 4th June. This will be a great opportunity to see De Laune members challenging for national medals. Matt Baker, Brian Dacey and Pete Jenn are expected to ride. Since it is so close to home, can we get a few more recruits this year?

Training Seminars
Two more seminars are planned in February, on the 21st and 28th. All welcome. They will continue into spring if there is enough interest.

THE LAST DAY FOR COPY TO BE INCLUDED IN THE NEXT ISSUE IS WEDNESDAY 26 February 2002

THIS SHOULD BE SENT TO:
MARK BALLAMY
41 MAYES CLOSE
WARLINGHAM
SURREY CR6 9LB

Phone & Fax 01883 627809 - e-mail mark.ballamy@virgin.net