Well, another year over. The 70th Anniversary Year seems to have been a good one for the Phoenix. Jake's "Winter Warmer" rides have been a spectacular success - running right through the racing season, when we expected them to wind down; attracting new people to the Phoenix and even providing easy paced rides for refugees from the Cheam & Morden Section. For anyone who doesn't already know about these rides they are held Saturday mornings, meeting by the toilets in the carpark at Horton Country Park at 10am. Generally there are two road rides: one easy paced and one a shade faster/further and an off-road option. On fine days the road rides go to Wisley tea hut for 11's and then home, on grotty days they wimp out to the cosier garden centre at Stoke D'Abernon. Anyone is welcome, although obviously we hope to recruit unattached riders to the Phoenix. In conjunction with the website/blog the rides have gained us a number of new members this year, which is most encouraging for the future of the club.
The 70th Anniversary Lunch, held a few weeks ago, was also a great success. My apologies to anyone not invited who would have liked to have come - it quickly became clear that we were going to fill the hall with the maximum 100 people and instead of filling in the gaps in the address list that Pete had and sending out some more invites, we didn't dare send out more invites. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves in an afternoon of almost non-stop chattering and there are signs that many would like another re-union in 5 years time for the 75th Anniversary. So ideas for a larger venue would be welcomed as there are many ex-members who either couldn't make it this time or were not even invited due to numbers. It was certainly good to see so many members from the entire history of the club. Thanks go to Ron & Doreen for organising the venue and the food; Pete M for sending the invites out, Andy A for borrowing the projector for the photographic show and, especially, to Ann for making those fantastic looking and great-tasting anniversary cakes for us to enjoy.
The online world is proving more and more useful to the Club, Frank has discovered how easy it is to send out start &: result sheets by email - saving him effort and the club photocopying costs. The website itself is informative for members and prospective members alike - although I have a bunch of stuff queued up to add to it, but have yet to find the time. This has been helped somewhat by the blog for which we now have 17 members signed up as contributors, allowing each of them to post news, results and information for everyone else to read - although not everyone has the confidence to actually put anything on the blog. This has now been linked to the front page of the website, so that it is effectively updated every time someone puts something new on the blog. Any online members who have not signed up should email me for an invite - address on the website at http://www.kprc.org.uk
Membership is now nudging close to the 50 mark for the first time in 20 years, with more than 50% active racing or on the Saturday rides & over a dozen female members. This year we have welcomed Heather Basley, Ben Pearce - brother of Stuart, and neither related to Andy!, John Beer - who used to ride for the Wandsworth and has made something of a come-back this season, Philip Royden-Turner whose interest is the Saturday morning off-road rides, Joe Nutt and most recently Nina Kite and Michael Garnham recruits from the Saturday rides, with hopefully another one or two who will also be joining shortly. As we are getting more new people joining it strikes me that we should organise some sort of welcome pack to send out in response to applications received. I don't have the time to sort this out, but can probably find the time to finalise & put together complete ideas and suggestions. Suggestions of what this should contain are welcome, especially from our latest members.
Once again the District is looking for a new Secretary as of next year's AGM - we should all be trying to identify a suitable candidate or else there will be problems in 2008.
Jake is again organising the trip to Majorca - based on Gary Smith's group - anyone interested in going and currently left out should make enquiries to Jake if there are any places left.
As usual the Annual Dinner and Prize Presentation will be the last week in February: 24th Feb 2007. This year it will be at the Stoneleigh Inn, Stoneleigh, (by the station). Sadly we have moved from the Hotel Antoinette, despite the quality of the meal being consistently good, because the prices have jumped dramatically, and most discouraging of all they lied to us last year in an effort to finish our function an hour earlier than booked.
The new clothing looks pretty stunning, and everyone seems proud to wear it, but without it being dramatically different from our traditional design. The supplier is Impsport, but we are currently exploring the possibility of adding Tal/Endura as an alternative by taking advantage of a "free setup" offer. There is now quite a range of cycle kit available in Club Colours, not just shorts and racing vests. The bottles, too, have been a success - we gave them away free to competitors & helpers in our Open promotions this year to publicise the club, and the remainder are on sale to members cheaper than the same type of bottles in the shops - ask Pete M or any of the committee if you want to buy one.
The special awards for the 70th Anniversary got 6 of us riding the 12 hour this year - and a tough day it turned out to be. All of us can be proud that we finished, perhaps more so Brian as he knew then that he could not complete the distances to claim an award (there being no more 100s to ride by then). Ann, Jake & I finally set a Ladies Team Record for 12 hours in the event. In all 5 members qualified for the Club BBAR, 4 for the Men's Championship & 5 for the Ladies Championship - it would have been 6 and Chrystal would almost certainly have won the Ladies Championship except that she was due to ride the last 50 in the calendar and it was cancelled due to heavy rain - Ray was due to ride the same event, chasing a record for an 80 year-old… However a year has gone by and we have done nothing to decide what special "trophies" will be awarded for the Anniversary award, nor have we actually sorted a new trophy for the Women's Points.
Finally, I note that Frank has asked in his report for results to be texted to him each week. I have spent a lot of time during the year rummaging around on the internet for your results to put up on the website - time that I should have spent just updating the site itself. The committee think that there is no contender for the Road Race Trophy this year - but we're not sure…
Many of you have been good and texted/emailed results in or posted them on the blog, but not everyone. Frank, Simon and I are not psychic, we can't work out who has won which trophy if we don't know what times/rides you guys have done. Most of you are interested in what each other have done, but it's no good only mentioning what you think are the good rides - a number of the trophies have been won over the last few years by someone with what they thought was a crap ride and which just happened to be the fastest qualifying ride of the year. Also with rather too many of us over 40, the Vet's records are a nightmare to keep track of, and at least knowing the rides as they are done helps a little.
OK, enough nagging.
Best wishes for a Safe and Speedy Season in 2007
Lisa
December 2006
There were a number of fine achievements during the season.
Brothers Ben and Stuart Pearce competed in Austria and completed their 1st Iron Man Triathlon, it entailed a swim of 2.4 miles a cycle of 112 miles and finally a full length marathon of 26.2 miles, and they did, apparently, enjoy the experience. Nearer to home Ray continued his umpteenth season with a national age related record at 100 miles, and of course retained the, or should I say his, Vets Trophy award for the 5th year running for a total of 13 years.
But the ladies were certainly not upstaged, with Ann & Chrystal riding the Mersey RC National 24hr event, with both covering just under 340 miles, I got the impression the nearer the event approached, Chrystal was less keen on Ann's persuasive attitude, but she did enjoy the event and rode with a massive amount of determination considering the relatively few miles in preparation. Perhaps Ann could use this gift of persuasion on Stuart next season and try to break our Men's 24hr club record. The oldest unbroken single record in the book of 47 years.
Having 8 woman competing in Phoenix colours must be an all time best, that is the reason we have the new separate Club Event Award for the ladies. They certainly got their act together in August, for the first time in our 70 year history they established a ladies 12 hour team record, Well done to Jake, Ann and Lisa.
It was good to see so many new names on our Major Trophies this year, these were, The Club BAR Trophy, The 12hr, The Kingston-Worthing, The Club Event & Club Hcp Event by Andy Avis Men's BAR Trophy, the 50 & 100, by Stuart Pearce. The Consolation Trophy, by John Beer All new names to be engraved on the relevant trophies.
Celebrating our 70th year, Brian Powney, Grant Pyke and Andy Avis joined our Ladies in the Eastern Counties 12hr in August on what turned out not a float day. But well done to all for their efforts.
The club events had the highest average entries per event this year with just over 21 per event, the half minute intervals in our Evening 10's seem popular, so have requested the same for next season. There was just the one evening 10 cancelled due to poor visibility, (rain) but when I decided to cancel, there was a distinct lack of disappointment among the few that did turn up. Might I thank all members who assisted in the odious task of placing and retrieving the event warning signs round the Club Event courses, unfortunately this will definitely continue for next year as part of that modern phrase, Risk Assessment. I also think as a safety precaution when placing and retrieving the signs (except for Pete who cycles round with the signs on a trailer) it would be prudent for two people in the car to drive round the course, then the passenger would alight from the kerb side to place the signs, rather than the driver opening his door, road side.
Not so forthcoming is the volunteers for assisting in the SCCU events that we are committed to help in. It should work that if every member, particularly racing members, were to volunteer their help, it would be required once every 3 years, not I think such a task. The members that assisted during 2005 and 2006 were, Pete M twice, Ron, Doreen, Lisa, Joe, Rachel, David, Mark, Andy A, Chrystal, Jen, Simon, Tony and Jake.
If your name is missing perhaps you would consider next year. Although other members did volunteer but clashed with dates that had been agreed with others.
Please Note.
If elected as TT Sec at the AGM. Might I request something new for next season. Could riders text their times to me (regardless of their times) in an effort to keep the records updated during the season. Many Thanks.
Might I wish you all a very relaxing social season, ready to charge the batteries for the 2007 season.
Frank C
With a big focus on time trialing this year, and with Jackie Morgan-Smith out for most part with a broken leg, things were pretty quiet in the Road Racing Arena. I was hard pushed to find anyone who had ridden more than one event let alone four and so unfortunately there will be 'no award' on the trophy for 2006.
The Phoenix did however make a good fist of organising the S.E. Divisional Ladies Champs. Florence has proved a very worthy Press Secretary and helped to secure sponsorship from Bex Hopkins of 'She cycles.com' which gave the event some 'Raz' and I would like to thank everyone who helped on the day.
For various reasons we were unable to field a comprehensive team from the Phoenix in the Ladies Divs. Chrystal rode hard but eventually gave way to the relentless pace of 1st & 2nd Cat riders. Jake was more unfortunate landing herself in a big hedge on the 3rd lap and failing to finish.
I would like to thank all helpers and marshals and would appreciate any bright ideas to increase the entry in 2007.
Simon Mitchell
RR Sec
Treasurer's Report: 31 October 2006
Well it's report time again so here are the account figures for this our 70th year. It's been an interesting year with the new club clothing making its appearance and the bottles also being well received.
At first glance it looks as though we've had a bad year with the accounts showing a loss of £595.26, but the reverse is actually true.
Looking at 2 items, clothing and bottles in both the Income and Expenditure lists, the total loss on these 2 items is £1127.18. If it were not for these losses we would be showing a profit of £531.92. Clothing Stock, shown under "Assets of the Club", is valued at £649 so more than covers the loss of £457.80 shown under "Income and Expenditure" (At the time of writing, early November, £99 worth of clothing has been sold and these figures will be in next year's account.) The bottles were a "1 off" for our 70th year, all entrants in our Open 10 & Open 15 receiving one. The remainder are listed as Stock and are on sale at £3 each.
The Open 10 and Open 15 both made a profit thanks to generous donations from many members.
The club Dinner profit was £14.20 after allowing for the £100 deposit paid last year. Since the Antoinette Hotel raised its prices by an unacceptable amount, our Dinner on 24 February 2007 will be at the Stoneleigh Inn.
Our 70th Anniversary Celebrations should be well attended as 96 people are on the list (at 31 October 2006). The £960, less expenses, is listed separately and these figures will also be in next year's account.
Handbooks for 2007 will only be obtained for those ordering them, so please see Frank Cubis if you want one.
As everything else is self-explanatory, that's just about it for another year.
Doreen Powney