Formation
The Club came into being on 8th March 1951 following a letter to the cycling press by a Mr.Cecil Cooke, as a result of which 12 persons attended the inaugural meeting at 35 Doughty Street, London (then NCU Headquarters). Thus Cecil Cooke became its Founder and was invited to become its first Secretary. The first run took place at Whitsun 1951 to Whitwell (Herts) and there is a picture which shows seven people at a refreshment stop on this run.
Objectives
To cater for cyclists of both sexes who had reached the age of 40 years, both as regards cycling and related social activities.
Club Structure
Initially, monthly runs were arranged on Sundays for the four quarters of the London Home Counties but, after a few years, new sections were formed: Bournemouth (by Freddie Folds) - in being until he died in 1964; 1972 - St.Albans (Albert Hankin); around 1972 - Luton (Jack Jefford); Sussex (Stuart Tackley) - taken over by the late Bob Edgar on Stuart's death; 1978 - Stevenage & North Herts (Bill Collins); Northern Ireland (Cyril Henry) - unfortunately this section did not survive due to political unrest; 1978 - Southend (Vic Stewart with Harry Peck as its first leader). Meanwhile, mid-week runs became a regular feature in Herts., Essex and Kent.
The club membership currently extends in the east and south as far as the coastline of Essex, Kent and Sussex, while to the north into Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northants and Suffolk. To the west the Club's influence has never been very strong although we do have a sprinkling of members in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Hampshire and even one or two who having emigrated abroad keep up their membership.
At present we have 16 Sections:
| Bedordshire | Tuesday | North Herts | Thursday |
| East Herts | Tuesday | Southeast Wednesday | Wednesday |
| East Northants | Wednesday | Southeast Saturday | Saturday |
| Essex "A" | Thursday | Southeast Sunday | Sunday |
| Essex "B" | Thursday | Southend | Thur/Tues |
| Essex Easy Riders | Tuesday | Southend Easy Riders | Sun/Thurs |
| Essex Sunday | Sunday | St Albans | Tuesday |
| North East Essex | Tuesday | Surrey and Sussex | Tues/Fri |
Subscriptions
The membership fee on formation was the equivalent of 25p The Club managed to run for around 26 years on the equivalent of a 50p subscription and today it stands at £10.00 p.a. for an individual and £15.00 p.a. for joint household. A member having reached the age of 80 with 15 years continuous membership is granted honorary membership and presented with a certificate to commemorate the event.
Runs Lists
A list of Club runs has been published for some years and is posted with the Club magazine on a quarterly basis. It gives details of Section Secretaries, runs and events arranged. Members are welcome, and encouraged, to ride with any section.
Club Magazine
In 1954 Les Seymour edited a News Sheet, then in 1956 Stuart Tackley took over and developed it into the current Club magazine, called "Signpost". Editing, typing, printing and distribution have been done by various stalwarts over the years. The journal, issued quarterly, is used to promote discourse between members and as a means of communication to members of the Club's official business.
Social Programme
During the Club's early days Doris & Ted Groom were the main organisers of Christmas dinner/dances which were attended by such cycling and sporting notables as Reg Shaw, Lilian Dredge, Eileen Sheridan, W.F.Stiles, Rex Coley ("Ragged Staff"), Les Warner, G.H.Stancer, Harold Abrahams and Lionel Lincoln. Around 1962 individual sections had become sufficiently organised to arrange their own functions.
Club weekends were also arranged as well as tours at home and abroad, plus trips to places of historical interest. Most of these were organised by Tom Wooder.
Membership Statistics
By the end of 1951 the Club had accrued 90 members and by 1981 this had increased to over 300. The efforts of Mae Lang were instrumental in attaining this level of recruitment and the Club now enjoys a strength of around 900. In 1975 a film was made by the BBC showing members on a run and following that a programme on ITV featuring the South-East section, one of the 'stars' being the then current President, Jack Wyatt.
Club Officials
Early in 1952 Cecil Cooke died after collapsing whilst out on a Sunday run. In his honour his widow was invited to become the Club's first President whilst Howard Marshall took over the post of Secretary. A complete record of the Club's principal officials accompanies this history. In addition to those listed, and others already mentioned in this text, names to associate with the Club are Geoff and Peggy Bruton, Charlie Pett, Rita Woolf, John Cannon, Bob Finnimore and Vic Palmer. Section Secretaries are the mainstay of the Club and, although too numerous to name individually, have been instrumental in ensuring the successful life of the Club.
General Administration
Since inception the Club has been run by a committee of members elected at an annual general meeting. The Club's financial year runs from October until the following September and subscription renewals are due on 1st January each year. The Club's AGM is held in January for the preceding year. Until 1996 the Club Committee consisted of all Section Secretaries together with the normal Club Officials. As the number of Sections steadily increased over the years it became apparent that the Committee structure was becoming top heavy. In 1997 a special Executive Committee of just 8 officials was formed to run the day to day affairs of the Club whilst the Full Committee of all Officials was preserved with overall responsibility of the Club's affairs.
Minutes of all meetings are circulated to all officials and regular reports are published in the magazine for the benefit of all members. Since 1990 membership details have been held on a data base on a home computer and, during the same year, a map library, suitably catalogued, was introduced by Jim Stevens. In 1999 this was expanded to include books with a cycling flavour.
Current Activities
The strength of the Club lies with the Sections and the regular Club runs. These normally have a meeting place and a lunch venue. In the summer months some groups stop for afternoon tea. Special events are organised and include car/train assisted rides, inter-section rides, various "special" lunches (i.e. fish and chips, sausage and mash, Christmas lunches) and re-unions. Also 100 mile and 100 km "fun" rides are now held. The great feature of the Club is the variety of Sections catering for virtually all types of riders with the common purpose of providing a sociable and convivial day out.
Miscellaneous
Shortly before her death in 1986, Grace Gardner, who had served the Club for many years as Membership Secretary/ Treasurer/General Secretary/Runs List Typist, cycled from Cape Wrath to Dover, this in spite of being, at that time, a victim of Motor Neurone Disease, which had reached an advanced stage. As a result of this marathon effort, plus the generosity of sponsors, a large sum of money was donated to MND research, surely a fitting tribute to this loyal and courageous member who was featured in a BBC film about the disease. The success of the Club has been due to the efforts of all those mentioned in this history, to the club officials whose names are listed below, to the many other un-named helpers but primarily to the membership itself.
Club Officials
President
- Mrs.Cooke 1952-1959
- Mae Lang 1960-1977
- Tom Wooder 1978-1982
- Bill Moore 1983-1984
- Eve Engel 1985
- Ted & Doris Groom 1986
- Jack Wyatt 1987-1990
- Rose Ford 1991
- Bill Turner 1992
- Ernie Vesper 1993
- John Rainbow 1994
- Doug Brunwin 1995
- Wulf Rowland 1996
- Maisie Wright 1997
- Carole Green 1998-2000
- Bill Thorncroft 2001-2003
- John Keane 2004-2006
- Veronica Brown 2007 -
Chairman
- Ted Groom 1951-1954
- Don Irving 1955-1967
- Lew Pemberton 1968-1976
- Frank Trueman 1977-1983
- Bill Turner 1984-1989
- Doug Brunwin 1990-1993
- John Rainbow 1994-1995
- Bill Thorncroft 1996-2000
- Trevor Blake 2001- 2006
- Sidney Schuman 2007
- Alex Moss 2008
General Secretary
- Cecil Cooke 1951
- Ted Groom (short time)
- Howard Marshall 1952 -1954
- George Canham 1955 -1959
- Les Seymour 1960 -1964
- Tom Wooder 1965 -1976
- Grace Gardner 1977 -1984
- Ernie Vesper 1985
- Maisie Wright 1986 -1987
- Wulf Rowland 1988 -1993
- Steve Ebdon 1994 -1995
- Trevor Blake 1996 - 2000
- Dave Fuller 2001 - 2002
- Sian Charlton 2003 - 2004
- Carole Green 2005- 2006
- Trevor Blake (acting) 2006
- David Sims 2007
- Judy Allfrey 2008 (Temporary)
Treasurer
- George Knapp 1962-1975
- Mr. Shaw 1976
- Mr. Thorne 1977-1979
- Kathleen Card 1985 -1986
- Eric Gobell 1987-1991
- Mary Featherston 1992 -1996
- Doreen Raybould 1997 - 2007
- Bernard Curtis
Magazine Editor
- Les Seymour 1954-1955 (News sheet)
- Stuart Tackley 1956-1967 (Signpost)
- Stan Russell 1968-1972
- Bill Jennings 1973-1975
- Stan Russell 1976-1978
- Vi Wilcox 1979-1980
- Rose Ford 1981-1999
- Colin Waller 2000 - 2005
- Sidney Schuman 2005 - 2007
- Colin Waller 2008
Membership Secretary*
- Kathleen Card 1985-1989
- Edie Blake 1990-2007
- Roger Hodgson 2008
* Prior to 1985 the separate post of Membership Secretary did not exist as membership statistics and subscriptions were handled by the General Secretary.