Wigmore Cycling Club

Obituary

16th February 1938-3rd November 2024

John was a life-long cyclist who was a member of the Wigmore CC throughout, most recently as Club Chairman.  Over the years he also covered many other official roles with the Club, including promoting the open ’25’, as well as being a member of the South East District Committee, working for the Kent VTTA for 10 years, and competing at a high level, especially over the longer distances.

John began racing in the 1950s.  He rode time trials at all distances and was particularly strong at ‘100s’, although he also did well in shorter events and in road and grass track racing.  John’s racing career was mainly in three phases, the first being in the ’50s and ’60s.   In the late ’50s he won a Kent ‘100’ with a time of 4.18, an outstanding ride for that period.  We believe the event finished at Chilham and John spent the rest of the day on a club run to Deal!  At that time he always enjoyed doing long rides and on the first Sunday morning of the year he would always ride from his home in Medway to Margate and back, before venturing out again in the afternoon to meet the club run.  That same year John recorded a ’58’ for a ’25’, at a time when very few riders had beaten the hour.

After a break of a few years from racing in the late ’60s John decided to make a racing come-back.  This started in the autumn of 1970 with long non-stop rides every Sunday morning with Morris Jury and Doug Laidlow.  This proved to be an effective path back to fitness for John and he was back in competition early in the 1971 season, winning the Kent Road Club Middlemarkers ’25’ in May on the Southend Road course with a time of 59.30.  The Club won the team award, with John supported by Brian Vaughan and Des Hedgecock.  This was a period in which the Wigmore were team winners in open time trials almost weekly.  John followed this up with a win in the first Kent CA ‘100’ that season, once again at Chilham, with a time of 4.22.50.  He completed all distances in Kent and the Club won the KCA BAR team competition that season with John as first team counter.  Evening racing was also part of his programme at this time, with Kent Grass Track League events at Faversham on Tuesdays, and club ’10s’ on Sheppey Way the following night.

John’s best season was possibly 1972.  In May he won the Wigmore ’25’ at Chilham with 1.01.05, before completing the Kent Division Road Race just down the road at Godmersham later the same day!  A few weeks after this, John won the Medway Velo’s Roy Enfield Memorial ’50’, again at Chilham, with a time of 2.11.18, on an extremely hard day, conditions that would have been to his liking.  John completed several notable ‘100s’ in 1972, including the National Championship in Essex, when he recorded a personal best 4.10.40 for 15th place.  Future Milk Race winner Bill Nickson was one place ahead of John with 4.09.41!  The Club also entered a team in an East Sussex CA ‘100’ that season.  Having arrived at the event without all his racing items, John rode in ordinary shoes to a winning time of 4.24.46!  This was yet another Wigmore team win.  John also represented the South East DC in the national 100km team time trial championship on the Bath Road course.  Riding with Dave Bedford, Morris Jury and Rod Kennison, the team came 4^th with a time of 2.21.17.

The KCA ’12’ was the biggest event in the South East calendar at this time and John won the 1972 event with 247.51 miles.  This was on 82″ fixed, and John was possibly the last rider to win the event on fixed wheel.  He was eventually second in the KCA BAR that season to his friend and clubmate Dave Bedford and the Club also repeated their win in the KCA BAR team competition with Roger Travers as third counter.

John’s racing became less serious after the early ’70s, but he made a serious return to competition after retiring from work. He once again rode at all distances, and he was Kent VTTA BAR in 2004, and he then finished second the following season.  John completed the KCA ’12’ on no less than five occasions during this period, (2002, and 2004-07) and his best distance of 224.445 miles in 2004 was a Kent VTTA age record for age 66.  The Wigmore team of John, John Bishop and Clin Maisey were team winners of the event and team winners of the KCA BAR, repeating John’s team wins in this competition of 32 and 33 years earlier.

John won many Wigmore club trophies over the years, and was ‘25’ and ‘50’ champion on three occasions each, he won the ‘100’ championship four times, the 12 hours championship seven times and was Club Best All-Rounder six times.

After retiring from racing for a final time John continued to cycle, and he was a regular at Wednesday Wobblers for many years.  He and Eunice also regularly helped the club, the Kent VTTA and the KCA in any way they could, often marshalling and John often had the job of pusher-off in local events.

We offer our deepest condolences to John’s wife Eunice and to all members of the family and all friends.

Clin Maisey

With thanks to John’s family for the amazing photographs.

Congratulations to Joshua Aiken and Debbie Percival on their winning rides in the annual 49th Wigmore CC open hill climb.

Here are the full results: https://wigmorecyclingclub.org.uk/2024-hollingbourne-hill-climb/

A dry day with a cold wind resulted in times that were generally slightly slower than those in the warmth of last year. Joshua took his third victory in open hill climb, having won all three in which he has competed. By finishing second Ewan added yet another top three placing in the event, whilst James, the course record holder, was less than a second behind in third and took the over 40s victory in the process. Joshua also led Elevate RT to their first team victory on Hollingbourne Hill.

Riding the event for her 20th time multiple winner of the Wigmore CC hill climb event Debbie added yet another victory to take her haul to nine and was just two seconds away from taking the vets 60 prize.

Junior prize was taken by Charles Langford. Having won the juvenile category last year Charles was one of the few riders to be quicker this year and placed 7th overall.

Arguably the ride of the event belonged to 14 year old Finley Andrews with a time comfortably under 4 minutes to finish 20th overall.

In his final year in the over 50s category Keith Walker once again took the award for the over 50s while Steve Penney also repeated last year’s achievement by taking the over 60s prize.

The event doubles as the club hill climb championship for both Medway VC and Maidstone based club San Fairy Ann, Mike Stanley now being this year’s Medway VC champion whilst the SFA result was notably close with Martin Kober taking the crown by 0.5s from John Cockrill.

Wigmore CC once again extend their thanks to the Boyd family for the use of the farm buildings at the top of Hollingbourne Hill. The area makes a great HQ for both parking and presenting the rewards, the positive comments received by Wigmore CC will be passed on.

Finally, a big thank you to all the volunteers who ensured that not only was the event safe and issue-free. There was a very impressive display of cakes!

Start timekeeper: Paul Buckley
Finish timekeeper: David Abbotts
Recorders, runners & results board on the day: Julien Barton, Kate Savage, Jamie Harris
Results board preparation: Martin Trice
Awarder of prizes: Anthony Bee
Pusher off: Phil Appleby
Signing in/out: Anthony Bee
Start area: Kevin Ford
Marshals (hill & parking): Richard Masters, David Smith
Tea and cakes: Philbrook family
Overall coordinator: Robert Philbrook
Start and results sheets: Keith Walker

Apologies to anyone missed

And of course thanks you to all the riders for making the 49th Wigmore CC Hill Climb another success, we look forward to seeing you plus your club mates next year for our 50th open hill climb!

Keith Walker

I knew Mo from the 1950s when we were both young members of the Wigmore CC, and he became a life-long friend. He was a very good time trialist, roadman and track rider, and also a very good clubman. He also did well at running, before coming back to cycling later.

One of his first trophies was the Wigmore Junior Massed Start (Road Race) Champion’s Cup awarded to him in 1956. Two years later he won the club’s 12 Hour Challenge Trophy with 233.645 miles in the KCA ‘12’ (5th place).

The next year Mo was riding for the Sittingbourne CC and in 1960, when I was on national service, he was in a very strong Sittingbourne team with Terry Hulme and Brian Hampton. They won many team awards, and Mo was KCA Senior Best All Rounder. It was his best season of racing. He won the KCA ‘100’ with 4.18.39, the fastest time on the trophy then and he won it by nearly 9 minutes. But he did a faster ‘100’ that year, 4.14.41, I am not sure of the course, and he gained a good placing in the BBAR.

In that year Mo won the Folkestone ‘25’ with 59.23, I think at Chilham. He also won the Medway Wheelers Roy Enfield Memorial ‘50’ with 2.2.38, Terry Hulme was second and Brian Hampton third counter with 2.09.07, another team win. In third place was Ken Craven, Crescent Wheelers with 2.3.29, Ken was hardly ever beaten when he raced in Kent. He was a good friend of the Wigmore. When racing in Kent he and Roy Savery used to stay with Pete Milner at his home in Bredhurst. They often joined the Wigmore club runs when they were racing down this way or sometimes they just rode down from East London to go on our runs.

In 1963 Mo came back to the Wigmore. He won the Len Chambers 25 Mile Cup in 1963 (1:00:01), 1965 (1:00:47) and 1966 (58:11), the R A Burns 50 Mile Cup in 1963, 1965 and 1966, and the Fairyland 100 Cup in 1965 and 1966. He was the winner of the B.A.R. (Best All-Rounder) Cup – Senior in 1963, 1965 and 1966. He also set place-to-place solo and tandem records for the Gillingham (Will Adams Memorial) to Canterbury and back.

In 1971 the Wigmore won the KCA BAR team. Our team was John Booty, Roger Travers and Mo. He recorded 222.683 miles in the ‘12’. The next year Mo was selected to ride for the South East District in the National 100 kilometres 4up Championship. The other team members were Dave Bedford, John Booty and Rod Kennison. They finished 4th , their time was 2.21.17. The Hounslow and District were winners, 2.07.52.

Mo did many road and circuit races, including Brands Hatch, and also track racing, but he broke a collar bone in a grass track race. After 1972 Mo stopped racing and began running. In a marathon he did a time of 2.42, showing he always had great stamina.

In his 50s Mo returned to cycling. He became a member of the VTTA. He didn’t race any more, but he did a lot of long rides still. He went to Wednesday Wobblers and he won the Wigmore Tourist Shield (for a noteworthy tour, audax or sportive ride) in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Mo passed away on 4 December 2023 after a long illness. I wish to offer my deepest condolences to his family and friends, especially his daughter Andrea and son Steve on losing their father and also their mother Shirley, who passed away on 24 August. They lost both their parents less than four months apart.

Clin Maisey, Wigmore CC.

Very sadly we have had to cancel the Wigmore CC Bill Philbrook Memorial this year due to multiple roadworks on the course, poor road surfaces and a very low number of entries.
I suppose after 36 years of uninterrupted promotions we have been lucky and it had to happen at some time.
As a result we will be moving next year’s 25 from our traditional venue Chilham to an alternative course hoping for better luck and bumper entries!
Thank you  to all who did enter this year and apologies for not being able to run the event as planned.

1. 8Finally “Please support your local events” enjoy the ride and stay safe! ‍♀️