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 4th 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.
We also have a very special guest speaker, Ian Field (pictured on the top step in his British Champions jersey). Ian is now a cyclocross coach at Veld Coaching