Brian Bladon (Right) with Ken Beck
Brian was born and brought up in Southport and attended Farnborough Rd Junior school, then moved on to Birkdale High School. He started work in the family printing business as an apprentice to his father on Princes St in Southport.
He did National Service in the RAF and while there he met another cyclist Brian Wotton who just happened to work in the office of the British Cycling Federation in London where he was secretary to Len Unwin who ran BCF in the early days.
They developed a strong friendship and some years later, Wotton helped Brian to get foreign riders onto the start line on the Kings Gardens.
He married his wife Catherine in 1957 and they had 4 children together 2 boys & 2 girls, Lesley, Susan, Steven and Kevin.
The business moved to Shakespeare St and then to its present location on Tulketh St. Kevin, one of his sons, joined the business later doing IT.
On leaving school he wanted to see new places and started Cycling, about 1950 he joined the local CTC in Southport and was soon riding all over the North West.
After a couple of years he joined Southport RCC and in 1954 he rode the famous Boxing Day 10m Time trial on a foul wet & windy morning with only one rider beating 30mins.
He rode TTs mostly in club events for a good number of years without troubling the national records.
In 1964 he took over the Secretary’s job at the Southport RCC and was soon organising what we liked to call the Bladon Races on the Kings Gardens. They ran for nearly 20 years which at first was part of the local Gala week.
He put his heart and soul into the day-long series of races doing everything that needed doing for the races, even printing the glossy race programme, but never asking for any help until the day of the races.
Over the years he imported top Belgium/Dutch amateurs & Pros to race on the excellent Kings Gardens circuit and some of them even went on to ride the Tour De France. It quickly became the top Criterium in the country with big crowds and Brian providing excellent prizes for all the events by Securing generous sponsorship from local businesses.
He left the secretary’s job at the end of 1979.
In the 1970s he started Schoolboy races on Pleasureland coach park but found as the numbers of starters increased it was not big enough, so he moved the races to Pontins at Ainsdale and briefly on to part of the Kings Gardens.
This was a lot of work setting it up and after 2/3 years, moved to Victoria Park where the races are still running 50 years later.
He also promoted the 1972 Merseyside Division Senior & Junior RR Championships with 20 laps of Clieves Hill, about 110 miles for the Seniors and 50 miles for the juniors, with the races starting and finishing in Southport.
He also found time to start a bi-monthly club magazine which ran for a few years and he also lobbied local councillors to get a Milk Race finish in the town, this happened 5 times.
Another major event he organised was the Southport end of the Rediffusion Cycling series and supporting races, which ran for 2/3 years on the top side of the Kings Gardens.
Brian packed a lot of hard work into his 16 years in office and the club should be very grateful to him for spending so much of his free time on the club. When the club had to leave the church hall on Liverpool Rd, he quickly found a Tennis pavilion in Victoria Park, which we bought for £100.
It was rebuilt much later and has served the club well over the years.
One of his personal long term ambitions was to complete a Sky Dive and he had it all set up to go to North Wales, but sadly his doctor would not give consent as he was 88, so he changed his doctor but still never got to do it as his illness got the better of him.
RIP Brian
