Let’s start with a Happy New Year to everyone, rather belated I know, but at the moment it’s hard to distinguish the days!
Tam Barton – legend
I think that most members will be aware that Tam sadly passed away on January 27th. I never met Tam but I feel as if I have known him forever having listened to many tales of his cycling exploits and quick wit. His favourite discipline was cyclo-cross in which he excelled winning the Merseyside Cyclo Cross Championship in 1962/63, 1963/64, 1964/65.
Colin Baldwin has provided a lovely tribute to Tam on the club website whilst Joe Croughan summed up the feelings of so many when he wrote ‘Funniest member of the club, he’ll be missed by everyone’.
SCC Accounts 2019/20
The club’s accounts have been audited by Derek Unsworth and Greg Callaghan and are ready for presentation to the next AGM for formal ratification. The Committee felt that, in the interim, it would be prudent to scrutinise the accounts and this scrutiny was carried out at the January meeting. Overall, this showed that the club remains in a sound financial position.
Club membership 2020 and subscriptions 2021
Overall, there was a slight fall in the number of members during 2020 – given the difficult circumstances it is reassuring that we retained a high level of support from members.
Subscriptions for 2021 were due from January 1st onwards and it is pleasing that so many members have already re-joined. If you haven’t yet done so yet you can do so by clicking on this link: membership renewal
British Cycling: Covid Guidance
As members are aware it is the club policy to advise members to follow the guidance provided by British Cycling. The latest guidance states:
We have delayed issuing this guidance in the hope that further clarification would be available with regard to ‘local’ but as yet this is not available.
We hope the club members will continue to follow the guidance as part of our efforts to ensure that as cyclists we do not contribute to the further spread of the virus. There were a small number of occasions last year when members expressed their unhappiness with the way that other members interpreted the guidance as they perceived other members to be pushing the envelope whilst they did not. To avoid any misunderstandings, we would ask that members do not meet up in groups of more than2 or that they meet as ‘3 groups of 2’ or that small groups join together outside of cafés etc.
Hopefully, we have only got a couple of more months of this before we can return to riding in bigger groups with the sun on our backs.
Time Trials and Road Races
Alan Stark remains unwaveringly positive and enthusiastic about staging some events later this year. As soon as we have the green light Alan is primed and ready to go.
Similarly, Colin Baldwin is hoping to stage the annual Bickerstaffe Road Races, for both men and women, at some stage later in the year.
So keep putting in those winter miles, you never know when they will be needed.
2021 Club Social Event
We are making (vague) plans to hold an event in November 21 and have provisionally booked the Old Links Golf Club. We don’t know what format it will take etc but the committee are keen to hold an event that brings club members together.
Consideration is also being given to the organisation of an event to mark the opening of the refurbished clubhouse.
It has been drawn to our attention that for reasons of child protection the minimum age for WhatsApp membership is 16 (see attached for information: WhatsApp U16). We would ask therefore that any rider aged under 16 withdraw themselves from any SCC WhatsApp group i.e. the SCC ‘Rides’ and ‘Bike Chat’ groups. We realise this may cause some inconvenience with regard to access to information but hopefully not too much. We will review the membership of these groups at the end of February to ensure that the club is fully compliant with this guidance.
Chair vacancy
I am in the process of relocating to the Wirral which means, unfortunately, that I will not be in a position to continue as Chair. Should anyone like to nominate a fellow club member, or perhaps volunteer themselves, you will have the opportunity to do so at the next AGM. In the short term I am happy to continue as there isn’t much to do (!) but once things are on the way back to normal it will be important to have a chair who is locally based.
In the meantime
January is gone and summer is just round the corner…so keep pedalling, keep to the guidelines, keep supporting one another.
Geoff Caton
Club Chairman
