The next club evening meeting is to be held on Monday 08 February 2010 starting at 8pm.   

The venue is The Trackside pub situated down the ramp at the side of Bolton Street East Lancs Railway station, Bury.  Lots of real ales to choose from.  Bikes can be chained to railings outside the pub entrance.

All members, interested potential new members and all cyclists are warmly invited to attend.  Come and enjoy a drink and a chat about cycling, and help us plan our runs list.  These meetings only happen once every three months so please come along - you will be made very welcome.

BURY CTC SECRETARY'S REPORT 2009 (Read out at AGM November 2009)

As in previous years numbers seem to be consistent with a small but hardy band of regular riders who keep A and B rides going throughout the year.

This is our first year of being an Informal Group of the CTC  with most bureaucracy now being dealt with by Manchester and District CTC whilst we get on with what we enjoy the most, CYCLING!

The first major event of the year was Charlie’s rides on 8^th March when a record entry was attracted, probably due to being included in the CTC Tourist competition. Unfortunately the elements conspired against us and there were many abandonments but some hardy souls did complete the events and £402 was raised for Bury Hospice.

Tours have taken our members to the Long Mynd YH in Shropshire for our Easter Tour; Dumfries for the Kirkpatrick Macmillan Rally; France for the Semaine Federale; York Rally, and Northumberland and the Scottish Borders. Mark Cranshaw toured the west Scotland highlands and islands. Alan Webb toured Corsica.

John Butterworth completed his research into club history with the production of the 80^th Anniversary book and CD.

In July our town twinning anniversary ride took place with one rider from Schorndorf and two from Angouleme taking part in a car assisted ride around the Forest of Bowland and Ribble Valley.

On August 27^th Walter Pilkington passed away at a care home in Edenfield after a long battle with cancer.  Although he had not been active with the Section for several years he was a stalwart from 1946 untill 1994, 48 years!  From his shops he always encouraged aspiring cyclists to join the CTC and ride with the Bury Section and he was a lynchpin in promoting our cause in Bury. Our condolences go to Norma, his wife of 36 years, and his daughter Susan.

Phil Rigby continues to be DA Chairman, Terry Hodges is now the DA Treasurer and John Butterworth in addition to being Section Chairman and website wizard also attends meetings of Bury Cycle Forum.  Many thanks to all Officers of the Section for their efforts over the last year in publicising the Section and ensuring it’s smooth running.

Steve Willetts, Secretary

BURY CTC SECRETARY'S REPORT 2008 (Read out at AGM November 2008)

As ever we have a small number of regular members who are dedicated cyclists and who support our clubruns and tours on a regular basis. Every weekend of the year sees scheduled “A” and “B” runs. Our members have attended the Semaine Federale at Saumur, France, the Tandem Club rally at Market Rasen, York Rally and the Mildenhall Rally. Our Easter tour was in North Wales and many members have taken cycling holidays throughout the year.

Charlie’s Challenge rides of 50 and 100 kilometres went ahead in March with a good turnout of 29 riders including a group from a club in Cheshire. However, we were disappointed that no members of Bury Clarion rode the event although Frank Jefferson marshalled at Belmont.  All entry fees were donated to the Bury Hospice charity amounting to £125.

In July John Butterworth and Alan Webb accompanied by Frank Jefferson rode from Bury to our twin towns of Angouleme and Tulle in France where they were received at the Hotels de Ville and feted by their French hosts. This event has been fully reported in the Bury Times and the Northern Wheel.

John Butterworth has continued to attend meetings of Bury Cycle Forum at the town hall where any items of interest or concern to local cyclists are discussed with local authority officers and councillors.

As discussed at last year’s AGM, we are cyclists, we go touring and we are in a club. We simply want to enjoy the pleasure of cycling as we always have done. In the face of increasing officialdom, form filling, report writing and committee meetings we are now seriously considering our position within the CTC as a national body and our DA may have made a premature assumption that we should become a subsidiary membership group.

Steve Willetts

Secretary

PS from the Chair:

At the November 2008 AGM where this report was read out we unanimously voted to become an ‘Informal Group’ within the CTC which should reduce bureaucracy significantly.  We are still a part of Manchester DA (now known as Manchester & District CTC). The change will not affect members and their benefits in any way but will make things much simpler for our few elected officers and organisers. Indeed we do not now have a need for elected officers as all meetings in future will be informal.

On the eve of our 80^th anniversary this can be seen as the start of a new era for the Section.  We look to the future with optimism.

BURY CTC SECRETARY'S REPORT 2007 (Read out at AGM November 2007)

As in previous years we continue to be a relatively small but active section. Whilst we struggle to attract new members those we do have tend to be keen and dedicated. This said, Terry Gilfoyle and Alan Hulbert have become regular riders this year, Nick Pickup and Tommy Handley have re-surfaced recently and we have suffered no losses.

The “A” and “B” Sections have a hard core who turn out come what may and we have had clubruns on every Sunday of the year in spite of the inclement weather in the early summer. These have varied from the foul weather standby of the Clarion Clubhouse at Roughlee  to as far afield as Littondale, Clapham and Hawes.

Club Tours have seen us visit Melrose at Easter (when Mike Tattersall rode all the way from Prestwich), the Kirkpatrick Macmillan Rally near Dumfries, Lake Garda in Italy, York Rally, Somerset, the FFCT Semaine Federale at Perigueux in the Dordogne Region of Acquitaine and the Mildenhall Rally.

This year a special mention must go to Mark Cranshaw and Mike Tattersall who put in some prodigious mileages in training, qualifying for and then completing a rather damp Audax Club Parisien Paris-Brest-Paris 1200km in 70 hrs 11mins and 86 hrs 19mins respectively. Their whole year seems to have revolved around preparation for and successfully completing this marathon event and they join Nigel Hood on the list of our PBP members.

Jim Holden and Roy Turner continue to do their own thing sometimes using Bromptons on public transport to extend their range. Roy has had a hip replacement operation this summer but is gradually getting back to normal now. Phil Rigby is also recovering from an operation and we hope he will be able to resume cycling by the end of the year.

Andy and Bev have visited us from Italy and also attended the Semaine Federale for a few days.

After a poor turnout in 2006 the cycling quiz was abandoned this year leaving Charlie’s Rides as our only event. This year there was a poor turnout in both the 50k and 100k rides, probably due to the bad weather on the morning of the rides. However, these rides in remembrance of Charlie Westlake will continue in 2008 but on a revised date of Sunday 9^th March.

Three of our members, John Butterworth, Steve Willetts and Pete Roscoe, attend the Bury Cycling Forum which this year has continued to move forward, albeit slowly within the constraints of local authority funding, with relatively minor improvements to cycling facilities within the Borough.

We continue to submit weekly reports of our activities to the Bury Times but, due to their own constraints on editorial space, these are not always published. After many years when there has been no problem things have now come to a head and we have decided to submit our main report to the Clubs and Societies page instead of Sports.

Our Section has been busy doing what it has always done, indeed what all Sections have always done, Touring, with a group who love the fresh air, exhilaration and camaraderie of being awheel and which we plan to do for many years to come. The name of our Section eloquently and simply describes exactly what we do and we embody the traditional values of The Cyclists' Touring Club.

Steve Willetts, Secretary

BURY CTC - SECRETARY’S REPORT 2004 (read out at AGM Nov 2004)

This has been quite an eventful year starting in February with the annual Cycling Quiz at the Pack Horse Hotel.  There were fewer teams this year but the evening was considered a success and enjoyed by all present.  Bury Cycle Speedway once again supported us by entering a team, but again Lancashire Road Club took the framed certificate and £10 cash prize. 

This year members toured in Sicily, the Pyrenees and Andorra, the Vosges Mountains, the Alps and at home attended York and Mildenhall Rallies.

Members also joined in the DA Youth Hostel Weekend at Dent at the May Bank Holiday.

A major event for the DA this year was the hosting of the successful CTC Birthday Rides in Derbyshire; a few Bury members attended and Phil in his role as DA chairman played a big part in the organisation.

A big event of the year was the purchasing of new section cycle clothing, and the design has given a more continental feel to the section name as CTC Bury. The section’s 75^th anniversary happened to coincide with the introduction of our new cycling clothing, but the event has not been marked in any other way.  It is hoped that the new clothing will help in our push for new members.

The Sunday club runs have been generally well attended with new members showing up and some sticking with it.. Work commitments and injuries have affected ‘A’ run attendances this year.  After a decent Spring, the weather gave us a mainly wet summer with some good days interspersed.

We had good weather for this years Charlie Westlake Bike Rides in June with our biggest turn out yet of 39 riders taking part with 33 finishers. The addition of the longer ride contributed to this and proved successful. After expenses, £55 was raised for Bury Hospice.  A letter of thanks was received from them.

Nigel Hood was involved in an accident with a car on Bury New Road which resulted in a broken pelvis and a stay in Fairfield Hospital.  Thankfully he is now back on his feet with the aid of crutches.  The section wish him a speedy recovery and hope that he is soon back on his bike.

The section continues to be represented at Bury Cycling Forum meetings, whilst Phil Rigby is still Manchester DA chairman.  Club members greeted cyclists from Schorndorf, Germany who had cycled to twin town Bury this summer.

Alan Webb continues to do a good job in writing interesting and readable club run reports for the Bury Times, but we still do not have a contributor for ‘B’ ride reports.

Generally it’s been a good year for the club – the only low being, as usual, poor attendance by members at club meetings.   And again it is worth remembering that it is the usual few club stalwarts who attend runs regularly holding this Section together.

BURY CTC - SECRETARY’S REPORT 2003 (read out at AGM Nov 2003)

This has been quite an eventful year starting in February with the annual Cycling Quiz at the Waterloo Hotel.  There were fewer teams this year but the evening was considered a success and enjoyed by all present.  We had a strong presence from Bury Clarion and Bury Cycle Speedway, but once again Lancashire Road Club took the shield and £10 cash prize. 

We had a joint ride with Bury Clarion riders to officially unveil the Charlie Westlake memorial seat at the Clarion clubhouse at Roughlee and we were blessed with sunny weather. Photos were taken and were included on Bury Clarion’s website, in a Bury Times article and in Northern Wheel. We also had good weather for this years Charlie Westlake Memorial Bike Ride in June in which 25 cyclists took part.

Members attended various meetings both on the road and off.  Off the bike, in July we had a DA meeting with CTC boss Kevin Mayne at the Velodrome with Bury members attending, and members continue to attend Bury Cycling Forum meetings, whilst Phil Rigby continues as Manchester DA chairman.  On the bike we had members present at the CTC 125^th Anniversary Hostel weekend at Maeshafn in North Wales last May with a special anniversary ride around Llangollen on the Sunday. 

Members also attended York Rally, Mildenhall Rally and the Birthday Rides, and there was the usual Bank Holiday Youth Hostelling and members touring abroad. This year a large group went on a tour of the Dolomites in August, and we had riders at the Semaine Federale in France.

The Sunday club runs have been generally well attended with new members showing up and some staying with it.. The weather has been kind to us this year so maybe that has something to do with it.  Early in the year we saw the return of old regular John Merritt to the ranks, but alas he has since disappeared again.

A major issue this year is that accountability arising mainly from today’s ‘compensation culture’ will probably mean that in future the club will have to formalise events with entry forms and the like, and members new and old will most likely have to be issued with details of rules and procedures. We have sent a list of regular club runs riders to Head Office so that in the event of a claim against us the chances are that at least one rider on any given club run will be officially registered at Head Office and therefore no one should be personally liable to a claim against them in the event of an accident.

Alan Webb is doing a great job in writing very interesting and readable club run reports for the Bury Times, but we still do not have a contributor for ‘B’ ride reports.

John Butterworth was presented with a framed ‘Certificate of Merit’ at the quiz night by Phil Rigby on behalf of the Section in thanks for services rendered in promoting cycling in Bury.

Generally it’s been a good year for the club – the only low being poor attendance by

members at club meetings.  And it is worth remembering that it is the usual few club stalwarts who attend runs regularly that are holding this Section together.

Finally, we have to report that John Crossthwaite has resigned as Section Secretary after fifteen years in the job.  John’s leisure activities are now focussed more on walking  rather than cycling and the Section thank him for his services over the years and we wish him well.  He will be missed by the club, but we hope not to lose contact altogether and hope that he will continue with his cycling.