CLWB SEICLO CAERGYBI - HOLYHEAD CYCLING CLUB

 

 

HANES Y CLWB - CLUB HISTORY

Previous cycling clubs existed in Holyhead on two occasions. The first club was from 1937 to 1941 and was known as the Holyhead Cycling and Social Club. Meetings were regular with a clubroom near the town Cenotaph and clubruns were held regularly also in midweek and on Sundays with a highlight in the special 'cyclists teas' at remote farmhouses. A feature of the club was the number of 'tea dances' that were held and the time that was allocated to table tennis on club nights

Sadly on the outbrake of the war the club folded. The club minute book is now in the Anglesey Archives at Llangefni. There too is a most interesting photo album of excellent black and white photographs of the first London - Holyhead Road Race held in 1951. This album was presented to the late R.V.Thomas, a member of the original pre war club who by 1951 ran a cycle shop in the town and who organised the section of the race from Llangollen to Holyhead. The record for the twenty five mile trial to Bangor and the fifty mile Bangor and back trial set by R.V.Thomas still stands. Result sheets of events held in May and September 1939 are still in existence and indicate an active involvment by Holyhead riders.

Probably as a result of increased interest in cycling following the 1951 race, a cycling club was formed in the town and was active again with regular clubruns and time trials. The fact that the London - Holyhead Road Race was held annually may have contirbuted to its continued existence until it came to an end in 1957. Glyn Lloyd recalls meeting Percy Stallard, the "father of British Road Racing" at the Cenotaph after the latter had ridden a large part of the route from London to Holyhead prior to the 1951 race. There were many club activities including a freewheeling competition, quizzes and social evenings in a cafè in Stanley Street and nine members went on a ten day tour of Ireland. The club rule book, membership cards and certificates provide evidence of a well run, efficient club under the guidance of its secretary J.O.Hughes. Certificates awarded to members for their participation in time trials are evidence also of an active club

 

Above- The London to Holyhead road race crosses onto Anglesey

Above - The finale of the London to Holyhead comes down to a sprint finish on the Newry promenade Holyhead.

The present club was formed in May 1982 following an advert in the free local broadsheet 'Adweek' which stated that a meeting would be held in the Coastguard Station for those interested in forming a cycling club. Following that first meeting, a number of individuals met weekly for evening clubruns and the following autumn the club affiliated with the Welsh Cycling Union and the Road Time Trial Council to enable members to take part in club time trials and open events with R.T.T.C. and the W.C.U. Road Races. The small group that started the club elected Eric Hughes as chairman, Peter Edwards as secretary and Len Thomas as treasurer. The club included three member who had done a great deal of cycling, mainly touring, in the sixties.

Above - Club founding members including Reynold Thomas,Eric Hughes,Len Thomas

 

    CLUB PHOTO 1985

 CLUB PHOTO 1992

                          CLUB  PHOTO 1985                                                          

The club has always been close knit as the number of members has not exceeded thirty and all have been involved in a great variety of cycling activities - time trialling, road racing and leisure challenge rides. Like many cycling clubs though, the mainstay has been the weekly club time trial ranging from ten mile trials to a hilly 23 mile event on the Valley road (A5025) and a 'sporting' 25 mile event which is held on the Rhosneigr - Aberffraw - Newborough road (A4080). Clubruns are popular in the close season for socialising and training while in the season the weekends are for open events on the R.T.T.C. and W.C.U. calendar, though T.L.I. events have been popular in recent years. Recently too 'challenge rides' by the C.T.C. and Audax have attracted a number of riders from the club. Many riders from the club have gone onto repersent the Ynys Mon at the Island games with club member David Williams competing and repersenting the county at an amzaing 11 games. The annual club road race, first held in 1988 on a course finishing on Holyhead's Newry Beach, was later held on a circuit in Central Anglesey with race H.Q. at Amlwch. The event was always a great success due to the hard working efforts of various club members in particular Keith Thompson who was the organiser of the road race for nearly 20 years. The club will be celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2007/08 season.

Today the club still maintains a small dedicated band of members. Many members participate in Audax events up and down the country, whereas other members have been successful on the Time Trialling scene. Club members can still be seen today in there recognisable Red and Yellow strip all over the roads of Ynys Mon and North Wales.

 

            

R.E.HUGHES

Updated - G W Blackshaw 2007

 

CLWB SEICLO CAERGYBI - HOLYHEAD CYCLING CLUB ROLL OF HONOUR   SENIOR BEST ALL ROUNDER TROPHY 1987 – IFOR PHILLIPS   1994 – ARWEL JONES   2001 – GARETH BLACKSHAW   2008 – GARETH BLACKSHAW     1988 – IFOR PHILLIPS   1995 – ARWEL JONES     2002 – GARETH BLACKSHAW     2009 – GARETH BLACKSHAW   1989 – ARWEL JONES   1996 – ARWEL JONES   2003 – GARETH BLACKSHAW     1990 – RICHARD JONES   1997 – GARETH WILLIAMS   2004 – GARETH BLACKSHAW     1991 – IFOR PHILLIPS   1998 – GARETH WILLIAMS   2005 – GARETH BLACKSHAW     1992 – RICHARD JONES   1999 – GARETH WILLIAMS   2006 – GARETH BLACKSHAW     1993 – RICHARD JONES   2000 – GARETH WILLIAMS   2007 – GARETH BLACKSHAW     VETERANS BEST ALL ROUNDER TROPHY 1987 -  REYNOLD THOMAS   1994 – KEITH THOMPSON 2001 – ARTHUR THOMAS 2008 – ARTHUR THOMAS 1988 – REYNOLD THOMAS   1995 – KEITH THOMPSON 2002 – ARTHUR THOMAS 2009 – MEDWYN WILLIAMS 1989 – KEITH THOMPSON   1996 – ARTHUR THOMAS 2003 – ARTHUR THOMAS   1990 - KEITH THOMPSON   1997 – ARTHUR THOMAS 2004 – ARTHUR THOMAS   1991 – KEITH THOMPSON   1998 – ARTHUR THOMAS 2005 – ARTHUR THOMAS   1992 – KEITH THOMSPON   1999 – ARTHUR THOMAS 2006 – ARTHUR THAOMS   1993 KEITH THOMPSON   2000 – ARTHUR THOMAS 2007 – ARTHUR THOMAS   JUNIOR BEST ALL ROUNDER TROPHY 1985 – ARWEL JONES   1992 – PHILLIP KEEFE 1999 – AIDEN BRADLEY 2006 – N/A 1986 – N/A   1993 – N/A 2000 – N/A 2007 – N/A 1987 – N/A   1994 – PETER BECTON 2001  - JOHN LANE 2008 – N/A 1988 – N/A   1995 – GARETH BLACKSHAW 2002 – JOHN LANE 2009 – N/A 1989 – JOHN PAUL OWEN   1996 – GARETH WILLIAMS 2003 – N/A   1990 – PHILLIP KEEFE   1997 – GARETH DUNFORD 2004 – N/A   1991 – PHILLIP KEEFE   1998 AIDEN BRADLEY 2005 – N/A     OWEN HUGHES MEMORIAL TROPHY – MERITOUS AWARD   1985 – LEN THOMAS 1992 – KEITH THOMPSON 1999 – DAVE BLAKE 2006 – MARK BOWMAN 1986 – PETER EDWARDS 1993 – JOHN PAUL OWEN 2000 – BARRY WILLIAMS 2007 – KEITH THOMPSON 1987 – ERIC HUGHES 1994 – ALAN WALKER 2001 – ERIC HUGHES 2008 – MEDWYN WILLIAMS 1988 – REYNOLD THOMAS 1995 – ARWEL JONES 2002 – DAVID WILLIMAS 2009 – GARETH BLACKSHAW 1989 – G.W. JONES 1996 – IFOR PHILLIPS 2003 – JOHN BARNES   1990 – G.WYNNE JONES 1997 – END TO ENDERS 2004 – IFOR PHILLIPS   1991 – ARTHUR THORLBY 1998 – GRAHAM GREEN 2005 – ARTHUR THORLBY

DDRAIG WERDD C.S.CAERGYBI - THE GREEN DRAGON OF HOLYHEAD C.C.        When lycra came in, that would have been in the nineties, the cycling club needed to change the design of its jersey.   Gone would be the old faithful yellow jersey with its green and red hoops and trims, flock lettering in black of Caergybi/Holyhead, splendidly rendered by Mr Stan Hughes, Gibbsport of Salford to be replaced by a wonderful new design based on a popular Tour de France team.   This would have a greater amount of red in the basic colour with a circular design depicting wheels but also having small circular panels for the club logo.   The problem was what to place in these panels; much discussion ensued – celtic designs were favoured for a short while involving the never-ending whorls and strange lettering, lighthouses were also suggested and rejected.    That’s when the red dragon was suggested – after all we were a Welsh club!         A red dragon on a red jersey simply would not do, though inserted against a white background, so another colour had to be found.   We learnt also on some grapevine that only the national cycle team were allowed red dragons on their jerseys.   The dragon of Owain Glyndwr, Prince of Wales (1351 – 1417) was of gold on a white background; that would not do either on account of all the yellow in the jersey design, besides our colour choice was restricted to red, yellow, green or blue.   Stan had no gold.   Blue was definitely out – our first jerseys in 1982 were blue and stayed like that a short while until we found that most other clubs had blue.   That left green, one of the colours of the previous jersey, so why not?   It was Stan Hughes who finally said have green dragons, you can have the third colour without incurring any extra cost.    So, the green dragon club came into being.   To some orientals, dragons had always been green, anyway.        It’s strange that very few cycling clubs have green jerseys or jerseys with some green with a contrast colour like purple or orange.   This applies too to soccer and rugby teams.   In our locality green is the colour of the uniform of Holyhead  Secondary School – our club  should have had green jerseys at its formation when we recall that ‘schooldays are the happiest days of your lives’.   The addition of green in the dragons, three on the jersey, may have had some sentimentality attached to it therefore as we remembered the old school on the hill and the wonderful time we had there.   Holyhead’s connections with Ireland should also have made us prefer green as the old Irish song mentions … the wearing of the green.   The green dragon on our jersey can be seen as a protest too, being a club far away from the HQ of the Welsh Cycling  and  CTTC or we could explain the green by saying that the dragon simply had spent some time in Ireland  - after all, Holyhead is the gateway to Ireland.           It’s quite easy to paint things green – some time before most road signs in Wales had green paint daubed on them as a protest – so our dragon could have been painted green also as a protest, or was it a sign of something new?   Dragons in the jungles of long ago were most definitely green, with perhaps a yellowish tinge.   Green has always been associated in nature with new beginnings and gives hope in precarious times to the future of the club and the green dragon is displayed on the new shirts and jackets recently introduced. May the Holyhead C.C. dragon remain ever green.           R.E.Hughes