Paddington Cycling Club?

What was the colour of the tops, I remember hoops white in the middle blue at the bottom and was it blue at the top? Any one still have a PCC bag? you know those small old fashioned tie around your waist hook over you shoulder job?

Blue white and red, from top to bottom not at all flattering even when fit...

Stow on the Wold, National Hill climbing championships?
John took us to that, watched it then had everyone doing laps, I have the wrong gene pool for that madness:-0

• lots on the hatred of repairing tubs,
  grrr, so many nights wasted sticking poxy needle through my thumb!
  Best tub related story I have:
  Was 14 at the time and 'going through stuff', basically being a moody teen.
  Kept on losing my tub cement tins and couldn't work out where I'd left them.
  Many months later, whilst looking for a pen, found them in my mum's draw.
  She'd been convinced that I'd been glue sniffing:-0 and was relieved to discover I was just being a twat!
  
  

Shame on you for making me admit it but yes, I shaved hangs head looked like bald pipe cleaners and didn't make me go any faster/win/get girls... Now they're a bloody forest!
Thanks, bastard;-p

You lot are bringing back a lot of my memories!

The bag you're thinking of is called a musette. They still use them for handing out food on races. The jersey was blue with a white hoop across the middle, with red sleeves (at least it was in the 70's). I used to have one but it was a horrible nylon one and somehow it has shrunk over the years :-)

I also remember Steve Heffernan and there was another pro called Tony Gowland who I think was a member of the club in the mid-70s'. He raced in the London six day at Wembley on at least one occasion.

I also have to admit I shaved my legs but as I am rather hairy, it was a messy job so I only did it a couple of times, after that couldn't be bothered. I gave up tubs once I stopped racing. One of my mates is still racing - he just chucks them away if punctured - how times have changed.

The name Carl rings a bell but his surname doesn't. I am trying to think of the names of fellow club members from my time. There was a lad from Yorkshire called Paul Shuttleworth who something at London University and spoke with a thick Yorkshire accent. There was a cockney plumber called Adrian Mitchell and another guy called Paul Dodd (or Dodds). They were all older than me,probably in their 20 or 30's. There was a schoolboy my age called Laurence Wolff who turned out to be the son of TV boffin Heinz Wolff.

Do you think a PCC re-union is on the cards?

Do you think a PCC re-union is on the cards?

Whats that pub on the entrance to the REC called the one Kilburn Park Station Side or just come to Wests lol

^I don't know what the pub was called, I was 14 FFS;-)
Wests is probably a good idea though I'm actually a Lewisham local now, so even further than it used to be... but if beer and rose tinted spectacles are on offer I could be persuaded:-)
Hey Ho PCC always demanded commitment!

Yoav,
Paul Shuttleworth was in Bangor when I was, he was older and from what I remember a bit of a moaning dickhead:-0.
Once John chided him for moaning about a hard day by reminding him that all us schoolboys had just done 90+ including Crimea and Ugly House Hill and weren't giving him any grief:-)
None of us could actually talk at that point and some had left vom on the top of UHH... (not me:-)

There was a sprinter called Daeo (really not sure of the spelling) who was seriously good but rubbish at blowing his snot in the right direction on club rides, yuck!

Michael Tremaine? Talented schoolboy rider and some huge sprinter called Nick something who seemed to be Chris Hoy sized!

Carl was american, skinny and perma tanned also in his 40s used to ride me up to winter weight training behind Swiss Cottage... Hang on, that came out wrong;-) always used to ride a white 66" fixed.

I think the jersey must've changed a couple of times, though I also remember a version with the red sleeves like you said.

Did anyone do the winter circuit training in the gym of the Harrow Road/Kensal Rise?

That might've been where I went, in a school?
I just remember we used to go over Swiss Cottage E>W to get there from Hackney.
Never knew exactly where it was as I just used to follow Carl
1 hour circuit training then 1 hour weights, then ride home feeling wobbly...

Yep thats the one 200 yards from the Harrow Road

Don't know what the pub is called either, and what/where is Wests?
I have a confession to make that I don't actually live anywhere London any more. I left Paddington in 1979 and currently reside in Carlisle, Cumbria

Ivan - yeah, that's how I remember Paul too :-)

Diable - yes, I remember those circuit training nights well.

However, I don't recall anything about training in Bangor. I'm sure that if they were on 1976-79, I would have gone on them.

Hey Yoav, Carlisle, easy, it's all down hill from there...
I've got to cross water;-)

Glad I hadn't mis-remembered Paul S:-)
Bangor must've started just after you left, I thought it'd been going on for years.
It certainly made the spring races at Eastway seem like a piece of piss!

1 hour circuit training then 1 hour weights, then ride home feeling wobbly...

I remember the morning after my first training session, I couldn't move from the bed as I ached all over ;p and if you asked for directions in Wales you made sure you went the opposite way ;p

I was a member of the Paddington Cycling Club in about 1974-1977. I was 13 when I joined. I met John Austin because he worked for the ILEA (Inner London Education Authority) as a sports instructor and through school, I went to race at the track. After the first session there, John said I should join the club. I raced track at Paddington and road races as a schoolboy and Junior at Eastway. I did the winter circuit training with the club, but had a girlfriend that lived nearby and so it was a bit of a toss up between circuit training and goin to the gym.

I did one of the club TTs up on the A1, a 10 mile TT starting just near a roundabout (which I think was called the rocket roundabout or something to do with aircraft ... there was a cafe or something right on the roundabout with an aircraft on the roof). I did loads of clubruns from Kingsbury circle.

I thought Tony Gowland was in the club, but maybe he just raced at the track. He's listed in wikipedia and was a pretty big pro., but it says nothing about him being a member of Paddington, so maybe I was wrong about that. He was pretty good friends with John though. There was a race I went to help marshall at with my Dad out near Beaconsfield, a road race, that the club helped promote.

I remember the club jersey was red, white and blue, I don't remember the order of the colours, but I have an old picture of me in it, someplace. If others are interested, I'll post it.

I lived in Shepherds Bush and John Austin made me ride up one of the hills on the A40 to wear marks onto my new shoes (bought from JD Whiskers), he then screwed and glued the cleats on for me. My understanding was that the club disbanded because John moved to North Wales to retire.

Bruce

Ah, now I remember, it was the Comet roundabout. See these links ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/photoblog/2009/09/recession_road_the_comet.html

which would suggest when I was TT'ing there, the cafe was in fact the Comet Hotel.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/209699

which is I guess how it looks now.

Bruce

Cheers for that Bruce ;p

Hi Bruce.

Guess we must have been members at about the same time but forgive me as my poor memory does not remember you.

I remember Tony Gowland at the track on many occasions and he also attended one club dinner I was at. He was certainly very friendly with older members of the club. I never saw him on a Sunday club run but I guess he had more important things to do :-) I assumed he was more of a social than an active member though I couldn't tell you if he actually paid his subs!

Time trialling certainly has changed since those days. Racing on the A1 and other main roads out of London on Saturday afternoons. I remember doing my best 25 time on the A2 in Dartford - it now a six lane motorway!

The club's road race was at a place called Hazelmere, just a few miles beyond Beaconsfield. I too marshalled there but wasn't really good enough to compete. I did some road racing at Eastway though. I remember cycling up that big hill on A40 to the course.

Carl Shavitz recorded some folk music yes, but his real musical interest was classical music & opera. At the time he belonged to PCC he was a lutenist . He's now an artisan baker. Google him. Much of what's written about PCC is quite true, or nearly true. John retired and headed to Nth Wales. To the best of my knowledge the track at Paddington Rec was demolished, with little or no objection from the then cycling authorities. Sad, bad and short-sighted. Tony Gowland was about from time to time, some of us used to go out on Sunday rides with him instead of PCC club runs. At the time he had his own cycle equipment import business. Stay fixed.

Hi guys,
I too have fond memories of Paddington CC with John Austin bleeping me on his loud hailer to cycle faster or to give me other gratuitous advice!
I was there from about 1975 to 1979 at which point studies, a broken arm and 3 stolen bikes put an end to my fun. I recall a trip to Bangor, staying in a YHA, and lots of cold Sunday rides. I was a pure sprinter, but John had me cycling up mountains in Snowdonia to put stamina in my legs. Boy did I suffer!
I remember Yoav and from Yoav's photo I recognise Lee P and Carlo B, and 'the enemy' Archer RC.

Forgot to mention that I went under the name of Ian, the guy with the fuzzy hair. Although I'm a bit ancient now, I wouldn't mind recreating a bit of the old magic by whizzing around Herne Hill track, now that the Paddington Rec caters only for cricket. It seems only yesterday that I was sprinting against Nick F and going on club runs with Geoff C, Pete S, Bruce W, Paul "Italian Stallion" D, Barry F, Carlo B and Paul R.

Recently I was living in Asia, mostly Malaysia where I rediscovered the joys of youth on a mountain bike around Langkawi and Penang, cooling off under waterfalls and avoiding monkeys that looked a bit menacing as I cycled past. Superb fun. I thought I was Eddy Merckx until a woman cycled effortlessly past me.

This thread is just A+.

Hi Chino, so another ex Paddington member comes out of the woodwork!
Anybody else has any old photos to post? My aging memory cells need refreshing.

As to track riding, I have been to Manchester velodrome annually for the last 3 years to get my track fix.

Still got one of the daimonds that marked the inside of Paddington Track. A souvenir from when it was dug up.
The track was dug up by city of westminster after a bit of political maneovering by the council on behalf of the yuppies that moved into the area and felt cycling to be too low class for them. I raced at the last meeting attended by the then tory minister of sport Colin Moynehan and we all know his pedigree.
Not a great track by then but better than nothing.
After that the Paddington track league tried to run events at Welwyn. And the Paddington CC carried on for a few years. Paul Shuttleworth went on to win the world masters points race one year. In their heyday Paddington CC had some good riders like Roubilliard, Dodd and Ford.
Not heard of them for some time.
I remember Liggett riding at Paddington, I think for the Finsbury CC. Later it was Wiggin's dad and fellow aussies.
After the racing it was off to the Carlton Arms, just outside 'the rec' for some Charringtons ale.
Best organiser was Bob Drew and Kurt or Burt Goldschmit on the mike especially for the Charrington 100 series which attracted the best track riders in the country on Friday nights.
Any of these dudes still out there?

Thanks for filling in a few gaps in my memory of Paddington CC and the track. I wasn't there at the end but it was nice to have been part of it in its heyday. Do you have any photographs of the club/track?

Thanks for that, El Caucho.

The track was dug up by city of westminster after a bit of political maneovering by the council on behalf of the yuppies that moved into the area and felt cycling to be too low class for them.

This is sad.

Hi, I found this thread so I thoght I would give you a quick update on some of the old members of Paddington CC as I was a member in the 70's and 80's.
John Austin is alive and well and living in North Wales, he celebrated his 70's birthday last year with many of the old club members and will be in London this week.
I was part of the track team with Barry Ford who is still racing, Paul Dodd who is still racing and Paul Robbiliard who has not touched a bike for years. Carlo Bordi has been racing and Ray George was riding last year.
I still ride my bike and took part in the Etape this year and even though they were many years ago all of the training I did with John A in places like Wales, The Wye valley, Yorkshire and many other places taught me how to suffer and handle my bike.
I have some old pictures of racing at the track and will post some when I get permission on this site.

Yes, Please do!