The History of the
Lune RCC

Origins

The 1950's
& 1960's

The 1970's & Morecambe Weekend

Scale Hall

Present Day

The following text was written by Pete Nowell in 1999 as an account of the history of Lune Racing Cycling Club. Following on from that are a collection of photographs compiled by Walter Shepherd, Gordon Helme and many others unknown, charting the early days of the club, the early races in which they entered and organized and the clubs involvement in larger races which came to the North-West.

Origins and Early History of the Lune RCC

“Prior to 1949, there was no road racing club in Lancaster . The only racing readily available was time trialling with Lancaster C.C. under R.T.T.C. rules with possibly a bit of track racing at Fallowfield in Manchester, and some closed circuit racing on aerodromes and motor racing circuits around the country under N.C.U. (National Cyclists Union).

Unfortunately the N.C.U. races were always a long distance away and I never heard of anyone from Lancaster travelling to them but a few of the Kent Valley did. There was also “illegal” grass track racing at Lakeland sports meetings like Grasmere and Keswick, so anybody riding these in these kept quiet about it in case they got suspended by the N.C.U. or R.T.T.C.

Until 1942, the only proper road race was the Manx International. This was held under the N.C.U. rules on closed roads and got going in 1936 but was not held during the war.

Then in 1942, the revolution occurred when Percy Stallard from Wolverhampton (who was himself an International roadman having won many races on Brooklands and Donnington circuits and ridden in World Championships) organised the Llangollen to Wolverhampton race on open roads.

This led to the formation of the B.L.R.C. (British League of Racing Cyclists) shortly afterwards in order to organise Continental style racing on British roads.

Very quickly B.L.R.C. clubs were formed with the first being in Wolverhampton , Bradford , London and Manchester with races like the Tour of the Peak and Morecambe-Bradford appearing. By the time the war ended in 1945, there were a fair number of races with the first major stage race being put on as the Brighton to Glasgow Victory Marathon.

From 1943 until 1948 the only B.L.R.C. clubs north of Manchester were the Prestwich Olympic, the Northern Criterium Club in Bury, the East Lanc ’s Velo in Blackburn and the Ribble Valley in Preston which was started by Andy Anderton in 1948.

Those of us from Lancaster who often road into Yorkshire met the Bradford B.L.R.C. lads in cafes etc so we went to see them in the Morecambe-Bradford going over Buckhaw Brow, and that was it!

With bright jerseys, racing caps, goggles and whirring of gears who could resist it, particularly in the sunshine and when they were going like hell with a tail wind.

All the famous names were there like Geoff Clark, Bob Thom, Ernie Clements, Les Plume and Walter Greaves who had only one arm and shot down Buckhaw with the rest of ‘em with a rod and a cup attached to his bars in order to steer.

It was great to see these pioneers of road racing and better still, not long after, to be riding with them. Another race which prodded us into action was the hilly N.C.U. race at Richmond around Catterick Camp with men like Alec Taylor from Belgium , Tiny Thomas from Bradford and Bob Maitland from Birmingham riding.

Although this was the real thing, like the Manx International, it wasn’t much use to us because it was only held once a year and we wanted to do it all the time. So it was good-bye to time trialling on Brock in black racing kit and fixed wheels (except in winter) and we went over to Ron Kitching’s in Harrogate and Ossie Jackson’s shop in Nelson to get our Continental tackle.

They also sold Continental magazines packed with photo’s of the aces like Coppi, Bartali and Robic in the Alps and the Pyrenees which really pepped us up, making us go at least a couple of mph faster on the way home!

Some other seeds of inspiration were sown earlier from a similar but unexpected source in Harry Aspden’s articles on the pre-war stars like Christophe, Maes, Pelissier and Vietto etc. in Cycling (now Cycling Weekly). Generally there was nothing else but time trialling in the magazine.

The Lune was formed on Tuesday, 4th January 1949 in Savage’s bedding shop loft in Queen Square, Morecambe with Fred Adcroft, Geoff Bye, Bert Clarke, Brian Dowthwaite, Peter Nowell, Parry Robinson, Jack Savage and Donald Smith in attendance.

This was followed on Sunday 9th January by the first club ride to Buttermere. There is a photo to prove it, taken on Newlands by Donald Smith (Don Juan). This shows a young Ian Brown with his arm around me and we have been close mates ever since.