Congratulations Midland C&AC

[TonyS]

Gleaned from an RRA news item. A bit late, but you know what they say ....

 

MIDLAND CYCLING & ATHLETIC CLUB

Founded 1890

PRESIDENT   G.A. HARRISON

Dear Sirs,

 

April this year will be the 125th Anniversary of the above club and we shall be celebrating the occasion with a Dinner on April 12th at the Henley-in-Arden Golf Club in Warwickshire.

 

     Our club is steeped in history, from its earliest beginnings it was one of the foremost club’s in the country & the Premier club in the Midlands with its headquarters in Victoria Square, Birmingham.`

 

     In the early days the club badge had the Birmingham Coat of Arms as its centre piece and very proud of its Birmingham origins after having been started at the Holte Hotel in Aston.

 

     Amongst its members in the early days was the MP for Aston, Capt Grice Hutchinson (President), Harry Keys (Chairman of West Bromwich Albion FC) a Director of Aston Villa, the Urry family, J B Burman, J K Starley of the Rover cycle company (later Rover cars), positions of Chairman, Treasurer, V/Chairman of the Birmingham Charity Sports, Charles Hyde of the BSA, Sir Edmund Crane, the Dawes family of Dawes Cycles, Birds family of custard fame and many more of the great & good of Birmingham.

 

     Sports meetings were held at the Aston Lower Grounds, later Villa Park that had a cement cycle track around the pitch and following the Second World War they were held at Cadburys ground with thousands there for the Cycling & Athletic events. St Andrews & the Edgbaston Cricket ground were also used.

 

     Club Dinners were held at the Crown Hotel & The Imperial Hotel in the City and were grand affairs with leaders of industry present.     

 

     The club developed star riders such as Charlie Moss & Billy Welsh breaking the ‘End to End’ ride on three occasions.

     Albert Powell won the first Bath Road ‘100’ in 1903, Charles Moss won it four times 1907-8-9-11 also being the first man to beat five hours for the distance. He also won the Anfield ‘100’ three times in 1910-11-12, Charles Holland also won the Anfield in 1932-34-36.

     In 1908 David Noon represented Great Britain in the Olympic Games as did Charlie Moss in 1912, Harry Genders in 1920 & Charles Holland in 1932 & 36.

     The club’s riders have attained eleven National Records & some seventy two Midland records, a record hard to beat by any club during its long history.

     Charles Holland turned professional and rode in the 1937 ‘Tour de France’ only failing to finish having completed 2,000 miles, due to running out of tyres.

     Charles won the Isle of Man International 1936 as did Les Willmott in the fifties. John Pottier another of our great riders turned professional and rode with great distinction in the ‘Tour of Britain’ twice holding the yellow jersey and also represented his country in the ‘Tour of Spain’.

     If you add the names of other notables such as Frank Greenwood, Jack Middleton, Austin Appleby, Syd Holloway, Fred Chinn, Jack Simpson, Bill Connolly to name just a few, the club has a remarkable and proud history both in Cycling & Athletics, having had the AAA’s 100 yds champion, ¼ mile champion and in 1908-09-11 Reg Noakes was the 2 miles Steeplechase champion.

 

     The club magazine ‘Roll-Call’ was first produced in 1895 and has been produced every month since and right up to the present day without fail including through two world wars.  

 

     We are still an active club with regular club runs, programme of club events through the season, social events throughout the year and very much look forward to the future.

 

 John Kemp Starley developed the ‘Rover’ Safety Bicycle, he was another of our members until his premature death in 1901, but his company went on to great things such as Rover cars., now owned by BMW. We hope to have an original Starley Safety & the modern version on display at our Dinner on April 12th as well as a the club trophies and a selection of old & new racing vests, plus a continuous display of old photographs.

 

John Bishop