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Women's Racing With Joyce
When I started riding with the Addiscombe
Cycling Club in my early teens the roads were clear of traffic and you
could hang on to a piece of rope dangling from the back of a lorry to help
you up the hills, especially as the lorries would only do 30 mph in any
case!
In the Addiscombe we were very lucky,
perhaps thanks to Eileen Jordan (who I never met), because she was such a
good rider, the men allowed women to join around 1942 and she was
the first. Of course after that we had plenty more women in the club.
On the track the lasses who made me welcome
were Anne Hunnisett, Sonia Bush and Betty Flanagan. As I was underage they
would smuggle me into the pub after a track meeting at Herne Hill for a
glass of lemonade! Then I'd have to rush madly home, up over Knights Hill,
incase I got a telling off from my parents for being out past 9.30pm!
Perhaps my club run memories are very
different. I was always out on the Social Run, mostly having to phone up
Fred Armstrong (brother of Sid) to ask if he would come out for a ride
with me as I was the only one of two out. In the late forties the pair of
them formed my love of riding a bike. Both of them knew the Surrey and
Sussex lanes blindfolded and during the war they would often go riding
around just to see if they could get to the coast even though it was out
of bounds at the time.
I started racing in 1949 with four 10s and
a 25. The next year I advanced to breaking the Club 10 Record with 25.59
beating Chris Watts (nee Brooker) by just 6 seconds. The week previously
Chris had broken the 15 mile record with 39.59. All my rides were done on
a 78 inch fixed wheel gear and I got down to a 1.09 for 25 miles.
Not only was there Chris and I racing but
we had a host of other good girls; Eileen Cullen, Daphne Stratford, Doris
Kerry, Eileen Newman and of course our girls on the track.
If I remember correctly club membership was
standing at about 200 and club nights were extremely busy affairs with the
officials taking entries for all our disciplines and the tea bar serving
tea and cake plus darts and table tennis going on as well.
Women's racing as a whole was taking off.
On our Southern Roads there was Joyce Harris, Joan Simmons, Daisy Franks
(nee Stockwell), Janet Gregory and Elsie Horton amongst others all turning
out good rides and there would always be full fields. Our local 25 mile
course, the G9, started on the lower slopes of the Redhill drag going
south. We all used to park our bikes after riding out on a low fixed gear,
change out of our jumpers and with our dark inconspicuous jerseys and
baggy shorts and turn our back wheels round to give us a bigger gear by
utilising the smaller sprocket on the other side of the hub before tearing
off down the road on the 78 inch fixed!
The course went south, all the way down
through Povey Cross, a big junction in those days, straight on past what
is now the right turn for Charlwood, through to Lowfield Heath which is
now part of Gatwick airport to Crawley roundabout with a right turn
followed by another right turn again onto the Crawley to Horsham Road
which was a single carriageway with a dead turn outside the Cherry Tree
Pub followed by a retrace back to School House (no school there now!) and
a left fork to Woodhatch past the pond to finish just short of the
junction that takes you back over the Common to Redhill.
What a course! Quite flat and definitely
the best around by far. After that it would be breakfast in a local café.
Eggs, chips and beans for 1/6d (7 1/2 p !) then down to Shoreham for the
rest of the day usually meeting at County Oak or Crawley for club tea and
another burn up to the Jolliffe Arms at the bottom of Shepherd's Hill to get all the day's racing results
It was week in week out, all enjoying just
riding a bike. Just like today infact.
I met John Smith in the Addiscombe Cycling
Club and we married in 1954. My racing took a back seat then as I was
still riding but going out to support him as he raced in events. [John was
one of the best cyclists this club ever produced and was winning events on
a regular basis - Ed]
After our children Peter and Anne were born
in 1957 and 1959 I took up timekeeping and judging at Herne
Hill and Crystal Palace. That kept me very busy, usually out timing 5
times a week. I would always ride out to events with my watches in a bag
over my shoulder. Often for time trials I'd be up at 2.30am just as the
next door neighbours would be coming home from an evening out!
You would stand at the side of the road and
riders would shout their numbers out as they finished although you would
often know who they were in any case. The watch was a standard one, no
electronic timers then, just a time of day chronometer. You hoped the
weather stayed fine as well or you had a job writing in Pencil. It was the
days before plastic as well so if the weather turned wet I would don my cape,
pop my head inside and keep my work dry underneath the cape!
Later on I started racing again in 1968 and
I got down to 1.08 for 25 miles and 27 minutes for a 10. I also upped my
fixed gear from 78 to 82 inches. Women's racing was on a far higher level
with the astounding Beryl Burton on the scene competing with 56 minutes
for a 25. She was incredible and was the Queen of British time trialling
and was such a lovely person to meet and talk with but also very serious
about racing and training.
She had a tremendous career and was really
head and shoulders above all the others. She would often win events
outright including beating all of the men that were present! Also there
were other women racing well then such as Pat Pepper, Gil Clapton, Barbara
Body, Lorna Hanlon, Anne Horswell etc. All riding disciplines from 10s to
12 hour events and at international level as well.
1969 saw me get down to a 26 for a 10 and a
1.07.00 for 25 miles. I also rode a 50 in 2.21 and also my first 100 which
was just outside evens but by jingo did I blow up badly over the last 20
miles on what was a very hot and windy day!
In 1970 the pattern of women's racing was
changing fast. Times were really coming down with Beryl Burton proving
that women could go faster. Events were being won with under and near the
hour rides and still women were chasing hard to beat Beryl Burton at 25
miles and at other distances. 1970 was also the year I had my best season
of all my racing career. It was a year when everything I rode I improved.
I bettered the club 10, 25 and 30 mile records and just missed the 50 mile
record by 4 seconds and the 100 by 5 minutes. I was racing every week, all
through the season and I even raced the day after club members Colin and
Barbara Davies married and won the event!
There was a rule that ladies couldn't enter
men's events for a while but that was lifted in the 70's . Sometimes I
would be the woman only riding in the event although you still had the same
ladies racing but not so many of them. The South West London Ladies
Cycling Association did a great service for many years keeping women's
events running and these were very keenly supported by all the girls that
raced. Eileen Gray, Mary Corry, Milly Robinson and Eileen Sheridan, all
ambassadors for the running of women's racing and the top women always
supported these events. I felt very proud to belong to that association
and I enjoyed writing the history of the SWLLCA. It certainly turned out
to be a history of women's racing over the years.
During the 1970s I still raced evening 10s
on what we called the Gatwick Circuit. Roads were getting busier with the
expansion of Gatwick airport and this one was very close to the airport
starting in Bonnets lane, Charlwood then out onto the A23, Left to
Longbridge and Povey Cross which is now a minor road then onto Charlwood
road to turn left at the cricket green then left again to the finish at
Bonnets Lane.
The "in" course at the time was
out in Essex; the E72. All distances could be ridden up and down the A12
with none of the traffic problems we have today.
I was still riding quite well with 26
minutes for a 10, 1.06 for a 25 and a 2.22 for a 50 with a lot of the top
women still competing in 1977. I also rode Vets events and did quite well
on the plusses as ladies standards were the same as trike standards. New
names were appearing then; Sue Swetman, Boby Tingey, Gill Reynolds, Di Emery, Josie Randall,Carol
Gandey and Daisy
Franks (nee Stockwell) who had been a sprint champion with the Apollo CC
in 1948..
I still continued racing till 1986 when a
couple of years later I had cancer, which I'm glad to say was removed
after treatment, although I was never able to get my racing fitness back
after that. My only competitive event is now the Addiscombe President's 10
although I won't tell you my times!
I still enjoy my cycling and with all the
new interest there is in my club its great, especially as we once again
have women who are interested in racing who are keeping the flags flying
for Addiscombe.
It's a great hobby.
Joyce Smith President Addiscombe Cycling
Club
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