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Annual Events

Some dates are provisional


April to October

Summer Car-Assisted and Alternative Rides


June
France Trip to Berke Plage
(Meet at Dover Docks)

July 

Mountain Biking in
Tignes Val Caret
(Meet in Val Claret)

 

Insurance

Meridian Cycling Club - A Brief History

To understand how the Meridian Cycling was conceived we need to go back to the year 2000. The vast majority of the founder members of the Meridian Cycling Club were at that time members of the Southeeat Section of the Forty Plus Cycling Club. John Rainbow had resigned as secretary of the Southeast Section of the Forty plus Cycling Club after 17 years successful service. Ray and Barbara Ransom who had joined the club during the mid 1990s were unanimously elected as his successor. The Southeast section had around one hundred members at the time, this grew to one hundred and fifty during the next five years.

Overall the Forty Plus had fifteen sections with over 800 members in total but numbers were decreasing year on year. Along with many other members of the section Ray and Barbara strongly believed that  compulsory cycling insurance was a necessity when riding a bicycle on the road. Unfortunately there was little enthusiasm within the other sections throughout the club, so the proposal was defeated on a number of occasions at committee level

During 2006 the matter had come to a head, so in a final attempt to secure insurance throughout the club the Southeast section attended the Forty Plus AGM in large numbers. The outcome was that we were able to secure the election of Sidney Schuman as the new Chair and David Sims as the new General Secretary of the club.

Although David Sims was able to obtain competitive quotations for members insurance it made little difference to the other groups attitude.

On the way home from a disruptive AGM during October 2007 the decision to breakaway form the Forty Plus and form our own club was taken at Charing Cross Railway Station by David Sims and Ray and Barbara Ransom.

The following Wednesday we were meeting at Polhill Garden Centre where we advised many of our members of our intentions, there was some resistance at first, but following a meeting at High Elms Golf Club the following week it was agreed that we would breakaway from the Forty Plus and form our new club. The clincher for many members was when Gerry Kemp spoke in favor of the proposal giving us his full support. The irony was that we had not been aware that Gerry had wanted to breakaway from the Forty Plus for a number of years.

The new club needed a name, we received some daft and many excellent suggestions, after much thought we went with Reg Oakley's suggestion 'Meridian Cycling Club'.

The vast majority of the founder members of the new Meridian Cycling Club had been members of the Southeast section of the Forty Plus Cycling Club, so they knew exactly what to expect, the club was officially formed during November 2007

The Founder Committee Comprised of: -

Chair - Mary Ireland
Secretary - David Sims
Club Captain - Ray Ransom
Treasurer - Ken Dean
Publicity Manager - Sidney Schuman
Newsletter Editor - Barbara Ransom