2006 ANNUAL DINNER AND PRIZE PRESENTATION

by James McAleese

It was a successful year for North Road and especially so for Dave Candy who took home eight pieces of silverware. Leigh Taylor broke two club records as she took three trophies, not be out done, Leigh’s father, Alan Harvey also took three trophies.

The dinner was held in the Homestead Court Hotel in Welwyn Garden City on Saturday, November 11. It was extremely well organised by June Lacey in what was her final swansong as organiser. What better way to sign off than with guest of honour Phil Liggett MBE as speaker!
From the off the atmosphere was very convivial and relaxed, with individuals and groups getting re-acquainted or meeting people for the first time. A large willing crowd was expertly lightened to the tune of £370 during the pre-dinner drinks by some very skilful exponents of the dark art of raffle ticket selling. All the proceeds of the evening were to be given to a charity of Phil’s choice – namely the Cyclists Defence League.
The room was decked with superb floral decorations and the tables beautifully presented by Shena Lancaster, June and Gill Bonfield. We had a small compact area of the room for a disco later in the evening, but which was covered for most of the event with our impressive array of silverware ready to be collected by a new winner who will proudly display their spoils for the next year and received their well deserved ovation from the club members.
After notices were read and Phil introduced, the toasting session began. Having attended many other sporting dinners in my time, I am still impressed by the very notion of the toasting and its ability to include most other pastimes as well as cycling. There were toasts as diverse as climbing all the Munro peaks in Scotland to a celebration of fifty years on the committee.
The meal was very pleasant with the usual three course affair with coffee and mints to finish. It was then time for El Presidente Andy Lancaster to get the proceedings off to a flying start by introducing Phil to speak to the massed throng. Phil proceeded to regale us with anecdotes of sporting gaffes from the world of commentary. There was much laughter and some quite uncontrollable bursts from some tables as the penny dropped a little later than for others! He then reminded us that we exist in a very fragile environment with regards to traffic and danger by recounting the story of a boy knocked down in Southampton. The Defence League took the case up and won over a million pounds for the family, but only by leading lights like Phil taking the fight to the courts and providing support for those involved. It humbles you when you realise how much would be done on our behalf if something were to befall us on the road.
The prizes were a fairly quick part of the presentation due to the fact that the Dave Candy Show arrived in town to take the majority of the trophies home. The two extra things we should have provided for him were a wheelbarrow and an additional contents insurance policy for his house! The group then had the privilege of having a photo with Phil which has somehow wound up in the local press and the Gazette – strange that!
I then had the honour of replying for the club by talking about dedication and motivation as well as showing a film that I had commissioned by one of my pupils to show a year in the life of our great club.
The evening was then rounded off with lots more chat and banter and a good showing on the dance floor. What a great way to end a fantastic evening that celebrated the very best of who we are and what we do.

Speech written the following morning from the small card used as a prompt so there may be a few omissions from the actual version that you heard . . . apologies for that in advance!
I would like to start by thanking Phil for an excellent speech which only serves to make my job even harder this evening. I am not sure if I am the most envied man in the room this evening or the most pitied. I hope it is the former but I suspect it could be the latter.
When you are asked to carry out the hardest job in the club by June Lacey, it makes your mind race. These are some of the thoughts I had:
∑ Do you really want me to lose up to half my body weight to be able to compete in the hill climb? “Harder than that James” was June’s reply.
∑ I would take part in the track meetings at Welwyn and help secure lots of points and some victories as well. “Harder still” came the response.
∑ Was I supposed to win the summer road race despite being an unclassified rider? and never having ridden a road race “Not even close” was her answer.
Then it struck me, the hardest job would be to answer June’s challenge and win the Hardriders trophy for the club and prise the cup out of the hands of Michael Hutchinson.
“Even harder than that” June answered. “What on earth could be harder than that?” I asked, incredulously.
“I want you to follow Phil Liggett at next year’s dinner”. June put some paper and a pen in my hand and left me to it.
Twelve months is a long time to think about a speech. Six months is a long time. A week is a long time . . . Yesterday there is still twenty four hours left! So many things to talk about, so many things I could talk about . . . what on earth do I talk about?
It struck me that I should talk about something of which I have experience. I would like to talk to you this evening on two themes – dedication and motivation and the
difference between a team and a club.
I have the privilege twice a month of standing up in front of two hundred pupils in my house at school and giving talks about motivation, dedication and participation in all house events. In reality I spend half the time asking them to do their collars and ties up and tuck their shirts in . . . but when the participation element has been explained, I always receive the following question:
“But what is in it for us sir?”
“Well, the joy of participation and the sense of achievement.”
“Yes but apart from that what is in it for us?”
It strikes me that in most areas of life now there is some sort of external motivation that is more effective that the old sense of competition in its purest form. We are lucky enough as a club to put up an excellent prize fund for the hardriders, but hand on heart we realise that members of the club are not ready just yet to take on the very best in the country and win. So where does the motivation for competition come from?
I believe it is about the setting of personal goals. What makes riders get up early at the weekends to train in all weathers, spend hours in cold garages on the turbo and even come to school to do abdominal crunches in a cold gymnasium? Competition and the fulfilment of their goals. So what happens if these goals are taken away or are not able to be achieved? This is where I believe the difference between motivation and dedication lies. To carry on riding and training when there is no ultimate destination requires dedication rather than motivation.
Looking around the room this evening I see many examples of dedication and motivation. I do not profess to know Richard Somerset’s motivation to improve the website and help with the forum but his dedication to the job is fantastic. Bob Wade had the motivation of riding the Paris-Roubaix for his charity the Down Syndrome Association, for whom he raised £1,000, and the dedication to ride on his fixed wheel for the whole race. I see the committee members who dedicate time to ensuring all the club work is done and who keep the seamless nature of the club’s business going. I see the caterers – our lovely group of ladies who help with all the teas and refreshments. I see the timekeepers and race marshals and I see the riders and their families who have all come here this evening to celebrate the success of the club. This is this idea of service and working for a common purpose.
I also wanted to see if there is a difference between a club and a team. Whilst watching the autumn rugby internationals today I can quite easily see the stadiums the teams play in, the supporters they have as part of their respective clubs or countries. Many large football and rugby teams have five or six teams with reserve teams under the auspices of the club. If we took the players away would we still support the institution that is the club I wonder? Is it as simple as saying that a team is part of a club? We have club rides but team riding. What is the difference? We have Great Britain team, but is there no Great Britain club? I asked Catherine to listen to my speech today and when I was speaking about this part she said that it was easy – a team is part of a club. She is probably right and many will come to the same
conclusion. So I went down another route of investigation.
I took the words at the purest – the letters they are made up from. Maybe I could fathom something from the language. I see a banner in one of the religious education classrooms that reads: Together Everyone Achieves More, which is a well known acronym for TEAM. So as this speech has set out ideas of collaboration I asked my form to help me out with the next bit. I gave some of the brightest fifteen year old minds the opportunity to write down their ideas for the four letters
C L U B in a full sentence. The theme would be sport in general but even better if they could come up with some links to cycling. As they looked at me blank I added that if a sentence was not forthcoming then four individual words would do! I have twenty seven members of the form but am holding only eleven proposals . . . I left out the rude or the downright offensive ones and so I would like to share the remaining thoughts with you.
Competition, Love, United, Bravery
Creating Love, Understanding and Bravery
Champion, Loyalty, Unity, Bravery
Competitive, Love for Sport, Understanding, Bravery
Commitment Leads to Understanding and Belief
Commitment Leads to Unbelievable Brilliance
Co-operation Leads to Unimaginable Brilliance
Collective Loyalty, Ultimate Benefit
I love this next one: Cycling Like United Boys
Collectively Learning Underlines Belief
And my personal favourite: Central Leadership Utilises Brilliance
Having had twelve months to muse and philosophise about my own contribution to the letters CLUB this is my deep and meaningful acronym:
Could Lose Unnecessary Belly!
I feel that this great club of ours encompasses all of the above and more. As the second half of the reply I would like to show a series of pictures and some footage from the past season. Whether you are a guest of the club this evening, a new member, or have just passed fifty years not out please see this in one of the following ways: a promotional video, a reminder of why you joined or simply memories of the last year. I think it shows the North Road in its best light as a member of the cycling community within the county, the country and the continent.
Thank-you