Club History

Club medals have always been awarded to riders achieving certain standards in time trials and for other notable performances. The original medal design (Fig.1) was only in existence for the 1925 and 1926 seasons.  In 1927, the design changed (Fig. 2) and has remained to the present day.

Fig 1.  The original medal design. This one is in sterling silver with a gold centre and was the 2nd standard medal, the first being solid gold. These medals appear to have been individually made and were presumably fairly costly to produce, hence the change of design.

The inscription on the back reads:  29.8.26, 12 Hour, W.F. Wiggs, 185m 732 y

Fig 2. From 1927 to the present day, medals have been of the laurel wreath design with a cycle wheel design in the centre. Again, this is a 2nd standard medal in sterling silver.

The inscription on the back reads: 11-9-27, 25 Miles, W.F. Wiggs, 1h 10m 28 ⁴/₅ s  (note the very precise measurement of seconds)

Fig 3.  This is my personal favourite. Rather battered and bruised, it was found in a gravel car park at Lowestoft beach in 2005, by an observant Mr Fletcher, who traced the club on the internet and made contact.  It is of the same type as in Fig 1, and looks to have been driven over for many years! 

The inscription on the back reads: 26-9-26, 25 miles, J.C. Selves, 1h 10m 46s.

Why my favourite?  Well, there is a very nice link between this medal and the hand written performance records in the 1926 Club handbook. From those notes, we can see a reference to the event that Mr Selves rode in. The winning time was 1h 9m 4s. J Selves is also mentioned as being the winner of the event in April of 1927.

Tony Brown 2008