The President opened proceedings with the Loyal Toast, the first time for many a year that it was “To the King” and then everyone tucked in to a three course meal.
After the main course it was the turn of Tony Lake, as the Club Speaker, to welcome the visitors and thank Marie Cook, the Dinner Secretary for her organisational efforts. Tony spoke briefly about the Club’s year and awarded the Golden Stabilisers to Dr. Roger Whittle before he introduced the Guest Speaker, and his dinner companion Paul Ryan. Pete Glanville is the Managing Director at The WCD Group. Gloucester born Pete is a keen cyclist and former Gloucester Rugby Captain. He became Team Manager of GRFC and Director of Rugby at Cinderford RFC, where the team gained promotion to National 1. He is actively involved in local children’s charity The Pied Piper Appeal, as well as the Gloucester Rugby Former Players Association (GRPA). Peter spoke about his experience of the growing professionalism of rugby and we all enjoyed the to and fro of repartee between him and Paul Ryan.
After the speeches we moved on to the serious business of the evening, the Prize Presentation (see listing below). Dan Kelly took most of the time trial awards, winning the short distance BAR, the Ed Unsworth hill climb trophy, the Paul Barnard club events BAR, the Dan Knight Trophy and the fastest 25 (both Club and Open), 50, and 100. He also won the Club Championship at 10 & 25 miles. Other TT awards were awarded to Daryl Stroud (Pete Reed Memorial and W.G.Gray Veteran’s Standard trophies), Jon Richardson (Novice), and Tim Radley (fastest 10).
From an unusually large field in this, the Three Cities’ centenary year, the Boakes Shield went to Tom Percy with the Roadman’s Trophy going to Wayne Mayer.
The ladies’ racing trophies were swept up by Kate Alderson, who had come down from Loughborough for the evening. She won the CEBAR, the Pat Appleton Memorial trophy for the fastest 10, the Club 25 mile Championship, and the short distance BAR.
Ed Ray won the only mass start trophy awarded this year, the Racer of the Year.
Touring trophies for UK and foreign tours were won by Toby Wooldridge and Alastair Goldie respectively. The club runs attendance trophies went to Malcolm Grainger, who also won Clubman of the Year, Jack Lawrence (junior) and Jane Joyner (ladies) while the Gibb Shield for social competitions was won by Colin Edmonds.
Finally, Les Stephens was awarded Bruce’s Bonus, for the number of punctures (five) he suffered during the year. Given the fact that he’s ridden 12,000 km in 2022 alone, a few punctures were bound to come his way!
The Trophies presented were as listed below the photographs:
