Kingston Wheelers Cycling Club

Membership Information

This page has information about your membership and how the club works.
Club Kit
Sponsorship
Start Racing
Club Management
Members' List
Data Protection and Privacy
Club History

Your Membership

Membership runs for a full year from the date you join. To compete in events in the club name, make sure your membership is renewed. Whether you want to ride the club run just a few times a year or spend a full season racing at home and abroad, it's up to you. In the meantime this page sets out a bit more information about the club and how it works.

Kit

The club has its own cycle clothing, exclusive to members. It is made by Nalini, an Italian supplier to several professional cycling teams and cycling clubs alike. As a club, we keep a stock of basic items like shorts, jerseys, gilets, skinsuits and socks in various sizes. We also place two orders per year for special items like winter clothing. Click here to see the current design.

Keith Griffin handles the distribution of the kit. For prices, sizing and ordering information visit the club kit page.

Sponsorship

NB club sponsorship is under review for 2012, the text below is from 2011

Sigma Sport

Sigma Sport are a local bike shop in Hampton Wick, just by Kingston Bridge. The shop is dedicated to road cyclists and triathletes with a range of the best kit and expert advice. They also do mail order. As well as sponsoring the club, they back a national racing team, which includes two former club members. See the Sigma Sport website for more.

Start Racing

Some say that one person cycling is a ride but with two you get a race. But we'd encourage you not to view the club run as a race and if you want, to try some proper racing. There are two branches of the sport, time trials and road racing and it's recommended you try both and you will find most members tend to mix a variety of events in the year. If you are interested, just ask a member who already races or put it to the forum. You can also approach the club's Time Trial and Road Race secretaries who are appointed to help the club and its members in this area.

Club Management

The club has a Management Committee where members are elected every year at the AGM. The current members are:

Derek Griffiths	President	Joined 1983. Responsible for general liaison and fill-in roles including catering for Sporting 14 and help organising the summer BBQ and Christmas prize giving.
Tim Lawn	Chairman	I joined the club in 1986 when I was still a junior and I am now a veteran. Derek Griffiths was on my first club run and I'd like to think that the warmth of welcome I received in 1986 is still a feature of the club today. The competitive side was always what attracted me and I have raced every year I have been a member so far. I have also been involved in the management of the club for most of my time as a member, having organised time trials and road races over the years and I sometimes officiate as a regional level commissaire for road racing. Essentially, I just love riding my bike whether in Richmond Park with the kids or somewhere in the Alps.
Danny Conway	Membership Secretary
Will Meers	Treasurer	I joined in 2004 and have the key to the Kingston Wheelers' safe; we're always looking for new ways to spend club funds, so please do get in touch if you have a bright idea. I used to TT quite a bit, but gave that up a few years back for a more sedate cycling career which involves pottering around the Surrey lanes or sitting in a cafe.
Maryka Sennema	Road Race Secretary	I'm the club's representative for a number of organisations, including British Cycling (road racing), the Surrey Cycle Racing League, and the London Women's Cycle Racing League. This generally means attending meetings, getting information out, handling racing licenses, and acting as the main contact person between the club and those organisations. I also organise the club's annual Surrey League road races at Dunsfold and perform assistant commissaire duties in other local British Cycling-sanctioned road and circuit races, as well as race in KW colours myself regularly.
Cathy Clifford	Time Trial Secretary	I see a large part of the role of the Club's Time Trial Secretary as trying to encourage, by hook or by crook, as many members as possible to try the delights of time trialling. In particular the two Club TT series: the Club Time Trial Series - run over a number of Open races chosen to provide a variety of events and distances and the Club Evening 10's which are run in the summer in conjunction with Kingston Phoenix, which I also organise. This leads to a number of long posts by me on the forum detailing races and whipping up enthusiasm! By way of background, I was a medium to long distance triathlete and still do the odd multisport event but now time trial reguarly throughout the summer in Wheelers colours as well as doing as many club runs as I can amongst fitting in some mountain biking. All sounds very grand but I have to point out that I represent the more mature and slower end of the Club's TT contingent!!
Peter Anderson	Coach
Keith Griffin	Kitmaster
James Beaumont	Webmaster	I joined the club in 1990 and helped set up this website in 2004. In a bid to escape organising the annual Surrey League races, I moved abroad to the French Alps near Geneva in 2010 but am carrying on with the website as it's probably the only job in the club that can be done via the internet alone. This includes handling online membership applications, updating the news page, twittering and moderating the forum and I try to help the club with more general advice too. There's more on me here.
Nicola Wadham	Cyclo Cross
Sheila Hunt	General Member	I joined the Kingston Wheelers in 2000 and became a committee member in 2009. My role on the committee is to produce the minutes from the committee meetings and to organize venues for the various social activities in the year. While I rarely race, I cycle most days and take part in randonnees both here and abroad. I trained as a masseuse eleven years ago and now work part time in sports massage, which I fit around my lecturing job.
Chris Wright	General Member

What does the Committee do?
The Committee is charged with running the club. This ranges from day to day administration, like handling membership applications and keeping the club affiliated to the revelevant governing bodies, to running other aspects of club life, dealing with sponsorship and handling kit. In general the idea is to keep the club a fun place where lots of people can enjoy cycling in all forms but it takes some behind the scenes work to make sure it all happens, there's a lot more admin than you'd imagine and the budget involved requires plenty of responsibility. There are club rules which set out some of the duties more formally but essentially the committee takes decisions about how to run the club.

The committee meets formally about once every two months but discusses things outside these meetings. If you have any questions, comments and suggestions please get in touch with some of the committee to discuss things, they will welcome any conversation. In case you're wondering, all committee members are volunteers, there are no expenses or attendance fees either.

Members List

The club has a director of members, the Members' List. When you join your details will be added to this and roughly once a month, this is sent out to members so we can all contact each other if necessary. To make it easier to recognise eachother, the list also includes a passport-style photo which you can email in if you want. Just reply to Danny Conway, who produces the list and he'll add your photo. Similarly, if you move home or change email address, don't forget to contact Danny with the new information.

Data Protection - Your Information

The club passes on details of members to Sigma Sport so they can send out the card offering you a 10% discount. There are club privacy rules about sending personal data to third parties. When members join, the small print lets the club share your personal details with Sigma Sport and fellow club members via the Members' Listbut it's worth repeating here. If you want to opt out from having your name and address sent to Sigma Sport - to refuse the discount card - please contact info@kingstonwheelers.com as soon as possible.

A brief history

The Kingston Wheelers Cycling Club was formed in 1924. Six cyclists met in a cafe on the Portsmouth Road near Kingston police station. Bill Orpin was amongst these and Gil Jessop - to whom our open 'Sporting 14' time trial is a memorial - joined the club in about 1930.

Stuart Bedingfield on his Lock TT bike at Shepperton in 1935

The second world war curtailed activities for a number of years. The last club run was in 1941 and most members were called up for service. Two members were killed in service, one in the English Channel and one in Burma.
Bill Orpin and Gil Jessop served in the armed forces and after demob, they reformed the club in Chessington in 1953. Although the club only had a few members at this time, it grew steadily until there were 18 members and they could no longer meet in a member's house. The club met in different pubs and schools until it found a more permanent home in the Latchmere social club in Ham, where it met during the 1980s.
This brief history was given by one former president, Gil Jessop, to another, John Bornhoft, on 20 January 1990. Both are sadly missed.