The Penzance Wheelers used to meet at a clubroom down in Market Jew Street in a room on the second floor of a fruit and vegetable storehouse near the old YMCA. Here they held meetings and social events like dances,

Weekend rides were organised on Sunday afternoons, usually starting at 2.00pm and, like today, going all over Penwith, The Lizard and Camborne-Redruth area. Two groups were organised: the fast group with young racers and the slow group with many of the women members and a number of tandems.

The maon racing in those days was the 25 mile time trial - 10 miles time trials were not thought of. The 25 mile course set off from Eastern Green and went up the old A30 to the Plough Inn at Camborne, where the riders turned for home. The riders set off with two minutes between them.

For these races, all the riders, whichever club they belonged to, had to be dressed all in black from head to toe - a black alpaca jacket, whose sleeves could be rolled up to just below the elbow, but not above, and long black tights to the ankles - by order of the NCU - the National Cycling Union. No numbers were worn, so riders had to shout out their names as they crossed the line at the finish.

The record for some time was 1-08, but George Flemming, an up-country rider and virtually a pro, rode it and did 1-06. In fact he was the first Englishman to beat the hour for 25, and he did this in Ireland.

The other racing was grass track, as mass start road races were not allowed at this time. the main Penzance grass track venue was on the cricket field at St Clare. For these events riders could wear jerseys. The Penzance Wheelers team wore a white jersey with red and blue bands across chest and back.

There were also grass track meetings at Falmouth, Praa Sands and Rosudgeon, but this meant a cycle ride to the event, where the bike would be stripped down for the racing, tyres taped on and protuberances taped up, and then all put back together again for the road ride home.

Racing further afield was rare due to transport problems. One rider who did go away to race was Maurice Nicholas who rode at Herne Hill for the Wheelers in the White Hope Amateur Sprint. He came in second, only just being pipped on the line. A picture of this appeared in the cycling press at the time.

Most riders rode British frames and used fixed wheels, usually a 66 inch in the winter, 70 in the spring, and 75 or 79 in the summer months. For gears they used OS-gears, Simples or Sturmey-Archer, all of them 3 speeds. As for riders and frames, Spud Drew rode a Curly, Reggie Frigins a Bates, Boy Ernie Heal a Selbach, Pecker Dawes and Dennis Woodcock were on Dawes, Knockso Trudgeon a BSAOpperman Special, Garfiled Ferguson a Benet Funk, Edgar Nichols on an all chrome Baines (known as a ‘plumber’s nightmare’) and Doris Trudgeon was on an all chrome Saxon with twin top tubes.

Geoff Littler actually joined in 1952. (I can remember racing against Geoff in the early and mid 1990s he was still going pretty well and I sometimes see him doing a bit of ‘twitching’ by the nature reserve between Long Rock and Marazion as I’m cycling to the Sunday club runs - Ed.) By 1958 the club failed, but was then started again in the 1960s, then faded away by the late 70s to be revived once again in the 80s and is still running today.

In those days most of the races were time trials, mostly 10s and 25s. the club 10 started at Roly Poly Bank, now the Mounts Bay Coaches garage at Eastern Green. the race went up the A30 to a milestone at St Erth and back. the club 25 was from the Ponsandane Hotel to Camborne and back, which is quite a hilly ride from Hayle with Roseworthy and Connor Downs hills.

Grass track racing was also held in Penzance at St Clare, the Mennaye Fields, Rosudgeon, and occasionally further afield at Falmouth, where racing was much harder because it attracted riders from Devon. The track was marked out on the grass playing fields and with fixed wheels and no brakes the riders raced away, learning to corner on grass as they went.

The Penzance hill climb was held at Paul Hill, now redundant due to traffic problems. Most riders would tackle this on a fixed wheel, and found the going tough at the top. Unfortunately the large copper trophy that was presented to the winner has now gone missing.

There was little transport, but riders would go to Devon occasionally. Sometimes a lorry was hire that left Truro on Saturday lunchtimes. The Penzance riders would have to catch a train to Truro first, where the lorry with about six riders and bikes aboard would leave to drive up to Devon. Here they would race, then put the bikes back on board, drive back to Cornwall, finally catching the train back to Penzance.

Sometimes too, on a Saturday morning tey would catch a train from Penzance to Exeter. Then they would cycle to the venue, stay in a pub overnight, and race the next day. Then it was a cycle back to Exeter, catch the train and arrive back in Penzance on Sunday afternoon. All for a 25 miles time trial on the old S1 course.

Everyone wanted to hold the St Just-Penzance record. The riders would set off from St Just Square and race over the moors and down to Penzance to be clocked on near the round-a-bout near St John’s Hall. This was approximately 7 miles. The Wheelers also has the Leedstown Hilly 17 and the 27 miles Leedstown-Hayle-Long Rock-Helston race.

There was no official kit at this stage, but riders wore woollen jerseys with Penzance Wheelers stitched on to them, and long woollen shorts. Nor was there an actual clubhouse or meeting place, the riders just meeting up in Penzance on the prom. or in eastern Green and spending quite a bit of time riding around Penzance. The bikes used at that time were mostly British: McLeans, Gillot, Pearcy Cursee, Selbach, Daton and Roadtracks.