What a superlative season! This year has been by far the most successful season, at least since I joined the club. In open events we won individual and team championships in two different association competitions, and numerous individual events. Seven new club records were set. We had the winner of the Hereward Series and we introduced a very successful extra competition in the Thursday evening events – the ‘Road Bike League’.

Club records were broken at 10, 15, 25, 50 and 100 miles (by Paul Pardoe and Matt Senter), and vets records at 10 and 50 miles (by Kevin Hobbs). For full details see the report published on the club web site by Kevin.

In open events Paul Pardoe and Matt Senter, in particular, recorded numerous wins. Paul won the ECCA 10 championship and Matt the ECCA 25 championship. Along with Kevin Hobbs and Phil Jones they dominated the ECCA season-long points championships. Again, for full details see Kevin’s report. Paul also won the N&DCA overall and short-distance series championships and the club retained the overall team championship. For full details see the Northampton and District CA web site.

In addition to the outstanding results another encouraging development this year was the number of riders taking part in long distance events. Phil Jones and Martin Bullen rode the National 12-hour championship returning 236 and 234 miles, respectively. Phil, Martin and Matt Senter rode 100-mile events (Matt setting a new club record in his first ever 100), and Phil, Martin, Matt and Kevin Hobbs all rode 50-mile events.

A number of riders competed in CTT National championships. Matt Senter and Paul Pardoe rode the 10. Matt rode the 50, and Matt, Paul and Malcolm Smith rode the 3-up TTT.

The club event season began with the usual Hardriders’ event in February. This year it was very well supported, with 13 riders taking part. We ran the usual series of Club Championship events throughout the normal spring and summer. They were all well-supported.

This year we introduced the ’Road Bike League’ – an additional competition within the usual Thursday evening events – aimed at those riders who want to ride a time trial, but without the TT paraphernalia (tri-bars, deep-section wheels, pointed hats, etc). I think it was due to this that this year we very much bucked the TT trend by increasing the number of participants in our events. Indeed, for the first Thursday evening event we had 34 riders, and ran out of numbers!

We also welcomed a new, very promising, junior rider to the club – Harry Garfield. He and is dad Matt dominated the overall championships. Matt won the Summer 10 Leagues on both scratch and handicap, along with the inaugural Road Bike League. Harry won the overall club championship. Harry also took part in the CTT National Youth Championship, getting through to the championship final at a very windy Croft motor racing circuit.

Details of the results of all the club events can be found on the club web site.

I would like to thank John McCarthy for running the events on Thursdays throughout the season. As usual he also did an excellent job with signage. I would also like to thank Joe Ippolito, Kevin Hobbs, Tom Dolby, Phil Jones and Richard Roach for their help in running those events. Running the regular Thursday events, particularly with the task of setting out and collecting signs, requires a lot of effort. Much of the work has fallen on the shoulders of one man – namely John McCarthy. I was very pleased to see a number of new volunteers to help. Another factor in the success of our club events this year was the use of social media. I would like to thank Kevin Hobbs and Paul Pardoe for publicising our events.

The Hereward series (4 events run by PCC, Fenland Clarion, Spalding CC, and Bourne Wheelers) was resurrected this year. We ran our usual round on a wet evening in May, and Paul Pardoe won the overall series for seniors. The series will be run again, on the corresponding dates, in 2020.

The club promoted just one open time trial event this summer – the N&DCA ‘15’ at Sawtry. This was Kevin Hobbs’ first event as promoter and was very successfully run. Paul Pardoe won in a new course record time of 31:42. Kevin has very kindly offered to undertake the promotion of the corresponding event again next season.

I continue to undertake the role of Open Events TT Secretary for the SE Midlands District.

I would like to thank all members who have supported time trialling within the club over the past year, in whatever capacity, and wish you all a successful winter and season next year. Finally, if anyone would like a CTT Handbook for 2020, please let me know as soon as possible. I will need to place our order in December.

Dave Yarham