TA EAST E-NEWS MAY 27^th 2018

To TA East members & friends

From Ferg Muir

Creeping up on us – well, on me at any rate –  is our next TA EAST MEET

That is our evening meet at The BUTT & OYSTER, PIN MILL near Ipswich on this coming THURSDAY 31^st May, from about  7pm onwards.

If the weather is good we will see the sun go down over the Orwell Estuary. Be prepared for the possibility of evening chill.

I expect the some of us will have a meal, other will just have a drink or a coffee.

To find PIN MILL go to Chelmondiston village on the B1456, about 6 mls SE of Ipswich. Once there, turn north to drop down to the waterside hamlet of Pin Mill.       Grid ref is TM205380 Postcode: IP9 1JW

We need to set an AGM Date and venue.

The TA Gazette closes on Tues 12^th June, so arrangements need to be in place by then

Suggestions are welcome – to me, or to the Chairman , martin.badham@talktalk.net

01603 897738.

Quite likely dates are a Saturday in mid-August or very early September……or….?

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We have until the end of the month to get a TA CLOTHING ORDER to Alison Purser – see the TA Website or the last TA EAST E-NEWS.

Cheques need to be posted – and with the bank holiday there aren’t many days left.

I must get mine done.

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I have purchased from the estate of Albert Gravenor more volumes of loose pages from “Cycling” for the years between 1922 and 1947.

In the edition for October 12^th 1938 I found “Cycling”’s quite detailed account of

GEORGE LAWRIE’S 1000 MILE RRA TRICYCLE RECORD IN 1938

The article tells how George set out from the 33^rd milestone on the London – Cambridge road on a Wednesday morning and finished at the same milestone on Sunday afternoon, having covered the 1000 miles in 4 days 6 hour 35 minutes.

His course went north through York to Newcastle and as far east as Ipswich.

“Cycling “ says: “His tricycle was equipped with 27” sprints and tubulars and a derailleur gear that gave him a ratio of 61ins 71 ins and 76 ins.

Apparently he only suffered two punctures, despite riding through conditions including hours of continuous rain and winds that reached gale force

“The weather conditions throughout the ride were terrible” says “Cycling” and indeed the car containing his timekeepers crashed into a ditch in one storm.

George only had ten hours sleep during the whole ride – including one period insisted upon by his helpers after he fell asleep riding up a hill “and the tricycle began to run backwards down the hill”

His times for each of his ten “100”s are quoted as

6 hrs 50 mins

7          10

8          20

8          30

10        34

18        18

8          48

13        23

10        52

9          50.

 Apart from the two punctures George apparently had no mechanical trouble whatsoever.

He was a meticulous man and very much a “stayer”

George went on to be National Racing Secretary of the TA for 50 years, and a familiar figure at National Reunion Dinners.

Some of you will remember him attending the trike race at the Bungay round-the-houses-races not so very long ago.

FRM

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Looking beyond our Pin Mill meet, the following meet on Sat 30^th June will be something of a celebration of the life of another Road Records Association figure – perhaps the greatest one of all, F T Bidlake

Meet at mosaic to F T Bidlake at Sandy Library, Market Square  SG 19 1EH 10.30am on Sat 30^th June

https://www.storyinstone.org.uk/Works/Frederick-Thomas-Bidlake-Tricycle

Late morning visit to the Bidlake Memorial Garden, Girtford Bridge

Grid Ref TL164487,

and moving on to lunch at Jordan’s Mill on the River Ivel, just off B659  SG18 9JX TL 184430

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Best Wishes to You All

Ferg Muir 01603 615000, fergusmuir@btinternet.com