Dave Gretton

[TC]

Rhodospin - just to clarify above postings. HH in early 60's - me in early 20's. In a distance event - maybe a 5 mile. I got away and this young upstart tries to come on the inside with 20m to go and I wafted him on to the grass for being so impertinant. I wasn't sure who the lad was but he was obviously one of Sheils proteges, cos Sheil marched across to where I had collapsed exhausted in the middle of the grass centre and yelled - ARE YOU AFTER BLOOD!! err - sorry Mr Sheil. I wasn't sure if it was Ian Hallam because he was shorter then - he was maybe only 16 but bloody fast.
I rode with Binch and Crisp when in the Nottm Castle BC and 'Binny' was just so much better than anyone else - I trained with him sometimes on the HH and it made me realise that I was not a sprinter. Then this young big ugly guy comes along - so bloody strong and fast with it - yes it was Geoff Cooke and the rest is history.
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>V<

"Elites and Pro's look down at you, 4th cats and jrs look up to you, but Vets treat you as equals"
(adapted from Churchill's Cats, dogs and pigs quotation)

[Grett the Vet]

Sorry to be a bit slow on the uptake!

It was great to be in the Hucknall Rc in the lat 50's early 60's

We were hammered by the "ancients" Terry Coging Dave Scott Don Mann John Gregory etc and as soon as we started going well they all packed in! nice to see some of them back in action but we still remember!

Moving on from Hucknall a few of us joined the Mapperley to be hammered by Colin Wright among others - but at least he had the decency to show us how to race on the track and road - he's still helping the youngsters now.

From ther i enjoyed a couple of great years with the Notts Castle with Tony Crisp Johm Hinksman The Spurgins "Ted" Jefferson and Bill Neil before moving on to the mighty and all-comquering "Club of the Year 1969" Beeston RC

The First Category riders included Ian Hallam, Malc Foster, Mick Brown Bob Rouse, Steve Dennison, Trevor Hayward, Tony Hinson, Dave Stirland
Brian March Andy marshall Sam Paterson Colin Browning, Charlie Moody, John Dunn and probably some others as well as a good contingent of 2nd cats and Juniors. We had so many good riders that we would have 3 or 4 teams riding in different parts of the country each weekend - it was also said that you needed 5 O levels and 2 A levels to join but this was not quite true. We also had Norman Shiel - a great team manager and coach.
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We were inspired by the many successes of Ian Hallam and we all raised our game to try and emulate him with a lot of success - these were my personal best days as a cyclist but I'm happy to say that my time as a Team Manager withthe Velo Club Europa/Nottingham in the early 80's were probably just a rewarding with the talent we had then.

It has been great sharing these eras with the various stars although it's quite hard remebering who remembers who and from which era - if you see what I mean

It's good to reminisce and also reflect on how many brilliant people you meet through the best sport on earth.

lets hope we can put together our old timers club run in Brittany in the summer

Grett the vet