Spalding Cycling Club celebrates its award winners at Royal Mail Cart pub

Spalding Cycling Club held its annual presentation evening for members, with awards given to cyclists aged between 12 and 80 meeting at the town’s Royal Mail Cart pub.

The youth awards included a double for the Bowser family, with Velvet Bowser picking up the girls’ best all-rounder five and ten-mile time trial (TT) prizes, while Jack took the youths’ road race prize.

Thomas Wright was then named winner of the Cyclo Cross award, with the ladies’ track award going to Nottingham University student Tilly Gurney after her successes at the National Grass Track Championships, part of the Heckington Show.

Gurney also took part in the Mildenhall Grass Track Festival before going on to win a silver medal in the ladies’ team pursuit at the National Indoor Championships in Manchester.

The standard of competition was so high that Gurney’s Team Breeze were beaten to the gold medal by Team GB’s under-23 ladies’ squad.

Trying hard not to be outdone by his children Velvet and Jack, Andrew Bowser received the trophy for first handicap placing in the 50-mile TT category.

Kieran Buffham was presented with the Club Hilly trophy, the last to be competed for by club cyclistson the steep, west side of Hanthorpe Hill at the foot of the Wolds.

Buffham’s winning time of 58 seconds saw him take the title by just 0.3 seconds.

Sarah Bentley was a worthy winner of the award for best performance by a lady after qualifying for the World Time Trial Championships having come third place in the 16-mile Chrono TT at the Tour of Cambridge.

There were a succession of multiple award winners, including Frazer Wallis who took the first handicap ten-mile TT Championship, Fishermans Arms Handicap and shared the club ten-mile, two-up TT, partnered by son Josh in a time of 21:58.

Together, Wallis and his son broke the long-standing club record held by Oliver and Ian Fensom.

Meanwhile, Josh walked away with five other awards, including the first ten-mile TT in 23:31, 25-mile TT in 53:44, road race and ten-mile TT league with a total of 350 points.

Neil Palmer was first in the five-mile TT Championship in 11:28, the 50-mile TT in 58:33 and the 100mile TT in 3:51:26.

Palmer also received the senior and veterans best all-rounder prizes after a series of excellent performances.

Among the seniors, Brian Johnston took the outstanding performance award for winning the over 60s’ TT league, coming third in the ten-mile TT league and completing the UCI 100-mile Sportive at the Tour of Cambridge.

Meanwhile, the veterans’ standard 25-mile TT award went to Barry Drew.

One of the main non-racing award was for Clubman of the Year which went to Dave Rains who has organised the Saturday morning club rides for several years.

The awards night closed with recognition for Sharon Fensom and Nicky Ellis, both of whom received Certificates of Honour in recognition of distinguished service from the Lincolnshire branch of national governing body, Cycling Time Trials.

Finally, club members and guests observed a minute’s silence in memory of its former press secretary and photographer Tim Bryett who passed away in December 2019.