It is pertinent that I should start on a personal note. At the end of l922 I applied for membership of the greatest cycling club in the world - the Cyclists' Touring Club and we are delighted to have with us this evening that Clubs president, Phil Liggett and his wife Pat, who has also contributed much to cycling. In the early 1920s one was not automatically elected, ones name had first to appear in an issue of the C.T.C. gazette as a prospective member.

My name so appeared, and as I was not 'blackballed' I was duly elected and commenced to ride with the Western Section of the then West Metropolitan District Association, now the Ealing Section of the West London D.A. I am hazy about the circumstances of the change of title, so maybe it took place during the four and a half years I was in the Royal Air Force. Be that as it may, the Western Section was a very active one.

We had regular Saturday afternoon runs: we all had to work on Saturday mornings - there was no five-day working week in the early 1920s - one or more runs on a Sunday, weekday evening runs, on Tuesday to the Half-way House, Horton and on Thursdays to the Battleaxes, Elstree, and bearing in mind the numbers now attending club runs it may amaze you when I tell you that after our quarterly meetings there would be ninety or more sitting down to Sunday tea.

At the beginning of 1923 competition record for 25 miles events was 1.2.38 and the ambition of we tyros was to beat evens (for the uninitiated evens is 20 miles an hour, i.e. 1hr.15m for a 25 miles event). In April 1923 I entered the Fulham Wheelers Novices '25'. The winning time was 1hr.14m.4s. I was fourth with 1hr.14m.20s. As a consequence of that ride I was persuaded to join the Fulham Whs but although I rode in their events and in their name in Open Events I continued to ride regularly with the Section. During 1923 and 1924 other members of the Section joined other local racing clubs, such as the Bath Road Club and the Uxbridge Wheelers but unlike me they tended to drift away from the Section. I was unhappy at losing such friends in this way so towards the end of 1924 I suggested that the section should promote its own racing club.

As a consequence at a meeting at the Pear Tree Tea Rooms, Chobham on the 21st December 1924 a racing club was formed with the title of the Western Wheelers for regular riding male members of the Western Section - ladies were subsequently admitted in 1927. Early in 1926 we learnt that there was another club with that title so the title of our club was changed first to Western Elite but then to the Westerley Road Club. So you all will now know why and how our Club came to be formed. I was elected Secretary of the Western Wheelers. I was the only official and consequently responsible for the whole of the administration and the promotion of all our events. In 1925, our first active year, I promoted three 25 miles events, the second of which was for singles and tandems, two fifty miles events, a hundred miles event a twelve hours and a Hill Climb and that was the basic Club Programme into the war years.

On the 3rd September 1939 came the war and as the months passed member after member joined the forces with the result that our racing and administrative members were greatly reduced and we owe an immense debt to the late Les Ames for his great work in keeping the Club going during those difficult years.

The war brought for us in casualties. On the 25th November 1941 Doug Hamilton was killed in Libya while serving was a wireless operator. On 13th March 1942 Tommy Lane was also killed in action in Libya while serving as a gunner in Royal Artillery and on 15th September 1943 Les Ward died of wounds received in action. In the autumn of 1943 Bill Stratton was among the missing from a Japanese transport carrying prisoners of was between Thailand and Japan. In February 1945 George Strong and Bobby Biggs were both killed in fighting accidents. George Strong had been our Club Champion in 1941 and Bobby Biggs had given every sign of being a great rider for he won the West London Cycling Association twelve just before the war started, beating that great rider Stan Butler (the grandfather of the present Gethin) into second place.

In 1927 Bill Harrison joined the club and soon became our dominant performer. He won the Club Championship in the four years 1929-1931 and went on to achieve national fame. Prior to the creation of the Road Time Trials Council in 1938 there were no national road time trial championships and the most exciting event of the inter-war years was the North Road Cycling Club Memorial fifty miles event. This was an event restricted to the best fifty milers of the year and we were delighted in 1929 when Bill was one of the twelve: he finished in fifth place.

From our early days there has always been an interest in national records and of the 25 events I organised eight were successful. The first of these successes was Bill Harrison's breaking of the Road Records Association Bath and Back Bicycle record. In 1931 Bill reached the height of his fame when he was placed fourth in the second British Best All-rounder Competition organised by the weekly newspaper "Cycling".

Throughout our history we have usually had an outstanding tricyclist. In 1931 Henry Payne, Club Champion for our first three years, who already held the London to York Tricycle Record, added to his score the London to Bath and back R.R.A. record. In 1930 Arthur Abram joined the Club. He was only an average bicyclist. In 1933 he borrowed a tricycle and within weeks had attained national fame as a tricyclist. In that year he won the major national tricycle award - The Tricycle Trophy. He repeated his success the following year - a year in which he also broke the national 12 hour tricycle record. In October 1935 he broke the London to Liverpool Tricycle record. Not satisfied in reducing it by 26 minutes he attacked it again the following month reducing it by a further 36 minutes and in 1939 he broke the Liverpool to Edinburgh Tricycle record.

Soon after the war Alby Griffiths, who had joined the Club in 1940, in addition to winning many Open Events, won the Club Championship in the years 1947, 1948 and 1949. Having been placed 5th in the BBAR Competition in 1947. In 1947 E Fry, another fine tricycle rider broke the Pembroke to London Tricycle record.

By the early fifties John Mortimer, another of the Clubs outstanding riders, was performing well both on bicycle and tricycle. He won many tricycle awards including the Tricycle Trophy. In 1955 he broke the London to Brighton and Back Tricycle Record and broke national tricycle competition records at 50 and 100 miles. He won or was placed in a number of Open Events but possibly his best rides were in events he did not win. I refer to his second place in the Catford 24 hours event of 1953 when, after spending nearly an hour off his bicycle due to mechanical trouble, he covered 454 miles and his third place in the National 12 hours Championship in 1955 when he covered almost 260 miles, only a few miles less than the then competition record.

At our first Committee Meeting in 1929 we decided that we ought to support the sport by promoting an Open Event and I recall Bill Harrison saying "let us promote a real event not a boys '25' ", with the result that we promoted our Open '100': it soon became a classic and has remained so until the present day.

Our best year in Road Racing was in 1966 when Richard Sweeting was placed in no less than 15 events.

In 1924 we set out to provide a racing programme for members of a C.T.C Section and 75 years on we are doing just that.

With the odd exception we have been fortunate in having excellent officers and from our early days have been respected as a well organised club, a reputation we still retain.

I have written much about our past, for it is proper at the time of our 75th anniversary, that our achievements should be recorded. With our current group of active riders, led for the second year in succession by our young current Club Champion Dave Newman, I have confidence that our future is bright.