Club History
THE HISTORY OF MARKET HARBOROUGH / NENE VALLEY MOTOR CYCLE CLUB.
I first joined the Market Harborough Club as it was then, in the mid nineteen sixties. I was never sure when the Club was founded, as the founder members and the committee of the fifties and early sixties had all given up their respective positions and left the Club.
I am pretty sure that it was in the mid fifties when the Club was started, there was a Market Harborough Club before the war, but this was a car Club. Myself and my contempories who lived in East Northamptonshire, joined the Harborough Club because it had some very good Trials Courses that the other Clubs in our area did not have.
The Albert Glover course in and around the Maidwell area, the Fergus Anderson time and observation course at the Hemploe Hills near Welford, the Farndon Gorse hills and Clipston, which was the Scramble course as well as providing good sections for Club Trials. These were just some of the excellent venues the Club had at its disposal.
By the mid sixties the influx of Northamptonshire members had virtually taken over the running of the Club. Bill Holt had become President, Derek and his late wife Janet ran the Trials, in 1966 I became the Club Treasurer,and a year later when Gill Audley retired as General Secretary I took over that job, which I kept until 1999.
I think it is fair to say that the late sixties and the seventies were the halcyon days of the Club, we had a strong membership, excellent Trials and Moto-Cross riders, lots of Centre championships were won in both disciplines. We even had a National Trials winner, the late Tony Holt beating lots of very famous riders to win the Colmore Cup .
At this time, everyone seemed very proud of the Club, and would do almost anything to further its aims and achievments,the two Scramble/Motocross events we put on at Clipston,are a good case in point. With lots of hard and satisfying work from Friday evening until late on Sunday . One event was run in May and the other in September, and if the weather was kind we would attract a large crowd of paying public. This achieved two objectives,it would keep Subs. And entry fees low and would build up our financial reserves.
Bill Holt proposed that Alf Underwood should become President,whilst he himself would join the Vice Presidents. Bill and Alf, both successful business men gave us the assurance we needed to invest in lots of advertising to attract the spectators to make these Scrambles the huge successes that they mostly were. Trials at this time attracted large entries, not quite as many as in the fifties and sixties when events were often over subscribed, an OTC would have an entry of approx.180.
On the social side,we had an annual Dinner and Dance,held at the Fir Tree, Wellingborough,this was so popular,with 250 guests attending, this was a big event, for many years we had the full 12 piece Mike Clark orchestra with two singers. Its popularity was such that we had members from many other Clubs who generally agreed it was the best event of its kind in the Centre.
The Club promoted the Motor Cycle News Don Smith Trials School for several years in the late seventies,this was a great success,with a new Trials Bike awarded to the series winner. We were invited to Silverstone by Don at the end of the series, where our clubmen did a parade at a special Motor Sports Gala. A memorable feature here was the top gear wheelie by Gustaf Hermelin who rode the entire length of the pit straight on the back wheel of his Montesa , even stunt man Dave Taylor was most impressed. Gustaf a Swedish farming student was over here on holiday as a guest of Nick and Joy Holt.
We also belonged to the Mid Counties Association of Auto Club,we had a team competing in the Winter quiz league,and we also had entrants in the "Miss Mid Counties" and had a winner when the lovely Shirley Hunter a 19 year old from Market Harborough beat nine other girls in the final beauty parade at the Salon Northampton. Our Trials Secretary Joy Holt had previously won this title, but unfortunately at this time she represented Northampton MCC.
In 1981 we decided that as the Club,its members and most of its activities had moved away from the Market Harborough District,that a change of name would be beneficial, especially as it was always difficult to get press coverage in our local Evening Telegraph, we were now an eastern Northamptonshire Club, so after much deliberation we chose the name we have now Nene Valley Motor Cycle Club.
This was also the year, Monday March the 23rd to be precise,that an appalling accident in pouring rain on a Warwickshire dual carriagway cost thousands a hero and some a friend. When the great Mike Hailwood and his beautiful little daughter lost their lives. I met Mike in Holland and was one of his great fans, I have always marvelled at the way he could ride any size of machine on any circuit, I think most of his fellow riders regarded him with a certain amount of awe. He was a man's man who tried to make every minute count. Enjoy yourself was his message. Life's too short. And indeed it was. Even the greatest riders need a little bit of luck. Mike's finally ran out. Although the above was not Club history, it had the most profound effect on everyone involved in the sport of Motorcycling.
Back to our Club,we built upon our successes running an event every month,ie 10 Trials and 2 Motocross meetings per year. At this stage I must mention the ladies that contributed so much to the success of the Club. Most of the secretaries were ladies as indeed they still are. What would we do without them? I will not mention names, in case I miss someone,there has been so many. Thanks ladies.
In 1982 our friendly tennant farmer at Clipston decided to retire from farming,so the lady landowner arranged for a farming agency to look after the land for a period until her son left college and made up his mind if farming was for him. The agent turned out to be anti motorcyclist and asked us to vacate the course. We were offered the use of the track at Long Buckby which was used by an AMCA Club, we used it for a couple of years but it was not a success, entries fell off sharply and it became non viable to continue to promote motocross, and as practically all of our members were at that time Trials orientated the decision was made to put on Trials only, so this was an important chapter of the Clubs history closed it would seem forever.
Before we left Clipston we put on a couple of Grass Track meetings in the top car park field, but these were only moderately successful.
About two years before I joined,the then Committee made the Club a Limited Company by Guarantee,quite a few Clubs did this as there was quite a tax saving to be made should you be fortunate enough to make a profit from events at which the public paid to watch.Also there was some protection to be had for the Committee ie. Directors should the Club be sued concerning any incident not covered by a permit event insurance.Being a Limited company had its problems, The main one was the high cost of the accounting which to conform with Company law,had to be done by Chartered Accountants. Also all returns had to be submitted to Company house each year.After a lot of consideration we decided that there was now not the need to continue with this expensive and time consuming proceedure,so we went back to being just a sporting Club.
We settled down to running just Trials quite successfully, the Schoolboy side of the sport was on the up and the more talented lads eventually moved up to the adults and straight into the experts. A case in point was Steve Swanson who in 1985 on his sixteenth birthday moved up to adults, won the Irthlingborough Trial and went on to win the Club championship.
About this time the evergreen John Lee at 46 years of age turned out on a new Steve Saunders -replica Honda and still showed most of the younger riders the way to conquer the sections.
John was of course a South Midland Centre Trials Champion for umpteen years. I should also mention here Nick Holt a Trials and Motocross rider of much distinction Nick has rode in so many Scottish Six Days Trials,must be close on twenty.
Brian Ayres in his prime was one of the top experts in the Centre,he had a dabble at Trials and did quite well at that, but he went back to his love of motocross and still competes now in the over 50s class,and he is still good. Brians wife Judith was one of our most revered Motocross Secretaries,and she is now the S.M.Centre Treasurer.
Derek Jones joined the Harborough Club just before I did,and it was he and his late wife Janet that had the drive to take the Club forward in those early days, he became Chairman and later President he now serves the Club as a Vice President.
I hesitated to mention names,so please forgive me if I stop here, as there are so many people that contributed so much to the strength of Nene Valley MCC.
The Club continued to run quite smoothly through the late eighties and into the nineties,some land was lost,and to find new venues became very difficult.The annual Dinner Dance continued but attendances were falling,and when the Fir Tree changed hands and was turned into a night club / Irish pub type venue, we asked the young members what they wanted for their annual presentation evening,and they chose what we are doing now and have done for the last four years. A Disco and a fish and chip supper.
At the AGM in 1999 I resigned as Secretary /Treasurer having served the Club in this position for some 33 years, I was succeeded by Roy Watson. Doug Swanson very gallantly suggested he would stand down and I would become Club President.
So on to the present day,last year was difficult,because of the foot and mouth, but this year has been very good, thanks to the dedicated team of enthusiasts who by their hard work are keeping the Club going in the best traditions of Market Harborough/Nene Valley Motor Cycle Club.
Bill Robinson
President.
