Cycle Club Sudbury was formed back in the late seventies when a couple of cyclists
decided there should be a local club.
Now the club sits at a healthy 105 members. We hold a regular Time Trial series,
an Open Time Trial, Audax events, an annual Hill Climb , a Road Race and even
a Reliability Ride in January each year. We also have a growing Juniors section,
with British Cycling trained coaches.
The club is open to all riders, young and old; no one is ever out of place on a bike!

This is a brief history of the Club, followed by a detailed account of the early days.

The Club was formed in 1979 by Harold Raymond and Len Finch after a previous
Sudbury club had disbanded some years earlier. They placed an advert in the Free
Press inviting anyone interested to an inaugural meeting on 27 August. A number
of people responded and a committee was formed with Pat Raymond as Secretary,
Len as Treasurer, and Gordon Richards, the first member, as Chairman. Other
early members included the Webber family, Pete and Marlene Broomfield, Tony
Hall, and Colin Dales.

Club meetings were held at Great Cornard Upper School, and annual subscriptions
were £4 for seniors, £6 for families, and £2 for juniors.

During the first year the Sunday Club Run was established, Len started “The Spindle”
newsletter and a Boxing Day fancy dress time trial was held, with a Reliability Trial
in January. By June 1980 there were 33 members.

Early Time Trials were held on two courses, with Harold timekeeping from a
wristwatch. The first course ran from Great Cornard Sports Centre to Bures, across
to Assington, and back to Cornard via the A134, Joes Road and Sheepshead Hill.
A 10 mile course was then established from the old Sudbury Garden Centre along
the A134 to Leavenheath and back, with a U-turn around a marshal, bravely stood
in the road near the Hare & Hounds!

The ’80s saw a number of younger riders in the club, with frequent weekend racing
for them at the Eastway circuit, now the Olympic Velodrome site, and circuit training
organised by Harold at Cornard Sports Centre.
In the early ’90s, Scott Jones established a strong hold on the club’s time trial
records: he held them all, from 10 miles to 100 miles, until the 2010 season. By
2014 all except the 100 mile were held by the late Jonathan Weatherley, and in
2015 by Jody Downs, (with the exception of the 25 mile). In 2017 Mandy Bunn had
an outstanding season, taking the 10, 25, 30 and 50 mile women’s records.
In 2025, Ian Short swept the TT board, winning trophies at 50, 25 and 10 miles,
and a BAR trophy, as well as excellent placings in Open TTs.
In 2026, Simon Daw had a good year, winning three BAR trophies, and club awards
at 100, 50, and 25 miles, and the club 10 mile vet champion award, together with
good placings in Open TTs.

Stalwarts of the club over the last three decades and longer have been Geoff Morse,
now our president, who has served as chairman, secretary, treasurer and timekeeper,
and Brian Webber as chairman, time trial organiser and timekeeper. We have now
sadly lost early members of the club, Alan Wiseman, Len Finch and Harold Raymond.

As well as riding in our own Club Time Trials, a small but committed group of club
members take part in Open time trials in East Anglia and beyond, riding in both
individual and team events. Club riders also take part in local road, criterium, and
circuit races. Other riders specialise in off-road racing, and grass track racing has a few
followers.

Other members have taken to Audax long distance riding – CCS
members often ride as a group. Most years, groups of riders visit southern Europe
for training weeks in the spring, and there’s a regular summer trip to Dieppe. The
club kit of orange and black is therefore increasingly recognised not only on the
roads of East Anglia but beyond. The Club currently has about 105 members.

Below is a quick run down of the club inception right up to the dizzy heights of
25 members. This article was orginially published in the club newsletter; The
Spindle in September 2004 and written by life time member Leonard Finch.

In the beginning there was young Harold who with Len decided that we should form a new Cycling Club in Sudbury, there had been one some years back but it was now defunct and had been disbanded some years earlier. So Harold placed an advert in the Free Press to the effect that any body interested were welcome to attend a meeting, and on the 28th August 1979 an inaugural meeting was held and a number of people turned up.

And Bingo! the following week we were on our way. So on the 4th September 1979 The Committee was formed with Pat Raymond as Secretary, Len as Treasurer and Gordon Richards as Chairman and people paid their Subscriptions of £4 for Seniors, £6 for Family and a £1 for Junior membership.

The first person to pay and therefore our first Member was Gordon Richards, our 2nd was Harold and family which included Kevin and Christiana then 3rd was Brian Nixon who alas died in 2002, in all 12 people joined on the first night. The clubroom meetings were held in the 6th Form common room at the G.C. Upper school. Clubroom subscriptions were 10p and 5p for under 14’s, this included a cup of tea which was usually made by Christiana.

Amongst some of the early members during our 1st year were Brian and Pat Webber and family, Pete and Marlene Broomfield and Tony Hall and 2nd claim member Colin Dales who we only charged £2. Colin lived at Nedging Tye and was a member of the Wolsey Road Club, he is now a second claim member of the Wolsey.

At a committee meeting it was after a long discussion we decided on the name of Cycle Club Sudbury, suggested by Brian Nixon having gone through the normal run of Road Club, Wheelers, Cycle Club etc and it was decided to have orange being our main colour for our jersey’s as the only other club in orange was the Great Yarmouth C.C.

During the 1st year we had regular club runs on Sunday’s leaving Market Hill led by various run leaders who’s delight was to take us through fords such as the one at Assington and Hawkedon and up unmade grotty roads, one such ride in November ’79 there was 16 riders. The newsletter states that there was a complaint of Mudsplatitosomush.

Len had started a newsletter and named it the Spindle. Why? Because his old club had a newsletter called the Hub and it was said that everything revolved around the Hub. So now everything revolved around the Spindle to keep everybody informed of what was going on.

Boxing Day 1979 we had a 10 mile fancy dress Time Trial with 9 riders, Harold was in a ballerina outfit and rode in a tu-tu and Len had an apes mask and a sunshade fitted to his handlebars, the winner of the event was Paul Kelling who got mearest to the mystery time set by Gordon. Afterwards it was off to Harold’s house for mince pies, baked potatoes and wine. Harold was then living at Kings Hill.
By June 1980 we had 33 members and had £101.80 in funds.

During 1980 we had a Reliability Trial which was more of a map reading contest and a number of riders got lost, we also had a treasure hunt, which was quite popular.

Time Trials were held from the G.C. Sports Centre to Bures, Cuckoo Hill, Assington along the A134 through Newton to Joes Road down Sheepshead Hill to the Sports Centre. Harold was the time keeper and used a wristwatch with a sweep second hand for timing, then we held 10 mile Time Trials from Cramphorns, now Wyevale Garden Centre to do a U turn at High Road Leavenheath, the traffic was probably a quart then of what it is to-day.