To continue with the history of the Midland Cycling & Athletic Club.
The club was officially formed on April 3rd 1890 at a meeting in the Holte Hotel, Aston.
On this date the faltering Midland Athletic Club was absorbed, hence the name ever since.
During the first year of the club, they organised several track meetings at the Aston Lower Grounds (now Villa Park) on the hard track around the football pitch, which was eventually removed to make more room for football spectators. An interesting aside, Aston Villa football Club formed a cycling club as they owned the track, but it was absorbed by the MC&AC after a year or two. Also in this first year as a cycling club, the first paced road race over 25 miles was contested by a mixture of ordinaries, safeties & trikes. The eventually winner being Tal Robson in 1-31-09 on a safety bike with cushion tyres.
By 1895 the club became nationally known when Fred Chinn broke several short distance track records, of which his mile in 1m 54sec 4/5 was a European best.
On the Athletic side in 1897, Alfred Trafford became the AAA 120 yards hurdles champion & in 1900 we had the British 100 yards champion in J W Morton, who defeated the American champion Duffy eight times over the distance & in 1902 Syd Holloway became the 1/4 mile British Empire Champion.
Back to cycling, Austin Appleby rode in the track mile for Great Britain in the 1898 World Championships in Vienna, while Fred Chinn won the professional mile & his brother Harry took the 50 mile amateur tittle.
In 1899 the Birmingham Centre N.C.U. '50' mile championship was won by David Noon.
The first un-paced Bath Road '100' was run in 1903 & was won by Albert Powell in 5-50-04.
1907 & Tom Peck attacked & broke the 'End to End' record in 3d 12h 53m & shortly afterwards another club member, Billy Welsh did the journey in 3d 8h 4m & then carried on to take the 1,000 mile record in 3d 15h 57m.
The following year, Tom re-gained the 'End to End' being the first inside 3 days, doing 2d 22h 44m, an average speed of just over 12mph. Remember all this was done on atrocious roads & the poor tyres of the period.
Another great distance rider Charles Moss, won the Bath Road '100' in 1907-8-9, his best time being 5-7-41 thereby making the Bath Road Cup his own property ( now said to be valued at £70,000 ).
Also in 1908, David Noon rode for Great Britain in the Olympic Games & in Athletics Reg Noakes became the British 2 miles British Steeplechase Champion, which he repeated in 1909-11.
Charles Moss again won the Bath Road '100' in 1911 in 4-51-20 and also won the prestigious Anfield '100' three times in 1910-11-12. He also rode for Great Britain in the 1912 Olympic road race around Lake Malar in Stockholm.
The Great War or as we now know as the First World War started in 1914 & racing ceased for five years. Over fifty of the young members joined the colours, six did not return. The Rev Anthony Pollen, our 'Flying Parson' was decorated for bravery whilst serving on H.M.S. Warspite at the battle of Jutland.
Frank Greenwood was made a Company Runner, on a bike of course, but became a P.O.W. to the detriment of his health, but he recovered to become an outstanding rider post war.
In 1919, competition resumed & Harry Genders won the Anfield '100' & the following year rode for Great Britain in the Olympics in Antwerp where he was the first British rider to finish, 5th overall & in 1921 he became the N.C.U. 25 miles National Champion.
Billy Burkill Won the Anfield '100' in 1922 & in the same year was 2nd In the World Championships losing by 1m 19s after changing a back tyre, he again represented his country in 1923 at the 'Worlds' in Switzerland.
The club provided the winning team in the Anfield '100' four times in 1914-21-22-23.
Frank Greenwood, who was a reserve for the 1921 'Worlds' won the Bath Road '100' in 1924, clocking the excellent time of 4-49-09. There followed a quite period at International level until Jack Middleton rode in the 1928 Olympics, winning a Silver Team Medal. J.K. as he was known, was also a prolific record breaker, having several R.R.A. & M.R.R.A. records to his credit.
Then in 1930 a rising star emerged, Charles Holland, one of three brothers, all champions in their own right. Charles won the Anfield '100' in 1932-34-36. An all round accomplished rider, he rode and won every thing from 1/4 mile on the track to 12 hours on the road & in massed start road racing he won the first Isle of Man race over the mountain course in 1936.
He rode for Great Britain in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1932, Berlin in 1936 where he finished fifth & was third in the World Championships in Leipzig in 1934.
Charles was third in the British Best All Rounder in 1933, second in 1934, second again in 1935, then won it in 1936. He then turned professional & was soon breaking several place to place records & in 1937 rode in the 'Tour de France' and only failed to finish after running out of tyres on the 15th stage after covering 2,000 miles. He was re-instated as an amateur in the sixties when just short of sixty years of age & went on to win the Veterans B.A.R. In 1936 Brother Jack won the N.C.U. 25 mile championship.
Another club member that should be mentioned is Bill Connolly Snr, who's expertise did much to aid the success of our riders & who also was selected eight times as trainer to the English National team.
1939 saw the start of the Second World War & again the unavoidable interruption to the sport. Over the next six years the bulk of our young men again joined the colours, as many as 78 it was said, five did not return with three becoming prisoners. Mention must be made of Harold 'Dutchy' Holland (no relation to the Holland brothers) who instituted the 'Comforts Fund' for those serving & he personally corresponded & sent out parcels of goodies for the entire period of the war to our boys.
The Roll-Call club monthly magazine, which had started in 1895, was produced throughout the war & circulated to every member, as it had been continually since its beginning to this day.
After the war things were quite on the national front, but an influx of youngsters under the leadership of Bill Gavin started to bear fruition, these lads provided the nucleus of our winning teams in the 50's.
In 1948 we were joined by Les Willmott who was destined to become one of the most outstanding riders of the decade. He burst into prominence by winning the 'Blue Ribbon of the Road' the Bath Road '100' in 4-12-22, he then went on to win the R.T.T.C. '100' miles Championship, the Isle of Man International Road Race, the M.R.R.A. 50 mile straight out record in 1-49-52.
At the same time John Pottier who had joined as a junior, developed as a road racer & eventually good enough to turn 'Independent' (semi-professional) & he held the yellow jersey several times in the 'Tour of Britain' & also rode in the 'Tour of Spain'.
Other riders such as John Chance, John Crump, John Bradbury, Dereck Gravestock, Brian Butterworth, Reg Topham, Fred Hopkins, Colin Davis, Rod Bates, Reg Price amongst others, were more than supporting riders, winning many races in there own right.
Jack Simpson, a short distance specialist, left Yorkshire to live in the Midlands & joined us, soon proving his worth by winning the Solihull Invitation '25', limited to the fastest '25' milers in the country in a time of 59.08. & also he was second in the Isle of Man race, winning the team award alongside Les Willmott & John Pottier.
Calls of National Service probably limited the amount of success for our lads during this period but riding for service teams they achieved some success.
As we entered the sixties, club riders were still achieving some success at local level in road races & time trials & we were promoting one of the premier road races in the country with the 'Spring Classic' road race.
Currently we are still an active club, with club time trials being organised, Sunday club runs, regular social events, including an Annual Dinner in April, Annual Prizegiving each Autumn, we also organise & run one or two Audax events each year.
We have also moved with the times & have been a sponsored club for quite a few years, being sponsored by Tudor Sports, a Midlands clothing manufacturer, currently we have very smart light & dark blue & white colours to ride in without advertising, as a pure amateur club.
Of course over all these years the club was fully backed up with many businessmen as members & with their expertise the club was organised along the bright lines to support the riders. Amongst these were names such as Grice Hutchinson MP (For Aston), Harry Butler, Charles Dawes, J K Starley, Harry Keys, Edgar Iliffe, P J Evans, Burmans, Austin, amongst many others who ran business's in & around Birmingham, some of the business's became large conglomerates, Austin Cars to name just one.
All of the above is just part of the activities that the club has taken part in, because we were very involved in motorcycling, motoring, cricket, football, ping pong (table tennis), billiards, whist drives & much more that those businessmen used as leisure time activities
Most of the above has been gleaned from records that we hold in yearly condensed books of the magazine Roll-Call, that have been put together in hard back form.