Veteran - LVRC

LEAGUE OF VETERAN RACING CYCLISTS
The Veteran Leaguer
is the official Newsletter
of the League
of Veteran Racing
Cyclists
Newsletter Editor
Ray Minovi,
45 Augusta Road, Moseley, Birmingham B13 8AE
Tel/fax: 0121-449-1347
email: raminminovi@cnews.freeserve.co.uk
No news is good news
For once the Editor is at a loss for words.
It’s true that there were four days of rain
in Mallorca, which was a bit of a downer
if you went for just that week but not
very earth-shaking in the great scheme of
things. We got back to the UK to find no
races wiped out by foot and mouth
restrictions, and then three weeks of
warm, sunny weather. The SGM went off
with surprisingly little fuss: no-one got
punched in the mouth, no-one was the
victim of an outburst of verbal abuse,
and no-one actually walked out shouting
‘You’ll regret this, mark my words!’. The
League’s second time-trial championship
was run off with an increased field and
no argy-bargy about funny hats. It may
not be normal, but we can live with it.
A warning that we’re running short of
photos for future magazines, so if anyone
fancies getting out to some early
season events and banging off a few
shots, we’d be happy to print the better
ones. We’ll even pay for the prints, or
you can digitise them and e-mail them.
An apparent increase in membership
means that we’re running low on Handbooks.
At the present rate we’ll just be
issuing a set of rules and the rest of the
Calendar to late joiners. All this information
is, incidentally, available on our
Website at www.lvrc.org.
We welcome all contributions from
anyone – letters, comments, results,
articles, reports, pictures, even abuse
as long as it’s in the bes possible taste.
We’d rather have your stuff handwritten
than not at all, but if you can type
it or supply it on computer disk we’re
even happier. Word, .rtf, or ASCII are
all fine.
Deadline for next issue:
15th June
The Lord taketh the cake
When she was Speaker of the Commons, Betty Boothroyd, now
‘Baroness Boothroyd’, was a generally well-liked and popular figure.
It now turns out that Baroness Boothroyd is another deranged
motorist who thinks that it’s OK to behave badly towards cyclists.
On 15th April the Lords had what they call a ‘debate’ on the misuse
of mobile phones by motorists. As if she’d been waiting her
chance La Boothroyd pounced: ‘Will the minister explain the position
in relation to cyclists who use mobile phones? I have witnessed
a horrendous incident in which a cyclist had one hand on
the handlebars and the other hand holding a mobile phone, dicing
with death around Hyde Park Corner. I confess to having taken the
matter into my own hands by using my horn so loudly that the
cyclist had no alternative but to drop the telephone. I am sure that
the House would like to know the rules and regulations relating to
cyclists, who cause great trouble and difficult circumstances by the
use of mobile phones.’
Leaving aside the question of whether the members of the Lords
are spending their time and our money usefully on this drivel, this
dangerous representative of undeserved over-privilege is certainly
right about one thing: we’re all dicing with death while people
like her are about. Baroness Boothroyd is one of our legislators,
whether we like it or not. Yet she apparently thinks that her appalling
behaviour (a sort of ‘mugging by car’) is perfectly acceptable.
What ‘matter’ did she think she was taking into her own hands?
Suppose the cyclist had actually fallen in front of her? Presumably
she’d have said, ‘What can you expect? There he was, dicing with
death, and I came along.’ We know the rules and regulations pertaining
to causing death by dangerous driving; we also know that
in the event of Boothroyd killing or maiming anyone these same
rules are unlikely to be applied to her. The poor cyclist’s real offence
seems to be that of irritating a member of the House of
Lords. Still, she has performed a valuable public service by warning
motorists how vulnerable they are to this horrendous new cycling
threat.
Deadlines & intended publication dates of future issues
Issue Deadline Publication
2/2002 Summer 15 June 6 July
3/2002 Autumn 31 August 27 September
4/2002 Winter 10 December 3 Jan 2002
1/2003 Spring 25 March 25 April
Cover picture: Neil Martin leads Jack Belcher, Nick Giles,
Ron Hewes and Nick Yarworth (hidden) over the rolling
Worcestershire landscape in the Abberleys Three Day.
Photo: Amanda Court
Page 2 Veteran Leaguer: Winter 2002