Blog posts

We have been approached by a couple of organisations offering opportunities for charity rides:

London to Brighton Bike Ride Challenge

15th June 2025

Be part of this legendary bike ride and immerse yourself in a heartfelt community. Setting off from Clapham Common, enjoy predominantly closed, traffic-free, tarmac roads.  Cycle 55 miles through glorious city scenes and breathtaking views of the South Downs. Once you’ve conquered Ditchling Beacon, you can revel in the downhill ride towards Brighton Beachfront, where you’ll receive a celebratory welcome.  

Why This Matters  

Suicide is the leading cause of death for those under 35 and men under 50. The age group with the highest rate of suspected suicide throughout 2024 was those aged 45 to 64. Grassroots Suicide Prevention is dedicated to changing this through education, awareness, and empowering communities to have life-saving conversations. We have trained over 65,000 people to have lifesaving conversations, enabling beloved fathers to access vital tools and resources. Our award-winning Stay Alive App has been downloaded over 800,500 times. 

Why Your Club Should Get Involved:  

Team Spirit: Strengthen the bonds you’ve already built, share the challenge and support one another

A Worthy Cause: Every mile you cycle will help raise awareness and critical funds for suicide prevention, truly making a difference in people’s lives.  

Challenge and Achievement: It’s a challenge that will push you, and one that you’ll be proud to accomplish together. 

What You’ll Get as Part of Team Grassroots:  

• Free branded cycling jersey  
• Regular check-ins and fundraising tips  
• Access to an exclusive Fundraising Hub  
• A spot in our Suicide Prevention Training  
• Registration is £35 & the fundraising target is £400

Whether you want to combine your fundraising targets as a team or keep them individual, signing up early gives your supporters plenty of time to help you hit your goal. 

Cycle Surrey Hills

Sunday 13th April 2025

As in previous years, we are raising funds for two local charities, Crossroads Care Surrey and East Surrey Domestic Abuse Services, both of whom benefit hugely from the generosity of the riders who take part in the event – all the entry fees are donated to the charities.

Cycle Surrey Hills is a friendly, smaller-scale event, it’s well-signposted, has decent refreshments both en route and at the finish, which is in the lovely rural grounds of St Teresa’s School, Effingham

There is a choice of three routes – 27k for families (including children over 12), 59k for intermediate riders and, for the first time, a new 100k route for more experienced riders. Those of you who ride the area will know the challenges involved!

More details and the entry form can be found on the website – cyclesurreyhills.co.uk.

We do hope to see you and friends on Sunday 13th April.

We are planning to keep our programme of Woking area G2 Sunday half-day rides (G2WS) running through the winter months.  Please support these rides, which run on the first Sunday of each month.   However, we are pausing the programme of Woking area G2 Wednesday rides for the winter months.

These are full-day rides that have been running on the 2^nd Wednesday of each month.  These rides will re-start in Spring subject to there being sufficient demand and availability of ride leaders.  I am very grateful to Kevin Hawken and Chris Jeggo who have been leading these two rides this year.  All rides are shown on our Rides Calendar with full details posted on Spond.

Thanks

John Carolin

Clarification posted by Pat Daffarn

Multiple cyclists can be independent witnesses of an incident.

Below is a summary of response from 11845 Ceri Morgan, RTC Decision Maker, Criminal Justice – Traffic and Process Unit, Guildford Police Station after clarification was sought following WSCC members stating on Whatsapp that as members of the same club we would not be considered independent.

Her full email is below:

From: !CJ Online Allegations (Surrey) <CJOnlineAllegations@surrey.pnn.police.uk>
Sent: 05 November 2024 11:13
To: pat.daffarn@gmail.com
Subject: RE: Reporting threatening driver with 7 witnesses.
 

Good Morning

It is generally the case that if you were driving in a car with your wife and were involved in a collision (for example) they wouldn’t be an independent witness to the collision.  If they are involved in the incident then they are not witnesses but involved parties. 

However it is common for people in one location to be connected one way or another so we do not automatically rule it out due to them knowing one another.  But it is why we prefer footage to witness accounts as it is impartial.  The crime teams do not always deal with cases the same as we do in traffic matters, as different legislation requires different things, so I cannot speak for them.

Although not helpful in this situation as it has already happened dashcams do help with these matters.  Though hopefully this doesn’t happen again it may be something to consider for the future.  Thank you for making the further report, we will not deal with this matter in this department as the crime element is dealt with elsewhere in Surrey Police so they should be in contact.

Kind regards
11845 Ceri Morgan

RTC Decision Maker

Criminal Justice – Traffic and Process Unit

Guildford Police Station, GU1 9PE

Email: CJRTC@surrey.police.uk

Hamish was one of the stalwarts of West Surrey. He first rode with the club in 1953 and was Runs Secretary from 1963-69. In 1973 he married Gillian, the daughter of club President and founder member, Bill Inder. In 1987 Hamish’s employer, British Aerospace, was closing its Weybridge site and Hamish was transferred to Filton. At the end of the club’s Annual Report for 1987 Marguerite Statham detailed Hamish’s and Gillian’s considerable contributions to club life. Hamish continued to ride with Bristol CTC, and they both visited Woking from time to time while Bill was alive, not so often thereafter. Hamish joined Russ Mantle on tours to the Lake District etc, both taking boots as well as bikes. He was a good photographer, a regular contributor to W Surrey slide shows. Always good company, Hamish will be missed. Our condolences go out to Gill and the family.

Cycling was Simon’s life. A delightful man with a great sense of humour he was brought up in Guildford and became a leading light in W Surrey District Association (DA) of the CTC (as WSCC was then known) from his teens until he moved north to pursue a full time career in cycling. In 1978 he was the first CTC member to complete the whole route (over 1500 miles) of the CTC Centenary Relay Ride around Great Britain, which he did in 15 days. In 1979 he won the competition to design a new DA enamel badge, a green Surrey oak leaf on a white background with peripheral gold lettering, which proved very popular. Three years later he used the same colours for his design of the first DA jersey. For a few years from 1983 he organised the Tour of the Hills to great effect, showing a flare for publicity and securing sponsorship from FW Evans. He was artistic all his life, providing illustrations and cartoons for numerous cycling publications. He wrote a couple of excellent books – “The Cyclist’s Training Manual: Fitness and Skills for Every Rider” and “The Long Distance Cyclist’s Handbook”. A keen Audax rider, he completed Paris-Brest-Paris in 1983, and in 1984 was one of the successful team that rode from Brindisi to Calais, for which the team won the AUK Merit Award. He became a senior level professional coach with British Cycling, but in 2006 he was hit by a drunk driver as he was cycling to work at the Manchester velodrome. The driver was jailed for 18 months, but that is small consolation for the tragedy which crippled him both physically and mentally for the rest of his life, spent in a care home for the brain-injured. Further information can be found on the Willesden Cycling Club website and CC Woking’s history webpage.