Wednesday, December 12 – CTC AGM

The AGM of the Bolton Section CTC was held tonight in the Bridge Street Wesleyan School at 7.15pm.  I attended of course.  The first business was the reading of the Club minutes for 1923 – to date.  This included, first the New Year Tour, in which 7 members took part, the Easter tour in the Derbyshire Dales – 8 members.  A humorous feature of this tour was that one member, who is inclined to be superstitious, gathered some apple blossom, seemingly a sign of good luck.  From then on he had a long list of misfortunes, a freewheel hub which persistently jammed, four punctures, and a tyre burst which required a new tyre.  He blamed all this on the poor apple blossom, becoming the joke of the party.  He is still called ‘Apple Blossom’.  This of course was not included in the Minutes.  Then came the attendances, I gathered that I had attended 10 Sunday runs, 13 Saturday runs – a total of 25 – including the Meriden pilgrimage and the ‘Century’ run.  Some controversy was raised over the fact that those members who only reached the tea place on Sundays received a mark each, the same as those members who had been out all day.  A move was made to exclude the former, but this was defeated.

Another motion was carried and passed to give the committee power to elect four or less Vice Presidents, instead of just one.  The polling for committee places was carried out, the result showing a popular vote.  The club’s financial position was found to be sound, and one member volunteered to make, free of charge, a set of cases ‘to be placed in a prominent position at the clubrun meeting places’.  This was applauded and passed unanimously.  Also a library is to be formed, several members promising to make donations of books, maps, etc, pertinent to cycling.  At the end, everybody declared that the club was prosperous and progressive, the membership having jumped from 85 to 148 in the year, a substantial increase.  A vote of thanks was then recorded to Dr Mawson, President, Mark Haslam, Secretary, Miss A Hallam, Hon Assistant Secretary and all the other officials, including the Committee.  The meeting then closed.

Wednesday, December 19                               CTC Social and Certificates etc

The club has arranged a very attractive winter programme for Wednesday evenings, and at tonight’s gathering there was an unusually large crowd.  The programme opened with a piano duet, then a Lancashire recitation and a song.  The Certificates for the 24 hour and Century rides were then awarded, then the Tate Cup for the Hill Climb Handicap.  Refreshments followed, then, after a good conjuring act, some games were played, and the social eventually broke up at 10.30pm.