Currently dry in Brighton, so no changes yet, but the met office has a 40% or less chance of rain from about 5 through to 9.
As always keep an eye on the website, and the social media channels on Facebook and Twitter.
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Race Day Staff Required
Summary: There will be NO Summer Circuit Series if people do not volunteer to run them and the races will not be registered with BC until we do.
The league need more folk on race day to take over duties from the same people always filling the roles.
Currently, there will be no Summer Circuit Series if we don’t get some volunteers for the two primary race day roles.
Below are the roles we need to fill and roughly what they entail. These are roles which have been advertised before with no response so it has now come to this situation.
These are all on the day roles and should not require any extra commitment outside of that. All back-office “paperwork” can currently be taken care of by committee members.
Anyone volunteering to fill these positions will have at least one “hand holding” race meeting with the experienced committee members present before being expected to perform the duty alone. No previous experience is necessary.
If you would like to contribute to the running of SCRL, please send us an email to volunteering@scrl.co.uk or promoter@scrl.co.uk
Organiser(s)
This is essentially the promoter “on the day”. It allows a promoter to pass on the running of the event on the day to another person. This person must be a BC member and have done the event organiser dashboard training. This is a course which can be delivered online at a convenient time, probably a weekday evening, over Zoom or similar video conferencing. It takes about 90 minutes.
The basic duties are:
- Print and bring any paperwork required as provided by the promoter the day prior.
- Perform a preliminary track walk to check the condition and safety of the track. Organise cleaning if necessary.
- Clear the arena of the general public and lock the gates.
- Make sure all marshal points necessary by the risk assessment are manned and all other volunteers are present (sign on, judges etc.).
- Liaise between the other event personnel (i.e. sign on, judges, commissaire(s)) and ensure everyone is looked after.
- Collect all results and forward to promoter.
- Sign off event paperwork (usually just levies).
Sign On
The basic responsibilities of this role are:
- Print the sign-on sheets and any other paperwork provided by the committee the day prior.
- Verify licence details at sign on
- Take card payments using the provided card reader for on the day entries
- Manage a waiting list, if there is one
- Give out and collect race numbers
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Accreditation #2 Cancelled
Due to lack of coach availability we have had to cancel the accreditation on Friday 22nd.
We are trying to arrange a Saturday afternoon or possibly the couple of hours before track league to allow those booked on to complete accreditation. When we have more information we will post here and on social media as well as to the existing entrants. All existing entrants for the 22nd should have had an email already.
Accreditation #3 on Friday 29th is unaffected.
Registration
A reminder that if you haven’t registered online here for the league by 6pm Monday you may well not be accepted in time for the opening meeting on the 20th.
We also have a lot of pending registrations, so please don’t forget to do the following:
- When you have completed the registration form you MUST send proof of your BC membership (if applicable) and licence status (if applicable)
- When you have done this and we have approved your membership you will receive an email and then you MUST pay the registration fee.
If you fail to complete these steps you are not registered and will not be allocated a race number.
At the upcoming accreditation sessions there is the chance to turn the fixed wheels again before the season starts, all for free!
The new riders being accredited will need at least a decent sized bunch to ride round with. Anyone already accredited and wants to come along please just turn up on one of the accreditation dates for around a 6:30pm start.
You might be asked to start/stop occasionally to allow the accrediting riders to perform specific exercises, but it won’t be too often.
The accreditation dates are:
- Wednesday April 13th
- Friday April 22nd
- Friday April 29th
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League News
Dave gets on his bike!
If you were at the circuit races this week you will have seen a fundraising notice by our very own Dave Gerrey. I’ll let him explain what it’s about in his own words:
Anyone who knows me knows I really only ride because my kids joined a cycle club and somehow I have ended up running it and coaching. Having managed to get myself fitter over the last few years I thought the idea of riding the closed roads of Brighton ahead of the Marathon for charity a great next step. I had planned to do it in 2020 then we all know what came next. So when the opportunity to ride it this year and raise funds for the local hospital at the same time came along I grabbed it with both feet. Just my luck, the day I registered I then ended up as a guest of the RSCH for a few days so I definitely have to pay them for that now. Please help me towards my target on this my first real attempt at a charity ride.
You can sponsor Dave at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/dave-gerrey
Velodrome Art
The council is looking to commission an artist to paint a mural across the back of the velodrome stands.
As I’m sure you’ll agree, this would make the velodrome feel much more welcoming and is something we should all support.
If you wish to leave a comment, or obtain more details (perhaps you know an artist who would be interested) then visit the webpage here.
Primary Volunteer Positions
Late last year we asked for people to be forthcoming about filling some roles on a regular basis, see this post here.
The response has been, frankly, non-existent.
This leaves the league in very much a position of not being able to operate if any person who is the sole person able to fulfil that role is unavailable, for whatever reason.
Please have a read of that post again and have a good think about offering up services.
If everyone in the league could cover a couple of roles, you would probably only have to do it once or twice a season. We don’t really want to have to go down the “compulsory volunteer slots” route but it may be that we have to.
Thank you.
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One Week To Go
In a weeks time we will kick off the first winter circuits series for a couple of years. Exciting stuff.
There are still some entry places available (click here). Remember its more expensive on the day so entering online not only guarantees you a place it saves you money!
Womens race: 9 out of 30 entries. You need one more racer to get points across the top ten! Otherwise its 3, 2 and 1 points for the top three only!
Mixed Category 4: Filling nicely, at 17 entries from 30 at time of writing.
Mixed Category 2/3: 23 out of 30 taken. Not many left so if you want to race you’d better hurry!
But there won’t be any racing at all if we can’t get ……
Volunteers
Plenty of the 2/3 racers have stepped up to volunteer for the marshalling positions, and one category 4 racer. It would be good to see some more riders doing their bit. You can do this in one of two common ways:
- Volunteer to marshal after your race (women or 4th cat racers)
- Bring a friend to marshal during your race (4th cat or 2/3 racers)
I’m sure I don’t need to say it: No marshals = no race (at all).
You can sign up on the volunteer sheet here:
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League News
With Christmas behind us it’s time to start looking to next season.
Race Dates
All the calendars have been updated now with our provisional dates for the winter and summer circuits, and track league.
There are Regional A Circuit level points (points band 4) races for both women and general entry in the winter series this year.
See the appropriate calendars for details.
Volunteers for races
We also need to start filling the volunteer spreadsheets. There is usually a coffee or two in it for you if you cover all day.
Remember: No volunteers = No racing
The volunteer page with links to the spreadsheet is here.
Vacant Positions
There are still some positions to fill to make sure we can race next year. If you are interested, you can email committee@scrl.co.uk or use the contact us form.
Note that only the promoter is an elected committee position. The others can be filled by any person at any time.
Promoter(s)
Organiser(s)
Sign On
Judges
Rider Whip
Marshals
Catering
Promoter(s) (Committee Position)
The promoter oversees the running of each SCRL event, from registering with British Cycling, managing entries, organising volunteers, booking with our various suppliers through to managing the arena and the event on the day itself, and the follow up of posting paperwork to British Cycling.
There is a great bunch of committee members and willing volunteers who take a lot of that work away and can be relied upon to know what to do. You mostly have to oversee the operation and ensure all the roles are filled, look after the volunteers, liaise with the commissaires etc.
Current promoter will cover the Winter Series but a replacement must be found in time for track league and summer circuits.
You must be a BC member, and will have to undergo a short tutorial on the use of the BC Event organiser dashboard. This takes a couple of hours and can usually be done online via skype/teams/zoom etc.
Organiser(s)
This is essentially the promoter “on the day”. It allows a promoter to pass on the running of the event on the day to another person. This person must also be a BC member and have done the event organiser dashboard training as above.
If a regular pool of on the day organisers could be found, the current promoter would probably be happy to carry on in the back-office role …..
Sign On
The person responsible for sign on will print the BC start/sign-on sheets, arrange for the numbers to be collected/returned by riders, and manage on the day entry, day licences and other add-ons if appropriate
They will pass the sign on sheets to the commissaires/organisers and return them to the treasurer who will pay the levies and expenses.
Judges
A judge is there to track and record the finishing positions/points scored of each race we hold.
They will commonly be watching and tracking lapped riders (mostly an issue in a circuit race) and recording finishing positions for each race.
They will also learn to use an i-pad to record and verify finishes if necessary.
Judging can take a bit of practice but we can’t rely on the same people all the time. Some of them would like to race also! On-the-job training will be given at our circuit races and/or track league.
Rider Whip
Mainly for track races, a rider whip is solely responsible for ensuring that riders of the next race are prepared and brought to the edge of the track in time, ready to line up for each race. This keeps the racing flowing and allows us to make maximum use of our track time. It also frees up the other volunteers to concentrate on their primary role i.e. commentating, judging etc.
Marshals
We always need these! Their function is primarily to “guard” the arena and its entry points to inform the public that access is not possible. This is to keep both the public and the riders safe. Allez opi-omi!
Do not worry about having to “man-handle” transgressors or wrestle anyone to the ground. This is not a marshals job and physical confrontation is not encouraged. In the event of a “difficult” member of the public who jumps the fence or otherwise tries to cross the arena, a marshal will simply try to alert the riders and officials to their presence and the appropriate safety precautions can be taken i.e. race is neutralised or similar.
Catering (Track League Only)
We all like to make use of a cuppa and a star bar. Someone needs to be responsible for filling the urns with hot water, and bringing them along as well as setting up and packing away.
You don’t necessarily need to “run” the stall. We mostly left it as an honesty system last year and it seemed to work well enough.
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New To Road/Circuit Racing?
Whilst we don’t require any official kind of accreditation to race our circuit races at Preston Park, we do advise that some experience of proper bunch riding is a very good idea.
With that in mind, take note that the Surrey/South East Road Race League has a set of training sessions available in January and February next year at Cyclopark in Kent, which are a requirement for anyone at 4th cat level to enter their road races.
Even if you don’t want to race in the S/SERRL league it is a great couple of sessions to help you learn safe racing practice and build confidence.
You can sign up here.
Don’t forget the British Cycling RaceSmart programme also has plenty of information available on their website here.
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AGM Details
Our AGM is just two weeks away, so here’s the skinny on the event.
When
Saturday October 23rd, from 5:30pm to probably about 7:30pm.
Note that the PPYCC AGM is prior to this in the same place 3:00pm to 5:00pm, with a half hour break between the two.
Where
As usual, at the Knoyle Hall on Knoyle Road, Brighton, BN1 6RB.
Parking is sometimes a bit scarce, so walk or ride if you can.
What
- AGM Agenda items which will usually include
- Nomination and/or re-election of any positions for the committee which need to be filled
- Financial reports
- Prize Giving and photos
- Please note, that preliminary finances show a poor year this year as far as track league goes, so the prize fund is greatly reduced from normal.
If you have any items you wish the committee to consider for the agenda please email to committee@scrl.co.uk or use the contact form.
There will also be a chance to socialise with fellow league members over a drink or two:
- We will have beer from the Long Man Brewery available at £5 a pint (remember we have to pay retail for the beer plus a temporary event licence so it can’t be any cheaper). Card payments on the day please. NOTE: If you are a younger adult, please bring some I.D. We won’t be taking any chances on that front. No you still won’t get served if your birthday is only next week. Don’t forget we know your date of birth anyway from your league registration 😉
- Tea and coffee as usual, along with cakes and treats.
What should I bring?
- Bring your league race numbers back if you haven’t already.
- Please bring along cakes or treats and other things which we can sell at the event in the interval to raise funds for the league.
- If you are available to help out for a bit just prior or afterwards for setup/cleanup please feel free to show up early/hang around and help out.
- We are also keen to get some good quality shots of our prize winners this year. If you are a dab hand with a camera (and will do it for free!) please make yourself known to the committee using the email./contact links above.
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AGM (and other stuff)
The date has been set for our AGM. As usual it is at the Knoyle Hall on Knoyle Road Brighton (next to the church). The date is Saturday October 23rd, with the PPYCC AGM planned to be 3pm to 5pm and then SCRL from 5:30pm to 7:30pm.
Please come along to collect your prizes if you have won one, or to just generally celebrate our return to racing anyway.
Full address:
Knoyle Hall,
Knoyle Road,
Brighton
BN1 6RB
Race Numbers
There are a few of you still to return race numbers. You can bring them to the AGM or you can email promoter@scrl.co.uk and I will tell you the address to post them to.
Please make sure you return your numbers, otherwise we have to spend league money on replacing them. Money that could be better spent elsewhere.
Cakes and stuff
Cakes either store bought or home made always welcome at the AGM to raise a few more quid.