Fonds CCC - Records of Clifton Cycling Club

Clifton Cycling Club was founded in 1895 at the Old Grey Mare, Clifton Green, York and the first club run was held that year. A Ladies section of the club was founded in 1902 and women were admitted to full club membership in 1923 after which combined club runs were held monthly. The club had a cricket team in its first decades but only had a short existence. The club briefly merged with the Burton Lane Cycling Club during the First World War. The distance of club runs in the early days were determined by the state of the roads, with the club maintaining a ‘road-menders’ fund aimed to help make local roads amenable for cyclists.

The first club event was the '50-mile record', introduced in 1896. In 1906, a ‘100-mile Sealed Handicap’ was also introduced. During the early 20th century Clifton Cycling Club also developed a very strong hill climb team featuring Lazenby Lockwood and the record-setting Kate Green also was also a Clifton Cycling Club member during this period. Around the 1930s the club participated in an annual ‘Cyclists vs Harriers’ race.
The club has published its magazine, ‘The Cliftonite’, since 1936. In the mid-20th century activities such as club runs were documented in newspaper columns such as ‘Cycling Gossip’ and club members' results continued to feature in newspapers later in the 20th century.

The 1960 and 1970s saw racing members of the club such as Pete Smith, John Watson, Roy Cromack, Ian White and Dennis Pickard compete and attain victories at national and international levels of cycling. The club came to participate in a variety of cycling disciplines beyond social rides and time trials, going on to take part in mass start races, cyclocross, mountain biking and track cycling.