Fred Rose, a member of the Boston Wheelers had won the West Lincoln 12 hours race in 1921 with Boston
club members feeding him at various points along the course. This started me thinking that I would like to try my luck at
long distance stuff, so I entered for the L.R.R.A.12 hour in 1932. I have forgotten what handicap I received, but I know I
was nearly last off in a card of about 30 riders.
I rode over to Lincoln on the Saturday night and put up at Jack Johnson's shop on Burton Road, but
I didn't get much sleep for Jack's place was packed with cyclists as usual.
The start was 6:00am at the John Bull, and the morning was very dull with a lot of wind. Little did
I know what a tough ride it was going to be. In those days everybody rode double fixed wheels, and it was the first time I
had ridden tubs for long distance, and carried only one spare. All competitors had to ride in black tights (woolen in those
days) and black alpaca jackets.
The race hadn't been on for long when it began to rain, and the well soaked tights hung round the
competitors legs and dragged at their knees. As time went on, stragglers who had packed up began to pass me going back to
Lincoln and a good many times I nearly packed myself. I well remember one part of this race, the stretch from Threekingham
to Donington, - there was a gale of wind behind me and the rain came down in sheets - actually faster than I was going. However,
after about six hours of this sort of weather the sun came out and was blistering hot tightening up all the wet clothing!
Being a novice at 12 hour riding I didn't know what my position in the race, but I knew I had passed
quite a lot of riders, including the scratch man W.Hallgarth of Grimbsby a 24 hour man, so I changed my wheel round onto a
smaller gear for the hilly part of the course around Grantham and Bourne. I soon caught Gibson of Spalding who was doing a
good ride and he started well before me, so I thought if I could keep him in my sights I should do alright. This I managed
to do and with encouragement from the Boston members I managed to win the event by a small margin with a total mileage of
197 1/4 miles.
