
AGM MINUTES – 14/11/24
Minutes West Highland Wheelers AGM 14th November 2024
7pm Lochaber Rural Complex
Present Dave, Jacqui and Daniel Parfitt, Nix and Damien Forster, Gregor Muir, Stefan, Emma Pearce, Bridget Thomas, Chris Waters, Doug Little, Alastair Maclennan, Steve Bradley, Claire Abernethy, Gill Barnes, Norman Clark, Henry Cairns, Bronagh Wishart, Ruari Watt, Marian Austin, Andy Rogers
1 – Apologies Karl Bungey
Dave thanked everyone for coming along and the Rural Education Trust for providing the venue.
2 – Minutes of 2023 AGM Proposed as accurate by Gregor Muir, Seconded by Emma Pearce
3 – Chairman’s report
The club has had members competing in a wide range of mountain bike competitions over this year from mini dhs to world champs, just missing Olympians.
Notable achievements
Cross country/ Cyclo cross Lily and Isla Cant and Kai and Aaron Tressider have been flying the club flag for these, ( as well as competing in other disciplines) winning the Scottish Schools Mtb mixed team champs.
Lily Cant got 5 x 1sts and a 2nd across SXC, 10 under the Ben , Tweedlove and Muckmedden
Isla Cant was 1st at Muckmedden, Tweedlove and an SXC
Kai Tresidder won all 5 of his SXC races and the series
Aaron Tresidder was young in his category this year but was still sitting 3rd in the series until his last race (which didn’t go as planned!) , he was also 1st junior in 10 under the Ben and 1st junior in the Fort to Fort and 7th overall. He was also 6th in the 1st cyclocross race of the season.
Es Tresidder has also been flying the flag in the cyclocross over 40s
Gary MacDonald had a quiet race season but still managed to win a couple of SXCs and become Scottish SXC champion in the 40 to 49 category
In Enduro Mia Jackson was 1st overall in the Hope womens enduro at Ae forset (1st in category and fastest lady overall)
Cole Jackson was 3rd overall in the national enduro series (U21) came 12th in the Open EDR in Loudenville France and was 3rd in the Southern Enduro series
Ava Marsh was 2nd at Muckmedden and 2nd at Laggan Tweedlove enduros
Charley Kennedy got a 1st and a 2nd at the Hope PMBAs, finishing 2nd overall.
Downhill.. In DH its been great to see loads of riders (both male and female) from the club taking part across the different age groups with
In mini DH Archie Rodger was 3rd at Learnie, Mia Jackson was 1st in Learnie and Nevis Range and at the mini DH final at the World cup at Nevis Range the club took 1st female in (U12), Lily Cant, U14 Mia Jackson and U16 Isla Cant
At a National/ Regional level
Alexander Pervan was 1st in the SDA overall, 2nd in the Scottish Champs and 5th in the national series overall
Sorley Swabey was 1st junior and fastest time of the day in the national race at Glencoe and 2nd overall in the British series
Danny Parfitt was 3rd at British Champs
Mikayla Parton was 2nd at British champs
At the Scottish Champs club ladies took 1st (Nina Cameron) 2nd (Tiandra Anderson) and 3rd (Laura Jackson) and Marcus Scott took 1st in the 40 plus category.
Nina also took 2nd elite female at the British round at Nevis Range
At a European level Hollie Alderson, Aidan Baltrunas, Alexander Pervan and Mikayla Parton all headed out to race at the European champs.
At World Cup level the club was represented by 3 juniors (Daniel Parfitt, Sorley Swabey and Alexander Pervan) and by 2 elite females (Nina Cameron and Mikayla Parton)
Daniel Parfitt was 3rd at Nevis Range and finished 10th overall (and top British junior) in the junior male world cup standings.
Mikayla Parton finished 9th at Fort William
Both Daniel and Mikayla competed in the world championships.
Time Trials
No national level time trial competitors that we are aware of but thanks to Emma Pearce for organising the local series. 26 men and 12 ladies competed across 7 races. In the overalls 1st male was Oli Warlow, 2nd Robin Downie, 3rd Donald Paterson and 1st female Iona Hamilton, 2nd Emma Pearce and 3rd Nix Forster. No juniors competed this year.
The series included 2 gravel rounds this year.
Winter League
Last winter 7 races , thanks to Marian and Andy and everyone who ran them
1st male Liam Moynihan, 2nd Ben Miller, (27 riders overall)
1st junior male Aaron Tresidder (and 6th overall) 2nd Alexander Pervan
1st female Lily Cant (also 1st U18) 2nd Katie Maclennan (14 in total)
1st Ebike Stewart MacMillan 2nd AJ MacDonald (5 in total)
U12 boys 1st Kaiden Springett
U10 boys 1st equal Kai Tresidder, Harris Thompson and Alastair Cant
Thanks to Marian for organising once again. This will be the last series Marian organisers so we are looking for a new organiser to take over from her. No organiser will equal no winter league
Thanks also to Nix/ Lochaber Athletic Club for sharing their winter league dates so we could aim to avoid too many clashes this year.
There are 8 provisional races with the best 6 counting for the overall
Aim is to have kids races at at least 2 of the races.
Races will be free of charge to members, £5 non member adult and £2 non member child
There will also be the annual xmas handicap, thanks to Andy R for organising
Provisional Schedule | |||
Month | Date | Venue | Organiser |
DEC | 8th | Duror | Ben M |
22nd | Glen Nevis (Xmas Handicap) | Andy | |
29th | Nevis Range | TBC | |
JAN | 19th | Cour loop | Dave |
FEB | 2nd | Strontian | Karl |
MAR | 2nd | Argyll | NACC |
16th | Achaderry | TBC | |
APR | 6th | Wolftrax | Lance |
20th | Glen Loy | Mark C |
Fort to Fort Held last Sunday in October, 25 riders making just over £130 for Cancer Research
Bike and blether rides are still going well,
Members have helped with adaptive sessions at the pumptrack for disability Scotland and Glencoe House
Members have been helping at LTA dig days at Allt a Mhuillin and Erracht
Mandy and Claire ran a successful mini DH at Nevis Range (assisted by several other members)
Wednesday Night Rides continue. Thankyou once again to Gregor for keeping on top of the schedule and his unwavering enthusiasm and to Henry for finally taking this job off Gregors hands
Membership
Total members 432, slightly up on last year (416)
249 males, 168 female, 15 prefer not to say
4 – Treasurer’s report Thanks to Gill for keeping on top of the accounts
Gill had brought along treasurers statements for the year to 1st November 2024 which were available to all attendees.
Approx £7000 at start of year, now just over £10000 in the bank.
Membership subs up slightly to £4235
Mini DH was a great event raising £1194
We have spent £1500 on training, 6 people have done level 2 training and 1 assessment
5 – Kids Club report
Great to see kids progressing from kids club to racing with special mention to Steve Bradleys group who started age 5/ 6 and several have now raced at world level
Kids club is running well, with 56 kids in place at the moment and a good band of 10 level 2 and parent helpers committed to helping each week.
We have 4 volunteers who have completed their level 2 training and are awaiting their level 2 assessment.
We have kids from Skye, Oban and Fort Augustus attending every week.
The waiting list currently has around 8 kids on it, unfortunately the running theme is 8-9 year old boys, we already have 2 groups of this age group and unfortunately although we have a fair amount of level 2 we do not have them all, every weekend – there are some spaces further up in the groups and ages.
The last session will be on the 7th of December, we will do the presentation of the most improved boy and girl then and serve up hot chocolates, at the moment there are no plans for club to run over winter, and we will resume after the Easter Holidays.
6 – Election of office bearers and committee
• Chairman Dave Parfitt proposed Steve Bradley, seconded Gregor Muir
• Secretaries – official secretary Marian Austin proposed Dave Parfitt seconded Jacqui Parfitt
- Minutes secretary…. No volunteer
• Treasurer Gill Barnes Proposed Jacqui Parfitt seconded Dave Parfitt
• Membership Jacqui Parfitt Proposed Gregor Muir seconded Dave Parfitt
• Junior rep no volunteer but Robbie Cant will ask Lily if interested
Social / Website Henry Cairns Proposed Jacqui Parfitt, seconded Marian Austin
General members Claire AK, Doug Little, Norman Clark, Karl Bungey, Steve Bradley all agreed to remain on committee
7 – AOCB
As no one offered to run the winter league series it was agreed an email would be sent out
LTA Mark Clark reported they had had quite a good year with 13 digs organised, the next one planned for 24th November on the CIC path with Friends of Nevis, then there will be one in Glen Nevis in December and in February a dig as part of the mountain festival working on sunset with Trash Free trails, Tracy Mosely and Marcus Stix. The association works in 4 regions, Glen Nevis, Torlundy, Strone, Glen Loy. Trails are inspected every year and a hierarchy of need created from the most pressing issues, this directs the dig days. The 1st 2 years have focussed mainly on safety issues but now there should be more progress to trail improvement. Also looking at trails in Inchree to see if can do anything there.
Emma Pearce how folk could register interest that easier trails be built, Mark said that they have been working on Sunset to make it an easier trail but that in general they are maintaining existing trails rather than building new and it would not be appropriate to change the nature and difficulty of existing trails.
8. Trophy presentations
Quick end to the evening as no trophy winners were present! But trophies will go to the following:-
Most Improved lady Jenny Beattie
Benji Fair Memorial Trophy for most improved downhiller Alexander Pervan
Mens Time Trial Oli Warlow
Ladies Time Trial Iona Hamilton
Most improved junior male .. Archie Rodgers
Most improved junior female… Charley Kennedy