Legends of Birkenhead Park Bike Racing

I discovered from Twitter, I think, that racing is returning to Birkenhead Park this year.  This prompted me to writing a little blog on my experiences through the 80's and early 90's of my all time favourite course. I actually raced around the park on 44 separate occasions and won there 6 times.

Before I get into the story of my times racing round the park, I will give a little background history, on the park itself. (Oh blimey, I'm almost writing an informative blog!)

For the uncultured of you reading this, Birkenhead Park was opened in 1847 and was the first park built with public money, after the town of Birkenhead asked Parliament for the powers to use the money to build a municipal park.  More famously though, the designer of New York's Central Park  Freddy Olmsted visited Birkenhead Park and used some of the features from it in his design for Central Park.

Birkenhead Park has recently been the subject of an £11.5 million renovation, funded jointly by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Wirral Waterfront SRB, Wirral Council, and the European Union via the Objective One programme. (thanks Wikipedia)

If you are not familiar with the park's layout it consists basically of a big loop which is cut in half by a main road.  This allows for either or both halves to be used to race around.  Back in the day the shorter North side of the park was used and ridden in a clockwise direction.  For me, this was the best side and made the best circuit.  In the early 90's the road layout was changed and the right hand turn onto the main  road out of the park became too tight to use, so only the whole circuit was deemed safe enough for racing on.

Image from Google Maps

Going back to my experiences riding Birkenhead Park, I first rode in 1983 as a schoolboy.  These were always either Tuesday or Thursday night events held in the mid summer months. Occasionally there was a weekend event, but my fondest memories are from the mid week races that were always held on the north circuit.

There was quite a challenge for the race organisers to prevent some of the locals participating in their own "sport" of trying to knock a rider off with sticks, stones, bottles or house bricks. I admired the marshalls around the circuit who sometimes had to stand up to some very unsavoury characters in the park.  One week a bunch of scallies set fire to the bales of hay which were placed in front of the park gates to prevent any riders hitting them. Nice.

For me, the best racing on this circuit was when I was riding as a junior.  The race would be a handicap (staggered start) with all riders allowed from 16 years old right up to professional and through to veterans into their 50's and beyond.  The field was limited to 120 riders for safety reasons and most weeks had reserve riders waiting to see if someone didn't sign on for the start so they could get a ride.

Junior riders were started first, followed by 3rd category and women riders, then 2nd cats, then 1st's and pros. Of course, being an over enthusiastic 16 year old, I had sussed out that if the juniors went flat out from the start, we could almost catch the back of the 1st's and pros group as they started.  In fact, I tried this every time I rode. 

Even if the junior's didn't catch the bunch, the race was often in a series of 3 over 3 weeks with points awarded for the first 4 over the line every lap.  There would be a jersey awarded each week for the points leader and then an overall winner at the end of the 3 races.  Being a junior and starting at the front meant that I was well placed to take as many points as I could before the senior riders caught up.  Even 3 or 4 laps out in front was ofter enough to get up there on the overall points league.

My most memorable race performance though, was one night when the whole race came together fairly quickly and I mixed it up with the pros and seniors for the straight win, rather than on points.  It was 1987, I was 16 years old.  I managed to get myself into a four man break which rode well clear of the main peleton.  The break consisted of me, my brother Dave (a 1st cat rider), Steve Fleetwood and Phil Thomas, both who were professionals riding for the Raleigh Banana sponsored team.  Even though my brother and I were in different club teams then, we had decided to help each other out in a situation where two pros were trying to work us over.  It seemed impossible as Phil Thomas was an exceptional sprinter and had won lots of races as an amateur and professional (including the National road race champs).

We decided that Dave would mark Steve Fleetwood and I would do my best to hang onto Phil Thomas.  The two pros must have had similar tactics as they took it in turns to attack us.  Eventually the elastic snapped and Phil and I were separated from Dave and Steve. With two laps to go, Phil kept trying to jump away from me, every time I went to the front, but I always managed to ride back up to him.  I decided with half a lap to go that I would "sit in" (stay on his wheel and not go past until the final 200m) for the sprint.

Phil tried to convince me to take the lead again, saying "Listen sonny, you're going to lose anyway, so you might as well go through and lead the sprint out." 

I was more than a little put out by this so retorted "If that's the case then you can lead as you are going to win."  I don't think he was overly impressed by my response, but reluctantly he took up the lead and through to the last 200m. 

Now, if this was a proper story, I would have come round him and taken victory, a 16 year old beating a professional.... the stuff of David and Goliath.  However, in the end Phil pinned me near the gutter and beat me by half a wheel.  I have never been as happy to come second!  Steve beat Dave for third, but we both had fought well.  My mum was nearly hoarse from shouting for me and then Dave in that final sprint.  I think Phil was a little hacked off that he had no room to put his hands up for the victory as I had pressed him all the way to the line.  Steve Fleetwood, however, was the first over to me to congratulate me on a terrific race.

All in all, it was a race that has stuck in my memory and I always enjoyed racing in "the park". See below for my personal history of "park" crit performances.

The next race I know of in Birkenhead park in on Sunday July 22nd.  It's open to all categories and is organised by the Birkenhead North End CC.  For more details see their website.  Maybe see you there?

Date	My Position	Winner
24/05/1983	18th	P. Clark
27/05/1983	7th	P. Clark
31/05/1983	25th	J .Moss
03/06/1983	5th	G. Sword
07/06/1983	25th	G. Sword
10/06/1983	10th	N. Soens
05/06/1984	3rd	A. Thompson
31/07/1984	4th	B. Smith
04/06/1985	1st	Me
02/07/1985	last	T. Warriner
09/07/1985	last	T. Warriner
16/07/1985	2nd	T. Warriner
17/06/1986	1st	Me
08/07/1986	1st	Me
15/07/1986	1st	Me
19/05/1987	4th	F. Kelly
09/06/1987	bunch	A. Mills
16/06/1987	2nd	P. Thomas
23/06/1987	bunch	G. Sword
30/06/1987	3rd	D. Williams
11/08/1987	bunch	M. Bell
28/06/1988	bunch	N. Simpson
19/07/1988	6th	N. Simpson
26/07/1988	5th	N. Hughes
07/05/1989	5th	B. Luckwell
30/05/1989	7th	N. Smith
11/07/1989	20th	N. Hughes
20/07/1989	10th	M. Gornall
10/08/1989	bunch	S. McVitty
22/05/1990	1st	Me
29/05/1990	bunch	G. Sword
05/06/1990	10th	C. Boardman
28/06/1990	bunch	M. Gornall
03/07/1990	2nd	S. Lillistone
10/07/1990	bunch	P. Jennings
19/07/1990	dnf	M. Bell
21/05/1991	4th	D. Williams
28/05/1991	3rd	D. Williams
04/06/1991	7th	S. McVitty
02/07/1991	dnf	S. McVitty
18/07/1991	bunch	T. Hall
18/08/1991	1st	Me
12/05/1992	3rd	M. Bell
19/05/1992	bunch	D. Williams