Thanks to John Richards, founder of Cherry Valley Racing Team, for the great images of our team from the early 1980's

Watch this page for more images of Rod Ellingworth, Roy Harrison and Ian Dalton with an updated history of Cherry Valley RT

Cherry Valley Racing Team is probably the longest running continually sponsored racing team in the UK today.

Originally solely sponsored by Cherry Valley Farms Limited and formerly called Rothwell Racing Team, the team was created by John Richards in 1977 for the purpose of helping good local Lincolnshire and South Humberside riders with all riders past and present coming from this area.

The Story

The following information charts the successes of Cherry Valley Racing Team from its creation in the 1977 to the current day.

The Beginning

The team was formed in the spring of 1977, following discussions between cycling enthusiast John Richards, an employee of Cherry Valley Farms Ltd, and Sales Director Joe Buckner. The original quartet of riders were Paul Eden of Grantham, Rod Robinson (Grimsby), Dave Marshall (Grimsby) and 19-year-old Mick Daley (Lincoln). The idea of grouping a team dedicated to racing with individuals from different traditional cycling clubs was controversial at the time, and this had two significant consequences.

First, the team was obliged to call itself ‘Rothwell Racing Team / Cherry Valley’ for at the BCF meeting to adopt the club, a majority of delegates felt the proposed ‘Cherry Valley Racing Team’ was too commercial. This was despite the fact that Cherry Valley appears on the Ordnance map, and therefore the name could be construed as relating to a place. It took until 1980 for the establishment to accept the current name.

Second, there was deep resentment in parts of the Lincolnshire RRA to what was regarded as a professional team, and the squad was unable to compete in LRRA events until 1979, having had applications to join in 1977 and 1978 rejected.

Of the original team Paul Eden and Mick Daley were criterium and grass-track specialists, with Daley also a prolific winner in cyclo-cross events. Rod Robinson specialised in time trials, whilst Dave Marshall was a pure roadman. Eden won the Welsh Open 8km in 1977, and had three silver medals in the BCF 8km national championship, each behind Ken Cowdell of Wakefield. Daley won the 800m national championship in 1982, whilst Robinson’s success included the LRRA Best-all-rounder in 1979. Marshall had plenty of wins, and also good results at national level. He was 3rd in the Woolmark GP, the richest race on the UK calendar at the time, 5th in the Tour of the Peak, and 14th in the national road race championship of 1977.

The 1980's

In 1980, Paul Eden retired and was replaced by two juniors, Kevin Davis (Grimsby) and Simon Goodge (Grantham) both talented riders at national level. Davis was 2nd in the 1981 Peter Buckley competition (and would have won but for judging errors at the Peakforest event). The same year he rode the junior world championships at Leipzig as part of the GB team. Goodge was twice University road race champion, and both he and Davis carried their Cherry Valley colours to France in 1982-83. They each won a number of races, a stage win by Davis in the Boucles de la Mayenne being most significant, but both realised they were not good enough to be pro’s. Kevin Davis now lives in Toronto, Canada, where he works on the electrical aspects of building projects. Simon Goodge carved out a sparkling career in the City of London, and had reached the stage of being a director of Swiss Union merchant bank. Simon was tragically killed in a road accident whilst riding his motorcycle to work in July 2002. He was just 39-years-old.

Every year from 1978 to 1986 the team promoted an evening of cycle racing on closed roads around the streets of Caistor. John Richards organised these, and with a litany of local sponsors, together with Cherry Valley, provided a tempting prize list to draw the top riders. Amongst the stars were Tim Harris, David Baker and Chris Walker, all of whom went on to be successful pro’s. What is not so well known is the work carried on behind the scenes to ensure the races took place at all. Richards found a local ally in the form of Dick Hudson, a Caistor man who dedicated a lifetime to public service. Hudson was a Lincolnshire County Councillor as well as a Caistor Town Councillor, and was a member of the national committee of the Playing Fields Association. A passionate supporter of sport in general, Dick was enthused about having his native Caistor as a venue for a prestigious bike race, and cut a sword through the resistance and red tape that Richards encountered in trying to get the 1978 race off the ground. With a diplomacy that would have do ne credit to Henry Kissinger, Hudson breezed through Police objections, with a compromise here, a route modification there, until the race had the wholehearted backing of the constabulary. By 1986 it was being said that Caistor’s special constables had two major events each year – Remembrance Sunday and the Bike Race !

Dick Hudson also ensured the Highways Dept played it’s part and all the barriers, signs, and cones associated with a road closure were put in place. The races got the Team a good reputation amongst the region’s cyclists, for they could see that Cherry Valley were putting something back into the sport. These races wouldn’t have taken place without Dick Hudson, and he deservedly forms part of the Team’s history

The beginning of the 1980's saw the team consolidate its position as the counties leading Road Racing Team. Throughout the 80's Cherry Valley Racing Team dominated the local road racing scene, winning the divisional road racing championships almost every year and also the season long Lincs League Road Races. Mick Daley saw his talent for closed circuit racing on the road and on the grass track rewarded with a national title on the grass.

During the 80's the team was strengthened by a strong contingent of Grimsby based riders joining the team. Riders such as Baz Smith, Graham Watson, Paul Wakefield joined from the Grimsby area. Graham Watson dominated the Lincs Road Racing Evening League whilst Baz Smith joined on his ability as a cyclo cross rider and quickly established himself as the county cyclo cross champion during the 80's.

During the early 80's Sleaford based rider Roy Harrison joined Cherry Valley RT and which started a long run of successful road racing wins for the Billinghay rider.

The mid 80's saw the arrival of time trialling expert Ian Dalton from Hainton and also Terry Holmes from Louth. Ian found immediate success on the road gaining first category status within a couple of seasons, whilst Terry bolstered the time trialling team ensuring domination in the LRRA competitions. Other riders to join included Wayne Mountain from Alford, another accomplished Road Racing rider.

When Paul Wakefield joined towards the end of the 80's, the team was all dominating in Local races. During this period Sleaford Rider Andy Holden also joined the Team adding more strength in Road Racing and Time Trialling.

The 1990's

The early 90's saw a consolidation of the team. A number of riders left the team in the late 80's including Kev Davis who immigrated to Canada, Graham Watson who retired from racing and likewise Terry Homes and Baz Smith. Whilst other riders retired from the sport, Mick Daily was making a comeback in the Lincolnshire Cyclo Cross League on his mountain bike. Mick dominated this discipline throughout the early to mid 90’s during which time Mick won several national age related titles in Cherry Valley colours.

With the departure of some of the established riders of Cherry Valley, new recruit and huge talent from Grantham, Rod Ellingworth, joined the team. With Rod competing at the very top of the sport in Cherry Valley colours and at International level for his country, Cherry Valley continued to completely dominate the road racing scene in Lincolnshire. The early 90's saw Ian Dalton continue Cherry Valley RT dominance of local road racing with divisional road racing championship victories and overall Lincs Evening League victories.

Rod Ellingworth left Cherry Valley RT to pursue a professional career in bike racing in the mid 90's and was replaced by two young riders, Julian Lowes and Glen Palmer from Alford.

When Andy Moore from Lincoln and Andy Lintin from Bardney joined, along with Ian Dalton, Cherry Valley dominated local time trialling with superb individual and team performances.

Founder member John Richards finally retired from running the team in the late 90’s. Julian, Glen, Andy Holden, Roy Harrision, Baz Smith, Graham Watson and Steve Ettridge left around the same time which left 4 riders, Ian Dalton, Paul Wakefield, Andy Lintin and Andy Moore racing in Cherry Valley colours at the end of the 90's. Paul Wakefield continued to ride for Cherry Valley until the end of 1999 before returning to his native Grimsby Team Lindsey Roads to ride with his brother Steve. With the departure of so many Cherry Valley riders from the sport, the emphasis of Road Racing, on which the team was built, was slowly shifted to time trialling.

2000 onwards

Although the team slimmed down dramatically during the later years of the 90's, by no means was this the end of the county’s most successful racing team. In fact, 2000 onwards has brought some of the most successful results for Cherry Valley Racing Team with the absolute domination of time trialling locally and success at National Level. With Ian Dalton, Andy Moore and Andy Lintin at the heart of the team, 2002 saw Market Rasen rider Gareth Williams join the team to ensure additional success in team events.

2004 saw the teams most successful year for sometime with a second overall in the Rudy Project National Time Trial Series, 8th place in the National 50 Championships, 23 victories, 11 second places and 5 third placed in open time trials.

At the close of the 2004 season, the team was once again expanded to include exciting new riders Richard Robinson, Sam Tuplin and Aaron Tuplin. Richards appearance in Cherry Valley team colours signals the teams return to Road Racing and with super young time triallists Aaron and Sam joining, the future is once again bright for Cherry Valley Racing Team. With Richard and Gareth now committed to riding road races for the 2006, they were joined by 1st Cat rider Andy Hayton who brought with him a string of successes, both nationally and internationally, and a wealth of road racing experience to add to the newly form road team. With Gareth departing from the time trialling team, top time triallist Jon Surtees has been brought into the time trialling team to add even more depth in strength.