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The forming of The NHC was first suggested by a few regulars at Ian Evans's
"High Legh Classics" in the summer of 1993 and we had our first meeting
at "The Bear's Paw" on the A50 in October that year.
Our membership quickly outgrew the meeting room there and in February
1994 we moved our meetings to "The Jolly Thresher".
In the July we held our first rally as a part of "The Stars and Stripes
Event" in Tatton Park.
The following month saw another move of home to the Poplar 2000 Truckstop,
now our Sunday ride-out meeting place.
Following a re-organisation of the Club we returned to "The Jolly
Thresher" in the December when Ian Evans was elected as our President.
In May '95, to save room fees, we moved to "The Axe & Cleaver"
in Dunham Massey and in the July of that year we held the first in a series
of eight "Lakeside Rallies" at Hollingworth Lake.
In the August of '95, "High Legh Classics" (which was by now
called "High Legh Harleys") was bought out by Tommy Young from Southport,
but Ian stayed as our President until the AGM in December, when Tommy
took over the position.
We kept our meetings at "The Axe" until the brewery decided
to convert the pub into a restaurant , which left us with nowhere to meet,
so after checking out various pubs we came across "The Chetwode Arms"
and held our first meeting there in September 1996.
Towards
the end of '96 Tommy had a stroke and felt unable to carry on his Presidential
duties, so at the AGM Dennis Brooks was duly elected to take his place
and was re-elected to that position each year until the end of 2002, when,
due to failing health he stepped down and Bob Latham was elected to take
over.
Sadly,
Tommy Young died in February '99 and so "High Legh Harleys" closed its
doors for the last time.
After seven years at "The Chetwode Arms" we had again outgrown
our meeting place, so at the beginning of September 2003, we moved to
"The Cock o' Budworth", I wonder how long it will take to outgrow
"The Cock".
After eighteen months service as President, Bob resigned in July 2004
and we decided not to replace him until the AGM in the December. This
we did, when Pete "Leatherman" Smallwood was elected and Pete
is still President today.
When Joseph Holts, the brewery that owns "The Cock o' Budworth",
announced plans to do a complete refurbishment of the pub, we had to find
another meeting place, so in January 2007, we moved a couple of miles
up the road to "The Antrobus Arms", another biker friendly pub.
Twelve months later, after the refurbishment of "The Cock" had been postponed indefinitely, we moved back to "The Cock Of Budworth" and that's where you'll find us on the second and fourth Tuesdays of
the month.
What
we do....
The main Club event
of the year is the annual rally, the first being held in 1994 at "The
Stars & Stripes" in Tatton Park and then between 1995 and 2002,
at Littleborough Rugby Club beside Hollingworth Lake. This is why we called
it the Lakeside Rally .... ingenious, eh? We always held the Rally over
the weekend closest to the 4th July, American Independence Day.
2003 marked our 10th year of existence, and we had a change of Rally venue
to Winnington Park Rugby Club and change of date (because of the HD 100
year celebrations in Barcelona) to the weekend of the 16th to 18th July.
Because there's no
lake in Winnington, we renamed the Rally "Midgeless 1" 'cos
we weren't troubled by the Hollingworth midges.
After three successful rallies in the "Midgeless" series at
Winnington, in 2006 we moved to a different venue, Moore RUFC, which turned
out to be possibly the best rally we've put on to date. We also renamed
the Rally to "NHC 13", on account of us being the NHC and this
being our 13th Rally. Get it? The clues are there.
We also host a couple of overnight parties at Moore RUFC where we have
a band and a DJ on and consume vast amounts of beer!!
The first of these parties is called "Kickstart Summer" and is held in
April. This is to signify the start of the season when the sun nevers
stops shining and we can ride our bikes every day without fear of rain
to spoil our hobby.
The second overnighter, we call "The End of Summer Party" and is held
at the beginning of October to mark the end of the glorious sunny days
when the temperature never dropped below 80 degrees F.
We also attend various rallies put on by other clubs throughout the season,
organise Sunday rideouts to different parts of the North West and do a
charity Easter Egg Run to children's homes nearby.
During the winter months when the dreaded salt is on the roads (designed
to rot your chrome) we have other social events, for example tenpin bowling,
go-kart racing, clay-pigeon shooting or anything else our members suggest.
We also usually put on a Christmas Bash for our members and friends, this
also involves a band and vast amounts of beer!!! Oh! and a meal.
I'd love to hear from
you!
E-mail
Me
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