The History of Scunthorpe Polytechnic Cycling Club:

Reg secured sponsorship for the club in the late seventies with former club international rider & now successful businessman Jack Tighe. Jack has always been involved with the club since it started & was and still is the president of the Poly. We believe that we have had the longest sponsorship from the same sponsor & the riders are known as the Poly Tighe lads throughout the country.
During this period the club excelled at time trials with notable riders Maurice Wright, Roger Francis, Stuart Whaley to the fore at county & national level. With a small track team of Steve Parsons, Willie Wilson, Steve Linguard & Martin Jones plus talented road man Ray Brown. An important asset to the club during this period was Nev Atkinson who in was in charge of Sunday club runs & weekly training bashes. Every local rider of note originated from his organized training runs. Nev who is now in the Scunthorpe RC is still running Sunday club runs for Scunthorpe riders.

The club took a bit of a downturn in the late seventies/early eighties with leading riders joining sponsored teams & others joining the reformed Scunthorpe RC.
Reg Pulling retired after 38 years as secretary. Reg passed away in 1996 but local school children now compete every year at Quibell Park for the Reg Pulling trophy, a fitting tribute to the man who started the club & a source of new recruits for the Poly. Watch out in the future for Darren Cox a past winner of this trophy.

In 1984 Steve Parsons who had been riding for the Dinnington RT rejoined the club as secretary.
New younger riders started to come through with notable names Pat Tighe nephew of Jack, Nev Pearson, Paul Waterson, Tony Pearson, Tony Nash, Steve Frankish, Martin Pitchford, Mick Garratt & Elliott Smith (National Schoolboy track champ) & his sister Haley all regular winners in open events & county championships. Sadly Paul Waterson died in a tragic racing accident in 1985.

Julian Ramsbottom rode for the club as a promising junior & later, after his Harrods pro team collapsed he notched up some prestigious wins as well as breaking a lot of the clubs TT records.


The club has in the last decade established itself as mainly a track team, but with riders achieving success in road & TT. Notable riders being Steve Parsons, Steve Pulford, Tony Pearson, Pat Tighe, then later Rob Darley, Jason Benham, & Gary Lang, who along with new recruits Chris Richardson & Paul Barber formed the successful Poly team pursuit squad which won the National Championship in 2000.

In recent years Poly riders who have picked up National medals are Neil Potter Master sprint Jason Benham 800m & 8km Grass Champs. & Mathew Wood & Ben Swift in Youth Track Champs.
Despite Quibell Park Track being out of action for 2003 the club as continued to promote Track racing on the grass at the Winterton Show Ground this year with a national grass Championship. Next year the national 400m champs & rounds of the National grass series which Poly’s Jason Benham won this year.