Page 22 - PBCMarch2021

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Pickwick Bicycle Club Magazine Volume 18 No.1 March 2021 22
Thoughts from the Vice Captain….Mr Dumkins speaks!
It has been a difficult year for us all but I would like to highlight all the effort that Mr
Pickwick, The officers and the committee have put into arranging all the events that have
had to be postponed and or cancelled. There have been many hours and days given up to
getting the 150th anniversary ready only for Covid to hit it like a wrecking ball but I would
like to offer all the organisers the biggest thanks for what they have achieved and the
gifts, members book, mug etc have made it memorable an its really appreciated. I am
looking forward to our first luncheon so I can lead the tanks for what they have achieved
and hope that you will join me.

My father joined the club in the early 1970s when he was invited along to a luncheon and
was made a member on the same day! I was on the waiting list for a number of years to join
the club having attended most lunches with him since the early 1980s. Sadly he passed
away a year prior to me becoming a member but would have been so pleased that I was
given his soubriquet! He was quite an active member attending the Benson Veteran Cycle
Rally over a number of years and collected some unusual Pickwick and Bicycle related items
along the way.

In the picture you can see an ashtray and tankard that my father acquired from Mr
Pickwick’s Bar in Cape Town in
the 1970s. I went there
around 8 years ago and it was
a vibrant pub, but sadly it
appears to have closed down
now which is a shame. Also in
the picture is my Mr Dumkins
plate (I am lucky that
Dumkins is one of the
characters that reproduced
on many items) and my last
surviving Church Warden Clay
Pipe from the days when
“Gentlemen you must smoke”
was the order of the day!

Here’s to us all meeting at a luncheon later this year!………….Dumkins