Intro

The Clyde Valley section was started in 1997, by 3 members Reg Smallwood (chair), Don Riley (treasurer) & Bob Clark (section secretary). The inaugural meeting took place in June of '97, with approximately 14 people attended (12 VMCC members + 2 newly joining). Prior to Clyde Valley there was only four VMCC Scottish sections - Inverness, North East, Central based in Blairgowrie and Stirling Castle.

Some words from Bob Clark, original founder and 1st section secretary:

When I came to stay in Scotland in 1989 there were just four VMCC Sections. Inverness and North East, which existed within classic clubs, Central based in Blairgowrie, and Stirling Castle which drew in members from across the whole of the central belt. Initially I stayed near Falkirk and for several years was closely involved in Stirling Castle Section. In 1996 I moved to Crawfordjohn in Clydesdale, and soon found that meetings near Stirling were just too far on a weekday evening. It wasn’t long, however, before I got a letter from Reg Smallwood, who stayed in Larkhall. He knew me from Stirling Castle, had heard that I had moved to Clydesdale, and was aware that a few years previously I had helped to set up Edinburgh Auld Reekie Section. He was thinking of getting a VMCC group together in South Lanarkshire because there seemed to be quite a few of us. He has already got the support of Don Riley from Bothwell – another old friend from Stirling Castle - and would I be willing to work with them? I was happy to do so, and we started to make plans. As I recall, Reg said he would write to all members in the general area if I would find somewhere to meet, and I remember spending several weekends driving around South Lanarkshire in ever-increasing circles until hitting on a small and isolated pub, The Star Inn on the old A74 near Coalburn (long closed and converted to a private house), who would be happy to have us. I can’t recall a date for that first meeting, but I do know that around 15 people turned up, we decided to give it a try, we settled on “Clyde Valley” as the new group’s name, and I found myself taking on the role of Section Secretary with Reg as Chair and Don as Treasurer. I don’t think I stayed as Secretary for more than a year: work was very demanding, my wife and I had a new baby in the house and I was much more interested in organising runs than administration. And we did all have some brilliant times together – runs out from Biggar, over Talla Dam and down past the Grey Mare’s Tail to Moffat; south to Drumlanrig, west to Muirkirk, north to the edge of Hamilton, and of course the “signature” road from Larkhall down the Clyde Valley to Lanark. But times changed, work took me away all over the UK, and it’s too many years since I have been a regular at Clyde Valley meetings. But I’m proud to have been in at the start.

Bob