Worcester
St Johns CC
TONY FIELD
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Tony Field was born in Birmingham in November 1939. At the age of 11 he went to, The James Watt Technical School, Smethwick, about 6 miles from his home.
He had no interest in the team sports and did everything possible to avoid any involvement. He developed an interest in cycling primarily to be able to ride to school, which would save a lot of time. The bus trip took 45 minutes but he could get home in 20 minutes by bike. There were few cars about so safety was not an issue.
Tony was lucky enough to be given an ex-clubmans bike when the owner gave up riding. It was an original Ernie Clements frame, with reasonable quality equipment, including a four speed Simplex gear; quite unusual in the early 1950`s. This lasted for a couple of years, being eventually written off in a collision with a car.
Tony become a member of the West Bromwich Hill Top Cycling Club, simply because he had met them out on the road. He took part in the regular club runs and later entered several of the Road Races organised by the club; sometimes on road courses around the area, but often around Dartmouth Park. Time Trials were never really of any interest to him, although with other club members they marshalled local events, always being out for the normal 6.00am start.
As with many riders, work and family commitments gradually intervened and cycling took a back seat for several years, with the bike finally being given away. Although not actively involved, Tony still took an interest in cycling, travelling to watch races and keeping up to date on events.
Now married Tony moved to Worcester in 1967, they have lived at their current home for nearly 20 years.
His interest in cycling was revived in 1976 when he won a newspaper competition. One of the Milk Race stages finished in Birmingham. Part of the prize was a Dawes “top of the range racing bike”, donated by Tommy Godwin Cycles. The second part of the prize was to become a VIP for the day, riding round in the Race Directors car in the thick of the race action, and afterwards meeting all the riders. The stage started in the centre of Birmingham, looped out around the Clee Hills and Ludlow to finish back in the city again.
Tony joined the Worcester St Johns in 1980, and shortly afterwards was “press-ganged” by Gerry Hughes and Alec Davies into taking on the role of Club Secretary.
As secretary for the “St Johns” Tony became involved in the BCF, firstly as a delegate representing the Club at the local Divisional meetings, then becoming a commissaire for domestic road and town centre races. This led on to becoming a member of the BCF Photo Finish team, taking the Photo Finish van to major events all over the British Isles, from Scotland to the Isle of Wight, usually accompanied by Alec Davies.
The BCF had started its own Drug Testing team, which Tony became involved with together with Gerry Hughes. They travelled to events such as the Cycling Track Championships, Tour of the Cotswolds and a number of other high profile races.
The Drug Testing team was eventually taken under the control of the UK Sports Council who introduced drug tests to many other sports. Tony is still active in the role of Doping Control Officer. He explained “I am excluded from cycling in case there is a conflict of interest, but I visit many sporting events and training venues to collect samples for drug testing, from top professionals' right through to club level, for all other sports. Most of the venues tend to be in the UK, but it has also involved visits to France, Germany, Malta and even twice to Bangkok.”
Tony retired in November 2004 but his freelance work as Doping Control Officer currently keeps him occupied for 2 or 3 days most weeks and is likely to continue in the future as controls becomes more stringent in sport.