British BMX Hall of Fame Podcast britishbmxhalloffame.com

The British BMX Hall of Fame planning is currently underway and moving along nicely as we prepare for our first event set for Nov 5th this year. Andy Ruffell is in town so I thought it would be a good time to record a quick Podcast. It’s been a few years since we last did one (first one covering Andy’s BMX Career) so we had a little catching up to do. We chat about what he’s been up to lately and what Andy went on to do after retiring from BMX in 1988. We then catch up on everything British BMX Hall of Fame as we have begun to roll out the final 8 in each category. We talk ticket sales, updates and event info with of course, a little Tim March chat for good measure. We have also set up the British BMX Hall of Fame as its own Podcast and this is episode 1 with all links and will be archived from our Hall of Fame website and posted on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Paul and I dig more into details of the nominees in the Pioneer Categories in Female Racer, Pioneer Influencer, Pioneer Male Racer and Pioneer Freestyler for the British BMX Hall of Fame with thoughts, background and info on all the 8 in each category.  The Pod is now also on Spotify under British BMX Hall of Fame.

Over in the UK at the moment and a great time to nail a few podcasts whilst here.  Early this week I got to spend some time with Darren Wood and his family, hit some pump tracks and tracks around London and, of course, sit down and record a pod.  When you think about the early UK Factory Teams we saw in the magazines, Darren is right there in the mix riding for Skyway, Pro-Lite, SE, Raleigh and so on.  We talk of being part of the “Age Group of Death” with Stu Diggens, Tom Lynch, Lee Alexander and co., alongside tracks and riders that came from UKBMX Region 9 London area.  Darren talks about his mum and dad’s involvement in the sport.  Dad Sam being team manager for Raleigh during the Ruffell, Schofield era and Chairman of UKBMX. We hit on Darren turning Superclass, winding down his career, which included giving away boxes of bikes and gear to the new to BMX Czech Republic riders that were in Slough for the 1991 European Championships.  Darren talks about being back in BMX with his son Arthur, who is riding and racing with the same love and passion Darren had. Check it out. 

Quick Podcast with Mike Wong this past weekend at the South Champs and Tony Luckhurst Memorial race at Runnymede; a track and club itself which have deep history going back into the early 80s. We then catch up on The British BMX Hall of Fame, which is set to take place November 5th at the National Conference Centre in Solihull. We talk about the latest on Rich Eames and Neil Stewart announcing the event, Kye Whyte coming as a guest, working with the We Were Rad Guys on a Concourse Award for the night, latest on ticket sales, why we are doing this event and more. The British BMX Hall of Fame Podcast is now also on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

This postcast has been long in the making with Clive Gosling as we wanted to do it in person, as we prefer with all podcasts. With Clive living in the UK and really wanting Paul Roberts (living in the US) involved – I still managed a solo hour conversation with Clive on this trip to the UK this week but we also saved a little for maybe a Part 2 when we can get Paul and Clive together. I really enjoyed this one. Clive has 40 plus years in BMX and the industry as a whole with his knowledge, passion and personality it is unequaled. We chat about the early days in BMX starting with Edwards (family bike shop), his mother Carole Gosling who has 40 plus years of deep involvement behind the scenes in UKBMX, EBA right up to today’s time working on the London Olympics and still in 2022 at the Glasgow UCI World Cup earlier this year. Clive is always Factory (even today) we talked about some of the teams he rode for, racing Buckmore Park, Outwell, Poole the London scene in the 80s into the 90s. We talk about Clive winning his first National title, racing Superclass, hanging out with Will Smyth and the Jive guys going to the States in the late 80s, hooking up with Gork and the BMX Action guys at Wizard Publications. Clive talks about riding everything in BMX not just racing, riding South Banks, hanging out with Simon Tabron, riding street, contributing for the magazines, working for UKBMX writing the Race Zines for the Nationals and getting into Mountain Bikes in the mid 90s. Clive brings us up-to-speed with what he’s doing these days in the industry working for GT and Cannondale (Director of Marketing at Cycling Sports Group) sponsoring both Kye Whyte (Olympic Silver Medalist, European Champion and World number 2) and Malverns Classic last month and so much more.

I always love to do podcasts with friends who are not very revealing on social media about their BMX history/career, it’s kind of a mystery and in this case, it’s a total mystery as Mr. Andy Welsh is not on social media at all. I’ve known Andy since the mid 80s. He was in the age group above me and has been someone I always looked up to and respected, for what he did in BMX, and, you will also find out on this podcast that he’s a very humble man with good values.  Andy made a name for himself pretty much right off the bat getting on GT Factory.  Coming from Scotland it was known Andy would make the long drives South to get his BMX fix or as in many cases would take the train down to the Nationals and back home on the sleeper Sunday night in time for Monday’s school.  Andy talks about racing in Scotland at the start, the rivalry with Wayne Llewellyn, Lee Flavin, Dean Iddiols, Simon Hayes, Sean Field, alongside some of the teams he rode for.  Andy chats about people who helped him along the way from his dad to Fred Hunter, Bernard Williams, Sonny Ives, Tony Scott, Ron Peter, Mark Fryer, Carole Gosling and Tom Lynch Sn (Big Tom). He covers his training, having a trainer even in the 80s, analyzing Geth Shooter and why Andy’s first-straight was so good.  Andy talks about pulling the Slam in 1986 Winning the National and British Champions, the European Champions and World Championships all in the same year.  Years later Andy talks about how honored he was that fellow Scot and Olympic 6x Olympic Champion Chris Hoy sent him the 86 Worlds Video and gave him props. In his first year Superclass (1987) at only 16 years old, Andy went head-to-head with Tom Lynch for the National title, crashing out while leading the European Championships finals in Belgium, to when was looking like a favorite again at the 87 Worlds in Orlando winning everything up to the final for a possible showdown with US star Mike King, only to flip the gate in the final; and if you’ve seen the video you will know what Andy shouted. Andy talks about winding it down, family life these days, work and keeping in shape.  It’s great to finally see and catch-up with Andy after 25 plus years and record this.  Hope you like it.