Raymond Charles Booty (3 September 1932 – 25 August 2012), sometimes nicknamed "The Boot", was an English

road bicycle racer Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most com ...

. In 1956 he was the first man to beat four hours for the

individual time trial An individual time trial (ITT) is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock (in French: ''contre la montre'' – literally "against the watch", in Italian: ''tappa a cronometro'' "stopwatch stage"). There are also trac ...

. Booty rode for Ericsson Wheelers Cycling Club, a since-disbanded

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

cycling club A cycling club or cycling organisation is a society for cyclists. Clubs tend to be mostly local, and can be general or specialised. They can focus on cycle racing and/or cycling as a means of transport (utility cycling). In the United Kingdom, ...

, and the Army Cycling Union. He won the national time trial championship every year from 1955 to 1959.

The first sub-four-hour 100

Booty broke the record in the 1956 national championship with 4h 1m 52s. The next event was the Bath Road '100' on Bank Holiday Monday 6 August 1956. The course was west of

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

, through Theale,

Pangbourne Pangbourne is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in the West Berkshire unitary area of the county of Berkshire, England. Pangbourne has shops, churches, schools and a village hall. Outside its nucleated village, grouped developed are ...

, Wallingford, Shillingford, Abingdon and back down the A4 to finish near where it started. Booty rode a Raleigh bicycle with an fixed gear to 3h 58m 28s. The second man, future professional Stan Brittain was beaten by 12 minutes. Booty had ridden from

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

to the start the day before – . For his race he was awarded a medal by ''

Cycling Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

'' and a certificate from the RTTC. The '' Daily Herald'' reported the record, speaking of 'Booty the incomparable', and the ''

News Chronicle The ''News Chronicle'' was a British daily newspaper. Formed by the merger of '' The Daily News'' and the '' Daily Chronicle'' in 1930, it ceased publication on 17 October 1960,''Liberal Democrat News'' 15 October 2010, accessed 15 October 2010 b ...

'' said: 'Rider crashes four-hour barrier' He was awarded the F. T. Bidlake Memorial Prize in 1956. The citation read: Booty recalled: Also in 1956 he signed the

Golden Book of Cycling The ''Golden Book of Cycling'' was created in 1932 by ''Cycling'', a British cycling magazine, to celebrate "the Sport and Pastime of Cycling by recording the outstanding rides, deeds and accomplishments of cyclists, officials and administra ...

The straight-out record

In September Booty attempted the record under Road Records Association(RRA) rules. These allowed him to take advantage of tailwinds and gradient drop (time trials in the UK must be on out-and-back courses). He recorded 3h 28m 40s. For the event he used a

Sturmey-Archer Sturmey-Archer was a manufacturing company originally from Nottingham, England. It primarily produced bicycle hub gears, brakes and a great many other sundry bicycle components, most prominently during its heyday as a subsidiary of the Raleigh ...

hub gear. The record stood for 34 years. It was beaten by Ian Cammish.

More time trial success

Booty won the season-long

British Best All-rounder The British Best All-Rounder (BBAR) competition, organised by Cycling Time Trials, is an annual British cycle-racing competition. It ranks riders by the average of their average speeds in individual time trials, over 50 and and 12 hours fo ...

competition three times from 1955 to 1957. The BBAR is based on averaged speeds over 50 and and for 12 hours. He was champion from 1955 to 1959 and 12-hour champion from 1954 to 1958. He first broke the record in 1955, lowering it to 4:04:30. He broke it three times. He twice broke the 12-hour record: in 1956 and the following year.

Road racing

Booty won the gold medal in the

1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games The 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games (Welsh: ''Gemau Ymerodraeth Prydain a'r Gymanwlad'' 1958) were held in Cardiff, Wales, from 18 to 26 July 1958. It was the sixth edition of what would come to be known as the Commonwealth Games, the ...

road race in

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

. He won a bronze medal in the national championship road race in the same year. He also won the Manx International road race in 1954.

Personal life

Booty was diagnosed with

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...

in January 2012 and died in August of that year. He was survived by his wife, Shelagh, who he married in June the same year.

Personality

The cycling wholesaler and patron Ron Kitching said of Booty:Breckon, Michael (1993), ''A Wheel in Two Worlds: the Ron Kitching Story'', privately published, UK

References

External links

Article on Booty's bicycle at classiclighteweights.co.ukDescription and pictures of the restored bicycle used in his 100-miles TT record
{{DEFAULTSORT:Booty, Ray English male cyclists British male cyclists Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England Cyclists at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Road racing cyclists 1932 births 2012 deaths Sportspeople from Nottingham Medallists at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games 20th-century English sportsmen Commonwealth Games gold medallists in cycling