Jim Court 1944 - 2022
Jim was born in Bolton and in his youth enjoyed many sports, including football, cricket and athletics. Jim discovered the bicycle at 13, teaching himself to ride. At first he used his bike to explore locally and then, enthralled, cycled further and faster. Jim started work in Wolverhampton, where he joined the local CTC group and met his future wife, Barbara.
A job move brought the couple to Stockport where Jim joined South Manchester Racing Cycling Club in 1970. While there, he became involved in cyclo-cross, both racing and organising events. Jim was later British Cyclo-Cross Association National Chair for many years. He organised race events in the North West and with his team, often involving his family, judged events for other organisers at local, national and world championship levels. Last December, Jim and his team were in East Suffolk, providing results services for the 2021 UCI World Masters Cyclo-Cross Championships.
Jim was also a qualified road race National Commissaire. He officiated in the Milk Race, Sealink International Races and with SMRCC organised events such as the long running Tour of the Peaks. More recently, he judged races at Manchester Velodrome and for the local track league in Tameside.
Jim's proudest cycling achievement was the formation of Stockport Community Cycling Club. Started in 1999 as a club for youngsters, SCCC developed into a social cycling club for adults and families, enabling almost a thousand people to start or rediscover cycling on club rides. It served as a template for the hundreds of community cycling clubs now supported by Cycling UK. In 2008, Jim was CTC Volunteer of the Year for the North West, in recognition of the success of SCCC. SCCC enabled participation in sport across the community and in 2012 was awarded Stockport Sports Club of the Year, the first cycling club ever to receive this award.
In 2014, Jim's efforts were recognised by Sport Stockport when he was awarded the Stanley Matthews Trophy as the Unsung Hero of Sport in Stockport.
To date, members of Jim's club have cycled over 350,000 miles on SCCC rides - Jim liked his stats!
Jim was cycling to meet friends to check out a route for a future ride on the day he died.
We will miss him greatly. He leaves an extraordinary legacy to cycling.
