The Handlebar ( moustache ) Club
Archived News Items early 2002


moustache Collecting for Charity

On September 15th Ted Sedman and Rod Littlewood did a 55 mile bicycle ride in aid of the "Make-a-Wish Foundation®", a charity which exists solely to fulfil the favourite wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses.  The idea was that Ted would do the ride on his "Penny Farthing", with Rod going along as support.  Sadly, things got off to a bad start when Ted forgot that the bicycle was on the back of his car and drove through width restriction posts at 30 MPH and bent the big wheel.  So he had to use a bicycle that is 80 years younger - only 34 years old!   But it was still a very enjoyable ride (apart from being somewhat saddle-sore), and our sponsors were very generous.

02bikeride.jpg (13774 bytes)
At the start  (note bent wheel!)
end of ride
At the end  (note small wheels!)

Then on September 19th we had our quiz with the Pipe Club of London. Rod Littlewood produced forty fiendish questions (e.g. what is terdecaphobia? Would you believe - fear of the number thirteen?)  which everyone attempted to answer. The pipe smokers achieved an average score of over 18, but the Handlebar Club's average score was slightly higher (I think there was some "collaboration" i.e. cheating!)   Everyone who took part contributed £1, with the winning team chosing the charity to which the money collected would be donated.  We chose the "Make-a-Wish Foundation®", so a further £21 was added to our total.


moustache European Beard and Moustache Championship

Four members took part in the 2002 Championship, held in Carvico in Northern Italy.  Beforehand, some Club members appeared on RI:SE, the channel 4 breakfast television programme.  The T.V. company had generously agreed to sponsor a fourth member of the team and in the course of the programme Michael Attree, was selected to come.  As a result he was featured the next day in his local newspaper, the Brighton "Argus".
Click here for the cutting.

Michael, who was taking part in his first championship, was awarded the trophy for third place in the "English" moustache category.  Rod Littlewood came fourth in the "Hungarian" class.  Alf Jarrald had the misfortune to be in the extremely competitive "Kaiser" category which had a large number of entries.   He was placed twelfth, but Jürgen Burkhardt did very well to achieve second place in this class.  And finally Ted Sedman managed to obtain third place in the "freestyle moustache" category.
Click here for a full report.


moustache New Canadian Member

On Thursday July 11th a few of us held an additional meeting at the "Windsor Castle" to meet Mel Foster, a new member from Canada who has joined the Club as a result of Rod Littlewood's C.B.C. interview.  Mel was visiting the U.K. for a few weeks, but was unable to be in London for a "First Friday".

At the Windsor Castle July 11

The picture was taken by Rosemary Chiles, and shows from left to right:- Conway Chiles, Rod Littlewood, Stella Sedman, Kath Foster, Mel Foster, Ted Sedman and Ron Duck.   Alex McBride arrived after the picture had been taken.


moustache Darts Match

Another very enjoyable evening; the company being of the usual high standard and the darts play being of our usual low standard.  This time we had a crew filming for the "Richard and Judy" television programme which was broadcast the following Monday.  Apparently moustaches were becoming more fashionable with young men, so the programme featured Jimmy Blom and Jonathon Marlow who were growing moustaches and had applied to join the Handlebar Club.  (They had visited us at the "Windsor Castle" seven weeks earlier wearing false moustaches!)  Jimmy's newly grown hirsute appendage was deemed to have graspable extremities and he was accepted as our newest member, but the hair on Jonathon's upper lip will have to grow a bit longer before he can join us.

Oh, the result of the darts match?  After winning one game each, the final game went on so long that we gave up and in the end we decided who were the winners by seeing who could throw a dart nearest to the centre.  Our President was not very close, but the Chairman of the Pipe Club was slightly further away, so we retained the trophy!


moustache Stars of Television and Radio?

Lots of publicity in 2002.

At the beginning of January several members of the Handlebar Club were involved in being filmed by an American company (www.mrbigfilm.com)  There was a production team of eight, which would have been too many to fit into the "Windsor Castle" on a busy Friday evening, so we went to a different, larger, pub for the filming and then went to the "Windsor Castle" later.  The Americans got the idea that we liked drinking beer (I wonder why!!!) so before each shot that they took, our glasses were filled up again.   By the time we had finished and moved on to our own pub, we had drunk quite a lot, and as a result we were not able to do full justice to the hospitality of the landlord at the "Windsor Castle".   We left a bit earlier than usual.

For February's "First Friday" we were filmed at the "Windsor Castle" by Tyne-Tees Television, who were doing a series of programmes about "the body".  We were to feature in the programme about hair. (In case you had not guessed!)  The series, called 'Body Talk' was broadcast starting in July, and the programme featuring 'Hair', in which we appeared, was broadcast in August. Unfortunately it was only broadcast in the Tyne-Tees area the first time round, but the producer was hoping that it would subsequently be shown more widely.

Then on the first Friday in March it was Chrysalis Television, making a programme about "Soap Kings". One of these said Kings is Seth Armstrong, and they were keen to interview a "moustache expert", a moustache being one of his prominent features.   Mike Solomons was our impressive expert.

In April, our secretary, Rod Littlewood, did radio interviews for BBC Radio London and BBC Radio Scotland just before the AGM.  Subsequently he did one for Radio 5 and another for Radio Cambridge about "Europe's largest moustache and beard meeting" in Olten, Switzerland, which unfortunately we were unable to attend. Rod says it's such hard work being so much in demand!!!!!!!!

On May 1st four members were filmed for Gloria Hunniford's "Open House" programme which was broadcast on May 3rd on Channel 5 television.

02rodcalendar.jpg (6013 bytes) And I almost forgot  -  Last year Rod was photographed for a calendar.  He told us that it was a promotional calendar, like the Pirelli one, he said!  And Rod was Mr. May  -  the mind boggles!  But you ought to see the other people who were featured on it!

moustache A great victory, but the war is not yet won

Mr. De

In 2001 we reported that Mr. Joynath Victor De, an air steward with Indian Airlines, had been "grounded" for refusing to shave off his handlebar moustache.  He took his employers to court and won, but he still needed our support to get back his job, because they have appealed against the verdict and he has been retired.

Please click here for details.


moustache AGM Weekend

strathmore hotel

We had a splendid weekend at the Strathmore Hotel, Morecambe.


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