I’m originally from South Australia and when I was in my early 20’s I visited W.A. I joined the Fremantle cycling club and got picked up as a factory rider for Swansea of Fremantle.

I was 22 when I rode my first Beverley to Perth in 1953. I managed to finish 3rd. My time was about 11 minutes behind the fastest time which was set by Les Suckling.

I don’t remember too much about the race… it was nearly 70 years ago!... though I do remember the finish. There were three of us, and like the old joke, there was a Dutchman , an Italian and an Australian. Jack Pontall was a big guy and I was as skinny as. He said “You beat this Dutch bastard or else”. It was really close between us… Cecil Tregilles won, Les Suckling finished 2nd and I managed to come in 3rd by a tyre. The Dutchie Jos Kollenberg was 4th and Jack 5th.

I moved permanently to W.A. in 1962 and, because it was part of the W.A. Road Racing Programme, the Beverley became an annual race for me. I lived in Belmont and rode for the Belmont club.

The nice thing about the race in 1962 was that my future wife of 60 odd years was in the crowd. We met later at the Fremantle track where I also raced. She remembered my name and we got together.

The other thing I remember is that back in those days, the Beverley was a big event and they used to give progress race reports over the radio.

My best Beverley finish was in 1975 when I won.

What I remember about the race was that I started from 41 minutes as did the three others in the bunch that formed. They consisted of, and finished the race in this order… myself, Steve Perks, Ralph Lloyd and Jim Blaikie. Jim was Scottish. He was a tough guy, as was Steve. Always took their turns. There are a lot of stories I could tell you about Steve! We rode together well as a bunch taking turns and we reached the front around Toodyay and were never headed from there.

We were riding at a reasonable pace but I was dropped around Gidgegannup. I never was a good hill climber. Fortunately, Jim Blaikie stayed with me and said “I’ll get you back up again”. And so he did. We always were pretty good mates.

The finish that year was at the Eden Hill Hotel. We were coming across the flats at Red Hill towards the finish and we were told to get going because scratch were only a few minutes behind us. Mike Dye and Bruce Hunt had picked up other riders on the way through.

I was fast enough and had some reserves and managed to win the sprint finish from my bunch.

I received the winner’s prize of $170 and the trophy of course but it was great just to be able to say “I won the Beverley to Perth”. The other guys in the bunch got their prize money too and, to show my appreciation, I said to Steve, “Here, you share the first prize money between you three”. Steve was bit of a brick short and to this day I don’t know if Steve knew what I meant and whether he did actually share the money!

Reg Homan and Des Williams in Kalgoorlie, 1953. Photo from Joe Barron’s album courtesy of the Barron family.