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Keith Butler Surrey League 1938-2019
By Martin Ayers
Oct 22, 2020, 15:39
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| Keith Butler British Proffessional Independent Champion Road Race Champion 1964-1965 |
THE exploits of south London's Butler family have loomed large in the pages of Cycling Weekly for over 65 years. It all began with Stan Butler, the Olympian and time trial champion. He was followed by son Keith who won two national road race titles.
Today, the Butler family tradition is carried on by Gethin Butler, the road and time trial star.
Although Keith Butler retired from the sport some 30 years ago, he is still an influential figure, serving on the British Cycling Federation's National Board and organising the Surrey League - which makes him Britain's most prolific promoter of road races.
Today's riders, who know Butler only as one of the sport's back room boys, might be surprised by the scale of his achievements as a roadman and sprinter. For instance, on his Milk Race debut in 1961, he collected a stage win at Buxton after a 142-mile haul from Aberystwyth — winning a 45lb Cheshire cheese en route.
The 1963 Milk Race saw Butler achieve back-to-back stage successes at Hove and Bournemouth, laying the foundations for his overall victory in the points competition.
Butler possessed a race-winning sprint, sharpened by track racing that saw him win a national team pursuit medal and the London 10-mile title.
He also learned a lot about bike racing while doing National Service.
The Army allowed ample time off for racing, including a trip to Belgium for the amateur Ghent-Wevelgem. Despite puncturing at the start and chasing for 40 kilometres, Butler recalls: "It inspired me. I thought, 'this is real racing'"
Butler took the national amateur road title in 1962, and next season he moved to Belgium. He won his second event and by the season's end had chalked up 11 victories - a rare achievement for a foreigner.
"I loved it in Belgium - there was a different sort of atmos-phere," he says. He popped home to ride and to take the points jersey in the Milk Race.
Belgian racing had given him super form. "It was like having a third chainring," he says.
Butler's success rate earned him a contract with the St Raphael-Gitane team, led by Jacques Anquetil. Not that he saw much of the great Frenchman. "I mainly did the small races in Belgium and Northern France," he says.
His record shows few successes during a four-year career that took him from St Raphael to the German Ruberg team and then Terrot-Leroux in Belgium. But Butler made a steady liv-ing. "As a pro you soon learn your lim-itations, but I could always get a contract because I was a good lead-out man and was always there."
In 1964 he added the professional championship to the amateur title he had won two years before. "I led Albert Hitchen out," he recalls, "and then out jumped him at the finish. Albert wasn't pleased."
Butler was based in Ghent, which was home to several great British bike riders including Tom Simpson, Vin Denson, Alan Ramsbottom and Barry Hoban. They trained together and sometimes raced together, and in 1965 they struck gold when Simpson won the world road title at Lasarte.
"Tom was a superb single-day rider, a man I admired. He promised us 'if I win I'll pay you'," says Butler. So Simpson headed a united Great Britain team — albeit with little assistance from the British Cycling Frderation - and the outcome was Britain's first world professional road title and a good pay day.
"My outstanding memory of that day is sitting behind Anquetil for nearly a lap while he did everything he could to blow the field apart," Butler recalls.
Although Butler had a contract for 1967, he didn't take it up. Wife Marilyn was expecting their first child, Allison, and the couple returned to Britain.
Butler quickly found a teaching post which he held for two years, followed by three years at college. Then teaching took him to Zambia for three years. Back
in Britain, he couldn't get a job in the profession and spent seven years with the wholesalers, Holdsworthy, followed by more teaching.
He also managed British Cycling Federation road teams abroad with some success, but there was no offer of a full-time post. Although Butler is now part of the British Cycling Federation 'establishment, he is still irked by the federation's reluctance to employ ex-pros in team management and coaching.
In 1983, Butler formed the Surrey League, which promotes the maximum number of road races with the minimum amount of red tape. "Conveyor belt racing" is what Butler calls it.
Today the League puts on over 100 promotions each season, organising events in Surrey, Sussex, Kent and at West London's Hillingdon circuit.
And it keeps on developing.Butler would like to introduce fun races for adult novices, and is keen to see a new closed circuit in the south. He is also getting to grips with the government's new safety regulations for road events.
As for the national scene, he says: "I probably won't stand again [for the BCF Board]. I've got too many other things to do, and I find I work better on my own rather than in a team."
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| Keith Butler Surrey League Manager FBD Milk Rás for over 15 years |
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