It is with great sadness that we announce the recent death of Vern (Vernal) McClelland. Vern leaves behind his wife Andrea and four children Becky, Sean, Katherine and Neil. Vern not only co-founded PPYCC with Anthony Rogers but played an important role in Sussex track cycling and indeed took part in officiating as a Commissaire at a national level in both road and track. Vern showed a commitment to local cycle sport and, although ill for a number of years, was still commissairing up until last season.
Racing SCRL track league in the 1980s and 1990s he combined this with being a promoter at Preston Park during much of that period. He was for many seasons the most prolific commissaire for track league and a regular at the annual PPYCC Youth Omnium.
Vern trained as an ABCC coach, alongside Anthony Rogers, in 1997 and then when British Cycling introduced their first coaching awards they trained again to become amongst the first British Cycling qualified coaches in the country. With both qualifying as coaches and both being racing cyclists with young children Vern and Anthony became the first qualified leaders at Preston Park Youth Cycle Club, before it was even named such, and sowed the seeds for the club that still thrives today. Vern’s son Neil was one of the original PPYCC members.
Andrea tells us that “Vern’s funeral service will be on the 30th July @2.30pm at Hd Tribes in Shoreham. The service will be live streamed on the day and also recorded if you’re not able to make it on the day. There is a donation page to raise money for St Barnabas house who were absolutely amazing with the care that was given to Vern throughout his battle with cancer.” This link takes you to the Hd Tribes website where you can find out more about the location.
https://www.love2donate.co.uk/inmemory/identify_name.php?currentpage=1&chosen=69299&adstate=Y
British Cycling also published an obituary on their website: https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/article/20240710-Obituary–Vern-McClelland-0