Its with great sadness that we advise that Dave Borchard passed away recently at St Barnabas Hospice. Dave had lived with cancer for some time now but was always cheerful and positive and ready to lend a hand with whatever activity the club was planning. It was fitting in many ways that his last trip out, was to visit the clubs cyclo-cross promotion at Stroxton, an event which Dave had helped with for many years.
The attached photo from earlier this year is maybe not the best of Dave but is how we remember him. Up early on a cold damp Sunday morning, in his dayglo jacket, lending a helping hand on one of the club reliability rides. He will be greatly missed.
The funeral will be held on Friday 7th November 2.30pm at Grantham Crematorium. Donations to St Barnabas Hospice.
Here are a few words from his lifelong friend Brian Mallet
I first met my friend David in 1956. I was still at school in Grantham and he was at school in Nottingham. There was a gang of us used to meet up at a farm in Manthorpe, just across the road from the church. This is before the Witham Wheelers existed. We became friends and we found out that we were both interested in riding bikes, but going out just by ourselves. We used Jack O’Conner’s cycle shop in Welby Street for bits and pieces and we thought that we should form a club. Jack had a few clients the same age as us and he contacted them and invited them to a meeting with us. This was in late December 1957 and a meeting was arranged for early January 1958 and the Witham Wheelers was started. David and I were elected to the committee to start the club with Jack. I can’t remember our jobs at the start, but we soon had a reasonable membership and club runs were organised as a start and club time trials followed. These were organised by Dave and me. Dave helped get new members and we soon had about 30 members and the club became a lot bigger.
As I’m sure you all know that David’s parents ran a shoe shop on the corner of Swinegate and Manthorpe Road and David lived there until his parents died. He started his working life with Eddison Plant in Grantham, but moved to the west country for about ten years with Eddison before returning to Grantham. He rejoined the Wheelers and we voted him on to the committee. He became chairman in about the early 2000’s and president about 2023, replacing me. As I am sure you all know, he was always full of fun and did a lot for the club. He was always helping organise events and was seen following road races and time trials in his car, in case there was a problem for a rider or marshal. He could always be relied on to help when needed.
On the personal side, he was married twice. Unfortunately, both of his wives died of ill health, which is really sad, but he carried on being his normal self. On the whole, I think that he enjoyed his life and never seemed to lose control and was never selfish. I always considered him a great friend and I am sure we all miss seeing him and his car on the road.
