Eric Skipper 1930-2026

We have a lot to thank Eric for as the founder of the Exploring by Bicycle group, which we now know as the Cycling for Fun group. This was back in the year 2000, when on a u3a walking group event he suggested to a fellow walker “do you think that the Petersfield u3a would support a cycling group?”, this was met with a certain amount of scepticism. However, there was enough interest and twenty years later it is still going strong.

In the beginning Eric would prepare meticulous handwritten notes about places of interest on proposed rides. Many of these would feature churches, and riders found themselves learning a great deal about local history. At that time of course there were no electric bikes, it was all done by pedal power

Eric was a keen rider since his days as a teenage evacuee, on one occasion cycling 18 miles to Doncaster to do a bit of train spotting in the engine sheds there. After the war Eric was part of a cycling club in Great Yarmouth and became very familiar with large parts of East Anglia.

Those of us who knew Eric will have fond memories of him and we shall miss his stories of cycling back in the fifties, often marked by carefree descents down hills at some speed. That spirit never left Eric, who continued to cycle well into his nineties. We now have his legacy in the form of the Cycling For Fun Group.