About the ACU Eastern Region

The Auto Cycle Union, founded in 1903, is the National Governing Body for Motor Cycle Sport in the British Isles. It sets the rules by which the various aspects of our sport run. It maintains standards so that competition is fair. It trains meeting officials, it sets safety standards for events and tracks, it organises insurance cover for riders and much, much more.

The ACU, the governing body of motorcycle sport in England and Wales is divided into 20 regions to allow easier local administration of the sport.

Each region has its own ruling body and as such, ACU Eastern has a structure designed to suit its needs for governing motorcycle sport in its local area.

This covers the area of England comprising the counties of Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, and the area of Greater London north of the River Thames and east of the River Lee.

The map above gives a rough guide to the area covered by the ACU Eastern region.

Within the ACU, the Eastern region is an affiliation of over 30 clubs and over 2,500 like minded members in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. We manage all aspects of motor cycle sport in the region and organise some 150 competitive and social events a year across all disciplines.

ACU Eastern and Club Officers are all volunteers, who give of their time freely to ensure the stewardship of the region's assets, the safe running of events, the organisation of Championships and the myriad of administrative duties that need to be done to ensure that the organisation's business is professionally carried out.

The ACU Benevolent Fund has helped thousands of riders through times of hardship since it first came in to being more that 50 years ago.

The Ben Fund Officer for the ACU Eastern region is Debbie Blyth.

The Auto-Cycle Union Benevolent Fund, in it's present form, was brought to life in 1950 with £80.00 in the kitty. The fund was originally financed, in cash, by the ACU Management with an amount of £396 and one penny and subsequently by donations, subscriptions, bequests and subscriptions under covenant.

The original Trustees who formed the Administrative Committee.were:

• Professor A M Lowe, Major Harry Watling, John Ferguson and Ken Topping, who became the first treasurer.
• The editors of the Motor Cycle and Motor Cycling were: Arthur Bourne and Graham Walker (father of Murray Walker).
• The Presidents of the South Midland and Yorkshire Centres, Bob Lowe and Alan Jefferies

Centre clubs and individuals responded to appeals for financial help. Organisers promoted Grass Track, Motocross and Road Race meetings on behalf of the Benevolent Fund. In 1954 came the introduction of Ben Fund TT Badges with a different design every year.

Early on it was realised that a committee meeting could not function effectively without the guidance of advisers on the spot. For this reason, representatives from ACU Centres were appointed and many cases of hardship would not have come to light without their local knowledge. From the beginning, the intention of the fund was to reduce financial hardship.

The Benevolent Fund, like any other Registered Charity, is registered with the Charity Commission. The fund is not an insurance scheme for which stated benefits are an entitlement. No-one has a right to help from the fund. It is up to the committee to decide the amount of assistance that may be given.

The first Chairman of the committee in 1950 was Alan Jeffries, followed by Harry Louis, Lou Ellis and Keith Collow. Our present Chairman is Roy Hanks. The first Treasurer in 1950 was Ken Topping, followed by Eddie Cope and Bill Smith, all from the East Midland Centre.

Without investments, the income received from donations, the sale of badges etc., would not cover the grants paid out each month. Investments help but it is essential to have a steady flow of donations to cover the higher level of grants necessary, to offset inflation. * Ken Blampied*

This section is currently being updated.

Minutes of the meetings can be found in the Info section of the main menu, or just click on the button below.

Before being able to take part in competitive events, it is normally necessary to become a member of a club affiliated either to the local region, in this instance the ACU Eastern, or to what is called a non-territorial club where the club is affiliated directly to through the ACU.

Here in the Eastern region, the vast majority of clubs are affiliated via ACU Eastern, and as such organise events which, in the main, become available for members of other region's clubs to enter.

There are no hard and fast rules as to which club you should belong to. By that we mean that if, for example, you live in Sudbury there is no hard and fast rule that states that you must belong to the Sudbury club. However, the preferred scheme of things is that you should join the club nearest to your place of residence that supports the discipline or disciplines you have an interest in. Please go to the our Clubs page to find details of clubs in your vicinity and their interests/disciplines. It must be stressed though that not all clubs who have declared an interest in a particular discipline/s, organises or possesses the necessary land or expertise to organise such events.

It is possible to do a simple check as to whether a particular club organises events of the discipline you are interested in by going to the Events Calendar on the home page.

Club membership normally requires an annual subscription to be paid, this varying from club to club. However, in most cases it reflects the service the member gets from UNPAID VOLUNTEER members of the club who act as its officers. There may also be other various costs to be considered as well.

We would suggest most strongly, that you do NOT automatically ‘plump’ for the club with the cheapest subscription rate but to join whichever club satisfies most of your requirements.

Click on the button below for contact details of clubs in the region.