Where my name came from.

Back in 1973 when I first started cycling, we used to go on residential training courses at Calshot Activity Center in Hampshire… We would arrive on a Friday evening after school and stay until Sunday teatime. We would do around 3 or 4 each year until around 1976.

We would spend our time riding on the velodrome and on the road in the New Forest. In between the cycling we were either eating, resting, watching cycling films or having lectures (sounds a bit posh… Maybe talks is a better description, after all we were only 14 / 15 year old kids). 
Our coach would arrange many of the top riders, coaches and team managers of the time to give the talks.

Anyway, our little group as youngsters did use to make up quite a few stories… sort of why tell the truth when a story is far more interesting, and no one would know anyway. The guy in the photo was a Russian track cycling sprinter called Omar Pkhakadze and we had watched him many times in a film called “Two on the Track”. 

My initials are PG (no middle name) so I made up a story that my Dad was a cycling fan and gave me the middle name of Omar therefore my initials became POG. During that time, I was known as POG and was introduced accordingly.

So fast forward to 2011 and the story and name were long gone. I tracked down someone from the Calshot days on Facebook and they started saying is that you “POG?” I thought what are you talking about then it suddenly came to me. Around that time, I joined the Blip community and needed a name so picked POG. Only you guys and my friend who reminded me of the name call me it.

Well that’s where my name came from.

Stay happy, strong and healthy… more tomorrow…

POG,,