Ernest Payne
| Personal information | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname | Ernie, "The Worcester Wonder" | ||||||||||||
| Born |
23 December 1884 Worcester, England, United Kingdom |
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| Died | 10 September 1961 (aged 76) | ||||||||||||
| Team information | |||||||||||||
| Discipline | Track | ||||||||||||
| Role | Rider | ||||||||||||
| Amateur team(s) | |||||||||||||
| 1902–1910 | 1903 – St Johns Club | ||||||||||||
| Major wins | |||||||||||||
| 1908 – Olympic Team Pursuit, Gold 1908 – Olympics, Men's 660 yards, won heat 1908 – Olympics, Men's sprint, won heat 1902 – Stourbridge, half-mile handicap 1904 – 'Bath' Challenge Cup 1902–1910 More than 150 victories including Regional, National, British Empire and Olympic |
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Medal record
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Ernest "Ernie" Payne (23 December 1884 – 10 September 1961) was an English track cycling racer. Born in Worcester, he won a gold medal in the team pursuit at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London for Great Britain and went on to play football, including two games as an amateur for Manchester United.
Payne was born in a cottage at 221 London Road, Worcester. He worked as a carpenter. As his cycling prowess grew his employer gave him time off to compete. Payne gave him a gold watch in thanks.
Ernest Payne's cycling talent was spotted at Boughton Park in Worcester. T W Badgery of the Worcester St Johns Cycling Club (speaking at a golden jubilee dinner in 1938) said that he borrowed his brother's bicycle "and it was seen at once that he was going to be a champion". Payne joined the St Johns club in 1903.
Payne was stocky, five feet six and a half inches (169 cm) tall and weighing ten stone and seven pounds (67 kg). He was trained by his brother Walter, a successful racing cyclist. Walter's assistant was Arthur Hale, brother of Worcester racing cyclist, Frederick Hale.
Payne's first race was in 1902, on 14 July at Stourbridge. He crashed and damaged his bicycle but went on to win the half-mile handicap (handicap 75 yards) on a borrowed bike. During his first season he won 13 of 14 track races (coming second in the other). He specialised in half and one-mile races. By the end of June 1903 he was referred to as "the Worcester Wonder" in The Cyclist. The majority of his racing was on grass but he proved at home on permanent velodromes.
One of his major trophies was the Challenge Cup. The cup contained 450 ozt (14 kg) of silver and was 4 feet (1.2 m) high. He won it outright at the 1904 Whitsun meeting in Bath, Somerset. He won more than 150 races including regional, national, British Empire and Olympic championships.
In his first season Payne used a locally-made machine, but in 1903 he rode an Imperial Rover, having also changed his tyres from Dunlop Road Racing to Dunlop Sprint tyres.
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