Doug’s cycling life starts in his early teens with the Malvern Star championships. Doug wins the Arrow Consistency Cup and gets his photo in local papers. In Coolgardie he races the Widgiemooltha-Coolgardie (75km). In Norseman it is the longer Norseman-Higginsville (129km). In Kalgoorlie as Secretary for the Eastern Goldfields Cycling Club helps organise the Menzies to Kalgoorlie. Many tales of Hubert Opperman, a later friend and political colleague of Doug’s. In later years Doug was patron of the League of WA Wheelmen from 1959-1976.
Doug tells of the comics he read as a child and of his time at Perth Boys School. We hear of headmaster Tommy Chandler, teachers Bill “Skippy” Skipworth, Hal “Tinny” McKail, Pud Stallwood, Jock Campbell and Ted Huck. Doug appears in the paper.