“Who would want to hurt an older lady cyclist?”: Two boys injure cyclist by throwing golf ball at her

A 57-year-old healthcare worker and grandmother of two girls was cycling back home in Belfast when out of the blue, she was hit by a flying golf ball, thrown at her by two young boys on the pavement.

Anne Ramsey, who goes by the name of Cyclegranny on Twitter and works for the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust in ophthalmology, was on her home commute at 17:30 on the evening of January 3rd.

As she passed the Kennedy Centre on Andersonstown Road and approached the Lidl supermarket, she was taken aback by the suddent impact of an object to her body and came to a stop on the side road.

After checking her camera's rear footage, which she also shared on social media, she realised it was two boys who hit her with a golf ball. In the front cam footage too, a white ball can be seen bouncing away after hitting her.

A young yob hit me with a golf ball on my commute home. It hurt like hell and there will be a bruise in the morning. Footage is too dark to identify any of them so probably no point in reporting it at all. I mean who would deliberately want to hurt an older lady cyclist? pic.twitter.com/DjxjII1Gkm

— Cyclegranny 🚴‍♀️ (@anneramsey740) January 3, 2024

Although she initially wrote on Twitter that she didn't see any point in reporting the incident, she told road.cc later that she has indeed reported it to the police who've replied saying if they have a good CCTV camera in the vicinity, they'll take the matter further.

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The police later informed the cyclist that they had viewed the CCTV footage but it was not clear enough to identify the culprits.

"It has been logged as an incident for that area, for the crime figures. Bruise is faded and I live to fight another day," Ms Ramsey told road.cc.

Other cyclists shared their sympathies on Twitter, and also pointed that the incident takes place right in front of the Maxol Auto24 petrol station — likely to be fitted with a CCTV camera.

He obviously has had plenty of practice he had a precise aim. Throwing things used to be a bit of a pastime here.

— Cyclegranny 🚴‍♀️ (@anneramsey740) January 3, 2024

Thanks yes will probably wake up to a big bruise

— Cyclegranny 🚴‍♀️ (@anneramsey740) January 3, 2024

Others wished her all the best and hoped that she'd continue on riding. While Ms Ramsey said that she was a bit shocked, she told road.cc that she'd dealt with much worse.

"I have been riding since a child and never stopped. I also ride motorcycles and was a bus driver for seven years," she said. "I drove through the Troubles in Belfast in the 80-90s and had lots thrown at me then, including a firework. So I am used to riding in scary situations."

In 2020, we reported that an elderly cyclist who used his e-bike as a mobility aid was left with multiple wounds to his face and shoulder after he fell off his bike when an item was thrown at him from a passing car.

In 2022, an A&E nurse who was riding on the Horseshoe Pass in Wales fell off her bike after eggs were thrown at her by a passenger of a vehicle that was overtaking her.

The 35-year-old from Wrexham was a triathlon participant, but became nervous about riding alone following the incident in Denbighshire. She said she was afraid that it could have been a very different outcome if it had occured just a bit further along where the hill has a steep drop at the side of the road.

> Cyclist hurt after eggs thrown at her by car passenger

And just last year, another ambulance practitioner — who looked after Dan Walker when he had his crash in Sheffield in February — was cycling with his four-year-old when he had rubbish thrown at him by the passenger of an overtaking car.