At the 1949 Annual General Meeting of the Essex District Association CTC, there was a vote in favour of issuing a monthly newsletter and, amended to a bi-monthly, it first appeared in February 1950, price 2d. It was edited by the DA Secretary, Les Smart and comprised several foolscap sheets of official notices and event and function reports. No runs list was included, these being then sent out by H.O. with the monthly Gazette. About 200 copies were issues, remarkably similar to today's number.

In 1951 eager beaver Terry Tegg took over the editorship and developed it into magazine format, the committee favouring the name 'Spotlight' over a suggestion of 'News Wheel' and thus it has continued despite several attempts to rename it to something more cycle orientated.

Over the years the magazine has obviously had a number of editors, each putting their own stamp on it. For most of its life it has been produced by typewriter, stencil and duplicator, all done by willing volunteers. From 1964 H.O. ceased sending out runs lists and these were incorporated into the magazine.

With the decline in cycling in the early 1970's the DA was at a low ebb and at the 1973 AGM it was decided to suspend publication, and in a sense the clock was turned back with a newsletter replacing it. By our Golden Jubilee of 1977 cycling had recovered sufficiently for the rebirth of the magazine and it was again produced, this time in quarto format. Over the last 25 years or so it has been reduced to its present handy size and professionally printed from copy made on a word processor.