B Group Sept 17th

Lunch at The Fox and Hounds

I was the sub for Gill, she is terribly conscientious and rides her routes before the event. I just use the map which means some hesitations from time to time. Owing to one of these hesitations John M and I nearly collided head on! We were a large group - 18 - viz Cliff, Francoise, Frank, Harold, John B, John G, John M, Judy, Les, Liz, Nev, Norman, Phil, Robin, Roger, Stephanie, Terry and yours truly. It meant it was hard for us to stay together through a set of lights etc. After a 30 minute wait for Liz to do her eye make-up we set off through Chertsey, immaculately kept Wentworth Golf Course (British Ladies Championship today), past the Roman Temple and into Virginia Water by the Blacknest Gate. Then 2 or 3 lovely miles through Windsor Great Park past the Guards Polo fields to a nice pub by the Bishopsgate entrance called The Fox and Hounds. The food was really quite good and it even had crisply laundered linen napkins. Les had the swordfish as the nearest approximation to gammon! After lunch to Egham including a grotty bit along the A30. Over Staines Bridge and another lovely stretch, this time by the river. At Laleham on to the Shepperton Road to The Bakery at Shepperton. Frank and Francoise competed to see who could choose the more calorific cake (Frank won). We then went various ways. I caught the train at Walton and met up with an Easy Rider whose name I've forgotten. We enjoyed our shared journey to Waterloo from where I met Luisa after work and we cycled home together. So my stats were 64.14 miles,11.19 mph average speed, 29.36 mph max. I would guess it was 45-50 miles from North Cheam Regards Bernard