I said "it's too far" but she'd already phoned so I could have saved my breath. Sixteen set out from Shepperton on a miserable drizzly sort of day. From Chertsey we took B388 beside the M25 motorway to be halted near Thorpe Lea when Jeff punctured. And that's all I know of the outward ride as I waited with Jeff.
Comparing notes later, our routes tallied more or less namely Egham (lengthy stop for us at the level crossing), Middle Hill, in at Bishopsgate and out at Forest Gate. After the kidney roundabout we sought out the Drift Road and Maiden's Green. Here mistakenly I turned right but two lefts compensated and brought us to Cricketers Lane and its eponymous pub, five minutes late at around 13:20.
After a filling and well priced lunch we were away one hour later leaving a pub emptied of customers. Irene had a surprise for us - we took a first left and first right into Ascot and a few minutes later we were offroading down Chavey Down. As we struggled for traction on the sticky watery ooze, her words were "I've NEVER seen it like that before!"; our words are not repeatable.
Once across Ascot racecourse we went back into the Park at Watersplash Gate (or whatever it calls) and mingled with homegoing children from the Royal School. Just after Bishopsgate Jeff suffered a second puncture (front again). This time Irene stopped and I led a rump the shortest way home via Tite Hill, Pooley Green, Staines, Laleham and Shepperton where we fragmented around four o'clock.
Graham Hill
Comparing notes later, our routes tallied more or less namely Egham (lengthy stop for us at the level crossing), Middle Hill, in at Bishopsgate and out at Forest Gate. After the kidney roundabout we sought out the Drift Road and Maiden's Green. Here mistakenly I turned right but two lefts compensated and brought us to Cricketers Lane and its eponymous pub, five minutes late at around 13:20.
After a filling and well priced lunch we were away one hour later leaving a pub emptied of customers. Irene had a surprise for us - we took a first left and first right into Ascot and a few minutes later we were offroading down Chavey Down. As we struggled for traction on the sticky watery ooze, her words were "I've NEVER seen it like that before!"; our words are not repeatable.
Once across Ascot racecourse we went back into the Park at Watersplash Gate (or whatever it calls) and mingled with homegoing children from the Royal School. Just after Bishopsgate Jeff suffered a second puncture (front again). This time Irene stopped and I led a rump the shortest way home via Tite Hill, Pooley Green, Staines, Laleham and Shepperton where we fragmented around four o'clock.
Graham Hill
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