Thursday, March 31, 2011

The Tom Fish Ride Wed March 30th

Sixteen club riders gathered at the Kingston Day Centre before riding off to the South West Middlesex Crematorium to attend the funeral of Tom Fish who had been a CTC member for decades. We left the Day Centre and crossed Kingston Bridge turning right into the High Street and then right again into Lower Teddington Road, after passing Teddington Studios we did a left and then a right into Manor Road towards Twickenham. At the roundabout by Radnor Gardens we did a left and right into Tower Road and proceeded over the railway line at Strawberry Hill into Wellesley Road. Then a left and right into Fifth Cross road and crossing the Staines Road into Mill road which led us into Crane Park. After successfully negotiating our way past several Council lorries we followed the river crane under two bridges with limited headroom and width to the Crematorium arriving in good time to be ushered into the Chapel.

This small chapel was soon filled with about 40 cyclists many coming from as far as Scotland for the occasion and with about 15 family members we had to overflow into the upper gallery. The service was led very well by the vicar who in his commemorative address told us about the cycling exploits of Tom from the tender age of 5 years old. The bible passage was from Revelations Chapter 21 vv1-7 where John describes the wonderful vision of Heaven which Tom is now enjoying. After the service Tom’s daughter kindly invited all of us to The Winning Post on the A316 where we enjoyed a really welcome buffet lunch.

Feeling well nourished and since all the food had gone the original band that set out from Kingston made our way to Hampton Court via Teddington where the six of us that were left had more liquid refreshment, some of us even indulging in rocky roads and lemon cake, before breaking up and finding our different ways home. All in all it was an excellent day out despite the rain and we certainly gave Tom a good send off as well as providing plenty of support to his family which they greatly appreciated.
From David Salmon

1 comment:

Pete said...

Thankyou David for sorting the route and guiding us on a very pleasant ride to Tom