B Group - 23rd October

Twenty seven of us rode out from the Greeno Centre and crossed Walton Bridge and headed down to Weybridge, some on the road and some on the river path which wasn’t in too much of a mess after the recent rain. After Addlestone, Row Town and Woodham we crossed the Basingstoke Canal into West Byfleet. With various holdups it would appear that the leader lost a few people at around this stage although with one known exception we all made it to the pub. Terry had kindly accepted the job of back marker but I omitted to tell him where we were going for lunch.

We took the Pyrford Road to Pyrford Village and rode down Newark Lane to our pub, The Seven Stars. At this point, in order to pad out the mileage into a more respectable distance we toured around a very pleasant rural circuit, down Papercourt Lane, left into Send Road then back through Send Marsh to the pub which gave us another three miles and arrival at the time the pub staff were expecting us. Some of the people who had become lost were already at the pub and others turned up fairly soon after the rest of us.

The Seven Stars had apparently fallen out of favour with us some time ago but when Helene planned this ride she was blissfully unaware of any of this bad history. Just as well too because the pub coped very efficiently with our large number, about 23 I think after Ray Dare, Don Clarke and Ian Williamson had made their excuses and gone home, to watch Scotland play Japan in Ian’s case. The food was good and, with the sun doing its best to shine, most of us ate outside.

After lunch we crossed the A3 and proceeded to Cobham where several people left us to head off to remote places like Egham and Sunbury. At Stoke D’Abernon the rest of us turned up Blundel Lane towards Oxhott, thence to Fairoak Lane. Helene had intended the ride to end in Leatherhead or Ashtead. I settled on Bike Beans. However, as we approached Epsom I started to feel that Ashtead wasn’t very convenient for several people, and that we might not arrive at Bike Beans with much time to spare before they closed. So we settled on Wetherspoons in the middle of Epsom. The coffee was good and thanks to a £2.59 deal we were obliged to have it with a piece of carrot or coffee cake, resulting in us eating all the cake they had left. We lingered a while and eventually made our ways home.

It was good to see people on the ride that we haven’t seen for a while. Bernard let himself be persuaded to come out with us, on his first B Group ride for ages I think. Julian Calder, more of an A Group person really, rode with us. Ian Williamson has been busy since we last saw him some time ago but fortunately he hadn’t forgotten us. And that pair of Canadian Geese, Robert Tolley and Margaret Wild, having completed their Autumn migration from the other side of the Atlantic, are riding with us once again. Welcome all.

The only real blot on the day was losing John Austin altogether. When he realised that he had spun right out of our intended orbit he turned his misfortune into a jolly good ride out in the general direction of Chobbam. However the lesson is that we all need to be more careful to keep an eye on people behind us and to mark corners more diligently, especially when our group is as big as it was today.

Helene planned today’s ride but was unable to come out and lead because her old cat is very unwell. Thanks to her for a good ride, with a good choice of pub, and for scheduling some very decent weather.

A big thank you to Terry whose job as back marker was more complicated than usual today.

~Tim