B Group Ride to the Dolphin at Betchworth

It turned out to be a pretty good day for a ride in the country and luckily enough 25 other B group riders thought so too. We set off in brilliant sunshine, which more or less stayed with us for the rest of the day. The ride started without any incidents but before the start of the first hill the puncture fairy visited us. First Richard punctured, with Tim who was back marking, and John stopping to help. As the main group was raring to go on, Bob was appointed back marker and we ascended the first hill, up Hogden Lane up to Ranmore, only to hear that Peter had a puncture half way up. We carried on down Ranmore and through the outskirts of Dorking before going up Punchbowl Lane. Here we heard that Steph was the latest victim of the puncture fairy, and that Peter had been visited again and was off to the Stepping Stones pub for some sustenance. Following this, thankfully we all made it safely without further incident to the Dolphin pub. The food was good and served quickly and we were all out and assembled on our bikes for a diversion by Pete Bayer who took us to look at a windmill. The windmill was once used to power a wood saw and lathe but was now powered by an electric motor. We then returned to Betchworth and following Pete's Tours, had a quick look at the church where Four Weddings and a Funeral was filmed, followed by an off road excursion to Brockham where I took over leading once again. We then had an uneventful ride to tea at Stoke D'Abernon. Thank you to all the riders who corner marked for me, to Pete for the windmill, church and off road adventure and a special thanks to Tim, David,John and Bob who backed marked and mended a number of punctures.