B Group - 9th September

We had four groups for 23 riders with one vacancy for Eric Flint who joined us at lunch. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people who volunteered to lead with the benefit to me that Christina led our fourth group while I took a back seat as BM. With slightly rearranged teams we took off around the back of the hangar and into Youngstroat Lane for the woodland path heading South towards Woking. The path crosses the Mill Bourne and Addlestone Bourne and passes through Horsell Common. In Woking we picked up the Saturn Trail which runs alongside the Basingstoke Canal, then turned South at Arthurs Bridge. Don Elms rode with us as far as the canal and left us to follow it in the opposite direction.

A peaceful stretch along the Hoe, followed by another meander through the trees took us down towards Sutton Green with Robin Hood Lane and the Foxes Path bringing us up to the Church of St Edward the Confessor where we stopped to regard the landscape and remove a layer or two as the morning was starting to warm up. This is close to the closed gates of the Grade I listed Tudor Manor House, Sutton Place, once owned by John Paul Getty and now by the Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov.

We took the cycle/foot path along Clay Lane to enter the Nature Reserve and were soon under the A3 and across the A25 into Stoke Park for the obligatory five-minute comfort stop.

Team Ken in the Riverside Nature Reserve (PB)

I had unwittingly chosen a very gentle gradient up to the top of the downs to join Guildford Lane which might have afforded some good views of St Martha’s Hill were it not for all the trees. An easy descent to Albury brought us across the Tilling Bourne and to the Drummond Arms for lunch where I was pleased to discover the other three groups, with Tony Hopkins’ first group on the point of departure. Unfortunately Arwyn, who had a picnic lunch nearby, had returned to the pub but didn’t see any bikes because they were all out of site around the back and assumed that they had already gone. So he found his own scenic route home via Shere and Route 22. We learned later that he had arrived home safely.

Our tables were at the back of the garden next to the stream. Although the pub offered quite a limited menu all their dishes are presented with quite a cheffy flourish, probably qualifying it as a gastropub though their website makes no such claim. We were very well attended, enjoyed the food and in the still warmth of the day were quite blissed out by the time we had to depart.

Team Tony (PB)

 

Grant, who had been riding in John’s group discovered a puncture after lunch so to allow John to get away in good time we adopted him and promoted Eric into John’s group. With the major project to rebuild the bridge over the Tilling Bourne still in progress the only sensible way open to us apart from a route back through Guildford (Halfpenny Lane?) was the climb up New Road. We rode the quiet route through to Hoe and at the top of the steep rise in Hoe Lane turned right to ride through Sutton Place and drop down to the Horsham Road. At The Volunteer we climbed up Raikes Lane, and down at the junction with the A25 we found Gill Holder who had suffered a mechanical failure with her derailleur. Fortunately Graham was able to drive down with the van to rescue her and her bike.

The Holder family broom wagon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Instead of muddy puddles the first part of NCN Route 22, that strangest of cycling superhighways now has a thick layer of coarse sand to negotiate. No doubt this is ideal for walkers. Further on the protruding stones and tree roots are still as they always were.

Terry had given advance warning that we might see some Alpacas as we approached Westcott. Our team caught a glimpse of them in their timber-clad bungalow at the back of a field but they never emerged to show themselves off as we had hoped they would.

Looking for the Alpacas

At this point Terry took over the lead in order to show us a couple of blue plaques. First was one in Westcott for Leslie Howard, best remembered for acting with Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind, and for the manner of his death with the plane in which he was travelling being shot down by the Luftwaffe in 1943. In Dorking Terry showed us the blue plaque for Laurence Olivier, on the house in Wathen Road where he was born in 1907.

We had decided to have Tea at L’Ultimo Cucina in Leatherhead High St, ideal in every way but I had overlooked the fact that they don’t do cake which for some was a slightly sad way to end what had otherwise been a terrific day out.

Thank you to Tony Hopkins, Ken, John Austin and Christina for volunteering to be leaders and delivering their teams safely to each of the refreshment stops. I had expected to lead one of the groups before Christina expressed enthusiasm for the task. She did a marvelous job and we look forward to her being so willing in the future. Thank you to everyone who joined us to make a great day of it.

~ Tim