Report for B Group - 30th November

Kingston YMCA Hawker Centre was full of sporty activity when we arrived for coffee: local school children having a muddy PE session outside, a busy exercise class next to the café and a lot of sweat being generated in the gym.  With over 50 cyclists descending on the café we did generate a few curious glances from the regulars. Anyway with our usual staggered arrival times, they coped well and the café proved a nice warm venue.

As I am sure many of you know, Kingston has a proud aeronautics history and the centre is built on the site of the old Hawker factory. Simon has kindly sent through a short history and picture.

The Tonys had agreed to sub lead and I headed out into cool, but promising to be sunny weather, with an enlarged first group of ten. With many local folks in my group I did feel a little superfluous and at one point, beside the river Crane was just stopped from leading them down a dead end! The sun broke through and we had a lovely ride through Osterley Park having encountered mercifully little traffic on the way.

Lunch at The Hare and Hounds was a little slow initially, despite pre orders having been submitted, however they found their groove and my group was back on the road by 1:30 ish. Our route took us down Syon Lane to Gillette Corner and the Great West Road. We joined the nicely tarmacked cycle path alongside the Grand Union Canal and headed south to  Syon Park and Isleworth. The subject of bike theft sadly  being on everyone’s mind at the moment, Tony Hopkins suggested tea at The Pheasantry in Bushey Park which I decided was an excellent shout. Paula who knows the area like the back of her hand volunteered to lead from Twickenham and we were treated to an excursion through Twickenham Rough, a newly created off-road path to tea.

Many thanks to all those who came along yesterday and especially those who helped with the route creation. It was a route I dug out of the RWGPS filing cabinet that had been rode by Tim C and Bob P a couple of years ago, so thanks to them both too.

~ Sue F.

Group 3 version of the ride