Hello everyone
Well – most of Oxfordshire is under water, the ride I was on yesterday was amphibious, but right now the sun is shining and there is some hope that we might have passed peak rain as indeed we have passed the shortest day. So let’s look forward to better cycling to come in 2020.
A few things to mention in the lead up to Christmas:
MINCE PIE RIDE REPORT
It was another really great year for this well established event. It was indeed the 30th anniversary of the original Abingdon Wheelers event and the 20th year that we have been organising it. Despite a fairly challenging headwind funnelling down Dragon Hill, we were joined as usual by pretty much all of the local clubs from miles around, including Newbury, Oxford, Abingdon and Faringdon to name but a few. By the time honoured ‘cup count’ methodology, we had 130 riders (or, more precisely, drinkers) passing through and we drained the last of the mulled wine out of the container just as the crowds were dispersing. Thanks in particular to Carin for awesome mulling and for Steve B for helping with the serving. Total donations given in aid of Whizz-Kidz was £672.21. Thank you all for your generosity. An amazing total and a new all-time record.
ADDITIONAL SUNDAY MORNING RIDES
Partly on the assumption that it can’t rain forever, there has been some interest in trialing some shorter rides on Sunday mornings to replicate the Tuesday evening experience and to avoid taking too much time out of busy weekends. These will be in addition to the normal weekend programme of main rides. The idea is for these to start at 9am and last around 2 hours. Look out for these appearing in the website calendar in the New Year.
CLUB ANNUAL DINNER – SATURDAY 22nd FEBRUARY 2020
The next important date for your diaries is our annual club dinner. As usual, we are scheduling this to cunningly avoid the peak holiday craziness. This year the details are as follows:
– venue: the Extraordinary Hare pub on the A417 at West Hendred. Post code is OX12 8RH.
– date: Saturday 22nd February 2020.
– time: 7 for 7.30pm.
We don’t yet have final confirmation of the menu, but the indicative costs are two courses for £19.95 or three courses for £24.95. You can get an idea of what to expect from their website at www.theextraordinaryhare.co.uk
Please contact Stephanie Haddrell to book your places: s.haddrell@hotmail.com. Payment of a £10 deposit per person will secure your place. Please make the payments to the club bank account (with your name in the description box):
Sort code: 20-90-91
Account number: 23556050
We will provide full details and the confirmed menu choices in the New Year.
That’s all for now. Thanks for your support and for making 2019 such a good year for the club. Here’s to the Twenties!
Happy Christmas and New Year
John
