And now to the joint run of 20th June, when our all day turnout dropped to its lowest for many months – just five of us, and that included a new member, Andrew Billington from Bovey Tracey. By way of compensation, however, we had several out for parts of the day, increasing our overall figure to ten at the Bovey Tracey pick-up. Pete and Jean Luxton joined us from Exeter for the steep ride up to Poolmill Cross and past the reservoirs to Hingston where we came across a multitude of cyclists blocking the highway – none other than the Exeter A-Section of course. As we waited, more and more of them came up the hill past Cossick, including a certain young gentleman in green called Nigel Wilson who had ridden up to Exeter in time for the 10.00 start. Oh well, I suppose that made eleven of us during the day!

When Ken appeared he had numerous objects attached to his cycle by various methods, some of which we recognised as sticks, but others which remained mysterious until we had ridden the short distance to Mardon Down and completed our lunch. The funny red, white and blue things turned out to be flags, and these were positioned in a deliberate pattern all around us which did nothing to enlighten us except to give us the impression that we were being quarantined!

When preparations were complete it transpired that a competition had been arranged between Exeter and Torbay which involved, amongst other things, bursting balloons with sticks and hunting for milk bottle tops in the bracken – all on bikes of course! I felt a little sad that more of us hadn’t turned out, especially when we lost to Exeter 1-5! Still, all had a very enjoyable afternoon in pleasant weather – even Neil, when he managed to pull himself away from his portable CB set.

We wandered back to Blackingstone Rock for a bit of rock climbing before descending to the reservoirs again, this time in force. The time for the parting of the ways had finally arrived, and when the final period of laziness had been shaken off we rolled down the hill towards home, stopping at Bovey for a cup of tea. I’ll never forget Michael’s look of embarrassment as he came running out of the gents: much to the amazement of the gentlemen standing next to him, strange sounds had emanated from the closed door behind … “Ten four, Ten four, give me a copy ..”.

(Michael Jones)

[1 point: Mark Morton, Nigel Wilson, Frances Lofty]
[2 points: Antony House, Colin Downie, Philip Wrigley]