The Crystal in Palace; Beddington Beginners 15 October

Report by Paul

Third Saturday, it's Beddington Saturday.  Two-o-clock, as always!

The weather forecast was for a dry day, if a grey and windy one, but Colin could not be there to lead and we knew one or two regulars would not be turning up.  We had a new Beddingtonian, though, in Alyson and since Nigel had told her that we met at a quarter to two we thought we had better be sharp, but Roger and Anna and Matthew and Thomas had got there before us, as had Ray, who was not planning to come on the ride but just to say hello.

We had been discussing routes with Anna and Roger, who felt it was getting a bit "same old....", but it's not easy around here to pick routes which meet the criteria; not too hilly, not too long, not too short, not too much traffic, a decent cup of tea/coffee.  So we had settled on Crystal Palace Park, where we had not been for a while.

Church Path.  We knew we were approaching Croydon when we passed a shopping trolley in the River Wandle, but the journey through the centre is largely cycle or bus lanes and passed, we felt, pleasantly.  Along the railway path, Croydon Arena, and in South Norwood Country Park Thomas decided he had enough of being a passenger and out came his trike.  He rode the length of the park and was persuaded to get back in his trailer only by the promise of ice cream and freedom in the dinosaur park a mile or two further on.

There the rain ignored the forecast but it had the decency to be insufficient to stop play in a cricket match until we had finished our cake and coffee, which were splendid, and got back to our bikes.  There we discovered that Maggie had a flat tyre.  She remembered the broken glass in Croydon and I found a piece of it in her tyre.  Croydon, of course, is as famous for glass as is Waterford or Venice; it's just that the glass in Croydon is at a later phase of its life cycle.

An enthusiastic audience for the entertainer!

As is traditional with puncture repairs, the heavens opened.  So much so that along with several families we took cold, windy shelter beneath the pedestrian bridge next to the athletics track.  Until we worked out we might still be there after Thomas' bedtime.  So home it was, past Selhurst Park football stadium (Palace were playing away at Leicester; we had checked) through the architectural wonders of Fort Neaf, and over the intersection at Broad Green, an experimental route that might have worked better had the driver in a huge 4x4 been capable of manoeuvring it into the place they had chosen to park it without forcing several other drivers to reverse.  You can't say life in Croydon is dull.

Wandle Park and home, by which time the rain had stopped and we were all just a bit damp.  It was a good ride, though, and a nice group.  Thank you everyone, and come again, Alyson.