Home in the dark; Beddington Beginners 19 November

 By Paul

We were really lucky with the weather on Saturday; we have all got soft with increased temperatures, and it seemed cold, but the heavy overnight rain had moved on and we actually had some sunshine.

The problem with meeting at two, though, is that darkness falls so quickly and South London's busy streets are no welcoming place for nervous cyclists on a dark Saturday evening.  Consideration of the light, and uncertainty that the cafe at the Rookery in Streatham would have room inside, led us to opt for the (not so very) long way round to Merton Abbey Mills.

There were eleven of us, including two returners, Jim and Jackie, and a regular with other club groups but a not-so-regular rider with BBs, Frank.  Our traditional route through Mitcham Common, Mitcham Eastfields, Figges Marsh and Colliers Wood has quite a lot of off road but a significant chunk of this, the Beddington Farmlands Nature Reserve and the little corner of Mitcham Common between Beddington Lane Halt and Croydon Road was going to be unrideable for Matthew and Thomas and their articulated Little People Carrier, so Colin used the less scenic route through the Beddington Lane Industrial Estate, crossing the tramway at Therapia Lane.

The roads were pretty busy but we comfortably negotiated the various intersections and minor hazards being hooted only occasionally and had a pleasant tea at Med.

Our homeward trip was through the early dusk and by the time we got to Beddington Park, several riders had peeled off home before we remembered that we should take a photograph.

A pleasant ride in acceptable conditions, and little Thomas apparently insisted upon riding a significant chunk of central Croydon on his tricycle, which gave his parents a welcome lie-in, so tired did it leave him!

Hampton Court sunset; Nonsuch Beginners 12 November

By Paul

Yet another unseasonably warm day saw a fair few riding to Nonsuch on Saturday, but when we got there we found ourselves in a film set.  They were making a programme about weddings, apparently, and they didn't seem to want too many cyclists involved, even as extras, so our fifteen minutes of fame was postponed once again.

The long ride was scheduled for Bushy Park but Steve left it late, even by his standards, and we had an alternative leader in Sue lined up when Steve suddenly appeared.  Just like that!  Everyone wants to ride with Steve, so he disappeared with a dozen or so for a Nigel route through Richmond Park to Bushy Park.

That left eight for my group, and I opted for a different route in order to avoid conglomeration.  We had a pleasant, even-paced ride on the Woodies and Berryland Station route to Kingston, where the market was as crowded as any of us has seen it since before the pandemic; so much so that it was sensible to get off and push.

As we entered Bushy Park, the youngest fully paid-up member of our club decided he had had enough of sitting in his trailer and wanted to ride.  We agreed to go on to coffee and cake at the Pheasantry where Matthew and Thomas would join us when he got fed up of riding, but we had all finished our refreshments when they had still not appeared, so we sent out a search party and it turned out that Thomas was riding the entire distance.  Unsurprisingly, we had a tired three year old but with a chocolate bar bribe he was persuaded to sit in his trailer, his dad had made coffee at home and brought it in a Thermos cup, and we were able to set off home while Steve's group were supping away.

It was a good job, too, because dark descended pretty quickly for our ride back through Thames Ditton back to Berrylands and thence home.

The pictures below are by Sue.

No ride to Barnet; Nonsuch Beginners on Guy Fawkes Day

 Paul writes

Saturday was a grey and pretty miserable day and this leader was just not in the mood.  Eleven of us turned up at Nonsuch Park and luckily it included four registered leaders; Steve, dependable as ever, to lead a longer ride, Lynda wanting to go somewhere shorter, Tony, who was down on the rota to lead a short ride up to the Smallholdings, and Diane.  Because it was on the rota we had agreed to meet Roger and Anna, who were also not in the mood, at the Smallholdings.

Steve went off to Eight on the River, taking Diane and John.  Tony needed a haircut, though, and we all decided that we preferred tea and coffee and cake to sitting and watching him in the barbers, so I agreed to do his ride and off he went to have his barnet beautified, and Maggie and Matthew and little Thomas came with me through Sutton and up Carshalton Hill.  We left Lynda and the others mulling.

It is years since we did this route, because it is so short, and I had forgotten that for Beginners it is quite hilly (though none of us were Beginners anymore).  It was a pleasant enough ride, and when we got to Flitton's R & A were there already and we all went into Blossoms cafe.  "There is always time for coffee" says the friendly sign, but it was contradicted by the sign on the door which said they closed at four and further so by the lady behind the counter who had watched with horror as we came through the door and greeted us with "You know we close at three thirty".  It was just after three.  Still, the tea came and the other staff were friendly so we had a half hour chat before making our different ways home.

On the way we passed a new coffee place, called Naturally Thinking, on the Telegraph Track going down to Boundary Road.  We might be trying that next time.  If it's open.

The whole experience was so thrilling that we forgot to take a picture, so here is one we took from the car on the A23 early on the wettest Sunday morning in recent history while driving our grandson to Stansted Airport.  (It was the annual London to Brighton veteran car run).

  

A healing brace of Nigels; Nonsuch Beginners 29 October

Paul writes

A day fit for early September graced our last Saturday ride of British Summer Time and a healthy crowd turned up at Nonsuch.  It was really good to see Nigel T there, courtesy of Caroline, albeit on his crutch.  Steve W, as usual, had turned up to lead the long ride during Nigel's incapacity and I led out the first of the groups heading for Cobham through Stoke d'Abernon.  We had Sue, Anne, Anna, Roger, Maggie, Ken and Nigel C, by no means a newcomer, but welcome as he took another step towards recovery from his nasty tendon injury of two years ago.

I took a near miss from a white van driver, Nigel C behind me reckoned it was four inches or so, quite deliberate, done for a laugh with his female passenger.  I spent the rest of the ride designing in my head a little paint spray device to be affixed to my right pedal in order to decorate offending vehicles.

Which was a pity, since it was a lovely day for a pleasant ride through the Birds Hill Estate and Cobham Park; pleasantly warm sunshine and a gentle breeze.  Nowadays one is spoilt for choice for coffee in Cobham; we chose the cafe on Hollyhedge Road. Maggie and I shared the last piece of lemon drizzle cake and we want you all to know that it was absolutely delicious.

Home through Stoke d'A , Leatherhead and Ashtead and Epsom Commons.

They have at last resurfaced the railway bridge at Ewell West, so you no longer have to pull a metre away from the curb to surmount the apex of the bridge.  Everybody made it back to Nonsuch, and for Nigel C it was a bit of a triumph; farther than he has ridden before in his rehab.

For us it was 55.5 Km, though we travel a little further than most and Nigel C will have done about 40 Km (24 miles or so).  A good day out.

Pictures by Sue

  

A Return from the North; Nonsuch Beginners 22 October

 A Return From The North

By Ian Prince

Saturday 22nd October 2022

After a longish stint up north, riding both road and recumbent cycles at generally half decent mileages of around fifty miles a day,  I finally got the chance to turn up at Nonsuch Park Mansion Café for 2 pm, and join the group being organised by Colin into long rides and short ride groups, myself deciding to ride with the longer Leatherhead Bocketts Farm  ride. 

I was pleased to hear Shirley’s recovery is progressing well and had other conversations before we set off a little time after 2pm , myself on my two gear Brompton and a usual selection of bikes from others in the group plus a tandem and an electro assist bike just as it threatened to rain. 

However, this was soon left behind as we headed through Epsom and onwards via some familiar routes to pass Woodcote Park and on through Ashtead to Leatherhead and ultimately down to Bocketts Farm for a well earned bite to eat, and drink. 

It was said that road traffic seemed light; in my view, not light enough! 

In total there were around a dozen or more of us on this ride, including the tandem and Thomas in his trailer with his own machine strapped securely to the top of the Burley trailer. 

Suitably replenished we all set forward once again, this time reaching the main road on the track up from the Farm tea rooms (which was remarkably busy, waiting for streams of cars to pass to be able to cross the road) 

Once underway again we found ourselves back in Leatherhead before crossing the M25 to Ashtead, and some familiar routes through the forest and minor roads working on our way back to Epsom,  Ewell and ultimately Nonsuch Park before it got dark. 

(Clocks change soon, so good to enjoy these last autumnal rides before darker colder winter days are with us)

Back at Sutton, my mileage for the day was just under twenty five miles. 

A good day was had by all and thanks to Steve for leading and everyone else for good company, conversation and a steady paced ride in remarkably warm weather for the end of October. 

See you all again soon

Ian Prince

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.

 

Tony's All Day Ride to Biggin Hill, 8 October

Tony writes

The Hills where alive with the sound of cyclist on the last all day ride for 2022.  14 Riders left Beddington Pk in 2 groups.  The first group led out by Alan and second group by Tony

The  weather  could not have been better and at the airport cafe we could all sit  down outside for lunch watching the planes taking  off.

On the way back to tea we stopped in Shirley to view the windmill .

Matthew and Thomas led us back along the Wandle to Beddington Pk but as the cafe was so busy we made for the cafe at Carshalton ponds.

Thanks to Alan for leading and to the back markers. 

If anyone.fancies leading an all day ride in 2023 let me or Paul know

Tony