Halfords has acquired Tredz and Wheelies for £18.4m to help it grow its online presence. Both will continue to trade as standalone businesses under their current management
With a scheduled start of Godalming we feel that we have an early contender for the wooden crank award for our fellow rider who went to Guildford. We finally started from the roundabout where the A3100 meets Chalk Road. We doubled back on ourselves and set off for Selbourne via Elstead, Churt Arford, Bourdon and Blackwater. A distance of 34.5m, a reasonable speed of 12 mph and an average temperature of 14°C made for a lovely ride though the average temperature belied a large variation depending on the cloud and tree cover which made me alternate between being pleasantly warm and a little cold.
Selbourne is a lovely coffee stop, friendly, great cakes and you can get the teapot filled up with hot water. But where is lunch going to be? Well we can go the flat route to Kings Worthy or the hilly route to Bishops Waltham. We were informed that we were going to Kings Worthy for the simple reason, as we found out, that the Captain has moved on from bluebells and now it is wild garlic that we must admire. If my limited map reading skills work, Mill Lane just south of Empshott is the place to go for a visual and olfactory treat. The nature watching part of our rides is definitely growing in importance. Have you head a cuckoo yet? No. Have you seen a few Highland Cattle on the ride? Yes.
But flat this route was not. A few “bunnyhops” of severe gradients tested us. Heaven only knows what the lumpy route to Bishops Waltham would have been like. I recorded a total climb of 6,200 ft over the whole day. Last year we were doing 5,000 ft of climb a ride. I fear that the expedition to Corsica has led the Captain to refine his perspective on hills.
The churches we passed en route are noteworthy for their architecture, one appearing to be in the Norman style with its round arch windows and dog tooth stone work and another showing some distinctive Early English simple four-centred arch windows and buttresses. A beautiful rose window caught the eye but I couldn’t tell you which church they were. Some lovely houses observed as well.
After 24 miles, the garden centre in Kings Worthy provided excellent food. The sandwiches were of doorstopper dimensions and the cakes were good. Rain set in before we set out so jackets were donned and wishful glances made to see if it was going to be long lasting or a passing shower. Luckily it was not too heavy nor lasted too long. The ride home was 49 miles with a maximum of 40 mph just by freewheeling. The total ride was 107 miles. The joys of long days.
On behalf of Peter Hackman…
Hi All Group 4’s,
I was supposed to be leading tomorrow’s ride from Pirbright to Frensham GC, however, the forecast is looking decidedly wet so I have decided not to ride.
If anyone decides to go I’m sure you know the way there and please take care.
Best regards,
Peter Hackman
Kind regards
Laurie Mutch
+44 7887 650 777
Thank you, those 13 of you who asked me to be their proxy at the recent CTC/CUK AGM. There were about 50 people present in the meeting, and from the voting figures announced in the meeting it would appear that they were able to cast roughly 100 proxy votes between them in addition to their own. The chairman on the other hand held about 2900 proxy votes, including 900-odd discretionary ones which were all cast in favour of the Council line as set out in the April ‘Cycle’. Thus all resolutions were decided in advance of the meeting by the proxy votes, and the only two that did not go the Council’s way, via directed proxy votes vested in the chairman, were:
Resolution 6 – passed: that candidates for election to Council must have been fully paid-up members for at least a year;
Resolution 8 – passed: that CTC follow the recommendations of NCVO – Report of the Inquiry into Charity Senior Executive Pay.