Bob Mcleod writes….
I’m feeling a little guilty about abandoning the group 3 ride today. It looks as though I only started riding with them so that I could enjoy last week’s excellent Christmas dinner at the Scarlet Arms. Not true. Neither was it just because Pat was leading dressed up as a reindeer.
The truth is very simple. I was enticed by the offer of Apple Crumble at the Crossways Inn at Churt, plus the added inducement of being towed home, almost to my door, by that excellent leader John Murdoch. (This is not to assume that there are not equally good leaders with group 3 but so far they have never offered their rear wheel and towed me home.)
As to the photo. I shot ahead, being familiar with the opportunities this ford on the road past Little Frensham offers for a sometimes dramatic picture. It can be a very tricky crossing, as many of you, including our leader, know. Often riders dismount to take the bridge in order to stay dry, only to be thrown into the stream having slipped on the greasy planking. Sadly no such incident occurred today. Another common incident is for a rider to run out of speed having removed his feet from the pedals and then not being quite able to clear the stream, dismounts into the water. This happened to one unnamed individual today but due to my ineptitude I had failed to get the camera ready in time.
I offer my apologies for the photo of Don looking triumphant having foiled my attempt at getting an interesting action shot.
Following some very mixed conditions over previous days, the weather today was nothing short of spectacular for two days before Christmas: blue sky and as mild as Majorca. Your scribe joined everyone at the under new management Seale Coffee Shop, where some of us took our refreshments at a table outside, there being no room in the inn-side. (Note festive connotations!)
Our group, ably led by Pat, was taken to Shamley Green via Elstead, Thursday, Bowlhead Green, Witley, Hambledon, Vann Lane, Loxhill, Dunsfold and Cranleigh – a stupendous loop along familiar and much loved roads & lanes, with the bonus of a shortcut along a mostly tarmacked track between Vann Lane and Loxhill – sort of.
The Bricklayers Arms provided a decent sandwich for lunch after which the group dispersed homewards in various directions.
My ride was 63kms long with a height gain of 533 metres. Full details of the route here: https://www.strava.com/activities/455117853
Following the JW Epic / Christmas Lunch ride of last Sunday, out of which I funked owing to…. well, lots of things really (but not a sense of foreboding – I am no soothsayer sadly), a sense of duty urged me to turn up for today’s ride, not to mention the proximity of the start to my domicile.
Under lowering skies and temperatures more akin to Gaza than Godalming, we set off by climbing the dreaded Holloway Hill before joining what I call my regular training ride – I do it at least once every two years: Enton (Water Lane) – Witley (Church Lane) – over the A286, but not before managing to fall off grace à M. Hackman, but entirely my fault for being so close as to be half-wheeling him; then he slowed and swerved somewhat abruptly; that’ll teach me! Once over the 286 it was my favourite lane and track all the way to Hindhead.
We continued happily westwards through Grayshott and Headley to reach the Greedy Frog garden centre at Oakhanger for morning coffee and nibbles. This is quite a new stop for us and really quite pleasant – made even more so today because it rained whilst we were there – and stopped by the time we were back on the road. Another 20 or so miles brought us to Lasham aerodrome and a spot of lunch.
Once devoured we headed off once again homeward bound but those lowering skies finally decided that we no longer deserved to remain dry. From a few light spots as we left Lasham, the rain slowly but innocuously increased in that fashion which inclines one to refrain from stopping to don waterproof in the belief that it might just ease up. After all, I was wearing for the first time my new West Surrey club Gamex windproof so perhaps it was worth testing for ‘waterproof-osity’. And in fact it did very well indeed; however, such was the length of the ride home, not to mention the deluge that we rode through, that I doubt even my trusty old Freestyle Goretex would have kept the rain out. Thankfully the mildness of the day meant that it was almost impossible to get cold and so one reached home soaked but not frozen solid.
My ride from Godalming was a respectable 100.4kms with 986m of climbing; Julian’s from West Horsley was considerably more respectable! Details of the route may be found here: https://www.strava.com/activities/453478391
Louise Gagnon writes….
Our cycling club attendance always rises on the days throughout the year when the advertised lunch venue is the Scarlett Arms. This time, we had reserved the place for our Christmas lunch and we were again treated to amazing service and superb food by Tracey the landlady and her team.
We had pre-selected our choice of meals and all was delivered promptly and flawlessly thanks to the professionalism of the staff under the watchful eye of Tracey who, I swear to God, in a previous life must have been a Sergeant-Major in the Parachute Regiment!
The open log fire and cozy main room made it the perfect setting for our rather festive group. We were unanimous in finding the whole experience superb value for money. So much so that I was glad to write a little review on Trip Advisor, giving the place a perfect rating.
Let me say a big, big thank you to John Child from all of us G3s of the Wednesday Midweek Wayfarers. We cannot thank you enough for having once again made best use of your initiative and meticulous organisation skills to make this Christmas lunch a memorable and very social experience for everyone. This Christmas lunch is a tradition started a few years ago by Neil Eason who also seem to have a penchant for the Scarlett Arms.
Only one complaint: could Bob McLeod and I sit different tables next year please? He kept eying my apple strudel and I found this most annoying, especially when he tried distracting my attention on two occasions.
G3s Christmas lunch at the Scarlett Arms in Walliswood (Dec 15)
Bob eyeing up Louise’s strudel
