Invitation to our 2026 Annual Lunch

CTC South West London Annual Lunch and Prizegiving

4th March 2026 at 12:30 for lunch at 1 p.m.

We are delighted to tell you that Jennie has booked the Ristorante Sorrento (379 Ewell Road, Tolworth, KT6 7DE) for our annual lunch.

This has proved to be a most popular venue for the occasion since our first visit in 2018 and we are pleased to be able to hold the event there again.

The set price for our three-course lunch will be £25.25. This includes a 10% service charge, but does not include any drinks, coffee or tea. This is our menu:

Click on menu to enlarge

Please book by placing your order, and pay in advance by Sunday 15th February.

We expect the occasion will be attended by over 60 members, as it has been in recent years.

Please send an email message to Tim Court with your order for (i) a starter and (ii) a main meal. The waiters will take your orders for dessert after the main course on the day.

The preferred method of payment (£25.25) is a direct transfer via your online banking facility, but we can also accept cash or a cheque. For online payment please ask Tim C for our bank details if you don’t already have them. For a cash or cheque payment please check with Tim or your section representative. For anyone who has yet to pay their 2026 club subscription please consider adding your £3 when you pay for your lunch.

Any food allergies, dietary disorders or Vegan requirements must be notified to Tim when you advise your order so that these details can be noted and passed to the restaurant staff.

All ride leaders please note that your teams should be delivered to the restaurant by 12.30 p.m. so that everyone will have time to buy drinks, chat, and browse the photography exhibition, and settle down ready to confirm orders with the waiting staff.

Thank you

Tim C

Sunday 18 January 2026 – 11s Ride Report

 Bushy Park to Oxshott and Beyond

Bushy Park was once again the 11s venue for today’s ride. A relatively short, gently undulating route was planned, featuring a new lunch venue.

A good crowd turned out for the ride: Tony, Andy, Martina, Dave, Clive, Keith, Sabina, Alan, Simon, Graham, Carolyn, and Bernard. Joining us for the 11s section only were Dave V, Helen, Diane, and Madi.

We left Bushy Park via Lion Gate, heading south before turning left into Thames Ditton, continuing through Hinchley Wood, and crossing the Kingston Bypass to Claygate. A short detour took us up the hill at Red Lane, before turning right into Stevens Lane and onto the back end of Claygate. From there we headed west toward Esher.

We turned left onto the Portsmouth Road, riding almost as far as Cobham, where we entered Fairmile Lane for a few hundred metres. This led us onto the enjoyable downhill of Leigh Hill Road, then Stoke Road, and into The Tilt, which has been resurfaced since my last visit and was riding very nicely.

We soon arrived outside Café Barbara, the scene of the previous Friday’s 11s ride, before continuing on through Brundle Lane to Oxshott for lunch at the excellent Munch & Wiggles café. The owner, Ben, had reserved a covered and heated outdoor seating area for us, which was extremely cosy. He also organised a secure area for our bikes. Service was relatively quick, the food was very good, and we arrived just in time, as the café closes at 2:00 pm on Sundays.

We spent about an hour chatting and relaxing, helped along by some wonderful chocolate truffles kindly supplied by Ben. On departure, a few riders headed home directly, while the rest of us rode back toward Esher, turning into Sandy Lane for about a kilometre before turning left into The Ridings. Here we stopped at the blue plaque marking Tommy Sopwith’s residence in the early 1900s.

Soon after, we rejoined the Portsmouth Road for a short stretch to West End, then passed through part of the estate, riding past Wayneflete Tower, before descending to Molesey for our tea stop at Dish.

I believe Simon claimed the prize for the largest piece of cake, accompanied—as always—by plenty of banter and relaxed conversation. Eventually, though, it was time to head home.

It was a truly lovely day on the bike with a great group—thank you all. Special thanks go to Simon for back-marking, and to Andy and Dave for taking the photos.

Finally, a note for the future: it is becoming harder to fill the rides calendar, and we could really do with a few more ride leaders stepping forward.

Tony..

Sunday the 18th Jan

11's is at the Pheasanrty Lunch will be at, depending on numbers, Munch & Wiggles, additionally Cluck and Crusts or for those wanting to imbibe alcohol, the Victoria pub. Not too long a ride, but undulating. Tea will be at Dish, Hampton Court.

Tony..

Ride Report - Sunday 11 January 2026

 

It was a dull and cold start, and rain was forecast for later, but, undeterred, Simon, Keith, Lorraine, Terry, Clive and I met for elevenses at Leatherhead Wetherspoons, our first visit there for some time.

We lingered in the warm but eventually dragged ourselves back outside, by which time light rain had begun.    Keith, Simon, Clive and I continued to Pinnocks at Ripley via one of my more 'eclectic routes' (perhaps they would seem better ridden on an eclectic bicycle)?   Anyway, we took in the new Wisley Bridge, and the recently re-opened link to it from Elm Lane.   Then I went a 'bit loopy', and there were mutterings in the ranks, so I got us back on the straight and narrow!

Pinnocks was busy, but once the queuing bit was done, service was surprisingly efficient.   The rain, which had fizzled out during our ride from Leatherhead, had set in with renewed vigour while we were having lunch, and we went our separate, damp ways!

Thanks all for your company, and for putting up with it all!

Invitation to take part in the 2025 Photo Competition

Although I am a somewhat inert member of the C&M WhatsApp forum it hasn't escaped my notice that you had a bumper year in 2025 and that many of you have taken excellent photos. Therefore please feel warmly invited to take part in the 2025 Photo Competition via this link to the invitation.

The invitation includes instructions on how to submit photos via my Dropbox. 

Yours in expectation

Tim C

 

Your 2025 mileage scores please

This is a request to submit your mileage totals for the last twelve months (1st Jan. 2025 to 31st Dec. 2025) for consideration towards the annual awards for the greatest distances cycled. Your scores will be entered into the Big Spreadsheet where, since the dawn of the 21st century, the precious records of your accomplishments in the club have been maturing.

There are two shiny trophies, one for the woman who has cycled more miles than any other woman and one for the man with the highest mileage amongst the men.

And we have a special award, the Mark Roy Trophy, for the person recording the largest increase in mileage over the previous year. So anyone who has posted their mileage for both 2025 and 2024 is eligible. 

To summarise the rules, your miles must have been clocked up whilst riding your bicycle, tricycle, tandem or eBike on or off road. Mileages achieved on turbo trainers, Watt bikes or any other static contraption don't count. We know that this is something of a blow to members who have been riding through virtual alpine landscapes with Zwift or Rouvy but we only consider miles actually, rather than virtually, travelled.

For the competition, contenders for the prizes must be regular riders in the club though we are happy to collect mileage data for everyone who is a paid up member of CTC South West London. And we wish to continue recording mileages for our several members who ride eBikes.

If you are curious at all about how many miles you ride in the course of a year please start recording your distances for 2026 in a diary or spreadsheet.

Just one word of warning; several riders who use a GPS enabled device such as a Garmin, or smartphones running apps like Strava or RideWithGPS have experienced rides when their devices stop communicating with the satellites, sometimes for quite a while, and this can lead to totally unreliable data. So please verify the accuracy of your data. The evidence of this known problem is a long straight bee-line between two points on your ride where you know the road really had many twists and turns.

Fixie Dave's Garmin nodded off for a while with this result!

In my opinion this is not a problem which is specific to Strava or other phone app but is to do with the phone and its own software, memory resources perhaps. This erroneous data can also accumulate if you have hopped on a train with your bike but forgotten to stop recording 😏. Fancy doing that!

Please write to me with your total mileage:

Tim Court (Associate Bean Counter*)

We hope to be able to present the prizes in our traditional awards ceremony at the Annual Lunch, this year on Wednesday 4th March.

A very Happy New Year to you all and if you haven't been collecting your mileage scores please start now, from January 1st, 2026.

The Bean Counters need your numbers!

~ Tim C

*Nota Bene: The Bean Counting committee comprises Mick Arber and myself. Mick's primary source of fun is collecting the weekly attendance scores for Wayfarers and crunching the figures for all groups to identify the winners of the attendance trophies.

Happy New-format Rides List and a merry New Web Address for it! 🎄

As previously announced, we have made some changes to the online Rides List.  The layout is changing to make it easier to print, for distribution to a few people who are unable to access the online version.   This will ensure everyone can still get a rides list, now that The Sou'Wester is no longer produced in printed form.

The web address of the rides list is changing too, so please bookmark the new link.  You can access the rides list from the Sou'Westers website at http://cyclingswlondon.org.uk, by clicking on "Rides List".   If you have any concerns or comments, please let me know by email, or speak to one of the Rides Secretaries, Clive J or David W.