Trenchermen Take Note!

I'm instructed to provide you with this Sunday's menu and a little of the pub's history. I'll be leading from Kingston Bridge to Colnbrook where a familiar face or two will be lurking in the bus shelter at the far end of the High Street.

Author: Anonymous

Saturday 30 March 2013

Despite incidents at Caen Hill, Farleigh Hungerford and Penleigh, we covered most of the planned ride - a modest and very chilly 45 miles. Praise to Daniel and Paul for getting to Imber when the rest of us headed for the warmth of the hotel. After reliving childhood memories, Irene and I used the farm track between Westbury and Bratton thus avoiding (most of) the B3098 which everyone else took.

 

Author: Anonymous

Easter Sunday Night

The end of 2013 le tour de Vizes turned out to be free drinks in the pub. The Landlord was celebrating 5 years as publican & the first drink was free! Daniel took a shine to the bar staff one of whom took a shine to my hat. Saffy the dog took a shine both to Jen & me! Guess what it was a bitch and recognised tallent when it saw it!

Author: mike morley

Dinner on Tour de Vizes

A resounding thanks to Ann & Steve for yet another great Easter Tour. It was good to have Peter Southworth join us from South Bucks CTC & you are invited again next year! Dinner was taken on Friday & Sunday night at the Castle Hotel.

Author: mike morley

Devizes & Bradford on Avon

More from the Easter Tour

Author: mike morley

Easter Tour Devizes

Some highlights from 2013 tour. Familiar white horse, Devizes to Westminster canoe marathon, Daniel inspecting monument & "The 3 Musketeers"

Author: mike morley

C&M Sunday Ride - Easter Sunday - End of Lent

Boulter's Lock - Hedgerley - Walton-on-T

An auspicious day. Clocks put forward one hour to give us more evening light; Easter Sunday and early traffic on the roads to Kingston Bridge was light; despite a crisp frost, the roads were dry and mostly ice-free; for those who had just spent forty days in the wilderness, today marked the end of a self-imposed Lenten fast. So it was that three ladies and five gentlemen (let’s give Simon the benefit of the doubt) converged on Kingston Bridge. Has the word ‘lady’ really become a term of offence and disrespect to the female of the species? So I was informed this week on Woman’s Hour.

 

Notwithstanding, all happily followed Dave’s lead across the sun-lit Thames towards our Thames-side mid-morning destination at Boulter’s Lock near Maidenhead. With the river as our guide and the altimeter firmly stuck at sea-level, there was barely a ripple in the road surface to slow our progress through Sunbury and past Shepperton Studios to Staines, Runnymede, Windsor, Eton Wick, Dorney and the Fat Duck at Bray. Somehow, Dave managed to steer us across the Bath Road without our noticing to a well-earned bev and bun at Jenner’s Riverside Café by Boulter’s Lock. Here we were joined by a bemused foursome who, for some reason, had been waiting for us at Boulter’s Lock Café. How could there have been any doubt?

Refuelled, we left a swollen Thames for the gentle climb into Taplow, turned East just short of Cliveden to enjoy the narrow lanes of Littleworth before a short circuit along the A355 and beside the M4 took us up and down to Hedgerley and the whinny of the White Horse.

With a good choice of sandwiches and a bewildering selection of beers for those so inclined (my choice was a very tasty Churchill’s Pluck), we were soon being gently roasted by the volcanic heaters beside our table in the tented extension. By the end of the meal there was more lycra on the floor than on our shoulders, as well as the spleen we had vented on such objects of our discontent as our unworthy inheritors of the ‘rotten boroughs’ and in particular the dimwits now devaluing the BBC. How far down can dumbing-down go? Much further still it would seem.

What better therapy for discontent that the steep climb out of Hedgerley and then the mostly downhill glide through Fulmer, past Pinewood Studios, Shredding Green, Poyle, Stanwell, Ashford and Charlton back to the banks of the Thames at Walton. With the Garden Centre at Upper Halliford already shuttered, we took what cheer we could at Dino’s amid the building works of the reincarnated Walton Bridge. Our thanks to Dave for taking advantage of the extra hour of daylight and giving us an excellent and what for some may have been the longest ride of the year, my Cateye reading 83 miles.

Jeff

Author: Jeff