Conkers Meet
Darryl: “For the December meet, I travelled down from York to Burton on Trent by way of Cross Country Trains. Amazingly, given it was Cross Country, the trains were on time. After I had had a short sit down to recover from the shock, I made my way by bike to Conkers club site, by way of the back roads as far as Castle Gresley and then signposted trails through those parts of The National Forest known as Tunnel Woods and Moira Junction. At Moira Junction, I noticed a slight sinking feeling in the rear end of the bike. Flat tyre! As I was so close to the site, I pushed the last quarter mile or so and booked in, set up camp and changed the tube in the warmth of the laundry room. Much preferred to sitting at the side of a trail in the cold! The rest of the day/evening was spent saying hello to other ALCers and cooking food (and eating it!), before deciding it was too cold to sit around outside when I had a nice warm sleeping bag waiting for me.
After a nice warm night (4-season sleeping bags and thermal liners are a great improvement on the kit we had in the Scouts in the 70s and 80s!) I decided to turn down the offer of a group ride with the Brompton Owners Club (ALC Section) and headed out on my own with the intention of finding the incredibly deep ford at Sheepy Parva (Yes, it is a real place, just next door to Sheepy Magna) via the heaving metropolises of No Man's Heath and Orton on the (very steep) Hill. Sadly, the approach to the ford was down a farm track, which was "paved" with approximately 6" of pure Leicestershire mud, so I decided to try a different track. Preferably one that wouldn't end in my needing to scrape a couple of kilos of mud off my bike/my boots/out of the tent when I got home! In the end, I headed back to site through Norton-Juxta-Twycross (I'm not making these names up, you know!) and Donisthorpe. Another pleasant evening was spent chatting, eating and then retiring to the sleeping bag once it got too cold to sit about in the dark.
Sunday morning, I was packed up and away by 09:00 for the ride back to Burton on Trent railway station by the reverse of the outward route. I even managed to get to the station in plenty of time for the 10:30 direct train to York, which was a bonus. Another bonus was that I only had to evict one person out of the bike cupboard, even though the train was full and standing. After the train emptied out a bit at Derby, rather than go and look for a seat and worry about the safety of the bike, I remembered that I had my camping chair with me. Chair assembled, I could sit in the vestibule and watch my bike in comfort. The only comment from the Train Manager was “That's a brilliant idea!”
Susan: the December Meet was booked many months ahead in order to coincide with the visit of John Tams to the Moira Village Hall. I had never seen him perform but knew a lot about him because Pamela is a fan...and I'm sure we will book another John Tams Meet next winter. Pamela: John Tams has been described as one of the 'ultimate British songwriters'. He became a household name as Hagman in Sharpe and sang the theme tune John Tams 'Over the hills and far away' - live, 16 November 2010, Chequer Mead. He has been involved with the National Theatre, most notably on Warhorse which he performed at the Festival of Remembrance in 2014 Only Remembered - John Tams - War Horse. He performed for many years with Barry Tooke, and since Barry's untimely death John has performed solo. Any show of John's will be a good night with lots of audience participation. At Moira he ended with a new skill - ventriloquism - hard to describe and very funny!
Nigel: Several of us were lucky enough to see John Tams, the celebrated English folk singer-songwriter from Holbrook, Derbyshire. His career spans decades, from his early days with the band Muckram Wakes to his acclaimed solo albums and collaborations with the Royal Shakespeare Company. His music is deeply rooted in his homeland's landscapes and working-class heritage. In between singing he told stories and jokes, altogether a very enjoyable evening! We were even provided with free mince pies and Xmas cake!"
Sheelagh and Nigel completed their usual Saturday morning Parkrun, this time at the nearby Rosliston parkrun. They had previously run the Conkers parkrun next door and one of us needed a letter “R” for our alphabet. One of the most popular parkrun challenges is attending a parkrun starting with every letter of the alphabet except X*. We were so lucky as it turned out to be their Xmas parkrun event and there were numerous runners dressed up as Santa Claus, etc.
In addition there was the Rolls Royce Brass Band to entertain us with carols. It was a lovely trail course, up and down through the woods, and even “the swamp” was not as swampy as we had been told to expect! We weren't very fast but that didn't matter, we had enjoyed a run with lovely, friendly people and the hot chocolate from the cafe afterwards was delicious!
(*Does an Xmas parkrun gives you the letter X? Susan)
On the Saturday morning Chris, Sheelagh, Sarah and Nigel set off on a 37km circular ride, taking in Ticknall, Melbourne and Breedon. Apart from being a lovely day for a ride, considering it was mid December, we could also get a “BCQ” (British Cycling Quest) at Breedon on the Hill church. Ticknall was once an estate village, belonging to Calke Abbey.
Melbourne is a pretty and thriving village, once home to Thomas Cook, the estate agent, and it gave its name to Melbourne, Australia. There are several good cafes there but we had already had our excellent lunch at the National Trust cafe at Staunton Harold reservoir. The cafe looked closed before we went in, but after we sat in the front window, with our dayglo cycling gear and four Bromptons parked outside, their trade dramatically increased! Then we went onto Breedon, an historic place where there has been a place of worship since about 676AD. We got our BCQ there and also visited the grave of George and Hannah Jessop, the 5th great grandparents of one of our riders. There is a thoughtful and timeless message on the 200 year old gravestone:
"You Readers all, both Old and Young
Your time on Earth, will not be long
For Death will come and die you must
And like to us return to dust.
How short the date of human bliss!
Pale Death Sly, unsuspected, steals upon our joys,
Blasts the fair prospect with his freezing breath
And scoffs at aching hearts, and weeping eyes,
Husband, and Children objects once so dear
Come learn a lesson which my grave can teach
Your joys like mine will quickly vanish here
Then grasp at those which Death can never reach"
So readers Carpe Diem (seize the day!)
We got back to camp shortly before it started to get dark and a visit to the nearby chip shop completed a perfect day!