2019-08-29
TA EAST E-NEWS AUGUST 29TH 2019
To TA East members & local friends
From Ferg Muir
If you no longer wish to receive TA East E-News, please let me know and I will remove your address from the distribution list
This is reminder that this Saturday we have:
an Expedition into North-West Norfolk – SATURDAY 31ST AUGUST – Do give our Pete Martin our Captain (North) your support
Meet at Docking at 10:00 am;
Coffee at Simply Delicious, Bridge Street, Fakenham;
Lunch at Fox and Hounds, Weasenham All Saints.
Further details: Pete Martin 07932 878030
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Next on the calendar comes:
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 29 Lea Valley CC 30m Time Trial, E1/30. Now hosting the SE TA Invicta Trophy tandem trike 30. Details of the LVCC event in the CTT Handbook. Beds available at The Hut. More details to follow on various TA formats.
FRI/SAT OCTOBER 4 / 5 Autumn Bash at The Lea Valley Hut. A short and gentle run on Sat. Or a visit to the Great Chesterford Steam Up if its run. Other details similar to March 29 / 30 , with possibly dinner at the Ash followed by:
SUNDAY OCTOBER 6th The TA E Region Autumn 25,Course E1/25B, Ugley Essex, Organiser Michael Keen, mandfathome@gmail.com
Mob or text 07498 297373. Details in CTT handbook.
Can we get 90 trikes ?
I WOULD WELCOME DETAILS OF THESE EVENTS FROM THOSE IN THE KNOW – FOR PUBLICATION HERE
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Indeed, being stuck for items, I would welcome trike-related contributions to TA EAST-E-NEWS
For the moment – being full of memories of late summer sunshine, here is my September 2005 account of:
GRETA’S WARWICKSHIRE FORD RUN.
The first memories are a bit of a blur, because it took some concentration to hang on to Greta Spiers and Martin Badham on the tandem trike without falling off – but there was soon a nice long stop while they worked out where they had got lost.
That was outside Ragley Hall. Then it was through Alcester to Coughton – almost a National Trust village – with a wide shallow ford with unusual aluminium rails to the footbridge, the ford looking as if it was enjoyed by canoeists and buggy riders, as well as tricyclists. My friends tried to splash me while I was taking photos.
Then a riverside lane and, leaving the River Arrow, into the valley of the Alne, the river that comes down from Heney-in-Arden. Past a “No Through Road” sign to Kinwarton, shown on the OS map with the smallest print they use, but with church, rectory, farm, National Trust dovecote, mill, weir and FORD.
The tarmac ended. Turn left to the church first. Isolated, tiny, with grey weatherboarded bellcote and bijou porch. Then, minus trikes, through a herd of very small bullocks, whose job was to keep the grass nice (which they did, provided you looked where going) to the dovecote, the doves departing hastily when we went inside.
Back to the trikes and to the right turn. First gravel track, then after a gate, a grass causeway across a field, with the sound of the weir to the left. Quite trikeable (the causeway, I mean). It led to a line of trees – and the FORD. There it was – with a footbridge, but one a lot narrower than a trike. The ford was mud and gravel, clearly almost never used, deep water under the bridge, but with shallower rapids a few yards downstream.
If we turned back it would be a long way round.
Martin, who was wearing those Shimano cycling sandals, volunteered to wade across with the tandem trike in tow. We helped with encouragement from the footbridge. He made it.
So, with two people to each machine, we lifted the solo trikes above the handrails and carried them across in triumph. (That’s how I got the oily chain marks on my chest) .
After that, hauling the trikes up to the road was easy. And so, except for a few hills, was the ride through villages of half-timbering like I hardly knew existed outside showplaces, back to Marlcliff. We had actually only done 18 miles.
It only remained to clean the worst of the mud off our tyres, before the likes of Malcolm Elliott ( This was the day before the Warwick Criteriums, Elliott was a famous pro at the time ) saw them on the start line next day, and to enjoy the domain and the hospitality of Greta and Harold and the company of tricyclists.
FRM
Best Wishes to You All
Ferg Muir 01603 615000, fergusmuir@btinternet.com
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