MAGAZINE & RUNS LIST August to October 2001 · 2014-09-19 · 244a London Road, Waterlooville ( 023 9224 0087 Extensive range of parts, accessories & clothing Repairs Hand-built wheels

MAGAZINE & RUNS LIST

August to October 2001

50

Cycle World

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DA President: Dave Pilbeam( 023 9226 7095 DA Secretary: Mike Elson( 023 9247 5785 Newsletter Editor: Keith Wileman( 01243 372841 (email) [email protected] Newsletter Sales: Mike Edwards( 01243 371267

Copy for next issue as soon as possible - 30th September latestto Keith, 3 Danbury Court, Emsworth, PO10 7RD

Cover design by Pam Pilbeam Portsmouth DA on the internet: www.hants.org.uk/ctcportsmouth Email: [email protected]

The Quarterly Magazineof the

Portsmouth District Association,The Cyclists’ Touring Club

Portsmouth DA events16-24 Sept Dordogne week22 Sept Map reading4 Nov DA AGM10 Nov Barn dance

August 2001

page 4 Editorial opinions Welcome 6 Selamat datang 10 75th anniversary ride 11 Ten little cyclists 12 Mallorcan memories 15 75th anniversary 16 My old trike 18 Our first sponsored ride 19 Tea with the patron 20 Hill climb and freewheel report 21 Letter to the editor 22 Photographic hints 24 Fortieth anniversary El Diario d’España 25 Treyford sign 26 Errors and apologies Sales & Wants 27 Leaky patch

Portsmouth DA Magazine4

Editorial opinions

A s I write this it’s just about the height ofsummer, bringing a week of very hot

days and pleasantly warm evenings. So warm,in fact, that I prefer to sit in the garden untilit gets dark rather than go upstairs, sit at thecomputer and work on the magazine. So,depending on how long the hot spell lasts,this magazine might be late.

This weather also rapidly turns the lawnbrown. I sometimes notice the differencebetween my neighbours’ lawns and mine, andthink perhaps I should aerate and weed andre-sow and fertilise. Then I come to my

senses, realise it’s only a patch of grass and Iget on my bike.

T hanks for some more 75 word entries,although I can’t help feeling that one of

them is a blatant attempt to get round therules.

T he DA photo at Fort Widley was a greatsuccess. I counted about 70 people on

the photo and, amazingly, everybody wasrecognisable. Thanks to all the organisers.

John Robert Bailey (6 months) FarehamMrs C Buckman Portsmouth

Mr S Buckman PortsmouthMr T Buckman Portsmouth

Mr R A Dawson WaterloovilleMr T Hall Gosport

Mr C Lodge WaterloovilleMr G Mayhew WaterloovilleMr B Morgan SouthseaMr I Parven CoshamMr M Sibley CowplainMr S Silk SouthseaMr B Turnell EmsworthMrs H Turnell EmsworthMr M Turnell EmsworthMr P Turnell EmsworthMrs L H Wrixon Hayling IslandMr P Beresford Lee on SolentMr L Fry Portsmouth

Portsmouth DA Magazine5 5August 2001

CTC romance

T he DA thanks Keith Budd for the gift of a book to cele-brate the DA’s 75th anniversary. “The Romance of theCyclists’ Touring Club” by James T Lightwood, pub-

lished in 1928, tells the history of cycling and of the CTC up tothat date. In it there’s a mention of the formation, two years pre-viously, of the Portsmouth DA.The DA magazine editor, who seems also to have assumed therole of unofficial DA archivist, holds a number of books belong-ing to the DA as well as bound copies of the CTC Gazette from1891 to 1956. Also an incomplete series of Cycletouring afterthis date.All these are available to be borrowed by DA members. Ask theeditor for a list of the books he holds.

DA AGMThe AGM will be on Sunday,4th November at 3pm at theRed Cross hall in EmsworthHouse Close, Emsworth.

DA barn dance10th November is the date for thebarn dance. Once again at Haylingcommunity centre and led by thefamous Bursledon Band.Tickets are £6 from Pat Mitchell orothers.

Photo competitionT he DA photographic competition will be judged at a No-

vember Club night. The two subjects are “general” and“75”. The judge will interpret “75” liberally.An entry consists of six slides or six prints - being four “gener-al” and two “75”. Anynumber of entries perperson.Trish Farnham will bepleased to receive yourcompetition entries anytime.

Map reading competition ison Saturday 22nd September.

Ride a mechanical horseThe Thursday evening ride on 23rd August will be to Fort Widleywhere you can ride a horse without moving from the spot.See the insert for more details.


Selamat datangA trip around Malaysia

Wally Sodeau

A fter the blaring public address systemof the congested and rather grubbyHeathrow airport it was a delight to

once again arrive at the spacious clean and se-rene Kuala Lumpur international airport. Thismust surely be the best designed and most or-ganised airport in Asia, if not the world. And ithas its own miniature rain forest in the mainconcourse. A real touch of class. This was thestart of a return trip to Malaysia - Mick and Be-atrice Cooper on their tandem and myself onmy old and well travelled Claud Butler (Claudand I have travelled together in 16 countriesnow during the past five years).The problem I have with a directflight eastwards is my circadianrhythm gets well out of synchand it takes days to catch up -well that's my excuse for beingexhausted in the first few days.We arrived on Saturday eveningand as we had an internal flight the followingafternoon we decided to stay at the ConcordeHotel close to the airport. This was a little ex-pensive but very convenient as we did not haveto unpack the bikes and used the hotel bus as atransit vehicle. The driver remembered us fromlast year.We flew north to Kota Bharu to start our tour.The flight was about one hour and went wellalthough somewhere in transit from Heathrowthe tandem had suffered a bent chainring whichrequired Mick's engineering skills to straighten- brute force and a screwdriver used as a jem-my. We found our way into town and located amid-range hotel which was, as were all the ho-tels we found, clean and with en-suite toilet andshower.Most towns in Malaysia have food marketswhich open up in the evening and offer a de-lightful array of local dishes, freshly cookedand some quite exotic, at what to us are very

cheap prices. The system is that you select afood stall and choose the dish you requirewhich is then wrapped usually in a banana leafor grease-proof paper. You then pay the stallholder and take the meal to one of the manytables available, order a drink from the stallholder who looks after that particular table, andsit down and enjoy your meal. My eveningmeal usually cost a little over £1 including adrink.There are of course the usual well appointedrestaurants catering for tourists but we pre-ferred to eat with the locals.The next morning we headed off north, butonly a little way. We had to dart back to thehotel as a certain lady had left her money beltunder the pillow. We cycled to Kuala Tabor tocatch the ferry across the estuary to Thailand.

There was some delay whilst ahorde of porters unloaded bar-rows stacked high with fruit andvegetables and a variety of otherunidentifiable goods. We even-tually got on board for the tenminute crossing after havingpassed through immigration and

paid the equivalent of ten pence fare (no chargefor cycles).We had to fill in the usual forms and get ourpassport stamped on the Thai side before a veryhot ride to the coastal town of Narathiwatwhere we booked into a cheap Chinese hotelrun by a very elderly couple. As we were onour way out to eat later that evening the venera-ble proprietor told us that he locks up and goesto bed at 8.30pm. We were able to negotiate alate pass-out until 9pm and on our return theold guy made sure we went straight to bed andescorted us to our rooms before putting out thelanding light.In the morning we decided to re-trace our routeback to Kota Bharu as the alternative appearedto be the main truckers' route taking produceand other goods into Malaysia and Thailand. Itwas hot, very hot. Mick changed the baht wehad bought the previous day back to Malaysianringgits and made a profit. This side trip toThailand had cost us £5.20 each for all food

As we were on ourway out to eat, theproprietor told us thathe locks up and goesto bed at 8.30pm


and accommodation.We had intended to get an early start but afterpacking up and trotting downstairs to load thebikes, Beatrice noticed it was raining - mon-soon style. We delayed our start and cycled inwarm, light rain for about 30 minutes and afteranother monsoon shower the rain eased. Wetook the coastal road through small interjoinedvillages to Melawi where the scenery changedto more open paddy fields alongside mile aftermile of unspoilt sandy beaches which at thistime of year were absolutely deserted.During a lunch break we were given good ad-vice about the route ahead. According to themap the coast route disappears for part of theroute making a diversion back to the main roadnecessary, but we were told of a dirt road thatled direct to our destination, Kuala Besut,which started at a wooden bridge close towhere a new bridge was under construction.We missed this turn off andwere told by a cheerful andhelpful road worker that wecould take a short cut and re-join the dirt road. This routetook us over scrub land,through forests, across a streamand up and down an embank-ment before we finally hit thedirt road. It was well worth it because it was alovely meandering track, rough at times, welloff the beaten track and very rural, never farfrom the shore, with fishermen mending netsand one man using a trained monkey to climbtrees and throw down coconuts.The next day I was suffering badly, mainlythrough dehydration and a touch of upset tum-my, so we had a couple of short days beforereaching Kuala Terengganu which is a largish,quite pleasant town with a Seri Malaysia hotel -rather posher than we had been used to but verywelcome. As I was decidedly under the weatherwe had a rest day, at least I did, but Mick andBeatrice went for a bike ride for a change.I quickly improved after dosing myself up withImmodium, pills for stomach cramps, rehydra-tion salts and high protein food supplements.We continued our coastal route down the west

coast to Dungun, like its name a dismal place,then I dropped off at a coastal resort Cherating,while Mick and Beatrice pushed on to Kuantanwhere I was to meet them a day later.Cherating is on the backpackers’ route, there iseven a Club Med here. It's a lovely bay but Ishould think that in the season it’s swampedwith young copycat "adventurers" followingtheir Lonely Planet bibles who fill up the barsand restaurants which have sprung up to supplythis profitable market. It was rather a shock tosee menus in English promoting sausages andbeans and alcohol. I found a good local hoteland paid Malay prices.On the road to Kuantu I got a puncture oppositea hole in the wall shop which fixed tyres. Mybike, to them, was a bit exotic, but I got a lot ofenthusiastic friendly help which was a real hin-drance and delayed the inner tube swap consid-erably. At one time the owner shot off on his

moped and returned five minuteslater with a new tube, unfortu-nately the wrong size with aSchrader valve, put the help wasunstinting.I eventually met up with Mickand Beatrice at another Seri Ma-laysia hotel and had a pleasantafternoon and evening topping

up with food.We took the coast road south. Again it wasvery quiet and extremely beautiful with lovelyisolated Kampongs next to deserted sandybeaches which extended all the way down thiscoast. After Pekan our guide book and all avail-able intelligence informed us that there's a longlong stretch of uninhabited jungle with no ac-commodation. Hence an 86 mile day. It wasquite easy riding with a slight tail wind and wefinally reached a village called Lanjut.A side road indicated a holiday resort sevenkilometres off the road and we reluctantly tookthis road as we were unsure whether the hotelwould be open. It turned out to be an upmarketgolf resort charging £40 per night. We retracedour steps to the village and found a superb quietchalet resort for £9 a night adjacent to a beauti-ful deserted beach in a lovely garden setting.

I got a lot ofenthusiastic friendlyhelp which was a realhindrance anddelayed the inner tubeswap considerably


We were the only guests, so we had a rest day.Refreshed we continued south to Mersing, atransit town for the tourist islands of Tioman,and thence on to Kota Tinggi. This day wasquite hilly and I had difficulty keeping up withthe tandem as they revel in honking up everyhill. We stopped at a roadside cafe for refresh-ments but as they had no soft drinks the ownerjumped on his moped and sped off to buy someat a nearby shop. His daughter had her Englishtext book out so we gave her some impromptuEnglish conversation. After a friendly chat andexchange of photo opportunities we left butthey refused to accept any payment for refresh-ments.From Kota Tinggi our next stop was due to beSenai which is where Johor Bahru airport lies.But first we visited the KolaTinggi waterfalls which wason the way - almost. This isan attraction much visited bylocals and as it was the week-end there were quite anumber of bathers around thevarious pools. There werelots of young friendly peoplewho seem to love the idea of having their pho-tograph taken standing next to handsome Eng-lish people. It made us feel like film stars.After this experience we were faced with somerather gruelling hills in very hot still air and allthree of us were pleased to locate a hotel only afew miles from the airport. Beatrice must havebeen eating well as the tandem developed twobroken spokes in the back wheel.Mick had stowed his spare spokes in the seattube. We had to upend the bike and bounce itup and down to dislodge them and in doing soalmost wrecked the pannier rack. Mine are al-ways taped onto a seat tube. Between us wehad enough spokes of the right size to enablethe repair and get on the road again.The next morning we took a 1½ hour flight toKuching in Sarawak. Although one of the Ma-laysian states, Sarawak has its own immigrationcontrol so another stamp appeared in our pass-ports. Kuching is a busy tourist town with allthe posh Holiday Inn type hotels and we had

not seen so many white faces since leavingHeathrow.Our hotel, the Supreme, was a mid-range typewhich included breakfast. We had a baked beancount every morning as they were a bit stingyon the allocation. Beatrice won with 26 beanson our last day - we think she bribed the chef.We visited the Semanggoh wildlife rehabilita-tion centre to see the orang-utans which issome 20 kilometres from Kuching or 25 milesif you get lost. The initial aim of the centre wasto rehabilitate confiscated orang-utans into theforest reserve. Throughout the years theseorang-utans had been successfully adapting tothe wild again and whereas they used to be fedat regular times, when wild fruits are availablein the forest they will not be fed in the centre.

Needless to say it was thefruit season so the orang-utans did not appear and ourvisit was fruitless! At least itshows that they were adapt-ing very well to the wild hab-itat of Semanggoh.The centre also houses con-

fiscated animals of other totally protected spe-cies from hornbills to sea eagles to porcupines,sun bears, gibbons and crocodiles. We thoughtthe cages used for these animals were too con-fined and totally inadequate.The next day was a monsoon day, so we had awet walk around town paying visits to muse-ums and shops.We decided to visit the cultural village as it wasour last day in Sarawak, and what a good day itwas. The village encompasses a 17½ acre areain the foothills of Mount Santuboug frontingthe South China Sea with seven authentic andethnic houses built around a very picturesquelake. There are handicraft-making demonstra-tions by different ethnic groups and you canobserve the household chores, games, rituals,ceremonies and music of the various peoples.There is also a theatre show of tribal dancingand music before a traditional well presentedmeal. It was obviously set up for tourists butwhen we visited the village it was uncrowdedand very peaceful and welcoming with plenty

People who seem to lovethe idea of having theirphotograph takenstanding next tohandsome English people


First attempts at riding a penny farthingor

What happened to Fred part 2Fred was determined to master the penny farthing.Energy restored by lunch at the Treagusts' he set off for Funting-ton, accompanied by Alison on a Bantam, where the petrol sta-tion owner also had a penny farthing and was soon teaching Fredthe best way to mount and dismount.Using the rear step Fred was soon agilely leap-frogging onto thesaddle and nimbly dismounting.Fred rode back to Emsworth with a satisfied smile on his face.The endAlison Mason

75

of time for interesting chats to the inhabitants.The next day we flew back to Kuala Lumpurwhere we again overnighted at the ConcordeHotel before returning to the sleet, cold andfoot and mouth of England.I like Malaysia for several reasons:qThe people are friendly, honest and welcom-ing. They are proud of their multi-racial societyand how well they are integrated - Malays, Chi-nese and Indian.

qBeing a predominantly Muslim country, es-pecially in the north-east, there's little alcoholavailable, so no loutish behaviour.qThe young girls look beautiful with their hairelegantly covered and long flowing dresses,much better than the short skirted, sleevelessfashions in westernised Sarawak.qThere is no hassle or drugs. Trafficking inillegal drugs carries the death penalty.I shall return hopefully soon. n

Miss Earrings

Y ou know that I dictate some magazine articles into my computer - those thatare hand-written or indistinctly typed. Occasionally my computer doesn’t un-

derstand what I say to it and comes up with something completely different.A couple of its recent misunderstandings are:rode from Caracas to Bogota - rode from crackers to buy the carPam Pilbeam - ample bean


7575th anniversaryride9th May 2001

Pat Mitchell

T he dawn was cool over Portchester onWednesday 9th May as those gatheredfor the re-enactment of the first Port-

smouth DA ride from Portchester to Stone-henge prepared to depart. A photo-call wastaken under a banner prepared by Trish. Thetandemists, Pat and Dave, missed this sincethey (she) chickened out of a double ascent ofPortsdown Hill and awaited the first arrivals atSkew Road, taking shelter from a cold wind.First to reach the top was Keith Drew in racingmode closely followed by Trish, Bill and Mar-gret. Keith carried on to Salisbury and break-fast where he was joined by Pop, Wally andColin Brown who were making it a two-dayevent by arriving from Salisbury Youth Hostel.Godfrey also varied the route by going direct toStockbridge to meet us hopefully for lunch.The rest of the riders crested the hill, Gordonfaithfully bringing up the rear.The annual Bob Kemp Breakfast MemorialRide normally starts at 5am on a Saturday inJune and it was noticeable that traffic densitywas far heavier on a working Wednesday asour leader, Mike Edwards, ably assisted byDave Culverwell, led us to our interim break-fast stop by the River Test at Brambridge. Theladies of the group commented that, unlike thetraffic, the greenery cover was not so dense inMay!On from Brambridge, passing Hilliers Arbore-

tum showing some early azalea colour, Locker-ley, The Deans and then close to the ThreeCrowns at Whaddon, where the original ridersstopped for tea. Making good time, we arrivedat Woollies for breakfast after which, havingsatisfied the inner man and woman, we headednorth along the Wiltshire cycle-way which usesthe banks of the River Avon through Salisbury.Making a rare all-day ride was Bob Wright, andan even rarer rider with us as, a soloist, wasBrian Griggs. Arriving at Stonehenge, the ban-ner was again raised for a photo-call. It wasunlikely that the original riders had to copewith barbed wire, security guards or foot andmouth precautions!The photographic session taking longer thanexpected, we hurried on for lunch at Stock-bridge. A puncture effectively split the group -the “pubbers” went on and the “sandwichers”followed after repairs. Having consumed theirsandwiches, Colin Chester and Mike Elsonwere seen to be eyeing up the very large troutof the Test - for supper? Our delayed lunchmeant that we never did meet up again withGodfrey which was unfortunate.Our afternoon ride was marred by some rain -the weather never did live up to expectations.The ride took us to the tea stop at The SwanHotel at Alresford where the first arrivals, whoshall be nameless but ride a tandem, wereguilty of eating the only available scones.The final leg took us over Beacon Hill,Corhampton, Soberton and home. Fifteen ridersin total, most of these will have completed aminimum of 120 miles, depending on theirstart, and I suspect all will have been above theaverage age of that first ride 75 years ago.Thank you Mike for the ride. n


Ten little cyclistsGordon Davey says some of our readers may like to amuse them-selves putting names to the following unfortunate riders involvedin a mythical club ride.

Ten Havant cyclists rode forth in a line. One got a tyre blow-out and then there were nine.Nine eager cyclists decided not to wait, but one stayed behindto help and then there were eight.Eight happy cyclists stopped for CTC* at 11. One had to gethome for lunch and then there were seven.Seven venturesome cyclists tried some rough stuff just forkicks. One fell in the Chichester canal and then there were six.Six hungry cyclists at the lunch place did arrive. One stayedtoo long in the pub and then there were five.Five homeward-bound cyclists, of the route they were quitesure, but one managed to go astray and then there were four.Four weary cyclists looking forward to their tea. One didn'twant to stop so then there were three.Three anxious cyclists, a storm was beginning to brew. Onetook shelter in a smelly barn and then there were two.Two bedraggled cyclists, the day was nearly done. One divert-ed to go home and then there was one.One lone cyclist all by himself. Not much fun, never mind hehad his van parked nearby so then there were none.* coffee, tea and cakes, in case anybody doesn't know

Any relation?

From CTC Gazette 1924


Mallorcanmemories

Brian Johns

T his was not what we had been led toexpect - having to battle into a bitterlycold north-easter under leaden skies,

wearing four layers of clothing trying to keepwarm. We were on our 45-mile trek acrossMallorca from the airport to Port de Pollença.Our misery was compounded by the fact thatwe had missed a turning and had ended up onthe main road between the island's two maintowns, resulting in coaches and lorries zippingpast our ears at a great rate of knots. I had per-suaded Chris to come on solos and she hatesmain roads so she was not too happy.We were saved by the hard shoulder, but therewas also a four-foot drop into aconcrete-lined ditch on the nearside so disaster loomed on ei-ther flank. After struggling up along hill we were able to turnoff onto a side road and thewhole scene changed. Hell hadturned suddenly into heaven as so often hap-pens in cycling (and vice versa!) as we foundourselves cycling on quiet country roadsthrough orange trees laden with fruit and fieldscarpeted with a profusion of wild flowers.Our adventure had started the previous daywith a 1¾ hour flight from Gatwick to Palma.We had always wanted to holiday in Mallorcaand take part in Stan Turner's cycle camp. Butlast summer our daughter announced that ourthird grandchild was on the way so we had toput our plans for April on hold. However, Oliv-ia Anne duly arrived punctually and by the timeChris had seen Katy and co. through the firstweeks we reckoned we were able to attend thecamp if we could get a flight. Meon Travelfound us a flight for £99 plus £7 to pick up ourtickets at the airport plus £30 for each bike, so afew days later we found ourselves squeezedinto an Airtours Airbus taking off from Gat-wick.

We arrived late afternoon so it was decided tospend the first night in the nearest resort, CanPastilla, which is one of the resorts on the five-mile stretch of white sand that makes up thePlaya de Parma. There is an accommodationoffice at the airport so we had no problembooking a hotel. Keith had kindly furnishedinstructions how to leave the airport by bikeand we found the cycle signs leading awayfrom the airport without difficulty. But we be-came confused when we ended up in a buildingsite where a large hotel and a flyover were be-ing constructed.We asked some workmen the way and theypointed to a home-made sign saying “Platja”pointing to another flyover crossing the motor-way. We had hunted for this place on the map,without success, and it was only a few days lat-er that we realised that the preferred languageon Mallorca is Catalan and not normal Spanish

so “Platja” is preferred to “Playa”and simply means “Beach”. Toour dismay, the flyover did a360° turn and we ended up on themotorway. Fortunately after afew hundred yards there was aturnoff which took us directlyinto Can Pastilla.

There a shock awaited us - it was like enteringa German town. Hotel signs, restaurant menus,doctor's names, for sale notices, all were inGerman with a scattering of English pubs forgood measure. Northern European culture hascompletely swamped this coastal strip. Weeventually found our hotel which was backfrom the beach and was actually Spanish. Itwasn't the best in the world but at only £12 forthe room we couldn't grumble.Next day we took the road which headed northinto the hinterland and within a few hundredyards we were out of the tourist conglomerationinto the genuine Mallorcan countryside withfarms, small villages and derelict windmills.On our old map our route should have crossedstraight over the main road, but there was noth-ing there so we had to turn right onto the hor-rendously busy main road. But once off thisroad, the cycling proved much more relaxed.The narrow road wended its way through or-

It wasn't the best inthe world but at only£12 for the room wecouldn't grumble.


ange groves, olive trees, vineyards plus morenormal crops. Small villages every few kilome-tres added variety to the ride and even the windseemed less cold.Eventually the coastal range that stretchesalong the north of the island came into viewand the road became more lumpy. At last thesea hove into view and we were enraptured bythe broad sweep of Pollença bay with a rangeof mountains for its backdrop. Port de Pollençais a genteel, old-fashioned resort with a longpromenade skirting a fine sandy beach, whichis lined with a few good-quality hotels, white-washed villas and palm trees leaning towardsthe sea. It caters predominantly for the Englishso we felt more at home.The camp is based in the Pollença Park whichis the only huge package-style hotel in thetown. Fortunately our accommodation was in asmall apartment block nearby which was verycomfortable. Breakfast and din-ner were taken in the main hotel,both self-service and all forabout £25 per day each. Provid-ed you were not vegetarian therewas everything you could wantfor both meals. For dinner therewould be a soup and a large se-lection of salads for starters and, for the maincourse, three choices of meat, two of fish and apasta dish.Unfortunately for Mick and Beatrice whojoined us later, there was very little selection.We felt so sorry for them as on some nightsthey were reduced to salad and mashed potato.We soon met up with Doug and Liz who werealso attending the camp. Its always good to bewith friends on these occasions as one learnssome useful tips, for instance to boil water inan electric kettle one should plug it into themains and not put it on a hotplate.The weather improved considerably with longsunny days, though the cool wind persistedwhich produced almost ideal cycling condi-tions. Rides were organised every day into fivegroups ranging from the out-and-out racerswho would do over 100 miles in the mountainswithout stopping and the “touring” group whorode 50-60 miles mainly in the central plain.

This large area was criss-crossed with manycountry lanes following old Roman roadsthrough almond and apricot groves that linkedsmall market towns. Needless to say, we joinedthis group and enjoyed riding across this fertileland which also included windmills, red earthand vegetable fields.It was a bit scrubby and rather neglected inplaces but other areas are very pleasant. A fea-ture is the sleepy, sand-coloured old townswhich are usually built in a grid pattern withthe fronts of three or four storey houses builtright onto the narrow streets, often one-way. Itmakes finding the central square, in which thecafes are situated, very difficult. The towns canbe rather down-at-heel but nevertheless theyretain a certain charm. The rides were led by aredoubtable yorkshireman Terry who had afund of amusing stories and hardly stoppedtalking. The rear was bought up by the more

laconic Jack. Both were veryhelpful and knew the area inti-mately.For a change, we fancied cy-cling in the hills, so Doug led usinto the mountains to the mon-astery at Lluc, Mallorca's mostsacred site. The approach is

through the foothills, which are very pretty, butto reach the site entails a long uphill drag foraround eight miles. The roads corkscrews upthe valley in a spectacular fashion and althoughit is a hard ride it is well worth it. The corre-sponding downhill swoop towards the sea iswonderful. I asked Doug how he managed toget down with only a couple of cantilevers tohold back his tandem. He replied they did beginto smell rather and he had to stop to let themcool down. On asking how Mike and Beatricealso managed without a drag brake, his replywas that Mike doesn't bother to use brakes - Iwonder how Beatrice felt!On another occasion we decided to try the rideto Cap Formentor. This is at the end of a longpromontory which stretches eastwards fromPort de Pollença. This provides a superb 14-mile ride through spectacular mountains withsome stiff climbs and exhilarating downhillruns with many hairpin bends. It even includes

To boil water in anelectric kettle oneshould plug it into themains and not put iton a hotplate


quite a long tunnel for good measure. We alsodid two walks - one turned out to be a long up-hill climb in the rain to a convent above thetown of Pollença which should have affordedus wonderful views over the countryside but allwe could see was mist. Terry spent the wholetrip up telling us how he had made a crosier forthe bishop of Leeds. The other was down theBoca valley which was a pleasant walk to anearby bay but was hard going on the rock-strewn path.The camp finished on the Saturday and ourflight departed on the Tuesday so we cycledacross the island to Palma anticipating spend-ing a few days there. The outskirts of Palma arehorrible and cycling through them is not recom-mended. We could not find suitable accommo-dation so we ended up in Can Pastilla again atthe same hotel where we were joined for thelast evening by Doug, Liz, Mike and Beatrice,which was a bonus. Next day we caught the businto Palma and spent the day sightseeingaround the town.The old part of Palma consists of a number ofsquares linked by narrow streets and is verypleasant. There are also wide walkways downold watercourses. The highlight is the water-front with the cathedral and citadel surroundedby well-kept gardens and narrow alleyways.We had a very enjoyable day and can recom-mend this part of the city. A bonus for me wasthat the shops were closed so Chris could notgo shopping. On the other day we took the vin-

tage electric train to Soller and then a tramdown to Port Soller. Do not go on a Sunday!The train and tram were horrendously over-crowded and the towns were heaving with lo-cals and tourists. Set around an almostland-locked bay, the port is very pretty, but Iam not sure it’s worth the effort to get there.And so the last day came. Getting back to theairport was no problem. We simply followedthe “Airport” sign from Can Pastilla, ignoringthe “No Bikes” symbol. This took us onto a sliproad coming off the motorway which led di-rectly into the airport so we were there withinminutes. The journey home was on a scheduledflight which was only about a third full so wehad the luxury of a set of seats to ourselves.The holiday finished with taking the train fromGatwick to Redhill - no problems - and thenpicking up our van, which we had left at ourdaughter's house, and driving home.All in all, it was a very enjoyable holiday, en-hanced by Doug and Liz and Mike and Beatricealso being there. It was well organised by Stanand it was good to meet many new people. Theaccommodation was excellent and overall theweather was very good. Mallorca is not themost spectacular cycling venue in the world butit has a wide range of terrain with long flat runsplus plenty of challenging climbs and bags ofcharacter. It was a real tonic for us to feel thewarmth of the sunshine again after our misera-ble winter. We shall be back. n

Sailing awayM ost of you will know that Margret is spending three months

with her husband Andrew cruising the French coast in theiryacht. Their website gives details of their cruise, and gives you achance to send them an email. The website ishttp://ourworld.cs.com/AndrewTurner01.Mike received an email back from them on the 23rd June. They areenjoying themselves and at that time were in the little fishing villageof Morgat near Brest.


T he twenties, thirties and forties tooWere times of flat caps, plus-fours - and ladies few.

Bill Harmsworth and Gwen were there near the startThen the war came along - no lights in the dark.

T he fifties gave Derek, David and Chris,High teas, long weekends and traffic-free bliss.

Mile eating continued through the next decade,Many trips to the Continent happily made.

W hen I joined in the seventies they were coming off fixed,All starts were at Cosham, never home before six.

The eighties gave Havant a start on the map,The Billy Line and Chas Fine - complete with his cap.

I n the nineties came Bosham and a fast group to ride,Let’s hope they always watch out for the tide.

Now we’re 75 old in a century new,There’s lycra and helmets, but still ladies few.

Pat Mitchell with the assistance and memories of DaveCulverwell

Birthday boysBy our Roving Reporter

A t least three of our DA members are celebrating their 70th birthdays thisyear.

The eldest, Gordon Davey, celebrated with a midweek 70 mile run to Win-chester. He bought all the participants their lunch.Mike Edwards was next in June and he led a club run to Brambridge. He, be-ing more careful with his money, planned to pay for everyone’s elevenses.Crafty devil, he picked a wet day and there were only five riders out. He feltguilty about this and extended the offer to the following Wednesday.The youngster, Pop, will celebrate his 70th later this year. If he manages totear himself away from the continent in time I wonder what he will do.


My old trikeMike Edwards

S ome members may have seen me ridingthe new, to me, yellow and red tricycleand have not realised its significance in

my cycling life. As most of you will know Iwas a very keen cyclist in my teens and in 1948I purchased my Hawkes from new. This is nowback to its original specification with fixedwheel and I ride it occasionally, particularly ona flattish route when I want a quick bike.I was a cycling nut even in those days and alsorode tandem and a 1895 triplet. I had an olderfriend, Mick Elsden, who would have then beenin his mid forties. To me at 18 this seemed veryold. In addition to occasionally riding with oneof my clubs, The Northern, a section of theNorth London DA CTC, he was an avid collec-tor of veteran bicycles. Even at this age veteranbicycles were a great interest to me. I can re-member travelling with Mick all round theSouth of England in his car bringing back bikesfor his collection.Now Mick had this rather ancient looking trikebut with modern wheels and 27” high pressuretyres sitting in his shed. “Can I have a go?” Isaid. “Yes,” said Mick, so I promptly got onand rode straight into the kerb. When he hadfinished laughing at me he told me what to doand I managed to ride in a straight line. He letme take it home to try on a club run.Great, but I was not totally happy with the wayit handled. It had a vintage Abingdon axle witha differential and was an effort to keep fromwandering into the kerb. Also I felt that the sin-gle speed free wheel would be better for beingfixed. I told Mick my views and he felt that Iprobably had a good point. He took the trikeback, cut up the vintage differential and con-verted it to single wheel fixed drive. In hind-sight it was a terrible act of vandalism to dothis but it did totally revolutionise the way thetrike handled.Mick did not seem to want to ride the machinehimself and for the next year or two I had itmore or less on permanent loan. Although I

also rode my other machines the trike was agreat favourite with me. Over the years I gradu-ally stopped cycling and forgot about the trike.A few years ago I met Peter Ashley at our club-room and he told me that he had an F W Evansracing trike for sale. Memories came suddenlycame back to me of my old tricycling experi-ences and I decided to buy it. Over the years Ihave enjoyed riding it, although it has neverseemed the same as my old love.Two years ago I was riding my trike with JohnElsden (son of Mick) at a veteran cycle camp. Itold him how much I had enjoyed riding hisdad’s old trike many years ago. John told methat he still had one of his dad’s trikes, in fact itwas the only one of his father’s bikes to getpassed on to him. After a discussion when Itold him how we had butchered the rear axle itbecame obvious that we were talking about thesame machine.John did not ride it now and it was in pieces,with new 700c rear wheels but no front. I askedJohn if it would be possible for me to ride itagain. He agreed to let me use it on similar con-ditions to his father’s all those years ago. Lastwinter I brought it back from North Londonand had soon had built up a front wheel andfound various other components. I also convert-ed it back to fixed wheel. Unfortunately thewinter was so bad that I did not think it fair totake it out. Since the better weather I have start-ed using it and how wonderful it is to ride.I have now learnt more of its history from Johnand discover that the frame was specially madeby a Southgate cycle maker, Stephens, in 1944to fit on the vintage Abingdon axle. This seemsodd to me because the frame would have beenalmost new at the time of my riding it, and itappeared old. Maybe the black paint gave thisimpression or memory could be playing metricks. Certainly at some recent time new frontforks were made and these are complete withbrazed on cantilever fittings.Certainly I have been reunited with an old loveand she has not lost anything over the years. Ifanything she is better, with a cantilever brake,lightweight components and 700c alloy wheels.She really does handle so much better than my


Evans racing trike and is probably as fast. Myonly slight problem is when honking up hills,(very necessary with single speed), I have to becareful not to ankle too much otherwise I catchthe toe clip on the ground. The bottom bracketis very low, much more so than on the Evans.The back axle is about four inches wider butthis really does give increased stability.With the fixed wheel drive, on a road with littlecamber it is possible to ride no hands. Increasedpressure on the pedals tends to steer it to theright and back pressure steers it to the left. OK,I do not too often practice riding no hands but it

is good to be able to assist the steering withpedal pressure, and adds yet another dimensionto fixed wheel control. One of my party tricksis to ride the trike in reverse, quite easy with afixed wheel trike.Thanks to John for giving me the opportunityto be reunited with the old machine, I ampleased that he does not seem in too much of ahurry to want it back. It’s good to have a ma-chine that can easily keep up with the others ona club run and is also suitable to use on a veter-an cycle club ride. n

British Heart Foundationevents

Hampshire sponsored cycle rides 30th SeptemberThis is the usual 100 mile, 100km and 40 mile rides that quite a few of youtake part in, which starts and finishes in Havant. For anyone interested andnew to the ride, have a word with me for details.

Jazz evening at the Inn on the Beach, Hayling Island, 8th OctoberA totally new event and a must for anyone who enjoys traditional jazz. Mu-sic by the Gateway Jazz Band. Tickets from me at £7.50, which includes alight buffet.Both these events will provide great enjoyment to you and much neededmoney for the BHF.

Mike Edwards


Our firstsponsored ride

Brian Johns

I have never been completely comfortablewith the concept of sponsored events. Itappears to me that it exerts undue pressure

on potential sponsors to give and I do not likethe idea of using one’s friendships to extractmoney however good the cause. The effort re-quired to organise them must be enormous andthe cost very high. Why cannot that money gostraight to the charities?It seems to me to be in the same league as thoseTupperware parties where again friendship isused to make money. There must be simplerways to persuade us to part with our money fora good cause. It must be said however that theyare hugely popular, they do raise a lot of moneyfor charities and get normally sedentary peopleto take some exercise.So we were rather put on the spot when someclose friends asked us to take part in a spon-sored cycle ride for a charity in which they areinvolved. It is called “In Mission to Children”and is a christian charity that seeks to help thechildren abandoned on the streets of Bogota,the capital city of Colombia, by providing ac-commodation and workshops to teach them atrade.The sponsored ride, that we were asked to takepart in is the one run annually by the Liphookand District Businessmen's Association over a25-mile course. Not wanting to say no, we con-sented and were duly enrolled as number 261for the ride. It is a very popular event - the finalnumber of entrants being over 1,100.We had no idea what to expect, so it was with alittle trepidation that we drove into Liphook ona fine but cool and blustery Sunday morning.We need not have worried as the event was su-perbly organised. We were ushered into the carpark by members of the local Air TrainingCorps and, having unloaded the tandem fromthe back of the van, we joined the queue wait-ing for the off.

There was a carnival atmosphere in the groundsof the Bohunt School with lots of stalls. Flagsand bunting were festooned everywhere. Thefield was split into two groups - the élite riderswho reckoned they could complete the coursein less than 1½ hours and the rest. We reckonedfor us to complete the course so quickly wouldentail quite an effort so we joined the rest. Theélite riders went first and, being towards theback of the rest, it took a little while to get go-ing.The start was very slow and rather hairy as, inspite of the admonition of the organisers to ridein single file, people were riding in groups of-ten four abreast. Fortunately the police hadclosed Liphook square so there was little or notraffic. However, once we hit the dual carriage-way north of Rake, we were able to get goingand after being baulked on the hill leaving thevillage, we were away again and flying downthe hill to the A272 turn off and the first drinksstop.Along the A272 to Rogate the riders were insingle file, but it became more congested asriders struggled up the hill going north out ofRogate into a strong head wind. We were beingpassed by young lads on mountain bikes - oh toregain the natural fitness of youth! Once wehad turned right at Tullecombe cross-roadsonto the flat road through the woods, we weremotoring again and overtook most of them. Asharp left and right took us through the beauti-fully situated hamlet of Borden and on to Mil-land for a drinks stop.Well over halfway now with only the longsteep hill to Lynchmere church to hold us back.This obstacle safely negotiated, we reached theHaslemere to Liphook road which provided afast final leg into Liphook Square. We did com-plete the course in less than the 1½ hours butthe satisfaction with our performance wassomewhat moderated when we realised we hadonly logged 23½ miles. We were further deflat-ed by the fact that on the way round werecaught by our ex-milkman, now a lorry driver,who informed us that this is his only cycle rideof the year and he was on a borrowed bike. Hefinished the course just before us.Why are these sponsored rides so popular, the


participants often being numbered in hundredsand sometimes in thousands? What makes themums turn out on their shoppers and the ladson their mountain bikes? It is probably because

it is a fulfilling experience and folk do like achallenge. I have to admit that I did enjoy theevent and, if asked again, we may well do thesame next year. n

A ride up Harting hill

P uff, puff, puff, lots of puffs. Click.Puff, puff, puff, lots of puffs. Click.

Puff, puff, lots and lots of puffs. Click.Puff, puff, puff, lots and lots and lots of puffs. Click.

P uff, puff, puff, puff, lots of puffs. No more clicks.Bottom gear.

Puff, puff, puff, puff, lots and lots of puffs.Puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff.

N ot far now.Puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, lots of puffs.

Psssst.Puncture.

75

Tea with the Patronby our Roving Reporter

I t’s good to see Chris CCP Davies getting back to his old self. Since hiship operation in February to the end of June he has cycled almost 3,000miles. What’s more he can now keep up with the club.

By the time you read this, Chris will have made a visit to Buckingham Pal-ace for tea. I wonder if he was all dressed up in top hat and tails. Pat will begoing along as his companion. Well done, Chris.


Hill climb andfreewheel event

Colin Chester

T he events this year were held on Satur-day 30th June from a starting point atHooksway. A peaceful, easily paced

ride took us to coffee at Chichester followed bya fairlyhillyroute upto thestartingpoint ofthe hillclimb forlunch.Theweatherthrough-out themorninghad beenpleasantbut ourlunchtime pic-nic wasinterrupt-ed by acouple offairlyheavyshowers.Fortunately, by the start of the hill climb theweather had brightened up and the sun wasshining. Just the kind of weather we needed toscale the dizzy heights of Hooksway, riddenover a course that was a multiple of 75 some-things.

Hill climbThere were 12 entries for this event, made upof nine solos and three tandems. The resultstable shows the vital statistics and the close fin-ish that had the watching crowd on their toes.

The most amazing feat of this event was howPat and Dave achieved the same result withoutbeing on their tandem!

FreewheelWe then moved a half a mile up the road to thetop of a hill for the start of the freewheel event.After tying pedals to cranks each machine wasgiven a quick push to get some momentum upon the descent to Chilgrove and beyond. Asusual there were two classes, one for solos and

the other forthe tandems.Dave Culver-well showedfine controltaking firstplace in thesolo class andeven going fur-ther than thewinning tan-dem. ColinChestersnatched sec-ond place inthe solo event,with JackieBailey manag-ing a creditablethird place.The defendingtandem cham-pions, Brianand ChristineJohns, main-tained their

high standard from last year and held off a de-termined challenge from Derek Hayday andLaurita Wrixon. Keith and Diana Wileman eas-ily took third place despite cunningly applyingthe drag brake - on somebody else’s tandem.Once again it was great fun taking part andmost of us cycled down to the Roman Palace atFishbourne for a well earned cup of tea.Thanks to all for taking part, especially to AnnLee who was on her first ride with the club andstayed the entire course. n

Resultsname stated actual time time difference m:ss m:ss m:ss positionKeith &Diana Wileman 3.05 3.24 0.19 5Jackie Bailey 3.59 4.31 0.32 8Godfrey Jolly 6.00 3.50 2.50 11Ann Lee 7.00 4.06 2.54 12Brian &Christine Johns 4.00 3.47 0.13 3Pat Mitchell 2.50 2.26 0.24 6Derek Hayday &Laurita Wrixon 3.10 2.52 0.18 4Gordon Sands 5.30 3.44 1.46 10Bob Wright 2.35 2.30 0.05 2Dave Culverwell 2.20 1.56 0.24 6Roy Pearce 4.30 3.49 0.41 9Colin Chester 2.21 2.17 0.04 1


R e the letter and the Tom Tit head badge inthe May issue, I can only think it must

have been a very large and diverse company asthey also made lanes.I came across this one in Somerton (the ancientcapital of Wessex) in Somerset.It might be a good idea to start a sub-sectionlooking out for old Tit memorabilia.

Brian Gray

Letter to the editor

From CTC Gazette 1924


Photographichints

Mike Edwardspart 3 - exposure and focusing

I have left the most difficult section to writeabout until last. Unless you have an oldcamera, your camera will almost certainly

have a built-in exposure meter or automatic ex-posure. If it is a modern compact camera it issure to be automatic. With a normal single lensreflex camera (SLR), obtaining the correct ex-posure is a question of lining up a meter in theviewfinder. If you have automatic exposure itjust means switching on and letting the camerado the work.

ExposureExposure is a combination of light available,film speed, aperture and shutter speed.The last two are adjusted by the photog-rapher or automatic camera to findthe correct exposure. Almost allSLRs, automatic or otherwise, willhave a means of setting either aper-ture or shutter speed priority. If youwere, for instance, trying to photograph bicy-cles at speed you would prefer to use a fairlyfast shutter speed. This would mean using shut-ter priority and setting a speed of say 250th or500th second. You would then choose an aper-ture by adjusting the meter in the viewfinder, orif automatic, the camera will do it for you.On the minus side this may require a large ap-erture and accurate focusing will be necessary.If on the other hand you wish to obtain a greatdepth of field (you want objects close and dis-tant to the camera to be sharp) you would needto use aperture priority. You set a small aper-ture and the camera or exposure meter will thenfind the correct shutter speed for the apertureselected. Bear in mid that this may be a slow

one and the camera will have to be kept steadyto avoid camera shake.It would appear a good idea to always use avery fast film, so that one could always use afast shutter speed and small aperture. However,as with all the good things in life this has adown side. The very fastest films do not givesuch good quality results. As a rule of thumb Iwould recommend going no faster than400ASA for print film, and 200ASA for slides.Quite often one will want to take photographsagainst the light. For portraits of people thiswill usually give nicer results. Taking photo-graphs against the light will always fool theexposure meter whether on manual or automat-ic. The answer is to double up on the exposure.Most cameras have a facility to do this and, ifnot, one can fool the camera by setting the filmspeed differently. For example, setting a200ASA film to 100ASA. Don’t forget to set itback to normal afterwards.This does not hold good with most compact

cameras where, to make them simple,all controls have been taken away

and there is very little that one cando to improve on the way that they

are set up. In fact the manufacturershave made it almost impossible to

ove rride them. In an attempt to rectify thesituation when taking people’s photographsagainst the light a built in flash will often takeeffect. This will light up the subject, but I per-sonally do not like fill in flash, feeling that itgives a false effect. Also it only works at closedistances because the flash is not powerfulenough to work properly at over about 15 feet.I will finish talking about exposure by discuss-ing how to take indoor photographs of some-thing such as a church interior. Forget flashbecause even a small professional one such as Iuse will not be powerful enough. Set aperture atabout F5.6 and read the shutter speed required.This will probably be in the region of about 1second. Much too slow to hold in the hand andyou really will need a tripod. However you


most likely will not have one with you.It is sometimes possible to put the camera on apile of books, on top of a table or somethingsimilar. I have sometimes used a pillar or wall,holding the camera against it for support. Thismost likely will also work with a compact cam-era which is often capable of going down toquite a slow speed. The flash may also go offbut will have hardly any effect. If you havemanaged to find a support where you do nothave to hold the camera, another way is to takethe photograph using the self timer. This avoidsany chance of jerking the camera when youpush the shutter release.These methods will also work well for takingoutdoor night shots. In this case the lighting isusually poorer and the largest aperture you canfind will be best to use. (The lower the number,the larger the aperture.) In an attempt to keepthe article simple I have not fully discussed therelationship between shutter speed, apertureand film speed. If at any time you wish to knowmore and have plenty of time to spare I willendeavour to explain.

FocusingSome very simple cameras will have a fixedfocus and, providing you keep within the dis-tances the manufacturers suggest, you will getsharp pictures. These will not focus down toshort distances and to be able to take close upportraits you will need a camera which focuses.In the olden days one had to measure or guessthe distance - camera to subject. Next camerangefinder cameras, where two images wouldbe lined up in the viewfinder and this wouldprovide a sharp image.Then came SLRs which are still very common-ly used. In this the camera viewfinder takes itsimage directly from the camera lens, and usesthis to focus. Lastly comes automatic cameras.These, combined with automatic exposure, pro-vide a very easy means of taking photographs,but be careful not to fall into the focusing trap.

These cameras will focus on the centre point ofthe picture and in nine times out of ten this isfine. However if you were taking something,such as a close up of two people, the cameramay focus on a distance object between thetwo. Naturally this will produce an out of focuspicture. The secret is to view the camera firston just one of the people, squeeze the shutterslightly to set the focus, move to the propersubject and take the picture. Result: a correctlyfocused picture.One last comment on focus, and this is a tipwhich is not generally understood. Say youwant to take a picture of a lot of people sittingat tables in a large hall. Some people are 10 feetaway and the more distant ones are at 100 feet.The object of the exercise is to try to get a pic-ture with everyone sharp - so where do you fo-cus? Most people will say half way atapproximately 55 feet. The correct answer is ata point one third from the front at roughly 43feet. Most SLRs have a depth of field ring onthe distance scale and from this one can readthe aperture or F number to use. Looking at thisyou will see how going for a smaller apertureincreases the depth of field.

AndA brief mention about flash photography andred eye. As a professional I have used flash allmy working life and have never had a problemwith red eye. The cause of red eye is having theflash very close to the camera lens. My flash isalways on a flash bracket joined to the camerabut putting the flash head about 12 inches fromthe lens. This is enough to avoid red eye. It isnot possible to do this with built in flash suchas with a compact or a few SLRs. However amore basic camera will allow you to rig abracket between camera and flash or you couldjust hold the flash in your other hand.Happy photography, let’s see lots in the nextcompetition. n


Fortiethanniversary

Derek Hayday

D erek Hayday joined Neville Chanin toshare their 40th Easter tour anniversary in

France with ten other companions.Derek cycled over the five days (Thursday 12thApril to Monday 16th April 2001) a total of425 miles.The weather was mainly cold and cloudy withjust three hours of sunshine plus half day ofdrizzle and gale force winds.12 riders on tour (included three women).Seven riders had pannier bags, five riders hadsaddlebags.Two riders wore crash hats. Average age 53years as against 40 years ago of 26 years.The riders mainly split into two or three groupsduring the day, regrouping in the evening at the

chosen stage town.Wednesday met Rudmore Cellars, PortsmouthPort, leave by 7.30pm.Thursday via Quessoy, Paimpol, digs at Pon-trieux 107 miles.Friday via Huelgoat, digs at Saint-Nicolas-Du-Pélem 101 miles.Saturday via Caulnes, digs at Tinténiac 77miles.Sunday via Tessy, digs at Giéville 79 miles.Monday catch boat back from Ouistreham4.30pm 59 miles.The whole tour was completed at a very steadypace on average about 14.5 mph which I foundgave me a stiff neck and a sore backside.Highlight was visiting the 360° cinema at Arro-manches on the last day.My thanks go to Neville for being the Chef duTour. I’ve put my name down for the 50th An-niversary! n

El Diario d’EspañaEnglish edition Junio 2001

Security alert at Malaga

T he recent hold up at Malaga Airport was not a terroristthreat as was first thought.

The long queues at the security screening were caused by anEnglish cyclist sitting down in front of the detection screen totake off his sandals which had metal buckles.


This draw-ing of thesign post atTreyford isfrom theCTC Ga-zette ofJune 1934.Does any-one knowhow old thesign post is?

Sunday 28th February 1998

I was hanging on all day getting dropped, I just couldnot breathe. It was a nightmare club run. Yet Mon-day, breathing was normal. Worried, seeking a rea-

son three days on, I was looking in my diary andsuddenly realised that on 28th February 1997 Beryl, mypartner, had fought for breath and died. Was Beryl, inter-national medium, proving to me that, yes, there really islife after death?Derek Hayday

75


SALES & WANTS

Errors and apologiesfrom the editor

I was in a hurry to get the last magazinecompleted before going on holiday. Thismight have been the cause of a few errors

which I should have picked up.In the runs list the last few words about Thurs-day evening rides were missed.I didn’t change the next copy date whichshould have been 30th June for this magazine,not 30th March which was the date for the pre-vious issue.And apologies to CCP for spelling his surnamewithout the e.Now a correction that has been outstanding fora few months. In the February issue I gave the

answers to the picture competition. I said thatone of the photos was of the church at Mid-hurst. It was, of course, the church at Petworth.This doesn’t affect the result of the competi-tion. You’ll remember that there were zero cor-rect answers out of zero entries.A correction to a correction. A while ago Iapologised for listing a ride to Stanstead. I thenburbled on about there being an airport at Stan-stead and that the ride should have gone to thegarden centre at Stansted Park. In fact I nowrealise that the airport in Essex and the localestate in West Sussex are both spelt Stansted(but not always on local signs). n

RALEIGH Lady Clubman, 22½” mixte frame, 531 tubing, 12 speed, 27” wheels,carrier, very good condition. £75. Keith( 01243 372841

FLYING GATE tandem 24½ x 21, Campag ergo levers, TA chainset, integral rearcarrier, Swallow front and Balance rear hubs with 40 and 48 hole Mavic rims. 531tubing, of course. A comfortable, beautiful and rare machine. £1,000. Keith (01243 372841


For membership of the CTC contact:

Cyclists' Touring Club69 Meadrow

Godalming GU7 3HS

( 01483 417217

POSTAL SUBSCRIPTIONS

If you want to be sure of receiving the DA Newsletter, you can take out a postalsubscription. For a year’s subscription, send or give £2 and four stamped ad-dressed envelopes to Mike Edwards at 82 Havant Road Emsworth, PO10 7LH.

Leaky patch

A n Emsworth rider turned up on his brand new super bike. Every time we passed throughpuddles he stopped and polished the splashes off his bike.

On a ride to East Dean the designated leader decided to go to Crete instead. His deputy desertedeveryone at the lunch stop. So much for the motto “no one abandoned”.

A member didn’t want to buy a copy of our superb anniversary magazine because he haddownloaded it from our website. I wonder how much it cost him in telephone time, printing ink,paper.

A lady member was heard to remark to a man, “If you want it badly enough, come and have it”.

Who was the lady in Mallorca who tried to pay for some coffees with French francs?

The same lady, after cycling through a road tunnel, complained how dark and dangerous it wasand then discovered she had forgotten to remove her sunglasses.

Which of the old fools likes tartare sauce in his coffee rather than sugar?

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MAGAZINE & RUNS LIST August to October 2001 · 2014-09-19 · 244a London Road, Waterlooville ( 023 9224 0087 Extensive range of parts, accessories & clothing Repairs Hand-built wheels