It has turned out to be a huge week for the Machen Miggly Moos, which has been dominated by events off the trail as much as it has on.

The week got underway with the inaugural “Riders Wives Night” which proved to be an unqualified success for the 32 that turned up, for one rider it proved to be a disaster. After already voicing his displeasure at certain aspects of the evening during the week, things just went from bad to worse for Ryan the Steam. After being voted “Most Valuable Tea Boy in Wales” for the second year running, emotions were naturally running high, especially after Jane Pettigrew, the worlds leading authority and writer on tea, presented him with his golden tea bag in recognition of his achievement. This coupled with his tearful acceptance speech, and the decision of his sponsors Yorkshire Tea and McVities to treat him and his colleagues to an afternoon of supping drinks a little stronger than usual, made for an uneasy appearance from The Steam at the Hollybush. As everyone was enjoying pre-meal drinks, the hapless Steam staggered in looking the worse for wear, with none of the Moos being fluent in Swahili, it was difficult to understand his ramblings, although The Captain found him later slumped on the toilet seat mumbling over and over again “I ain’t paying no 10% service charge, I ain’t paying no 10% service charge” most of the Moos still don’t quite understand this strange behaviour!!!!

With a good evening had by all, it took most of Saturday for some people to recover, and with Wales beating France in Paris, only a few people managed to rouse themselves from their drunken slumber on Sunday morning to go for a ride, one person I think probably wishes he had stayed in bed, because for Mr Kevin ‘Blip’ Piddington, things were about to turn nasty!

After a fairly uneventful Sunday morning ride the Moos were on the home leg when disaster struck, Blip was approaching the normally unchallenging ‘log jump’ speed was correct, bike in good working order everything was going fine, as he hit the ramp take off was perfect, it was not until he was airborne that he developed a technical fault. In a vain attempt to abort his flight Blip tried to engage his main chute (incidentally designed by Gordon Thornton) which proceeded to fail, his secondary chute also designed by Scrippsy, well that to decided to malfunction, so there was only one course left to take and thankfully his ejector saddle was in full working order as it propelled him clear of his out of control machine. This was not the end though because as he was hurtling back to earth Blip thought he would be saved by his airbag, but unfortunately on impact with the ground his Bottom Lip failed to inflate and he was slammed to the ground with the resultant broken collar bone the evidence of poor maintenance of his safety equipment!!!!!!!!

After being swiftly diagnosed by Jim “That shoulder is knackered old boy!!” Blip was put into an emergency sling, (it’s amazing what uses a spare inner tube can have on the trail) and a call was made to ‘Ambulance Jock’ who came out to pick up the unfortunate Blip! Another stroke of bad luck for Blip was that rumour has it he was hoping to keep this incident quiet, but unfortunately a local tabloid newspaper photographer was in the woods hoping to catch some people badger watching, and he couldn’t believe his luck when he stumbled upon the scene before him. So unlucky for Blip his story has made the back page sporting headlines!!!!

With so much going on in the early part of the week, Wednesday’s ride took somewhat of a backseat, so too did several Moos, for after seeing the blizzard like conditions the ‘Fair Weather Riders’ decided to stay indoors. But for The Captain, Scrippsy, Gaz, Chrissy, Crock, Bernaard, Dickie, Singlespeed, Harty and Myself, we managed to enjoy a cracking snowy ride. With the temperatures plummeting to those more in keeping with the Arctic, the ride that Scrippsy took us on was fast and furious enough to keep the chill out, with a lot of tight singletrack the best part of the ride was undoubtedly riding ‘Blind’ at high speed as we descended Rudry Mountain. When I say riding blind I mean not following any existing paths, but cutting a new one through the dead fern and bracken, so for this decision alone Scrippsy you are to be commended on a splendid decision!!! Rider of the Month I hear you all shout!!!!
Wednesday night was also the last time that the Moos were able to enjoy ‘Lyn the Landladys’ lovely spread, as she is moving on to pastures new, so next week we have to send the Miggly Moo ‘Charm Team’ of Crock and Dez, to smooth things over with the new proprietors, needless to say after those two have finished next weeks HQ will be the stone bus shelter opposite the Fwrrwmm!!!

From all the Moos we would like to thank ‘Lyn the Landlady’ for her wonderful hospitality over the past 2 months, and to wish her well in her new pub, which is the Horse and Jockey in Wenvoe (could be a good bike ride there??) And also we would like to wish our crocked Moo a speedy recovery, we have already tried him on a new bike for his return and hopefully he’ll be able to pilot this one a little better! So get well soon Blippy Boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!