Ten riders set off from the Legion, under inclement skies, with Dickie Watkins, and his ‘summer dress,’ leading his first ride. Dickie surprised us all by starting with the long ascent of Turners lane. Obviously Dickie is keen to impress upon fellow riders the necessity to put in quality base training miles before the Clic24 hour event in May. He was showing me his training schedule recently and it was intense to say the least! An example to all of us I think lads!

The Umpa Lumpa, that is commonly known as Option, and Rory McGrath look-alike Marty brought the numbers up to a dozen when they met up with the peleton, following our descent of Bedwas Mountain. ‘Half a ride’ Option excuse of working late every Wednesday is already wearing a bit thin with the rest of the Moos! If you cannot complete a full ride, just admit it! The Moos will not leave anyone behind, we’ll always wait!

Next up, during our obligatory refreshment stop at the Maenllwyd, it was good to see a variety of eggs of all shapes and sizes uncovered on the Moos reserved bar area: boiled, pickled, scotch, savoury, Cadburys and even Dickie with his scrambled egg on toast!

Next weeks theme is a quarter of olde worlde sweeties in a paper bag please.

Scrippsy evidently missed his lunch on Wednesday, and because of his hunger he tried to smuggle the left-over eggs out of the Maenllwydd in his gloves! This was spotted by some of the lads from MTB-Wales who were a little taken aback when the old man approached them, muttering obscenities, unravelling the smelly items in his hands! Reminded me of Fagin from the film ‘Oliver.’

Although it was Dickies ride, his brother ‘pretty boy’ Chrissie, showing that the sibling rivalry between the Watkins’ is still alive, had to upstage his brother yet again by ‘flying over the handlebars’ in front of all the Moos, on Gaz’s jump. The Crasher of the Year title already has a couple of worthy contenders. I’ll have to pull something a bit special out of the bag this year to hang on to this esteemed award.

Special thanks again to ‘Lynn the Landlady’ at the Oak for a good ‘spread’.

I’ll finish this week on a reminder that Moos T-shirt money is due in next week, and also that there are regular Sunday morning rides still being arranged, for all those able to pull their drunken bodies out of bed for 9.30am!

Cheers,

Cap