Whether it be too much Christmas Turkey or over indulgence with alcohol, there were only 8 ‘stalwarts’ who enjoyed the last ride of the year, these were the new Captain Mark Owgie, Ryan the Steam, Marty, Jock, Crock, Dave, Dickie and Myself. The most notable absentee was the outgoing Captain, who preferred instead to take his wife to Lanzarote instead of Biffins. Dez was also supposed to be riding, but when Jock called for him, he was too busy with his ‘dinosaur’ to come out. Although special thanks must go to Dez, for successfully booking the Taxis for last week’s presentation night, he had been proudly telling the boys for weeks that he had ‘scoured’ the phonebook looking for the cheapest firms, and when they turned up there was a look of relief on his face that everything had gone without a hitch, the fact that the company was called Aardvark Cabs didn’t seem to matter to the boys!!!!

The ride itself consisted of mainly single track and a little hill work as we tried to keep off the muddiest trails. It was a good 2 hour blast which inevitably ended with a de-brief at the Maenllwyd Inn! It was here that we bumped into a family on holiday from Buffalo in the USA, being the friendly type Crock was soon engaged in conversation with the mother who actually thought that we had Buffalo’s instead of Bull’s on our shirts, giving her the explanation that Buffalo’s couldn’t ride bikes, she seemed perfectly happy with the thought that bull’s could! At this point she proceeded to tell us about her home city’s most famous export, and reeled off the story about a poultry farmer who decided he could do something with the wings of a chicken, which were normally thrown away, and he invented the dish of Buffalo wings, which is now known worldwide. While the rest of us were taking the story in, Owgie with his dry wit, jumped in and started telling her about a similar ‘delicacy’ that could be found in Wales. His words being “we’ve got a similar well known dish too, its called Bovine Drapes” “oh that sounds nice” she said “oh yes they are very tasty indeed, but if you want to buy some at a shop, they are better known as Beef Curtains”!! Owgie said. With this she said her goodbyes and off she went seemingly happy with the little snippet of ‘local knowledge’ that the new Captain had given her!! Well done Owgie can’t wait for your first Captain’s Report!!

With the ‘Steam’ having to leave early to start a nightshift, and the quick witted new Captain having an early night, it was time to head for home, but with the HQ out of commission for a while we had a swifty at the Rugby Club. I’m sure if Chrissie had known this he would have come on the ride, as Dickie had told us he was scared of facing Cunny again after his little performance the week before!! Also Bernaard has gone over on his ankle, that’s why he wasn’t riding; apparently he has twisted it pretty badly, as all his weight was on it!!

Just like to finish by wishing everyone a Happy New Year, and to once again thank Gordon for all his hard work this year, and to wish Mark all the best as Captain for next year.