On Sunday we were back to our happy hunting grounds otherwise known as Furzefield School..... with spring in the air.
As I was setting up the reception table, with my back to the world, I found myself was talking to an early arrival and without looking I knew from his voice it was (dad and coach) Stephen Golliker... but then as I turned round and looked across at the entrance, there was Stephen Golliker arrive on his bike.
Which made life bemusing (well more bemusing than normal) until I discovered that I was talking to his brother Robert and he had come with Ruby, aged six, for her first outing. Welcome to the clan.
Paul Wright had the older group of riders and I got the younger ones in motion.
They did a few laps of the world. After Norway we went south to Australia though sadly one rider (Ruby) got clattered by a not-very-submerged whale as it was craftily disguised as a black metal post.
The option of riding either up or down the hill resulted in a vote for down the hill.... which was fine apart from the glass door at the bottom for anyone who can't brake or turn fast enough.
I was short of a dummy ( ie unsuspecting parent) to position in a sacrificial defence role in front of the glass... so I had to result to standing there myself... the last two gave me worries.
Back on our regular corner of tarmac the riders, in a line and one at a time, had the choice of riding through a 'wide' pathway through cones or a 'narrow' pathway.
Confidence was low to start with, but once one rider tackled the 'narrow' challenge successfully they all risked that route.
Again no-one really wanted to try riding one-handed until they saw the rider in front try it (successfully)... and again most put themselves a tick in that box also.
We had limbo on the agenda and the bar came down by a good six inches before we ran out of time.
Final race - older riders (Paul's group)
1 Olivia Rookard
2 Lukas Lamberth
3 Joseph Armstrong
Final race - younger group, six laps with handicap start.
1 Fred Grant
2 Stanley Loxaton-Beed
3 Oli Roper
This would have been reasonable manageable if it had been only the younger riders on the start line.
But Olivia wasn't ready to go home and wanted more racing.
"Can I join in?' she asked. Now I'm not one to resist anyone who wants to race so the obvious answer was 'yes'.
That in turn got the lads who had done the older race also hot under the collar, so we had the entire fleet out on the water at once.
They are excluded from the results though I should just add that Fred held them all off despite the substantial gap in ages... well done Fred who just got himself home by a whisker.
Future events
Sunday 29 March - Power Pack at Cyclopark
I'm attaching the flyer I do for these sessions as one or two new faces might not be sure what it's all about.
Thursday 9 April - hill climbing session using the road to Norbury Sawmill
You need to be able to manage your brakes while descending for this one. It is in the Easter holidays and kicks off at 12 noon, meeting at The Bothy which is part of Norbury Park Farm.
Previously, after an hour we have typically moved to doing climbs of Box Hill which is a mile away.
Sunday 19 April - normal Raiders session at Furzefield
So a gap of a month as it is Easter Sunday in a fortnight's time.
John