Sunday was the first date in the autumn term and showing their faces for the first time were Nancy Copping (age seven) and Rory Grantham (age five)… welcome to you both.
Sean was coaching the hard nuts on the basement floor while I had the youngsters up on the second level.
Upstairs, we kicked off with a skills circuit that involved riding round a square (if riding round a square makes sense) with the complication being that on the fourth side riders had to make their way round a tight little loop without spilling out through the circle of cones…. or hitting the rider in front.
Once riders had got the hang on an individual basis, we got out the timer and had two teams, looking to see which was the fastest as measured by the last rider to get back to home base.
Then a few runs of a slow race..... the concept of the winner being the last to cross the line might have been a tad hard to grasp as halfway through some races, a rider in a winning position (ie moving slowly and last) would put on a sudden spurt and race over the line, handing the win to someone else.
The phase of session that triggered the most squeals was the ‘team chase’ especially when one group was dubbed ‘the rabbits’ and the others, on the opposite side of the track were ‘the dogs’.
The challenge was for the dogs to catch the rabbits….. while the rabbits were to avoid being caught.
Top marks to William Loader, the rabbit who went so fast that he caught two of the dogs.
Final race – younger riders (group on upstairs level), four laps – handicap
1 Hannah Ball
2 Sam (help… we don’t have a Sam on the signing-on sheet)
3 William Loader
Final race – older riders (group on upstairs level), six laps – handicap
1 Oscar (he said but might be Oliver as there is no Oscar on the signing-on either)
2 Isabel Ball
3 Alexander Fraser
Apologies for the shortcomings in the names here.