.

The last session of the year for Raiders and something said that Christmas was in the air….. perhaps it was the appearance of lots of mincepies…. or was it the arrival of a ginormous orange turkey of the inflatable type (thanks goodness we’ve been spared photos).

Coach Peter Loader went up the hill and spread out the younger reindeers on the top three layers of the car-park (with an inflatable turkey in close attendance) while I had the group with the bigger hooves lower down the slope.

They dived in with three rounds of Le Mans-style races where either (i) they had to run and jump on their bikes (held at the ready by willing parents) or (ii) waited already on their bikes until they were tagged parents (willing or not). The final round was most interesting as riders ran backwards to their bikes (or into each other).

With all parents still breathing, we moved on for a bit of one-handed riding disguised as welly hoying.

The challenge was to ride up to a pink welly, standing waiting on a box, pick it up and carry it to a second box with four cones standing on the top, then knock them down like skittles.

Teams of three made for a competitive spirit (and lots of supportive noise). All in all we had only a single rider who managed to send all four cones clattering into the air so plenty of room for that little exercise to reappear in the New Year.

Final race, older group, younger riders – 3 laps handicap.

1 Henry Bryant
2 Olivia Jacks
3 Tabitha Gear

Final race, older group, older riders – 3 laps handicap.

1 Oli Bradford
2 William Partridge
3 a tie…. Reuben Gutman and Teddy Partridge.