Blog Bulletin

The Old Stables Cafe at Hullavington

Our Hullavington correspondent, Paul Hadley, informs me that The Old Stables Cafe in the village is due to reopen on Tuesday 24th January 2017. With some trepidation, we're going to give this another go after the original reopening date came and went, with the refurbishment still incomplete.

The Social Group's 38.5 mile course has 1,306 feet of elevation. You can view and download the route here.

Please resist the temptation to cut the ride short after Stanton St Quintin. The leg out to Grittleton is included to give the Sporting Group a fighting chance of joining you for coffee.

The Sporting Group's 42.9 mile course has 2,178 feet of elevation. You can view and download the route here.

There's a long, but not overly strenuous climb from Hillesley up to Hawkesbury Upton. Please take extra care on the lanes between Burton and the A420, as some of them can have mud and gravel running through the centre.

Please take a few minutes to familiarise yourself with the course you intend to ride and if you have a Garmin or a similar device, please download it. Both will be helpful to your ride leader.

Clarions outside of Oaksey Village Hall

The roads on Saturday morning were much better than expected. Our rural relatives brought with them welcome news regarding the state of the lanes, as did Peter C. After being seen off by one of our founding fathers; Dynamo Mike, we all rode together and completed the Sporting Group's 41 mile course without falling victim to the isolated pockets of ice.

They say that every cloud has a silver lining. If Saturday's cloud was having to find an alternative venue after The Old Stables refurbishment took longer than expected, then the silver lining had to be the tearoom which, operates on Fridays and Saturdays inside 'The Rest' at Oaksey Village Hall.

Plenty of cakes to choose from

The enterprise is operated by Elizabeth Adey and has been running for nearly two years. It was Peter C who came up with the idea on Wednesday evening during the Knight Riders session. I subsequently made contact with Elizabeth and let her know that we'd be calling. She promised to reserve us a couple of tables.

Inside 'The Rest' overlooking the football pitch

There was a full range of hot drinks and a very reasonably priced selection of delicious cakes.

Steve C's trivia question posed over coffee was, what do Norwich City FC and Oaksey FC have in common? I rather enjoy his teasers, especially if I can stump him with a few of my own. (This surely has all the makings of a regular feature). The answer is that they both play in yellow and green.

I've thanked Elizabeth for looking after us. She said that she also serves bacon butties and soup. To minimise waiting time in future (not that we were complaining), she's offered to provide pots of tea and coffee with a selection of cakes, on the table for us. For those who fancied a bacon buttie, I'm sure we'd be able to ring ahead to place our orders.

Riders: Andy Poolman, Andrew, Bryan, Mike G, Peter C, Phil, Steve C, Steve M, Tim W and Tommy.