The Beacon Message Board

It's that time of year again to think of the February escape, rolling hills, fine food and fantastic company.

I am now taking names and deposits for the above.

The accommodation cost will £40.00 per person for two nights plus a modest charge for the meal in on Saturday evening, menu to be revealed soon (but it could be the usual).

Please post below if you would like to go and let me have a deposit of £20.00 per person, cheques to be made payable to 'Beacon R C C'.

It would be great to welcome some new people as well as the loyal regulars.

If you would like to know more please send me a pm or telephone on 01527 834921.

Those signed up so far:-

Michelle and Gary Mac
Charles White
Steve Smith
Andrene and Charlie Skinner
Dave and Ann Cole
Keri and Patch
John Hitchcock
George Barker
Jen and John Durham
Sheila Shayes
Tony Webb and Jane Herrin
Alan Nicholls
Laurence Cooley
Andy Terry
Pat Haddon
Dave and Anne Hughes
Paul and Deb Deane
Mavis Williams
Colin Edney and Sally Sheperd


I look forward to hearing from you

Stick me down, Jane, please.

Cheque is in the post!

Can you me to the list too, please? Where do I send my cheque? Or can I transfer the money into the Beacon account, to spare myself from having to search for my cheque book?

Hello Laurence

Glad you can make it.

Yes it is fine to make a payment direct into the Beacon account but please can you confirm when you have done that, otherwise I will have to send the 'heavies' in to collect the cash.

Thank you

Jane Herrin wrote:Yes it is fine to make a payment direct into the Beacon account but please can you confirm when you have done that, otherwise I will have to send the 'heavies' in to collect the cash.

OK, done, so you can tell Gary to stay at home.

Thanks Laurence

Two places for Keri and myself please.

Thanks Patch you are on the list.

A great response for the February weekend, thank you for getting back to me so quickly. We are now full, so my apologies to those who might be still thinking about it. However, if you would like your name to go on the reserve list please let me know.

Hi Jane me and Keri have paid our deposit via the club as a money exchange.

Thanks Patch

The third Springhill weekend will be soon upon us. The format will be much the same as last year, fish and chips on the Friday evening and the traditional fine feast on Saturday of :-

A glass of bubbly and nibbles to start

A magnificent spaghetti Bolognese for main

Followed by Cartmell Sticky Pudding with either custard or cream



Here are a few reminders of stuff to bring for the weekend:

Torch
Food for breakfast, packed lunch, snacks etc.
Drinks
Towels
Money

Things provided:

Bed linen and pillows

To save there being several cartons of milk etc. I will bring for a bulk supply of milk (semi skinned), sugar, tea bags, coffee, red and brown sauce plus vinegar.


The bunkhouse is available to us from 4pm. on Friday.

Dave Cole has again very kindly volunteered to collect the fish and chips from a nearby chippy. If you wish to avail yourself of this generous service please either post below or contact Dave direct well before so that he can pre-order.

Dave - please may Tone and me have fish (line caught pollock from the Cornish coast) and chips twice plus 1 mushy peas - ta ever so

Fish and chips for Mavis please



Look forward to seeing you all. If there is anything else you would like to know please contact me.

Just a normal cod and chips for me please, Dave. Hold the S&V.

(Line caught pollock - whatever next?)

Two lots of fish and chips please Dave. Oh and a lge portion of mushy peas.

Cod, chips and mushy peas for me, please.

I fear Jane and Tony may be going hungry, since real pollocks would be needed to get within a line's length of the Cornish coast just now.

Fish and chips please Dave.

Plaice and chips please

Fish and chips please, Dave.

Cod and chips with mushy peas for me, please. No vinegar.

Cod & chips twice please.

just wanted to mention i have a spare seat for the journey if anyone interested, leaving 2-ish friday. No room for bike i'm afraid, PM or email me

Dave can I add a large curry sauce to order please

Fish and chips for Sheila Shayes

Fish, chips and curry sauce for Pat Haddon

Fish, chips and mushy peas twice for John & Jen Durham

Thanks Dave

RIDING OUT:
I'm riding out on Friday, probably leaving home about 10am and definitely dawdling through the lanes, via a couple of cafés. About 123km. I'm likely to be meeting John Hitchcock & Dave Hughes en route.

Anyone else who fancies linking up en route, e.g. at Tenbury, Ludlow or Church Stretton is invited to let me/John/Dave know.

Who is riding on the Saturday?

In previous years, Steve has worked out a route of 60-70km, which a few of us have done at a leisurely pace. Do you have another destination in mind for this year, Steve? If not, what about this place:
http://www.lakeviewtearoom.co.uk/

It's about 41km each way (hill, obviously). Is that too far for the Saturday group? (We could trim it by a few ks by using that almost unridable road that goes due west from Springhill ... but that has obvious drawbacks.)

I was thinking about a shortish tempo-paced ride on the Saturday, George, but I could be persuaded by something a bit longer. The route you've plotted on Strava looks good.

Thanks, Laurence. Shall we wait and see what other people fancy doing before making a definite decision? I'll load the route to Vyrnwy on my Garmin anyway, but if the general preference is for something different/shorter, I'm happy to go with the flow.

Let's hope the weather forecast holds, anyway: south-easterly wind forecast for Friday, westerly for Sunday, i.e. a tail wind both ways. Sounds too good to be true!

That would be too far for me George having only ridden twice this year. I'll have the routes from the last 2 years to Pystill and the aquaduct with the funny name plus an new even easier route to the Navigation Inn at Maesbury. I suspect these will be too short and slow for you chaps though. In any case, if the weather's not good for cycling I may go for a walk instead. Actually with the possibility of snow and / or ice on the hills I'm not 100% positive I'm going by bike yet.

Steve, short and slow is fine by me on Saturday, since I'll be doing longish rides on Friday and Sunday. I didn't work out the Vyrnwy route because I specially wanted to ride 80km -- I just spotted that café and thought "Hmm ... I wonder how far that is?" The ride that you led to the waterfall was a very attractive route; I'd be happy to do that again, or something else of a similar distance. However, I'll leave my decision-making until everyone else's plans/wishes become clearer.

I'm a bit surprised to hear you mention ice, though: the BBC are currently saying a minimum of 4C for Oswestry on the night of Fri-Sat. I suppose it might be colder up on that hill, but I was pretty hopeful that we'd avoid problems. Should I be looking at a more specialist weather site?

One or two people have expressed an interest in an off-road option, so I propose this:

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/4037037

About 25 miles (but can be shortened if needed), mixed on/off road, tea stop in Llangollen.

If the weather turns really bad, I'll go for a walk instead.

Looks interesting, Andy, but it has awkward technical implications for me. I'd have to ride to and from Springhill on my heavy touring bike fitted with off-road tyres, which would turn Friday and Sunday into a bit of a slog. My preference would be for an on-road ride. I'm not trying to talk you out of doing what you fancy, but if off-roading is what you fancy, I'll almost certainly be doing something different.

Maybe we could all head for the same place, but some of us off road and some of us taking a slightly longer on-road route. Have you identified a good café in Llangollen?

George wrote:Looks interesting, Andy, but it has awkward technical implications for me. I'd have to ride to and from Springhill on my heavy touring bike fitted with off-road tyres, which would turn Friday and Sunday into a bit of a slog. My preference would be for an on-road ride. I'm not trying to talk you out of doing what you fancy, but if off-roading is what you fancy, I'll almost certainly be doing something different.

Maybe we could all head for the same place, but some of us off road and some of us taking a slightly longer on-road route. Have you identified a good café in Llangollen?

I wasn't suggesting this as a replacement, but as an alternative option to the usual road ride.

Charles and Paul were the other possible MTBers.

Ice is on Sunday morning George http://www.xcweather.co.uk/forecast/oswestry

Forecasts of snow seem to be easing but who knows up on top

Is anyone bringing running kit as I fancy some company.
Anne

Yosser wrote:Is anyone bringing running kit as I fancy some company.
Anne

Sorry. Injured. Not supposed to run. Plus you're too fast for me.

Hi George (et al).
the ranks are depleted! I am bottling it in the light of
a) not riding bike for some time
and
b) the forecast. Following wind good, Stormy weather v. bad!
Even worse JH is having to empty the river Severn out of his front room today and wont make the ride or possibly the w.e. at all.

Yosser (settling for the easy life) Hughes.

No sweat, Dave ... see you there.

I hope that someone is bringing a plentiful supply of a proprietary water-disperser much loved by Mr Weaver.

Thanks for Jane and Tony and everyone else for a good weekend, despite the weather's best efforts. I won't forget riding along the A5 in that pouring rain on Friday for a long while.

Thanks Jane and everybody else - a most enjoyable adventure.

Thanks for all your hard work, Jane and Tony ... and thanks to everyone else for your company.

A few compact snaps:
http://tinyurl.com/pt8pebs

Hi,
Many thanks to Jane for organising the weekend- brilliant. Also thanks to Dave etc for fetching the fish and chips on Friday and to all the people that made the spaghetti Bol. On sat ie Jane, debs, Ann, and Andrenne - very nice.
Thank you.
Anne and Dave

Hi All,
Forgot to mention that I have a "posh" Tupperware box with some goodies in it that was left. Please let me know if it is yours and I will return it.
Anne

George wrote:Thanks for all your hard work, Jane and Tony ... and thanks to everyone else for your company.

A few compact snaps:
http://tinyurl.com/pt8pebs

Great photos, George. Especially the one of Patch snoozing.

big thanks to all the team Jane&tony in particular for this years bunkhouse weekend; here's video of andy and me out on saturday off road adventure

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09FSkq4kkLg

Many thanks to Jane, Tony and all for a great weekend.