I've lost
count of how many years we've been going to the Pant-yr-Ochain at Gresford for
our annual Christmas Lunch but once again Dave H booked it. And once again he
asked me to lead the moderates ride. With only a few of our starting venues
near enough to reach Gresford in time it should have been easy to plan a ride
there. Simply look at a previous year's ride and follow that. But oh no! Dave
likes to throw a spanner in the works one and this year's spanner came in the
form of a change to the timing. So although we were starting from Maggie's for
the second time in a row the meal was now booked for half an hour later. Back
to the drawing board, then, to find a route with about 5 more miles.
It would
be easy to have a moan about Dave's erratic planning but I won't. Truth is I
soon came up with 2 alternatives which would fit the bill and besides he was recovering
from a stressful day the day before the ride. Storm Darragh had roared in the
weekend before leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Amongst other things
power lines feeding the pub had been brought down and the electricity supply
hadn't been restored until Tuesday evening. As a result ,much of the food
bought in to feed us had gone off and had had to be thrown away. Dave got to
know about it on Wednesday morning and a stressful day followed. After much
toing and froing of emails it was decided that we would continue with the ride
but we didn't know what we would end up eating.
Those of
us who were riding assembled at Maggie's in Holt and after the usual coffees
and teas we split into 2 groups. No mod+ ride this week so I led a larger than
usual group of 12 riders on a tour of the Cheshire countryside. We crossed the
River Dee into Farndon then followed a clockwise route which took us to
Churton, Coddington and Barton before returning to Farndon via Wetreins Lane. A
circuit which should have provided us with lovely views but which unfortunately
did not due to a mist which had descended during the night and which refused to
clear all day.
After
passing Maggie's we headed towards Gresford taking a loop via Hoseley on the
way. This caused a break-up of the group as some of the faster riders had
opened up a gap between themselves and the rest of us. In doing so they missed
a turning and although we shouted for them to come back they were too far away
to hear. We had no alternative but to carry on without them but I was relieved
to see them turn up at the Pant-yr Ochain not long after we did.
The staff
at the pub had pulled out all the stops to replace all the food that had been
ruined and with the exception of one of the main courses we were all able to to
enjoy what we had pre-ordered. An amazing 28 members sat down to a sumptuous
meal, the largest turnout ever for a Christmas lunch. I didn't know that we had
that many. There can't have been many missing. Steve T got up offer Dave a well-deserved
vote of thanks for all the hard work (and stress) that went in to organising
this year's Christmas lunch.
I led an
even smaller group back to Holt after lunch. Just 3 of us with 2 more not far
behind having done 22 miles. Not many but then its more about the lunch and
getting as many of us as possible together than the ride itself.
It only remains for me to wish all our blog readers a Happy Christmas and all
the best for 2025.
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