Archive index   Go to the Archive index


Devonian Diversions

Linda Bowden

The Devon Section held itsr 'Village Run' in May of this year.  Seven riders set off from Crealey's Adventure Park for a 28 mile run, taking in the local Devon villages.

As usual we were lucky with the weather, which was cold but dry.  Roy had organised maps for everyone, but Chris declined his, as he didn't have his glasses.  With George Kendall and John Glanvill acting as back up, we set off and, without further incident, stopped half way at a local pub for a break.

After a chat and a drink we set off back to Crealey.  En route a passing motorist (on a modern bike) stopped to ask about the run and get details of the Club from Chris while the rest of the group rode on.  After exchanging details, Chris set off to catch up the group, only to take a wrong turn at some temporary roadworks and set off on his own adventure, with what felt like a 10 mile detour, eventually arriving back at Crealey just as we were about to send out a search party!

After a picnic lunch we tried the delights of the Adventure Park and set up a display of bikes for the public.  A special note was made of Andy Hart's reluctance to leave the ball pool and death slides when it was time to go home.

Riders were:

In June, we were invited to put on a static display at Silverton's Village Fête.  Members brought along a selection of autocycles, cyclemotors and vintage bicycles.  We were given a plot on the green and we set up our display and settled back to enjoy the lovely sunny day.  Perched as we were on a small hillock, we had a lovely view of the children's area with bouncy castles and traditional games such as hook the duck, set up in children's paddling pools.  We spent a very pleasant day enjoying the fair and chatting to the public who came to admire the display and find out m ore about the NACC.

The highlight of the day - apart from Chris and David's attempt to ride Dave Swallow's new tandem down the lane - was the tug of war competition between rival pubs in the village.  From our vantage point we had a perfect view and settled back in our ring side seats to enjoy the competition.  Tensions were high when it came to the semi final, when one team gave a mighty tug, over balancing the opposition and falling backwards in a heap, right into the nearest kiddies paddling pool, much to the delight of the crowd!  A delightful end to a very enjoyable day.


First published, October 2002

Archive index   Go to the Archive index