Tonight we took part in a massive team battle on Supreme Commander, with Ash and Michael against the rest. Alliances were built and broken during the game, but eventually Ash and Michael emerged victorious.

Lawrence entertained some with his new Minecraft server, then we moved to Ashmoor gym for a badminton session from 8.40-9.40.

The forecast was dry until mid-afternoon so we decided to press ahead with our planned ride to Exeter. We used two cars to take us to Starcross, then rode past Powderham castle where the deer herd was not far from the road. We had soon crossed the new level crossing gates over the main railway line and were riding up the path that runs along the Exe estuary.

John had never explored this area before, so he and the boys found it very interesting as we passed the Turf Lock hotel and joined the canal path. We soon crossed the canal bridge at Countess Weir and continued on through the River Exe Country Park towards the centre of Exeter. Here John found a new part of Exeter that he never knew existed, and it certainly changed his opinion of the city - the quayside area is a delight for cyclists and walkers alike.

We called in at our planned lunch stop - Pizza Hut - at 1pm and ordered four large pizzas for the price of two thanks to Michael's discount voucher. They were excellent of course and we had several spare slices to take home. The staff kindly boxed up John's pieces, but when he found the box was too large for his pannier rack Michael took it back to swap for two smaller boxes. This time they just gave Michael the boxes and suggested he transferred the slices at the counter. While he was doing this another member of staff knocked the box onto the floor while answering the phone, ruining two of the slices! There was no apology and no refund, so that was that. Fortunately service is usually much better.

It was getting colder and darker now, but we did the usual fifteen minute circuit of the riverside recreation ground and then started the journey back to Starcross as the first spots of rain began to fall. It gradually turned into light rain by the time we reached the car, but nobody complained as we had made the best of the good weather with an excellent ride.

Computer games kept everyone happy this evening.

Heavy rain overnight had been replaced by heavy showers at the start of the ride. We decided to cancel the ride and run a badminton social at Ashmoor, whereupon Ash rang Callum and managed to persuade him to join us as well.

The evening started with some games of Supreme Commander, went through a Nintendo 3DS phase and ended with some music quizzes.

After playing a few games our youngsters thought it would be a good idea to visit Tesco to buy some copies of the new game CoD Ghosts. When we got there the staff searched hard but could not find any discs to go with the boxes on the shelf, so we had to content ourselves with buying some snacks and headed home for a few more games.

Lawrence made the effort to come up for the ride, but when he realised there were only two of us he thought it would be more fun to have a games social. Michael takes the view that events should be organised to suit members' wishes, so a games social was arranged that kept us happy all morning.