The ride from Avonwick to Mothecombe was notable for just two incidents. Descending the long hill to Ermington a bunch of the leading riders, having been asked to wait half-way down, chose a spot that was just around a blind corner near Ugborough. Daniel was the first to discover them, and was fortunate to avoid a collision. Then, approaching the final climb to Mothecombe, Tao broke a spoke, leaving his wheel badly buckled. How would he get home?

We parked the bikes at the head of the footpath and walked to the beach, which was very peaceful today. When everyone had enjoyed lunch and finished jumping around in the water we returned to the bikes and descended the road to the main beach. The plan was to wade across the river Erme, something that is only possible when the tide is out. The sensible members took off their shoes and socks before wading across the sandy river bed - those who were too small to wade were carried across. One way or another we all got across within about fifteen minutes.

We knew the tide was out so we took the tidal road to Aveton Gifford. By this time Tao had found that he could still ride his buckled wheel. We stopped at Loddiswell’s Avon Mill cafe for refreshments and then concluded an excellent ride by returning home via Wrangaton and South Brent.

After some indecision we decided to go for half a ride tonight, cycling through Buckfast, Hembury, Holne, Michelcombe, Scorriton and Combe before finishing with the killer hill to Cross Furzes. The final descent brought us past Crofters, so it wasn’t surprising that the second part of the evening was spent playing computer games.

Eliot received a warm welcome today on the occasion of his first ride since he moved away from Buckfastleigh.

Saturday morning had been wet and the mist still lingered on the high ground as we rode through Hexworthy. Dartmoor always captures a mood, and today’s moorland crossing was a unique experience.

Eliot ran into some freewheel problems on the bridleway to Bellever Forest and had to be pushed along from time to time. We still managed to reach Bellever in plenty of time to play with Frisbees by the river before we settled into the warm hostel. There was a casualty, however: Neil fell onto some rocks, bruised his knees and found himself in a certain amount of pain for the rest of the evening.

The new warden made us very welcome at the hostel. Budgie and Julian created some very interesting meals of their own while the rest of us enjoyed hostel food. The remainder of the evening was spent playing games by the open fire in the cosy common room.

Budgie started Sunday with another ingenious culinary creation, this time a combination of grapefruit and eggs - the rest of us could only look on with admiration from the safety of our cereal bowls.

The weather was not at all promising, however: the rain was still falling by the time we were ready to leave despite our many hopes that it would stop. Our planned visit to Princetown didn’t seem such a good idea under the circumstances, so we headed for Widecome’s Wayside cafe and hoped that things might improve.

They didn’t, so we sped through Buckland and Spitchwick and spent the afternoon at Crofters.

Michael celebrated the last evening ride of the season by getting a puncture along Colston Road. Neil, who’d been having some bike problems, was riding Michael’s Dawes equipped with some makeshift lights.

Darkness fell as we rode the Totnes cycle path, but Philip Stone kept us all dazzled with his new high-powered front light. After meeting Dave Robinson unexpectedly outside Totnes pool we returned homewards via Rattery. Several of the lights gave up along the way (including Philip’s), which just goes to show that the brightest doesn’t always last longest! Everyone is advised to bring spare batteries with their lights.

When the minutes of last years meeting had been read and agreed, Michael distributed the annual report and accounts which showed a 20% rise in attendances compared with last year’s figures.

Julian Duquemin was elected treasurer and section delegate, Richard Burge became publicity officer and Michael was re-elected as Section Secretary. Publicity representatives were elected as follows:

<table>
<tr><td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td>Totnes</td><td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td>Tom Widger</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Paignton</td><td></td><td>Dave Robinson</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Torquay</td><td></td><td>Dave Robinson</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Newton Abbot</td><td></td><td>Eliot Thomas-Wright</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Ashburton</td><td></td><td>Philip Stone</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Buckfastleigh</td><td></td><td>Paul Oakley</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>South Brent</td><td></td><td>John Hayes</td></tr></table>

Two motions were considered, all proposed by the Section Secretary:

<i>A: The Section notes with regret that the absence of a South Area Co-ordinator for the year 1993/94 has resulted in the virtual collapse of attendances from the Paignton start, and proposes that until a new co-ordinator can be found all local rides from Paignton should be discontinued and all other starts from Paignton should be unsupervised, with the exception of the bi-monthly joint afternoon ride.</i>

The words “whenever we can find a leader” were appended to the motion. The motion was then carried.

<i>B: That the Ilsington hotel should be used once again this year for the Christmas Lunch ride on 18 December.</i>

There was some concern about the quality of food at Ilsington, but the price and venue were good so the motion was carried.

Other Business
1. Several of the younger members said that they would like weekly socials this year instead of fortnightly socials. Michael agreed to offer weekly socials until Christmas for a trial period, and to continue them through to Easter if they were well supported.

2. An ice-skating social was proposed for Plymouth Pavilions. Michael said he would include this in the spring programme if possible.

3. The 20% increase in attendances was very encouraging, but it was agreed that every effort should still be made during the coming year to recruit additional children and adults to the club.

Harry brought his two friends Luke and Jack along with him today, meeting us at the Chudleigh Bridge pick-up.

The plan was to get to the destination for lunch, but as we neared the Christow BMX track it became obvious that we would have to drop in for some cycling fun. Once there we met up with some of the local youngsters that we had met on our last visit, so we ended up staying there for one hour and lunch.

Ken, who attempted an early return home, was punished with a puncture (you just can’t rely on these shopping bikes for serious cycling) but Ben stayed with us as we rode the tracks through Cod Wood from Steps Bridge - very enjoyable today in the dappled sunlight. Alex and Ben had a minor crash along the way, but there was no damage.

The second track through Hitchcombe Wood was rougher but tremendous fun. Eventually we emerged at Fingle Bridge and set about climbing our third path of the day, the Hunter’s Path. It was during the long descent that we nearly bumped into Dave Humphreys, one of our Paignton members who hasn’t been out cycling for a very long time.

When Luke had finished playing with his burst drink can at the Chagford stores, he and his two friends decided to ride back to Jack’s house at Moretonhampstead while the rest of us began the long haul back to Buckfastleigh and Totnes.

This was a day when we could have made good use of the burger van at Hound Tor, so of course this was the day that it wasn’t there. It was also the day that we could have done without any further incidents, but that was not to be.

It was during the descent of Ausewell hill that we encountered the two mounted horses riding in the same direction. Michael slowed the group down, told them to ride single file and cautiously overtook the horses on the right-hand side of the road when he felt sure the riders knew we were there, giving them a very wide berth. Toby followed close behind, but as they went past one of the horses shied. The rest of the group very sensibly stopped behind the horses, and Michael and Toby, who were already beyond the point of no return, continued down the hill to remove the object of the horses’ fears.

A following motorist (presumably an equestrian enthusiast) chose to see the incident very differently, however, and worked himself up into a fuming rage within five seconds: it took Michael (and the gentleman’s wife) several minutes of calm responses to convince him that we were not, in fact, an irresponsible bunch of hooligans. Fortunately nobody was injured, but the incident serves as a reminder that you can never be too careful with horses - and irate motorists!

We finally arrived home at 5.30 after a thoroughly enjoyable but physically demanding ride.

The first of our new-style weekly socials was well supported and turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Having climbed Ausewell hill there was an almost unanimous decision to change the destination to the Round House cafe at Buckland in the Moor. Well, these rides are for fun, and we’re not totally inflexible!

After some adequate refreshments we descended through delightfully autumnal woodlands to Spitchwick where we met one of our October 1993 new riders, Mark Barber, with his Mum.

Tao fell off during the descent of the Hembury Woods track, but he wouldn’t admit it to anyone!