Somerset visit.
On 18th April seven gentlemen gathered at Pond Green, Findon to load up the LSV’s with bikes and luggage and set off for a 6 day jaunt around Yeovil, Somerset to spread humour and goodwill amongst the populace of the region
Rides in all directions from a central base in the town as well as a visit to the Fleet Air Arm museum to see plenty of “boys toys” are recorded in the pages to the right of this post.
The Findon Gentlemen’s Cycling Club annual dinner – the Not Gala Night dinner
At 08.00pm on Friday 3rd February 2023 gentlemen of the FGCC gathered for an evening of “exotic victuals and libations, and to celebrate and commemorate such feats, exploits, alarums and excursions as have befallen, overtaken or blessed…” as stated in the summons which gentlemen had received earlier.
With glasses fully charged with either Indian beer or Indian wine (aka water) the presentations got underway whilst the feast was being prepared. Mr Roche kindly started with the first award presentation, and in the process took it upon himself as the avuncular founder member to give advice to newcomer, Tommy, to take notes on how to make a medal presentation with at least 5 major points. At the end of the evening the notes consisted of the following:
Presentations paused when victuals arrived and continued once all had fed. A sumptuous feast enjoyed by all and thanks go to the staff at the Tajdar for hosting yet another excellent and hilarious entertaining evening.The medal list is updated in the following days with members requested to advise details of both the award presented and that received in case there had been any failure in either understanding or remembering (surely not at our age) the detail.
Feast at the Tajdar for the FGCC
Findon Gentlemen’s Cycling Club held our annual planning meeting on Friday 5th January.
Libations commenced at the bar in the Findon Manor Hotel with excellent pints of Sussex bitter being savoured. A hushed silence came over the group as Team Cartographer, Mr P Topley, then announced (in no particular order) each Gentleman’s number of rides during the previous year, leading to our Team Chaplain, Zachary Allen, yet again being presented with the much coveted “Bling Award”. Stats are below showing that Rev Allen was out for 50 Saturday rides out of 52 in the year climbing an impressive 1.9 Everests, closely followed by Mr Mead with a total of 47 Saturday rides.
Proud recipient of the Bling Award
This led to a serious (!) discussion of the rules of the Bling award, which having been relaxed to cope with Covid will be tightened up for 2023 to those who join the Saturday peloton or those who ride on Saturday mornings abroad – the emerging effects of Sussex bitter left an uncertain outcome on the definition of “abroad”.
As usual full reports of Saturday rides are reported within this blog – see pages on the right – with records of distances and heights climbed as well as TAMITS (incidents for which “There Is A Medal In There Somewhere”, possibly. Medals are awarded at the Not-Gala-Night.
Fully refreshed Gentlemen then moved on to the Tajdar Restaurant within the village for the APM itself and the APM commenced while tasty victuals and libations were ordered. With much of the usual interruptions, diversions, changes and calls for “one meeting” the revised calendar for 2023 was knocked into shape and is now to be found on the FGCC website in the “Events” section.
Another quality meal was enjoyed along with gallons of Indian beer and Indian wine (aka water) and whilst some retired home others retired to the Village House for post-prandial beverages during which Mr K threw down the gauntlet for Gentlemen to join him on the next morning’s ride 08.00am ride with foul weather forecasted. In the event 5 gentlemen turned up for the ride but Mr K was nowhere to be seen – good example of a TAMITS.
An EPM has been called for 1st April at the Village House for the purposes of celebrating Mr Roche’s retirement from the wheels of commerce – beware of likely falls in global markets – and to plan a future Hayling Island ride. The outcome of those plans will be published in the next days.
Update:
A great time was had by all with plenty of VT. For some reason no planning managed to take place.
Nine gentlemen of the FGCC dressed in formal club attire along with full regalia attended a fine banquet at the Tajdar in Findon on January 22nd 2022 to commemorate achievements of members of the club in the past year. Sadly we were without two members, Messrs Avery and Roche, who were confined to barracks for the evening. With glasses fully charged with either Bangla or Cobra beer toasts were made to these and other absent friends.
The first item on the agenda was the presentation of the much desired 2021 Bulldog Bling Award which was won by our Team Chaplain and Team Historian, Zach to be seen below with man of destiny look and proudly holding the medal.
The full stats are below showing that the Team Chaplain had completed the most official FGCC rides during the year with 58 rides and having ridden a total of 1,260 miles and climbed 2.75 Everests.
Mr Avery climbed the most – 2.91 Everests – due to his regular travel to the beginning of Findon rides from Angmering on his e-bike. The greatest distance was covered by Mr Mead with a total of 1,268 miles on official rides but along with other rides had ridden 5,100 miles in the year.
The second presentation was a Septuagenarian badge to newcomer Ian, the first of current active riding members to achieve this status – congratulations to Ian.
Then followed a splendid feast and naturally silence descended whilst justice was given to this fine fare.
Once all were fully sated and with glasses again fully charged the subject turned to the 2020 awards for achievements during FGCC events. These ranged from ‘ The Greta Thunberg eco warrior medal’ to one member ‘… in recognition of reduced fossil fuel use age and reduction of emissions both vehicular and corporeal’ to ‘The darn it again medal’ to another member ‘…in recognition of his managing to lose his phone twice in quick succession on a ride’ , and so on.
A splendid event enjoyed by all.
FGCC APM 2022.
The annual planning meeting of the FGCC was held on Friday evening to plan rides and events for the new year with 8 gentlemen present and with a member of the youth wing,Mr Budd chairing the meeting. In contrast to past meetings the plan was determined in record time enabling all to enjoy fine dining at the Tajdar in Findon accompanied by plenty of liquid refreshments.
The resulting calendar for 2022 is to be found on the FGCC website in the events section : FGCC events
The following morning in spite of the unpleasant weather and boggy ground conditions as well as the after effects of the night before 6 gentlemen turned out for a short ride at the usual time of 08.00am. A 3 peaks ride ended with a warming brek at the Findon Garden Centre, which is to be commended not only for the breakfast itself but also for kindly welcoming such a group of wet and muddy cyclists.
Chairman of the school governors reports that the FGCC Monarch’s Way ride has raised more than £600 with hopefully more coming in as articles are published in local press. As previously reported this will go towards playground markings which are desperately needing improvement.
