We had a good turnout today on morning where the forecast was mainly dry with some showers, but when people started arriving it was definitely cold and wet. Now Michael had a dilemma: Jerome and Alastair wanted to go cycling regardless of the weather, but all the others wanted to stay dry and warm with a badminton social. Jerome said he and Alastair would do a ride through Hembury Woods on their own if we did a social. Well as we debated the matter the rain stopped so it seemed sensible to do a relatively short ride.

We finally set off at 10.50 and rode up Dean Hill, but light rain soon began again, this time with some snowflakes mixed in. By the time we reached the top it was heavier with more snow and very cold so everyone agreed to head home via Pennywell to avoid retracing our outward route.

Now however there was more snow than rain. This was probably the first time any of the youngsters had been cycling in snow, and even though they were cold they were very much enlivened by the fun of it all. Will soon began to suffer, however, as he was only wearing a shirt and fingerless gloves. Lawrence also had problems as he was wearing jeans for some reason, and George had been freezing since halfway up Dean Hill.

We sailed down Pennywell Hill with snow in our eyes looking forward eagerly to a warm fire and hot drinks. Jerome commented that he wouldn’t have opted to cycle if he had known it was going to be so unpleasant, and I think nobody could disagree with that. When we reached Timbers Road, however, he asked for directions to Hembury Woods: apparently they were still going to do their original ride to Hembury despite the atrocious conditions! Ash thought they were crazy and everyone else probably thought the same, but we wished them luck and raced back home to get showered and changed.

Will and Lawrence decided to stay home once they were showered and warm, but everyone else came up for an afternoon of games by the fire, finishing around 3.15. Callum O’Brien also joined us on condition that he cycled up, and George joined Michael and Ash for a car trip to Tesco after the social.

So Michael had done his best to create a ride that would keep both groups reasonably happy, but in the end it was just too big a gap to bridge and neither group was really satisfied. Having said that, the memory of cycling in the snow will remain with everyone for a very long time.