Early thunderstorms and torrential rain resulted in a delayed 1pm start for those members sensible enough to ring the Cycle Control Centre at Redmount. The few brave souls who started at the planned time of 10am were, however, rewarded when the sun appeared an hour later.

The South Dartmoor late starters met Torbay at Bickington only to find poor Martin Olney looking the worse for wear after a bad fall on gravel. He clearly needed stitches in his chin so Kevin escorted him to Ashburton hospital while Michael rang his parents. I can’t remember when we’ve had such a nasty accident on a club run: with Mark’s grazes last week it seems as though we’re going through a bad patch at the moment.

There was only time for a brief ride, up to Haytor and along the pretty road to Manaton which we seldom use for some reason. But there’s always enough time to visit the Primrose café at Lustleigh, and today was no exception.

Perhaps Dartmoor wasn’t the best choice of destination in view of the miserable weather.

Representation from seven different areas of South Devon helped to make this afternoon jaunt across Dartmoor a very special event. Luke’s appearance on Mini-Shopper (a poor relation of Super-Shopper perhaps?) caused quite a stir, rivalled only by news of the Mens’ Singles tennis final result overheard on a car radio.

This was the evening when silly jokes dominated the conversation. Quite what Vicky thought of her latest nickname “Penelope Pitstop” was difficult to determine.

A staggering thirty five people turned up for this special event. It had originally been scheduled for 11th August 1985 but had to be postponed owing to a poor turnout! The participants were split into five teams regardless of Section as we’d decided to run it as a fun event rather than a competition.

If the route wasn’t to everyone’s liking – well, you can’t please all the people all the time. The general consensus, however, was that the idea should be developed next year. We had great fun organising it – thank you for supporting it.

Wayne and Jeremy, our two under-elevens, seemed to get stronger as the ride progressed, a factor which allowed us to make our first evening venture along the Abbot’s Way. One had to feel a little sorry for the occupants of the steady stream of vehicles that could be seen on the distant A38: we had the beautiful Dean Moor to ourselves.

We were joined on the youth hostel weekend by Damian Cannon of Reading CTC who was getting in some practice for the Scotland tour. Having successfully rendezvoused with assorted bods at Drumbridges, Gappah and Starcross, lunch was eaten on the banks of the Exe estuary.

The canal towpath was bedecked with luxuriant vegetation, which impeded progress somewhat but provided ideal training for next year’s Venezuelan tour (book now with Section Secretaries).

Leaving Exeter by way of Alphington we passed through Shillingford St George and Dunchideock before the long climb over Haldon and the long drop to the Teign House Inn, where a head count revealed that we had lost Budgie. The group was split into a number of posses and a systematic search made, but we were unable to locate him so we headed for the hostel in the hope that he’d made his own way there – which he did eventually, arriving at 8.30pm much to the relief of all concerned.

Leaving the hostel next morning we followed the Teign upstream to Clifford Bridge where the day’s first repairs were effected. Fingle Bridge was reached by way of a long climb and a wrist-jarring descent, and popular opinion decreed that we stop for lunch on the Hunters’ Path (is this a record – only seven miles before lunch?).

Despite further workshop sessions we were only fifteen minutes late arriving at Widecombe to meet the Afternoon Riders (Richard Hopper, Roger Simmons and Richard Palmer) which brought numbers to twenty for our cream tea finale.

This evening’s circular route encompassed hitherto unexplored lanes (and hills) between Ashburton school, Owlacombe and Sigford, and even a new track at Goodstone – John Iles take note!

The Moreleigh Church pick-up, whilst undoubtedly costing support from Torbay youngsters, did allow a different outward route via Diptford and Kingsbridge. In view of the weather, Lannacombe was abandoned in favour of Torcross, where a happy hour was spent on the beach and in the café.

The sun had emerged by the time we had finished our prolonged tea stop at Higher Poole Farm, East Allington (another of Michael’s relations), making the return trip through Totnes even more enjoyable than expected.