The last home test match of the season has been lost (although county cricket plods on), the football season is in full flow and Autumn cycling apparel has been cleared of moths and is on full display. A cool start, but with the promise of better temperatures later in the day, saw 18 Windmillers once again congregating at the Black Bull, Balsham, for coffee and a 9.30 start.
Without the ailing Alan to sort us into orderly groups, the usual herding chickens scenario prevailed as three roughly equal groups headed off towards West Wratting (really, 18 divided by 3 should be a cinch, shouldn’t it ?).
The pacesetters in group 3 clearly hadn’t got the ‘leisure ride’ memo and duly did their best Team Sky Train impersonation, meaning that group 3 quickly caught up the more leisurely group 2 andhad to wait – an excuse for a photo stop at the dead centre of Brinkley (AKA The Woodland Cemetry).
Further on and Group 3 still hadn’t got their pacing right and had caught up with group 2 once again. This time, Andrew sensibly waved group 3 past so they could carry on enjoying their ride.
Beautiful quiet lanes led us to the regular haunt of the “classic roadside cafe”, Cafe 33, at Stradishall – popular with Tradespeople, motorcyclists and Windmillers (Is there a national numbering schemes for cafes of which I’m unaware ?). At least beautiful quiet lanes should have led us to Cafe 33. Group 1 under the leadership of Maurice, who really should have known better as this is his route, ended up on the A143 and last place at the cafe. Red face for the leader !
Cafe 33 is just up the road from the Category C Prisons of Highpoint North and Highpoint South and, I’m sure would have been popular with the following inmates during their lunch breaks:
MYRA HINDLEY: The Moors murderer was jailed for life without parole in 1966 after her and Ian Brady killed five children, with some being sexually abused. In 1998, Hindley was sent to Highpoint’s North section, which at that time was the women’s prison on the site.
LINDA CALVEY: Dubbed as the ‘Black Widow’ at the time because all of her lovers had ending up either dead or in prison, Calvey was jailed for life in 1991 after the murder of her lover Ronnie Cook – a crime which she still denies. The now best-selling crime novelist spent around 17 years in prisons, including Highpoint, before being paroled in 2008.
GEORGE MICHAEL: The former Wham! star arrived at Highpoint Prison in September 2010 after being jailed for eight weeks for crashing his Range Rover into a Snappy Snaps photo store while under the influence of cannabis.
BOY GEORGE: In January 2009, the former Culture Club front man and I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! contestant was jailed for 15 months for imprisoning a male escort, 29-year-old Norwegian model Audun Carlsen, by handcuffing him to a wall and beating him with a metal chain.
LESTER PIGGOTT: Regarded as one of the finest jockeys to ever ride in Britain, Lester Piggott was sentenced to three years imprisonment in 1987 at Ipswich Crown Court. He was found guilty of failing to declare £3.25m, which evaded around £1.7m in taxes, and sent to Highpoint. After serving 12 months and being released, Piggott went on to ride winners in the Breeders’ Cup Mile in America and the 2,000 Guineas in 1992.
Cultural break over, and it was back on the bikes for the short stretch back to Balsham into a noticeable headwind, with Maurice once more in the Vanguard.
In keeping with the rest of the day, the pace ramped once again on the final drag up to the Balsham mountain top finish with a sprint for the bar ensuing, and calls for oxygen at the finish.
Once again, the Black Bull did us proud with excellent food and particularly good Woodfordes Wherry Ale (I think the Ales prefer the cooler temperatures and respond accordingly). Thanks to Maurice for planning and organising.
Victor, Tom, Paul, Roger, Rod, Ric, Nigel, Neil, Keith, Ken, Jeremy, Howard, Graham, Deborah, Charles, Brian, Andrew, Maurice
The Windmill Cycle Club 