Category: Cambridgeshire

Wet at Wimpole

Into each life some rain must fall, so goes the song. But we’ve had more than our fair share of the stuff this past month and it’s becoming difficult to write a blog without tedious repetition of ‘stair rods’, ‘cats & dogs’, ‘drowned rats’, etc.

Yet here we were again; another wet Thursday and a tricky go / no go decision for Simon, this week’s ride leader. On the one hand he wanted to avoid getting everyone soaked and – it goes without saying – to keep us all safe. On the other hand he’d booked 18 people in for lunch at The Chequers. It was quite a dilemma.

Being a ballsy sort of guy, Simon confirmed he would be waiting patiently at the start – where he was delighted to be joined by a foolhardy foursome, namely Sandra, Graham, Jeremy and Brian.

Rather than meet in a rain-lashed pub car park, we got together a little further down the road at the excellent El Cafecito – where Graham was already enjoying a hearty breakfast – before steeling ourselves for the ride.

Of course, once we got going there developed a sort of all-in-this together camaderie – resilience in adversity and all that – and before we knew it, sixteen miles had gone and we were pulling in at National Trust Wimpole for coffee.

Refreshed (and quietly leaving behind us five sodden NT chairs), we took to the bikes once more for the return leg. It was only 11 miles but the rain was heavier and the puddles bigger. Indeed, Jeremy endured a complete soaking when a passing truck sent a tidal wave of water his way.

So it was with much relief that we tumbled back into the warm embrace of The Chequers where we were greeted with a cheer by our drier, more sensible friends. Sitting down with Andrew, Chris, Howard, Maurice, Rod and Roger, we enjoyed a well deserved lunch.

Our thanks go to Simon for instilling in us his gung-ho spirit of adventure.

The very next day, many of us were back at The Chequers raising a glass to our dear friend, Lawrence, having earlier attended his funeral at St Mary Magdelene’s Church, Ickleton. The service was memorable both for Windmiller Ken Worthing’s excellent eulogy and for the wonderful voices of the Cambridge University Musical Society Choir.

Very fittingly Maurice donated £1000 of our charity collection to the Arthur Rank Hospice where Lawrence spent his final weeks.

There’s a very good account of Lawrence’s life here in the Cambridge Independent.

Lawrence Wragg, 26th November 1943 – 29th October 2022

Brian

Tags The Chequers Fowlmere, Wimpole, Windmill cycling club

Cambridge Cambridgeshire

A Space Odyssey

The club website says we’re all about exploring the quieter lanes of East Anglia – to which we can now add . . . and the solar system.

A blue planet on a very brown Midsummer Common

Curiosity about Thursday’s ride had been piqued by Brian’s invitation saying we would be . . . visiting every planet in the solar system before stopping for refreshments at a pharmacy beyond Pluto. We thought he’d just had too much sun.

Come Thursday and there was indeed lots of sun – not only the usual one overhead but another one in the middle of Midsummer Common, Cambridge; as if we weren’t hot enough already, having cycled into town from Stapleford in the middle of a heatwave.

We were at the start of the Our Place in Space trail featuring scale models of the sun and planets recreated as contemporary art sculptures strung out along the River Cam and extending some five miles to Waterbeach (aka Pluto). Confused? Have a look at the pictures and you’ll get the general idea.

As for the pharmacy beyond Pluto, that turned out to be a café in Waterbeach called, well, Pharmacie.

Some Windmillers got quite carried away with their adventures in space. Rod and Victor experienced weightlessness, albeit fleetingly, as each was seen to fly from the saddle only to crash land somewhat painfully on planet earth.

Victor experiences weightlessness in the confined space of the Carter Bridge, Cambridge

Despite the immense distances covered, we got back to the Three Horseshoes in time for lunch and a few beers – and we were delighted to find Maurice waiting for us at the bar.

And for the record the space travellers were Alan, Brian, Charles, Chris, Deborah, Graham, Ken, Martin, Rod, Roger, Sandra, Simon, Tom and Victor. Back on planet earth we clocked up 28 miles.

28 miles: Stapleford – Hauxton – Trumpington Meadow – Grantchester Meadow – Newnham – The Backs – Midsummer Common – all the planets – Waterbeach – Landbeach – Milton – Cambridge North – Chisholm Bridge – Stourbridge Common – Cambridge Station – Shelford – Stapleford

Rest assured, next Thursday’s ride will be restricted to East Anglia.

Brian

Tags Cambridge, our place in space, stapleford, waterbeach, Windmill cycling club

Cambridgeshire West Wratting

Two take a tumble

At 390 feet above sea level, West Wratting can claim to be the second highest village in Cambridgeshire, beaten to the top spot only by Great Chishill, where Charles, sitting in his garden at a lofty 479 feet, can look down on everyone else in the county.

Gathering at The Chestnut Tree, West Wratting

West Wratting’s other claim to fame is as the haunt of the mythical Shug Monkey. Cambridgeshire folklore has it that the creature – half dog, half monkey – haunts the road to Balsham. Nobody saw it, not even Hazel who, having enjoyed a pint of strong and possibly hallucinogenic rhubarb cider with her lunch, was the most likely of us to experience a vision.

At Graham’s recommendation, we were lunching at The Chestnut Tree in West Wratting, a wonderful village pub, blessed with a particularly fine garden. Our hosts, Peter and Rachel, had welcomed us earlier that morning with coffee and we were now enjoying a fine lunch and some excellent beers.

It had been an eventful outing. Early on, Roger’s and Alan’s bikes somehow got entangled and they took a tumble in the road. Mercifully, they emerged relatively unscathed apart from the odd patch of road rash and bruising. Nothing as bad as the spectacular pile up on the opening day of the Tour de France.

Look carefully and you can just see Alan and Roger ahead, rolling in the road

We’d had a few mechanicals as well; a puncture for Victor and – more significantly – a seized bottom bracket for Howard. Victor effected his puncture repair quickly enough but Howard, unable to turn his pedals for the final mile, had to be pushed back to base by Ric.

We always make the time to pull over and admire the natural world. This time it was a silk tent in a hedgerow, the work of a small eggar moth caterpillar colony. Following emergence from their eggs, the caterpillars construct a tent consisting of layers of silk fibres.

Small eggar moth caterpillars on their silk tent

We pulled in for coffee at Café 33 near Stradishall. The place doesn’t look much – but the ladies make exceedingly good cakes; well worth stopping for when you next visit your relatives over the road at Highpoint Prison.

For the record, our riders were: Alan, Brian, Charles, Deborah, Geoff, Graham, Hazel, Howard, Maurice, Mike, Ric, Roger, Suzanne, Tom and Victor.

Thanks, Maurice, for guiding us around another lovely route. Also Graham, Charles, Deborah and Hazel for the photographs. And Peter & Rachel for their hospitality at the Chestnut Tree; we shall return.

Brian

Tags Cycling club, Maurice Warner, The Chestnut Tree, West Wratting, Windmill cycling club