Wellington Wheelers

It’s the last Wednesday of the month this week, which means we are gathering at the World’s End for a pint and a chat. All welcome, and if you’re cycling, all the better!

Hi, I wonder if you would be kind enough to tell your
members of our sponsored 25 mile ride, which is to celebrate 25 years of
Childline. The event is taking place on Sunday 4th march 2012 at 10.30am.
We have a nominal entry fee of £5 which will include soup and a roll at
the end, plus we ask for as much sponsorship as you can muster. The
start/finish will be at Sampford Arundel village hall near Wellington
Somerset, TA21 9QN

Back on schedule again after a brief pause in the gales last week. leaving Longforth car park at 7pm if you’re interested

Details of the April club audaxes have been added to the site. These include access to an entry form that needs to be sent in a couple of weeks prior to the event if possible, although you can still register and enter on the day. There is a new 166k ride to Sherborne this year that replaces the 200k.

Recent footage of the hardcore WWCC Wildlife Frightening Team warming up before setting out last night……

There was a fairly good attendance for the AGM held at West Buckland Village Hall. As with all the best attended WWCC events there was food laid on that disappeared in short order.

Andrew Punter

Andrew Punter, Community Fundraiser from St Margaret’s Somerset Hospice attended and received a cheque from the club for £187 which was the final total of the proceeds from the Charity Rides. However, the meeting took a decision to add a further £500 to that sum – something Andrew doesn’t know about yet…. A similar donation was made to BRAKE  You can see a short video about their work here

Our Chairman

Most importantly, the new committee was elected. Martin Lucas was unanimously elected to the position of Chairman. Martin retired from Relyon in the spring  and has spent much of the remainder of the year pedaling around Somerset and Devon. He is probably clocking up 150 – 200 miles a week and has an encyclopedic knowledge of the roads, lanes and tracks of what feels like the entire country. His calm and unflappable nature will be a great asset to the club and we wish him well.

Phil Leavey remains the club secretary – the great unsung and under-appreciated mainstay of all clubs. Alan Will left Phil a small legacy in the form of his printer/scanner. In turn that has meant Phil also takes on the mantle of de facto Newsletter Compiler (all contributions gratefully received).

Dave Barker is the treasurer and membership secretary, and Dave Sanders carries on his masterful planning and execution of the club’s audaxes.

Ken and Lynda Evans indicated their willingness to organise the Time Trials in 2012 and Roger Browning will organise the social side of the clubs activities until someone else can be found. Names to Phil Leavey please – don’t all rush at once.

The weather forecast was grim for Sunday, the day of the charity ride in aid of St Margaret’s Somerset Hospice, but the truth of it was as ever completely different. Sure,there were high winds blowing up from the south, but there was no rain, the temperatures way up in the teens, and the sun shone most of the day.

Twenty two riders turned out including his worshipfulness the Mayor of Wellington, Andy Govier who deviated from his set route and banged in a few extra miles just for fun – next time it’s the fifty for you Andy!

Richard (Wallace and Grommit) Nelson brought his mum along but abandoned her pretty quickly and went romping off with a group of  ten others on the 50 miler. I have no idea what they got up to but it involved a lot of eating cake and drinking of tea. They all arrived back looking as fresh as daisies.

Ken and Lynda brought their tandem out of retirement and did a creditable time on the 30 mile route before cycling back to Kentisbeare. Ken then gave rides around the car park, much to the bemusement of the Asda Sunday shopping crowd.

Alice and Charles manned the clipboards and read the newspapers until all the riders returned. Thanks to everyone that turned out, and for your generous donations that meant we were able to donate £180 to Somerset hospice.

Next Wednesday (26th) is the last one of the month so we’re planning to meet up at the World’s End for food and chat. If you want to ride out, how about meeting at 7:00 in the Asda car park? If not, see you at the pub at 7:30ish

Heads up everyone!

The annual ride for charity is taking place a week on Sunday – 23rd October. Come along and have a go at one of the variety of rides from 10 – 50 miles. Have a look at the routes 10 Miles, 20 miles, 30 miles or 50 miles.

The start is from the Longforth Road Car Park (Asda) at 10:00, so probably best to get there a few minutes early to sign on. No sponsorship required although we would ask for a minimum donation of £5 for each rider. ALL proceeds go to the St Margarets Somerset Hospice.

If you fancy a ride on Wednesday evening (12th Oct) why not turn up in the Wellington Asda car park (Longforth Road) at 19:00.