Xmas lunch etc

Rob had organised Xmas lunch at the golf club for us and had suggested we go for a pre-match cycle to get us in the mood, so an amazing 14 of us - yet another new record - showed up at the golf club at 10 am, ready to rock and roll. This called for yet another team photo:

l-r: John McWhinnie, Jeb Tyrie, John Perry, Bob Elder, Ian Stewart, Jeff Dickens, Dick Taylor, Rob Pollard, Scott Hunter, Archie Cook, John Meaden, Ken Black, Aiden Meehan & Ian Sharp

We set off eastwards along the Deeside Way and then turned up at Myrebird. The roads we travelled on were quiet, but should we have cycled as one tight peleton or stretched out in single file? Who knows - we just did our usual ducking and diving, responding to cries of "car!" from the front and the rear.

Once over the hill and down the other side at Myrebird, our leader - Captain Birdseye - controversially chose to turn right, rather than head back to Crathes. On to Couper's Road and past Collonach and Coldstream plantations and other places that some of our group - notably Ken B - had never even heard of before. Eventually, we got to Hirn and there was another decision to be made - on to more farm tracks which would bring us out to the north of Drumshalloch Wood, or stay on the tarmac and head back past the brewery? A squeal went up from our oldest member - "no more mud" he cried, so we stayed on the road and passed the brewery and across Raemoir Road towards our various homes for showering and changing before lunch.

Strava says I did 29 kms on this run - https://www.strava.com/activities/451073455

We all eventually gathered in the golf club and were joined by non-cyclists Les and Robin for a couple of beers in the lounge before going through to the restaurant. There was just one no-show - Rob Souden, who hadn't cycled with us all year, but had told Rob P that he would be coming to the lunch - and even pre-ordered his meal.

At this stage, we weren't too inebriated, but one of our group left his man bag behind in the lounge, but it was brought through to him by Robert Melvin of the Burnett Arms to cries of "did anyone leave their handbag behind?". John P had to confess:

Lunch was excellent - lashings of wine and then came the announcement of this year's winner of the (so far non-existent) "yellow jersey" - Ian Sharp - on countback from Dick. Here's the full list of this year's participants:

			Total	%
	No. of Outings		2015	2015	Kms
1	Sharp	Ian	51	44.0%	1648
2	Taylor	Dick	51	44.0%	1563
3	Stewart	Ian	45	38.8%	1364
4	Perry	John	37	31.9%	1147
5	Hunter	Scott	34	29.3%	1101
6	Page	Ken	33	28.4%	1092
7	Dickens	Jeff	28	24.1%	827
8	Elder	Bob	25	21.6%	776
9	Pollard	Rob	23	19.8%	719
10	Gray	Les	20	17.2%	685
11	Tyrie	Jeb	19	16.4%	607
12	Brodie	Robin	18	15.5%	582
13	McWhinnie	John	14	12.1%	481
14	Gray	Keith	14	12.1%	421
15	Meaden	John	8	6.9%	249
16	de Silva	Rufus	8	6.9%	244
17	Cook	Archie	8	6.9%	223
18	Kilgour	Colin	7	6.0%	209
19	Simpson	Jack	6	5.2%	181
20	Reilly	Mike	5	4.3%	164
21	Black	Ken	3	2.6%	100
22	Meehan	Aiden	2	1.7%	71
23	Renwick	Peter	2	1.7%	60
24	Lodge	Malcolm	1	0.9%	54
25	Corbett	Dan	1	0.9%	36
26	Dring	Ian	1	0.9%	29
27	Perry	Richard	1	0.9%	28

After lunch we all adjourned to the lounge for more drinks. A few eventually wandered off before I took this photo of the rest of the reprobates:

A good day all round.