Icy Deeside Way before the First Annual Christmas Dinner

Today's match report courtesy of John P:

"Rob, Dick, Jeff, Rufus, Ian Sh, Scott, Bob, John P

The Weather Bomb had exploded on the West Coast and on Deeside it was a bit fresh, sunny but icy. Black icy. Slippery icy. So some umming and ahhing first thing, decision to be made at the Golf Club. Logistics to be sorted as Christmas Lunch beckoned on our return. So… keep off the ice as much as possible, translated into a linear route to Drum Oak and back. Gritty Deeside Way was deemed better than unsalted back roads. The Deeside Way route also gave us any sunshine that was on the go, which made a pleasant down-wind leg to the bottom buoy at Drumoak Garden Centre and a coffee stop. Spinnakers were hoisted and John P promptly fell over on an icy bit of path, followed by Dick tumbling in an act of selfless sacrifice to avoid John on the ground. Two down six to go. Jeff tried some antics in front of the trains at Crathes and planted himself on the ground and Rufus had a ‘little incident’ again on an icy bit of path just by Drum Oak GC. So four plants on the down-wind leg, meant the others were due for some tumbles on the way back. (I do hope nobody with HSE worries is reading this…)

The return was an up-wind beat all the way back to the top mark at the golf club, which, as we all knew, but somehow came as a surprise to us, was hard work. As we ground up the arterial route through Hill of Banchory, we enjoyed a cooling and refreshing sleety shower to put the icing on the cake (pun? mmm…). Unfortunately nobody fell of on the return leg, which means there is not much to report… We arrived back in Banchory for a bit of quick showering and change of togs to get down to the golf club for lunch.

Thanks to Rob’s organising prowess, we had a very pleasant few hours enjoying the bar and a Christmas lunch at Banchory Golf Club. As a non-golfer and one who has never stepped into the hallowed halls of BGC, I must admit it is all very pleasant isn’t it! Now about that Social Membership Form… Let me see…

Again we rolled the dice in what could have been ‘stay-at-home' conditions and had a really good trip, yay!"

Full stats here - http://www.strava.com/activities/228393408 and the route was:

A couple of photos from Rob:

The photos from the lunch - Table 1 first of all:

l-r: Bob Elder; John Perry; Jeff Dickens; Robin Brodie;Malcolm Lodge & Dick Taylor

 Same table from the other side:

Table 2:

l-r: Scott Hunter; Rufus de Silva; Ken Page; Archie Cook (half hidden); Rob Pollard; Ian Sharp; Ian Stewart & Les Gray

 From the east:

A goodly turnout of 14. Others who have cycled or intend to cycle with BVCG/The Freewheelers this year but were unable to make it to the lunch are Dan Corbett, Bo Malmqvist, Colin Kilgour, Ian Davy, John McWhinnie, Keith Gray, Ken Black, Malcolm Taberner, Rob Souden and Steve Paterson. Yes - a full house would be 24 of us - wouldn't that be a sight to behold?