Wednesday 13/2/2013

At Bromley South I waited alone and forlorn, huddled against a cold biting wind, thinking surely no-one is going to turn out on a night like this.

Steve H had already sent me an email to say he was running late and would meet me at the pub. I then had a message via Facebook from Catherine saying she too would be at the pub. I was in the process of replying when Tim arrived.

OK two isn’t many but it’s still a ride. We waited until 20 to 8 in case any others arrived there were none and so we set off. I had already decided to shorten my planned ride. It was just too cold. My description of the ride being no hills was a bit optimistic; some might even say disingenuous but hey I needed to attract numbers.

We cycled to Eden Park and then turned back towards Beckenham. We kept up a steady pace. We crossed Beckenham High Street and then cut through to pass St Georges Church (has the oldest recorded lychgate). Along Albemarle Road we turned into Westgate and then up the hill to Ravensbourne Station which leads nicely to the Shortlands Tavern. A circuit of around 8 miles so not too shabby really.

We locked up outside and made our way to the bar where we received a nice welcome from Kate who I had spoken to the preceding week to warn her of our visit; the place was packed with customers getting ready for quiz night.

Kate told us there were some of our number already here in the other bar, so we made our way round to find Steve and Paul H. and Mel. They had already booked us into the quiz.

As we were making ourselves comfortable we were joined by Catherine and her friend who I believe was introduced as Dave or Danny, if I’ve got that wrong my apologies; and then by Tessa.