January 2025 - Club Night

 

What a wonderful time we had at the Cricketers for our 2024 Christmas Meal and Awards on Jan 8^th 2025. The meal was fantastic, a credit to the Pub, hot and plenty of it. There were 34 people in attendance all in the festive spirit, Kim and Caroline looked fabulous in their sparkly dresses and was joined by Paige as a 3rd assistant.

After the meal we kick-off with the awards. I had prepared a speech with some attempt of humour, which seem to go down well. All but one Cup was given out, as one recipient was missing. He will be presented with this at the Feb Club Night – the mystery continues!!

 

• ·         The Reeve Family Cup - Awarded for most occurrences of using a vintage machine went to Tony Clayfield, who has been riding various classics during the year, all of which were well turned out and presented.

 

• ·         The Ralph Davis Cup.  This award goes to a member for their increased involvement in club activities and in this case his love of Tomato Sauce. The award went to Shuan Parker who has been involved in leading events this year. He has led several ride outs and organised the Gordon Levett memorial event to Shotley – minus the catering.

 

• ·         The Alan Jones Cup, awarded for exploits and antics on 2 wheels went to David Mills. He received the award for this year’s quickest break down, a record that will be hard to beat – less than 100 yards, luckily, he has more than one bike to use.

 

• ·         The John Lay Cup – is given for Outstanding Service to the Club. The recipient of this award was absent from the meal and will be presented at the Feb Club night. He has been a key stone of the club ride outs and luckily his favourite colour is Orange– hint, hint.

 

• ·         The Gordon Levett Cup – For Voluntary Service to the Club went to Kym Stroud who over the last couple of years has saved the day on more than one occasion. Organised parking for last year and this year’s trip and volunteering to drive the minibus for the Sammy Miller trip.

 

Pictures of the event and awards can be seen here: 2024 Christmas Party Pictures

 

It has been a great year for the club, with good ride outs and the addition of some new members, however, it has also had its downs. Most recently the sad loss of Rob Shrimpton. Rob was a wonderful fella; he always seemed to be smiling or laughing. We will all miss him.

December ( Breakfast ) Club

I think everyone enjoyed the gathering at the Marks Tey Diner as a replacement for the December Club night. 18 members came along, far more than I expected and the venue as it turned out. They had to call in some reserves as the place was full.

I look forward to seeing you all at the "Christmas" meal.

Merry Christmas to you all from Nick, Caroline and Kim.

November 2024 Club Night

We have now had our yearly Club trip, which was to the Sammy Miller Museum in New Milton. We were hoping to make it a joint venture with other sections and clubs but it wasn’t meant to be. At one point it even looked like we would have to cancel as the costs for a Coach was too much for the number of people who wanted to go. But our luck was in, as one of the members stepped up and offered to drive a Minibus and that brought the costs down. This was met with grateful appreciation from the 17 people who wanted to go.  A big thanks has to go to Kym Stroud who without his driving skills, the trip would not have taken place. We managed to set off early, thanks to the people at JD Robertson in Colchester for opening early and after 2 quick stops and with a blue sky above us we made it there by 12:45, giving 3-4 hours to look around. It was well worth the effort to organise. We even got to speak to Sammy as he started his Scrambler, we thought he was on his way home. But instead, he went into a field and treated us to a display of trail riding and all at the young age of 91 years. What a fella!

The November Club night was a different affair as we were asked to use a part of the Cricketers in the main bar. They had a function booked and needed the room. We were happy to vacate as its good that the Pub is being used and let’s hope it continues to survive, unlike many others.

There were only a few items on the agenda and as we were out in the Public it was not fair on the other punters to hear me shouting above them. The Christmas meal is still scheduled for the 8^th Jan and deposits were collected. A good fair number of people will be attending and of course this will be our Awards Ceremony as well.

Historically we don’t have a December club night as the Cricketers needs the room for festive goers, so we agreed on a Club Breakfast meeting instead. We will meet on Saturday the 14^th December at 09:00am at the Marks Tey Bungalow Dinner. We won’t book, so people can just turn up if they fancy. We thought this would make a nice change that not seeing everyone until January seem a long time.

We did mute the subject of a Club Calendar for 2025 based on pictures from the last 12 months meetings and events, but it received a luke warm response so we won’t move on that idea.

So as the year is coming to a close, Myself, Caroline and Kim would like to wish everyone a Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year. See in 2025 – if not for Breakfast.

 

 

 

 

October 2024 Club Night

Hi Everyone,

With the ever decreasing light and autumnal weather setting in there was no pre-meeting ride out this time. No surprise to anyone of this fact, we can all look out of the window and see. There were no brave souls riding to the meeting as was evident by the lack of machines in the coned off area, which the Cricketers kindly do for us each meeting. We still had a good turnout with 21 members, 1 guest and 3 apologies.

Bernie was one of the apologies as he is still recovering from his knee operation, we wish him well and a speedy recovery. Our most travelled member Reg, was packing up in preparation for his bike trip to Spain, fair to say we are all envious. Blue sky, warm air, clear roads, minimal traffic and little or no pot holes – can we all come!!

There were only a few items on the agenda. The Sammy Miller trip is still going ahead on the 19^th Oct but at a reduce quantity of trippers.  We plan to leave Colchester as early as possible but this is depending on how soon on Saturday or Friday we can obtain the Minibus. All in, it is costing £33 per person including entry, not bad really.

The Christmas meal and Awards ceremony has been booked for 8^th Jan 2025 at the Cricketers. With everyone being busy in December it will give us something to look forward to early in the year. Also, as our December club night doesn’t take place due to the Cricketers being booked for the festive season. We will organise a breakfast meeting on a Saturday close to that date as this will give us an event to get together. Time and place to be decided – watch out for Email, WhatsApp, Facebook detail.

Myself and Caroline will be going to the Stafford show on the 12^th Oct and will also be doing a reconnaissance of the Triumph Factory on the Sunday as a potential venue for next years Coach Trip. Maybe we can get the South Essex, East Suffolk sections and Hadleigh Club involved in next year’s trip. I’ll reach out to them in Jan 2025.

I think Paul is still holding onto summer season fashions.

Couldn’t help thinking these 2 characters looked familiar!