*****      Club Night 2nd July     *****
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We are a group of friendly AJS & Matchless enthusiasts who have monthly pub meetings where we spend a pleasant evening talking about anything we fancy not just AJS and Matchless. We also have run outs where we ride our motorcycles to interesting places. Please feel free to have a look around our website and why not come along to one of our club nights. We are sure you'll enjoy the evening.

Club meetings are the 1st Wednesday of the month at The Cricketers Pub, Fordham Heath, Colchester at 7.30pm.

March 2025 - Club Night

At last, the weather seems to have changed and the days are getting longer. They say the Brits are obsessed with the weather, well perhaps it is really just Bikers that are constantly looking up at the skies thinking can I get the bike out and not get wet and have to clean it again. It might be better weather and longer days but it was still too dark for a pre-meeting ride-out. Although there was much talk about arriving on bikes, no one did and who can blame them as its still gets chilly at 22:00.

There were 24 attendees and 4 apologies for the March club night, not a bad turn out for the early part of year. Its always a quite time but hopefully things will start to pick up from now. We are organising our annual Coach Trip and currently have 2 options on the table: The Triumph Factory at Hinckley and the Crich Tram Village Motorcycle Day. We are trying to organise the trip during the first part of the year as previously it’s been almost on top of organising the Christmas Meal. Most don’t seem to mind which we choose. I will email the other Essex and Suffolk Sections of our plans in case they wish to join us on our outing. The more the merrier.

The Section has been invited to participate in a “Drive It Day” on the 27th April. A local restaurant owner as opened the Harbour Lights restaurant in Walton on The Naze and through contacts with our Section has invited us along with some other local Car clubs. The Event will start in Colchester and proceed to their restaurant for some lunch. If anyone wishes to pre-order a meal, that can be arranged.

Next Month’s Club Night is Subs night and Kim will be coming round to collect. We are keeping subs at the same price as last year and will again look to see where we can use this to give back value to the members. We did use it last year to subsidise the Christmas Meal for members so we will see what we can do this year.

The Kempton Auto jumble is on this weekend ( 8/9th March ) and quite a few members will be going. Keith Pottinger will have a stall full of shiny thing to purchase so hopefully he will be busy.

With the weather improving ( again Bikers and Weather obsession ) we hope to start to organise a few rides, more to come.

This Thursday (13th March) our old section leader and his wife are celebrating 60 years of marriage. We would all like to congratulate Colin and Jane on their special anniversary.

 

Have a safe March and avoid the pot holes.

 

 

 

Febuary 2025 - Club Night

We last all met on the 8th Jan for our Christmas meal and that seems like a very long time ago. This grey drizzle appears to have been hanging over us for an extended period, which feels like a long time since being able to ride the bikes. The good news is that the days are finally starting to get longer and hopefully brighter. The Feb club night was attended by 22 members, which was pretty good, 3 of which were guests. One of which was from Mersea Island. This location seems to be rich pickings for the club having already got several from that location. There were 5 apologies: Paul, Kim, Colin, Ian and Brian and we look forward to seeing them in March. 2 club members had milestone birthdays, Ian Wentworth was 50 and Jacobus Wells was 70. Congrats to them both on their special day.  We still have 1 Club award to present, we will do separately as the winner has been busy moving house.

 

A new year brings the chance of another Coach trip. I have suggested couple of options: The Triumph Factory Tour (Factory Experience)  or the Crich Tramway Village Motorcycle Day . We are collecting ideas from members but are looking to organise the event in July, rather than later in the year, to give us a Summer and Winter event. Next meeting is on March 5th, where we hope to finalise and start to arrange the coach. Let’s hope for dryer weather soon.

January 2025 - Club Night

 

What a wonderful time we had at the Cricketers for our 2024 Christmas Meal and Awards on Jan 8th 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 8th 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 14th 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.

 

 

 

 

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Diary

Wed Jul 02 @ 7:00PM - 10:00PM
Club Night