Again, the weather held out for Club night, a bit cold but the sun was shining. As we arrived at the Cricketers there was already several bikes there ready for the ride out. Shaun took control and emphasised that the drop of system would apply as usual – as we always need reminding. We set off with 20 bikes (13 modern and 7 classics) in procession, heading off towards Copford, passing our old haunt of The Alma and beyond. The drop off system was working well, however, 2/3 into the ride we lost several members. After several minutes we decide to set off back to the pub, expecting that the missing will have done the same. Unfortunately, we discovered that one of the members had taken a tumble having caught his wheel in a rut in the road. The bike was not too bad, but he was obviously in some pain. We later found he had damaged his ankle and sprained his thumb. I also had some problems with my G9, which I have also now discovered has lost all compression on the righthand cylinder, but the old dear got myself and Caroline home.
With Club night started we had a few items on the agenda. Shaun advised – after some negotiation - that the Gordon Levett tribute ride out will take place on the 31st Aug with route to be agreed. If anyone wants to take part, they will be more than welcome. Paul has also organised a Fish and Chip run for next Thursday (13th June) leaving the Cricketers at 18:30, so don’t be late or you will miss your supper. The only other topic we had for Club night was the future Sammy Miller Trip. We are now collecting deposits and numbers are looking good and as we are sharing the trip with the South Essex section it will be a good opportunity to join forces and compare notes and perhaps create partnerships for other ventures. Again, friends and family are welcome, the 53-seater coach has plenty of room, the more the merrier. Hope everyone is enjoying the summer, lets hope it warms up a bit.
What a cracking May club night.
The weather held off and we managed to do a pre-meeting ride out, led by Paul. it was a bit magical mystery tour, 15 went out and 15 returned, despite 6 of us heading in the wrong direction at Kelvedon. We returned to the Cricketers for the usual refreshments and Cheesy Chips. After the usual period of chitter chatter amongst the members, we called to order to go over this months announcements.
I am please to say we now have 2 new members. Justyn Willis and Tom Trimby have decide to join the band of merry motor cycles. Its nice to know that we must be doing something right for there are new people who want to hang out with us.
In attendance this month we had 27 members and 2 guest, a very healthy membership and the room in the pub was quite busy.
There were a few items on the agenda.
Julian has offered to arrange a Mini-Bus to take members – sharing the cost of hire – the Kempton Park Auto Jumble on 11th May. He has only had 2 takers, which was surprising as it is a great opportunity to visit if you don’t want to drive yourself. If anyone is interested please contact Julian directly.
The Sammy Miller Coach trip has generated a lot of enthusiasm and we have now agreed a date of the 19th Oct. We have provisionally booked Kings Coaches ( their 53 Seater ) for this date. As we are unlikely to fill all the seats, we have been in communication with Kevin O’Brien of South Essex Section to ask if they would like to take part as a joint venture of both Sections. Filling 53 seats will reduce the cost per person making it more affordable for all, not just the Coach but group entry bookings incur a 17.5% discount, so everyone wins.
Pre 65 – Julian advised there is a meeting this Sunday in Maylandsea. It appears they have enough Marshalls, but if anyone is interested they can register.
Paul and Kim will be organising a Fish and Chip run to Mersea very soon, date and time to be confirmed. Also Dale has kindly offered to led the June Club Night Pre-Meeting Rideout.
Lastly Shuan Parker will be organising a Gordon Levett Memorial ride in August. Please keep an eye out for this item and attend if possible as it pays tribute to the effort Gordon put into the club.
At last, it had stopped raining and now that we are in BST there was just enough light for our first pre-meeting club night ride out. Although it was a bit chilly, 10 hardy souls decide to risk it and we set off on a semi familiar route. We had to abandon our first idea of a route, as a recon a few days before showed the road had multiple potholes, covered with water, gravel, mud, which are not the best conditions for 2 wheels – but becoming an all too familiar condition. We set off and after about 30 minutes we all arrived back at The Cricketers for drinks and chips.
Post Ride Out
We had 3 apologies: Peter, Shaun and Reg were unavailable and sent their apologies. But still a great turn out of 30 members and 2 guests.
The April meeting was quite a milestone for the club, as we agreed to switch over to a yearly subscription. After circulating the idea a few months earlier and receiving lots of positive feedback we informed all members of this change and April would become Yearly Subs Month. Making change is always difficult but we believe this would be in the best interest of the club and its members. And to also mark this new era in the Club all members receive a membership card, which we will see if any local businesses would be generous enough to offer us some discount and presentation of their membership card.
Membership Card
A few weeks back I met - purely by accident - Kevin O’Brien of the South Essex Section and since then we have exchanged a few mails on perhaps some joint ventures. Having discussed this at the Club Night, we agreed this could be beneficial to both sections so Kevin and I will discuss further.
We agreed that the birthday announcements would be reduced further and now only send a physical card on a special birthday.
The Pre65 event at Marks Tey appeared have been a success, apparently the course wasn’t that bad – considering the weather of late. However, Steve Toy advised that any Green Laneing would be a challenge but if anyone was interested, he would see what he could do.
Spring and Summer are on their way so hopefully we can get out on the bikes more (ride out volunteer leads always welcome) so keep a eye on the Emails, WhatsApp and WebSite/Facebook pages for any updates.
The meeting had a good turn out of 22 members and 5 guests. All looking forward for the rides outs to start. Hopefully - weather permitting - we can have a pre-meeting ride out in April.
Public Liability Insurance
Over the past few years, we have been an affiliated member of the BMF to gain access to their Public Liability Insurance. However, at cost of £160, this far exceeded our needs and budget. We have now obtained PLI from Hiscox at a cost of £89.60, which started on the 1st March. A nice little saving.
Birthday Cards
After a review of the cost and the increase that we have seen to postage and card, it has now become the highest spend to club finances. To make the most of the sub’s we collect, we will stop the sending of physical cards, unless it is a special Birthday and use the Email/WhatsApp/Facebook to announce to all other birthday events. We will then look to use the sub’s to help with club events throughout the year.
Proposal was accepted and we will hence forth be following this approach for members Birthdays.
Yearly Subscription
As per the email sent out last week, we are looking at changing over to a yearly subscription. The cost will be maintained at £1 per month * 12 = £12. This is a very common approach that a lot clubs take and it will enable the finances to balance and again we can look to inject money into Club events. However, this is a suggestion and we would like everyone's input.
General agreement was voiced, however we will wait a week before making a final decision to enable members to communicate any concerns.
AJS and Matchless Spares Offer based in Chelmsford. If anyone is interested I can supply the mobile number of the gentleman with the spares
Trip – Sammy Miller
As we are likely not to be able to fill a 53 Seater, I have spoken to Mike Fey and asked if the CCMC would like to join us in the venture. This would reduce the cost per head to a reasonable amount if we fill all 53 seats.
Will be put on hold until later in the year.
Pre 65 – Julian Smith
Due to Maylandsea being under water (joke) the event has been moved to Marks Tey on March 31st. Usual offer of a free lunch and £40 in your pocket for helpers.
The meeting kicked off at 20:00 after approx. an hour of the usual Club member banter and for the first time Myself, Caroline and Kim took the full responsibility for running the meeting.
We had 20 members and 2 guests for the February meeting, which was a good turnout considering snow was forecast. There were 4 apologies for absence: Peter Roberts (sunning himself in Lanzarote), Peter Bugg who was on Shift, Kevin Lee and Peter Warren. Peter Warren is recovering from a medical procedure and we wish him a speedy recovery and looking forward to seeing him again very soon.
We had one further presentation to make as the recipient was unable to attend the Christmas Dinner. The award went to George Clark for his Exceptional Commitment to the Club. George has played a pivotal role in supporting Colin and the late Gordon Levett in the running of the club. And in typically modest style he accepted it as a dedication to Gordon.
As we did last year, we are looking to do the same this year, with an annual Coach trip. We have set our sights on the Sammy Millar Museum in Hampshire (https://sammymiller.co.uk/). There was significant interest from the members when asked, so we will cost up the price of the trip and communicate out. Dates that are being considered are the 6th and 13th July.
Additionally, Julian is looking at the cost of hiring a Minibus for a trip to the next Kempton Park Autojumble – 9th March. If anyone is interesting in sharing the cost, let Myself, Caroline, Kim or Julian know so he can check on how big a Seater he can get/needs.
No Green Lane’ing is planned as the treks are completely sodden after all the rain and there were some mumblings about the 4x4 brigade causing the lanes to be so rutted to almost making them unusable for bikes.
The first 2024 Pre-65 event is on 31st March- in Maylandsea, so if anyone fancies a free lunch and getting dirty, please speak to Julian and he can provide any detail required. Julian also advised that there is a Classic Trial event on the 18th Feb – if anyone is interested.
Lastly, as the weather and light is still not good enough Pre meeting rides will probably start in April. However, as there is the occasional day in the Week or Weekend when the weather is holding off, if anyone would like to lead a ride out let me know or use the WhatsApp group to advise the Members.
Happy New Year Everyone
For those of you that attended the Christmas Dinner as you read the below you may notice an obvious omission. This will be explained/resolved at the Feb Club Night.
With our January Club night being the Christmas Dinner and Awards ceremony, it seemed to extend the Christmas festivities for everyone involved. The venue was our usual haunt, The Cricketers Pub in Fordham Heath and people started to gather at around 18:30 in preparation for the evening. Myself and Caroline handed out the name tags, which also had people’s menu choice on the reverse, just in case they had forgotten. Starters, Main and Dessert were served by the Staff with great efficiency as usual. On the night we had a total 45 people, which were a mix of Members, members wife’s and partners. A good turnout considering the floods that were occurring around Essex.
After Tea/Coffee and mince pies we kicked off the awards ceremony. This year we had 5 awards to hand out plus a couple of Specials.
The First was The Reeve Family Cup, awarded for most occurrences of using a vintage machine. The award went to Paul Davis who has nothing but vintage machines, so it was a good probability he would win.
Paul being presented with the commentative photo and Cup. I just about got my hand with the Cup in the picture.
The Second award was The Ralph Davis Cup. Awarded to a member for their increased involvement in club activities and for this year for suggesting and volunteering to run an annual ride out in memory of Gordon Levett.
The Piston Broke Ralph Davis award was presented by Caroline to the winner -Shaun Parker.
The next award was the Alan Jones Cup, which is for exploits and antics on 2 wheels and in this case, 1 involving a Tractor. The cup went to Dr Vic Sayers, who this year either turned up on a bike or occasionally in plaster and a neck brace – hence the mention of a Tractor. We also got Vic a toy Green Tractor to add to the prize giving.
Caroline, Vic and Nick
The last award is The John Lay Cup. We decide to present the Cup to someone who has tirelessly been running the club for many years and finally found someone to take over. His parish notes and injected humour has been enjoyed by club members for many a club night. Now it is time for him to enjoy being in the club and watch others run it, hopefully as well as he did. The Cup went to Colin Smith.
Caroline, Colin and Nick
As this was a special night for Colin, the club members had a whip round over the last few months and have awarded him with a permanent gift of an engraved Salver. This was to show our appreciation of the efforts and commitment they have given over the years and in keeping the club running. We also presented Colin’s wife Jane with a bouquet of flowers for her efforts in supporting Colin and sending out the members birthday cards.
And if you are wondering what happened to Kim, she was the one taking the wonderful Photos and hence not in them. All pictures taken on the night can be viewed and downloaded from our this website link: 2023 Christmas Dinner
Roll on the warmer weather and longer days so we can all get back on the bikes. Hopefully at the Feb club night we can start to plan a week/weekend ride out somewhere, Rain, Snow, weather permitting of course.
See you all on 7th Feb at the Cricketers
Thanks
Nick, Caroline & Kim
What a fun time we had at the December Club meeting. There was some confusion as to whether the meeting would go ahead as a few of us remembered that last year our venue couldn’t accommodate due to the Christmas party bookings. As a result I sent out a broadcast on our Email group, WhatsApp chat and Facebook page that the Club night was to be cancelled. As it was such a late announcement, a few us went along to inform anyone that arrived that it was cancelled. To our amusement there were already a few members having a drink and the Pub very kindly set an area aside for us to have the meeting. Over the next 30-40 mins, the message got out and slowly members arrived for some Christmas cheer. A few rogue elements decided to go out for the evening anyway – thinking Club night was cancelled - and sent a picture from one of our old haunts, which was nice. In the end there were 19 members – in situ – 5 at alternate location and 2 guests. Not a bad turnout for a “cancelled” meeting. The evening was eventually a very Merry affair. May be it was due to the time of year/beer but everyone seemed relaxed and in good spirits. Our Annual Christmas dinner and Awards Ceremony will be held on the 3rd Jan and attendance numbers are on a par of last year, which will make it a big social event again.
Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year to Everyone 
The inclement weather reduced our Club Night attendance - but a good time was had by the with 21 Members and 3 guests who made it. Only Dale C was brave enough to arrive on 2 wheels!!
We have had an unusual request come in from Major Luis – C/O (Commanding Officer) of Colchester Salvation Army.
Major L would like us to help deliver over 400 presents to Paxman Academy School, Shrub End, Colchester using our motorbikes - weather permitting on Friday December 15th, departing Colchester S/A at 10am. Major L is Portuguese and set up a similar mission in Portugal which has built up to 6000 deliveries annually!!!
If we use our bikes it will be just panniers, top boxes or back packs. If you are able to help please conatct Colin.
Parish Notices followed the usual format with the exception of one major announcement. Instead of the normal ‘2 minutes silence’ that follows the request for new leaders to take over from George and I. It was with great pleasure to announce that as from January 1st 2024 Nick, Caroline and Kim have agreed to be our new leadership team. They are already doing sterling work behind the scenes including arrangements for our Annual Meal on January 3rd 2024. Regarding Club affairs they will have a blank sheet of paper and will run the show as they think best. It will be up to us as Members to show support if we wish to carry on with good numbers etc.
As stated many times before the strength of our group is down to the foundations put down by the late John Lay and carried on by Gordon, George and I.
PS Please remember if you have any ride out ideas please speak to Paul who is looking after this aide of things until Steve T takes over.
The October Club night was missing the usual ride out, but that's to be expected at this time of year when the light fades and the temperatures drop. But in this instance the temperature hadn't dropped and several turned up on bikes making those - including me - wondering why I came in the car.
Another busy night with 25 Members and 2 guests enjoying another very nice Club event. Just the 1 apology of absence (G C) but good news that 2 of our regulars (BI and PW) returned after medical issues.
With Colin looking to step down in December and no one volunteering for the job. A collective of Nick, Caroline and Kim will continue to beaver away keeping the Club on track, with Paul looking after the ‘ride outs’ until Steve T takes over sometime next year.
The September evening ride out to Mersea Island was led by Paul and Kim where 8 members enjoyed a Fish and Chip meal together. The heavens decide to open up and there was a bit of a mechanical failure but all ended well.
Nick brought everyone up to date with the Coach outing to The Motor Cycle Museum in Solihull. An e-mail and whats-app message has been sent with parking and pick up details. Many thanks to to Kym Stroud who has mange to get permission for a central location for parking. The club is looking forward to the event as the NMM is an amazing place to visit.
For what seems like a long time coming, the sun shone brightly as the pre-meeting ride out set off at our usual leisurely pace. 14 of us headed off on various machinery towards Bures, turning left near the Railway Station, which took us on a nice little back road through to Wakes Colne and a return journey to the Cricketers Pub. Amazing how the nights are drawing in and the Sun was down when we got back. Everyone seem to enjoy the ride and there were several comments on that it was probably the last pre-meeting ride out this year.
After everyone had got their refreshments and fodder, the meeting kick off with Colin calling out the statistics with 14 members attending the ride out, 24 members at the meeting and 1 guest. We also celebrated that we now have a new member, a Mr Kym Stroud who has signed up after a short period of attendance, which must say something good about the club members.
We thanked Shaun Parker for leading a Saturday ride out around Manningtree and Walton. He has also offered to lead a ride out once a year in memory of Gordon Levett who passed away earlier this year. The ride will be to one of Gordon’s favourite haunts, which will be a fitting tribute to his memory.
The current club leadership is looking to pass on the baton towards the end of this year. Colin after many years of dedicated service has advised that he will step down at the end of the year. There are discussions occurring on how to run the club to ensure we maintain consistency but also to move the organisation forward. Other methods of club communication are now being used and we are seeing a good up-take on the mobile forums. We hope these new methods will provide members with more speedy information but more to come on this subject.
The Coach trip to National Motorcycle Museum is now fully planned and members are blowing out the moths from their wallets to pay for the trip. Caroline and Kim are doing a sterling job of extracting money from the members, although some are still to pay up.
Lastly, it was good to see quite a few members at the Copdock Show near Ipswich, these events are a good place to catch up and chat to people, purchase memorabilia or another Motorcycle if the Garage has space.
Looking forward to seeing everyone at the October club meeting – and don’t forget your wallets.
The great British Summer weather struck again with a down pour of rain for most of the day, which caused the pre-meeting ride out to be cancelled. A couple of hardy people turn up on bikes but most thought of bringing canoes rather than bikes. Having said that we had a good turnout of 21 members and 3 guests. The meeting kicked off with Colin going through his meeting statistics, with a special mention of the Ride out, led by Julian, that took place on the Monday to a location called “5 Miles from Anywhere” in Upware. Several members attended and the feedback of the location was very good, the full English Breakfast seems to have been the favourite choice.
One of our members who was unable to attend the ride out was Vic Sayers (commonly known as Dr Vic) as he was in hospital after an accident involving a Tractor and trailer near Derby. Vic was out on a ride-out with some old friends in the Midlands when the accident happened. He spent some time in Stoke hospital before being transferred to Ipswich and he still miraculously managed to attend the Club meeting on Wednesday. He is a true trooper and a much love member of the club. I won’t go into his injuries but his positive attitude is an example to us all.
Discussions of a Ride out being planned for the 26th Aug were voiced and Shawn has kindly offered to take us on a trip around Manningtree and Walton, again weather permitting.
The National Motorcycle Museum Coach trip has now been finalised. The trip will take place on the 28th Oct, pick up location and return times will be sent out to club members. This is great opportunity to visit a remarkable place with more makes and models than most people realise.
Lastly, we have to mention that our Club main stay Colin, will be 85 on Sunday 6th Aug, the whole club sends you best wishes and happy motorbiking and thank you for all you do to keep the club running.
Happy Birthday Colin and Get well soon Vic
- July 2023 Club Meeting
- June 2023 Update
- Gordon Levett
- Update 2 May 2023
- Update 1 May 2023
- April Evening Ride Out
- Update 1 April 2023
- Update 1 March 2023
- February Update 1
- January Update 2
- January 2023 Update 1
- December 2022 update 1
- Update 2 November 2022
- November 2022 update 1
- November 2022 Reminder
- September update 3
- September 2022 update 2
- September Update 2022 1
- September Update 2022
- August Update 1
- July 2022 Latest news
- July 2022 Update 2
- July 2022 Update 1
- June Update 2022
- May 2022 update 1
- April 2022 update 4
- April 2022 Update 3
- April 2022 update 2
- April 2022 update 1
- March 2022 Update 1