Wantage was heaving with no parking available at The Beacon so I had to do some street parking a little way away. I was just about to go for a ride on my own when Jon arrived rather out of puff having fought a headwind from home.

It was clear and cold and the roads were nice and quiet for the ride out to Shrivenham. The headwind made itself known from here though, one of those annoying block headwinds you sometimes get in the winter, not strong but sapping.

Jon headed home at Baulking and I decided to head back via Goosey and Denchworth than fight the wind along the A-road. Overall a jolly nice ride

Ten Corallians set off from King Alfred bang on 9.45am (there were at least five more present who chose to ride in other groups). Conditions were pretty pleasant and the pace nice and relaxed after the slightly hectic A417 section.

I think we all enjoyed the climb up White Horse Hill from the very bottom although I had to do the top section with a soft rear tyre after picking up a flint puncture on the way up. A burst of air got me to the car park!

We were the first big group to arrive so we had the beautiful hand made Mince Pies from the Saddleback Cafe washed down with mulled wine. As other groups started to arrive the heavens opened, thankfully the worst arrived after I had finished mending my puncture. We were lucky as we could shelter under the trees as other bedraggled riders arrived.

After a natter with the other groups and waiting for the rain the clear we gained Lyn, who had ridden from home to the hill, for the remainder of the ride which was in glorious sunshine (nice blue sky rainbow too). A nice tailwind meant we kept a decent pace and had a very sociable ride back to Wantage. Several of us chose to take coffee in Costa whilst others headed home.

A very pleasant morning's outing

With no one turning up and the rain falling heavily again I went home.

Five set out from the market square on very mild morning, cloudy with a definite hint of brightness. We picked up Chris at Fawley by the monument and headed over through Brightwalton and Beedon for an early coffee stop at Hampstead Norreys (sadly no bread pudding on offer this time!). By the time we left it was drizzling and the rain got steadily heavier and soon our shoes and gloves were full of water. Richard and Paul left us at Hermitage and the remaining four headed off through Curridge where Pete picked up a puncture. Chris left us at the A34 bridge in search of somewhere warm and dry, and the dwindling peloton climbed up to Snelsmore Common. But hey, by now the rain had stopped and the sun was threatening to put in appearance, and we soon arrived at Boxford. As we waited to turn onto the B4000 Chris flashed past and Pete raced off in hot pursuit until he reached our turn-off to Wickham. There followed an exploration of the county's (not sure which one!) muckiest roads before arriving at the Wheatsheaf at Chilton Foliat. An hour later and fully sated we emerged to tackle the remaining kilometres. Mysteriously the hills had grown and the legs (well mine at least) become heavier so there was a certain relief as we rolled into Wantage at 1500. Good company as usual!

Two Johns on a clear and very mild evening but with a decent breeze which blew us to Abingdon and slowed us down a bit on the Appleton road but was never that bad.

We were just commenting how lovely an evening it was when I suffered a pothole induced puncture just before the A415 crossroads - it was dealt with promptly though and didn't spoil our enjoyment.

Nice to see Mike Fitton at the start, having come to collect his buff! Also great to see John Blake out with us again after a while - hopefully we'll see more of you now you're living more locally!

No big fuss other than Nick's comedy "off" that gave us a few moments respite from the nagging and nippy northerly wind.

A good long breakfast stop in the always-excellent Bampton Garden Centre cafe - consensus was that the sausages were heavenly.

Slightly non-standard route back from Bampton, but it gave everyone a change to stretch their legs a little on the A417. Thank you to everyone for turning out on such a nippy morning, and making it a very easy ride to lead!

A select group of six enjoyed absolutely delightful weather conditions on the normal New Forest circuit. Although it started off with frost on the windows of parked cars, the hour or so to coffee in Beaulieu was straightforward (with the bonus of there being a traction engine at the cafe), and the colours after coffee on the Rhinefield and Bolderwood ornamental rides were on the wane, but still pretty spectacular.

It was hard to get going again after lunch at the Red Shoot, but we did crack on - and the climb up Roger Penny Way into the headwind proved to be quite tough for everyone.

Sadly there were no wild pigs to be seen today, but we ticked off the staple diet of ponies, cattle and donkeys, together with some very unexpected (but not wild) alpacas who seemed rather curious of the riders.

Coffee at the Sir John Barleycorn, sitting out in the sunshine, was a fitting end to a lovely ride.

A fabulous morning for a ride: mild, sunny and even the stiff south-westerly breeze didn't detract from the enjoyment. No incidents to report. Some cunning information questions were found for next year's Blowingstone audaxes. We had an excellent lunch at Bloomfields in Shrivenham. The ride was so good I was tempted to go round again. Only one piece of bad news: hedge-cutting season has started!

Great turnout - 8 members plus 2 family tag-alongs - for the ever-popular social evenings.

The food was universally acclaimed, despite some mild agitation about late arrival of two chapatis.

Thanks everyone for your company and banter!