Alex asked if I was going on the Holmeswood run and he said everyone was meeting up at Don Fraser’s Coaches for 10.00am. I agreed to meet Alex there and thought it was that we all meet up and follow each other at a steady pace, how wrong I was. When I arrived at Don Fraser’s Coaches Charlie Broom was already there, after a couple of minutes chatting to Charlie someone came up to me and said can you fill in your details here and sign on. He also asked for £2 and gave me a route to run was to follow. Anyway, I now know that this was Warren who with aid of his wife Kath who designed and organised this run.
Well after studying the route map for a while I thought how am I going to remember where I am supposed to go, so I thought best thing is to follow the pack.
As we all set off Alex struggled to get his bike going, he was given a push by one of the other participants but no luck. I stopped and tried to kick start his Sunbeam but alas, it was no good. So 2 of us pushed Alex and thankfully he got it going.
At last we set off, but unfortunately the main pack had disappeared, anyway the remainder of the riders followed Alex.
We were doing quite well until we came to an island and Alex and Dave Hodge on a Honda managed to get around in between the traffic, but the rest of the pack got held up and we lost site of Alex and Dave.
So we continue on along this road but hadn’t a clue where to go next so we stopped to check the route map.
Bill Dyke on his Vello and Peter and Dennis on their Bantams took the lead. This was a good move as they were able to consult the route map at appropriate points and got us to the Junction pub, thank goodness.
Although when we had pulled over in Halsall my brother Gordon went straight on and I didn’t know if I should follow him or Bill, but thought it best if I follow Bill and the rest of our group.
We stopped for a while at the Junction pub, but I think Bill must have gone straight on as after we left the Junction pub on our way to the Farmers Arms in Parbold we came across Bill stranded in Crawford village with a flat tyre.
Peter and Dennis offered to give Bill a lift back home to collect his trailer to recover his bike and the rest of the group continued on to the Farmers Arms in Parbold where we met up with about a dozen other members of the party, but more kept on arriving.
I can recommend the steak & ale pie at the Farmers and the fish there had was gigantic.
Anyway a nice day out in lovely weather.
Brian Williams
