As part of the HOC 60th Anniversary celebrations Jude asked me back in May to investigate arranging a gathering with tea and cakes at Box Hill as she was busy organising the Classic Show at Sammy Miller’s. So one Sunday I approached Mike and Gill at Ryka’s about booking the small car park. As something of a regular visitor (understatement) I had than more than just tasted the cakes made by Angie Foreman who works at Ryka’s and has her own Home Baking business – (The Jam & Gherkin – angieforeman@hotmail.co.uk), so I ordered 3 large cakes and 70 cupcakes – Angie does make cakes to die for.
We had all been watching the weather forecast for a few days – it didn’t look too good – this time unlike at The Classic Show and Ace Cafe our luck ran out – the forecast was right! I was getting concerned about how many cakes I might be left with. There was no need to worry in the end – we had a fantastic response from members everywhere with 10 branches turning up – Northants, Solent, North London, Essex, Reading, Bedfordshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Oxford and West London. Also, lots of non-branch affiliated members – and a couple of new members who had only joined a day or so before (well-done Vijay and Nadeem). We had approx 70-80 bikes throughout the day and only about 4 cupcakes left over at the end of the day.
We were so grateful for the support given by all those who made such a huge effort to attend and the really cheerful attitude given the challenging weather conditions. It was great to see groups of bikes filling up the bike park where resident Box Hill photographer Toni Teuntje Harris was on hand to take some great shots and group photos of a memorable day. Throughout the day bikes came and went and many cups of tea were drunk and lots of cake eaten.
(Some photos courtesy of Toni Teuntje Harris)
Steve Hill
