Return to West Marden

On a friday night, not a usual day for a TCA ride, we all met up at Ad and Ju's former home at Nyewood, South Harting. After a few running repairs to Jons bike, another flat tyre and adjustments to his chain, we waited round for Julie who had travelled back from her new home in the west country, some place beginning with a D. She had been left to her own devizes and was late, something to do with catching the cat and putting her in the car, (I think that I got that right) we left just about before 7. The hardcore couple of Scott and Sophie had already arrived in their Tandem from Petersfield. We had not forgotten the route and stormed away apart from Jon down through Nyewood, outskirts of South Harting and along West Harting Down. The missing link in Jons bike chain was playing havoc though as he could not engage the higher gears so the pedaling was fast and furious in order to try and catch up with the others.

Coming down from West Harting Down, there was a gradual meandering down hill through small farms, Ladyholt, Eckensfield and Hucksholt farm and then onto a small section of road. Unfortunately, we met a ramble of amateur mountain bikers in various guises littering our way ahead. One chap had a broken chain. Jon was in no mood to engage in offering advice and it looked like the chap could do with the exercise in walking his bike back home. We quickly sped past them and then cycled down and up a field up to Robin Wood. The weight of the Scott and Sophie Tandem had no problem in dropping down and up this field but for the rest of us the going on the grass was tougher.

After a pleasant ride through the wood, we cycled onto open downland and admired the wild flowers, Cowslips at Horseley farm, and then sped towards the West Marden. The sleeping policemen present along this track in past rides had been removed which was a shame. They had provided entertainment in previous rides in gaining lift off on the downhill. Ade still thought of doing his crazyhorse bmx antics again but thought better of it. Once at the pub, we ordered the Timothy Taylor Landlord, pissy lager for Julie and a fruitjuice with a dainty pink umbrella for Sophie. We had an interesting conversation about partners nicknames, oddities, etc which it is best not to go into here suffice to say that we should congratulate Juls and Ade on their engagement.

From Left: Scott, Sophie, Ad, Jon, Julie
(Necking drinks without even a pause to toast absent friends?! Ed.)

In supping up Juls tried to offload her pissy lager but there were no takers. At this point, Sophie tried to impress with a war wound experienced through an altercation with a door at the pub. (Sorry Sophi,e the drawing of blood has to be through an official off on an active duty to count for the purposes of TCA membership and in large quantities)!

We then cycled up towards Locksach Farm with Ade in the lead and soon were approaching the gully between Harting Down and Beacon Hill. We took the gradual ascent up the gully taking the higher route and as per usual had to circumvent the gate. By now it was getting dark and we undertook one of my least favourite rides down the Devil's Toilet down off the Downs towards Telegraph Lane. As per usual, Julie and Jon took it carefully negotiating exposed holed out tree roots which had the unfortunate knack of capturing your back wheels. Scott and Sophie and Ade just bombed down. We got home to Nursted and much to our surprise had a welcome meal prepared by Ade's mum on the hoof. The pizza, garlic bread and a noodle creation made to a Mathews family secret recipe went down very well.

(Posted by: Jon)

West Marden Meltdown

Ride: Harting Route #1 - Victoria Inn, West Marden

Present: Ade, Al, Jon, Julie

We set off at a frantic snails pace as Ad was poncing around with his hair before the off: The hair was good but lights and spares for both his and Julie's bike were sadly lacking. Much abuse from the eager Al and Jon (who had cycled around the yard at least five times trying to get Ad to move his ass) obviously ensued.

The ride out and up onto the Downs was fairly uneventful other than Ad having to return to base for his helmet (prompting yet more abuse) and then peddle like the wind to catch up. We peaked near Foxcombe above South Harting and traveled downhill through Forestry Commission woodland, mud and puddles to Hucksholt. Julie's Chain broke (under extreme peddle power) on the descent so Al whipped the bike over and fixed the chain in a flash with his nifty kit and well honed skills.

We met the Chichester Road for a short while then got back onto the preferred surface, Mud... and plenty of it, through the sheep fields and the mini Deer Park (no sightings though), along to West Marden. Although it was a beautiful, warm sunny evening the previous week's heavy rain had left the trail very wet and boggy. On the descent into the village Al and Julie both heard the tell-tale hiss of punctures so proceeded as fast as possible to maximize pub-based fixing time so we could get back up to full strength. We found a wicked downhill jump section (seemingly through a private garden) just before the pub which we look forward to trying out again at faster speeds! In Ad's haste to guide the way to the pub, he braked far too late before turning in and skidded sideways down the tarmac trying to correct it. After about 10 meters or so it was corrected, but (ooops!) too far and he flipped round the other way, just managing to keep upright using all the luck available - a good TCA effort. If only Al, who was following closely, had had a video camera replays would have been shown ad nausium!

To cool the nerves, Al (shoes off, as we were very muddy indeed) took to the bar of The Victoria Inn to supply the liquid refreshment (three pints of Timothy Taylor's 'Landlord' for the boys and a fizzy lager for Ju). After some debate about appropriate portions Julie, being probably the cleanest member of the team, entered the pub for the traditional packets of crisps each. We then set to fixing punctures, Al's had intriguingly disappeared (only to be apparent again when back at base), but Ad had also developed a puncture by this time (perhaps precipitated by his near-off antics?) so the puncture fixing tally remained at two. Jon and Al agreed that it had been some time since the TCA had encountered such a technical meltdown on a single ride, and that it was significantly less trivial sorting these problems out if you had not made it to the nearest pub to tackle the problems, had not got the right spanners, it was dark and the temperature was sub-zero!

After demonstrating our team-work on the repair efforts we traveled down through the village and on up the other side past Locksash Farm and up to the first Telegraph Hill. There followed an exhilarating, long down-hill section off Telegraph, punctuated by a series of speed bumps which Al and Ad relished for the air! That fun over we had the long drag through the very grassy track and over the Chichester/Harting road and on up the gully between Harting Down and Beacon Hill. Through a stroke of luck Jon and Al saw to it that we took the higher of two tracks as the National Trust have erected a new fence straight across the tracks and only placed a gate in the higher one.

Once at the highest point it was a nasty drop down to East Harting through the cutting along the side of the Downs (subsequently christened 'The Devil's Toilet', as it was strewn with slippery logs, Ed.). Everyone had their own series of 'offs' and 'near-offs' before we took to walking in case we damaged ourselves. Once off the downs we were all very keen to get back to the farm for other fill of Julie's home cooking (Coq au Vin Blanc). This almost redeemed her broken chain incident, and after a generous slice of home made cake Al had completely forgotten the spare links he donated!

(Posted by: Ade)