Thursday 18th March 2010 managed to stay dry but windy as NMBC gathered at the Cave for one of our northern runs up to the Newsham Avenues at Blyth. Twenty one riders turned out to confirm the undoubted popularity of these rides, and we set off just after 1900 behind the Speedian, Ian A, as he led over the fields behind the Holystone.

here's the rider list, courtesy of Speedy himself:

Ian A
Ian B
Ian M
Matt
Terry
Chris K
Jeff
Jason
John H
Stewart
Alan
Steve Waters
Mick H
Suzanne
Tim
Paul
Jon
Richy
Alex
Tony
Francis

Terry K was the first to dive off the side of the Shiremoor bypass onto the rough earth bank and took the lead through what was a lake last time before racing through on the singletrack to Backworth Crossing. We halted there briefly for Chris to try and dislodge a winter's worth of residual hardened clay from his cleats before continuing behind the fast lads past the scrapyard and out towards Seghill Tip.

Oh, sh;t

Reaching the singletrack start, the main group had long since vanished by the time Ian B, Jason and Terry were ready to join them, but Jason had that deflated look on his face, matched by that of his rear tyre! The three of them struggled for what seemed ages to try and stop the hole in his Stan's tubeless setup from spewing it's milk out completely, and it wasn't until after three gas canisters had been consumed that Terry found the "thorn" was in fact a 60mm long spear that had gone right through the tyre and out the other side. So we hadn't realised the poor thing was trying to seal two holes and not just one.

Removing the offending twig to be kept for prosperity (could be worth a fortune on eBay) or posterity, we then set about sealing the second hole with another 3 or 4 gas tubes before it looked like we may have succeeded. Out of the distance came a couple of twinkling stars which heralded the arrival of Matt and Ian M, returning from the far end of the trail to see what was up. Cheers lads. Ian informed us that there'd been a split in the main group anyway with most heading east to the Reclamation Plant and the rest popping out on the road just outside the village. And also that Francis had had a puncture but was rolling again! Just then Ian A rang to tell us they'd hold station until we caught up.

So off we went, the five of us, hoping Jason's rear end wouldn't split again. He stopped once along the way but it was still inflated so we carried on to the road. The other party spotted our lights and we met up again towards Delaval where another stop was made as Jason felt the tyre going down again. So off it came and in went Golly's spare bottle of Stan's No-Tubes liquid, followed by 4 or 5 more gas cartridges until the thing stopped hissing and was hard enough for the hard lad.

Alexander the Greatest

Speedy was out front again as we took to the trail past the church heading for the top of Delaval. No issues along this nice stretch of single, then we cruised down towards New Hartley and the start of the Avenues. Quite a bit of lost time meant a quick route revision by Terry, so rather than letting Jeff and Mick haul everyone up to Newsham, the shout went up to stop and wait. A quick check of directions with Ian B and we were heading into the trees for some new trailmaking, as Terry managed to latch onto a wiggly track taking us uphill quite steeply, with a well-used look to it. Arriving at the top we could see why - man-made jumps and little berms! One in particular was constructed with three timber rails and it put everyone off but Alex, who went on to conquer it and survive with an impressive jump and even more impressive landing with trees in very close proximity to his elbows either side. Stuart took a long time to agree that it may not be a great idea to tackle it on his little Specialized hardtail, thank goodness.

Terry took the lead again back down the wiggly track with some maniac trying to bulldoze him at every turn (Alex or Jeff, I think, who's speed Golly can never quite match!). At the bottom he popped out onto the bridleway again after missing his intended switch back into the trees in another direction. Eventually he did find yet another route back in which seemed to last for ages, very fast and straight but with the odd tree trunk in the way before we reached a solid foliage roadblock.

Tim and Jeff found the way out over a fairly deep water-filled hole which then popped us out just to the north west of Lysdon Farm. We had a very long stop here as Jon repaired a puncture. He may be fast on his wheels but sure claims the record for slowest puncture repairs, consistently.

A scouting party went south looking for more goodies after we'd spied another tree-covered slope, but they returned without good news. We eventually got underway again and double-checked their findings on the way out to Hartley, just to make sure. It was there that the Gollum got his eye on a potential winner after everyone had ridden past it. He was followed over the stile (!) by the rest and immediately found himself following a brilliant under-tree singletrack with plenty of flowing bends and more flat-out tree-lined straights. It took us gradually uphill then turned down more sharply to finish with a furious drop over its pine needle and fern bed. Brilliant. Best kind of accident by far.

The end of this bit stopped at a wider trail tee junction, where Ian B took over and pulled us through more excellent, rooty singletrack before it spat us out on the side of a steeply sloping meadow. Terry followed Ian out and we slowed to a halt to discuss our next direction change.

Ouch.

Just short of 15 months after the Gollum's worst bike crash on Spooky Wood at Glentress he goes and aggravates the injury that had, only recently, just about stopped being painful with a stupid, avoidable dump. Turning uphill coming out of that smashing new singletrack at Hartley at something less than walking speed, he managed to tip the Decathlon downhill so much that the front wheel tucked under and planted him on his back. It was so completely unexpected that the frail GollyBody had no chance to brace for impact and the worst-damaged bit from the Scottish tipoff, his right shoulder, hit the ground fairly hard. Doing the "Drama Queen" bit he lay still claiming he couldn't move his right arm, but he soon managed grab it with t'other and haul it up to his chin. Help rushed in from all side to lift him to his doddery old feet and at least allowed him to cry in a more manly position.

Poor Suzanne, standing there quietly, was holding her wrist, and that's when Golly realised he'd hit someone on his way down. She said she was OK but it must have come as a major surprise to her to be suddenly clouted by a falling imbecile.

Sorry Suzanne (The Hollies, 1969):
I'm sorry Suzanne for ever hurting you
You know I never wanted to
I'm truly sorry Suzanne

Anyway, she said she wasn't hurt but I'm not so sure. Hurt or not, it was now Suzanne's turn to lead us back into the trees again after she'd discovered another way in at the top of the hill. Once again this proved to be a superb little section of trail and lasted another five minutes after it initially dumped us in someone's garden before we dug our way out and ended up back at the same stile. A bit of road work followed as we continued south towards the Seaton Sluice road, and just before we hit it, Ian B had us amongst the thorns again for a short romp until we hit the start of the Hollywell bridleway.

Spawning

He kept the pace up pretty well along here for an Oldie, against the wind aswell. But the main obstacle to progress was the presence of hundreds of frogs, just sat there staring at us as we hurtled towards them. During the frog season last year we must have killed off a whole generation, with constant crunching coming from everbody's tyres. This time I think we missed most of them somehow.

Hollywell Dene up next, and Terry seized the opportunity to lead the rapid romp when Ian and Suzanne took the wrong route at the top of the hill. His lead was fairly shortlived, however, as first Jeff then Alex zoomed by and left him to the vultures. Almost totally dry in here tonight, following half a year of soaking, and the pace was pretty energetic taking full advantage of the grip. Not many managed the bridge climb though, with a nice traffic jam forming half way up as the feet went down.

Out the other side we regrouped at the Tip junction before carrying on to Earsdon Pit. That's where Jon copped another puncture, and you can guess the rest. Believeing it was summer at last, Stewart had come out dressed appropriately, but the delay here had him shivering, and he wasn't the only one as the heat of the day had dispersed. When it looked like time to go, half the party went and were never seen again. That's because no sooner had we all mounted up and trickled away, that awful cry went up again! This time it was Matt, who'd been doing most of the donkey work for Jon anyway but discovered he had a flat himself as he got ready to go! This one was fettled more characteristically, however, and we were moving again with only the short run to Shiremoor remaining before Jason and Ian M left us for home.

We got back to the cave around 10:20pm after a quite eventful but enjoyable ride with another few kilometres of previously undiscovered goodies added to our trail collection.

Pic of Jason's prize-winning thorn appearing here shortly...