Words & Photos by Pete
Crew : Paul, Pete, Troll, Smiffy, Simon , Chris
Pub : Adrian & Biscuit
Route : Maze – Nancyside Lane – half Kerridge Bridleway (KB) – Rainow – Oakenbank – Spuley Lane – Pott Shrigley – Moorside Lane – Dale Top – Enduro Stage 5 – Brickworks – The Church Inn.
Conditions : Dry and pleasant , bit cool post pub for the 10 mins trip home
Notes :
The past three weeks have seen the TNRs venturing further afield – away from our routine territories. All this makes our Thursday gatherings even more fun imho. Variety is the spice of life.
This week, however, I had a hankering for a local Bolly based circuit and a chance to sample a different pub at the end of the ride – The Church House Inn , Bollington . As opposed to the Church House in Langley which was a regular haunt for us a couple of decades ago.
This week’s episode begins at our now customary Bolly muster point – the Maze. Everyone is there for six apart from Paul , who appears about 5 or 10 minutes later. This is no big deal – we have more flexibility with pub arrival tonight. Paul arrives in good spirits and with a spirit-based payload .
I always like the fact that Paul is keen to devise a route , even though I see routes from Bolly as my specialty . Tonight we end up debating options on route at a couple of points, but this is democracy in action .
Tonight is also a night for bumping into other MTB friends , acquaintances and celebrities .
Our first encounter occurs as we venture along the KB : Ricky & Crew , a friend of Mark McD and Mr Hartell who Chris and I know reasonably well. A little bit of a chat , it is that sort of evening , before we move on. Fortunately the KB has dried out quite a bit from its muddy state earlier this week.
Our celebrity encounter happened as we reached Pott Shrigley and turned up Bakestonedale. A white pick-up style 4×4 passes us, and Josh the Ratboy himself leans out of the window and shouts in his distinctive tone “Off to do some practice? Stage 3 and 4 are fine , But keep off of Stage 7 or the farmer will b****ck us” . Saturday is the Bolly Enduro and we are off up to Dale Top – where Stage 5 is situated.
Along Moorside lane and up the bridleway to the Whale’s Molar . For us mortal acoustic riders there was a little pushing involved . We hop the fence and examine Stage 5 . For the first two hundred meters it more or less tracks our normal route down to Bakestonedale Wood . At the split , Chris and I drop via the normal route and leave the e-gents & the Troll to do the full stage.
Chris & I end up waiting a little while at the Brickworks for the “dangerous brothers” , but eventually they appear and its time for Paul to break out one of his magic potions. This one looks like orange juice, tastes of almonds and has quite a kick. I am glad I sampled it after the descent from Dale top .
Our last MTB aquaintances encounter tonight happens as we sample Paul’s rocket fuel cocktail and hear his retirement news . John B, Carl & Crew appear from nowhere – we haven’t seen them in a while as the Poachers is out of favour now. They are off to sample refreshments at “The Hub” on the descent into Bolly.
The Church house exceeds my expectations – I think we may have indeed struck gold.
Good beer at a reasonable price
A bike store !
Food after 8pm is no problem ( we arrived at 8.45pm having pre-ordered )
I can WhatsApp a booking and food orders to the guy who runs the place and is the chef as well
Good quality blended whisky (Woodsman) at £3.20 a shot !
An thrifty A of E indeed !
(And 5 minutes home for me )