CLUB CORNER

Aylesbury CTC Re-launch of Easy Riding

Aylesbury is a great place to cycle, surrounded by lovely countryside within easy reach. There are numerous cycle paths in and around the town centre and on new housing developments. These will eventually take you round a green corridor planned to encircle Aylesbury as part of the Garden Town plan. Also there is the excellent Greenway cycle route which provides a safe, traffic free route from Aylesbury to Waddesdon Manor.

Cycling is an excellent way to exercise, it is low stress on joints and can be as easy or demanding as you want to make it. There are also a wide range of bikes available, both in shops and second hand, and now a good choice of electric bikes enabling anyone to enjoy cycling without having to struggle. With an electric bike, it’s almost as though hills no longer exist!

This summer Aylesbury CTC (Cycling Tourist Club) is relaunching its Newcomers and Easy Pace rides. These rides are leisure rides aimed at both new cyclists and those with a bit more experience. All rides have a stop for tea, cake and a rest! They are a great opportunity to meet other riders.

The Newcomers rides are between 15 and 20 miles long at about 8 to 10 miles an hour and the Easy Pace are about 30 miles long and around 10 to 11 miles an hour.

Easy Pace will be on the first and third Sundays of the month and Newcomers the second and fourth Sundays, starting mainly from Watermead Inn, Weston Turville shops and the Bugle Horn.

All you need is a roadworthy bike, a spare inner tube, a drink and suitable clothing including a waterproof just in case! Helmets are recommended, but not essential. More details including times and start locations are available on our website: www.aylesburyctc. org.uk. Or email us on aylesburyctc@gmail.com. We can also be found on Facebook.

For new riders we recommend the Newcomers rides. If you enjoy riding with us, but want to do more, we also have Step Up and Moderate rides. These are aimed at faster riders.

Ben Parry/Jeremy Scothern, Newcomer/Easy Pace Co-ordinators

Aylesbury Dolls House Club

The club will be meeting at their regular time of 7.30pm, on Wednesday 3 August, at Halton Village Hall. Following on from making a 1/48th scale room box in July, this month we will be adding a wardrobe in the same size, to match the beds made previously. Working in such a small scale is new to some of our members, so we are all working on perfecting our technique! This project will conclude in November with a matching Christmas-themed fireplace for the room. New members are always welcome - contact Diane on 07899090399 or arcadia96@btinternet.com.

Wendover Tennis & Squash Club

Over 120 quizzers took part in Katie’s Kwiz in the Memorial Hall, to raise funds for Wendover’s very own sport superstar, Katie Malliff. Club members, families and friends supported Katie, who is the junior squash champion of Europe and #74 in the world. As well as the ‘Kwiz', there was a raffle and a silent auction, brilliantly supported by club members and a range of local businesses - thank you to all concerned.

Katie started playing squash at the age of eight at our Dobbins Lane club, where there was only a handful of junior members at the time. She is now playing professionally and, at the age of only 19, has risen in the past year from #374 to her current level in the senior rankings. Katie qualified for the World Championships in Cairo in May, which was a fantastic achievement, and over the past six months she has travelled to West Virginia, Cairo, Norway, Denmark, Eindhoven, Normandy and Hull to take part in PSA (Professional Squash Association) tournaments. In order to raise her ranking, Katie now needs to take part in tournaments all over the world and the money raised from Katie’s Kwiz will help ensure that she can access the events. She also coaches squash at the Wendover club and there’s an active junior section, where girls and boys aged 6-17 play on a regular basis.

There’s a thriving tennis and squash community in Wendover. If anyone would like to come along and have a look at us please contact the club via wendovertennisandsquash.co.uk - all welcome.

Wendover Scouts Summer Term 2022

Scouting has had a full return to activities this term. The group joined in the District St George's Day at Diggerland Kent with over 700 young people from around the Vale of Aylesbury having an amazing time playing on all sorts of diggers.

The Beavers have been planting at Lindengate, foraging in Wendover Woods and making bug hotels. They took part in a Beaveree with over 800 other young people from around Buckinghamshire.

The Cubs have been to Camp at Paccar, evening meetings have been filled with boat building, fire lighting, learning to play tennis and bodging and both packs came together for a campfire.

The Scouts have been making full use of the local area sailing, kayaking and mountain biking and even managed to fit in a little woggle-making.

The Explorers held a Poppadom Massacre wide game, built aqueducts, cleaned up the canal by litter picking in the canoes, built bridges and even had a go at axe throwing.

After 3 years of Covid delays and renamed as Jubilee Camp we took 90 members of the group camping at Phasels Wood for an activity camp and Jubilee Games and Tea. A fantastic weekend was had by all.

Whilst the summer term may be coming to an end, Scouting does not stop with the cubs off on camp. Improvement works will be carried out at the Scout HQ ready for the start of another exciting term of Scouting in Wendover.

Andrew Inkley, Group Scout Leader

BBOWT in August

A series of five sessions for children will run at Dancersend Reserve from Wed 10 Aug till Tue 16 Aug and more 'Tiny Tots' sessions will take place at College Lake. For adults, there are walks at Weston Turville Reservoir on Thu 25 Aug and Dancersend on Sun 4 Sep. Full details and booking arrangements are at www.bbowt.org/events.

If you are looking for some shade, try Dancersend Reserve with parking at the Waterworks HP23 6LB.

Richard Birch, BBOWT Chilterns Group

Wendover Horticultural Society

There is to be no monthly meeting in August, as we will have had a coach trip on 21 July, but on 25 August we are travelling in cars to Aston Sandford Manor for a garden visit and tea, together with a view of Aston Sandford Church. Price £8.50. Anyone wishing to join us please contact Diane on 07966 155775. Transport will be arranged.

Our next monthly meeting is at St Anne’s Hall at 2.30pm on Thursday 1 September. The speaker will be Phil Townsend, of BBOWT, and manager of Aston Clinton Ragpits, a passionate supporter of wildlife conservation in gardening. His talk will be about Ragpits and Wild Flowers. Visitors are welcome, price £3.00. There is also a September car trip to Arla Dairy at Aston Clinton, which is fully subscribed.

Neville Morton

Wendover Bowls Club

Our splendid Captain, George Hunt, tries to keep us all amused and recently decided that we should have an afternoon of Crown Green bowls. Crown Green bowls is played on a domed green rather than a flat green. To play, the mat is placed and the Jack is sent in any direction for a minimum of 20 metres. Naturally this leads to conflict when there are several teams all doing their own thing. The day went well and I'm sure we will repeat it.

The aforementioned George is having trouble getting full teams to play against other clubs, especially for away matches. Lots of people are happy to come to play each other, but reluctant to get involved in matches. Costs can make it expensive but car sharing can usually be arranged. Matches are fun and you learn so much more about tactics and so on and meet some lovely people. Never feel you are not good enough!

Don Knight

Wendover Cricket Club

It’s been a very busy summer on the field for Wendover Cricket Club and most Leagues have been concluded. In the Aylesbury League, Wendover teams have finished top of their divisions at U9, U11 & U15 and the U9’s also won the playoff final. In the Bucks Leagues, teams competed in 10 age groups as well as 2 girls teams. 3 senior teams play each weekend and the 1st XI are currently top of the Mid Bucks League Division 1.

Junior training and matches have now ended except at U13, U17 & U19 and girls cricket, although some activities are planned for August. All enquiries to Jonathan Seabrook on 07767 148119 or jseabrook@talktalk.net.

J Seabrook

Wendover Singers

Wendover Singers have applied for a grant to enable them to pilot some children’s singing sessions beginning 3 October (for 8 weeks).

We say piloting because we now have a very successful adult community choir who meet on a Monday evening at the John Colet School.

If you are aged between 6 and 10 and think you would like to try a choir (for free as well as for fun) please go to www.wendoversingers.com to find out more.

Sue, Wendover Singers