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O.C.O.T. Minutes

17th February 2017

Disley

Present: Syd Bennett, Robert Brown, Steve Carey, Kevin Clarke, Dave Dalton, Andy Fildes, Steve Goff, Miklos Gombos, John Guest, Adi Hammond, Trevor Heywood, Robert Holmes, Larry Johnson, Kevin Jordan, Alan Larsen, Colin Larsen, Sylvia Larsen, Keith Mayoh, Kevin McDonough, Barry McGuinness, Mike Melia, Aidan Moy, John Nelson, Noel O’Toole, Bob Rial, Steve Sawczuk, Julie Sprigg, Roger Wallace, Dave Whittle, Mike Worthington

A swollen group of thirty attendees arrived at Disley on a reasonably fair weather day.

Today’s walk took in the Peak Forest canal and Middlewood way and then onwards through Lyme Park and ultimately returning to Disley by Green Lane.

A break was taken around midday at the Bull’s Head public house in Higher Poynton. Following our entry, it took only several minutes for regrets to be audibly voiced by several members in our mistakenly patronising such an unwelcoming hostelry. We assumed that it was a manager who was responsible on the day for house’s operations. Surely, any landlord worthy of the title would never have behaved in such a boorish manner, as we were soon to learn to our cost. The membership had seldom seen over the years the exhibiting of such an inflexible attitude in allowing us to enjoy our drinks before the closure of the premises for the afternoon. It was the breathtaking rigidity of the manager’s attitude and his employment of such unseemly haste that rankled us all as we were shepherded towards the pub’s exit door as we approached closing time. It was almost a welcome relief to be shortly standing outside away from his inhospitable glare.

Upon our return to Disley, a schism appeared in the group as several members who were leading the party decided to head towards the White Horse whilst others who arrived later entered the hostelry and then immediately performed a volte face and inexplicably headed off towards the next port of call which turned out to be the White Lion.

It was therefore sometime later in the evening before we were all reunited in the White Lion. Several members ordered meals from the sole, elderly member of the pub’s management team, who processed, procured and purveyed all of the orders. It transpired that his female assistant for the evening had found reason to forsake him at short notice because of personal business. Your correspondent together with others, could not help remarking about his uncanny resemblance to Uncle Albert (Buster Merryfield) from the sitcom Only Fools and Horses. If not Uncle Albert, then surely Captain Birdseye would have would also have been a close contender! The bar service was lamentably slow given that the machinations of ‘Albert’ were being spread way too thinly around the hostelry’s various functions. It was to his assistant’s credit that when she finally returned later to the pub to position herself behind the bar, she sensed which way the wind was blowing regarding herself and “Albert’s” cool reception and initially maintained a safe distance between herself and his self to allow him his ‘cooling off’ period.

Our final refreshment of the evening was taken at the Ram’s Head adjacent to the station.

Steve G wished it to be made known that his son, Andy, and coach transport would be made available for the May outing.

The group thanked Robert once more for an imaginative and scenic but rather testing trek given the estimated distance of around thirteen miles.

O.C.O.T. Minutes

13th January 2017

Bolton

Present: Syd Bennett, Dave Dalton, Andy Fildes, Graham Fildes, Steve Goff, Adi Hammond, Trevor Heywood, Robert Holmes, Larry Johnson, Kevin Jordan, David Lamb, Colin Larsen (evening), Mike Melia, Barry McGuinness, Aiden Moy, Dave Nichols, Noel O’Toole, Bob Rial, Elsa Sawczuk, Steve Sawczuk, Linda Staunton, Dave Whittle, Mike Whittle, Mike Worthington


Twenty-two members arrived at Bolton’s Trinity Street station around 11:00 and met your correspondent following a short walk from the station to Starkie Road located on the periphery of the town centre.

We set off bracing ourselves against the frigid 4C light breeze, the sunshine making little headway with lifting the chill from the previous night’s sub zero temperature.

From Starkie Road, we headed towards Tonge Moor Road and Waters Meeting Road where we took lunch in the retail park adjacent to the Barley Brook. We headed northwards towards Bradshaw Road and then returned south along Bradshaw Brook. Shadowing the brook, we continued towards Bury Road and Leverhulme Park through Tonge Cemetery where we rejoined the Tonge Trail for our return leg into Bolton town centre.
Arriving in Bolton’s town centre, we made our way to Churchgate were we visited Hogarth’s. From there we visited Barristers Bar, The Spinning Mule and The Sweet Green Tavern.

The group thanked Robert for organising today’s walk.

The December do is a 1/2 day stroll/drink around the Glossop area culminating in the Annual AGM & Curry on Friday 9th December 2016.

The AGM & curry night is in a new venue the Balti Palace, 9 Victoria Street at 6.30pm.the cost is £16(If you haven't already booked please confirm with Colin Larsen asap).

The train is from Manchester Piccadilly at 13.18pm arriving in Glossop at 13.49pm(please meet at 1.00pm).

The return from Glossop is at 21.38pm arriving at Piccadilly at 22.11pm(note there is alater train at 22.38pm if required).

A return ticket to Glossop is £4.90p although it is recommended that each individual manages his/her own ticketing requirements.

For anybody who wants to come along anytime during the afternoon/evening there are trains every half hour which take around 30 minutes to Glossop.

As this is the AGM please make sure you wear your Codger's shirt.

Cheers
Robert

O.C.O.T. Minutes

18th November 2016

Halifax

Present: Clive Benson, Steve Carey, Steve Curvis, Dave Dalton, Andy Fildes, Steve Goff, Trevor Heywood, Larry Johnson, Kevin Jordan, David Lamb, Alan Larsen, Colin Larsen, Sylvia Larsen, Keith Mayoh, John Nelson, Mark Nutter, Noel O’Toole, Bob Rial, Tony Statham, Dave Whittle, Mike Whittle, Mike Worthington


The BBC weather forecast for the day around the Halifax area didn’t look too promising and it was to our dismay borne out by reality. It was, therefore, heartening to see a coalescence of a twenty-two strong team. Earlier in the morning, your correspondent had to prematurely disembark from his First Halifax service into Halifax town centre. Traffic congestion, resulting from road works in Mytholmroyd, incurred a twenty-five minute delay leading to the abandonment of a scheduled 11:55 arrival in the town centre. Group leader Alan’s assessment of the impact of the delay on the day’s schedule was deemed to be intolerable. In the light of this predicament several fraught bursts of mobile telephonic activity ensued between your leader and your correspondent, frustrated several times by intermittent transmission and reception signal quality. The heavy rain also made its presence felt, interfering with the finger to phone contact. After the successful conclusion of broken and fragmented communication and the judicious insertion and deletion of partially missing conversations, a rendezvous was made with Alan adjacent to the Calder and Hebble canal.

Apart from a brief, transitory interlude of clearing skies, the rain was incessant. The group paused briefly to admire the the triple flight of Salterhebble Locks, one of which is a candidate for the shortest lock on the connected inland waterway system of Britain, together with the architecture of the bridge, which was the subject of structural repairs as we came off the canal. The name Salterhebble originated from the “salt-sellers' foot-bridge”. The heavy precipitation was unable however, to dampen our spirits as we arrived at our first Elland hostelry, The Drop Inn in a buoyant mood. We looked forward to our two pints lunchtime beer allowance having been granted prior approval from Alan. We additionally visited The Barge and Barrel prior to our departure from Elland.

It was with a sense of foreboding as the question passed over our lips: “How much more rain was yet to fall?” We continued with our remaining two-mile walk along the Calderdale Way in the direction of our next hostelry, our pub of the day in Siddal, namely the Cross Keys. It was here that Alan had pre booked meals of pork pies and mushy peas. The general consensus was that the beer and meals were very enjoyable. It turned out that the single remaining pork pie was identified as being that of David Burrows who was unfortunately detained by other business. In a bid to head off any arguments over claims to the pie, Larry made an executive decision to act as auctioneer and to have it auctioned off. The lucky diner acquired the culinary delicacy through the conduit of an unchallenged bid of £0.50.

By this time, twilight was rapidly approaching and thus, we bid farewell to the Cross Keys’ landlord as we embarked upon our final leg of the walk into Halifax town centre, heading towards an Ossett Brewery venue, The Three Pigeons and our final port of call, Dirty Dicks. It was shortly after his arrival in Dirty Dicks that Bob began to experience his own starring part as lead character in his own personal episode of the Twilight Zone. The start of his episode of surrealism began as he made an innocuous inquiry as to the whereabouts of his backpack. A cursory check with members sat nearby confirmed that following Tony’s earlier departure, he hadn’t inadvertently acquired Bob’s bag. It was a reasonable, preliminary check to have made as Tony, unquestionably, has previous form concerning sundry items that inexplicably disappear. So, where then was the wretched thing? Frustratingly for Bob, the backpack was still nowhere to be seen. He slowly began to consider the enormity of his situation and also the question: had he actually collected it from the Three Pigeons? Of course he had as he gently chided himself. Nonetheless, by this time and now wracked by self doubt, his earlier calm approach to the search began to quickly evaporate and transmogrify into a full-blooded witch-hunt. Adopting a not dissimilar role to that of Matthew Hopkins, the notorious mediaeval Witchfinder General, he was only seconds away from conducting an investigation involving full scale body searches. Then fortuitously and almost by accident, some enterprising soul happened to move Steve Carey’s jacket to one side which was hanging over the back of his seat to reveal the source of Bob’s angst and anguish: his backpack hanging underneath! For God’s Sake, Bob muttered under his breath. “It never rains but it pours!”


Prior to our 20:27 rail departure for Manchester, the group applauded Alan for another enjoyable walk.

O.C.O.T. Minutes

12th August 2016

Frodsham

Present: Dave Bates, Syd Bennett, Andy Fildes, Graham Fildes, Adi Hammond, Trevor Heywood, Robert Holmes, Larry Johnson, Kevin Jordan, Dave Lamb, Alan Larsen, Colin Larsen, Sylvia Larsen, Barry McGuinness, Mike Melia, John Nelson (evening), Dave Nichols, Noel O’Toole, Bob Rial, Steve Sawczuk, Neil Shortland (evening), Roger Wallace, Dave Whittle, Mike Whittle

Your correspondent, having elected to travel to Frodsham from Wigan’s North Western station was beginning to regret his choice of route upon discovering that the Glasgow Central to London Euston Virgin service was delayed by ten minutes upon his arrival. Ordinarily, a delay of ten minutes would have been considered trifling had the transfer time at Warrington Bank Quay, between his Virgin and your Arriva service, been greater than ten minutes. It turned out that the actual arrival time at Warrington Bank Quay was 11:26 – the time that the Manchester Piccadilly Arriva service to Frodsham was due to depart: but from which platform? His relief therefore was palpable as he stepped in panic onto the platform and caught the soothing sight of organiser Alan stood waiting rather forlornly further along the platform. Thankfully, the London Virgin service had been prioritised over the Arriva service and, fortuitously, both services were using a common platform at the Bank Quay. Your correspondent being in a rather mischievous mood decided to test Alan’s mettle by asking him to give due consideration regarding changing the date of the October outing by delaying it for a week. He was somewhat taken aback at Alan’s terse response and abject refusal to do so. Why?

We duly boarded the Frodsham service and were most fortunate for each of us to obtain a seat. The twenty, seated members were certainly not assisting we two to gain access to any seats but the underlying problem appeared to be the swollen number of day trippers heading out to North Wales. Your correspondent certainly wasn’t relishing the prospect of sitting on the carriage floor for the remainder of the journey signalling in Corbynesque fashion, his distaste for private investment in UK rail operation.

The weather was near perfect as we gathered outside Frodsham station. It most certainly played a fundamental part in flushing out a sizeable number of members. We departed from Frodsham station and headed up to Beacon Hill along the Sandstone Trail. We progressed towards Woodhouse Hill followed by Helsby Hill and returned to the Sandstone Trail past Snidley Moor Wood along the back of Beacon Hill for our return to Frodsham and the award winning pub of the day: The Helter Skelter.

Approximately three quarters the way through the trek, we ventured into the Belle Mont Hotel for liquid refreshment by way of pints of Samuel Smith’s bitters and ciders. The beer prices, as expected, did not disappoint us.
Upon our arrival in the Helter Skelter, we met up with Messrs Nelson and Shortland. It was a fine evening and with limited seating accommodation inside the pub, we decided to congregate in an adjacent alleyway.

From the Helter Skelter the group began to dissipate for the return journey home.

The group thanked Alan for a splendid Cheshire outing