John & Tina are organising this month’s run. The run will start at Tesco Pontardawe, meeting at 10:00 am for a 10:30 am start. A comfort stop will take place at Llwynon Saddlery, Epynt with a carvery lunch at Ty Newydd Country Hotel, Penderyn Rd, Hirwaun. If you intend joining us on the run please contact John or Tina on johnvfoley1@googlemail.com or reply to this topic.
Hi John
Lyn and I will be attending the run and having lunch.
Dave
Re- recce`d the route again with Uncle Keith yesterday and visited the lunch venue - looks like we are in for a great run on the 27th Oct with some great roads and a really nice venue with photo opportunity for all our cars to get together.
The lunch venue can cope with pretty much any number but I do need to let them know the numbers. it is a carvery main and dessert with coffe/tea included and we set off from the big Tesco in Pontardawe at 10.30am prompt. (so get there for 10.00 if you want the usual pre-run banter) We have schedued a special comfort break with the squaddies on Epynt Military Range, but don`t let that put you off lol!
Anyone who has not put their names on the list at club night, please message / email me or my Uncle Keith.
John
Hi John
Philip and I will be on the run and for lunch. See you then.
Hi John
Philip and I will be on the run and for lunch. See you then.
Looking like we have 35 members attending the run on Sundayso we should have a good one - there is no cap on lunch numbers at Ty Newedd Country Hotel in Hirwaun. Any last minute extras please let me know.Fingers crossed for good weather you lot!
John, Tina & Uncle Keith
Count me in. Anyone meeting up in Bridgend area and convoying up to tesco let me know meet up in services at 36 or somewhere by 37
Matthew
Hi Matthew, yes you are on the list fella, we will be joining motorway at jcn 37 at 9.35am so if you want to stick yourself in the lay-by on the dual carriageway up from Pcawl for then and look out for a yellow flash?
Am expecting general confusion regarding the clocks going back this evening, if you wake-up late please do not call me, it`s OK we know why, also if you feel you cannot cope with a day out in the rain, again no problem and please do not call to tell us as we will just be going by the numbers who do turn-up at the start.
I have had a call from the saddlery (comfort stop) it seems that excess rain can even affect things on Epynt! - They are advising the track down to them has become a little rutted and has a few pot-holes and the parking area may be a little muddy.
John & Tina
It was a pretty good turn out considering the weather, nice run over to the comfort stop at the Saddlery but then it all went wrong…
Lots of people left while some of us were stuck waiting for people to return to their cars after using the loo, not a problem really, it just needed patience by those leading the run out as the directions didn’t have any place names on them, so no reference points for some.
Anyway, I followed a pair of Mk3 coupes out, one dark blue and the other red driven by Brian and Chris who were late joining us. We followed Brian and Chris who like some others commented on the lack of place names to head for on the directions… Anyway, by the time the 3 of us stopped, we were outside of Sennybridge. At this point, as I wasn’t booked in for lunch, I decided to stay with the other two until the Brecon roundabout and cut back over to Penderyn and home while the others went searching for the rest over on the Eppynt.
I know it’s a thankless task preparing and leading a run out but maybe adding place names to the directions and waiting until everyone was ready may be a good thing in future?
That aside, thanks for an enjoyable day out.
Oh dear, sorry Mike it seems you followed Brian (who has other previous form for loosing the tail of convoys)
The other issue was Kieth Fullstop, who failed to wait for another car to see him turn left then immediatly right to get on the north-bound military road, clearly marked on map as heading north.
The other thing very clearly marked on the map sheets was our contact number which clearly stated to call us if you got separated or lost. We had a text around 20 mins later from Lizzie to say you were all in Brecon and heading to Builth Wells up the A470. We had waited a considerable time for the tail of the convoy to catch up
The joint organiser of this run was actually behind two Mk3.5s (and yourself) furiously flashing his headlights to try and catch your attention as you all dissapeared the wrong way back to Sennibridge. He then turned around and joined us on the original route.
We had lots of patience but sadly not lots of time as we were running to a time-table.
The area is looking for someone to organise a run in January, would you like to volunteer and show us all how to do it properly?
Regards
Big thanks to all those hardy folk who turned out today on what was a great run over the hills and mountains of Sunny South Wales.
Despite there being an occasional light shower here and there plus a bit of a breeze it was an excellent days run with so many cars of so many colours looking sooo good with a nice deep shine provided by a little of natures moisture.
On the up side, everyone who stayed with us or returned to us seemed to enjoy the day.
The scenery was spectacular and the big man upstairs had even filled all the mountain streams to capacity for us.
Topped off with an excellent meal provided by the staff of Ty Newydd House, it was a good day.
On the down side, it was a great shame a few cars got lost, that was very disappointing.
As rear gunner on the convoy it was my job to rescue the fallen and I did try hard to attract the attention of the escapees by frantic headlight flashing all the way down to the main road but eventually gave up when it became clear to me that Mk3s were evidently not provided with rear view mirrors, lol.
Special thanks go to my nephew John for masterminding the run plus of course Tina for overall control of both John & myself.
regards
Keith Foley
Oops… guilty as charged, didn’t even think a Mk3 would have trouble keeping up
Cracking run, thanks to Keith, John and Tina for a great route that was fun despite the weather!
Not easy to organise, so all my support and credit to anyone who is prepared to go for it.
Another route worth repeating at a later date
Thank you all for a lovely run and lunch- despite the weather. We had a very good day.
Shame we lost some cars but John and Tina’s number was on the sheet for those who had lost their way.
Thanks to John and Keith for an excellent run. I agree with Keith Fullstop, we will have to do the run again. It was agreat shame about the escapees, I did manage to catch up with two, but not knowing how many there were I then gave up the chase.
Dave
Hi John, please don’t take it as criticism, as I said, it’s a thankless task and you’ll never please everyone. It was just a comment that maybe adding place names to the directions as points of reference may help? That was based on comments that were made to me by other drivers and their co-pilots.
Yes, I do know that there was a 'phone number added to the map sheet too, (a good thing too), but by the time the other 2 stopped between Sennybridge and Brecon I had decided to run for home on the second part of the run over to Penderyn so I made my goodbyes for the day with them with the promise to catch up with them next time.
Just one other thing, I was tail-end charlie for the escapees and I never saw any other Mazdas behind after we got onto the A40 and that included a prolonged halt at traffic lights for road works just up the road, (I should probably get my heated rear window connected though…! lol )