Sunday 15 March 2015

Saturday 14 March – to the churchyard to discuss Clarkson and eat biscuits

The weather was perfect in many ways: not too cold, although, as we turned east and rolled down Clarks Lane past the bus stop en route to the churchyard a fairly cold wind hit us head on and we both realised that there were a few weeks to go before we could start considering tee shirts and shorts. But with Phil back on the ride, the signs are there and, as I noticed during the week, the blossoms have arrived. Soon the Californian lilac in my back garden will flower and that will herald the beginning of spring and the advent of more pleasant rides as we approach the day when the clocks go forward.

Andy at the churchyard
It was just Andy and I this week as Phil had aborted, not because of cold weather but due to domestic stuff on his weekend agenda. We met at the green as usual and decided to get our heads down and aim for the churchyard. Last week Phil had brought the sausage sandwiches and Andy joked that he could have delivered them to me that morning and then gone back to bed. Mind you, that's it for me on the sausage sarni front as I don't want to start putting on weight again. I can live with a cup of tea and a Belvita biscuit.

So we got our heads down on what was really a wonderful day and pedalled hard towards the churchyard where the conversation focused on Jeremy Clarkson's recent suspension by the BBC for a fracas with one of Top Gear's producers. What pisses me off about this is that the BBC has decided to shelve the last three shows, one of which was due to go out tonight (Sunday 15th March). My question is why? Why deprive the public of a good television programme because of some off-air disagreement between Clarkson and one of his producers? Why should we go without?

Whatever you think of Clarkson, he's good at what he does and he entertains a lot of people. He, May and Hammond work well together and the resulting show, Top Gear, is globally recognised as 'good television' and it wouldn't work if the mix of presenters was in any way changed.

We munched our BelVitas – which have firmly taken over from cereal bars – sipped our tea and then mounted the bikes for the return journey, this time riding west on Clarks Lane and then north along the 269.