Wednesday 20th March 2024.                  Ambling at Anglers

On a day that was predicted to be rather wet, we were rather fortunate not to contend with any serious downpours of rain as we walked around the lake here at Anglers Country Park. This is a location on the outskirts of Wakefield near the village of Crofton.

It was a group of six that would venture out on a wet morning to converge on this location, their means of getting there would involve various modes of transport, John and Colin by train and bus , Derek, Dave and Glenn by bus, Keith arriving by car. Their journeys not running smoothly though. The 196 bus at 10:51 from Wakefield to Anglers was cancelled so a ride on the 195 was substituted only to find out that this particular bus didn’t go the full route to Anglers, it dropped off John, Colin, Derek and Dave at a bus terminus in Crofton and await the arrival of a 196 bus to continue their journey. 

In the meantime Glenn took a car ride with Keith to the car park at Anglers, eventually we all met up at some point by the lakeside pathway and from this point made our way to the on site cafe for a spot of lunch. With various meals ordered we found a suitable place to sit and enjoy them, spending about 45 minutes over lunch discussing future plans and events etc. We have decided to visit Selby for our next outing with times of trains to be confirmed at some point.

Leaving the comfort of the cafe we said farewell to Keith, he wasn’t feeling up to continuing our journey around the far side of the lake. So the rest of us trudged along through rather muddy conditions and completed a full circular lap of the lake ending up back to our original entry point, a wide trackway that would lead us to the bus stop. 10 minutes later we boarded a 196 bus heading back in the direction of Wakefield with Dave leaving the bus first followed shortly afterwards by Glenn, Derek , Colin and John taking the rest of the journey to the city centre bus station, from here making their respective homeward bound journey. 

Upon reflection today’s outing was eventually a successful adventure despite the odd setback or two.

Cheers everyone.

  Wednesday 13th March 2024.                Plan B. Revisited 

With a forecast of possible heavy rain today’s planned walk was abandoned in favour of a return visit to the Ten Pin Bowling establishment in the Merrion Centre Leeds. A suggested meeting time of 11am was put in place and this is indeed what occurred.

It would be a group of 7 that would take up residence upon lane 12 , those being Brian, Colin, Derek , Dave, Glenn, John and Mark , they would contest 2 games , which proved to be both entertaining and enthralling to say the least.

As the first frames began , it was evident that Glenn had participated in this sport before and he proved to be a formidable competitor, Derek, Brian and Dave giving him a good run his money, the other lads struggling to find any sort of rhythm during this first game.

It was a totally different outcome during the second game, with John finding his mojo and putting together almost 3 strikes in a row he went into an unassailable lead almost. Brian and Derek keeping in close contention, Dave and Glenn now finding it hard to put in any form of challenge, Mark and Colin’s second game performance being much better than their first, although Colin finishing strongly once he recovered his somehow missing bowl.

Throughout these two games there was much banter and jollity between the lads, the thrills of the elusive strike ever hopefully apparent in each of their thoughts.

Never as Almost 3 hours passed so enthusiastically, not even time for drink or bite to eat as we parted company and headed for our respective homeward journeys.

Cheers Everyone