Wartime
Cycle Training By Bill Paul
During the war we were not allowed to go down to the coast east of
Southampton for safety reasons. I arranged with my cousin who managed a bakers
shop and restaurant for his father in Bascombe to have a weeks holiday,
something which we were lucky to get during the war. I also made arrangements
for Stan Butler and his family to come there with us, making seven in all.
While we were there we had a ride to Southampton, just the three of us,
not Stan and his family. We met
some of the cyclists over there and got talking far too long when we noticed
it was getting late and daylight was beginning to fade and we did not have any
lamps, so we had to get moving fairly fast and by the time we were halfway
home it was well past lighting and being in the New Forest it was very dark.
Suddenly we got a forth member to the gang, but he was not as friendly
as we were, he was a police constable and he wanted us to stop.
He was riding a sit up and beg police cycle complete with S.A. Hub
gears. In fact he got quite nasty
when we didn't stop and Ernie pulled out a pack of biscuits from the front of
his sweater and asked him if he would like one and he replied "No I do
not, I want you to stop". Ernie
replaced the biscuits form where he got them from and got down on his drops
and shouted "Right boys" and was off down the road as fast as lie
could with us in hot pursuit. At
first it was not so good for us as we were on fixed gears and the PC was using
his top gear and for a while it was down hill and he seemed to be gaining on
us and it suddenly made me remember that the New Forest ponies strayed into
the road, but as luck would have it there weren't any that night, and it was
not long before we got to a bit of uphill which was to our advantage as the PC
soon dropped back and we did not see him again.
It was not long before we were back home and to bed and soon asleep.
During the war it was a very serious offence to do over 20 mph and that
was for ALL vehicles.
Bill Paul |