22 starters in two groups. Riding along comfortably until Alan Weaver got bored and lit the blue touch paper. It happened almost bang on 9 o'clock so must be his internal body clock! Anyway, the resultant carnage of James Parker slipping a chain and performing a nut-cracker on Old Hill at Flyford Flavell, simultaneously head butting the front wheel and uncontrollably flailing both legs around, miraculously, staying on the bike, was my que to join the more sedate second group. Good winter route by Ian Warr, strangely devoid of hills and a good (for mid February) 6 degrees. The groups came together at a couple of junctions, finally settling at a 10/12 mix. The ride continued smoothly, with plenty of banter and a surprising lack of carseholes until Malcolm Lindsay decided to spice things up for the second time in two weeks. Riding briskly, second last and in single file along a stretch of the Pershire Road, Malc's mudguard decided to let go causing his back wheel to lock solid. Riding behind, with the future of road bike braking systems at my disposal aka hydraulic discs, I was able to avoid both collision and swerving into passing traffic in a perfectly calm and modulated fashion ;-) .Meanwhile Malc eventually squirrelled to a halt but in the melee forgot to unclip so finished with a slow-motion comedy fall on to the verge. Malc's 10 minute fix lasted 100 feet, the second fix was to fold the now broken mudguard up and stash it in the infamous bar-bag. A while later, turning onto the Alcester Road at Radford, an eardrum-piercing bang from behind saw Malc grind to another halt. Unbeknown to him, the earlier 40ft lock-up had flat spotted his tyre to the canvas, which now sported a hole you could poke two fingers through! On the verge of phoning for back-up, Paul Tanner produced a piece of gator skin from his old "Meridan" tyre and convinced Malc to use it as a get-me-home liner. A successful repair was effected but only after A final round of laughter following the removal of a pigs-intestine inner tube that must surely have pre-dated Malc's 1986 bike! Anyway, the ride continued without incident and we rolled up at the Bramley half an hour after the first group for 2 1/2 hours of laughter and generally talking shite.