An away-day at Sandcross School as the normal fortnightly venue was unavailable.
We were all massing on the pavement outside the locked gate, a protected side-gate that leads onto the tarmac play area while inside a single adult was receiving his tuition on how to ride a bike.
Then a new voice arrived and said: "There might be a padlock on but you can push the gates open."
She had got the new venue but had misread the start time and came at 12noon and they had already been inside already an hour earlier.... oops. So in we went and it was all quite interesting.
Having set up shop we welcomed two new riders....Oliver Hyde aged five who had cast off his stabilisers a year ago, and Olivia Rookard who is nine and already flying. Do please come again both of you.
David (coach) hived off with the younger group and I kept the the older riders on the move, with the help of a couple of engines (ie dads).
Once the pairs settled down, riding side-by-side, we tried with one-handed steering so one of the two had a hand stretched across onto the shoulder of the person next to them. After each lap they swopped roles.
Riding one-handed was a challenge... and it became a bigger challenge again when riders were divided into two teams and, starting one-by one, they did a spoon race which involved starting off to get settled/stable on the bike, then collected a spoon that was held out to collect handle-first (with an egg on it) and then riding to a box without dropping it, so the egg ended in the box.
Some did.
Teams scores move forwards in little lurches.... but two riders in particular beat their one-handed-riding nerves and found they could do it.... well done.
One exercise was the reverse-devil where instead of eliminating the slowest rider each lap, the winner was pulled into the centre of the playground and the race then restarted with one rider less..... plus the start was staggered on the basis of four whistle blows.... but even so there was nothing holding Ellen McLeod back and even starting last in the girls' event didn't stop her steaming through.
Next, with riders in two teams again, came the 'last parking space' exercise where two riders have to fit into a single parking space so the idea is the first to arrive gets it.... the challenge being to circle round the obstacles on the way.....it can be exhilarating to the point of needing to shut your eyes when two individuals are going neck-and-neck and you know at the end neither will give way.
'They'll have a lot of bodywork damage on their cars when they grow up,' said one parent stood watching.
Final race - girls - five laps, handicap
1 Emily Kirk
2 Olivia Rookard
3 Mathilde Sturman
Final race - boys - six laps, handicap
1 Daniel Warhurst
2 William Gatland
3 Matthew Burnham
The next session sees us back to normal at Furzefield at the usual start time.