Bike Ride 2009

Friends of Essex Churches Sponsored Ride and Stride

12th September 2009

A HUGE thank you from Sam Adams,

and SongCycle - ‘The all singing, all cycling male voice quartet’!

You will be pleased to know that SongCycle (along with eight official ‘groupies’!) successfully completed this year’s Friends of Essex Churches ‘Ride and Stride’. With your help I have reached my personal target of £300, with one or two extra donations still coming in. THANK YOU!

This year Brian’s route started at Saffron

Walden Parish Church - a huge church in a

relatively small town, and a great place to

get the ride going. We managed to see 8

different churches before we had even cycled

a mile! But cycling into Radwinter, the hills

got steeper, and the distance between the

churches got longer - taking in Sewards End,

Wimbush, and Tye Green before making it

to Thaxted. We visited the URC church and

then the wonderful parish church of St James,

where for the first time in public we sung

Brian’s fantastic arrangement of Purcell’s

anthem ‘Thy word is a lantern’.

Lunch was well deserved! Unfortunately the

beer that Brian had raged about had just gone off as we got to the pub - so it was bog standard IPA, which tasted a lot better than usual considering all that cycling and singing!

We managed to get a picture of the four of us outside St James in our new ‘Hook Norton Brewery’ polo shirts (see right above). Thanks to the Hook Norton Brewery for giving us the shirts, and thanks to David Gilder for embroidering the SongCycle logo on the front!

After a healthy portion of Steak and Ale pie, we made our way to a lovely church dedicated to St Mary in Tilty by the old Abbey ruins. But before we knew it, we were off again, taking in Great and Little Easton before finishing in Great Dunmow. Brian said the route was mostly downhill. It was all lies! It was very hard work in places but we managed to fit in 29 different churches over 25miles. We were blessed again by the weather this year and it was a great day.

SongCycle’s total sponsorship is not yet confirmed but it will be in the region of £2000 so thank you for your support. We hope we can rely on your support for next year!

Thank you if you have already paid up, and if you haven’t please get in touch as soon as is convenient.

Thanks again.

Links - www.songcycle.co.uk www.foect.org.uk

It is not too late to sponsor! If you wish to give, please contact Sam Adams by emailing to sam@holycrosshornchurch.co.uk or posting cheques (made payable to Friends of Essex Churches Trust) to Sam Adams, 44 Sir Francis Way, Brentwood, Essex CM14 4TE

Brian Lynn Richard Baker Nick Rayner Sam Adams