The route to success

Cyclists, are you ready?

The complete route for the Bike Ride, from Aberystwyth to Bertrams in Norwich, has now been finalised and this is what it looks like:

27 June - Stage 1 - Aberystwyth - Bishops Castle - 65 miles

28 June - Stage 2 - Bishops Castle - Redditch - 69.6 miles

29 June - Stage 3 - Redditch - Kettering - 77 miles

30 June - Stage 4 - Kettering - Thetford – 84 miles

1 July - Stage 5 - Thetford - Bertrams – 37 miles

And for those purists who want to do a complete 'Sea to Sea' route, there will be a Stage 5a - Bertrams to the sea - 20 miles.

25 pints down!

Clive Element of Reading House, a regular blood donor, has just donated his 25th pint of blood.  His colleagues at his most recent regional meeting have already sponsored him £100 for his brave feat, with donations going to the children's ward at Watford Hospital. 

Clive's son recently broke his arm very badly and they had to spend 2 days and 3 nights at the hospital.  In recognition of the fantastic treatment they received on the Starfish children's ward Clive is raising money to donate to the ward to buy toys and other items to make hospital stays  more comfortable for children who are admitted to the hospital.

Anyone wishing to support this cause should contact Clive Element at Reading House.

Mind how you go

Ian Tallamy, IS, Wakefield House, has been keeping his own blog about his training for the A-B Bike Ride. Here is an extract from a recent session:

"Training seemed to be going well, that was until last night. I decided to take my old touring cycle for a ride up to Bristol airport. A tricky climb, but good for building stamina, and then followed by a great reward going back downhill again. Well it would have been if it wasn't for an enormous and very unfriendly pothole (thanks North Somerset).

It was a quiet road, quite a nice downhill stretch, and I was probably going about 25mph when it happened. I hit the pothole so hard (didn't see it because it was quite dark with no street lighting) I nearly flew over the top of the handlebars and had to fight to stay on the bike. I thought I'd escaped, but then the familiar sound of a flat tyre broke the silence. The rim of the tyre split off from the wheel and jammed into the brakes bringing the bike swiftly to a halt (another fight to save falling off).

The worst however was yet to come - I had no spare inner tube (or tyre) on me, so I had to make that embarrassing phone call home 'Can you come and pick me up please'. Enough said."

Coventry for the cup

First bowling, now football - Coventry House are an active group of people! They recently held a football match in aid of charity and judging by the photographs they had a lot of fun...  Kevin Davies, SAP HR Manager, gives us a run-down on how the event went:

“Our challenge match took place on Sunday 20 March.  We had Managers (with a special guest appearance from Tom Sheehy and some of the night staff) VS Twilight Staff (who also had a couple of night staff on board).

Twilight got off to a bad start, with their goalie getting injured during the warm-up. This meant the rest of the team had to take it in turns to play in goal. While Twilight were still figuring themselves out Managers went ahead after just 3 minutes.

Twilight responded with a few breaks down the pitch, but were unable to force their way through the formidable centre back pairing of the opposition.  Managers rallied again with a great first half, and by half time the score was 5-0 to Managers.

Things didn’t improve much for Twilight in the second half, with Managers pulling away to a 10-0 advantage with just 15 minutes to go.  But the effort was getting to Managers, and they seemed to tire – Twilight were suddenly all over the field (having 13 players on the pitch for the last few minutes certainly helped!) and managed to score 2 goals before Management knocked in another one just before the whistle blew.

Suffice to say the game was played in great spirits and apart from the Twilight goalie nobody was injured.  Unless of course you count pride – some players were a bit sore on that count.

The leading goal scorer was Moh Hanif (Night Manager), who scored 4 goals.  For some reason he spent a lot of the game closer to the Twilight team’s goal line than the halfway line.

After the game a raffle was held, with several prizes donated by local companies, newsagents etc.

The total raised on the day for the Raffle and Football Match was £308, so well worthwhile. The main organiser of the event was Ray George, Twilight Shift Manager, who went round local businesses drumming up raffle prizes.  The losers are talking about a re-match at a later stage in the year…”



 

 

 

 

 

 

Final Score:   Managers 11 Twilight 2

A night out at the theatre

Southampton were quick off the mark to respond to the Japanese Tsunami crisis – they held a raffle at their depot and raised £62 for the British Red Cross Japan Tsunami appeal. The prize was a pair of tickets for the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton and the lucky winner was Paul Northover.

[caption id="attachment_468" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Paul Northover will be off to enjoy a night at the Mayflower"][/caption]

Newporters spotted on transporter

Newport don’t do things by halves, do they?  Two fearless ladies from the Welsh depot recently braved the heights of Newport Transporter Bridge and abseiled off!

Claire Hockey, Customer Service, and Alex Holland, Stockroom, abseiled from the beam that links the two towers, which is some 177 feet (54 metres) up in the air.  There are only 11 operational transporter bridges in the world, and only 2 in Britain – this one in Newport and one in Middleborough.  So it was quite a special event for all involved.  Newport were supporting St David’s Foundation, a local charity who provide hospice care, and they managed to raise a very worthy £200.  Newport said:

“We were really lucky with the weather, Spring was definitely in the air.  St David’s Foundation organised the event and it was very well attended.  Claire and Alex were among over 100 people doing the abseil on the day, and they did a fantastic job.  A number of colleagues at Newport depot have had support from St David’s, so we were keen to support the great work that they do. ”

[caption id="attachment_447" align="alignleft" width="250" caption="Claire Hockey, Customer Service, Newport House"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_448" align="alignleft" width="250" caption="Alex Holland, Stockroom, Newport House"][/caption]

At the carwash

Bournemouth staff have been getting up close and personal with their colleagues’ vehicles, as they are running regular car washes at their depot in order to raise money.  Wayne Gilman, Manager and Peter Batke, Maintenance have been out with their buckets and sponges and made £50 on their first day - impressive!

Manchester money-making

Manchester House have been busy planning what they're going to do for Community Week and in fact have already run some events.  Lynn Henshaw, House Manager, organised a raffle in the Northern Region to raise money for Help The Heroes, a charity close to Lynn's heart, as her son is in the armed forces and has just returned from duty in Afghanistan.  The draw took place at the Northern Regional Meeting on Tuesday 15th March and had some attractive prizes:

1st prize  was a night at the Renaissance Hotel which was won by John Jones from Birmingham House.  2nd prize was a bottle of Champagne which went to Danial Degaris from Manchester House.  The raffle raised £450 so many thanks to all Managers in the Northern Region for supporting this worthy cause.
  
Manchester have also planned the following activities:  A car wash, a Family Fun Walk in a local park, Toys & Clothes collection for 'Manchester Kids',  a local charity which supports local families who live on the poverty line and a 3 day bike ride in the warehouse! 

"We have 2 bikes on turbo trainers which will be pedalled non-stop for 3 days. You can buy a half hour slot for £5 to ride yourself or you can pay £10 and nominate somebody to ride for you. I hope Lynn is up to the challenge of being nominated lots of times!"

We look forward to seeing the photos from these activities as they happen.