This event says 'farewell' to our 2014 season; next week we start again afresh.

While we didn't manage to produce the ride in the sun that Paul Williams had anticipated, it obviously didn't worry him nor his riding partner Gary Jones; they bagged both the Gents and Fastest-time trophies. That bit of dampness that was around didn't seem to seriously affect the field, perhaps it helped—with almost exactly half travelling the distance at 40km/h or better; and only just below that mark were the fastest Masters-women pairing of Davina Summers and Amanda Nabi. The first riders home, Matt Burton and Jackson Mawby established the benchmark for the day and in the end had gone one better than last year and posted not only the fastest non-Gents time but today's fastest overall and at the second best speed we've ever seen at this event—just a tad slower than that recorded by Luke Durbridge and Trent Derecourt a couple of years ago on the old Gents course up the road in Mundijong.

Anthony Minchin who was part of the team just edging Matt and Jackson last year, returned to racing today for the first time in quite a while—since injuring a shoulder at Champion Lakes back at the end of the summer season. His solo ride today was not a bad start, good enough for the third best solo time! But perhaps even more impressive, exactly twelve months ago today Craig Pennell found himself in intensive care with some pretty horrific injuries as the result of being hit by a car. He's resilient to say the least and was back riding in an amazingly short time. Today he recombined with Chris Roberts whom he was supposed to ride with last year and they posted the third best Gents standard of the day; fouth in the Gents speed pairings. It was a rather special anniversary.

We got to the Hopeland Hall early enough today to tape the detector loop to a dry road and send John Andrews to the far end of the course to do the same for the intermediate times. Stewart Gee joined him there to look after our turns. Back at the finish Lorraine had taken over the hutch to give me the chance to perhaps relive some old memories. That's the nature of The Gents. On the start line I was minute man to Rob Neumann, a sparring partner from way back. He made the comment that it was a bit like old times; not really—Rob can still post a 'respectable' solo time—fourth solo rider today, so more than just respectable; my solace had to be with the Standards. Anyway, looking after the start Robin Warrington was assisted by Don Dragicevich. Back at the hall Jenny Sammons looked after the desk with Peter Vaughan; and Carolyn Equid helped in various capacities as she often has and not least today, sorting out spot prizes to present to riders who deserved them. Of course Troy was there managing the course signage as usual and, with Phil Deisel, backing up a ride in The Blackwood Marathon yesterday. Thank you all. It was good to end the season with a record sized field for the event, and very few no-shows. This was on a weekend when there was plenty of choice for a variety of head-banging!