Report by Neil Sutton.

Just before Christmas a couple of people (Bob and Stu) mentioned about the possibility of having a meet between Xmas and New Year. Personally the only day I could do between football match's and visiting relations was Saturday 27th December. I put a thread up on the BBS to see if there was any interest. This got several replies, but no one knew of a suitable venue along the M4 corridor, so using my trusty Beer Guide I picked the "Pheasant Inn" at Shefford Woodlands, at it was close to Junction 14.

 

The meet was arranged for the "SE People" to meet at Reading services on the M4 at 12:00, with Dave Morris (South Wales rep) sorting out his troops.

Having survived Christmas in Marlow I escaped on the Saturday morning for some retail therapy in Reading before heading out to the service area to meet the others. The shopping took a little longer than planned and I was the last to arrive at the Services at about 12:15, we headed off straight away with Stu in the front, then Bob, next was Jane and Alison (aka Thelma and Louise) and me bringing up the rear. Although the traffic was quite heavy we made steady progress and kept in a line of 4 most of the way.

SEFers seem to have ended up on a caravan site instead of the pub - Stu looks bemused whilst Thelma and Louise take careful aim with their water pistols and Neil runs for cover !

 

On leaving the motorway, we headed north for about 0.5 of a mile and the pub was on a side road on the left. On seeing the pub I was a little worried, the building looked very run down and in need of some TLC, but there was a good size car park  (which is always important).

We were the first to arrive, with Dave and friend arriving about a minute later followed by Jerry Flint. On walking into the pub Jane and Alison disappeared (I assumed this was to powder their noses, however I found out differently later). Inside the pub, it also looked as if it hadn't been redecorated for a while. All the tables were laid out with Christmas trimmings, crackers etc, as we hadn't booked we asked, could they fit all 8 of us in. They confirmed they could and gave us a room on our own. As the table had crackers on it we pulled them, well it would have been rude not to !!! The food and beer were excellent, although Jerry was some what surprised to find that his "home-made beef burger" didn't come in a bun, but still had salad and chips.

 

Having dined, we returned to our cars, it was at this point I found out just what Jane and Alison had been up to.... At the MGF Register Meet, I had given both Jane and Dave a bit of stick about Wales not winning anything in the Rugby World Cup. In the Gents was a poster with a picture of me on it saying "Wanted" and various other things, my car had gained Welsh dragons on its number plates and there was a Welsh Flag on my Arial ..... As soon as I tried to remove them, the water pistols appeared !!!  A truce was soon declared.

 After the usual 5 minute chat, we all went our separate ways. I ended up following Jerry up to Wantage, for a bit of an A road blast, while the others returned along the M4 corridor.