Residents of Hethersett will today pedal to Paris without leaving the village. How so I hear you ask?
Hethersett Hawks Cycle Speedway Club is holding a marathon 24 hour cycle ride round their track on the Memorial Playing Field where they will be looking to ride over 12,000 laps- the distance from Hethersett to Paris. This will raise funds for track improvements that will give the club the chance to host top national and even international meetings.
It will begin at 3 pm today and run through the night (under floodlights of course) with families of six or groups of four riding at the same time in half hour stints.
I was contacted by true Hethersettian Karen Stradling who has lived in the village all her life. Karen is from the well known Bishop family who for many years were local coal merchants. Her grandson Matthew is one of the Year Seven pupils at Hethersett Academy who have been isolating for 10 days after positive COVID tests amongst the year group.
Matthew has been cleared to take part in the marathon and has numerous sponsors. He will be doing his stint at 2 am on Sunday morning.
"I think you will agree that Matthew's devotion to his club is quite something. We will be setting an alarm and turning out to cheer our little fella on. Covid 19 won't stop this community from doing its thing," Karen said.
There's so much going on in and around Hethersett this weekend.
In a few hours time the Hethersett community litter picks are due to restart. I hope to see them off by taking a photograph.
Then it's off to a memorial event for my third cousin who died earlier this year. John Mountain lived in the village and was a very valued and skilled worker at Lotus Cars and his friends are putting on a wonderful event to remember him by. This will include fly-pasts, sports cars and many other attractions which I will report on after the event. It's something I am really looking forward to.
It does mean that I won't be able to get to the Youth Club fete and dog show in Back Lane which starts at midday. Sadly even I can't be in two places at one time, although I'm hoping to pop along to see some cricket at Flordon if the lure of watching Wales in the Euro doesn't bring me back home.
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A couple of pieces I recently submitted to the local press appeared in various newspapers yesterday and I have included a couple of cuttings with this blog.
My story about David Bull and his garden railway is also online at
https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/hethersett-man-transforms-garden-into-wild-west-8082730.
I still get a kick out of seeing my stories in print. That is something that has never left me over all these years and I doubt it ever will.