Six of us met at Redbeck Cafe for our evening rideout to the inaugral meeting (and AGM) of Barnsley & Doncaster MAG (BADMAG). Bill & Ian were already there by the time we arrived at 18:10. Meeting at Redbeck provided a great opportunity for an evening meal for those who hadn't been back from work long (i.e. Steve & Justine). Malc was the next to arrive, followed by Sandie. It was a lovely evening, and with no chance of rain, great to be out on the bikes. We set off at 19:00 as planned and headed out on Doncaster Road towards the A1. En-route we met Sharon & Terry who were waiting for us in a lay-by, having just finished work themselves.
All went to plan until we turned off the A1 at the Skellow turning and had a bit of a 'wobble' that it wasn't the right road (Well, Malc did ;-). We rejoined the A1 to come off at the next junction to realise that actually we had the right road in the first instance and we had only been a few hundred yards from our destination. We then took a big roundabout route through Doncaster (involving a couple of ventures into less than salubrious housing estates), but we eventually found Skellow Road and our destination (we have our 'Lost Riders' nickname to live up to after all, and besides, we also needed to prove Mick doesn't have the monopoly on taking wrong turns on rideouts ;-).
There was a big turnout for the meeting and we met Eddie and Pony Tailed Pete there also, so a great turnout of 10 Wakefield MAG members, supporting our 'Buddy Branch'. Also supporting BADMAG were Sheffield, Leeds, Huddersfield and East Yorks MAG, which was great to see. There were also a good number of the old Barnsley and Doncaster Group members in attendance, in addition to us visitors from other parts of God's own County.
Stuart (ex. Barnsley MAG Rep) opened up the BADMAG AGM with a report of the branches activities etc, with Richard covering the campaigning / local political officer slot. The branch elections were held and Stuart was elected (re-elected) as the new BADMAG Rep, Richard the Political Officer, Lee taking the Finance role and a Social Secretary was elected. Talks were also given by Wayne Rooney, the Yorkshire Regional rep, and a representative from the White Knights 'Blood Bikes' Charity, which has recently been launched in South Yorkshire.
So, BADMAG has been formally launched, representing Doncaster & Barnsley, which together with Sheffield & Rotherham MAG, means South Yorkshire (or the southern part of the West Riding of Yorkshire !!!!!) is well covered by MAG Groups. Hurrah !!!!
Sandie's battery was flat after the meeting but that was quickly sorted and we had a fairly uneventful ride back to Wakey (except for one person sailing straight on at a roundabout that the rest of us went right at .... but we wont mention that Sandie ;-)
A nice evening rideout - we must organise more of these in the summer months with the lighter nights. A huge thanks to all ten Wakefield MAG members for attending and supporting our old Buddy Branch.