Richard Stevens

I’m going to struggle to find words adequate to describe last night’s cycle race! It was just simply amazing! A fantastic success.

As I have said here on several occasions, this race was a Town Council sponsored and organised event. We’ve never done anything on this scale before so it was important that we got it right. The cycling side was looked after by Steve Douce from Barlaston who did a brilliant job in attracting the country’s top sixty professional riders to enter the race. But the really hard bit, putting the show together , was carried out by our Town Clerk, David Turner and a small sub-committee chaired by Jill Hood. And all the hard work paid off last night!

Despite the poor weather four thousand spectators saw a truly thrilling race. I know nothing about cycling but for one and a quarter hours I was totally enthralled by the speed and skill of the riders. And to see the winner, Malcolm Elliot aged over forty, win by a margin of almost a minute was awesome!

The town looked fantastic - barrriers around the entire route and a temporary bandstand in Granville Square. And after the event everyone was saying the same thing - “we must do it again next year”. I think we’ve done it again! We’ve put Stone on the map!

Tonight’s Town Council meeting was over and done with in about an hour and a half and with little in the way of filibustering from certain members. If only all meetings were like this!

Important issues arising? Well, Councillor Philip Jones made the astonishing announcement that he’d heard “from an impeccable source” that Roseneath was to be demolished “within days”. This came like a bolt from the blue to everyone present. The County Council has always maintained that whilst the residential home itself was to be closed down, the building itself would always be retained for the provision of other services. My understanding is that planning permission would be required before any building could be demolished - we have seen one for Roseneath yet. It was agreed that our Town Clerk makes urgent enquiries an reports back.

Other decisions included agreement to make a grant of £250 to Stone Ramblers to help with the production of a book of local walks; agreement to object to British Telecom plans to remove the telephone kiosk in Marlborough Road and confirmation that the Town Council is willing to host the final Hotspot Sprint of the Tour of Britain Cycle Race on September 10th when the tour passes through Stone on its Worcester to Hanley leg.

And so to the pub for an early debriefing meeting!

I’m fairly used to public speaking. I’ve addressed magistrates, arbitrators, Tribunals, judges, political hustings,  public meetings, etc. etc.  - but today was a rather unnerving first experience. Speaking to two hundred ladies and not another man in sight!

Many months ago I was asked if I would be willing to give a talk about Stone Food and Drink Festival to the Barlaston branch of the Douglas Macmillan Hospice charity. I immediately accepted. I don’t need to be asked twice to talk to anybody about our Food and Drink Festival! And the added bonus was that it was in Barlaston where I spent a very enjoyable time as a young man in my teens and twenties - Barlaston in the swinging sixties was a good place to be!

And so it was that at lunchtime I ate lunch in a large marquee surrounded by so many familiar faces. And then ’singing for my supper’ by talking about the Festival. It seemed to go down all right and if I was able to persuade a few of them to come down to Stone in October then it was all worth while.

No, not the Skylark but Brindley’s Floating Restaurant! Yesterday, to celebrate our birthdays, Janet and I booked the entire boat for family and friends and went off for a lunchtime cruise. We all met at Westbridge Park and headed south, eventually turning back just short of Sandon.

No one had been on the boat before so there was immediatley a novelty value and when the meal was served everyone was so impressed. Good weather, good food, good wine and good company - all the ingredients for a perfect day!

We had almost a dozen Stone guests on board who had heard of Brindleys but never been on it before. Without exception, they all bemoaned the fact that they had ignored what was on the doorstep and that they will certainly be booking trips in future!

Thanks to Geof, Heather, Richard, Taggy and Chloe for a great trip.

This year, the Food and Drink Festival will be promoting many talented local chefs and we are being very ably assisted in putting our programme together by Paul Gilmore of Restaurant Gilmore over in Bramshall near Uttoxeter. Today, Jill Hood, Adam Jones, Pam Graham and I went over to see Paul to review progress.

Paul really has been hard at work! He has recruited several chefs to give demonstrations and has also come up with some very interesting and novel ideas for demonstrations over the three day Festival.

I can’t disclose too many details until we have ‘dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s’ but I hope the Festival website will be up and running in the next few weeks where you’ll be able to see the programme.

In the meantime, make sure you are in Stone from October 3rd to the 5th!

Yesterday was Janet’s birthday so we decided to eat out last night. After much umming and ahhing we chose to go to the Wayfarer Inn on the A34. We hadn’t been since it was taken over by Joseph, son of Geof from the Holly Bush at Salt, so we were not quite sure what to expect. We use the Hollybush quite regularly and have never had a poor meal there - so would the Wayfarer live up to the same high standard?

The answer is an emphatic ‘Yes’. We were greeted by a very polite and pleasant member of staff. After choosing our meals we were shown to a very comfortable corner table (did we really look like a couple out for a romantic evening?) and were then treated to a superb meal. The menu is very similar to the one at The Hollybush and cooked to the same high standard. I had my usual mixed grill (all protein - it was a ‘red’ day on my diet!) and it was wonderful. But Janet, to my surprise, ordered a sirloin steak. And she ate the lot. She complimented it as being tender, lean, full of flavour and perfectly cooked. My wife is not too easily pleased in the steak department so her compliments to the chef were quite an accolade!

On the basis of our two meals last night, I have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending the Wayfarer. There’s no need to travel to Salt now!