MAY 2006

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WILCOCK YAMAHA PROMOTES BUSINESS

The 2006 National Superstock Championship season began at a cold Brands Hatch in March.  Once again Wilcock Consulting is sponsoring Barrow based rider Dan Stewart on a 1000cc, 170 bhp Yamaha R1.

The events are being shown live on ITV for the first time in the history of the British Superbike championships.  Such is the popularity of the Superstock series that the competition includes European champions, South African champions, former Superbike riders and a host of former Superstock race winners.  The Championship visited Donington and Thruxton in April, Oulton and Mondello Park in May and moves on to Snetterton in June and Knockhill and Oulton Park in July.

We are sorry to report that Brian Bannister died in March. Brian had been a valued member of the gas industry for more than thirty years.  Brian’s first job for British Gas was in Manchester in 1965 as a Technical Assistant on Distribution.  After thirty years service with British Gas Brian worked his way through the ranks to the position of Support Engineer at Emgas in Leicester before taking voluntary redundancy in 1995. Brian subsequently worked for Wilcock Consultants on a number of different projects, including MRPS risk surveys, planning of mains renewal projects and preparation of non-routine procedures.  He was popular and highly respected by his peers for his knowledge and integrity. Brian and his wife Anne continued to live in Leicester.  Brian was a family man.   He had two sons, Ian and Gareth, and four grandchildren.

Goodbye Pat

Since returning Pat has seen the business continue to expand, with the growing number of consultants around the country and abroad and an increase in the number of staff at the head office in Barrow.  She even recruited another family member to the Accounts Department in the form of Steph, her granddaughter. Recently, Pat has slowly, but surely, been reducing her hours and winding down to a well deserved retirement.

	Pat is looking forward to spending more time with her family, including her granddaughter Ella, great grandson Dylan and her new fiancé Mick. She is looking forward to doing more travelling and learning to play golf. We wish Pat all the best for the future and although we will all miss her around the office and running up and down the corridor!
We are happy that she feels ready to retire and move onto a new and exciting part of her life.  Thank you Pat and good luck!

Environmental Award for Wilcock

Wilcock Consultant have recently been nominated for a gold award by the Cumbria Business Environment Network.  This is the first award of its kind to be made in South Cumbria and recognises the company’s commitment to reducing its operational impact on the local environment.  Managing Director, Graham Wilcock, will receive the award at a presentation in Penrith later this year.

More and more businesses are beginning to think “green” but often do not have the time or resources to tackle the job themselves.  Cumbria Business Environmental Network has been established to help businesses look at waste reduction, recycling or re-use and adopting environmentally friendly practices in order to achieve financial gains for the business.   The awards scheme, of which the gold standard is the highest, is intended to encourage businesses to work towards better environmental management practices, and in our case sits very comfortably alongside our existing ISO 14001 accreditation.

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Recruitment Consultant Charlotte Thorpe and Contracts Manager Jimmy Dow took a trip up to Scotland early in January.  They visited three National Grid sites; the Glenmavis LNG Storage Facility, the St Fergus Terminal and the Aberdeen Compressor Station.  They also visited the Scotia Gas Networks Compressor Station at Beattock.  Charlotte and Jimmy both enjoyed meeting clients and consultants at all sites and would like to thank everyone involved who made their visits interesting and worthwhile.  They look forward to seeing you all again in the not so distant future!

The Company devotes considerable time to maintaining its technical and professional accrediations.  As we start 2006 the list currently comprises

• CORGI  registered installer

• Gas Industry Registration Scheme (GIRS) approved auditor

• Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers Industrial AffiliatE

• ISO9001:2000 accredited

• ISO14001:2004 accredited

• UVDB registered for Meter Installation and Removal Services

• VERIFY assessed and approved for Safety, Health, Environmental and Quality practices and procedures

• Member of the British Safety Council

• Network Design Framework contract with NG

• Company won RoSPA Gold Award for Occupational Safety in 2004

New Starter at Head Office The New Year brought another new starter to Wilcock Consulting Head Office in Barrow.  Louise Garnett joined the team at the beginning of January.  Louise is working with Kim, Wendie, Pat and Steph, in the accounts department.  She is in charge of the weekly pay.   Louise has joined Wilcock Consulting from another local company.  Louise says she is enjoying working in a larger company.

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“We saw Maharajahs' palaces and the beautiful Taj Mahal, but also a country of poverty and organised chaos. Crowds of  people, plus rickshaws and bicycles were everywhere.   Driving for tourists is out, we were on a coach which was still an exciting way to travel. In India  driving is nominally on the left, stopping at traffic lights is an option, cows have to be driven around and overtaking camel trains, elephants and lorries requires any car coming the other way to get off the road. We had some great experiences, travelling by rickshaw and put-put, visiting markets and bazaars and enjoyed a wide range of  Indian food.  We certainly  look back with pleasure at the experience- and no we didn't get Delhi Belly.

Sri Lanka has a tropical climate.  The people may be poor, but they are much better off than in India.  They are in the main friendly people with a ready smile.  We had a weeks tour through beautiful and often hilly tea plantation country(up to 6000ft), visiting temples, riding elephants and going to a safari park.  The only downside was monsoon rain for two days! 

Our last week was on the coast, chilling out listening to the sea whilst laying  under palm trees at an hotel hit by the Tsunami, which like many hotels has been refurbished. People tell you about their Tsunami experiences, you don't have to ask.  Many down the coastal strip are still living in tents and prefabs whilst the Government sits on 100's of millions trying to decide if it is safe to build near the coast!   The holiday infrastructure however is back to normal.  The Sri Lankans don't need charity, but they do need  tourists to return in greater numbers.”

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Health Safety and Environment

This edition’s key Health, Safety and Environment reminders have been provided to us by our clients, colleagues and fellow team members in National Grid. 

Safety Systems & Protections Devices

NEVER deliberately disarm, immobilise or remove any safety protection system or device unless this is authorised in accordance with approved procedures.

Working at Heights

ALWAYS use the required safety equipment to protect against a fall from any height.  This applies both to the risk of a fall from height due to height above ground or into an excavation or pit.

Ground Disturbance

ALWAYS identify, trace and mark on site, buried plant and equipment before disturbing any ground.  Also ensure that these

markings remain visible at all times for the duration of the work.  This requires that relevant procedures must be followed to identify buried services and equipment before any breaking of the ground surface.

Reporting Faulty Workmanship

ALWAYS report all occurrences of faulty workmanship without delay.  Any faulty workmanship which may result in an unsafe condition must be reported.

Personal Protective Equipment

ALWAYS follow safety warning signs and wear, or otherwise use, the Personal Protective Cloting or Equipment issued by the Company and required to carry out the work safely.  Personal protective equipment (PPE) is provided and required for a variety of tasks and activities.  These requirements must be adhered to.

Safe Driving

NEVER endanger others or yourselves by driving unsafely or without authority.  Driving is one of the most dangerous activities we undertake on a daily basis.  This rule is introduced to prevent injury by ensuring that drivers only use vehicles for which they are competent and that these vehicles are driven safely.

Alcohol and Drugs

NEVER begin or continue to work when unfit to do so through the effects of alcohol, drugs or other substances.   ALWAYS report to your Line Manager immediately if you are unfit to work.  The misuse of alcohol or drugs, or prescribed drugs can have an impact on our performance or judgement.  The policy on alcohol and drugs reinforces the behavioural standards expected.   

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I am sorry to have to report that David Broomhead died at the beginning of November. He had been suffering from a neurological illness for a number of years. I had known David since his earliest days at Ambergate, thirty years ago. Many of you will remember him, along with Phill Jones, Robin Knott and David Hamlyn as a pioneering custodian of the natural transmission system. The operation and maintenance standards which were set in more those early days have been shown to be world class and the subsequent reliability of the system has been an economic benefit to the nation. He was a man with many interests, which included walking and motorcycles. He was also a very funny man, something which he retained during his illness. Latterly he had enjoyed visiting the paddock at the British Superbike meeting at Mallory Park and took great delight entering the paddock via the circuit, racing having to be stopped so that his customised vehicle could be driven in. My abiding memory will be of David spotting “Charlie’s Physio” caravan in the paddock (used by the riders to ease crash injuries and the like), turning his wheelchair to face the caravan and shouting through the door “Charlie, do you fancy a real challenge?” A top man!

On a much happier note it is not often that Clients are able to provide us with statistics relative to ongoing contracts, but I am delighted to report that on the 17th October our

Onstream meterworkers achieved the best ever daily productivity in Area 4 (West Midlands) of 8.6 meters fitted per meter worker. In addition, Mo Razzaq was the Meter worker of the month having fitted an amazing 218 meters. Congratulations to you all.

Graham Wilcock

Managing Director

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Peter Black has recently raised funds for Cancer Research UK in a speedy and unique way. Peter Black, who works as an Electrical Technician at the Beattock Compressor Station in Scotland, rode his 800cc Honda VTEC motorbike from Land’s End to John O’Groats, and back again. He covered 897 miles on his lone venture, avoiding motorways to increase the challenge.

Peter completed his trek in 19 hours and 10 minutes and raised £2,424.50 for Cancer Research UK.

Above: Peter with his bike at John O'Groats.

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BBC CHILDREN IN NEED

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Paul Wilkinson is a Trainer and an Auditor working for Onstream through Wilcock Consulting. He started working for Onstream in July of this year as a meterworker and in 4 short months worked his way up to his current position. Paul’s entrance to the gas industry isn’t a conventional one, indeed at age 45 not only did he start working for Onstream, but he started his career over and entered a completely new profession.

Paul worked at Rover for 10 years. He started on the production line and applied for internal vacancies progressing to a position of Instrumentation Fitter, preparing prototype vehicles for overseas testing. One of the perks of his job was travelling to test locations in the USA and Europe to support test engineers. After gaining experience in this role, Paul moved into a troubleshooting role some months before the well publicised collapse of the company in April 2005.

During his time at Rover, the company was sold off by its owner, BMW, and at the age of 40 at the time, Paul began to consider his future should the newly formed MG Rover fail, as was widely considered to be the likely outcome by industry experts. As manufacturing industries are constantly looking to the cheaper labour rates available to them in far eastern countries Paul considered that his future employment security lay elsewhere. It was in 2001 that Paul decided to enrol at Stourbridge College on an evening course that led to him gaining an ACS qualifications some 2 years later. Paul says he was totally content with his position at Rover but now at least he had an alternative should the worst happen and unfortunately Paul was made redundant.

That was the plan, Paul says, but he was surprised at how difficult it was to get into the gas industry at his time of life and with little experience, despite the claimed lack of qualified gas engineers. Wilcock Consulting and OnStream gave him the opening he was seeking. Paul says “It is good to see mature entrants on my training courses still being given a start in the gas industry.”

Paul has made a rapid progression from Meterworker to a Trainer and Auditor. When asked about how he managed this Paul answered, “I often ask myself the same question! I enjoyed my time as a Meterworker but when the training role became available I was keen to apply. Prior to working at Rover I had some training experience and enjoy passing on my knowledge to others. My managers were quick to realise some potential and following a trial, gave me a further opportunity to develop my skills within the gas industry. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have managed this in just 4 short months and will work hard to consolidate my position.“

Paul found that working in the automobile industry any change or action was extremely slow to implement. This is possibly due to the large scale and cost of any development. “In my experience,” Paul says ”within Wilcock and OnStream there is a much quicker pace to change and improvement combined with a desire to succeed which is refreshing to see.

When asked about skills he developed in his previous job and transferring them over to over to use in the gas industry Paul said, “In terms of the skills required there is no direct comparison between my previous employment and my current work.

However I consider that my success in both fields was greatly assisted by having a flexible attitude and a willingness to achieve results in a constructive and positive manner. I kept a data base of problem reports at Rover and I have adopted a similar system to monitor the progress of the audit requirements. Having watched the gradual demise of a major company in the Midlands, I have no desire to repeat the experience. I need around 20 more year's employment before I can retire and I now have no 'plan B'. I hope my efforts will help towards achieving this goal!”

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Health Safety and Environment WINTER DRIVING

British Winters are not predictable. This can cause a real problem unlike most of the rest of Europe where drivers know exactly what to expect and so are prepared accordingly. Here Winter can strike suddenly and severely with snow, ice, winter sun, fog, hail and heavy rain.

Many of you will need to drive this winter as part of your work. Before onset of wintry weather conditions check your vehicle is always well maintained and serviced. Check your tyres (including the spare) have plenty of tread depth, are in good condition and are inflated to the correct pressure. Ensure your vehicle’s radiator contains anti-freeze at the correct concentration and the cooling systems should be checked for leaks. Check your battery is in good condition, topped up and fully charged. Ensure windscreen wipers and washers are working effectively. Make sure washer bottles are full and the water contains anti-freezing additive. Finally ensure yourself and your car are protected from the elements as far as possible.

Before driving in wintry weather conditions check all lights are clean and working properly and that all windows and mirrors are clear from snow and ice and are clean.

Before setting off on your journey during wintry weather conditions ask yourself:

• Is your journey absolutely essential?

• Have you checked the local and national weather forecasts?

• Have you checked the local and national radio for travel information, considering carefully the advice given?

• Is your vehicle’s fuel tank full?

• Have you given an estimated time of arrival at your proposed destination?

• Would taking hot drinks, food, warm clothing (blankets), wellingtons, torch and shovel be a wise precaution?

• Ask yourself again, is your journey essential?

Once on your way if you get into trouble, do not abandon your vehicle, stay with it until help arrives. If you have to leave your vehicle, make yourself visible.

When driving in wintry weather condition check you are travelling with care on both treated and untreated roads and use dipped headlights in poor visibility. Ensure that you are in the highest gear possible and avoid harsh breaking and acceleration. Make sure you are travelling at a reduced speed to “normal” conditions and maintain a safe stopping distance behind other vehicles—it takes longer to stop in wet or icy conditions. Keep a careful watch on other road users especially motor and pedal cyclists and watch out for children playing and other pedestrians. Finally ensure you are not obstructing winter maintenance vehicles as they treat the roads.

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Most of you will have met or have been speaking to Lynn Brown, our Office Manager, and Kim, Pat and Wendie in Accounts for many years.

In recent months Helen Colwill has left temporarily (I hope) to have a baby and Vanessa High has also left her clerical duties for family reasons. Charlotte Thorpe joined us in March as Recruitment Consultant and has settled in very well. Cheryl Leith has joined us as a recent graduate assisting in some of the back office functions, a role for which she is greatly overqualified. She wants to assist in finding a cure for cancer, for which she is qualified, but is happy to take a temporary break from her studies to work with us. Jimmy Dow has been with us for 3 months as Contracts Manager and is proving to be a tremendous asset. Jimmy and Helen working in tandem will be a dream team as they both share a similar amount of dogged professionalism.

Our Account Managers, Dave Haddock, Bruce Robinson and Phil Winnard will also be well known to most of you. Some of you may not be aware that we have a number of individuals who support the Account Managers on specific projects. David Cole, Ann Hollingsworth, Peter Ogilvie and Liz Tucker form our project management team based in Coventry running the day to day operations of our contract with Onstream. And in Barrow, Eric Dodd, our resident project engineer, administers our national audit contract with British Gas New Housing Connections and also our design contract with Fulcrum. He has also recently obtained our accreditation as Auditors on the Gas Industry Registration Scheme and upgraded our CORGI registration.

Our back room team also includes three part-time specialists. David West has happily recovered from illness and continues to provide us with practical safety advise. Ben Gardiner has recently taken over from Bob Williams to look after our IT systems, hardware and software. Finally, Diane Fowler has worked with us since 1998 and maintains our quality, safety and environmental procedures.

Most of August was spent successfully preparing for our annual accreditations review of ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and UVDB VERIFY. To those of you who have made a contribution, I thank you.

Graham Wilcock

Managing Director

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Wilcock Consulting have recently been awarded a contract by OnStream to provide meter workers in the East and West Midlands. The contract involves the placement of approximately 300,000 gas meters and will run until June 2007.

OnStream is a subsidiary company within the National Grid Group and the contract is part of OnStream’s contracts with British Gas to supply metering services to around 9 million British Gas domestic gas and electricity metering customers.

Wilcock Consulting MD, Graham Wilcock, is delighted at securing this contract with such a prestigious client. The company will manage the contract from OnStream’s Coventry offices.

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Gas Industry Registration Scheme

Wilcock Consultants Limited have been awarded full accreditation on the Gas Industry Registration Scheme (GIRS) as Auditors.

The Gas Industry Registration Scheme was developed by the Gas Transporters as a response to the Ofgem initiative of seeking to further extend the competition in the provision of gas infrastructure through more ready access to the market by Utility Infrastructure Providers (UIPs).

The Registration Scheme facilitates access to the market by UIPs through seeking to establish common standards in competency, Health and Safety, quality and technical issues, amongst those organisations that achieve accreditation.

Full accreditation has been gained as a result of rigorous examination by Lloyd’s Register, the administrator for GIRS, requiring office procedures as well as practical audits. The final on site audit was completed by Rob Stanway on the 28th June.

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APRIL 2005

Contract Award

Wilcock Consultants Limited have been awarded an exclusive contract with Transco for the provision of technical agency personnel.

National Grid Transco is an international energy delivery business whose principal activities are in the regulated electricity and gas industries. In the UK, National Grid Transco own and operate the high-voltage electricity transmission network in England and Wales and Britain’s natural gas transportation system.

Wilcock Consultants Ltd, along with several other potential suppliers, went through a rigorous and lengthy tender, bid and evaluation process and reverse e-auction to prove they had the competence and capability to meet the stringent safety, quality and value requirements. 

Wilcock Consultants Ltd will supply a fully managed service to meet Transco’s requirements for a variety of skilled technical labour. This will involve Wilcock building further on its long-standing reputation of supplying the correct calibre of technical agency personnel to Transco. The skills and flexibility offered by Wilcock Consultants personnel will allow Transco to continue to operate and develop as the largest utility company in the UK.

The contract, which is for an initial 3 year period (to January 2008) with an option to extend for a further 2 years, was finalised by Graham Wilcock, Managing Director of Wilcock Consultants Ltd, and Valerie Cowie, Procurement Officer of NGT, in December 2004.

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New Starter at Head Office - Charlotte Thorpe 

Charlotte Thorpe joined Wilcock Consultants at the beginning of March.  She has taken over from Helen Jackson, who left Wilcock at the end of 2004, as Recruitment Consultant.  As Recruitment Consultant Charlotte will be responsible for sourcing personnel to meet clients’ requirements and arranging interviews.  She will also be in charge of registering new CVs and keeping old ones up to date, as well as dealing with telephone enquiries and taking part in general administration duties at Head Office.

Charlotte recently moved to Barrow-in-Furness from Manchester to join her long-term boyfriend who works in the area.  She previously worked for a health insurance broker in Manchester city centre  She thought she would try her hand at recruitment, and is enjoying it so far!  What does she think of Barrow?  “I find the area a lot different to the hustle and bustle of Manchester, that I’m used to, but I appreciate the fresh sea air and the relaxed life style.  I also enjoy the much shorter commute to work, I can leave my house at 10 to 9 and still be early for work, as long as the ducks aren’t crossing the road to the reservoir!”  Charlotte is keen to increase the number of consultants on our database.  If you know anyone who is working or has worked in the gas industry and wants to be registered please ask them to forward their CV to charlotte@wilcock.co.uk

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Young Persons’ Paper Competition

This year we were pleased to have Matthew Gallagher representing Wilcock Consulting in the 2005 Young Person’s Paper Competition.  Matt started working for us in August 2001 at National Grid Transco in Bolton as a Technical Clerk.  In May 2003 he was promoted to Systems Assistant.

Matt presented his paper at the Manchester and District region of IGEM finals held in Bolton and won the regional competition.  His winning  paper was on his work surrounding vector mapping, the main features of its applications and the benefits they can bring as a decision making tool, in particular to gas mains replacement planning and strategy.

The winner of the National Final, held in April in Solihull, was Ben Clarke, representing the Scottish branch of IGEM.  He presented his paper on “Non-intrusive flow metering, an alternative approach.”

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OBITUARY

I am sorry to report that Les Atkinson died at the beginning of April.  I had known Les for thirty years and in recent years had enjoyed his company at cricket matches.  I will miss his infectious sense of humour at Old Trafford and Headingley this summer.  

John Hardley of EUS also died suddenly in the New Year.  He spent a life time in the gas industry starting at North West gas and eventually joining GINTO from Advantica in 2001.  As GINTO evolved into EUS, John became a key man and he was a good friend of Wilcock Consulting.

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JANUARY 2005

The New Year has started at a frantic pace! In our last newsletter I informed you of one new significant contract. The first week of January saw the start of two more new contracts both of which are major contracts for us.

The larger of the two contracts was awarded by NGT for us to supply all their technical agency personnel for a minimum of three years. We are currently working with NGT to roll out this contract. I hope to be able to say more in the next newsletter.

The second of the new contracts was awarded by British Gas Connections, part of Centrica. We will be auditing 2400 sites per year on their behalf, where they are involved on new distribution networks and meter installations.

We had fewer pre-Christmas functions this year due to the fact that our consultants have been more widely dispersed in 2004.

Those of you who I did not get to see, please accept my thanks for all your support in the past year. We will continue to seek new opportunities.

Stay healthy,

Graham Wilcock

Managing Director

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Health and Safety

The following statistics have been extracted from a recent industry presentation on health and safety:

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Wilcock Consulting has been awarded an important new contract for the provision of Quality assurance and site audit services to British Gas Connections Limited (BGCL) a part of British Gas and Centrica.

British Gas Connections provide siteworks and connections services to new housing developments across Great Britain. The audit service is an important building block in helping BGCL deliver to its customers

Wilcock, along with several other potential suppliers, went through a rigorous and lengthy evaluation process to prove they had the competence and capability to meet the exacting safety, quality and value requirements.

Wilcock Consulting have signed a contract with British Gas Connections, a subsidiary of Centrica, to undertake a significant number of site audits on BGCL networks being constructed to supply new housing developments throughout the U.K.

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OCTOBER 2004

This past two months has seen us awarded a framework agreement with NGT in North London. East of England and West Midlands Network for network design and completing a study for Ofgem on the assessment of Transco’s measurement systems and RIGs reporting.

Both are small milestones along the route to be able to provide greater services to the gas industry. It demonstrates to me the flexibility that we have within our consultants enabling us to constantly look at new work opportunities.

Who knows what opportunities there will be in the next few months with new asset owners and new Alliance contracts. Watch this space.

Graham Wilcock, October 2004

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HEALTH SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT

In 2003/4 there were 235 workers fatally injured and 371 members of the public killed as a result of work activities in Great Britain. Falling from height, being struck by moving vehicles, being struck by a moving or falling object and contact with electricity are the most common causes. The gas industry has not had a fatality in its work force for several years.

The Shell Oil Company recently issued a warning after three incidents in which mobile phones ignited fumes during fueling operations.

In the first case, the phone was replaced on the car’s boot lid during fuelling; it rang and the ensuing fire destroyed the car and the petrol pump.

In the second, an individual suffered severe burns to their face when fumes ignited as they answered a call while refuelling their car.

And in the third, an individual suffered burns to the thigh and groin as fumes ignited when the phone, which was in their pocket rang while they were fuelling their car.

• Mobile phones can ignite fuel or fumes

• Mobile phones that light up when switched on or when they ring can release enough energy to provide a spark for a ignition.

• Mobile phones should not be used in filling stations, or when fueling lawn mowers, boats, etc.

• Mobile phones should not be used, or should be turned off, around other materials that generate flammable or explosive fumes or dust, (i.e. solvents, chemicals, gases, grain, dust, etc.)

To sum it up, here are the four rules for safe refuelling

1. Turn off engine

2. Don’t smoke

3. Don’t use your phone, leave it inside the vehicle or turn it off

4. Don’t re-enter your vehicle during fueling

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SPONSORSHIP

Dan Stewart, the Barrow-in-Furness rider, has proudly begun preparing for the 2005 season.  After finishing sixth in the National Superstock Cup Championship at his first attempt, he is targeting the main Championship next year.

This years Suzuki has been sold to fellow Barrow rider Mark Moresby who had immediate success first time out at Darley.  Dan's new bike is a Yamaha R1 with sponsorship from Wilcock Consulting.

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TAX INFORMATION

Recently there was an article in the press from the Inland Revenue announcing they were going to once more focus on the self – employed and Limited Companies to try to eradicate the “one man band” Companies. If you use a limited company or a partnership to service clients we have ordered some leaflets (Inland Revenue Supplying Services IR175), which will explain whether you are eligible. Ring Kim at the head office

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INDUSTRY NEWS

Sale of the four National Grid Transco networks have been delayed until the second quarter of 2005.

Work has started on a new s213 km long submarine pipeline linking Bacton to Balgzand in Holland.

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DEREK PEARSON - COAST TO COAST CHALLENGE

I knew I shouldn't have signed up for it - but it's bad form for a Wilcock Consultant to say no - especially to their Project Manager! Whitehaven to

Tynemouth on a pushbike - 143 miles - mountains, moors, fells (and falls), September storms and me - 58 years old, only 30 miles of training - silly b----r par excellence!

Sunny September 17^th the ceremonial dipping of the back wheel into Whitehaven harbour - front wheel pointing into the rising sun and we're off - Wilcock Consultant on a 10 year old Dawes hybrid - all the rest are Laing O'Rourke 20/30 something's on titanium framed, full suspension, disc braked, not-much-change-from-a-grand, mtb's.  Still, the kindly Mr Wilcock had pledged a quid for every pub passed on route - which gives plenty of scope for rehydration therapy!

Out through Whitehaven council estates - the cycleway thoughtfully surfaced with shattered alcopop bottles, into the hills, onwards and upwards to Keswick - the pack of 30 riders has split into 3 straggly groups - and by some fluke I'm with the fast boys - my ego was soon tempered by a massive double somersault over the handlebars when I skidded coming down Whinlatter Pass forest trail - impressively bruised hip, bloody elbow and LOTS of sniggers from the young gentlemen!  Drank lunch at Keswick then onwards and upwards to Penrith - 53 miles out completed in a shade under 6 hrs cycling.

After a "relaxing" dinner hosted by Laing O'Rourke we're off at 08:30 from Penrith in pouring rain but with the wind behind us - heading for the next night stop at Allenheads. This was tough - endless climbs in gears I'd never got down to before - fog at the 580 metre Hartside Summit then a cold blast down the other side into fitful sunshine and up and up and up past Nenthead (and a cooling pint at the Miners Arms) to Black Hill at 609 metres the highest point of the journey.  Arrived in Allenheads - 90 miles out in bright sunshine and joined the fast boys for rehydration at the Allenheads Inn.

Sunday 19^th September started at 08:30 with a tough, wet climb out of Allenheads followed by a scorching downhill run to Rookhope and another killer climb on loose wet shale - 100 miles out with 43 to go and nearly all downhill into the sun with a strong tailwind!  On excellent cycle tracks laid over old mineral railways I soon clear Consett and its joggers & dog walkers and shortly after midday I'm crossing the new Tyne pivoting bridge amidst Sunday strollers. Then its east again on the North bank of the Tyne past scummy canals and old shipyards arriving at Tynemouth "beach" and a dip of the front wheel in the North Sea - 143 miles in 12 ¾ hours cycling time - only ¾ hour behind the yellow jersey.

Verdict? A tough'ish 3 day ride that must be hell with a headwind - but wonderful scenery with well signed and surfaced cycle tracks - doing it over 4 days would make sense for the older rider though - Thanks to Laing O'Rourke for the organization and my sponsors for their support.

The Laing O'Rourke Cycling Team

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THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER - DON TIDIMAN In his spare time Don Tidiman runs a specialist shop in Essex dealing with militaria.  He called the shop "The Unknown Soldier" because the majority of the items are not named and therefore belong to unknown soldiers.

Don has been interested in collecting Militaria since he was a boy at school. They used to swap their badges and Don progressed on to different types of firearms. When he later gave his collection away, quote “why we do these silly things I just don't know?” 16 years ago he started to trace his family tree and as all researchers know that you have certain stumbling blocks, two of his Great Uncles were missing from the chart in the early 1900. Later he found that in the Great War Herbert Tidiman was attached to the Kings Royal Rifle Corps and died of his wounds at the Somme 21.03.1918 and the other William Tidiman attached to the Royal Dublin Fusiliers was killed on the first day of the Gallipoli assault 25.04.1915. With his wife Lila they ventured to the Somme in France to see and pay their respects to the place where their Great Uncle Herbert’s name is recorded.

When the work Don was carrying out for Graham started to reduce he decided to open a shop on an Antique Centre at Battlesbridge, in Essex. Don quickly outgrew the first shop and transferred to a larger one in a lovely setting. Don still works for Graham from time to time but he enjoys working in an environment which is the same as his study, Don talks to interesting people who sometimes think it is a museum but you also don't know what someone is going to bring into the shop for sale or for valuation. Don hopes to carry on selling and buying militaria for the foreseeable future.

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GAS NETWORK SAFETY PASSPORT 

1/ Do you hold a GNSP ?

2/ What year was it issued ?