Report from Michael.  (it made me chuckle, so I've included it all)

Um? Very wet! b****y wet! s****ing wet! actually it had rained even heavier at home. 

The Shefford walk on Sunday the 17th March was another walk blighted by heavy rain and poor conditions underfoot. It was a great test of waterproof ness of all the walking kit. I think a lot of footwear will be replaced  when things eventually dry up. It was evident that although kissing gates are far easier to negotiate they do accumulate large quantities of water and really need making up during the summer. The seat at Clophill was inspected and found to be in need of repair, moving down the hill slightly the coffee break was taken at the abandoned church. Ever onward and ever wetter we made it to Silsoe for Lunch and I think quite a few got very cold as it was fairly quiet when we resumed. We pushed on and negotiated the maze of horse electric fencing at Shillington  and had our final break at Cow Bridge where we were shown how to acrobatically negotiate a five bar metal gate. On to Meppershall and then with Shefford in sight we negotiated an arable field of extreme stickiness down to Polehanger Farm. The last hurdle of the flooded underpass on the A507 meant a dash across this busy road for most. Others tried the underpass and emerged remarkably without getting any wetter, amazing!