Blimey!
What’s Mark Nutter going to do?
Darren Fishwick, Chorley.
Graham, it sounds as if you did the 'resurrected', mid-week version of Downham, which I never did. I don't think that variant visited Worsaw Hill, to 'walk the plank and jump off the wall'.
Originally it was a Saturday race, always a fortnight before Pendleton, that did visit the summit of Worsaw Hill and on the descent one ran along a plank, off the slope of the hill and across the top of a high (maybe 6 feet) limestone wall, which then had to be jumped from into a dense patch of nettles. I ran it in '83 and possibly '84. And let's pull no punches, I know that you now compete in the V70 category
I was a bit of an oddball until I was abducted by aliens; but I'm perfectly OK now!
Ah yes. I have not checked exhaustively but the Saturday race finished in 1991 and came back for 3 years in the mid 1990s (different RO) when I did it twice.
Incidentally the report of the 1984 race blames the "Plank of Death" and the 8' drop as the reason the 1984 race was not accorded Champ. counter status.
"...as dry as the Atacama desert".
In 1983 John Wild competed, quite out of the blue - see the RO's report in the FRM - and blitzed the record. I think it might well have been one of the last fell races that he competed in; I don't think that John participated in any rounds of the 1984 championship?
In the 1983 Pendleton race I seem to recall seeing in the results that a Skyrac junior did very well ...... Gary Devine and that another Devine finished in the vets category ..... his father?
I should really dig out my old results sheets to confirm that ...... can you remember those days? Write your name and address on a brown paper envelope, at the bottom of the finish funnel, then pop a 20p inside to cover postage. Everyone was over the moon if the results landed on the doormat a fortnight later.
Last edited by wheezing donkey; 05-09-2018 at 05:28 PM.
I was a bit of an oddball until I was abducted by aliens; but I'm perfectly OK now!
[QUOTE=wheezing donkey;642884]...I don't think that John participated in any rounds of the 1984 championship?
In the 1983 Pendleton race I seem to recall seeing in the results that a Skyrac junior did very well ...... Gary Devine QUOTE]
No. John didn't.
Yes. Gary was 9th for Skyrac AC (ie before he went off to Pudsey & Bramley) which might be why I did a Profile of him in Autumn 2007 Fellrunner "A Tremendous Natural Talent".
"...as dry as the Atacama desert".
Looking at my results sheet from Downham 1983, I see that Dave Cartridge was only 25 seconds slower than John Wild. I remember the wall, but I don't remember the plank; although the plank must have been there, because with my wall-climbing skills I wouldn't have finished at all without some assistance to get over the wall. I did Downham again in 1990; it must be the toughest short race ever run on Pendle, so it's a pity it has disappeared from the calendar. As for the village of Downham: people rave about how beautiful the stone-built villages of the Cotswolds are, but when I first passed through Downham I remember thinking that it must be the most perfectly picturesque village in England.
And yes, I do remember the brown envelopes for results.
In his lifetime he suffered from unreality, as do so many Englishmen.
Jorge Luis Borges