Info on early members

I'm currently getting data on early rounds that is currently paper based into the database and for two members I've got a bit of a problem.

For Phil Betney (#57) and Neil Matthews (#58) who were successful on 18th June 1997 the sheet of paper with the times for their last leg is missing. Thus I don't know either their finishing time or their time for the Round. Phil Betney did have an Ulverston address while Neil Matthews letters have a Coniston header.

Being such early rounds there's no consistency in how each round was reported, the paper form that was in use when I took over Membership Secretary duties in 2012 hadn't been introduced. Even then it wasn't used by everyone.

Does anyone know either of these two? If you do then could you ask them to get in touch with me via [email protected], ta.

Another mystery ...

Member #319 Mick Hoffe

Looking at his ratification form it's completely blank! Fred obviously accepted it since he's written the membership number on it. It's likely that he did the Round with one of the people either side but which one? They have different start and finish times. It seems he was working at Ullswater Outward Bound at the time as the two either side have that as their "club". The date of their Round was 1984-08-16

Anyone know of him?

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Originally Posted by Bob

Another mystery ...

Member #319 Mick Hoffe

Looking at his ratification form it's completely blank! Fred obviously accepted it since he's written the membership number on it. It's likely that he did the Round with one of the people either side but which one? They have different start and finish times. It seems he was working at Ullswater Outward Bound at the time as the two either side have that as their "club". The date of their Round was 1984-08-16

Anyone know of him?

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Bob, try the membership secretary at Helm Hill Runners - Mick was a member of Helm Hill when he completed his crossing for the Joss Naylor Lakeland Challenge, about 20 months ago.

Also your other post:- 1997 seems a totally wrong year for #57 & #58. The first successful round that I supported was in 1986 and that chaps membership was well into the hundreds.

Ian Roberts, Bowland F.R.

Cheeers Ian,

Typo on my part re: 1997 & 1977. Definitely the latter.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bob

Another mystery ...

Member #319 Mick Hoffe

Looking at his ratification form it's completely blank! Fred obviously accepted it since he's written the membership number on it. It's likely that he did the Round with one of the people either side but which one? They have different start and finish times. It seems he was working at Ullswater Outward Bound at the time as the two either side have that as their "club". The date of their Round was 1984-08-16

Anyone know of him?

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Bob, I know Mick. Did you manage to contact him?

Not yet, Ian's lead didn't turn up anything. If you can get him to drop me a line at [email protected] that'd be great.

OK, I'm after more info. If anyone knows any of the following I'd be keen to talk to them, contact as above. All except the last completed the Round in 1993. There's a discrepancy in the original paperwork which I think may have been corrected but I need confirmation.

+----------------+---------------------------+
| Geoff Cowell | N/A |
| John Serjeant | Clayton-le-Moors Harriers |
| Peter Smith | Mandale AC |
| Chris Lates | Cumberland Fell Runners |
| Graeme Wilson | N/A |
| David Campbell | Settle Harriers |
| Philip Wilson | Settle Harriers |
| Bob Hughes | Cumberland Fell Runners |
| Dan Clarke | N/A |
| Robert Hill | Tring Running Club |
| Daniel Golding | Viking Venture Scouts |
| Toby Clarke | Viking Venture Scouts |
| David Horsfall | Bingley Harriers |
| David Collins | Bingley Harriers |
| Tracey Bryden | Borrowdale Fell Runners |
| Phil Pittson | Erewash Valley |
| Garry Tudbury | Erewash Valley |
| Gavin Barnard | N/A |
| Mike Hind | N/A |
| Keith Masser | Rossendale Harriers |
| Phil Newman | Wrekin Orienteers |
| Alison Crabb | Ambleside Athletics Club |
| Bill Deakin | Rucksack Club |
| Gwyn Lewis | Cumberland Fell Runners |
| Les Parker-Orr | N/A |
| Mark Hawker | N/A |
+----------------+---------------------------+

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bob

OK, I'm after more info. If anyone knows any of the following I'd be keen to talk to them, contact as above. All except the last completed the Round in 1993. There's a discrepancy in the original paperwork which I think may have been corrected but I need confirmation.

+----------------+---------------------------+
| Geoff Cowell | N/A |
| John Serjeant | Clayton-le-Moors Harriers |
| Peter Smith | Mandale AC |
| Chris Lates | Cumberland Fell Runners |
| Graeme Wilson | N/A |
| David Campbell | Settle Harriers |
| Philip Wilson | Settle Harriers |
| Bob Hughes | Cumberland Fell Runners |
| Dan Clarke | N/A |
| Robert Hill | Tring Running Club |
| Daniel Golding | Viking Venture Scouts |
| Toby Clarke | Viking Venture Scouts |
| David Horsfall | Bingley Harriers |
| David Collins | Bingley Harriers |
| Tracey Bryden | Borrowdale Fell Runners |
| Phil Pittson | Erewash Valley |
| Garry Tudbury | Erewash Valley |
| Gavin Barnard | N/A |
| Mike Hind | N/A |
| Keith Masser | Rossendale Harriers |
| Phil Newman | Wrekin Orienteers |
| Alison Crabb | Ambleside Athletics Club |
| Bill Deakin | Rucksack Club |
| Gwyn Lewis | Cumberland Fell Runners |
| Les Parker-Orr | N/A |
| Mark Hawker | N/A |
+----------------+---------------------------+

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Bob, am pretty sure that Mike Hind used to live hereabouts in Harrogate but is now resident in Keswick. I will email you.

Thanks Martyn, I've managed to sort things out now.

Another search request ;)

Does anyone know a Devon based runner, Guy Lavender? He's member number 1512 and did the BG in July 2009. If you do then could you ask him to get in touch please?

Thread resurrection!

I've added a page to the club website http://www.bobgrahamclub.org.uk/index.php?page=missing that lists all those members for whom we have missing data such as their age, details of their round such as time taken, in some cases even the date, names of pacers, etc. There may be others that I've to find, the membership list was filtered on having no age as that's the biggest number but there may be some who've given their age but not other details, for now this is a big enough list to go on.

If you are on the list or know anyone who is would you/they please get in touch at [email protected]. Thanks.

If the "Mick Farmery" [Member 127] is Mike Farmery of Thames Hare & Hounds (who certainly did some fell running), then a bit of research on runbritainrankings shows that he turned V65 in 2017; which would suggest an age of 27 in 1979.

Plenty of other well-known names among those early members in your list, but I don't feel inclined to do any more searching the www myself. [I did have a look for Joe Sherriff [Member 51], whom I knew, but didn't come up with anything.]

Ta, Mick Farmery has his club as Gosforth and did his round along with Howard Forrest and John Wagstaff and all have their addresses in the York area. Possibly not the same person.

The data "collection" in the early years was a bit haphazard - the standardised paper form didn't start to get used until around member #100 and then wasn't consistent.

There were quite a few, like 20, in the first fifty members who hadn't supplied their age. I just happened to find one of the very early Fellrunner newsletters which listed them along with their ages so I might search the FRA archives for the following years to see if there's anything similar. I only discovered Alan Heaton's age because I just happened to notice it mentioned in Stan Bradshaw's account!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bob

Ta, Mick Farmery has his club as Gosforth and did his round along with Howard Forrest and John Wagstaff and all have their addresses in the York area. Possibly not the same person.

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Yes, looks like one of those cases where two people with the same name (quite an unusual surname) turn up in the same activity.

Reminds me of when I was a student and I was treasurer of St Andrews University Orienteering Club at the same time as an unrelated Teresa Kay was the Secretary; and she had a younger brother (still at school) called Anthony. On one occasion at an orienteering event I was chatting to Teresa before the start, with my control card (bearing my name) pinned to my shirt, when little Anthony turned up beside his sister and soon started staring in disbelief at my control card!

List updated following quite a lot of responses, I've got about 20% of the original set sorted.

Some years ago I was supporting a Ramsay Round and one of the static support points was on the Mamores. As we approached the supporter got out of his bivy bag, looked at me and said: "We thought you were dead!" The next sentence was a classic - "You're looking well!".

The supporter was someone I'd worked with in the Kendal area, after I moved away another climber with the same name was killed on a crag in Borrowdale and they'd all thought it was me, my surname is fairly unusual and the spelling is not what people expect.

Back in 1979 the Mike Farmery now of Thames Hare and Hounds was a post graduate student at York University (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-far...alSubdomain=uk). I also know he was a Bob Graham completer pre-1986 and I can't see another Farmery on the club list so I think Anthony's information is what you're looking for.

Ta.

Managed to clear up a couple of the "Where the hell did they go?" MIAs today including the elusive Mr Hoffe!

Surprising just how quickly things get lost even from recent history, all this is within my lifetime, if you don’t actively work at maintaining it. I doubt I’ll get 100% complete, a mixture of age, death and forgetfulness will see to that.

I'll keep plugging away and pestering folk :o

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bob

Ta.

Managed to clear up a couple of the "Where the hell did they go?" MIAs today including the elusive Mr Hoffe!

Surprising just how quickly things get lost even from recent history, all this is within my lifetime, if you don’t actively work at maintaining it. I doubt I’ll get 100% complete, a mixture of age, death and forgetfulness will see to that.

I'll keep plugging away and pestering folk :o

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Hi Bob, I've just emailed you with updating missing details for me (1176), Trevor Longman (1144) and Barry Blyth (1145).
I'll get Barbara Lonsdale (1716) to contact you.

Well I'm down to 90 and having another blitz ;)

I'm concentrating on those 27 names in red - http://bobgrahamclub.org.uk/index.php?page=missing I've a few leads now that I've cross-referenced members and pacers and with luck will get down to 20 or so from that sub-list. Some of those leads are a bit "six degrees of separation" but we'll see. Some of those listed weren't helped by existing members or helped others so are a bit of a mystery.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bob

Well I'm down to 90 and having another blitz ;)

I'm concentrating on those 27 names in red - http://bobgrahamclub.org.uk/index.php?page=missing I've a few leads now that I've cross-referenced members and pacers and with luck will get down to 20 or so from that sub-list. Some of those leads are a bit "six degrees of separation" but we'll see. Some of those listed weren't helped by existing members or helped others so are a bit of a mystery.

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This will be of no use to your quest, but I was interested to see that the first red name on your list was someone I knew. But the last time I saw Joe Sherriff was some time in the 1980's, and I don't know any of the information about him that you are looking for.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bob

Well I'm down to 90 and having another blitz ;)

I'm concentrating on those 27 names in red - http://bobgrahamclub.org.uk/index.php?page=missing I've a few leads now that I've cross-referenced members and pacers and with luck will get down to 20 or so from that sub-list. Some of those leads are a bit "six degrees of separation" but we'll see. Some of those listed weren't helped by existing members or helped others so are a bit of a mystery.

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I think I can help you with a few on the "red" list Bob. Will email you.

Martyn