News of the World

Found it, found it, found it!!

If you look back to one of my earlier messages to you Blog, I said I had appeared in ‘The News of the World’ Sunday newspaper and that I would try and find the cutting. Done it!

Photograph Quiz:

Photo no 31:-Which one is me?            Clue:- look back to my message to you on the occasion that I ran in the Midland League for my club in the steeplechase race and had a slight problem with the barriers.

As you can see, it is a couple of pictures of a steeplechase. The photographs were taken by Eric North, a northern Mark Shearman¹ before Mark Shearman knew he was Mark Shearman!! There was a third shot in the sequence which was arguably, the best of the three. I can’t make out from my own cutting whether it has been torn off accidentally or it has been cropped by the newspaper. I suspect the latter because the inclusion of that next shot would have ruined the sarcastic comment by the subeditor printed alongside the photos. Eric showed me the third and fourth in the sequence which illustrated the total chaos as the rest of the field concertinaed into the barrier or jumped on top of other runners attempting to get to dry land!!  Carnage!! Even though I was in the thick of it, it did strike me as funny afterwards, like something out of a ‘Carry On’ film. Eric North attended most athletic events in the Yorkshire / Lancashire area. Tragically, he came to the conclusion that all the thousand of shots he had taken over the years would be of no interest to anyone, so one day, when he had little else to do, he decided to take the whole lot down to the local tip. What a terrible waste. Tragic. I cannot tell from the cutting whether this was one of my barefoot efforts. However I do remember it was a very, very  wet afternoon and as the track at Huddersfield was usually soft , both reasons would indicate that I would not have ripped my feet to bits if I had competed without shoes and it was a bare foot run in the park. The Leeds Road track was typical of steeplechase arrangements in those far off days, the water jump being built on the infield which was not a cinder surface, but was grassed over like the rest of the infield; resulting, as in this case, in a slippery approach  with an additional hazard of having to jump over the track side kerb before and jump down the kerb after, the water jump.

 I competed in the British Universities Championships (UAU?) at Maindy Stadium in Cardiff in the steeplechase. Scattered around the trackside were water hydrants used to spray the track during dry periods. Each was covered by a substantial protective wooden box. Unbelievably, there was one just inside the track where the runners jumped up the kerb on the approach to the water, and another just before you jumped down back onto the track. Being a championship of some importance, athletes were not allowed onto the track before their particular event   ... so the leaders in the ‘chase saw the trackside hazard on their first approach and were able to reacted accordingly, the rest of the bunch didn’t!! I slammed into the first box and then spent 2800 metres dragging my right leg behind me. Hospital treatment and a rigid dressing did not add to my comfort on the long return coach journey to the north east. I was not a happy bunny rabbit, another ‘chase injury which  reinforced my decision to quit the event!!

Sometimes the water barrier is built in unusual places. In Eugene, Oregon, USA, it is built on the inside at the end of the back straight, not on the curve. More commonly, it can be built outside the track; at Alexander Stadium in Birmingham or at the Leicester track, for example. A funny incident for spectators happened at Leicester. One non-too-bright young lady from my club was persuaded to run the 400m for club points. She drew the outside lane. She set off concentrating on the outside kerb to which she stuck religiously. The look of sheer panic on her face when she was faced with the water jump barrier should have gained her bonus points in the club competition for dramatic effect.

                         Colin

Guess what, Blog?? .... another £25 for my charities Tiny Tims Children’s Centre and Newlife, on Wednesday at the Sphinx ‘5’.

Note 1: If you don’t know, dear Blog, Mark is a photographer of renown.