Midland Women's Cross Country League, Burbage Common, December 1st 2012

Photographic Quiz:

Photo no. 120:- What year was this photo taken of the start of the Coventry Godiva New Year ‘5’ when the New Years Race was held on New Years Day?

Dear Blog,

That was quick, what did you do to get your message to me so quickly… I am surprised the postman delivered mine so fast so the reply was amazingly speedy. Did you use carrier pigeon? Unlike Santa or the other Bletchley one, it didn’t get stuck in the chimney!!! Brilliant suggestion of yours Blog. Today was the Women’s Midland League at Burbage Common, Hinckley, so I thought I would try your suggestion out on the few runners I knew (The men from Division 3 of the Birmingham and District Cross Country League were also using the same course, men 3 laps, women 2; Ladies running first) So I said to the first person, “What do you think about calling the ‘New Year 5’, ‘Not the New Year 5’ instead.” “Oh have you changed the distance then” and the second person added “I liked a ‘5’, what a shame.” I explained the date was the change, not the distance. “Don’t geddit”. And the same conversation was repeated with two others before I abandoned my foray in to being a pollster! So Blog, your suggestion was a little less than brilliant … crap in fact? If the Godiva New Year ‘5’ had been changed to December 31st, it could have been renamed ‘The Old Year 5’? But it wasn’t so it isn’t.

As I said, the Midland Women’s League was held at Hinckley today over a very soggy Common. And the big breaking news is that the League Officials are getting bang up to date in the twentieth century but issuing numbers that the athletes must keep for future fixtures! Not thin cardboard mind you, but made of a plastic material, trimmed down from some other event with the sponsor logos cut off. By the time China lands on Mars and the European Space Commission has Lunar Colony, the Midland Women’s League will be able to use NASA’s discarded computer hardware to introduce chip timing into races. Now there’s a thought to grapple with! Roll on the twenty second century, I can hardly wait.

Although Hinckley now appears to be something of a sleepy backwater, there was a time about a hundred and ten years ago when it was at the fore front of athletic promotion. Prizes for their September meeting for athletics and cycling were outstanding; drew entries from around the country. Even in the 1950s, a ‘little financial incentive was sprayed around to even the most average competitor’ one recent interviewee for my ‘Godiva History’ told me (within the last six months). He added that the good class athlete could expect first class travel and accommodation for two days, plus ‘an envelope’ for his trouble. About a year ago I picked up a solid silver valuable vase for a third placed steeplechase position presented at one of Hinckley Sports, so what the first two got, beggars belief. [It only cost a couple of quids because the seller didn’t realise what was being sold. I did!] The good old days of amateurism! The poor souls today, sucked into the UKA measly support scheme, signing away their birth right for a pittance, have to be pitied. The athletes should get themselves organised Union wise??? Part of the Sports’ malaise, I am afraid. Our Olympic Legacy is quickly being devalued.

                                 Colin