Midland Road Relays September 2014 revisited

Photograph Quiz.

Photo no 237:- So what is the connection with my running club, Coventry Godiva Harriers?

O.K. Blog …… well done. You spotted my mistake in my last letter to you. Easily done. I could claim that it was deliberate but it wasn’t. No way Jose! Mind you anyone with a modicum of education would know the facts, especially those clever enough to have studied mathematics and science to any level. So apologies all round. My letter to you should, of course, have read 236 not 235.

Back to the Midland Road Relays. Now I have mentioned the sports’ rules to you before and how the governing body could really give a toss about rule breaking at the humble at club level. They cannot be bothered. I know I tend to bang on about it, but it rubs me up somewhat. As an athlete who was disqualified for cheating in a National Championship, I was never exonerated although EVERYONE accepted that I was totally innocent, the powers that be couldn’t be arsed to apologise.. they mustn’t lose face. It was a long time ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth, but there is still a hitch that needs scratching when I see the antics of last Saturday ... athletes with the connivance of their team managers ran in other people’s numbers. Everyone knows it goes on but officialdom turns a blind eye as to implement the sport’s rules; like the wearing of earphones, it would need a rather large amount of firm handling which the authorities cannot face. Theres now tint fer t’lads. As long as the talented end of the sport behaves itself, the little people can get on with running around breaking whatever rule they want as long as there is no conflict. Warn everyone at the race briefing and put the blindfold on. Keep your heads down lads. Don’t stir the s**t, too much trouble. Things don’t change. Many years ago the notice ‘Strictly no Betting’ were posted at races and in programmes. But the book makers couldn’t read!! And the paying punters expected a flutter. The bookies ran two books. One for the athletes as they were in on the fiddle and a different set of odds for the punters so that what the bookies lost to the athletes roping, they recouped tenfold from the gullible spectators. True Blog, I kid you not. There was a bookie in the family and many athletes interviewed openly acknowledged that fiddling was part of the sport!!

                                     Colin