Photograph Quiz:
Photo no. 76:- Obviously five intersecting rings which you might have come across, Blog. But have you? Find your clever thinking cap, Blog, put it, prepare for a headache and I will try to tell you all about the exciting possibilities next letter.
How do they do it Blog? How? There must be a hidden talent somewhere, lurking in the bowls of the Midland Women’s Cross Country League. A talent for making life bloody ridiculous. About twenty years ago, to coin a phrase (!), I wrote a pee taking whole page article for ‘Athletics Weekly’ about the Midland Women’s Cross Country League. I will try to find it out for you Blog. I could just as easily have written it as a commentary about yesterday’s Midland Women’s Cross Country League race. Twenty years and what has changed, I ask myself, Blog. O.K I’ll concede that courses are difficult to find and preparation needs thought. Last week at the Warwickshire Cross Country Championships, a new club, Knowle and Dorridge, found an excellent course and organised a superb event. Yesterday ….. well. Just what can be said?? For starters you had to pay £1:50 for parking. No real gripe there as I believe we get many courses free of charge when a small fee could be collected for funds. BUT. There was only ONE ticket machine working which could not cope with the sudden influx of two to three hundred cars. The queue for the ticket machine was so long that the start of the Women’s race was delayed for 15 minutes to give competitors time to cough up £1:50!!!! 15 minutes delay. Blog, I kid you not! And the course??? As one former international said before the start ‘You need a degree in orienteering to find where to go. I’ve jog round and I can’t understand it!’ Now if it had been intended for a TRAIL race, it was an excellent course. Not the slightest problem there. For an off road race, it was an excellent course. Not the slightest problem there. For a category ‘C’ fell race, it was an excellent course. Not the slightest problem there. For a pleasant Sunday morning run, it was an excellent course. Not the slightest problem there. OK there was no showers or changing available and the toilets were inadequate but
FOR A CROSS COUNTRY COURSE IT WAS A TRAVESTY
Rocky paths to climb up and to attempt to try to run down. Endless paths of impacted rough quarry waste. Narrow gateways to negotiate …. Sorry. It was supposed to be a cross country race. A Cross Country race is where park or plough or hills or ditches or rough land or small streams or a tarmac path to cross or sand are par for the course. BUT. Rocky paths to climb up and to attempt to try to run down ... endless paths of impacted rough quarry waste …. narrow gateways to negotiate … are not cross country. Not with a capital ‘N’. Cross Country is Cross Country. Not trail racing. Not road running. NO. And what about the youngsters who don't own trail shoes. They had to race in flats or spike shoes. Flats meant the younger runners underperformed because they were slipping and sliding or having to run slowly and carefully down the slopes to avoid injury. Spikes meant that they probably are not able to walk, never mind train, today. The spike shoes were wreaked and their feet a mess. One poor university runner was in tears. Whether it was tears of frustration or distress, I know not. What the recourse?????????????????
That was the bad, now the good; the power of the printed word, no less. I write to you on Friday complaining about the lack of running reporting in the local press, you get your finger pulled out Blog, and lo and behold, there is running reporting in the local press on Saturday Blog. Well done, matey boy. Impressive. But could I suggest that next time Blog, may I suggest that it would be more interesting if 99.5% wasn’t just a list of results. Anyone interested in the Championships would have sorted out the results for themselves while the general public aren’t going to take any notice of an endless list of tightly printed names. What I meant about lack of reporting Blog, was lack of words. Words that might say something about the race, the course, the runners. I await next Saturday’s paper with interest, Blog. Go on, impress me!!!
Colin
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