Midland Womens' League Results
           - Birmingham Mens' League Results November 9th Coundon Hall Park

Photographic Quiz:-   
                          Who is this, where is this, what event is this, when was this???? 
                             Why, in my humble opinion, has Coventry and Godiva Harriers
                             done this man, an disservice? What is the difference between and
                                                         Olympian and an Olympian???

Well Blog, it was very wet for the league races I mentioned last time. I must eat humble pie (with crea on my face of course) Because Northbrook, Shinx, and Nuneaton did a good job in very difficult conditions to not only promotes the Birmingham League Division 3 man's race and the Midland Women's League at Coundon Hall Park, but managed to organise a race for the Birmingham League Division One with three days notice. They also deserve praise for cutting out the wood section which I considered to be extremely dangerous - no athlete deserves to be put at risk in the first race of the cross country season. 

BIRMINGHAM CROSS COUNTRY LEAGUE 2019 November 9th

Photograph 2016:-

If me and my sister weren't training to become latter-day E.T.s, what were up to?

(If I had had an education I suppose I would have written, 'my sister and I' but I never talked proper until I went to University - I certainly felt like a male Lisa)

Dear Blog,                                                                                                                                                                 Bonfire night has come and gone and I didn't have a repeat episode of setting the house on fire.

                Double standards are alive and well I am glad to report in cross country running.

AS I UNDERSTAND IT BLOG    …  although I must admit that I have been know to very occasionally get it wrong????

At the respective Midland Women's League AGM, which I attended, and the Birmingham Cross Country League AGM which I didn't attend, there was a lot of discussion about venues especially focussed on the Ladies not being accommodated at some of the men's leagues, parking being an issue … read the women will get there first and take up all the parking spaces before the men arrive??

Most fixtures were resolved as to venues but I got the feeling of anti feminist sentiment was alive and well. in some quarters.

Very late this week the Division 1 Birmingham League lost their venue because of the weather conditions rendered the course extremely wet, so much so that long term damage would be done by so many runners (men only of course- it being one of those fixtures that couldn't quite cope with having the fairer sex tramping over the parkland before the men started.)

Panic .. no venue for the men …..

Fair enough, some officials did a sterling job to arrange for the men to run at Coundon Hall Park in the morning before the women in the afternoon. All hands on deck to set up the course for the men.

Interesting to observe that this course can accommodate an extra race (men) and how all are rallying round to help (the men). So the men are going to turn an already very wet course into a quagmire for the ladies before the ladies can start!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Me thinks that the men's officials  would have of course rallied round if it had been a ladies' league that was cancelled and they would of course let the women run before the men started [stone me, another pig has just flown over ..)

The proof is in the pudding … will the men on Saturday be accommodating and after they have raced, will they shift the course over by 10 metres to give the ladies a decent surface to at least start their race on, or will they just bugger off …………………. Watch this space ………………….

I could be wrong. My facts are in correct. I am talking through my rectum. Sorry to mislead you Blog. But there again ……

                                       Colin

               S 

                                                                                                                                        

                      Coventry Bonfire

PHOTOGRAPHIC QUIZ.
Photograph no 2011

Why was this club so important to the Ladies of Coventry Godiva Harriers?

Hi Blog,
             Talking to an old lady yesterday after I had watched my daughter run in a 5 mile race promoted by Centurions Athletic Club, reminded me of my childhood. She remarked that she was poor and had an outside loo, gas mantles and the like. She said that she was going to run the London Marathon for the Salvation Army as they used to provided the family with Christmas presents. I told her that it was the TOC H. who made our Christmas barrable with presents. I remembered my blackboard and chalks when I was about 8 years old.....
              I soon put her in her place about what it was like to be poor.
              She remarked for some reason possibly because it was bonfire night in a couple of days, but more probably attempting to out-poverty me, that they could only afford a few bangers and a couple of those jumpy banger things ….. this reminded me of the first fireworks me and my sister had as kids.
              My aunt, mum's youngest sister had just landed a good job as the manageress of an exclusive Furriers in the town centre. She must have felt generous and had a desire to treat us. She arranged to catch the 6:30 Haworth bus out of town, we would catch that same bus at Ingrow, which was a mile out of town, and we would all travel together to the pictures in Haworth to watch 'Calamity Jane' - a title which turned out to be so ironic.
              She also bought me and my sister a box of fireworks. We thought we were in heaven. We had never had fireworks before.
              When Dad came home from the mill about 6 o'clock, we rushed to tell him of the present of fireworks. We opened the box to show dad the various brightly coloured fireworks among which was a box of coloured matches. As an eight year old, I was a grown up lad, or so I thought. I had learned to strike real matches, not these kiddies things. My mum consented to my request that I be allowed to strike one of the coloured matches to show dad. The OK was given, so I reached inside the box full of fireworks, took out the box of coloured matches, and took out a match and struck it. I was unaware that these types of matches spit out small red hot particles which caused the colouring of the flame, so I was taken completely by surprise when a split from the match I had struck landed on my hand holding the match.
YES. I dropped the flaming match. I dropped the flaming match into the open box of fireworks ….. bangers, volcanoes, roman candles, rockets ….. all of which started to ignite in extra quick succession in our one downstairs room which in an instant was filled with thick clouds of smoke, highlighted by a cacophony of bangs, whizzes, cracks and hisses accompanied by all the pretty colours associated with a couple of dozen different crackers going off simultaneously.
All I remember then, was my desperate attempt to run up the Lane to the railway bridge to escape my pursuing mother wielding a rather large kitchen knife describing how in some detail she was going to kill me. And any one who knew my mother would not question the validity of that statement. Protected by the safety of the railway bridge wall which in my terror I had scale without difficulty, I saw the firework smoke billowing out of the doorway highlighted by the yellow glow from our gas mantle light streaming out of the door in the evening gloom with my poor dad desperately throwing fireworks out into the street. The screaming dervish who 5 minutes before had been my mother, still tried to climb the embankment wall still clutching the kitchen knife, still offering variations on the theme of imminent death ……
            Time stood still. But somehow we did catch the local bus which my aunt had caught in town; I sat upstairs as far away from my mother as possible. In the picture house, I was at one end of a row while my mother was at the other. Dad lost the use of three fingers, our first ever carpet was still smouldering when we got back home in a room still filled with acrid smoke … and amazingly, Billy the budgie, was still chirping away … or he might have been just coughing. Unbelievable that the carpet had not burst into flames, presumably because the room was sealed and lacked enough oxygen for ignition. And incredible that dad had managed to sit through the film in so much pain.
Of course no one remembered the film.
 About two months later the film 'Calamity Jane' came to one of the town's cinemas, so we all went along to see it - my aunt, bless her, paid for the second viewing as well. Altering fur stoles for the local ladies of fashion must have been lucrative?

The moral Blog is clear, If you are going to a bonfire with fireworks, DON'T ON ANY ACCOUNT ARRANGE TO GO TO THE CINEMA AFTERWARDS.

        Brexit Backstop Solved and not a three years too soon. and don't forget Blog, you heard it first here, from yours truly.

Photographic Quiz no. 207:-

Question …. which Olympian is this? Why was the gentleman on the left so important to Coventry Godiva Harriers? And why should this photograph be used in evidence of a crime which has been unsolved for 50 years and offences are still being committed but no prosecution can be bought because of lack of solid evidence. Blog. I assure you this is no flight of imagination. It is a genuine statement of fact.

Dear Blog,
                 I do think you should use your contacts to get in touch with Mr Johnson because I think it is not too late to leave those Johnny foreigners where they belong because the Backstop can be solved dead easily if we act quickly.
                 No Hard Border.
                                            No Border in the Irish Sea.

Solution => put the customs services on each boat leaving from Ireland / Eire … problem solved with a TRAVELLING border
.                                  That Blog is bloody brilliant. They don't call me Hawhaw or nothing.
                 Never mind this Sir lark, Straight in where it matters ….. So when I get my knight hood off Mr Boris for such sheer brilliance, I want to be called Lord Hawhaw, please. Lord Hawhaw, the laughing stock of Europe. I will be known world wide …My name will live forever whenever France and Germany are mentioned.
                                   errrrr I think I will have a little rethink about that Blog. I may be missing something???
                                   So what do you suggest????

If you have a genuine suggestion Blog, feel free to let me know with a £30 note to cover expenses, administrative costs, electricity charges, room hire, transport fees, postage … in fact Blog, you had better make that a £50 to be going on with.                      
                                    Ta very much.
                                                          Colin

   Coventry City of Culture 2021 take 3 and Heritage Week

Photographic Quiz:-
                                  Photo number 209.

So why is this so special? Where is it? I did spend a little time talking to his daughter about it which was interesting.

                       As you know Blog, at the beginning of September, the towns, villages and cities of our great land used to have a weekend called Heritage Weekend, when buildings, normally closed to the public, are thrown open to the great unwashed. Two years back, this weekend was changed to be a week or ten or so days.  I thought it an excellent idea but few organisations complied, instead most just sticking to the one weekend - which was a shame.
                       I did an extensive display four or five years ago in the Coventry Godiva Harriers clubhouse. This room was not big enough for what I wanted and had to cut my display down to 66 (! Blog I kid you not 66!) display boards, as well as table top exhibits and free standing examples. So when the new extended Heritage Week+ was announced, I set about finding a much bigger room. The gym at the Warwick University next to the Godiva Clubhouse and the Coventry Running Track would have been ideal but the University turned me down telling me the gym was required for September re-sits. When I tried to pursue other large University buildings to loan for ten days, it became clear that they regarded me as a pain in the a**e. I tried other companies in Coventry, for example, Seven Trent, but none showed any real enthusiasm. As the council had huge numbers of empty shops I thought that the loan of a large shop although a bit cramped would be better than nothing. The chatter from all the powers that be, is of 'diversifying the High Street' so I thought I might just be on a winner. Something different for the tired shoppers to do while resting between spends??? Not a bit of it. All political sound bites as usual. BUT, B  U  T  .If I paid a nominal rent, there might be a little slack. Pointing out that the Coventry running club consists of totally non paid volunteers, working hard for the benefit of the youngsters in the City, cut no ice … so 'Thankyou Council but no thanks'.
                       Starting canvassing early as usual for a room for next September (2020), I thought Keighley would be a better bet than Coventry. BUT  B  U  T. They must think I am a Nutter upnoweth with a capital 'NUT' as I haven't even had an automatic acknowledgement!!

                       I do spend quite a bit of my own money accumulating artefacts to supplement my notes or to illustrate a particularly interesting point and it would cost neither Coventry nor Keighley a brass farthing for an interactive display about the sporting past of either. I have just splashed out a smidgeon over £50 on three medals to illustrate events at the turn of the century (1903, and the 20s). One nicely illustrates the appearance of Godiva in a National Cross Country Championships for which I have two large photographs. Both are of the start of the National Cross Country Championship race. One is taken about two hundred yards from the start of the race showing the large field charging in the direction of the photographer, and also can be seen at the side of the course, another photographer about one hundred and fifty yards from the off. This photographer is perched on a set of step ladders to obtain a better shot of the proceedings. My second photograph is taken at the same time as the first photo, and is snapped by the second photographer on the steps, believe it or not Blog!!!! … and in both photos local athletes from local clubs can be clearly picked out, about eight of which I can name …. now if that isn't unusual, nay unique, and of interest for anyone with a passing curiosity about local sport, I don't know what is. And now I have a medal as illustration…….  that has to be worth a shop frontage at the time of the Coventry City of Culture 2021, surely????????????

Don't watch this space Blog, because past experience shows that you will be wasting your time!!!!!!

      October 2019 Warwick University and a bit of walking ..

Picture Quiz:-
                     As you know Blog I am very much in to Athletic History contrasting the fortunes of a famed Midland Harriers club with those of a Northern counterpart, the former prospering while the latter founded although both were influenced by the same forces of philanthropy, industry, education, immigration and emigration, politics, both big 'P' and little 'p', etc. so....

When?? Where?? Why a special date??

...… and to show you I am not a total meanie, Blog, I will give you a clue .. 'I used to run past these building to and from work - Blog I kid you not!!'

Dear Blog,
                Boy what a weekend. Saturday it rained very hard and part of the estate grounds were flooded as usual …. the Environment agency still assure me that a) our part of the village does not flood and b) because the Agency has our telephone number in the unlikely event of a flood, the officers will be in touch with a warning of immanent ingress and advice. So another un likely event has passed with not conversation on the telephone with no advice!!!! The local yokels have a meeting in the village scout hut next week with the Council and the local environmental officers to be told of all the preventative methods which have been put in place since the last flood. I shall go Blog, they do a reasonable instant coffee and a supermarket ginger biscuit. As my good lady bakes all our bread and cakes, I never have a chance to sample what the working classes eat, so I shall pop along just for the experience and to repeat my advice to the officials which I always do. However, I shall inform them that I am committing the advice to face mail so that in future all I need to do is instablog it to them and I needn't bother to rub shoulders with those frightful village types.
              On Sunday, I did my bit for the community by acting as marshal for the Midland Race Walking League. What an experience that was. The University of Warwick had closed the main through campus road and inadequately signed (or rather not signed) the diversion so the quiet road used for the race became a dangerous race track for all the Huber drivers from Wolverhampton who descend on Coventry to pinch the local trade from the Coventry Black Cabs and Taxis. And do Coventry Council care??? Try putting the letters 'N' and 'O' together Blob and see what you get. The University of Warwick used to be so well organised until about 5 years ago, in all aspects of student relations, traffic management and local community activities - now they don't seem to give a toss with a capital 'T' - they are now even proposing to charge for car parking in the evenings and at weekends which will totally annihilate all the local amateur clubs, palate classes, OAP activities … so thanks Warwick University, you keep attracting the fee paying Chinese to the campus and sod to the locals. Abdicate any commitment to the young under privileged and the senior citizens - the first group won't manage to get to University, so they don't matter and the latter group are passed it anyway, so they can go pee in the wind.
          By am I glad its Monday Blog. At least that nice Mr Johnson gave us all an extra hour in bed and the lovely Conservatives didn't charge us a penny - Warwick University take note.
                               Bye Bloggie

SALAZAR, Radcliffe, Cram …… and 

              Coventry EUROPEAN CITY OF SPORT 2019

Photograph:-

Question.... Blog, in which house did I live as a youngster - which lane did we have to walk up, which snicket did we have to walk down to get to our lavatory [a clue:- it is next to the pig sty. Blog, I kid you not] … and we did not use a soft tissue toilet roll - was there such a thing in those days Blog??? So which national newspaper did we employ???

It must have been a bit of a thwart household at the Radcliffe's two weekends ago …… ?? First Paula loses her marathon record and then, on the Sunday. her husband's charge doesn't do too well in the Chicago marathon. Perhaps Mo Farah was on a 'GO SLOW' out of sympathy with Salazar????
Mind you, I didn't think Paula performed too well on TV when the news of Salazar broke. Both her and Cram must have got a few splinters in their respective bums????
It will be interesting to see what Black's new job is, perhaps he will follow a few other(s) from the UK hierarchy to pastures west.

Isn't there a quote somewhere saying something  about the  hand which feeds you. Goodness knows what that is all about. I don't know, just sounded good??

And of course, Coventry University are as organised as ever. Next year's Coventry Half Marathon. organised by them, clashes as it does with the National Relays and  the Coventry Way 40 mile route around Coventry. I suppose the only saving grace is that the Half Marathon appeals to the jogger and the fitness conscious rather than the keen athlete who has aspirations in the athletics' world rather than being content in 'DOING' a half marathon per sec --- I fully expected that such event as the Half Marathon would have been given a real boost when it was announced last year that Coventry was to become the European City of Sport 2019. That has been a bit of a joke, has it not???? What do you think, Blog???? No real cash has been splashed and nowt fresh has occurred - still time yet methinks! Or not!

                                                      Tarrah

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