'New Year 5', Coventry 2013 or 2012?

Dear Blog,

           Do you ever think that you are the only person in the universe who appreciates the subtleties of life? You feel that somehow no one else sees the point. You wonder why they ‘don’t get it’. And of course, then that little bit of doubt starts to creep in. Is it me or is it them? The doubt grows. If I am the only one to realise the finesse of my own brilliance, then I am wrong. No I am not. It’s them Blog. It has to be. Just has to be!!! No doubt.

Consider a case in point. For a number of years I organised a series of running races, up to 4 each year. I liked to try to make each race a little different so that the runners felt that they had taken part in a well organised race, an enjoyable event for a cheap entry fee, and a finishing award which would be of some use, not just some tacky medal! I tried to get courses which were interesting or a date which had some significance; take for example, one 5 mile race which I instigated. It was organised on New Year’s Day, so I thought it might be appropriate to call it simply ‘The New Year Five’. I might be wrong, but I thought … New start to the New Year, New as it was a newly organised race on the calendar, Five because that reflected the distance ran; five miles. Something different to do on New Years Day; great start to the year if you want a serious race to begin a serious year; great start [in a different sense] to the New Year if you felt somewhat hung over. A different interpretation to the event to suit every taste, something for each individual. But the one I didn’t think of ………………  => A couple of years ago, when I decided to cease organising races, those that took over from me, decided to do things differently. OK. No problem with that. A new broom, as they say. But to have the ‘New Year 5’ on December 30^th? Or January 2^nd? To have ‘The New Year 5’ on any day but New Years Day seems to lose something in the translation? I thought the whole point of a New Years Day race was to have it on New Years Day, the clue being in the title? But I could be wrong? Let’s have Christmas Day tomorrow, or Easter yesterday? Probably the entire world is just taking the piss out of me? That’s alright I have very broad shoulders. So Blog, I feel that I am the only person in the universe who appreciates the subtleties of life. I feel that somehow no one else sees the point. Am I sad or am I sad?

So its me and you Blog. Sorry, that should be ‘it’s you and I Blog’.

                           Colin

This little birdie went to market, this little birdie became roast beef!

Photograph Quiz:

Photo no 116:- First a clue … this is a photograph of Alma Street, Coventry taken in 1908. Now => What were the rooms on the top floor of the houses on the right, nearest the camera, originally used for? In 1908, one of Godiva’s runners returned to the club and lived with his family in the fourth house along the street. What was the family surname? Which club had he just left? Which relative, who lived with the family, was a National Champion? What did the family use the top floor for? That is, what conversion did they do? What academic institution now occupies the site?

And for you blog, here it is ….. how have you contained yourself? … another poem by Colin

When a runner named Colin came last,

He conceded his racing was past.

So at his advanced age,

He went on the stage,

And found his life’s role had been cast.

Now is that not clever Blog, or is that not clever????

My knee is chronic,

So, another poem by Colin, Blog you do not know how lucky you are ….

I hate the effing Budgie,

I blame it for my knee.

Catch it, pluck it,

Stuff it, cook it,

Serve it for my tea.

A tasty little toothful but,

Not enough to fill my gut,

At least the carpet’s clean once more

No effing bird shit on the floor.

I am told by a little birdie (not that fecking Budgerigar) that you have gone into print again and are at present sending your Gestetner copies around the UK, to the U.S of A, Albania, Australia, Austria, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, China, Columbia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Latvia, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, and Ukraine. Is it true that most of them get in touch on a very regular basis? I am both surprised and impressed, Blog, I kid you not.   

I hope I haven’t missed anyone out, let me know if I have, please, because the little birdie who told me was twittering along so fast it was almost incoherent. If you were to get in touch with your mate in North Korea again, I would be impressed. Do you translate what you send or do they all understand? Some bits must be complicated because when I write to me I don’t understand what I have written half the time and I have to ask my Butler to explain; he’s Double Dutch you know, his mum and dad both come from Amsterdam, you know … and do you know what Blog, I missed winning a boat there by half a second when I ran in their marathon. Blog I kid you not … would I lie to you? If I’d have won it, I could have claimed a refund on my return air fare back from the air line, so I was gutted. But looking on the bright side of life, dum, diddum, di, diddum, dedum I might have had a few problems tacking my way up the M1 motorway in my newly acquired boat, sailing close to the wind against the flow of traffic? I must confess to you Blog that I don’t understand what your friends see in you as I find you a bit of a bore. Correction, for ‘bit’ read ‘complete’. Still each to his own, I suppose.

It must be costing you a fortune in stamps. Has that nice Mr Cameroon given you a rise in your pension? Or has Bill Ague given you a grant to foster foreign relationships??? Trust a Man from God’s Own County to come up with the quids.

At least I can steam off the stamp I get on my occasional letter so I can write to you. Am I jealous or am I jealous of your popularity???

Today’s milage: Zero, again, again again. I did walk from the bus, past the Cathedral and University to the Studies Centre ….350 metres??? Time taken 13 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Blog I kid you not.

                                Colin                              

 

Knees up one two three...............

Dear Blog,

     Thanks for the card …. I am hobbling about on crutches!!!!!!!!!! Blog, I kid you not. My knee is killing me. The cause?? Well I have a theory and I have a theory. As I said in my last letter to you, my knee just gave way on me yesterday without warning.

Theory One:- I have just spent the last week birdie sitting, looking after the grand kids budgie while their house was decorated. They thought the smell of the paint would get on the budgerigar’s chest and cause him breathing difficulties. Stupid twits! If I get my hands on it, I’ll cause it breathing difficulties. The thing just sat there on his swing or sat making eyes at himself in his mirror, stupid bird. Or making a bloody row while I was trying to concentrate on the television programmes, twittering away. I’ll teach it to twitter. Anyway, as per instructions, I let the thing out for a fly round the living room and all it did was shit on the carpet as it dive bombed the curtains. I reckon I might have done my knee by chasing the bloody thing around the  room carrying its cage in a vain attempt to catch it. God knows what the stupid thing was thinking but carrying the cage to get it back in seemed pretty obvious to me. But the bird had no idea what I was trying to do. Stupid bird. I had to stand on the sofa to hold the cage up high enough up to the curtains to catch the thing. I reckon, the wobbling about on the cushions have caused the strain. So if ever I get my hands on that feather thing again, it won’t be chicken casserole for evening meal!!!!!

Theory Two:- Theory Two is the same as Theory One.

Mileage trudged today:- A great big fat ZERO.

                                Colin      

Coombe '8' result 25th November 2012 (Sphinx AC)

Blog,

        Sunday 25^th November:-  Coombe ‘8’ start time 10am; both daughters will be running. I promised to give out some race flyers for the Godiva New Year ‘5’ mile road race before the race started, then I planned to trudge around the park land cheering on my daughters in particular and all the other competitors except for those flouting the UKA ruling about wearing ear pieces. They want sorting.

      1am – 9 hours to gun off ….. woke up by the sound of rushing water. Rain teaming down and slamming against the bedroom window by the high wind. In view of the flooding of three days ago, I get up fearful of a repeat.

       1:15am – 8.75 to start time. Switch security light to driveway and the Lane. Water gushing from the fields and Lane, down the drive way into the vegetable garden. Water backed up on the lawned areas of my vast acres, about two inches and rises. Put on protective clothing and wade out across the drive to the end by the garage. Smash the retaining bricks to release the pressure build up on the drive and let very many gallons pour unfettered towards the River Sherbourne which borders the estate. Levels on the drive way drop noticeably.

       2:00am – 8 hours to race start. Levels back up to pre demolition levels and rising. Back outside building baffle walls across the drive to stop water surges once our 4 by 4 friends start their aqua-planeing prowess, when they have had their cornies and coffee.

      3:00am – 7 hours to Coombe ‘8’ at which it now looks as if I will not be distributing race flyers for Godiva’s  New Years ‘5’ unless I can think of someone with a 4 by 4 who might drive by my estate and winch me up. Make plans to save the garage from flooding, about 2” of breathing space left. Feet freezing from the flood water.

       3:30am – 6.5 hours to the off road event which now might be cancelled if conditions are as bad on the other side of Coventry as they are here. Water in garden about 2 feet deep in places, 6 inch plus of flow down the drive. Brilliant flood protection for double garage put in place … must patent that idea, so brilliantly simple … why has no one thought of it before????

      4:00am – 360 minutes remaining.  Water no longer rising and rain stops AT LAST. Get some kip in the chair.

      5:00am – check the water levels. Stable. More kip.

      6:00am – 4 hours left but who is bothered, I am too tired. Water starting to drop.

      7:00am – 3 hour until the runners are assembled and there is a possibility of us wading down the Lane to get a lift to the race if we all take dry socks and a chance of footwear!!!

      8:00am – I can see the drive way, and by quarter past, rain water is no longer flowing!! I clear the drive way of my obstructions including a few logs washed down the Lane by the torrent.

      8:30am – If I can get up a degree of speed down the drive from the garage, and don’t have to stop, there is a chance of getting through the flood water as there is now only 3 inches of flowing water in  the Lane with the drive total clear of water. Having been jet washed, it looks quite attractive. Fuss, what fuss?

      8:45am – with a little over the hour to the commencement of athletic activity, I can see tarmac on the Lane.

      9:00am – Depart from the Estate, and with a bit of fancy driving and the almost total absence of traffic on the city roads, turn into the country Park with 30 minutes to spare. Daughter goes for her number, other daughter already there. Wife goes to find the baby she has promised to baby sit while the baby’s parents both compete. I get flyers for Godiva’s New Year ‘5’ so I can get them dished out behind windscreen wipers so I can then trudge round watching the proceedings. Walk towards the first car and!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do you believe in Devine retribution Blog? The Fates exacting revenge for some deed committed in the innocence of youth? Bang!!!! Whallop!!!!!!!!!! No warning sign. No twinge. Just Bang!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whallop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My knee gave way. Locked. The pain Blog, I kid you not was excruciated. A real man pain. A proper case of male agony. Blog I kid you not. Couldn’t walk. Shuffle, hobble. Had to sit on a stump.

Total Trudge. ZERO with a capital ‘Z’. Amount of race seen? Missed the start. Missed the first lap. Hobbled to second lap and where the race finished.

Now sat here, writing to you, Blog, leg on stool, IN AGONY.

One sad fact I observed about the race today was to see some club members not wearing their club vest when they ran. Godiva members should be immensely proud of their distinctive vest. Which other athletics club has a badge as unique as ours? Forgive the use of ‘unique’ in such a sentence Blog … if it is unique, it is unique. And our badge is unique. Period. Every Saturday, during the winter, football supporters spend many quids buying replica shirts to identify with their team. Why are athletes so reticent to proclaim their allegiance?? At the winter cross country races, there is a sparcity of club sweat shirts, tracksuits, hats, and regalia of any kind. Club identification is almost completely lacking, no tribalism in our sport thank you very much!! Not only Godiva.

Question:- Are you proud to race in a Coventry Godiva Harrier club vest? O.K., in an official club competition, League, County etc., you are obliged so to do. But in open competition??? So many times I wonder why runners are not proud enough to don the yellow and red (gold and claret for Ladies) of Godiva preferring some other apparel. Occasions arise when obligation demand that a particular vest other than Godiva’s has to be worn. However, the non- wearing of club colours cuts across athletics ability. Not only do some of the less fast athletes turn out in non-club colours, sometimes citing that they feel they are letting the club down by finishing so low down in a race but no such excuse can be offered by a club international who consistently did not wear his club vest in races.(Ref * below) Invitation and international never saw a Godiva vest, being paraded in front of the world’s photographers. Do such athletes exist in all other clubs?  

Let me cite a very praise worthy example of a Godiva club member who went that extra mile (no pun intended! ) to wear a club vest when he could have chosen to wear his Commonwealth colours, his International cross country vest, his sponsors’ strip or some other commercial outfit, probably doing himself a financial favour in the process? A few years ago, Glyn Tromans was not selected by the county officials to represent Warwickshire in the Inter Counties Cross Country Championships. Because the race was the Trial Race to be used for selection for the International Cross Country Championships later in the season, Glyn was given a wild card to compete. Inter Counties, big important race, televised coverage, athletic press and photographers in attendance; so what did Glyn chose to wear from all the options open to him????? He chose to wear his Coventry Godiva Harriers club vest … which he carried with pride to break the tape in first position!!!

A similar preference for club colours has also been shown on occasions by Olympian Marlon Devonish when again the option of a Games’ or a sponsor’s vest could have been chosen.

Be it Park Run, Fun Run or The Great North Run, Go Godiva!!!! So wear your Godiva vest with pride is the clarion call!

Ref*above:- I never wore a club vest for the best part of half a year plus. Why? One spring, I attended a Harriers Section AGM in the days when the club was split into sections, historically for administrative reasons. In ‘any other business’ as a direct result of the Ladies Section changing their strip from red and yellow to what erroneously they had been told were the original club colours, the men followed suit. I contacted my sponsors and had a couple of vests run up (no pun intended!) and a couple of mesh type vests in the new scheme of claret and gold for racing in the summer. For the best part of a year, I was consistently ribbed about my new vest. OK …. It gives someone else a rest from the micky taking. I have broad shoulders. I put the barbed comments down to the club being rather slow in ordering and selling the new kit as well as the lads being reluctant to shell out a few quid on a new vest when their old coloured vests were perfectly serviceable. On one particular occasion in an open road race in which I particularly wanted to do well, a club official who was acting in some capacity on the start line, made a facetious remark about my vest. At the start of a race is not the best time to enter into pleasantries with me [ever] and I retorted rather rudely. After the race, I sorted him out to apologise for over reacting about his jibes about my vest colours and asked him just what the problem was. It transpired that at the Club AGM (which I had not attended) following a couple of weeks after the Harriers AGM, the men’s motion for a colour change had been thrown out in favour of retaining the use of the old colours of red and yellow.  I very rarely went down to the club in those days, so unbeknown to me I had, in all innocence, being wearing alien kit for over six months !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Got to stop now Blog as I need to hobble to the fridge to get some more ice for my knee, the last lot has melted and made a rather large stain on my new carpet. Blog I kid you not. Must try to keep awake for my tea after such an early start ……

                                 Colin

They tweet him here, they twit him there

They tweet him here, they twit him there

His quills are proud, and always fair.

I will make or break them though they’ve got to try their best,
Cause both are dedicated to follow my passion.

Hello Blog,

       I’m Colin’s grand kids’ budgerigar. Nice to be in contact with you. I have heard Colin’s wife drone on about you, how Colin thinks more about you than he does about her. I think she is jealous of you Blog.

      The grand parents are supposed to be looking after me for the week while their daughter has the decorators in. I think they think that the smell of the paint will get on my chest and take the shine off my feathers. That silly old bugger is out trudging again so I have to look a bit smart with my communication!!! You know he is Bonkers? Should have more sense at his age. One of these days the wet nelly is going to really fall over and damage himself big time!! Did you know that he just trudges? The only bit of speed work he gets these days is when he lets me out of my cage and has to chase me around the living room to make me sit on his finger. I wouldn’t mind if he had a proper wash now and again, used a bit of soap or something, then I would perch on his finger quite happily. I keep tweeting to him about personal hygiene but he seems not to understand me. Then when I do perch there, he talks to me in that stupid voice as if I am some dumb animal like that over fed cat he’s got! Why can’t he speak in the King’s English? I am a budgerigar, not a pidgin! He wants to be my friend, he says. What is all the ‘want to be my friend’ business, Blog?

  I have to keep my eye on that cat thing of his. It may be fat and bloated but given half a chance, that feline throwback, would have me for a snack. And another thing, this is supposed to be a week’s holiday for me away from Colin’s grand kids, but what with that silly old sod chasing me round the room and his missus screaming at me when I crap on her precious carpet while trying to escape capture, I’ve just about had enough. I crap because flying round and round in circles in their room with that git chasing me, makes me feel dizzy, and when I get dizzy, I get queasy and when I get queasy it upsets my stomach. So what am I supposed to do when I get the runs? Hold it in with one wing mid flight??? It’s not as if I do a lot. If the old lady let it dry on the carpet, she could just vacuum it up at the same time she vacuums that old burk’s toe nails. Those clippings can be lethal as they shoot across the carpet when he’s clipping away; like exorcet missiles, they are. But she doesn’t say much to him, does she? In fact she doesn’t say anything to him. I have been here five days now and they don’t talk. It’s like living in a bleeding morgue. I tell you. If I didn’t have my mirror and my swing, I would go round the bend. At the moment, my only pleasure in life is to drive them crackers as they try to get me back into my cage after they have cleaned my floor from all the droppings and spilled seed. I love to sit there on top of the curtains and watch as that silly bugger holds my cage up with the door open for me to hop back in. He really struggles with the weight of it, holding it out at arm’s length. I let him struggle for a bit, and when he has got a bit of a sweat on, I’ll jump onto the top of the swinging door. He really thinks I am stupid enough to go back in straight away! Just as he starts to close the door, off I fly to the other side of the room!! I piss myself twittering! And we start the chase all over again.

   I do wish someone would move that iodine block that they have fastened to the side of the cage. I don’t want to get radiation sickness from one of the isotopes, 129 I think is the dodgy one of the 37? I might be wrong?

  They are a bit stingy with the odd bit of fruit, usually the conk of the apple when she has finished gnawing it. I find the pips tend to get stuck in my beak. I pretend that I am choking. You should see them dash over to the cage to see if I am OK. Dead scared I will cock my clogs while they are looking after me … and how would they explain that to their grandkids?? I play it for all its worth.  When I “recover”, it is pathetic to see how relieved they are. Silly creatures. And do you know, while I am combing my feather to look smart, the poor creatures actually believe that I am talking to another budgie in the mirror. Don’t they know that a mirror merely reflects things back? They are stupid. What do they teach them at school nowadays? How on earth they cope with the demands of modern life is beyond me!

  And what is all this cuttle fish nonsense? Why they have left it on my floor, know not I Blog. I am going to trip over the bloody thing if I am not careful. They have just plonked it in the middle of my floor! If there is anything I detest more than that smelly old bloke, it is the smell of fish. Come to think of it Blog, there is not much difference! AND I am a bit brassed off with all the rest of the clutter they are sticking in my cage. This morning they hung a lump of seed in the shape of a bell to my roof! I ask you Blog? What is all that about? All the seed was stuck fast together. Can you imagine how those two old farts would react if I took their potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, carrots, peas and gravy and stuck it all together with araldite and told them to get on with their dinner? They’d soon be spitting false teeth out. Well the glued seed hasn’t done much for my beak, I can tell you!

  When they switch the tele on in the evening, I let them get settled well into the programme, wait until things on the box start to get interesting and I start to sing. Tweet at the top of my voice. Twitter away full blast. Give it full throttle. Boy, does that annoy them. And they won’t move me into another room in case I pick up a chill from the cold air. They are so tight that they only have a fire on in one room; the rest of the house is like a fridge. Tight they are. I know that because I once managed to escape upstairs when the silly old bugger left the room door open when he wanted to go to the toilet while I was out of the cage. I was out for two hours free flying. Great it was; up and down the stairs, in and out of the various rooms with both of the old codgers in pursuit! I only stopped because I was hungry and knackered from the exercise. Yesterday they left the back door open while I was out of the cage flying around. They were so pleased they caught me before I flew off into the garden. Pathetic to see them really. Chuffed to bits they were, at not letting me out by accident. They must be crackers. It is effing cold in the house but it’s a dam sight colder out there in the garden in the chill November air. No way would I leave what warmth there is in their room to fly frozen to the quill. Have they no common sense? I suppose that fat cat of theirs might be just stupid enough to venture out, but I have far more sense, thank you. I’ll tell you what Blog, I will be glad to get back home. They are so boring.  But I have to confess that, while I stayed with them, I thought the grand parents might have done something about this great ring I have got shackled around my ankle. I have not been arrested so why should I be tagged like a common criminal? And why should I be confined to my cage with that silly cloth thrown over at 8:30 each night.  Why the curfew? I believed they were into civil liberties and all that stuff. And also yesterday, he banged on and on about the floods outside. For Duck’s sake, it’s a bit of water. Why the fuss?

  O oh, Got to stop now Blog and do a bit of tweeting as the silly old bloke has just got back from his trudge. Just look at him, anybody would think he was a half decent runner to see the way he carries on. I ask you?

                                           Billy

FLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD

Photograph Quiz: (no questions but answers ...)

Photo no. 116:- This is the Lane near the estate gatehouse, not the River Sherbourne!!

Photo no 117:- This is one of the estate’s old retainers well past his best, but he has served the family well so we rent out one of the sheds quite cheaply to him.

Photo no. 118:- This shows the shed where the old retainer is kept tethered at night so he doesn’t wander off frightening the animals.

Dear Blog,

  When you see Noah ask him what I have done upset him again … a couple of days rain downpour and the estate is flooded [again, again, again], the drive is under water and the country lane which runs passed the estate is flooded  …. And what do we get? A public service announcement on the BBC local radio service asking anyone with a 4 by 4 in Coventry to pop up to Colin’s place as quickly as possible and enjoy themselves by driving up and down the lane in their gas guzzlers creating waves which sweep down the lane, up my drive and flow into the lake which was once my kitchen garden. No cost. Gratis. Do join the queue of vehicles. See who can make the biggest splash. A prize for any tsunami crated.

Question:- Does any other trudger from around the world, set off for a trudge carrying socks and shoes with his tracksters rolled up to the kneew. Does any other trudger from around the world wade for half a mile in the freezing filthy cold water to a neighbour’s house who does not have a flooding problem? Does any other trudger from around the world then change his wet socks and shoes into the dry socks and shoes? Does any other trudger from around the world then roll his tracksters down from above the knees and go for a trudge? Does any other trudger from around the world return to said neighbour after 45 minutes and reverse the process detailed in the previous five sentences??

Observation:- the cess pits belonging to the cottages and farms further up the lane are flooded and the contents have seeped into the flood water flowing down the Lane!!! Can I sue??? Absturd??

Observation:- the council spent upwards of £1.8m about a dozen years ago, digging up the Lane and laying new drainage pipes with a diameter of about a metre. So that was ratepayers money well spent? Has this made any difference to the flooding situation that existed before the new drains were laid?  Has it cobblers. Can I sue?

Observation:- all the good stuff spread on the garden and fields on my estate by the workers, has been washed down to Gloucester. Can I sue the Seven Trent Water Authority? Or the Gloucester council? Can I have my muck back please? Do the turds flowing down the lane up my drive and into my kitchen garden  from the flooded cess pits from the cottages and farms further up the lane counter balance my loss?

Observation:- On renewal of my insurance household policy two months ago, an excess of £2500 was imposed, not so that the policy became cheaper; oh no, it is because the Government’s Environment Agency has drawn up some maps denoting areas liable to flood. Can I sue that nice Mr Cameroon then?  After all it is his government? Or should I sue his friend Ossie Osbourne at the Treasury because all this flooding is costing me a fortune? Or perhaps Trees in May at the Home Office; perhaps it is her whom I should sue as my home is in danger of flooding …and as my house needs defending perhaps legal action is required against Mr Rob A Thon, the defence minister? Or Mr Willie at the Skills department ‘cos the council haven’t been very skilful about solving and / or preventing the flooding problem  …Hold it a second …  a lorry load of workmen with luminous jackets has just driven passed the gatehouse to sort out the flooding problem, clear the grates and rescue me. Sorry, sorry, sorry …. They are putting out flood warning signs – Blog I kid you not … and one of them is now wading down the lane trying to retrieve a sign which has just floated downstream / down lane. Blog would I lie to you?? I shall definitely have a word with old Smithie at the Dept. of Pensions because my pension for a couple of months will be spent on flood clearance So to get Justice in all this business I will need codfish Grayling on board to fight my corner as well as Baroness Watsit, Local government being her business!! Jeremy Hunt will do the Health bit for me with all these flooded cess pits flowing down pass my front gate, up my drive and into the kitchen garden as well as the stable block spreading disease and pestilence over the world ….oh dear, and so it goes on … and on ….. and on ….

So Blog, it’s a pair of wellies and a canoe for Christmas please.

Must finish now, time for a swim … thinks “must remember to keep in my lane”.

                                                                    Colin

Narcissus

Photograph Quiz.

Photo no. 111:- By the time Godiva was founded in 1879, a Coventry Harrier Club already had this pub as its headquarters. Which Club was it? Which of their members was to win the National Cross Country Championships. When? Which relation of his ran for Birchfield Harriers in Birmingham?

Reflections Blog:-

What was the funniest moment of the Olympic Games? At the site where my family was camping for the Olympic Games, I sat in glorious sunshine and watched a couple of Germans dismantling their instant pop up tent …. After 25 minutes they still hadn’t. In frustration, they bound up the collapsed tent with string and then strapped it to the top of the car on the roof rack after they had tried unsuccessfully to stuff it into the back of their laden car. As they drove off the site, the wind got under the tent which ballooned back to its original size and took off from the car with roof rack still attached and blew across the camp site flattening a couple of other tents in the process. Both Germans got out of the car to chase after the tent, one was armed with a knife. Why a knife??? When they finally caught up with the tent which had become snagged in the hedge at the site boundary, the German with the knife started slashing at it in a frenzy!!! They bundled up the shredded tent and left it stuffed in a waste skip! They did nothing about the two flattened tents.

What was the most frustrating part of the Olympic Games? Listening to all the comments of the spectators around where I was sat in the stadium; they did not understand or appreciating what was happening on the track when so many interested athletes were having to sit at home to watch events unfold on TV because they could not get tickets for the Games. Instead of watching all the events on TV, from the comfort of their sofa, with a drink in one hand and a tray full of food on their lap, seeing all the close up action, not missing any of the action replays, they could have enjoyed sitting with me in the shade in a drafty stadium about five miles (8 kilometres to you Blog) away from the action, ending up with a stiff bottom from the hard seats, unable to get a loan from the bank to afford a drink and a bite to eat, then having to traipse two miles (3km to you Blog) back from the Stadium to be crammed with 80 other people in a 50 seater omnibus back to the underground tube station to travel back to the camp site to find all the chip shops closed for the night and the camp gates locked and the site in total darkness.

Most astonishing fact from the Olympic Games? The Olympic spokeswoman, Sheona Redcard, announced after the closing ceremony that the Olympic Rings had originally been adopted in 1914 (FACT Blog) and had been chosen not for the five colours representing the five continents, nor that the five colours had not been chosen because they were the colours that appeared in the flags of all competing nations as most delegates believed but that the five colours had come about by sheer necessity. 1914 was the start of the Great War. At the first games when it was decided to use the Olympic Rings 1920 (FACT Blog), the Olympic Organising Committee had run short of cash (post war depression) and to save a few quids, the flag makers had nicked the concentric rings from the archery targets. That also explains why there was no archery competition for the last fifteen years in the Olympics before Antwerp (FACT Blog), if you had ever wondered Blog. Only three nations turned up to compete anyway (FACT Blog)! You can see it as a pub quiz question now, can’t you Blog? And don’t forget Blog, that you read it here first!

“Your specialist subject is ‘Archery’. You have sixty seconds to answer the following …  

(1) What was William Tell’s favourite fruit?

(2) When Harold stood in as Tell’s target man, where did the arrow land?

(3) Who made Overtures to William Tell?

(4) With their arrows, who was the first to 501 points, Tell or Hood, in the Sherwood Championship Throw Offs?

(5) Which hurts the most, slings or arrows?

(6) How many strings do you have to your bow?

(7) If you shot an arrow in the air, where would it come back down to earth?

(8) which … I’ve started so I will finish ….which Inn did Dan and Doris drink in, in the village of Umbridge?”

“Answers::: (1) I cannot accept pine apple. (2) The ‘ayes have it, the ayes have it’. (3) Not only did Rossini invent ice cream and scripted the TV programme ‘The Lone Ranger’ but he was quick silver on the old black and white ivories. (4) To tell the truth, Little John hoodwinked them both and blew the winnings on Maid Marion on a wild weekend at the Goose Fair in Nottingham Castle. (5) This depends on whether the sting is from a be or not a be, that really is the question. (6) This depends on how many you can fiddle (7) I know not where but I know a man who does, it’s that American fellow Mr Long who lives down our street. (8) Yes, I know the bell went when I started to ask the question but that was not a subliminal clue for you. The answer is not the Bell Inn. And no, neither can I accept the Bull’s Eye when you seconded guesseded, but you were within a blink of an eye of the correct answer. Listen out at 7 o’clock tonight four the answer. I shall repeat that, listen out at 2 o’clock tomorrow afternoon four the correct answer.

You answered two questions on your specialist subject correctly and you passed out.”

What was the funniest part of the Olympic Games? I am not joking with you Blog, but when I went to meet the kids from the inner city schools when I went to watch the Greco-Roman wrestling with them as an Olympian Mentor, I genuinely thought that someone was trying to cause disruption when a brick was thrown onto the fighting mat while two blokes were grappling each other. Did anyone bother to explain to me beforehand that when the fight officials objected to a judges’ decision about the actions of one of the fighters, the official response was to chuck a rubber brick into the arena?? Bizarre or what? Sticks and stones may break my bones but rubber bricks won’t hurt me. Just get me disqualified.

Fact Blog:- Armenia won a silver and bronze medal in the Greco-Romano wrestling which reminds me of an exciting part of the Games in the fencing competition, in which the Armenian Aram Khachaturian won the Sabre bronze although he should have been given a gold medal for his impressive celebratory dance after his victory ceremony. I am told you can see a clip on the world webberly if you are interested. Blog I kid you not, there is a clip of Khachaturian’s sabre dance to be viewed. Would I lie to you, Blog? Check it out!!

A mirror.

                                     Colin

M A R A T H O N Training tip tip tip tip tip tip tip

Hi Blog, (as they say)

             If you were stood outside my mansion just now, I would not be able to see you because the fog is so thick …. of course the supposition is purely hypothetical because my gate keeper would not let plebs of your ilk onto my estate. No way, matey boy. However, let me repeat my advice to you of many moons ago … if it is foggy beware when you run, especially in the city because of the dangers of all those particulates getting into your lungs and causing damage. My old friend, Wilf Paish, and I discussed this at some length about fifty (!) years ago in preparation for a camp he was running in York for senior school athletes. I remember it particularly well, because he was to do the introduction and I was to come in with a couple of feed questions to get the kids thinking and to stimulate a bit of discussion because this was part of their first session. There might have been 70 or 80 kids, I forget, as it was a long, long time ago .. and I can’t remember when …. We were in a gym, probably at the St John’s College York. Wilf was at the front next to a slide projector, which was plugged into a socket at the back of the hall / gym near where I was seated. The electric wire from the projector to the plug snaked across the floor, underneath where all the kids were seated on wooden gym benches. Wilf had got into the swing of things and pressed the button on the projector to show the first slide. All had been well in the set up earlier in the evening. The slide had been on the screen for a few minutes as Wilf explained the oxygen conversion in the lungs etc. when there was an almighty bang from the projector followed by a series of smaller explosions along the length of wire beneath where the kids were sat with sparks flying and black smoke starting to billow. It was like watching an elongated jumping jack firework in slow motion!!! Wilf saying to the kids to stay calm and file out, woke me from my reverie and I had the presence of mind to pull the plug from the socket; a live electric wire erupting in a series of mini explosions ….. a stupid thing to do with hindsight but it seemed the obvious preventative measure to take at the time! An automatic reaction more than sensible considered response I assure you Blog. Things quickly calmed, the smoke cleared, the offending wire moved out of harm’s way, and the lecture continued. Can you imagine the Health and Safety consequences now, the report filling, the committee investigations, the blame game????? We all just settled down and got on with an enjoyable weekend. Oh yes, and my fingers soon healed!!!!

So back to the fog …. to prevent damage to lungs, train with a scarf covering the mouth and nose … it restricts breathing and you have to work harder. But then some well-known blond athletes live in their posh houses at altitude to achieve such an effect, or if you are a cyclist or an athlete in times of yore, you have a pint of blood or a couple of pills, or so I am told. Don’t know if it is true??? But would I lie to you Blog??? Mist is a different matter however. It may chill the lungs but mist contains no carcinogenic particulates. A long run in the mist on the moors of God’s own county might give you a cough and cold later in the week whereas a long run in the fog on the paths of a city street might give you something far worse in the years to come.

After last Saturday’s Birmingham and District League race at Leamington, watching the underfoot conditions deteriorate from grassland to mud and bog, Blog, I questioned how many of the thousand competitors ever bothered to do specialised training for championship cross country races where, inevitably, the ground turns into a quagmire. Try plough running Blog. At this time of year, the ploughed fields are just about perfect. Newly ploughed harrowed land with the winter wheat just poking through the top soil and the damp in the air means the mud clings tightly to your shoes and gets heavier and heavier and heavier with each step. EXCELLENT. Just what the coaches ordered. Avoid the soft option of running on the country footpaths, run on the plough, round and round the fields. You may get lucky and break eight or nine minutes for each mile. Time doesn’t count. Time stands still and waits for this man. Running in ultra-slow motion. But regular sessions during the winter will pay ample dividends in the area and national championships next year!!! Remember you heard it first here Blog, and next month in the mags no doubt???

And just as I wrote in my last letter to you last week about arm use, it is just as important to consciously use those arms and exaggerate the leg lift on plough as it is in running up hills. You train and strain to race at pace as that well know coach Phillip Hades said after a night out in Athens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have to stop now Blog … I can’t remember what I did with my scarf last February.

                                        Colin        

Seigfreid Bettmann

Dear Blog,

As the cross country season gets under way, I thought you might like to read a little about the history of Coventry Godiva Harriers ..

133 years is a long time. A very long time.

The Godiva Harriers Bettmann Trophy competition has been in existence since 1908.

                  Over a century.

                 100+ years of internal club competition.

                 100+ years of equality of opportunity.

                  And this season’s title chase has just started.

We will again be using last year’s format to determine the Cup winner … a change from the number of races that was used in the first winter of competition in 1908 / 09.

Scoring is still the same!!!:-  1^st position gets 7 points, 2^nd will win 6 points, 3^rd receives 5 points, 4^th is awarded 4 points, while 5^th and 6^th   will get 3 and 2 points respectively. All other competitors will have 1 point each. Races are handicapped … some are sealed when the allowance is not revealed to the runners until after the finish, yacht handicaps are when each runner sets off at different times, the slowest goes first etc..

The Annie Bettmann Cup victor is the runner with the most points when the series of races is finished.

The largest recorded field was 63 runners    The smallest recorded field was five.

For many years each competitor had to pay an entry fee ….  6d originally.

Every early race used to have an expensive prize list provided by one of the man wealthy backers that the club had from time to time.

The first few years of competition had the runners following a paper trail laid immediately prior to the start, often by the club captain who then ran!

Sometimes the trail as laid by the veteran members of the club, who set off to mark the trail carrying a couple of heavy bags of shredded paper each.

One year saw the third race ‘rerun’ four times. The first time was extremely windy and the trail blew away, the second time the trail crossed another local clubs trail and runners from both clubs ended up at the wrong finish! The third time saw a torrential down pour between the trail being laid and the race being run. The course crossed a stream, which had become so swollen and deep with flood water that most runners refused to cross!!

Runners had to wade across streams, climb fences, struggle through thickets and often had to run for more than an hour in the races before the WW 11.

There has been a Youths’ Bettmann Cup and also a Ladies’ Bettmann Cup in the past, but both trophies, like many others, have been lost.

Races have been organised outside Coventry, quite often the January race was at Exhall, and the final one was at Kenilworth. Balsall Common has been used, so has Barston and Brinklow. All out of town races were followed by a social, returning to Coventry in the early hours!

Denis Flude has won the trophy more than anyone else.

There have been occasions when we have had joint winners

When the original plinth was full of names in the 1950s, the shields were remounted on an oak presentation shield, which has since been lost.

It was often rumoured that the handicapper used to fiddle the handicaps as the race progressed to make the final outcome more interesting … but that was only a rumour …???

In the early years of the 20th century, the Club was having severe financial difficulties. This was not a new problem. As early as 1888 (Feb. 22nd), the Club accounts shows a balance of £1 12s 6d (£1.67) from a total income of £39 8s 6d (Oct. 16th ‘86) and £44 11s 2d in ‘83 (20th Nov.). F.W.Smalley writing in 1944 (a contemporary of these events), put the loss down to the high expense of travel to the Championship Races. It might be significant, that in the 1888 / 89 season, Godiva did not enter any of the Championship Competitions! Even in the first year of the Club’s existence (Expenses 1880 / 81), financial alarm bells were ringing when a loss of 4s 6d was recorded from the Chase (stay out) to Berkswell, together with the cost of 1s 6d for transporting the clothing. Only nine members turning out for the run instead of the 23 who had promised to participate!! The shortfall in cash was regarded as serious, with the secretary, J.Johnson doing the ‘honourable thing’ by tendering his resignation at the next committee meeting. It was accepted. He was replaced by Chas Smith.

                In 1908, Mr. Bettmann came to the rescue with the offer of a 3[?] guinea donation if Club members could match the sum! In 1943, former Club secretary, Jim Roberts referring to this act of generosity, wrote that ‘this generous gesture was to be the turning point in the Club’s financial position’. Why Bettmann adopted this philanthropic attitude to the Club is unclear*, but he was also to donate a very expensive cup (The Annie Bettmann Trophy) which was to be competed for each year over a series of seven races over the winter season. He also paid for a gold medal, which the winner could keep, and a framed portrait of the runner posing with the trophy for the club records and a facsimile which was to be given to the winning runner. The committee officially discontinued this tradition in 1936[July27th mins.] (Bettmann seems to have been a naturally generous man... as a J.P. he once fined a youngster 10/- for the misdemeanour of not having a license for his dog. When the boy asked for time to pay for the fine, he promptly paid 5/- of the fine himself as the boy came from a poor background... a farm labourer’s son of Wall Hill Lane. Allesley!). In the references to Bettmann and his connections with the club, mention is always made of Bettmann’s resignation from the position of Mayor, half way through his term of office because of the rising tide of anti-German feeling with the imminent threat of War. The belief and reiteration of this ‘fact’ is a graphic illustration of the way the story of the club’s roots have evolved. Bettmann certainly did resign in the May (28th) of his term of office. There was understandable anti German feeling in the City at the time. But if the two were connected, then they concerned the local politics of the time.

                Bettmann was deeply respected as a philanthropic liberal councillor. His actions as Mayor got the city moving after an apparent period of inaction on the part of the council. In May Alderman W.Andrew’s death caused an aldermanic vacancy. Traditionally, the Mayor filled any vacant post, but not automatically. In this case, the Conservative majority on the council created a precedent by calling for a vote and presented their own candidate, Dr. Charles Webb Iliffe, who was elected by 19 votes to 14. Bettmann resigned as a matter of principle, in which he was backed by the press and other local dignitaries. The city affairs ground to a halt. In those days, the mayor’s office operated in a similar way to the way the Mayor of London operates today. After a great deal of discussion at all levels over the next fortnight, Bettmann was persuaded to withdraw his resignation, and only then was the city able to return to normality. Although born in Germany, Siegfried Bettmann was a naturalised citizen of this country, and his worth was repeatedly recognised at all levels of civic activity during his life time. (He died in 1951). As a recognition of the difficult situation that the war might put him in, he decided not to stand for a second term as mayor, although it was accepted that had he stood, he would have received the full support of all parties on the council, even the members who had opposed his elevation to alderman!.

             By offering the Cup for Club Competition, Mr Bettmann wisely gave most club members a raison d'être. In the early years of the nineteenth century, there were very few winter events for club members. Inter club races were popular but rare, championship competition even more rare. Clubs had to create their own meaningful competition with a variety to hare and hound races, pack runs and paper chases. Hence the importance placed on Bettmann Cup competition. The Cup is keenly fought for ninety years later, with Olympic athletes vying with Club joggers to get their name on the Cup’s plinth. To allow everyone a fair chance of winning, the races are run on a handicap (open and closed) basis. The handicapper is elected annually at the Club’s A.G.M.. Siegfreid Bettmann along with Moritz Schulze founded the Triumph bicycle company, which evolved into one of Coventry’s car giants, to be taken over by the ‘Standard’ in 1945.

* Ref club history for the involvement of his M.D. with the club.

 The Bettman Winners:

1908/09 *       J. Hewitt

1909/10 *      C. Davernport

1910/11 *      C. Davernport

1911/12 *       J.D. Tilt

1912/13 *      G. Oliver

1913/14 *       P. Elliott

1914/15         -

1915/16         -

1916/17         -

1917/18 *      L. Fitch

1918/19 *      W.J. Troop

1919/20 *      C.W. Woodall

1920/21         H.H. Stock

1921/22  *     C.H.Cleverley, W.H. Jephcott

1922/23  *     W. Helmsley

1923/24  *     J.H.T. Evans

1924/25  *     B. Ledbrooke

1925/26  *     V.G. Gardner

1926/27  *     D.J. Paul

1927/28  *      A.E. Adkins

1928/29  *     A. Beecham

1929/30  *     W.A. Davies

1930/31  *     G. Spencer

1931/32  *      L. Farndon

1932/33  *     L. Drury

1933/34  *     W. Sheridan

1934/35  *     H. Lapworth

1935/36  *     F. Round

1936/37  *     A.D. Thorley

1937/38         F. Hunter

1938/39        G. Munday

1939/40         J. Renfrew

1940/41         -

1941/42         D.H. Furguson

1942/43         R. Oldham

1943/44  *     G. Paul

1944/45         J. Frost

1945/46  *     M. Manning

1946/47         F.E. Allcoat

1947/48  *     G.S. Pearson

1948/49  *     S.L. Webb

1949/50  *     E. Griffin

1950/51  *     J. Waller

1951/52  *     A. Shenstone

1957/58    A. Dowall, R. Carey

1958/59         R. Carey

1959/60         A. Dowall

1960/61         A. Dowall

1961/62         M. Croston

1962/63         F. McDermott

1963/64         G. Horne

1964/65         J. Brenan

1965/66         G. Horne

1966/67         C. Harrison

1967/68         B.B. Heatley

1968/69         R. Statham

1969/70         R. Statham

1970/71         H. Lloyd

1971/72         B. Kilby

1972/73         C. Kirkham

1973/74         W. Wade

1974/75 *      D. Flude

1975/76         T. Stewart

1976/77         P. Miller

1977/78         C. Brown

1978/79         W. Adcocks

1979/80         P. Banks, D. Lavelle

1980/81         M. Langrish

1981/82         D. Batstone, D. Flude

1982/83         D. Dix, C. Ridding

1984/82         M.Slevin J. Wilkinson

1985/86*        D. Flude

1986/87         D. Batstone

1987/88         R. Medwell

1988/89         M. Wankling

1989/90         B. Crofts

1990/91         G. McLeod

1991/92         T. Brindle

1992/93         H. Calvert

1993/94         D. Flude

1994/95         J. Grumbley

1995/96 *      P. Schumacker

1996/97 *      R. Taylor

1997/98         C. Ridding

1998/99         D. Flude

1999/2000 *  R.Statham

2000/01       D.Flude

2001/02       S. Dick

2002/03       V.Clisham

2003/04 *      P.Friel

2004/05 *      A.Gray

2005/06 *      J.Attwooll

2006/07*       C.Kirkham

2007/8*        H.Speed

2008/9*        J.Griggs

2009/10       A. Bodecote

2010/11       T.Spencer

2011/12       M. Perry

* indicates a photographic record