Well here goes, I've had some good feedback from my ramblings about country sports and here are three that are publishable.
Steve Taylor recalls (as part of a reply which includes other blog feedback):
"Your comment about townies turning up with their spikes made me smile. The difficulty is that the fayres always want to attract more people and this is the price they pay. I attended Cronk y Voddy sports certainly once if not twice but never competed I did compete at Laa Columb several times and must admit that in my early athletic career packed my spikes to compete in the sprints. As I recall what was considered Mike Karran's best ever performance came at LCK when beating you which would have been 1985ish."
It was 1983 that Mike beat me when I arrogantly did a hard 20km training session the night before thinking that I could still win the LKK walk. Mike dug in well and put in a devastating kick around the field at Colby which he has never let me forget!
Ben Scott was able to give a report on the big (2 lap) race at Cronk-y-Voddy on Monday:
"Five runners toed the line, including myself, Lloyd Taggart, and 3 guys I didn’t recognise (and certainly hadn’t seen at any running events). Lloyd was 4th out of 5 and I was about 15 yards behind Lloyd at the end. We were soundly beaten by a crack squad of country sport athletes who never venture out to the organised races, whose very existence of chasing after livestock and vaulting over gorse hedges renders them fitter and faster than the Isle of Man’s 2 highest finishers at the recent Commonwealth Mountain and Ultra Running Championship. How many more country folk are hiding out there who could set the track at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi alight?!!"
Apparently Lloyd knackered his knee when he snapped some lad’s chain when he borrowed a bike for the mountain bike race (forfeiting his fell race prize money to pay for it) and Ben had a 3 ½ year old on his back as he wouldn’t let go of my leg on the start line and it was the only compromise we could reach at short notice! "Poor excuses I know but it really was an afternoon of quality entertainment" said Ben.
Richie Stevenson remembers Cronkie well:
"I used to deliver mail to the Cronk Y Voddee some years ago and enjoyed some fabulous yarns with the Quirks of Lambfell and Eric Goldie of Lambfell Beg, three great characters of the area.
The Cronkee Sports had not taken place for a few years I think and Ned Kennaugh was very keen to see them revived. He knew I was involved with the fells so asked me to go out one evening to plan a course starting and finishing at the sports field on the straight.
Eric Goldie volunteered to drive me around and so out I went one summer evening accompanied by Tony Rowley. We expected to jump on a tractor or some other 4 wheel drive machine but no, Eric opens the door of a clapped out old Ford Fiesta and in we piled, with, I must admit, a certain amount of trepidation. We proceeded to go over terrain a Fiesta was definitely not built for, up steep slippery fields down even steeper ones, along the side of hills where it felt we were about to “turn turtle” with the car bottoming out on huge stones and piles of earth. Tony and myself were just hanging on to whatever we could hang on to, praying we would get back in one piece. Eric on the other hand was completely at ease and obviously enjoying going for a spin in the country.
We got back in one piece, I`m glad to say, but made sure I never volunteered to help plan a course in that part of the world again!"
Great story Richie and as I know the people he was referring to and can relate to them.
With my collection of old Manx postcards and feedback like this I could stand in for Terry Cringle if ever he needed a break from his nostalgia column in the Examiner!
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