There must have been two

Peter Vanderpump first entered the Parish Walk in 1998 and retired at Rushen Church will little fuss.

Today Rushen Church became his final resting place at the age of just 65. There was an enormous congregation and everyone who knew him thought he was a man and a half.

In fact I often thought there must have been two of him as he seemed to appear in so many places. He served on the committee of the Isle of Man Society of Chartered Accountants when my wife, Marie, worked for them and so when he was elected chairman he became her boss. I used to hear lots of good things said about him.

When I joined Mann & Partners in 1997 I heard his name spoken for one of my colleagues served on the board of governors at King Williams College, as did Peter. When he lined up alongside Paul Beckett (above) in the Parish Walk the following year he can be seen in my video.

The following year I joined Nampak International and was allocated a fine office on the 6th floor of what was then Bank of Scotland House and was told: "This used to be Peter Vanderpump's office." Touche Ross (later Deloitte and Touche and then Deloitte) had occupied the offices before Nampak who used Peter's firm extensively and so I would see Peter from time to time.

I joined Caymanx in 2001 and you can guess who the auditors were at the time. And a friend and former colleague at Coopers & Lybrand was his PA. 2001 was the second year he entered the Parish Walk and this time he reached Peel.

And then there was the London Marathon in 2003 when he went to watch his son and daughter, William and Katharine, raising funds for the Lung Cancer (Isle of Man) fund.

I was privileged to attend his retirement party at the Villa Marina Promenade Suite at the end of the year and I recall that he intended to spend more time working for charitable causes which I believe he did as well as with his family (his wife Julia is one of the few people to walk to St Johns in the Parish Walk when it was diverted in 1994 by kart racing in Peel).

I remember meeting him at London City Airport on at least one other London Marathon and he walked to Peel in the Parish Walk again in both 2004 and 2005. I've been searching on and off throughout the week but I can't find any photos.

I only know a little about Peter's life, and I didn't attend the funeral, but I do know that many people in Manx athletics have benefited from his contribution to the community without being aware. For many a time he would marshal at the Great South Run with members of the Rushen Round Table in all sorts of wet and windy weather.

And the reason why I have fond memories of him is that even if I hadn't seen him for a couple of years he would call out my name if you saw him with his marshal's bib in Port Erin - unless it was the other person who looked like him, because its hard to believe that one person could turn up in so many places.

Routine week

Last week was very much a week of routine. Run in the morning, work, visit mother-in-law in nursing home, work on updating databases for www.manxathletics.com website whilst continuing healthy eating.

Then came Saturday on the fells taking photos and a late night at neighbour and former work colleague, Vic Kewley's 70th birthday party and all the routine fell apart. Starting this week with stiff legs and heavy stomach and too many pork pies and too much food generally and a lack of sleep.

Plan to get back to the databases tonight.

Syd Quirk Half Marathon Run	Fastest	Fastest women	By year	By name
Syd Quirk Half Marathon Walk	Fastest	Fastest women	By year	By name
Peel to Douglas Run	Fastest	Fastest women	By year	By name
Peel to Douglas Walk	Fastest	Fastest women	By year	By name
Heritage Trail	Fastest	Fastest women	By year	By name
Northern 10 Miles	Fastest	Fastest women	By year	By name
Isle of Man 20 Miles	Fastest	Fastest women	By year	By name
TT40	Fastest		By year	By name
Winter Hill League	Number of finishes		By year	By name

The first time that Boundary Harriers held a run on the day of their invitation walk - 1983

1983 – Manx Airlines 10km Run

Bernie Plain, who finished 4^th in the 1974 European Championship Marathon, paid his first visit to the Isle of Man and vowed it wouldn’t be his last. It was largely his idea to promote a world record attempt the following year on the (then 880 yard) perimeter roadway of the King George V Park (National Sports Centre from 1991). It was to be his only visit however as the following year, his first as a veteran, he was injured and unable to compete.

Still hoarse from shouting at his friend Steve Barry during the earlier record breaking 20km, he ran steadily for the first mile before dropping the local opposition leaving the Isle of Man’s 1978 Commonwealth Games marathon runner Dave Newton a minute behind. Chris Quine in third place ran within a second of the time he was to run nearly 20 years later!

Position	Christian Name	Surname	Time	Club / Country
1	Bernie	Plain	00:31:19	Cardiff
2	Dave	Newton	00:32:19	Manx AC
3	Chris	Quine	00:33:00	Manx AC
4	Paul	Clarke	00:33:49	Manx AC
5	Phil	Cain	00:34:50	Boundary Harriers
6	Steve	Parkinson	00:35:11	Boundary Harriers
7	Ian	Callister	00:35:27	Manx AC
8	John	Comaish	00:35:33	Southern AC
9	Colin	Halsall	00:35:46	Manx AC
10	Richie	Stephenson	00:36:42	Boundary Harriers
11	Tony	Rowley	00:36:54	Manx AC
12	John	Wilkinson	00:37:01	Boundary Harriers
13	Doug	Corkill	00:37:33	Boundary Harriers
14	Tony	Conway	00:37:59	Boundary Harriers
15	Norman	Neilson	00:39:00	Manx AC
16	Alan	Pilling	00:40:05	Manx AC
17	Ann	Kelly	00:53:18	Boundary Harriers

What happened to the clear desk?

Well, I see that the last time I posted here I had a clear desk. That didn't last long from what I see now. I did continue my mission to tidy up and clear out drawers, wardrobes and cupboards though. Lots of running shoes and old kit went out although probably too many things were kept.

Towards the end of the week I started using a Facebook page I set up some time ago to sit alongside www.manxathletics.com and it seems to be reasonably popular. www.facebook.com/manxathletics has more than 300 "likes" already. Some way short of the well established www.facebook.com/parishwalk with nearly 2,300.

I think this is consistent with my "leader column" last week when I stressed how much more important than Facebook websites are for information about events, results and information about clubs. As a means of communication and fun it is very effective though.

It was an easy decision to miss the cross country on Sunday though. Marie's mother, Mollie Watson, had become a lot weaker during her four weeks in the Ellan Vannin home and Sunday was named as the day that she would move to the Elder Grange Nursing Home. I've been to thirty or more cross country championships and hope to be around for a few more. Most of us hope that we never have to go into a nursing home but if we have to, then it only happens once. If it happens to me, I hope there is still someone around to visit me, especially if you can't read or walk. She is just one of 80 at Elder Grange and a few hundred in the Isle of Man to be well looked after but still without a high quality of life.

Tidy desk

I might not have done much web publishing tonight but its the price that has to be paid for the race days when I need to know where everything is. At last I have tidied the drawers and even the surfaces are clear.

Pantomime trains

A week ago, whilst staying in Manchester, I joined the anoraks on the 10.13 train from Stockport to Stalybridge. If I had missed it I would have had to wait for another weekly as that is how often it runs. Its called a parliamentary train as it is cheaper to maintain this basic level of service than to face the costs of going to parliament to seek closure of the line and having the costs of a public enquiry.

The principal services were withdrawn for a good reason. People from the Midlands and south used to travel that route to join the trains heading to Yorkshire and the East coast but once services from Picadillly started services those areas the line was redundant. But the anoraks were convinced there is a case for re-commencing passenger services.

My train journey back into Manchester was broken with a stop at Ashton-under-Lyne and  a walk over the river into Duckinfield - it used to be the boundary between Lancashire and Cheshire. I worked at a BRS depot next to the bridge in 1978 and this was the first time that I had re-visited. 

The Thameside area was pretty run down and like the rest of the country there were loads of pubs that had closed. Some of those remaining were pretty desperate for business - look at these prices.

The train from Ashton to Victoria was full of people heading for the pantomime. Had I got into the mood sooner I could have responded to the anoraks "Oh yes we can" when referring to the re-commencing of regular services between Stockport and Stalybridge with "Oh no you can't."

Can I maintain my ABC diet for three months? "Oh yes I can."

Grounded

I've spent the last three nights looking down on this:

From the top floor of this:

And I've seen both of the football grounds in Manchester.

And now its back to earth.

Oh, and I brought back plenty of ground from Blackburm - mud from my shoes whilst competing in the Lancashire Cross Country for the 16th and final time.

And there was a lot of dirt flying in the direction of Man Utd fans from the Man City fans who packed the train I was on to and from Blackburn and Manchester.

From terrace to the palace

:

In 1978 I was studying in Stoke on Trent but I had to find my second six month industrial training period as part of my Business Studies degree. I got the job with British Road Services who in those days were a state run business owning a major part of the road haulage industry.

I was to be based in Manchester but I needed accommodation and I wrote to my friend Craig Sutherland who was studying there to see if he could help. It worked out perfectly. Another Manx student, who was the same age as us but deferred his studies for three years, was going to share his house in Levenshulme but I could take the room on the ground floor until then, from April till October.

I re-visited Levenshulme today and, just as when I went back to Stoke a little over a year ago, I found most of the pubs closed. My favourite was called the Church - even my teetotal mother could hardly complain about me going to the church every evening!

 

When I finally found somewhere for a lunchtime pint of Boddingtons, above, it was a peach. As soon as I took my pint into a sideroom I silenced it - it was a real local full of aging Irishmen watching the racing on TV who didn't expect strangers.

According to Wikipedia Levenshulme started as a rather middle class area outside of Manchester. It is now one of the most deprived parts.

The top photo shows the house where I lived in 1978 and the photo supports the theory. My place in the house was taken by Mark Shimmin. Mark was awarded an MBE in the New Year's honours.