Bloody fell

How often, when one football team thrashes another, that the question arises whether team A was good or team B was bad?

I don't know much about golf but yesterday morning I heard everyone raving about the European team's performance in the Ryder Cup but last night, on the BBC News Channel, I heard an American journalist slagging the USA team's performance.

You could ask the same question about the Manx clean sweep in the Manx Mountain Marathon. Were there not many good performances by visiting athletes or were the Manx runners better than ever?

To find a n answer you probably need to go back to the reasons why the date for the event was changed from Easter to the end of September. There were mixed views about the change and I remember listing a lot of arguments in favour and against when I was canvassed for an opinion. But all in all I thought the change was justified.

It is of course ironic that we thought the course would be drier! With the majority of local fell races in the earlier part of the year and a clear "run" over the summer, the talent and dedication of the local runners were able to prosper from the end of season date. The visiting runners maybe saw things in reverse. They liked coming here at Easter at the start of the season but were not motivated at the end of the season. Either way, the locals were pretty impressive.

The heading was not a typo for some colourful language but a reference again to Nigel Armstrong's fall that required a rescue by the Civil Defence after a deep cut to his right knee.

 Nigel used his coat to protect his knee and this was the bloody colour after he fell.