On location

Provided that the wi-fi in the hotel works, the website will be brought to you from Manchester for the next five days.

I'm currently in the departure lounge at the Isle of Man airport but my flight has been delayed for an hour - a good start to a holiday.

I'm staying in Manchester with elder son Robbie for the next four nights and we'll be competing in the Lancashire Cross Country tomorrow. Its the longest that I have been off the Island for a couple of years and Robbie's biggest trip for four.

I'm hoping to have time to catch up with a few emails.

Most annoying software

I would have a lot more time to add content to the websites if it was not for some of the software mentioned it this link:

http://content.techrepublic.com.com/2346-3513_11-202392-1.html

Fixtures through to June

I've extended the fixture table on the front page through to the beginning of June.

I've always wanted to make the sport as easy to access as possible and my hope is that if someone new to the sport wants to take part they can easily find out all the details of the events.

The club websites have improved dramatically in recent years but if any of the club web editors would prefer me to link to a different page on their sites for their events, please let me know.

I used to keep scrap books

Although I stopped sticking newspapers cuttings into scrap books a few years ago, I have continued to cut out the majority of press cuttings on local athletics for future reference.

I've made several attempts to stop hoarding things as at some point in our lives we would like to move to a small house. I've already disposed of more than twenty years of Athletics Weekly and converted my old record collection into digital format but if you looked in our attic you would doubt if I have even scraped the surface.

I'm therefore converting all my press cuttings into digital form as one of the next steps. I did the whole of 2008 last night.

There may be a few people who would like to access the information either now or in the future so I'm making it all available online but, be warned, the files are very large.

http://www.manxathletics.com/forms/AthleticsNews08a.pdf (New Year to Parish Walk: 78MB)

http://www.manxathletics.com/forms/AthleticsNews08b.pdf (Post Parish Walk to Marathon: 30MB)

http://www.manxathletics.com/forms/AthleticsNews08c.pdf (Post Marathon to End of Year: 40MB)

http://www.manxathletics.com/forms/PW2008News08.pdf (Parish Walk): 29MB)

Some of the files may still be uploading.

Easter Festival

THREE DAYS, THREE RACES – WHAT A WEEKEND!
http://www.blogger.com/www.easterfestival.info

Suitable for clubs, university teams and individuals

10th – 12th April 2009

What’s on?

Good Friday:
10k road race – Port Erin – evening start

Easter Saturday:
Hill Race – Peel – afternoon start

Easter Sunday:
Road Relay – Douglas Promenade- 4x5k per leg (men), 5k race (women) – morning start
Plus Junior Races

In addition, there is the famous prize presentation on Sunday evening including the fourth event of the weekend - the 4 x 1 pint beer drinking races! – Separate competitions for men and women!! This is held at a privately hired sports themed bar/nightclub in Douglas.

How much will it cost?
We are pleased to announce that Isle of Man Steam Packet Holidays have a range of packages offering travel accommodation. Prices start at just £109 for your travel and 2 nights B and B. Contact them on 08457 585833 (charged at local rate) for more information. You may of course, wish to arrange your own transport and accommodation. Please see contact details on our Festival website http://www.easterfestival.info/ for some useful websites and phone numbers.

Full festival entry costs just £22 which includes all 3 race entries, coach transport to and from Friday & Saturday’s races, a festival t-shirt and a ticket to the prize presentation on Sunday evening. Races can also be entered individually if preferred (see website for details)

How would we get there?
The main – and usually cheapest - transports links are through the North West of England; Liverpool and Heysham for ferries and Liverpool and Manchester for air travel.

Where could we stay?
There is a large range of accommodation available from small guesthouses to 4* chain hotels. Most athletes stay in Douglas.

Can we speak with someone who has organised a tour in the past?
We appreciate that organising trips for groups can be a tricky affair. Therefore, we are delighted that one Isle of Man Easter Festival regulars has offered to help guide you through the process. Please contact Emma Waterhouse; phone 07890 734711 or E-mail e.k.waterhouse@durham.ac.uk

What do we need to do?
Tasks you might want to consider:
- Obtain agreement to run all finances through club funds.
- Obtain a deposit from all those making the trip – athletes and supporters
- Book your UK to IOM travel
- Book your accommodation in the IOM
- Maybe arrange your own tour t-shirts
- Submit event entries
- Set a final date for all monies to be paid

Please come and join us in this unique event – don’t take our word for it, speak to Emma for more information. They will be pleased to help.

For full information on the 2009 Easter Festival including entry forms see our website http://www.easterfestival.info/ or visit the organising club website http://www.manxhariers.com/

If you have any other questions please contact Kim Harding on 01624 628403 or e-mail kimharding@manx.net We would be delighted to see you in 2009.

Yours in sport,


Manx Harriers
Easter Festival Organising Team

Lancs cross country stats

I've been playing around with the Lancs Cross Country stats trying to get a pivot table to work in Excel but I've still not got them into an easy format. I did, however, publish the performances of the most regular Manx runners this morning (on the front page) and here are some lists of the finishing positions by position. You will see that there are a few missing results with "0" alongside and its possible that there may be the odd person missed, although hopefully not as I have been building the list for a long time. It is only of the senior positions so if you want a similar list of the other classes start researching now! There was no event in 1998 because it was stwitched from December (1997) to January (1999).

1993

Andy Fox 12
Chris Quine 14
Murray Lambden 31
Paul Curphey 41

1994

Steve Brennan 0
Steve Partington 0
Andy Fox 12
Paul Clarke 13
Chris Quine 17
Paul Curphey 45

1995

Paul Curphey 0
Gianni Epifani 7
Andy Fox 13
Ray Cox 20

1996

Andy Fox 9
Gianni Epifani 10
Paul Clarke 11
Chris Quine 13
Steve Partington 21
Ray Cox 22
Murray Lambden 25
Paul Curphey 33
Kevin Albinson 54

1997

Gianni Epifani 0
Kevin Albinson 0
Kevin Wynne-Smythe 0
Murray Lambden 0
Paul Curphey 0
Andy Fox 7
Chris Quine 15

1999

Andy Fox 11
Paul Clarke 16
Chris Quine 19
Keith Callister 21
Murray Lambden 37
Paul Curphey 39

2000

Andy Fox 8
Chris Quine 15
Tony Rowley 21
Keith Callister 24
Gianni Epifani 27
Steve Partington 32
Murray Lambden 36
Peter Kaneen 42
Paul Curphey 48
John Crellin 70
Jim MacGreggor 73

2001

Tony Okell 4
Gianni Epifani 10
Andy Fox 11
Paul Clarke 13
Chris Quine 15
Murray Lambden 26
Tony Rowley 28
Keith Callister 35
Paul Curphey 53
Andy Garrett 84
John Crellin 88
Jim MacGreggor 114

2002

Tony Okell 10
Andy Fox 12
Chris Quine 17
Gianni Epifani 19
Paul Curphey 28
Murray Lambden 29
Darren Gray 34

2003

Paul Clarke 11
Gianni Epifani 12
Nick Percival 35
Mark Preston 39
Chris Quine 43
Brian Osbourne 48
Paul Curphey 53
Darren Gray 63
Steve Partington 64
Glen Butterworth 70

2004

Darren Gray 11
Gianni Epifani 15
Andy Fox 16
Murray Lambden 27
Mike Garrett 28
Nick Percival 38
Dave Newton 52

2005

Andy Cannell 12
Paul Clarke 21
Gianni Epifani 28
Andy Fox 29
Murray Lambden 30
Mike Garrett 40
Andy Watson 54
Paul Curphey 62
Nick Percival 66

2006

Keith Gerrard 1
John Halligan 9
Andy Fox 26
Darren Gray 29
Paul Clarke 32
Nigel Armstrong 37
Mike Garrett 42
Nick Percival 60
Dave Newton 63

2007

Keith Gerrard 5
John Halligan 11
Gianni Epifani 14
Andy Fox 19
Kevin Loundes 24
Mike Garrett 30
Andy Duncan 33
Darren Gray 35
Murray Lambden 52
Dave Newton 90

2008

Keith Gerrard 1
John Halligan 7
Kevin Loundes 12
Ed Gumbley 16
Nigel Armstrong 17
Darren Gray 25
Gianni Epifani 26
Andy Fox 31
Mike Garrett 33
Russell Collister 42
Dave Newton 87
Les Brown 105

1994 Commowealth Games walks

Three of the women who featured in the latest YouTube film - Cal Partington, Karen Smith and Lisa Langford (as they were then).

I was delighted to finally get around to editing the film of the 1994 Commonwealth Games women's 10km walk.

Its 50 weeks ago since I produced three videos from the same source of the men's 30km and intended to deal with the women's events a few weeks later. It got lost in my list of half finished jobs until I stumbled upon the film last night.

I'm sorry about the poor quality of the film. This is due to the conversion of the film through several different formats. I certainly had some frustrations last night with the production - not least after I went to bed leaving it uploading only to find this morning that one of the original soundtracks was not permitted.

On New Year's Eve I spent more than 2 hours trying to get the remainder of David Griffiths's film from the 2007 Island Games into a format that I could use and decided to admit defeat. But with another job off the list I'm now going to revert to the latter project over the weekend.