The year is 1876. Queen Victoria is ruling an empire; Benjamin Disraeli is her Prime Minister; Thomas Edison is seeking a patent for the telephone. At Buckhurst Hill in Epping Forest, 32 men gather at a pub, The Bald-Faced Stag, for the All England Cross Country Championship. It is mid-November and it is raining. South…
Tag: Parliament Hill
Mud, mud, glorious mud: the 2014 South of England cross country championship
Parliament Hill on the day of the South of England cross country championship. Our warm-up has been broken by a stream of women racers crossing the path ahead. We pause to watch the gritty, multi-coloured procession. After negotiating the path, the women descend slightly into a hollow of sludge of unknown depths. At the centre…
Ruts stop running: the Southerns are off!
I hear some good excuses in my line of work. I heard a superb one today. And it wasn’t from a child. The South of England Cross Country Championships, due to be held at Parliament Hill on Saturday, have been cancelled. Why? The ‘state of the ground’. Adverse weather strikes again! Athletics Weekly report that…
