SEASON’S GREETINGS TO ALL OUR MEMBERS AND FOLLOWERS

THE SAYING, PEACE ON EARTH AND GOODWILL TO ALL MEN, HAS NEVER BEEN MORE PERTINENT AND YET SEEMINGLY SO FAR AWAY

As is now our custom the first event in the 2026 calendar will be the Virtual 5 kilometres. Clockings should be with me by midnight [UK time], Saturday, January 31st, 2026. Over the past few years you have all been brilliant, sending anecdotes and photos to add interest to the overall result. Please continue the tradition. Can anyone match the story-telling talents of Steven Wilde?

Do you recall his witty story from last year?

Virtual 5k  Time 38’14”, Bolton Road (A6), Chorley on  Saturday 25th January, 2025 

Weather:- cool but sunny

This was an undulating out and back route, which occasioned me to pass the Yarrow Bridge public house twice, which proved to be problematic. 

On the first approach to the pub it became obvious that a large number of young adults were in attendance at, as I was later to discover, a 21st birthday party. 

Many of the attendees had spilled outside into the beer garden and to use the parlance of our time, things were ‘kicking off’.

At this juncture I was subjected to a degree of verbal abuse as I walked past the pub, with no shortage of industrial language and rude words of Anglo-Saxon origin, enough to give swearing a bad name.

Some twenty minutes later, on the return leg, the fracas, or melee, had escalated, with party food now being hurled, or chucked, every which way, as I became an easy target in the crossfire. 

Walking the gauntlet,  I was struck with chicken legs(extra tasty),  whist pies, vol-au-vents and sausage rolls, as well as a range of vegetarian options. 

A dollop of jelly and custard was aimed with precision into my left ear-hole , which temporarily rendered me a trifle deaf.

Understandably,  this experience knocked me off my stride, and I suspect my finishing time might have been quicker had I not received such a buffeting.

With kind regards and much poetic licence 

Clockings to Tony Taylor at tonymtaylor@gmail.com