1969 Bristol 100 mile

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This race, promoted by Chas Shelly C356 of the Bristol Walking Club, was a second opportunity to qualify as a Centurion.  The course was 10 laps of 10 miles on virtually traffic free country roads.

First home was John Hedgethorne C413 of the Essex Police, and the 30th and last to finish was P. Cox also of the Essex Police.  15 became new Centurions, 8 of them from Holland.

 

1969 Bristol 100 miles – Programme

1969 Bristol 100 miles – Results

1969 Bristol 100 miles – Lap Splits

1969 Leicester 24 Hour Track Walk

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The 1969 race was won by Colin Young C317 with a distance only 1½ miles less than his epic performance in the 1960 Walton A.C. 100 mile track race.  In second place some 8½ miles behind was Ivo Domansky, the first of 5 new Centurions and the first from his country, Czechoslovakia.

1969 Leicester 24 Hour Track Walk – Programme

1969 Leicester 24 Hour Track Walk – Results

1968 Leicester to Skegness 100 miles (6th)

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Out of the 56 starters,  32 finished and 15 became new Centurions.  The race was won by Karl Abolins for the third time in succession. John Hedgethorne took second place in 19 hours 1 minute 40 seconds.

For the first time in its history the ‘Sunday Dispatch Cup’ was won by a Dutch team, all three were new qualifiers from the L.A.T. club of Amsterdam.

 

1968 Leicester to Skegness 100 miles – Programme

1968 Leicester to Skegness 100 miles – Results

1967 London to Brighton & Back

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This was the 19th edition of the Brighton and Back.  The number of starters, 44, was slightly down on recent editions but  everything else seemed to be perfect.  The race was held on the weekend of the longest day, with a full moon thrown in for good measure, but someone forgot to arrange the weather which had been fine for the previous two months.

At the start of the race, rain was coming down by the bucketful which eventually eased on the return from Westminster Bridge and had stopped by the time the walkers got back to Croydon.  By this time some of those who had started in a motley collection of protection against the elements, ranging from bicycle capes and sou’westers to plastic bags, had already retired.  The night passed without incident except for the retirement of John Lees, the early leader, leaving the way clear for Gerd Nickel of Germany who went on to win and become the first German member of the Centurions.  By the afternoon the rain had returned in the form of thunderstorms, but unlike the 1963 race it did not abate the constant flow of traffic on the Brighton Road.

In total only 13 finished the full distance with 3 others retiring at 100 miles.  5, including the winner became new Centurions.  Soon after this race, the Surrey Walking Club took the regrettable but inevitable decision to end this famous series of races.  The traffic conditions and their inherent danger which had been mentioned by Henry Colldén as far back as 1921, had now become intolerable.  This meant that Billy Baker’s record from 1926 would now last for all time, a fitting tribute to a superb athlete, but more importantly, if Surrey Walking Club were to fulfil their obligation to promote a race every four years, a new course would have to be found for 1971.

 

1967 London to Brighton & Back – Programme

1967 London to Brighton & Back – Results

1966 Leicester to Skegness (5th)

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Organised by Leicester Walking Club

This year there was a record breaking number of starters for the biennial Leicester to Skegness race.

The race was won for a second time by Karl Abolins in just over 18 hours 10 minutes. 84 started and 47 finished, one of them being Cyril Evans C158 of Leicester, who became only the second man to get into double figures.  27 became new Centurions, 12 of them Dutch and therefore eligible to join the newly formed Dutch Centurions.  The match for the “Netherlands Challenge Trophy” was won by the British.

 1966 5th Leicester To Skegness – Race Programme

1966 5th Leicester To Skegness – Results

1965 Chigwell 100

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This race was organised by the Metropolitan Police Walking Club.

Out of the 54 starters, 10 were Dutch, 8 of whom completed the course, 6 of them for the first time. One of them was Hendrick J. Doornekamp who walked the whole race in clogs.

First home was Hew Neilson C145 in 19 hours 16 mins 37secs. This was his 3rd win (2 road and 1 track) and his 16th completion. In total 30 finished, 13 for the first time.

Holland now had 14 members of our society, Italy 2, Russia, France and Switzerland 1 each. This race also saw the addition of a new country to the growing international list, when John Kelly of the USA joined our ranks.

1965 Chigwell 100 – Results

1965 Chigwell 100 – Award Ceremony