Birthday celebrations with The Middens

Gordon Duff celebrated his 60th birthday with a party at North Shields Rugby Club. YC was delighted to be invited and enjoyed catching up with the North Shields Duffs. Gordon had organised a band for the evening - which was The Middens, led by his nephew Aaron Duff. The band is named after The Black Middens [notorious rocks in the river Tyne below Collingwood's Monument]. YC was expecting the band to cover contemporary numbers, so was pleasantly surprised when they knocked out their own material plus numbers from the 60's and 70's.


left - Gordon and Michelle
right - The Middens

YC took a short grainy video of them performing "I fought the law", originally covered by The Clash. Music fans will wish to crank up the volume. Those taking a surreptitious peak at BN in the office are advised to turn the volume down. Warning - it's loud. The Middens are all 15-16 years old, and worth watching at one of their local gigs in Tyneside.

Old County Tops 2012

YC was back for his annual crack at The Old County Tops fell race on Saturday. It's a pairs race over Helvellyn, Scafell Pike, and Coniston Old Man with a mere 37 miles of running. He ran it with John Telfer (NFR) and very enjoyable it was too. Early snow and ice on Helvellyn gave way to clear views and even some sunshine by Coniston. YC and John completed the race in 9 hrs 15 mins - not bad for a V90 team who encouraged each other one when John flagged after Scafell Pike and then YC struggled towards the end. There was even time for some post race rehydration in the New Dungeon Ghyll afterwards (hurrah). Also there were Paul Myers and Nick Wild who ran round in 9 hours 43.

In a race this long, it's difficult to get competitive until the finishing straight is in sight. As we ran in with 3 other teams, JT demanded extra effort. A good line off the col by Blea Tarn took us away from 2 of the teams, but the other one was running well. However they didn't know the sneaky short-cut in front of Side House farm. As they ran round the back of the farm, JT led the charge round the front and we stole 100 yards to claim 33rd place out of 103.

left - John climbing Wythburn
right - YC's favourite part of the race, the descent into Upper Eskdale

left - looking back towards Scafell Pike from Great Moss, Upper Eskdale
right - celebrations in the New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel

a few more photos here

Joss Naylor Challenge success

left - Paul leaving Kidsty Pike, High Street range in background
right - on Greendale Bridge with Joss Naylor (check shirt)

Paul Hainsworth completed the Joss Naylor Lakeland Challenge on Saturday. It's a 48 mile run with 17,000 ft of climbing from Pooley Bridge (Ullswater) to Greendale Bridge (Wasdale) and has to be completed in under 12 hours if you are in the V50 category. YC supported him (ie carried his kit/drinks etc) on leg one from Pooley Bridge to Kirkstone Pass. The weather was superb with a cool dry day, a following wind, and excellent visibility.

Paul was met at the finish by Joss Naylor who created the challange and lives in Greendale. Readers might have heard of Joss Naylor - he is a fellrunning great. Despite being V70 now, he is still very spry.

It was a grand day, and a tremendous achievement by Paul. In case readers are wondering, YC hasn't done the Joss Naylor Challenge. You have to be over 50 to qualify (no comments about YC's age please).

a few more photos here