Especially for Gayle....and Mick

Play Time

Rob’s YouTube video: Not sure who the ugly bugger is – the one who nicks a pint at the end.

Thursday 12th November:

8.40pm: Plough, Ashton on Mersey (Hydes)

9.10pm: Volunteer, Sale (Holts)

9.40pm: Prairie Schooner, Urmston (Brewery Tap)

10:15pm: Steamhouse, Urmston (Freehouse)

10.45pm: Church Inn, Flixton (Various cask ales)

Friday 13^th Nov

7.45pm: Greyhound, Ashley (JW Lees)

8.30pm: Railway, Hale (Robinsons)

9.00pm: Old Market Tavern, Altrincham (Freehouse: ELEVEN handpumps!)

9.30pm: Malt Shovels, Altrincham (Sam Smith)

10.10pm: Costello’s, Goose Green, Altrincham (Brewery Tap, Dunham Brewery)

10.40pm: Quarry Bank, Timperley (Hydes)

 

 The BIG day is Saturday:

2.30pm: St Werburgh's Autumn Fair, Warburton (Tea….hmmm)
6.15pm: Black Swan, Hollin Green, WA3 6LA (Various cask)
6.45pm: Rope & Anchor, Dunham, WA14 5RP (Various cask)
7.15pm: Axe & Cleaver, Dunham, WA14 4SE (Various cask)
7.45pm: Swan with 2 Nicks, Little Bollington, WA14 4TJ (Various cask)
8.15pm: Spread Eagle, Lymm, WA13 0AG (JW Lees)
8.45pm: Green Dragon, Lymm, WA13 9SB (Various cask)
9.30pm: Saracen's Head, Warburton, WA13 9TH (Dunham Brewery)

The Saracen's Head performance is the last of the season and is one huge party.

Lymm Folk Club are running a singers night in conjunction with The Play and there'll be music, singing & dancing afterwards.

More information about The Play here. 

Come and have a look-see if you’re at a loose end, it’s going to be fun!

Warburton Souling starts tonight

The Warburton (Cheshire) Souling Play season starts this evening, Monday 2nd November

The Plan (Ho-ho!):

8pm Saracen's Head (Dunham Brewery), Warburton

8.45pm The Vine (Sam Smith's), Dunham

9.15pm The Black Swan (Free House?), Hollins Green

10pm The Wheatsheaf (Hydes) Agden

If you're doing nowt and fancy having your pint nicked by Beelzebub then you know where to be!

TGO Challenge 2015, Part 1

A load of years ago I met the Pieman at Shiel Bridge, my start point for that particular Challenge. Mike was starting from Glenelg, a good few miles to the west. That year it was a bad few miles: the weather had been awful and Mike, the brave chap, had decided to walk to his start point. Thank heavens for Paramo.

This year it was my turn to do the Glenelg start. Everybody I’d spoken to reckoned it was a brill place to start from, I wasn’t disappointed.

On the Thursday night I shared a B&B with High Altitude Brookes and Paul. Mrs Cameron, our host(ess) collected us from Shiel Bridge bus stop and drove us to her rather nice house, a short walk from the Glenelg Inn, a rather excellent boozah.

Tiredness and the need to be up for an early(ish) breakfast meant that Graham and I escaped from the pub at around 10.30pm and legged it back to our B&B….not before we’d made fools of ourselves attempting the pub quiz.

Looking west from the Glenelg Inn, 10.30pm

Day 1: Glenelg to Shiel Bridge

A good night’s sleep followed by a decent breakfast set me up for the day. I was in no rush (nowt new there then) and spent an hour wandering around Glenelg, taking photographs, chatting to some of the locals, wetting my boots in the briny – and picking up a lightweight pebble to haul over to the east coast of Scotchlandshire.

Then there was the all important signing out…. 

…..followed by the great wetting of the feet.

First stop was for refreshments at The Wagon @ Corrary, well worth a visit: decent coffee and a smiley lady serving goodies. Of considerable interest were the remains of a number of ancient brochs, drystone structures with hollowed walls.

Broch at Corrary

The heat from the sun was hot, probably something to do with the temperature. To stay cool I scared the local wildlife by rolling up my trousers to above my knees. Women and small children screamed at the sight of my pale knobbly knees. Such knees shouldn’t really be allowed out in the daylight, perhaps I should start wearing tights…..or maybe a fake tan is the answer.

Shiel Bridge was my intended overnight stop, not too far at all. The glorious weather (almost) had me wishing it was further. Whatever, it was a lovely walk that offered some good views.

Suardalan, Lunch stop No2

Loch Duich

For Alan

Most of the Challengers had left by the time I arrived in SB – although I was very pleasantly surprised to find a couple of non-challenging Challengers lurking:

With Jeanette & Biaggio at The Kintail Lodge

Much refreshment was taken that night, this walking (and talking) lark can seriously dehydrate a chap. And hydration is just so important. Innit.

A good night’s kip followed….well it would, wouldn’t it?

Day 2: Shiel Bridge to Strawberry Cottage

At 8.30am I promptly left the bunkhouse around 9am. The weather was still glorious: hot, well quite warm, sunshine and a gentle breeze. Norralot not to like really.

Seals playing

Walking East is always A Good Thing on the Challenge, so that’s what I did. It was easy walking on a Land Rover track through Kintail Forest. Still no Challengers, Shiel Bridge starters were mostly a day ahead of me.

Decision time….

Decision made

  Glenlicht House…and the sun’s still shining

View from Allt Grannda

A helicopter flew over at one point, I was later to find out that it was going to extract a Challenger (from Alltbeithe I think) who’d fallen and suffered a dislocated something or other. Such bad luck.

Camban Bothy

Along Fionngleann and Alltbeithe SYHA comes into view…just

It was tempting to stay around Alltbeithe, I knew that some Challengers were staying there so I certainly wouldn’t be alone. The warden / manager or whatever they are these days was something of a star. She provided excellent refreshments and hospitality to passing Challengers….I only found out a day or so later! Ho hum.

Strawberry Cottage / Athnamulloch is four miles after Alltbeithe, along Glen Affric. It was around 6.30pm when I eventually put my tent up. I was sharing the nice flat(ish) area with 5 other Challengers – company at last! A little later another group arrived but they camped a good distance away from us – they probably weren’t Challengers.

The sky was quite clear and the temperature was dropping. I was looking forward to a cosy night in my new sleeping bag, a North Face Hightail 3S, but I was disappointed. I was quite chilly, the down in this brand new bag was clumping badly, creating a good number of (very) cold spots with hardly any insulation. Not impressed – especially for £230.

Saturday 17th October, Tockholes – The Real Thing

Further to my little recce t’other day it was now time for The Real Thing, laying trail for the Club run.

Laying a trail on your own isn’t the easiest of tasks: there isn’t anyone else around to compare notes with, carry extra sawdust, whinge at, help with navigation etc. It’s down to the trail-layer, and if it all goes horribly wrong there’s nobody else to blame.

I left the car park of the very splendid Royal Arms at Ryal Fold, Tockholes at 11.15am. I was loaded down with a trail bag full of sawdust, a rucksack with more sawdust, a map and a bottle of water. The first part of the route was through woodland. I left great clumps of sawdust on the paths - an easy trail to follow. I thought. Nobody could POSSIBLY lose such a heavily laid trail. Of course they couldn’t.

Pendle Forest Orienteering Club were also out in the woodland, enjoying (enduring?) one of their Autumn Series events.

Orienteering kites were spread throughout the woodland

According to their website Tockholes was voted best area in Lancashire in the recent best 100 areas in the UK listing. I can believe it.

So busy had I been on my recce that I completely missed the charcoal burners deep inside the wood:

My route up to Great Hill more-or-less followed my recced route but somehow I managed to get my feet even muddier. 24 hours, a hot bath and two showers later my toe nails were still stained brown from the peat. Oh well.

Visibility was marginally better than on the recce, it was possible to pick out Blackpool Tower on the horizon.

 That really is Blackpool Tower in the murk

There were more folk out today, it being a Saturday and all that. You don’t half get some funny looks when you’re charging around the countryside leaving piles of sawdust all over the show.

Leaving my recce route by Slipper Low car park I started the climb up to Darwen Moor. Really good tracks were dead easy to navigate, it was just a matter of keeping an eye on the map so as not to go (too far) wrong. On the climb I stopped a few times for a breather to look back towards Great Hill to see if there were any runners in view – not a one. I just hoped they’d not lost the trail.

A most odd-looking contraption caught my eye as I flew <ahem> up the side of the hill. I had to stop (again) just to take the photograph. It took ages to compose.

Any ideas folks? A look-out tower? An instrument of torture & torment?

Once high on the moor there were a goodly number of opportunities for rest – although I resisted temptation….of course.

Ged’s Bench – had me thinking of my mate Ged who’s a bit poorly

The view east from Darwen Moor – looking towards Ramsbottom.

Peel Tower is just visible to the left of the windfarm. Windfarms like these are cropping up wherever there’s a need for an EU grant.

Then there was this great big bird y’see, just hovering there. I’ve no idea what it was, not being very good with birds, but I’m sure that the ornitho… twitchers out there will come to my rescue. 

Still no sign of any runners so I plodded on, now towards Darwen Tower – or more correctly Jubilee Tower. The tower was completed in 1898 and was built to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. A few years ago, in high winds, the top blew off. Locals rescued the top and later replaced it with a fibre glass one instead. That one blew off in 2010 and has since been replaced with a new one made of stainless steel. It’s supposed to be getting windy tonight…I wonder?

Jubilee Tower

A jolly bunch of ladies (a bunch of jolly ladies?) were finishing their jolly lunches at the tower. They recognised my Tally-Ho! kit, admitting to knowing some Club members. That’s a rarity in itself, hardly anyone I know would admit to knowing anyone in our club. :-)

The jolly ladies with jolly Darwen in the background

5-600 metres of flat running on the NW edge of Darwen Hill offered great views over Lancashire and as far as Cumbria. Closer views were of the empty Sunnyhurst Hey and Earnsdale Reservoirs:

Still no sign of any runners. They’d either got completely lost, fallen into one of the fetid and man-consuming bogs that Lancashire is justifiably famous for…..or nobody had turned up. Oh well.

It was a steep descent from Darwen Hill back to the boozah which was now in view. Even so, the sawdust trail had to continue to the bitter end.

The orienteers were still out and about, their competition almost finished. I had a chat with a couple of the officials about the long lost 2 Day Capricorn event. Happy days, probably not to be repeated.  

Back at the pub for a very welcome and warming coffee. Although it wasn’t a particularly cold day I’d started to chill soon after I stopped running.

It was around 4pm when the first runner came in, Hon Prez Park – quickly followed by Hon Sec Shipley and Ding Dong. They seemed to have enjoyed themselves, not losing the trail much at all. Or perhaps they were just being polite.

The tin bath was put to good use. Being the trail-layer and therefore the first man back, I got the clean water. Perhaps I should try to run faster so I could finish earlier and get cleaner water on future runs……..nah!

By 5pm only half of the runners had returned, the fast pack were still out. They’d somehow got lost. That’s what happens when you run too fast. The early finishers were hungry so we sat down to a good dinner of Cumbrian Hotpot followed by Apple Pie & Custard – just what the doctor ordered. Halfway through our meal the fast pack rolled up, fortunately there was plenty of dinner left for them.

The fast pack polishing off their dinner

Only 12 runners attended, a very poor turnout indeed – especially for this excellent venue, one of the very best.

Where we went:

9 miles with 1500’ of downhill.

That’s a lot of downhill, what’s to complain about?

The lost boys covered around 10.5 miles and  heavens knows, they must have done some serious uphill stuff.

Next time: Longnor in two weeks. I can’t wait!

What the prez said:

CHESHIRE TALLY-HO

The Royal Arms, Ryal Fold, Tockholes, 17^th October 2015

Overcast ( later sunny ), 10 Deg, little wind.

The route started across the road from the pub down through Plantation No 2 and crossed the dam separating the Roddlesworth reservoirs. The trail turned south through Plantation No3 and crossed Belmont Road onto Wheelton Moor.

There was a large number of Pendle Forest OC scuttling from control to control. They were celebrating their 50^th anniversary.

The first part of the moor was difficult with rushes, bog and Turk’s Heads but eventually high ground was reached and Great Hill came into view. Over the hill we headed for White Coppice familiar as the turning point of the Steeplechase.

We soon turned sharply back towards the bog and Belmont Road. The trail chicaned around Piccadilly into the woods passing Hollinshead Hall ( ruin) , across Tockholes Road and round the shoulder of Cartridge Hill. The last climb took us up Darwin Hill to the Jubilee Tower (372) before dropping down to RyaL Fold.

We came across an old squeeze box player surrounded by saw dust in the car park. We congratulated him on the excellent trail and queried the uncharted rush bog, he retorted that there was a dotted line on his map and carried on playing.

A disappointing 12 eventually sat down to hot pot and apple pie after five headless chickens arrived having been up to the tower several times and covering extra distance. We all cried into our beer.

Jocys did an excellent job laying a nine mile trail on his own.