Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 01:41:07 +0100 (BST)
From: Roger Griffin
To: Ben Hope
Subject: Re: Brief history of CUH&H

Dear Ben,

    I am flattered that you think that I might be able to help with a
history of the H&H! - but actually I know almost nothing about it.
Although I have been doing a bit of running for a long time I did not join
the H&H or know anything about it until just a few years ago.  I confess
to having been rather stupid not to join it until after I was 60!

    Long ago, there were *College* cross-country clubs, and I did
sometimes have a loose affiliation with the one at St. John's and would
run (without any distinction, I hasten to add) in occasional League races.
There was once a St. John's captain named Williams, who led us on very
demanding hill reps on the hill beyond the lane between Coton and the
Barton Road - the one with the danger flag on it - and that hill was known
as Mount Williams for a long time after that!  Another College captain
was Robert Hirst, aka Running Bear, who must also have been a leading
light in the H&H; he was very good, and has remained so.  He now lives in
Japan, and being now in his early 50s holds the Asian records for M50s in
(I believe, haven't got his letters here with me as I write) 10K,
half-marathon and marathon.

    When I ran with the College people I was dimly aware of the existence
of the University club, but thought - I believe correctly - that it was
elitist and was of no interest to the likes of me.  Somehow I did get
drawn, exactly *once*, in going out with some of its members on a
Sunday-morning run; exactly the same thing happened to me then as has been
happening this academical year - I was thoroughly dropped, and lost sight
of the Club members on White Hill (out beyond nine Wells)!  And that was
at a time when I don't think I was as slow as I am now.

    I did go in for a few races that the H&H staged but were not
restricted to members.  Just once, I did the Roman Road run; I can't tell
now which year it was, but it was a long time ago, when Mike Turner was in
his prime.  We went on a coach journey, so long that I expected to see the
sea at any moment - you must know how it is! - and then we were started in
groups according to how quickly we thought we might run, so I was in a
group that got 10 minutes' start.  Soon after I passed the A11, Mike tore
past at an incredible rate, and I recall that he finished in 48 minutes
flat.  I used to do rather better in the Boundary Run, when it *was* a
boundary run and not a half-boundary.  In fact, the Boundary Run was the
origin of my interest in runnning.  When I was a Research Fellow at St.
John's I had a lot of friends among the undergraduates, and one of them
who happened to meet me one Sunday evening in March 1964 when I had just
returned from visiting my widowed Mother over the weekend hailed me with,
"Hey, Yogi, doing the Boundary Run tomorrow?".  Not having heard of such a
thing, I countered with "Boundary Run? - what's that?", to which he
replied "Just the sort of mad thing you *would* do!" - and he explained
what it was, and of course he had me sized up exactly!  So I went to see
another undergraduate friend who I thought might be equally game to try
it, and we agreed to stick together whatever happened and see if we could
make it.  It started at noon from the old hockey pitch, now a housing
association development at the sharp bend in Barton Road, and we got back
there in a very bad state about 7pm.  But when I had recovered I thought
how much more I had seen of Cambridge that afternoon than in the ten years
I had already been here, and got to thinking how, if one were un-British
enough to practise, it might even be quite enjoyable!  The next year I was
fifth (I should mention that the H&H people did not in general deign to go
on it themselves - they just laid it on for amusement, and it was a
popular event, with typically between 100 and 200 entrants, mostly rugger
hopefuls and other people who couldn't run!).  The year after that, I had
been practising some more with one or two Johnian friends, and when we got
a pep talk at the start from Alistair Heron, who was a Scottish
international at the time, and he claimed "I shall be leading", we gave
him a hiss!  I passed him at the last of the drinks stations, by the golf
house, and managed not to get caught, so I could claim to have won it if
it had been regarded as a race!  I did hear that the H&H did not like
someone they did not know coming in at the front, so after that they made
sure that a few of *them* ran it, and I could not compete with the real
runners, but I used to come in normally about fifth to seventh and I did
it probably more often than anybody - I think 16 times.  But all this is
more a matter of personal reminiscences than anything useful about the
H&H!
    All the best,
          YOGI