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6 times Parish Walk winner John Cannell at the finish of the 1977 TT Walk.

Among the people in the picture are the late Dennis Lace, the late Kevin Madigan (barely visible hidden behind Dennis but stooped towards his stop watch), Charlie Moughtin (also timekeeping) behind them and Margaret Vale and her daughter.

John finished 8th in the race won by Graham Young in a record 5.47.09. The late Ken Smith of Coventry was second in 5.57.57, Parish Walk record holder Derek Harrison 3rd in 6.02.59, John Heywood of Leicester 6.13.26, Murray Lambden 6.20.14, former Olympic walker John Paddick (then of Royal Sutton) 6.25.05 ahead of John Cannell in 6.27.33.Eamonn Magee, who nows a haulage business, had one of his best walks in 9th (6.31.18) while Len Holton of Leicester completed the top 10 (6.33.30).

Picture by Bill Lambden

Given that the collection of my Dad’s slides (currently being scanned by my brother Mike) featured me in about three quarters of them, its time I started taking the Micky out of myself!

This one is at the end of the 1977 Mountain Marathon. The longest run I had done in preparation was 8 miles on the roads of Stoke-on-Trent, where I was a student, but things didn’t go too badly (if I have the year right). I was the fastest Manxman in the standard class and I had to wait almost two hours to learn that Ian Callister, who started in the elite class, was several minutes faster and won the Snaefell Trophy. How standards have improved with Ian Gale’s great Manx victory this year.

In the background (in the light coloured coat) was the late Johnny Quine, a well known official for many years. I failed to finish the next year but I did have a haircut..or was that the year after!

Ian Turnbull (left) has been on timekeeping duties this week for Radio TT at Gelen Helen. The role should have been virtually redundant with the introduction of transponder times but when these failed, Ian was on hand to provide the split times. Here he performs the timekeeping role at the finish of the 1977 End to End Walk.

The walker is Allen Moore who has been a pharmacist at Nobles Hospital for many years. He was a friend of mine at school and I used to coerce him into various walks and runs. Allen was 5th out of just 7 who finished the End to End Walk in 1977 in a time of 8 hours 34 minutes 27 seconds. Note the lack of traffic and people at the finish compared to last year.

Three years earlier the timekeeper won in 7.08.30.

Photo Bill Lambden