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The Sunday run on 29th October was a Fenton classic. All seven of us had prepared well by having an extra hour in bed (separately!). We set off from the wizard and descended Bradford Lane before turning left up Hocker Lane. From there it became complicated….The next landmark I recognised was Henbury Hall, by which time Rob Dunkley was looking worried and enquiring meekly about whether he might be excused the whole trip. Dr Kate and Sally Gilliver gripped him firmly by the elbows (which he quite liked) and propelled him along with the rest of us.
Next Capesthorne Hall came into view, and we wondered if this was a tour of all of Cheshire’s stately homes. From there we gradually wound our way back towards the Chelford road, via two large potato fields which reminded us of an earlier adventure. As we were approaching Nether Alderley Church I heard a shreik and looked back, A large yellow hump appeared to have grown out of the mud near the stile we had just crossed. The hump was undulating slowly and emitting feeble noises. Wiping my eyes I realised the hump was Dunkley, who had done a belly flop off the stile and was firmly embedded, like one of Anthony Gormley’s statues, in the Cheshire plain.
Comically, Sally Gilliver, one of the lightest runners in the club, tried to lever the hump out of the mud, thus risking her own safety. Eventually the undulations and flailings of the hump brought it to an upright position and we proceeded. Now we had to ascend the whole of Bradford Lane to finish a 12.5 mile amble in just over two hours. I had an ice cream from the van and we all agreed it had been a successful day. Thanks to Magellan Fenton, and congratulations to Rob the hump on having stayed the course with grit and good humour. Rod Coombs
