Cross Country
1968
The 1968 issue of the Bostonian magazine includes a couple of interesting references in the report of the Inter-House Cross-Country events.
The first is that the races were held after Christmas, mainly because of foot and mouth restrictions which had been imposed before Christmas.
According to Wikipedia: "The 1967 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth outbreak was a major outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the United Kingdom. The only centre of the disease, in contrast to the three concentrated areas in the 2001 crisis[1], was on the Wales border with Shropshire. France and other European countries were also affected by the crisis.".
The second reference is to the infamous 'dip' which was described as "twenty Yards of wet mud between two banks" and was part of the course for the first time that year. The dip remained a feature of the course until the 1980s and while sometimes just "wet mud" could sometimes be filled with water to the level of an 11 year-old runner's waist.
The dip is now permanently flooded and used as a model boating lake, overlooked by St Nicholas' Church and Neptune Cottage.
References
- ↑ Crisis now worse than in 1967 - The Guardian (14 Mar 2001)