was 1st-2nd July. Before this race took place, S.W.C. promoted a completely different type of 100 mile race. There would be no new Centurions as this was a race of 25 miles per day over 4 days. It was held from May 31st – June 3rd at a holiday camp at Hopton-on-Sea, where most of the competitors brought their families for an enjoyable week’s holiday. In total 23 walkers faced the starter on at least one of the four days, 14 of them competing each day. The winner of the first day’s race was a 20 year old youth named Colin Young, by 4 minutes from Vic Stone the winner of the previous year’s Blackpool to Manchester & Back. On the second day Vic Stone reversed the positions by the same 4 minutes. On the third day, Young re-took the lead when he beat Stone by just 12 seconds. On the fourth day Young had an advantage of 8 seconds over Stone and so they started as near as possible on level terms. Perhaps it was the intense rivalry between Young and Stone that allowed Ted Hipkins (the event organiser) to win on the last day. He beat Young by a mere 7 seconds with Stone a further 54 seconds behind. In the final reckoning Young had won the event in 15 hours 22 minutes 35 seconds on aggregate, just beating Stone by 62 seconds. Everyone agreed that it was a magnificent event that should be repeated; unfortunately it never was. To return to the main event of 1955, the Brighton & Back, there was an entry list of 92, 72
of them facing the starter. This was by far the greatest number ever to set out on an event of this distance and duration. Almost two thirds of the field, 47 in fact, made it to the 100 mile mark, 31 of them for the first time. This was the greatest influx of new blood the Centurions had ever seen. 21 retired at the 100 mile mark, the other 26 going all the way. Two great rivals, Hew Neilson and Vic Stone took the lead right from the start and stayed together for 20 miles. Neilson gradually drew away and built up what was to become a winning lead of 17 minutes by the turn at Brighton. Stone was possibly suffering from his exertions in the 4 day 100 a month earlier, but was the stronger on the return journey. From being 12 minutes behind at the 100 mile mark, he had closed to just under 7 minutes at the finish. Hew Neilson’s time at the finish was 18 hours 26 minutes 27 seconds, the third fastest time for the course, behind Tommy Hammond 18-13-27 in 1907 and the record time of 18-05-52 by Billy Baker in 1926. While Neilson and Stone were having a ding dong battle at the front, a special mention must be made of two who were strolling along at the back. They were Fred Duff and Archie Brown. Fred, while attempting to qualify in his own right, also took on the mantle of escorting Archie all the way, for Archie at almost 60 years of age was a St. Dunstaner and became the first blinded walker to join the Centurions. They both reached the 100 mile mark in the same time of 22 hours 12 minutes 7 seconds but Fred insisted that Archie should take the honours and have the next available number. Not content with achieving their aim, they continued on to the end to finish comfortably within 24 hours. There were 5 newcomers to the hat-trick club, one being Vic Stone C202, another was Alf McSweeney C94 who had first qualified in the 1933 race. Others were making their 4th and 5th completions, but the leaders of the pack, joining Tom Richardson on 6 completions, were the first and last at 100 miles: Hew Neilson C145, and Willy Watson C146.
In September,
the competitors, officials and attendants were invited to the Mansion House where the Lord Mayor, Sir Seymour Howard with the assistance of Mr. Charles Eade, editor of the “Sunday Dispatch”, presented the 31 new Centurions with their badges, as well as the individual and team awards. For the 1956 event, held on 6th-7th July, the race once again went north. 38 competitors
lined up outside the Sheffield Town Hall and proceeded north towards Harrogate, where they would turn round and return to Sheffield. It was a severe test even for the most seasoned campaigner. The pace set by the leaders was very fast, but by midnight when the turning point was reached, heavy rain started, which was to continue throughout the night and right to the end of the race. In these conditions and over such a severe course through the Yorkshire hills and dales, Vic Stone’s winning time of 17 hours 28 minutes 7 seconds was a triumph of
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