was Hendrick J. Doornekamp who has no special claim to fame, except for the fact that he walked the whole race in clogs!! Holland now had 14 members of our society, Italy 2, Russia, France and Switzerland 1
each. This race also saw the addition of a new country to the growing international list, when John Kelly of the USA joined our ranks. There were 379 listed Centurions, 20 of them born outside the UK. In his circular letter, the secretary made remarks about a new edition of the handbook which had not been updated since 1958, he expressed the opinion that it would be ready by the Spring of 1966. He also made mention of the Centurion finances saying that the bank balance was quite low, bearing in mind the ever increasing number of silver badges that would need to be paid for, plus the general running costs and the new handbook. An appeal for donations was made which was met by the usual generous nature of Centurions. January 1966 saw a small party of Centurions, led by the secretary and captain, on a visit to Holland to present the new Centurions with their badges. As was expected they received a very warm welcome from our Dutch friends, but not from the weather, as Amsterdam was under six inches of snow with more falling. They were informed that the 14 Dutch members (exactly the same number that had attended our inaugural meeting in 1911) had formed a society of their own to be called quite simply ‘Dutch Centurions’ with Lieuwe Schol C291 as their President and Jon van der Kwaak C365, their secretary, the qualification being simple: first and foremost you must be a Centurion, secondly, you must be Dutch. Their secretary, Jon van der Kwaak, presented a cup to be known as the “Netherlands Challenge Trophy” for competition between English and Dutch Centurions in our 100 mile races. This meant that in future we would all be competing on an international basis, albeit unofficial. There was a record breaking number of starters for the biennial Leicester to Skegness race which was won for a second time by Karl Abolins in just over 18 hours 10 minutes. 84 started and 47 finished, one of them being Cyril Evans C158 of Leicester, who became only the second man to get into double figures.
eligible to join the newly formed Dutch Centurions.
27 became new Centurions, 12 of them Dutch and therefore The match for the “Netherlands
Challenge Trophy” was won by the British, but with this new influx of Dutchmen it might not be so easy in future. At the September meeting the deaths were announced of Earnest Parslow C41 and John
Prior C92, mention was made of a possible legacy from John Prior to boost the ever decreasing funds. In his Christmas letter the captain, Tom Richardson informed the members of two more deaths.
J. (Len) Cockell C134 and one of our founders and Vice-Presidents
Tommy Payne C18. Tommy had recently moved to the Isle of Wight, but was more well known in his native North East, where he was a record breaker before the First World War. He was a little man with a big heart, and would probably be better known to most people as an uncle on the BBC wireless, than as one of the great walkers. June 23rd-24th 1967 saw the 19th edition of the Brighton and Back. Although the number of
starters, 44, was slightly down on recent editions, everything else seemed to be perfect. The race was held on the weekend of the longest day, with a full moon thrown in for good measure, but someone forgot to arrange the weather which had been fine for the previous two months. At the start of the race, rain was coming down by the bucketful which eventually eased on the return from Westminster Bridge and had stopped by the time the walkers got back to Croydon. By this time some of those who had started in a motley collection of protection against the elements, ranging from bicycle capes and sou’westers to plastic bags, had already retired. The night passed without incident except for the retirement of John Lees, the early leader, leaving the way clear for Gerd Nickel of Germany who went on to win and thus become the first German member of the Centurions. By the afternoon the rain had returned in the form of thunderstorms, but unlike the 1963 race it did not abate the constant flow of traffic on the Brighton Road. In total only 13 finished the full distance with 3 others
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