Chris Wright

I really like sculpture in the landscape, or art displayed other than in a gallery. English Heritage have used Belsay Hall (head away from Newcastle, past the Airport, through Ponteland and on for another 5 or 6 miles) to stage some great exhibitions of sculpture and art over the last few years. Stella McCartney's horse has been the outstanding exhibit for me. It was originally displayed in the old castle, hanging in the Great Hall. It has now moved to the new hall, and hangs in the entrance hall. It is difficult thing to describe - basically there is a grid, from which hang thousands of fine wires, the grid being suspended from the ceiling of the hall. On the fine wires have been placed thousands of crystal balls, arranged so that, as a whole, a crystal horse is created, nearly full size, floating in the air. The hanging in the old castle was great, very atmospheric, but for all round viewing, the location in the new hall is better! I would thoroughly recommend a visit. And don...

The last of this year's Mid-Week Seies of duathlons at Ingleby Greenhow took place last Wednesday 7 June 2006, in the Handicap format. Orienteering tends to go for the Chasing Start format, where the fastest goes off first, whilst the Tees Forest Trail Races and these duathlons are arranged so that the fastest go off last, with the intention (if the Handicapper has done a good job!!) of everyone finishing together! With the Trail Races, I really enjoy trying to work my way through the field (and Rob P does do a good job on handicapping), and I do tend to put in a good time. With being such a comparatively poor cyclist, the duathlon handicaps end up with a totally different skew on the starting times as far as I am concerned! Anyway, felt good on the first 2 mile run and put in a PB for that element - then disaster! The chain came off when I wheeled the bike out of transition!! I must have lost 15/20 seconds trying to get it back on again, and ended up with very black and oily finge...

I used to do a lot of road races. That was because a lot of them were on a Saturday, meaning I could still orienteer on a Sunday. That is, the long established races were usually on Saturdays - the young 'whippersnapper' races which sprang up during the 80's running boom tended to be on Sunday. As the 90's progressed, a lot of the traditional races were either killed off due to police opposition (Windermere to Kendal 10 being a typical example) or moved to a Sunday. Last Saturday, 3 June, I took part in the Kikby Malzeard 10k, based at a small village near Ripon, and part of the Black Sheep Brewery race series. There was a supporting 2km fun run, which appeared to have an excellent turnout, plus the 10k with nearly 200 runners. Not a bad route, undulating and winding, around quiet country lanes - a mile and a half out, round in a big circle, then retrace you steps to the finish. The biggish climb between 5 and 5 1/2 miles ended at the village cemetary! A killer of a cli...

Perhaps a fourth race in five days was a little much, but then next week's handicap is the last of the series, and I may not get a chance to do another duathlon until next year! Numbers were down a bit - was there a football match on? I read a report in the NE gig listings magazine (The Informer), which suggested that promoters have not even tried to compete with the World Cup this June - there would be too many half-empty theatres and band tours would lose money. Which is a great shame really, in that if you are not 'into' football, then your alternatives are being compromised. Perhaps it would have been better to book smaller venues for the tour dates potentially affected, so that at least something would be going on!! Anyway, back to Wednesday 31 May! Quite a nice night, calm and mild. 30 sec down on the first run, but a pb by 13 secs on the bike. John K passed me just after Broughton, and I tried really hard to keep him in sight (and to pass another chap who was ever so...

The idea of sprinting around the city centre of York may seem like a daft idea at the best of times, but doing it whilst orienteering on Whit Bank Holiday Monday - utter madness! But it works!! Alongside the JOK Chasing Sprint, this must be my favourite event in the 'O'-calendar. OK, so I didn't do that well - perhaps 3 hours on the bike in the wind on Saturday and a 10k race the day before probably took the edge off these old legs of mine - but what the heck! Still, missed a couple of the 'puzzles' set by the planner Steve W - well OK, more than a couple - but that's what makes it so much fun. Lessons learnt - read the descriptions more carefully and try to spot the alternatives more quickly. Dashed off at the start up the street, when the snickleway could have saved a few seconds to no.1. I knew where no.2 was (Whip-ma-whop-ma Gate), but still ran down the Shambles for the hell of it, when the road to the E would have been quieter and quicker. Now to get to 3 ...