THE RACE WALKING ASSOCIATION

THE TRIVIA PAGE

After all, it's only a game - or, conversely, in the spirit of the late Bill Shankly, Manager of Liverpool Football Club,
"Football isn't a matter of life or death; it's much more important than that!"

Some of the lighter aspects of race walking will appear here.
Contributions and corrections will be welcome at RaceWalkingAssociation@btinternet.com
FILMS
TELEVISION AND WIRELESS PROGRAMMES
POSTAGE STAMPS 
 OTHER TRIVIAL THINGS
FILMS
("News" films are excluded; only feature films are covered here.)
CARRY ON AT YOUR CONVENIENCE Having had his trousers torn off by Bernard Bresslaw's motorcycle (well, it could happen to anyone), Kenneth Cope tries to cover his embarrassment by pretending to be a race walker, presumably in the belief that race walkers wear shirts and under-pants.
CARRY ON CRUISING  The ship's doctor (Kenneth Connor) on an hysterical cruise gets his exercise by race walking round the deck
DR. DETROIT In the opening, Dan Akroyd can be seen race walking through the park (Info.: John Mike Nicholls, Dave McGovern)
NO SEX PLEASE, WE'RE BRITISH Ronnie Corbett is seen race walking; Matt Hales describes the technique as "fairly smooth and flowing"
ONE GOOD TURN Norman Wisdom joins in the London to Brighton walk
PASSPORT TO PIMLICO Part of London discovers that it's really part of Burgundy and complications ensue. A (not terribly stylish) race walking passerby appears from time to time 
THE COLDITZ STORY Two of the prisoners are plotting their escape when a walker passes a couple of times
WALK DON'T RUN "Romantic comedy" about an American race walker (Jim Hutton) in the Tokyo Olympics (with Cary Grant & Samantha Eggar). The film lasts about two hours; it feels like 50k. [The B.B.C. weekly programme magazine Radio Times gives the film three stars; three red cards would be nearer the mark.]
WALKIN' FREE A short by Scott Recchia in which a walker, challenged to a race by a rival is accompanied and encouraged by the ghost of his dead coach. He wins, but falls over a cliff, is killed himself and goes off with the spirit-coach to the great training ground in the sky.
WITH LOVE TO THE PERSON NEXT TO ME  Australian film in which the main character in his taxi passes two race walkers, Mark Wall (our informant) and Mark Fletcher, training on a popular Melbourne circuit
WHEN HARRY MET SALLY Billy Crystal and Bruno Kirby are talking about life/women/happiness while race walking to stay in shape. (Info.: John Mike Nicholl, Dave McGovern)

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TELEVISION AND WIRELESS PROGRAMMES
HANCOCK'S HALF HOUR
(B.B.C. Television)		 Finding that Mrs.Cravat has taken their only suits to the cleaners, Tony Hancock and Sid James pin numbers to their underwear and race walk into town. (Since the town is East Cheam, it is remarkable that rioting does not ensue.)
MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE
(Fox Televsion, U.S.A.)		 Hal sees a group of race walkers and becomes an enthusiast (would that all casual spotters did the same!), honing his technique and trying (unsuccessfully) to outpace the group.
THE VICAR OF DIBLEY
(B.B.C.Television)		 Told not to run in the churchyard, the idiot verger Alice breaks into a passable race walk. (Episode entitled Community Spirit.)
WHITLOCK'S WALK
(B.B.C. Wireless)		 A wireless play by John Burrows, broadcast on B.B.C. Radio 4 on the 10th September, 2002. In Berlin for the 1936 Olympic Games, Whitlock (always addressed in the play as "Harry" - as who would dare to!) and a boxer called Coleman uncover a plot by Hitler to convince the world that his military strength is greater than it really is by building dummy bombers and leaving them where they can be seen. There is much by-play with drugged drinks, Jewish officials being killed and harsh-voiced Nazis. The intention may have been that the play be taken seriously, although the concept seems beyond credibility.

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POSTAGE STAMPS
(S.G.No. is the number allocated to the stamp in the Stanley Gibbons Catalogue)
[Additions will be made as Peter Cassidy finds more.]
For illustrations of the stamps with yellow backgrounds in the list, Click Here.
Country Year Occasion Value Subject S.G. No. Comment
Central African Republic  1980  Moscow Olympic Games 30f  Three walkers  700  One looks like D.Bautista 
Central African Republic  1981  Moscow Olympic Games Champions  30f  Same design  744  Overprinted: 50KM MARCHE HARTWIG GAUDER - G.D.R. 
Dominican Republic  1957 Olympic Games first issue - past champions 16c  Ugo Frigerio  674   
Dominican Republic  1957 Olympic Games second issue - 1956 champions  7c  Norman Read 693 + 2 other walkers 
Dominican Republic  1959 Pan-American Games, Chicago 16c Ugo Frigerio 790 Issue of 1957 overprinted III JUEGOS DEPORTIVOS PANAMERICANOS +2 and runner
Ecuador 1996 Olympic Games 3000s  Jefferson Pérez  2260  
France 1978 Sport for All 1f Sporting activities 2282 Rightmost figure appears to be a race walker 
France 1984 Olympic Games and 90th Anniversary of I.O.C. 4f Olympic Sports 2635 Fifth figure from left may be a race walker
Isle of Man  1986 Commonwealth Games, Edinburgh 15p Race Walking 307 Believed to be Phil Bannan
Japan  1965 10th National Athletics meeting 5y Race Walker 1012  
Korea (D.P.R.)  1978  Olympic Games history and medal winners 20ch  Ugo Frigerio N1758  
Latvia  1996 Olympic Games 24s Race Walking 447  
Liberia  1960 Olympic Games 15c Race Walking 834  
Luxembourg 1968 Olympic Games 6f Race Walking 819  
Netherlands 1976 60th Nijmegen March 40c Walkers 1248 Not quite race walking but the event is popular with some walkers
Niger 1980  Olympic Games  90f  Race Walking 798  
Niger 1980 Olympic Games Medal Winners 90f Same design 817 Overprinted DAMILANO (IT)
San Marino 1954 Sports 1l Race Walking 474  
San Marino 1960 Olympic Games 3l Race Walking 605  
U.S.S.R. 1980 Olympic Sports seventh series - athletics 10k+5k Race walking  4964 An extraordinary design; clearly post-Socialist realism – or post-modern brutalism
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OTHER TRIVIAL THINGS

1 A Phonecard issued by British Telecomm for the World Student Games in Sheffield in 1991 shows the foot of a race walker (information supplied by Dave McGovern) Picture
2 "Comical" advertisement for the MTV Television Station, in which a race walker (an actor) frustrates his pursuers by sweeping the drinks off the table; the pursuers are Andy & Jamie O'Rawe and Peter Cassidy; quite possibly the only race walking ever filmed (or, indeed, seen) in North Benfleet, Essex. Click here [This item appears to have beem deleted from the original web site but the reference is left here just in case.]
 3 The Father Brown stories by G.K.Chesterton have two references to race walking. In The Queer Feet: "First, there came a long rush of rapid little steps, such as a light man might make in winning a walking race." In The Sign of the Broken Sword : "He strode on, breathing hard, his black head and bull neck forward, like a man winning a walking race."
4
 Manx postal cover issued for the World Race Walking Cup in the Isle of Man, 1985, with "Century of Motoring" stamp Picture

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