A fascinating look at the 900-mile walking race
The Great Billy Butlin Race, by Robin Richards (Sportsbookofthemonth.com price: £12 PBK, saving £3 on rrp)
ON a bitterly cold Friday morning in February 1960, more than 700 walkers assembled at John O’Groats to participate in the Great Billy Butlin Race to Land’s End, 900 miles south. Scotland was experiencing terrible weather: several would-be competitors were deterred by the 10-foot snowdrifts before they reached the start line and many others were completely unprepared for the wintry conditions.
Those who did compete in what remains the first and only walking race traversing the length of Great Britain included peers of the realm, a blind man, a chap with a wooden leg, a sizeable number of unemployed folk plus a smattering of clerks and waitresses.
No one was kitted out with any Bear Grylls-type hi-tech kit we would invariably encounter today, while all competitors were expected to provide their own food and accommodation and to finish the route within 28 days.
Holiday camp pioneer Billy Butlin offered a first prize of £1,000 to both the winners of the men’s and women’s races. Bear in mind, you could buy a house for £1,000 back in 1960.
The authorities, playing the role of killjoys, wanted the race abandoned
because weather conditions were so bad and it was evident that a large number of people were completely unprepared, either for the adverse conditions or a race of almost 900 miles. Not surprisingly, more than 150 competitors gave up on the first day, but the rest soldiered on, although not everyone was imbued with lashings of Olympic spirit. Cheating was rife as exhausted walkers took short cuts or thumbed lifts from passing traffic.
Nevertheless, the race became a huge national event which enjoyed extensive media coverage. Race leaders became minor celebs, pursued through towns and cities by hordes of autograph hunters.
Doncaster’s Jimmy Musgrave was first home, winning the men’s race in an astonishing 14 days, 14 hours, 32 minutes. Musgrave averaged more than 60 miles a day and a little over two days’ later, 19-year-old Wendy Lewis from Liverpool won the women’s race in 16 days, 19 hours, 30 minutes. Eventually, more than 170 competitors finished the race; so impressed was Butlin that he gave many extra prizes to those who crossed the finish line at Land’s End.
This is such a great story from our black-and-white history, it makes you wonder why no-one has since organised anything similar.