Recognise these faces?

Blimey – talk about a blast from the past. I was looking for something in a very old photo album, from my college years and I came across these pix from what was called 'The Great Court Run' (Great Court being the largest court in the gorgeous Trinity college).

Back in 1988, I'm pretty sure it must have been Rachel McDowell (then Webster) who got me into there to see the re-enactment of a Chariots of Fire scene in there. Some blurb from Wikipedia below – as I've forgotten the finer details, 30 years later!

'Many have tried to run the 367 metres (401 yards) around the court in the 43.6 seconds that it takes to strike 12 o'clock (actually 24 chimes owing to an odd old tradition), a feat recreated in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire (though filmed in Eton College, not Trinity).

Known as the Great Court Run, students traditionally attempt to complete the circuit on the day of the Matriculation Dinner.^[3] Only two people are believed to have actually completed the run in the time, the first being Lord Burghley in 1927.

Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram attempted the feat in a charity race on 29 October 1988. Coe's time was reported by Norris McWhirter to have been 45.52 seconds, but it was actually 46.0 seconds as confirmed by the video tape, while Cram's was 46.3 seconds. The clock on that day took 44.4 seconds (i.e. a "long" time, probably two days after the last winding) and video confirms that Coe was approximately 12 metres short of his finish line when the fateful final stroke occurred.^[3] There is some debate over the dying sounds of the bell being included in the striking time, which would allow Coe's run to be claimed as successful. The event was organized by 36-year-old undergraduate Nigel McCrery and raised £50,000 for the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.

Back to me – here are the photos. And a young looking Daley Thompson was also there… 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And no-one was more surprised than me when I opened the album to find a picture of me with – I'm pretty sure – Nigel Havers?? I have no recollection of that whatsoever, but it really does seem to be him, or am I totally losing it??!

Sx