If you jog down to the woods today...

FacTOry life just wasn’t for me any more in the early Seventies, so off I went to the recruitment office in Swindon to join the raF. Having passed all the exams to train as an aircraft weapons mechanic, I failed the medical because I was a stone overweight. So I took to running around the fields and country roads on the outskirts of chippenham and soon got down to the required weight. Having enlisted and obtained a distinguished pass as an aircraft mechanic weapons (aMecHW), I was posted to raF Scampton to work on the Vulcan bombers. apart from being part of a tug-o’-war team once and playing a bit of squash, I was generally not good at ball games or sport. I decided to keep up the running, though, and entered into a 400m race on sports day at raF Scampton. To my great surprise, I came in first. ‘cross-country?’ I heard someone ask, among all the noise. not really thinking, I replied ‘OK’, and that was it — I was in the cross country team. Our first race in the Lincolnshire league was over six miles and a real up and downer in Leicester Park. I’d never run that distance before and was totally exhausted. ‘OK for next week?’ said our team captain. I replied with a hand up, meaning ‘no’. ‘That’s it, good,’ he replied. ‘So we have a full team for next week.’ It was the start of my crosscountry career. The training was at times hard and tortuous, but with a real sense of achievement, having started out at the tailenders and eventually ending up with the leading pack. every Saturday morning, my friend and I would train around some of the quiet roads and through a track in the nearby woods. It was my turn for duty aMecHW one Friday, and that involved various checks on the Vulcans as they came in to land through the night, so I skipped my Saturday morning run. It was a cold and foggy morning and my friend went on his own. an hour later, he returned. ‘you won’t believe this,’ he said. ‘I was running through the woods and I came across a gagged, naked girl tied up to a tree. “you must be freezing, love, I’ll untie you,” I said.’ With that, he heard a booming voice on a loud hailer: ‘Get off the set! Get off the set now!’ yes, it did make us laugh.

Roger Manicom, Weymouth, Dorset.