Ian Hodgkinson the youngest ever winner of Parish Walk

Although I have been compiling statistics on, what is now, the Manx Telecom Parish Walk for 35 years, it is only within the past 24 hours that I have established with absolutely certainty who is the youngest ever winner.

Some people had said that I was although Dermot O'Toole was correct in his two books on the history of the event.

Thanks to Facebook I have established contact with Ian Hodgkinson who lives in Australia. His date of birth confirms that he was 21 years and 61 days when he won it 1969 whereas I was 21 years and 218 days, a difference of 157 days or five months, when I won in 1978.

The people of the Isle of Man must have known he was setting a record as far more people came to see him that were there for me! Actually, I think the finish time had something to do with it. Ian started at 19:00 and took 17:11:25 and so finished at 12:11:15 on Sunday. I started at 15:00 and walked for 16:19:37 and so finished at 7:19:37.

Apart from the photos of Ian and I finishing, there is one of Ian receiving the trophy from the late Edwin Dudley, the Boundary Harriers president for so many years.