Downhill is a British film released last year, directed by James Rouse. It was his first movie (he usually directs film and TV advertisements) and describes four school friends walking the coast to coast path across England from St. Bees on the Irish Sea to Robin Hood’s Bay – 192 miles. It’s good but not great; like Bill Forsyth’s 1981 film Gregory’s Girl, which came at the beginning of his successful career. So, like the Skibbereen Eagle, I will be keeping an eye on him.
The coast to coast path is a tough walk. I haven’t even considered it. Somebody who has completed it in, I think, just twelve days is Andrew Robson. He had to finish on time because he had a Bridge competition to play in, in Geneva. As the question of whether Bridge is a game or a sport is pondered in the High Court it seems to me that the mental alacrity, concentration and stamina needed to be a world class bridge player qualifies for sportsmanship of a high order. Of course when I play Bridge at my kitchen table it is a game. Angling qualifies as a sport but there are people roosting on folding chairs by well-stocked reservoirs with equally well-stocked cool boxes who hardly conjure up Chariots of Fire.
