Isle of Man of Steel (Saturday)

Saturday dawned, or at least it did for some, Leon sleeping in til Midday after his 4am finish the night before. Leaf and Kellie visited the leisure centre for some detox, and discovered that the 'Winchester Scale' so notably employed by Andy on past excursions, was also used by the natives over here. The Leisure Centre, supposedly 40 mins away, turned out to be less than 20 from the hotel. This allowed out 10k heroes a bit of a longer swim. What Gaunt was up to was anyone's guess, probably parading round his hotel in a kilt or chasing Highland Cattle. We know not.

Unfortunately, the relaxation Andy and Pete exprienced, combined with Leon's late awakening, led to things being a little too relaxed. Arriving on the prom at the designated bus departure time of 1pm was slightly too late, as the buses departed a further mile down the seafront. In fact we could see them disappear off. Leon's popularity amongst the Leeds masses ensured that he didn't get a phone call, Martin strangely assumed we had boarded an adjacent bus without so much as a nod or a wink.

Luckily the taxi only cost 20 notes and before we knew it, we were on the 12 mile drive to the Peel Hill Race right behind the aforementioned carriages. This allowed us to telephone Martin and tell him the bad news, without telling him we were in a taxi behind his coach! The desperation in his voice led him to offer to pay for a taxi, should we choose to get in one.

Come the race, Greenleaf followed the obligatory charge up the hill, and produced probably his best performance of the weekend, coming home a splendid 11th in terribly windy conditions. Looking at the runners ahead of him, this is a great performance, but Leaf rarely has a bad run, does he?

Further down and around the hill, Kellie had apparently stole a march on Martin, the spa obviously doing its job, and it took until the last downhill for Martin to steal past, as they came home a very solid 23rd and 25th. Great team effort, allowed 14AC to claim 3rd place overall for the Hill Race, and Andy got an induvidual prize as well. Baprtiste improved to 87th from yesterday, depsite an early scare when behind one of the jugglers with the 3 legged team closing in behind...

With the race out of the way, it was time for the 10 mile, 10 pub (turned out to be 8) crawl. Handily, once more, they had built a pub right by the finish for a swift pint.

Once this 1st pint was over, Gaunt decided to open up the mindgames once more, and induldge in a game of 'Manhunt' that would last the rest of the night. Claiming to be going ahead with his Scottish chums to the next pub, and to get a round in, he promptly disappeared, we presume, by conviently running past the front door of the 2nd pub, and on to the 3rd. The other 3 took it easy, and had some chips, which Pete drowned in gravy, whilst Leon had pie & peas as any self respecting northerner does. Leaf declined to partake.

On the way to the 2nd pub a silly game started called Touchdown, but you'll hear all about that at the next gathering. Anyway, after about 10 mins in the 2nd pub, it was time to move to the 3rd, and Andy was really in the spirit of the ManHunt as he threw in 2 5:40 miles in an attempt to catch Martin. But he was nowhere to be seen. Pete and Leon struggled along at 8 minute mile pace, but at least the beers were there on arrival. Pete played musical clothing when he couldn't decide on how many layers he needed.

Upon arrival at Pub #4, Andy upped the ante further, downing his pint in 5.9 seconds and hurtling off to pub 5 in pursuit of Gaunt, whilst Kellie, now cooled, followed immediately. This left Leon to drink his pint upside down, but this took so much out of him he could only walk to pub 5.

The target was caught, but only briefly as he escaped again in search of more booze with some spurious excuse. Leon took so long to arrive Pete and Andy had nearly fallen asleep, but the Leeds posse wouldn't allow it.

Walking then became the order of the day, and the remaining pubs were knocked off with some quality discussion on signs and game shows. Then followed a call from the Gas Man, where he made no sense whatsoever. Once more we arrived at the (last) pub just in time to catch him, only this time in a more literal sense as the boy couldn't stand up!! But once the word 'curry' was mentioned, he was off out the back door of the pub, not to be seen until the morning. Puzzling.

This meant he missed all the fun, as the karaoke had just started. This led to some amazing performance, including Song 2, Suspicious minds, and for a final finale, everyone left in the pub combined beautifully for a powerful, yet tender rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody. The video is out there somewhere...a fantastic evening.

I couldn't not mention the bar man who followed Leon round the 3 bars within the pub, asking 'alcohol?' at ten second intervals, and the shoelace skipping, of which more tomorrow.

And so it was left for Leaf and Kellie to kindly direct some ladies back home , whilst Leon went on a mystery tour of Douglas that ended in a kebab shop. As all good nights do...