Big Games fund relay

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33063, 2 November 1972, Page 16

Big Games fund relay

The chairman of the Com-' monwealth Games organising committee, Mr R. Scott, will officially start the biggest relay yet held by a harrier club in Canterbury, when the first of 60 runners leaves the Town Hall at 8 p.m. tomorrow for the 316-mile journey to Greymouth and back. The relay, held by the Christchurch Harrier Club as part of its fiftieth anniversary celebration projects to raise funds for the Commonwealth Games, will continue for 4wo nights and a day while runners collect contributions as they go. The club’s best 20 harriers will run the first stage of the relay, planning to reach the Greymouth Post Office about 1 p.m. on Saturday. All runners will then make a grand circuit of Greymouth hotels to pick up contributions for the Games.

The Mayor of Greymouth (Mr O. H. Jackson) will despatch the runners from the Greymouth Post Office on the return journey to Christ-, church at about 1.30 pm. on Saturday. Among the 50 secondstage runners will be the oldest competing harrier in Canterbury, the former provincial representative, D. Pannell, aged 66.

The youngest will be P. Brook, aged seven. His father, H. Brook, and two other brothers, D. and A. Brook, will also run in the relay, as will two women members of the club. Misses H. Watson and L. Shalders. Each of the runners will have at least two laps and most of them will run a daylight lap and a night-time lap. The lap distances vary between two and seven miles.

The president of the Christ church club, R. Fleming, and the captain, M. Laing, will run the final leg, planned to end at the Christchurch Town Hall at about 8.30 a_m on Sunday. They will then hand over the proceeds of the relay to a representative

of the Commonwealth Games organising committee.