Clitheroe

Bang on.

Gosh, well, it all went on in Clitheroe.

William, William wouldn't have stood a chance.

You love a boiled egg.

Yeah.

And how about your parkrun journey more widely? Because you've got an interesting link with Clitheroe Parkrun.

I have, yes.

So my dad is the event director at Clitheroe Castle Parkrun.

He set that up about eight years ago.

That wasn't actually my first parkrun.

My first one was in Nottingham Forest Rec when I was at uni.

But then I think when Clitheroe started, that's when sort of the obsession set in and been pretty much every week since.

Of course.

We've got Jules in Clitheroe.

Hi, Jules.

Hi, Matt.

... um, piece of accent placement you've, you've got going on there.

I was gonna go with Bury.

Although I do now live in Clitheroe, so a bit further north.

Okay.

No, he's, he's gonna be very good

Almost into that, Trevor Hobday from Clitheroe in Lancashire says, "At what point would an umpire become invol- involved if the s- fielding side engaged in unnecessary sledging, and what sanctions have you got available if, if it continues?"

That's another, that's a skill again

Yeah

But then this is interrupted by a butler who starts bellowing an announcement.

Announcing Sir Roderick Ellerdale, Baronet of Clitheroe and Masters Alan and Thomas Byrne.

And there's a bit of a clap as you see the trio come down these stairs just above you.

And I will give you some portraits.

And he reaches into his jacket inside pocket and brings out some rolled up papers.

And he says, I have here in my hand your official adoption papers, duly signed and bound in his majesty's law.

Therefore, by the powers vested in me, as the Baronet of Clitheroe in front of the many witnesses here, you shall hereby be known as Masters Alan and Thomas Ellerdale.

And the crowd erupts in applause.

But what do we have, Brian?

So we have a very soft-spoken gentleman sending a video from Clitheroe.

Oh, shit! After years of driving past Clitheroe in the M6, I'd actually come and visit.

And it turns out the castle... is currently wrapped in shrink wrap and i was also disappointed to see there is not a michael lisping statue here so my question is if you were going to have a statue which pose or position and would you choose to have immortalized in your statue oh and there's feather at high street

Oh, he's in Clitheroe.

Let's go.

Yeah, the castle has been covered in shrink wrap for quite some time.

Blackburn.

Clitheroe.

Oh, the big Clitheroe Festival.

Sorry, I forgot.

Burnley.

I'd start going off for longer and longer rides.

Um, I was growing up in a place called Ormskirk, which is in the very sort of flat part of southern Lancashire, um, between Liverpool and Preston, and what I used to end up doing was heading out towards the hillier parts, like Burnley, Clitheroe, Bowland, even the southern parts of the Lake District, either on the bike or with a bit of help from the train.

And my parents got very used to getting a phone call from me at about seven or eight o'clock at night, reverse charges of course, um, saying, "Well, I think I might be somewhere near Wigan, so I'll be home about 11 o'clock." Um, so I caught the bug then.

Um, and of course I've used my memory of, of that area as the setting for the, the Lancashire parts of the, uh, the book because that's where the, the main character grows up.

Yeah.

Uh, in the book, again, we'll come back to the book in a few minutes, but it is set kind of half in France, half in northwest England in, based in Clitheroe, but we'll explore that in a second.

Um, now, you have done quite a bit of cycle touring, cycle travel, and, uh, you're also into your Audax.

Uh, can you explain a little bit about that?