‘Sleuth’ Judkins tracks down elusive bib

Press, 5 February 1986, Page 3

‘Sleuth’ Judkins tracks down elusive bib

By

KEVIN TUTTY

A creased bib number has caused much gnashing of teeth in the last two days for one team in the Steinlager Coast-to-Coast event at the week-end, and turned the race organiser, Robin Judkins, into an amateur detective.

The problem showed up at 6.30 p.m. on Sunday after the last competitor crossed the line in the two-day event from Kumara beach on the West Coast to Sumner beach at Christchurch. Mr Judkins discovered that he had no finishing time for Coleman Creagh, of Greymouth, and Eric Hunter, of Christchurch, who had the second-fast-est time in the teams' section on the first day of the event x Creagh and Hunter said

they had finished the race but Creagh’s number, 318, was not recorded by any of the four timekeepers at the finish.

Creagh and Hunter maintained they were the fastest veteran team (over 40) to finish the race, but at the race presentation on Sunday evening, .Robert Forsyth and Peter Sullivan were awarded the trophy for the first veteran team, and the accompanying prize of Canterbury leisurewear. Mr Judkins told the two aggrieved contestants that their case was being investigated, but the problem was not solved on Sunday evening, nor on Monday.

Creagh, perhaps feeling the organisers had not treated his assertions seriously, related his tale of woe ,to the "Greymouth Evening Star” newspaper

and his hard luck story was circulated throughout New Zealand. At that stage Mr Judkins was still involved in his Sherlock Holmes act.

At midday yesterday the problem was finally resolved.

Every finisher had his and her photograph taken when crossing the line at Sumner, and so Mr Judkins, and Paul Farrow, the owner of Paul’s Camera Shop, who took the photographs, painstakingly sorted through rolls of negatives. Finally, Mr Farrow solved the problem. He knows Creagh and recognised his face on a negative. Suddenly the reason for the consternation was clear.

Somewhere on the 80km cycling leg to the finish Creagh’s bib. had -creased on the lefthand

side and the number 318, appeared in the photograph, and to the timekeepers at the finish, as 310.

A check revealed that two different times were recorded for 310. Even the photograph of Creagh crossing the line had been put in a gift pack and given to competitor 310 after the race.

A relieved Mr Judkins informed Creagh and Hunter yesterday afternoon that they were the confirmed winners of the veteran teams’ section in 13hr 9min 455, an exceptional time which placed them seventeenth over all in the teams’ section.

The pair will also receive their first prize, and the veterans’ team trophy, when Mr Judkins has recovered it from Forsyth and Sullivan.