It was when I was at school. The javelin gave me one of my favourite school moments - Trinity House had lads from all over Yorks & Lincs, we had one lad from Leeds who, at his old school, had been a Yorkshire junior javelin champion, WE all knew this but 'Bomber' Lancaster didn't! Bomber was an ex-submariner, and without a doubt the scariest twat that any schoolboy could meet, a true psycho. Anyway, come sports day Bomber is running the show, first lad takes his throw with Bomber stood well back, ready to measure - safe as houses, 3/4 throws later up comes our man and tells Bomber that he should retreat a bit more, Bomber retorts that no boy in the history of Trinity House has ever thrown to where he was stood, our kid advises him that he can throw that far so Bomber takes two half strides further back and shouts for him to get on with it. You can guess what happened - this javelin left his hand like a ****ing arrow, Bomber sees it flying at him and realises it's time to really move or be speared - I can still see the terror on his face and the speed that this portly man could move, I can also hear the sound he made as the javelin flew over his shoulder to create a new javelin record that probably stands even now fifty years later!
