Andy Potts
Bio
Community focused sports fan from Northeast England. Tends to root for the little guy. Look out for Talking Northeast, my new project coming soon.
Stories (90/0)
Pints & Parkruns: Cardiff
There’s no getting away from it: Cardiff is a serious sporting city. On the day I pitched up at the parkrun I was earmarked to work at ice hockey’s Continental Cup final. Had I not been committed there, I could have spent my day watching Championship football (Cardiff City 0 Leeds 3), international netball (Wales 48 Uganda 59), European Champions Cup rugby (Cardiff 15 Harlequins 54) or the World Wheelchair Fencing Championship.
By Andy Potts4 months ago in Longevity
Pints & Parkruns: Sedgefield
When I was a kid, Hardwick Park meant fishing nets and leeches in the pond. Back then, it had seen better days – but they were in the 18th century, so it wasn’t immediately clear what potential the place could have. A decade of restoration, at a cost of £4.1 million transformed the place and, after it reopened in 2010, parkrun got going within a couple of years.
By Andy Potts4 months ago in Longevity
Pints & Parkruns: Albert Park, Middlesbrough
Think Brian Clough, think Nottingham? Not round here. The famously outspoken football genius was a Middlesbrough boy and proud of it. He never managed at Ayresome Park, something of a lingering regret for Boro fans of a certain vintage. But he began his prolific playing career with his hometown club (albeit via a brief stint at nearby Billingham Synthonia), rattling in goals with metronomic regularity before moving to Sunderland and continuing in the same vein, scoring 251 times in 274 games before a career-ending injury cut him down in his prime.
By Andy Potts4 months ago in Longevity
Pints & Parkruns: Conyngham Hall, Knaresborough
Harrogate gets the headlines, but those in the know come to Knaresborough. It’s an odd little throwback of a place, perched on a precipitous gorge astride the River Nidd. Come by train – it’s on the Leeds-Harrogate-York line – and you’ll arrive at a station that could feature in a period drama. Approach in the right direction and you’ll cross the crenelated viaduct that features in almost every photo of the town.
By Andy Potts6 months ago in Longevity
Pints & Parkruns: Riverside, Chester-le-Street
This wasn’t the plan. However, with storm Ciaran prompting me to look up the designs for Noah’s Ark, it didn’t feel like a weekend for a course with grass or trails. Riverside, I hoped, would be relatively unaffected. Although this Chester-le-Street event once had an old route that cut across the grass, the last time I ran here it was all on paths.
By Andy Potts6 months ago in Longevity
Pints & Parkruns: Queen's Park, Glasgow
Before Glasgow’s Queen’s parkrun, everyone is invited to drop into the nearby church for coffee and a biscuit afterwards. Eyes are irresistibly drawn to the rather elegant late Victorian spire of Queen’s Park Baptist Church on Balvicar Street. What they don’t mention is that each of the three laps ahead involves a climb that brings you close to the top of that 200ft spire. That’s why this is Scotland’s steepest parkrun, with a total elevation gain of 113m, according to Strava.
By Andy Potts9 months ago in Longevity
Pints & Parkruns: Jersey
It’s on an island, but Jersey parkrun is far from insular. It’s always been popular with tourists – for a long time it was the only ‘J’ for alphabet hunters, and it can claim to be the southernmost in Britain. Plus, with the start a 20-minute walk from the airport, it could hardly be better located for a flying visit.
By Andy Potts9 months ago in Longevity
Pints & Parkruns: Crichton, Dumfries
The Parkrun family will find you, whether you look for it or not. I’d only spent a couple of days in Dumfries, and pretty much the only people I’d spoken to in that time were connected to the ice hockey tournament where I was working. The exception was one lady who I met at the Moat Brae Centre for Children’s Literature. So, knowing approximately one local, it was somehow improbable and inevitable that she was the first person I bumped into at Crichton Parkrun the next day.
By Andy Potts10 months ago in Longevity
Pints & Parkruns: Herrington Country
Running beneath Penshaw Monument is more fitting than many might expect. The mock Grecian temple that dominates views from Herrington Country Park commemorates a man nicknamed Jog-along Jack in his lifetime. True, that soubriquet stemmed not from Jack Lambton’s commitment to pounding the future pavements of Washington New Town, but from a typical throwaway comment that an English gentleman “might jog along comfortably enough on £40,000 a year”. That was in 1821; in today’s money it would be close to £4 million.
By Andy Potts10 months ago in Longevity
- Top Story - July 2023
Pints & Parkruns: Cosmeston LakesTop Story - July 2023
It doesn’t look it today, but Cosmeston Lakes is a reclaimed industrial site. Once, a series of cement quarries dominated what is now a country park. Today, though, it’s transformed. No hint of heavy industry remains and on a crisp, bright autumnal morning the birds emerge from the mist rising from the lake. It’s a scene to inspire thoughts of Celtic mysticism; Wales is the possible birthplace of King Arthur, and it’s not hard to imagine Geoffrey of Monmouth’s legends of Ladies in Lakes playing out right here.
By Andy Potts10 months ago in Longevity
Pints & Parkruns: Wynyard Woodland
Running around the northeast continually turns up routes the lead back to the region’s industrial history. Wynyard Woodland, the latest event on the list, is no exception. For all the sylvan idyll of a tree-lined course, this follows the path of a goods railway that delivered County Durham's coal to the Tees at Stockton.
By Andy Potts11 months ago in Longevity