Stick your trainers, we’ve got bells and hankies
Among the sleek vested athletes with carbon plated trainers at Sunday’s Sheffield half marathon will be half a dozen cheery chaps, dancing up and down the hillsides in white cotton shirts and green trousers.
They’ll also be waving handkerchiefs, and you’ll hear them coming because their ankles will be festooned with bells.
“But we have to tie them up a bit rather than have them flapping around like they usually do,” explaIned one of the Sheffield City Morris half marathon team, Dominic Rice. “I did a practice race a few years ago and got bruised shins and knees from bell impacts, which is not the usual kind of running injury you hear about.”
This year is the 50th anniversary of Sheffield City Morris, and keen runner Dominic persuaded several of his colleagues to join him in an early season celebration to run (and carry out two or three en-route dances) at one of England’s hilliest half marathons.
Many believe Morris dancing is a short-distance activity, with participants bouncing around in circles, often near a pub. But since 2000, the Sheffield City dancers have also led other traditional dance teams from across the UK in a five mile (or so) merry summer dance up and down the Monsal Trail near Bakewell. One of the founding principles for Morris dancing is that it’s fun and keeps you fit, even when you’ve been doing it for the best part of fifty years.
“There’s something special about dancing in the Peak District on a sunny day,” explained team member Pete Delamere during one of the ‘Weekend of Dance’ events. “We enjoy ourselves, do lots of dances and drink lots of beer. Where else would you rather be?”
The team began in 1975 thanks to founder and former Chingford Morris Men member Bob Hazelwood, who moved back to Sheffield keen to form a new team of dancers who’d start building their own Morris tradition by making the dances “an entertaining spectacle in an urban environment.”
The origins of the team’s complex handkerchief waving and stick bashing dance style are lost in the hazy memories of elder team members lubricated by years of wheeling exertions and post dance pub sessions.
The style is known as ‘Medup’, which is either based on ancient manuscripts in a mysterious chest from the village of Midhopestones, dredged from Langsett Reservoir in the 1970s, or a construct from a mixture of Cotswold and other styles simplified from the original local dialect description of “Medupbeeuzzsenz.”
All of this will surely be debated on Sunday, as the six dancers jingle their way along Ecclesall Road to the heights of Ringinglow (where they hope to perform a 2-3 minute dance) followed by an even noisier descent back to the city (with further dances at Dore, possibly Ecclesall Road, and after refreshments at the finish).
The team are raising funds for Sheffield Futures, a local charity offering young people mental health and employment support. (Donations welcome: https://www.justgiving.com/page/scm)
“We’re keen to support young people in our host city,” said Dominic Rice. “You never know, some might become team members in a few years.”
There have already been practise runs at Endcliffe and Hillsborough parkruns, where fellow runners were unnerved by the jangling sounds behind.
“They shout: ‘Oh no! The bells! The bells!’ as we overtake,” said Dominic.
Morris Dancing has evolved since 1975, and Sheffield City now has a women’s team, along with several members in their 30s and 40s as well as more traditional grey bearded dancers. A 24- year-old participant on the Monsal Trail a few years ago explained:
“Morris dancing can have an image problem, and people often think it’s lots of fat old men lumbering around. We think we can help change that perception by proving it doesn’t have to be like that.”
So the inspiration for the next 50 years of Sheffield Morris will be there for all to see (and hear) in our green-trousered athletes ringing out over the city this weekend.