Burnely for the win. London to place. Canterbury to show
The Racing Post reports “stonking action on the track over Christmas” this year, with attendance at race courses topping 200,000. On Boxing Day 21,164 saw Thistlecrack win the King George VI Chase at Kempton while 11,861 cheered home Native River in the Welsh Grand National at Chepstow the next day. Despite the inclement weather over 30,000 turned out at Cheltenham for the New Year’s Day events.
A highlight of this Christmas’ race season was the first annual Church of England episcopal point to point. The Christmas messages of 37 bishops of the Church of England were posted on the website of Anglican Ink between 26 to 28 December 2016. The results — the number of times each message was read — are in and its a shocker.
The odds on favorite this year, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Rt Hon and Most Rev. Justin Welby, ran third this year, losing to the Bishop of London, the Rt. Hon and Rt. Rev. Richard Chartres, while the winner, in his maiden event was the suffragan Bishop of Burnley, the Rt. Rev. Philip North.
Setting the Archbishop of Canterbury’s total readership at the mark of 100, Bishop North bested Cantaur by over thirty percent, with London romping home by 9 lengths. Seven bishops were scratched from the event due to our not being able to locate their Christmas messages by post time — Birmingham, Chester, Coventry, Europe, Leeds, Salisbury, Sheffield and Sodor & Man. However, Ramsbury was able to run in place of Salisbury. The official results are:
|
Blackburn – Burnley |
135 |
Lincoln |
45 |
|
London |
109 |
Manchester |
42 |
|
Canterbury |
100 |
Liverpool |
38 |
|
Chichester |
75 |
Southwell & Nottingham |
37 |
|
Gloucester |
71 |
Guilford |
36 |
|
Hereford |
68 |
Derby |
35 |
|
Exeter |
67 |
Leicester |
35 |
|
Ely |
61 |
Rochester |
35 |
|
Carlisle |
59 |
St Albans |
35 |
|
York |
57 |
Chelmsford |
34 |
|
Newcastle |
55 |
Leeds – Bradford |
34 |
|
Truro |
53 |
Norwich |
32 |
|
Salisbury – Ramsbury |
51 |
Peterborough |
32 |
|
Oxford |
50 |
St Edmundsbury & Ipswich |
32 |
|
Durham |
47 |
Worcester |
29 |
|
Bristol |
46 |
Bath & Wells |
28 |
|
Southampton |
46 |
Southwark |
28 |
|
WInchester |
46 |
Lichfield |
27 |
|
Blackburn |
24 |
What does this tell us? Interest in the two female diocesan bishops, Gloucester and Newcastle, remains high. York appears past mark of mouth, while a mix of Anglo-Catholic and Evangelicals rounded out the top ten.
Perhaps the Bishop of Burnley’s mother has a large number of friends, but a new traditionalist Anglo-Catholic bishop from one of the wetter corners of Lancashire generating the highest interest among our (wonderful) readers is somewhat remarkable
