The Christmas Sledging

Thus far, the academics at Hull University don't seem to have found any evidence of Philip Larkin sledging on Christmas Day. I did it yesterday, however, for the first and last time in my life. The first little run was okay but the second attempt, on Swindon's answer to the Cresta Run, was somewhat more traumatic and after early turbulence in which my hat flew off in awkward reverence, pilot and conveyance also went their separate ways.

The Christmas Sledging

That Christmas, it was great sledging away
And not until
My second run ended in disarray
At the bottom of a much steeper hill
Was my short-lived sledging career packed up.
Something that perhaps shouldn't have started,
Or, having done once, shouldn't have again.
It's faster than it looks and didn't stop
That time until I and sledge were parted
And felt something somewhere becoming pain.

Photographs by Pam Chadwick. Thank you very much.