This one were Barry's. He rang the Tuesday to report a left trainer at Crow Nest Park in Dewsbury, at the foot of the steps by the museum, and I drove over the Saturday to confirm, because only confirmed shoes go in the register and that rule has never bent for anybody, Barry included. Barry understands this better than anyone. He's been submitting since 2013 and he'd be the first to say a report is a report and a register entry is a register entry.
It were where he said, near enough. Left trainer, black, laces tied, condition good, and I took me own photographs, which went in the file, as is the practice — Barry's photographs have come on a good deal since 2013, and I told him so that day, but the file takes the confirming photographs and that's procedure, not a judgement. His early ones, if I'm honest, could have been of anything. His 2022 ones you could identify the shoe from across a room. That's nine years of application and it deserves noting here.
Warm day. We had the flask between us on the bench, and the notebook records that and doesn't record much talking, which is accurate. Barry and I have never needed a lot of conversation. Two men, one bench, one confirmed trainer, tea. He'd put three pound into the Heckmondwike Fund only two months before, which I'd acknowledged at the front of the notebook and acknowledge again here, as contributions should be acknowledged wherever the opportunity arises. Number 216 stands in the register as a Barry find, confirmed. There's no higher category. Well — there's no category at all, it's a register. But if there were.
Written up August 2026, from the notebook.