Roy's sporty secret SPORTY Roy Britch puts his schoolboy athletics prowess down to sheer panic.

Roy, now in his mid-50s and the long-serving secretary of the local amateur Rugby League organisation, was among many readers transported back in time by earlier references to the old 'haunted house' of Peasley Cross . And he bounced out of the starting blocks to recount his unusual tale.

"I was a St Helens schoolboys 880-yards champion in 1954-55, also taking part in races at county level in the White City Stadium. And I can thank that eerie old house for my success!"

As a lad, Roy, who is now secretary of Moss Bank Labour Club, often used to visit an aunt who lived in Sutton Road, just round the corner from the so-called haunted house.

"The place gave me the creeps," says Roy. And on the return journey on foot he'd set off like a shot past the big house of a thousand rumours - down Gaskell Street to his family home in the Bull's Head area of Parr.

He later discovered that the distance from the house of fear to his Parr home was precisely half-a-mile, the distance in which he afterwards specialised as a runner.

"I didn't need much training over the distance," grins Roy, "just the thought of that scary old house was enough to put wings on my heels."

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