Andrew Triggs Hodge, Speaking at Grassington Festival, Monday 24th June 2013
By Tom Swain …
When I heard Andrew Triggs Hodge would be doing a talk at the Grassington Festival, I knew I had to go. It’s folk like Andy who make you proud to be a Yorkshireman – if you needed any help.
The evening of Monday 24th June was compered by the truly inimitable Mr Ian Douglass, and he provided humour and context to Andrew’s arrival.
“A strong, loose-limbed gent” was how he described the Olympic rower, before proceeding to meditate on Andy’s “Grecian good looks”. A quirky prologue maybe, but it put the assembled audience in a fine old fettle.
Andrew is, if you don’t know, a man of the Dales. He went to school in the Dales, is best of friends with another fine Dales character (looking at you, Ted Mason), and is a persuasive advocate of all things Dales.
Andrew took the stage to fierce applause, as would be appropriate for an international champion returning home. This was his first public appearance at home since last summer, and it was clear that the audience wanted to make their gratitude, admiration and pride abundantly self-evident.
Despite looking a touch nervous at the outset – he’d done things like this before, but never in front so many faces he knew, he explained – he soon found some fine pace.
Andrew spoke about his faltering academic career which culminated in a hard-earned 2:1 at university. He maintained throughout that he wasn’t and isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, but the blond-haired Olympian was perfectly eloquent and articulate at every turn.
The evening’s showpiece was, in a way, a replay of that famous rowing final at last year’s Olympic Games. The one where we (by which I refer to Team GB and the rest of the country) pulled ahead right from the beginning, leaving our rival Aussies in our watery dust. Magical is a good word to describe it.
Andrew gave a running commentary, pausing the action at the half way point to give an insight into the emotion of the four-strong crew, and how the rest of the race ought to pan out.
He paused again at the three-quarter point, just 500m from the finish. But the point at which the packed grandstand begins to line the bank of the course.
Andrew explained that against all the odds, against the malicious will of the free-flowing lactic acid in the crew’s muscles, the support of the home crowd was enough to push them onward to victory.
This wasn’t self-indulgence though. It was clear that Andrew wanted to relive the experience with those present. Unprompted applause from the audience when the race finished was a sure indication of the collective pride in Andy.
He was insistent that the gold medal he produced from his pocket was not his alone, or even his at all. It belonged to the nation, and to the people in the room.
Andrew explained his drive to improve and be better comes from his heritage as a Yorkshireman, and the formative experiences of his youth – from being an enthusiastic gofer on a local building project once to constantly coming second to good friend and serial fell-runner Ted Mason.
The evening concluded with an entertaining cameo from Ted Mason himself, who came on holding a half-gone pint of ale. Contrast that with Andy holding an Olympic gold medal, and Ted may feel he should have come holding his trophy for winning the famous Kilnsey Fell Race aloft.
Speaking to me the following day, Andrew said of the evening:
These sorts of things are few and far between, but it was a really good day out. Coming back to the Dales is like coming home and I’m really pleased everyone enjoyed it last night.
I was nervous about the reaction I would get from the people back home. It’s so far away from London, and I was worried that the games wouldn’t touch people back home.
Andrew said, talking about growing up in Yorkshire:
The determination I spoke about is definitely a Yorkshire thing – the mind-set of no shortcuts. If you want to get on in life, then you’ve got to do something.
I think a significant part of the medal was made in the Dales, it belongs to everyone.
Asked about what support means to him, and his plans for the future, he said:
In training, you have to rely on yourself; it’s an intrinsic sort of drive. The race events that mean something are the ones where you can feel the support of the people cheering you on – it takes away the pain of making it over the finish line.
Knowing that I have so much support back home makes me proud of what I have done.
Whether I go to Rio or not is something I have to decide for myself, it’s a decision that has to be made for the right reasons. I’ve got to be careful with decisions over the next few years.