Tribute to the 'one they can't take away'

Known as the Hookey Run, this year’s sponsored cycle ride from The Boot pub in Dullingham was held for the first time without the popular pub regular whose name it bears.

The ride was first held back in in 2003 and took the participants round local pubs. It was named for Maurice ‘Hookey’ Starvis, as a tribute both to his prowess as a cyclist and his love of the village pubs round Kirtling where he was born and where he had lived most of his life. He died suddenly in March this year aged 82 and Burrough Green church was packed for his funeral service.

And on July 29 around 100 people turned out to ride the Hookey Run for the East Anglian Air Ambulance in his memory, raising more than £900.

Mark Pollington, landlord of The Boot, said: “Hookey had been a regular at the pub forever and the ride went round all his old haunts, The King’s Head in Dullingham, The Granby at Stetchworth, the Red Lion at Kirtling, the Three Tuns at Cowlinge and The Bull at Burrough Green, with stops in Wood Ditton and Great Bradley.”

All the participants wore T-shirts with a photograph of Mr Starvis and bearing the words ‘Another one they can’t take away’.