Andrew Edwards BBC Radio Leeds interview with Glyn Watkins about the 2019 Yorkshire Hat Throwing Championship. On 27th July 2019 at 06.50.
The link will be open for 29 days from 27th July. I am just over 51 minutes in. You’ll need to sign up for the BBC.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p07gdttg
Below is my attempt at a transcript. I’ve left out all my um’s and err’s, so the word count is well down.
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Andrew: … On Thursday Bradford will be hosting a Yorkshire Hat Throwing Championship, where I believe any hat, not just flat caps are accepted. The man who’s organised the event, which will take place at the Bowling Hall Museum in Bradford, who describes himself as poet, writer, showman and lover of pies. Ladies and Gentlemen it is the excellent Glyn Watkins. Glyn good morning to you.
Glyn: Good morning Andrew! On this slightly chill morning.
Andrew: Chill is a good word for it… Chill and a little damp around the edges. What on earth Glyn is a hat throwing competition, or is it just what it sounds like?
Glyn: Well, it is a test of hand – eye coordination and manual dexterity It’s throwing a hat at a target and being scored accordingly
Andrew: Oh I see, so it’s not distance..
Glyn: No, I would like… T.I.F.F.T.H.A. (The Transnational Incorporated Federation of Formally Thrown Hat Associations) has considered doing distance Hatting, but that would require the training of hat dogs… obviously… because the first one I ever did, oddly enough, ten years ago, was on Ilkley Moor, and that would have been ideal for distance, but if you’ve been up Ilkley Moor to White Wells you’ll know the entire area is, pretty much now, covered with bracken and brambles
Andrew: And you would never find your hat again. ‘T.I.F.F.T.H.A.’ I love that. What a great name for your association! So is any version of hat accepted; because I’m thinking, already, without being a genius, that some forms of hat are going to be better at target hitting than others.
Glyn: Well, T.I.F.F.T.H.A. rules say that all hats have to be proper headgear, and the have to be safe to throw; and no metal is allowed, especially in bowlers; and that’s pretty much the rules as regards what you can throw. But the things is every time I do this… so I did this last year at Leeds Industrial Museum at Armley, and that was for a hat stand. This year I’m actually incorporating two bits of candelabra at Bowling Hall Museum. So it’s going to be actually slightly different. The best hat for this year is going be slightly different from it was last year…
Andrew: Oh what sophistication! So you have to try and get it over the candelabra have you?
Glyn: It’s got to… I’m making it fairly simple, in that if it stays on the candelabra then you score, but if you want to score highly then you’ve got to get it on the top bit. And i’ve incorporated a reproduction pig face bascinet on the advanced candelabra. (laughing from Andrew) … you’re going to have consecutive goes, and it’s all…
Andrew (laughing): How many goes?… What a world you live in Glyn!! This is fantastic! How many goes do you get then? Because I originally thought you just take a hard hat or something and you just hurl it at a target and that’d be straightforward, but you’ve throw in so many elements, curved balls, you’ve got to get it on a candelabra…
Glyn: Curved hats indeed! And you can’t use a hard hat… because it’s not safe to throw. And also if it’s outdoors it has to be biodegradable , though the Head Hatter has some discretion on that matter.
Andrew: Let me ask the question: how seriously will… Clearly you take it enormously seriously Glyn; but how seriously will other people be taking it?
Glyn: Well the thing is. What usually happens, and this happened from the very first one; you have, for instance, a family come along with children: it is suitable for children; obviously if they can’t pick up, if they’re too small to pick an actual hat up it then it might not be..… So the children have a go, and they make their dad’s have a go, and then about 15 minutes later the children’s saying:
“Dad! Dad! Please can we go!? We’re hungry!”
“NO! NO! I’m going to get it on!”
Andrew: “I’m going to win this!” Are you going to stand by or are you going to hat throw yourself Glyn?
Glyn: No, I’m going to stand by… There’s going to be a few of us there; and it is entry by donation. It’s free into the Museum but… the competition is entry by donation, and I am splitting that with Bradford Museums Services… and it does actually need some running, you know
Andrew: I understand.
Glyn: By the way, did you know that the Yorkshire Day was created by the Ridings Society
Andrew: It was them who did it originally? Well there you are! It makes an awful lot of sense for Yorkshire, doesn’t it!
Glyn: 1974 as a protest against the re-drawing of the County boundaries. So you could have a ‘Ridings of Yorkshire folk’.
Andrew: Well, I’ll have that down on the list. I quite like Sue the producers has come up with a ’Stubborn of Yorkshire people”.
Glyn: That’s quite good… My other suggestions A ‘Flat’at o Yorkshire folk.’ And a ‘Crust of Yorkshire folk’. Because obviously I also do the Pie & Priestley, celebrating the birthday of J.B.Priestley and a meat & potato pie that defied Hitler. That’s for later
Andrew: He’s a big pie fan as well. Excellent. Glyn, I think this sound wonderful: If people listening want to take part give us the why’s the where’fors, the time and the place.
Glyn: Right then. So it’s at Bolling Hall, Bowling Hall or Bolling Hall as it’s variously pronounced. It’s int’ Brat’ft. Bolling Hall Museum. From 11 o’clock on Thursday, which is Yorkshire Day, 1st August. Bolling Hall’s BD4 7LP. You can check www dot bradwan (b r a d w a n) dot com or I’ve got an instagram account @hatthrowing, one word. And go to one of those, or just turn up at the Museum after 11 o’clock on Thursday. There’ll be cakes and tea, and pop-up hat exhibitions, and all sorts of stuff at Bowling Hall.
Andrew: Glyn, you are an inspiration! We need more of you in the world!
Glyn: Thank you mate.
Andrew: That was just brilliant. Thank you very much indeed! There you are! Yorkshire Hat Throwing Championships at Bolling Hall, Bowling Hall Museum in Bradford from 11 o’clock on Thursday, all part of Yorkshire Day.
Pic of me at 07.00 this morning just after the interview with Andrew Edwards.
The Glyn Watkins Show Page. 
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