ABSTRACT
Welsh national champion during the 1840s and conqueror of many renowned English runners, professional pedestrian John Davies (1822-c.1909) was born in Llansanffraid-ym-Mechain in Powys, and was nicknamed Y Cyw Cloff (‘The Lame Chick’) on account of his distinctive running style. Davies’s slight frame was ideal for distance events and his string of successes led to his immortalisation in various ballads, which marvelled at his remarkable speed and compared him with such animals as hares and deer. Davies competed until at least the late 1850s and is said to have died from pleurisy caught while bell-ringing in the freezing conditions of his local church.
