Bulldog Run 15 : 2024

It’s crazy to think that it’s 15 years since Tina Hall’s brainwave to organise a rideout which would raise much-needed funds for the Bulldog Rescue & Rehoming Centre in Midhurst. The Bulldog Run has grown into one of the biggest rideouts in the south and is now organised by Sarah George with support from her Area 51 gang.

This year we lost Richard Stewart, one of my fellow Midhurst Detours, who was a long-time supporter of the bulldogs. Sarah suggested that this year’s event should be in memory of Rich which was a lovely idea and so we used his scooter as the basis for the patch design. When I say ‘we’, it was actually my son Daniel who designed the patch, putting his graphics skills to good use. (If you’re a Pompey or Coventry fan then you can see more of Dan’s graphics over on Instagram. Follow Pompey Hub or Cov Unofficial over there)

So we started in Chichester, meeting at the MacDonald’s car park, with contingents from Portsmouth, Brighton, Worthing, Littlehampton, Bognor and Emsworth – all across the south coast in fact. What was particularly poignant is that the new owner of Rich’s Vespa, Cameron, rode down with Putt for the occasion – and it was lovely to see it shining so nicely in the sun.

Chichester Gallery

Rideout Gallery

After buying a patch, I left ahead of the main rideout as I wanted to get some photos of the scooters as they rode past. I also shot some video which hopefully will be on my YouTube channel in the coming week.

Bulldog Rescue & Rehoming Centre

It seemed busy when we arrived and we just managed to squeeze our scooters into the entrance to the centre where Dizzy and Tania were waiting to greet everyone. There was already a queue for tea and cake, and plenty of scooterists keen to pet the dogs.

As is tradition, I headed into the road to try and work out how many scooter had converged on a sleepy lane in Midhurst. Today I counted 215 scooters, but guess it was closer to 250 in reality as more were arriving all the time. Another tradition is for people to try and put me off as I’m doing my count, shouting out random numbers – but I wasn’t distracted and got the job done!

Bulldog Rescue Gallery

Bluebell Inn

A new venue for the music and drinking was unveiled this year, the Bluebell Inn at Cocking. DJ Rob Skelt was spinning the tunes in the garden and the pub were cooking up some burgers under the gazebo – it was the perfect place for chatting in the sun. We stayed for nearly 2 hours and then it was time to head home, another lovely ride in the sun.

Thanks to everyone who came today, and I’ll update this post with news of how much was raised today. If you’d like to donate then here’s a link. Tania has worked tirelessly since 2001 as head of the Bulldog Rescue & Rehoming Centre and since its first inception in the 1960s they have found new forever homes for over 4000 dogs.