IT seems amazing that in the vast coverage of plans to restore Donald Campbell’s speedboat, Bluebird, to its former glory, there has been no mention of the original breaking of the water-speed record on Ullswater, back in 1955.

Long before Coniston Water was the scene of high-speed activity, it was to Ullswater that Campbell took his powerful craft from the factory at Samlesbury (Lancashire) where it was constructed.

The original record-breaking attempt, with accompanying drama and vast crowds, gave the Herald its biggest story in years. This was world news virtually “on the doorstep”.

Daily newspapermen descended on Glenridding, where a special boathouse had been built, for the launch of the powerboat by the speed ace’s first wife, Dorothy, wielding a bottle of champagne.

But the initial venture on to Ullswater, shortly afterwards, was a disappointment, revealing the need for adjustments before greater speeds could be attempted.

There was much to be done by Leo Villa, chief mechanic, and his team, who spent two months making modifications before the first trial runs at speed.

As the record attempt neared its climax, in July, big crowds of onlookers thronged both sides of the lake, hoping to see the record broken.

This finally happened on Saturday, 23rd July, 1955, when Campbell sped down Ullswater at 215.08mph. Although the return journey was rather slower, the average of 202.32mph was enough to break the record set some years earlier by American Stanley Sayers in Slo Mo Shun.

It was Bluebird’s finest hour, but nowadays TV news reports always show shots of Coniston in January, 1967, when the jet-powered boat crashed and sank — a sad, sensational end to Donald Campbell’s career of courage and commitment.

LANGUAGE UNDER THREAT

Receiving a personal letter is one of the joys of life, whether it comes from an elderly relative, a former colleague or an old school friend.

Alas, the handwritten letter will soon be extinct — a victim of vast changes in personal communication, now dominated by .co.uk and the texting of short messages in grotesque abbreviations.

Instead of the punctuation, correct spelling and sentences of the letter, texters use a weird language in which “4” means for, “u” means “you” and “LOL” represents “lots of love”.

E-mailing has virtually put paid to the homeliness of the handwritten letter, along with its tools — pen and pencil, paper and ink.

Even compilers of the Oxford English Dictionary seem to be accepting the decline in standards. They have just removed the hyphen from 16,000 words, so that texters no longer have the inconvenience of pressing the hyphen key.

Pigeon-hole has become pigeonhole and spell-check is now spellcheck, to give only two examples of the exit of the hyphen.

Many texters would say that veterans, like this columnist, should cast aside their quill pens and move into the modern world. Don’t they realise they are vandalising our language and savaging our vocabulary by indulging in the sloppiness of texting, rather than writing.

John Humphreys wrote with some passion on the subject in the Daily Mail and summed up the fears of many people in this verse:

Mary had a mobile.

She texted day and night.

But when it came to her exams,

She’d forgotten how to write.

The joys of the English language should be protected — ASAP.

FANCY A MUDPIE?

Who’s for ice cream?

Time was when children licked their lips at the prospect of a penny cornet, generally containing vanilla, chocolate or strawberry flavour.

Life is much more complicated — and exciting — for the ice cream addict in 2007, for the range of contents of cones has zoomed.

This information came from a dear grand-daughter, who does holiday work for Twentymans, makers of the delicacy at Allonby, on the Solway coast, when she produced a list of more than 50 lickable, suckable treats available there.

It seems many ice creams are now based on popular sweets, such as Mars bars, Maltesers, Toblerone, Rum and Raisin and Bubble-Gum.

Or you may prefer a cone containing something from the selection which take their names and flavours from toothsome kitchen dishes, such as lemon meringue pie, raspberry pavlova, apple crumble, rhubarb and custard and strawberry cheesecake.

The whopper seems likely to be very popular — but can there be much of a demand for the mudpie?

WHAT, NO RED CARD?

Football fans, both on the spot and of the TV-watching variety, tend to go dotty if they feel a referee is too lenient. “He should have a red card,” they yell if a hard man is not reprimanded for a crunching tackle.

There was a more easygoing attitude back in 1899, on the evidence of a Herald report of a spirited match between Penrith Working Men and Carleton Rovers, in the Penrith and District League.

Rival players jumped to head the ball and, the report continued, “Birkett’s fist unfortunately struck Rushforth across the face, inflicting a bruise which necessitated his retirement.”

“No blame, of course, can be attached to Birkett,” added the Herald defensively.

Imagine the fun today’s football pundits, like Gary Lineker, Alan Hansen and Alan Shearer, would have with slow motion playbacks of the incident to decide the real intent of Birkett’s flying fist — and whether he should have been red-carded.