I saw the the Wallabies on the Roaches in the early 1960's, they were a star turn.
Or one particular individual was, my climbing partner was studying for his teaching degree in Birmingham, for teaching practice he drew a school in Winston Green. A particularly difficult group of kids, mega street wise in urban life but complete numpties in the the country. Pete decided to take his class out on rock climbing instruction and as his partner I got roped in as instructor.
No qualifications or CRB checks in those days if you fitted the bill you did!.
The entire class volunteered, plus few extra, so whilst we 'instructors!' had 2 each kids tied onto a rope on the crag there was a fairly large gang roaming free in the countryside below the crag, where we had an overview. Being used to city life they kept together in a pretty tight cohesive bunch moving around like an arrowhead controlled by the pack leader.
Suddenly they flushed out the Wallabies, probably having a quiet sunday afternoon snooze in the heather, eventually after some time of relentless pursuit, one Wallaby seemed to take over the task of leading away this pack of street urchins, intent on mugging, murder or trophy snatching. A pattern started to emerge, the wallaby would allow the head of the pack to almost the tip of its tail before 'boink' away he flew in a precise jump between rocks or over a gully causing the pursuing pack to tumble around and about in whatever piece of hostile ground it could lure them into. Undeterred the Winston Green gang were convinced they had a trophy to take back to school and everlasting fame.
The end game developed, with the Wallaby landing close under the lee of a dry-stone wall, the pack scented blood and accelerated onto a certain kill, as the leaders dived in, an almost vertical spring of wallaby Olympian standard left a small space at the bottom of the wall to be filled by a mass of teenage limbs, bodies, heads in a disjointed tangle finally halted but not immobile.
The wallaby leisurely hopped away to join its mates, when we finally returned these these children to their city patch with a disproportionate amount of grazes, bruises and bumps, these were all explained away as honourable trophies of a good day out.
