LEGENDARY Hawick yachtsman Sir Chay Blyth and John Ridgway have ended one of the longest-running feuds in British sport.
The pair secretly met for lunch at the Philipburn Hotel in Selkirk, more than 43 years after their falling out.
Chay and John's friendship ended after they were hailed heroes for rowing across the Atlantic in just 92 days in a 20ft boat in 1966.
The feat won Hawick-born Chay, pictured, the British Empire Medal and made the pair household names across Britain.
But the row between the two men became so bitter that John refused to be a guest when Chay appeared on This Is Your Life.
Commenting on their reconciliation, Chay, 69, insisted he couldn't even remember why they stopped speaking.
He said: "The fall-out was decades ago but to be honest I have completely forgotten what caused it. Our meeting was a bit like the film The Bucket List, where the main character makes a list of people from his life who he wants to meet again before he dies. As we are both getting older, we decided to meet up at his suggestion.
"It is an awful long time since we spoke and we probably won't meet again but we had a very nice time. John was in the area and at the end we decided really to let bygones be bygones."
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