350-mile Bangla beat

Phil Buckley on his Bangladesh bike ride

Former Oldham bobby Phil Buckley used his fluent knowledge of Bengali to take part in a gruelling 350-mile bike ride.

He travelled to Bangladesh where temperatures regularly reached 100F, and ended up at Cox’s Bazaar on the coast.

But Phil, whose beat was the Coldhurst and Westwood area until he retired in 2003, began his ride in Sylhet, where most of Oldham’s 15,000 Bangladeshis come from.

He started at a village called Singer Kash, where the poet Hasan Raza lived, and pedalled to the coast with two friends, Azmol Khan, from Main Road, Oldham; and Abdul Salam, an accountant from London.

Phil studied the language because so many of the people who lived on his beat came from Sylhet.

Phil, who now covers Coldhurst and Westwood as an environmental health officer for Oldham Council, said: “We rode for six days, the first five at 50 miles-a-day, the last one 100 miles.

“People couldn’t believe this grey-haired old chap was riding around Bangladesh.

“People were very welcoming and chopped down coconuts for us to drink from. I enjoyed it, but it was very hard physically.”

Since he came back, Phil has also been training for two triathlons.

His Bangladesh adventure also raised £150, divided between Andrea’s Gift, a Leeds-based charity which helps people with head injures, and the Just Help Foundation in Bangladesh.