Alderney pensioner dies after Cresta Run crash
A DAREDEVIL Alderney pensioner has died after crashing his toboggan on the infamous Cresta Run.
Ralph Hubbard, 72, who had a house in Little Street, was a keen flier and tobogganist and he would fly out to Switzerland every winter to participate in amateur races held by the St Moritz Tobogganing and Bobsled Club.
Mr Hubbard crashed and broke his neck while negotiating a notoriously tricky sharp bend on the ice-covered tracks, on which competitors travel down head first, reaching speeds of up to 80mph.
He spent a week in a coma in hospital before being allowed to slip away.
Mr Hubbard, a successful jeweller, had made Alderney his principal residence for about five years.
He had another home in Hampshire, which boasts its own private hangar and air strip, and he would frequently fly into Alderney on his yellow RV9 home-built aircraft.
He also owned a bi-plane, which he had landed on a helicopter pad on the tiny island of Tresco in the Scilly Isles.
