26/05/2026
FREE ENTRY 4th JULY WOODHOUSE EDITION
The Fan Dance Woodhouse Edition (Exercise Keystone) News Update.
Our masterpiece route march needs some innovation and an irregular manouver to survive. The proposal is to stage the event by offering a guest place/free entry to all who showed their support by emailing in their expression of interest. We're very grateful for your support. This offer will be extended to the wider supporters of the Fan Dance to a limit of 100 runners/marchers. Email in to [email protected] subject line: WOODHOUSE FREE ENTRY
There is no such thing as a free lunch and the condition is that all Woodhouse marchers suppport the Winter Edition Woodhouse event to be staged Saturday 8th January. We need to reach a field strength of 100 for a summer green on.
The Fan Dance Woodhouse route is a marching masterpiece and one of the most beautiful events we have ever staged. Anyone who has attemoted or completed it would unwaveringly support the claim.
All entrants will receieve a custom Woodhouse patch that differs from the standard Fan Dance design and a complimentary post march curry from our usual caterers par excellence.
Some background info on the true master inspirer below.
The Woodhouse Edition is named after Lieutenant-Colonel John Michael Woodhouse MBE, MC (29 September 1922 – 15 February 2008).
Woodhouse saw active service with the East Surrey Regiment in Tunisia, Sicily and Italy and was awarded the Military Cross in 1943 for a patrol raid on German headquarters. He was a prisoner in Germany for the last year of the war.
After the war he learned Russian at Cambridge and his post-war service was spent mainly on Intelligence staff appointments.
He joined the Special Air Service Regiment in 1950 and saw active service in Malaya before returning to command the SAS Regiment in Hereford.
During his period with the SAS the then Major Woodhouse was responsible for introducing what became known as the 'Selection course' in 1952 which is now widerly regarded as the most demanding military training/selection courses in the world. Before that troopers had earned their credentials in the field. The Fan Dance route remains one of the original tests that have survived and still in operation to the current day.
The Fan Dance march has historically been an integral and legendary part of the British SAS Selection process and was first introduced as an essential test in the decade following the World War II. At over sixty years old the Fan Dance and its Woodhouse route predecessor is the world’s oldest and most famous Special Forces Selection test and the standard by which all others are set. Originally and still officially known as Exercise High Walk in its modern format, this test was designed by the Late Lt Col John Woodhouse, the architect and pioneer of the very first SAS Selection course. The rigorous systems he developed over three years provided the basis of selection and training of the modern SAS. The original Woodhouse route took on a different and somewhat more demanding shape in the early days of Selection. With three ascents of Pen y Fan, two of which via dramatic new approaches, in an era where the now well established man-made mountain footpaths were just muddy sheep trails, this formidable test represented the end of the journey for many a likely SAS candidate and was the penultimate test before the great pilgrimage that is the Long Drag. Now buried in the past, this great test of human endeavour has not been marched since the late 1970s and its route lost to all but those with a deep passion and curiosity for the history of SAS Selection.
AEE are honoured to have brought life back to this monumental test, inspired by one of our great friends who marched this legendary route on his SAS Selection course in the summer of 1969. The Woodhouse edition will touch the heart of any of our Fan Dance faithful as we follow in the footsteps of a history of extraordinary men in search of something out of the ordinary. The Fan Dance Woodhouse Edition is open to veterans of our standard Fan Dance route only, in both Clean Fatigue & Load Bearing weight categories, with Main Field & Masters’ fields.
The Woodhouse Edition will be staged on Saturday 8th July. The standard Fan Dance will also run concurrently on the same date. Fan Dance veterans, this is your opportunity to revisit history and the grand origins of one of the most beautiful, demanding and prestigous tests/events and challenges in the land. Regi
Who Dares Wins
Footnote: A blast from the past! Many of you will remember school packed lunches from back in the day, none of which were complete without a Panda pop. Following retirement from the SAS, Woodhouse joined the family brewery where he invented and launched the nationally succesful Pana Pops. Who'd ever have imagined that such an innocent and joyful part of our childhood memories were crafted by the architect of SAS Selection.
