Author: The Author

Before we go on to the memorabilia, I will draw your attention to an article from Racing Past which deals with miling and in particular the career of John Joe Barry who ran in Scotland as a member of the St Machan’s club in Lennoxtown for several years.   The article, a very good read, is at  https://www.racingpast.ca/bob-phillips.php?id=34       Picture below is of John Joe leading in the AAA’s championships of 1949.   He set a world record for the one and a half miles which was not recognised as such because the distance was not recognised by the IAAF for world record purposes.   Read it but first have a look at this collection of memorabilia.

Hugh really does have some really good stuff in his collection and also has an eye for the outstanding items on Facebook and internet pages.   The first one here is a real gem – I’ve never seen anything like it.   Sent by Ian Binnie’s daughter Shelley Pedersen it is a badge from the Empire Games in Vancouver in 1954.   Ian’s profile is on the website at  this link.  

Of course Hugh’s interest in the history of the sport is well known and among the items on this page we have this letter inviting a club to take part in the Five-a-side tournament at the Rangers Sports in 1954.   

There is I think almost universal regret that the short relays in October have pretty well all gone – there was the McAndrew Relay at Scotstoun on the first Saturday of the month, followed by the County Relays, followed by the District Relays and then the National relays.   Before the National relays there was the Dundee Kingsway Relay – like all the rest it was a 4 man, just short of 3 miles, relay and like the McAndrew it was on the roads.   Hugh of course was in a winning team and shows us his plaque.   

There are not many with his knowledge of the early days of the sport and the overlap between football and athletics and here we have an article from the Scottish Athletics Journal.   You will note that Tom Vallance was a top class all round sportsman and the first man ever to hold the national record for the long jump.

Many of us remember the statue on the canopy outside Bishopbriggs Leisure Centre.   It was one of three casts of a statue made by John  Longden and was simply called the Runner.    It was removed after the Centre was refurbished and ended up for a short while inside in Hugh’s office.   both runners are pictured with the metal one wearing what looks like a rugby or football top.

More to come!

Aileen running in the Perth Ultra Fest, 2010

Aileen Scott has a first class athletics career with top class runs over most distances and in classic ultra distance events such as the Highland Fling (Milngavie to Tyndrum), Devil of the Highlands (Tyndrum to Fort William), the West Highland Way, and  the Edinburgh to Glasgow road race.    She has also covered other open events (Brampton to Carlisle half marathon),  as well as competing in cross-country events at club, county, district and national level.   

Aileen also served on the club committee for several years.   She was also the first woman president of the club in its its 120 years history, serving in that post in 2006/7 and 2007/8.    As such it was no token appointment with Aileen efficiently conduction committee meetings, initiating other one-off events and doing her best to advance the club both competitively and socially.   

We should however begin with her early days in the sport.

One of the first questions that any runner is asked is how they started in the sport and we turn to an article in the Daily Record in 2010 which was written after a wonderful run in London which had helped her selection for a 24 hour race representing Scotland in Perth.   It starts as follows.

 Aileen’s career began in 1998 when she was persuaded to enter a ladies 10k race at short notice.   She says:  “My first foray into running was the women’s 10k in Glasgow. A friend was running it and she asked if I wanted to run it with her. So I entered – very dubious that I could even run 6 miles – but it was a great event with a great atmosphere and I was hooked .”    Having been ‘hooked’ Aileen kept running for several years as an unattached runner; training,  racing and learning about running as part of her lifestyle.   She went on to say in the interview that “I was never much of a runner before then, but I joined the Harriers in about 2002 and a few years later did my first West Highland Way race which is over 95 miles from Milngavie to Fort William.”

There were two races in particular in 2004 where she ran well enough to be noticed and included in the Athletics Weekly results.   The first of these was the Balloch to Clydebank Half Marathon where, as a Clydesdale Harrier she was placed 16th in 91 minutes 31 seconds and the second was the Dunky Wright 5K held in Clydebank one week later where she fifth in 21:22.   These were both run on relatively flat courses.   

One of the races that the club supported regularly and in which Aileen played a part was the Brampton to Carlisle Half Marathon.  Between 2001 and 2009, Clydesdale Harriers supported the race and the women won several individual and team awards with the veteran women taking first place in no fewer than five consecutive years (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009).  They won both the Lady Vets and Ladies races in 2006.   Aileen  joined the club in 2002 – but only three years later she was there on the starting line in 2005 and by the end of the 13 miles plus she was 16th and third club woman finisher – Ann Murray was eighth and Pamela McCrossan tenth – and that group of three was second in the Ladies race 11 points behind local club Morpeth Harriers.   More than that, the same three runners won the Veteran Ladies team race with their positions in the veteran category being 3rd, 5th and 8th and the Morpeth Ladies team was second 31 points behind them.   

2006 was also a good year for Aileen, maybe even better.    She ran the Monklands half marathon which was anything but flat and finished second in 95:44.   Forget the time – this was a good run on a difficult trail which had several very long hills to negotiate and, more, she was running it exactly one week after the London Marathon.  Run on 23rd April in 3:26:55, she was 463rd of the thousands taking part.   Less than a week before that – April 26th – she had run in the short steep hill race of the Whangie Whizz at Blanefield finishing 96th.   Came November and she was back in Brampton and the Ladies team of Melanie Douglas (5th), Pamela McCrossan (13th) and Aileen (21st) won the race from Bellahouston Harriers by 22 points, and the veterans team – over 35 – of Pamela (5th), Aileen (11th) and Marina McCallum (19th) won by no fewer than 58 points from Tynedale Harriers.      

It was at this point, about 2007, that Aileen found that she had a talent for running big distances and that she also enjoyed doing them.   How did it come about?   Aileen again: “I joined the Harriers in 2002 and a few years later did my first West Highland Way which is over 95 miles from Milngavie to Fort William.   A South African friend, David Foord, convinced me to run the WHW as I had supported him in races like it a couple of times in the past.   I actually enjoyed that race more than I thought.   David had said that I was built for that kind of race as opposed to half marathons or 10K’s. ”  

The HOKA Highland Fling race covers slightly more than half of the West Highland Way, goes from Milngavie to Tyndrum and has a total distance of 53 miles.   Times can vary tremendously from year to year simply because of the weather conditions and the effect they have on the underfoot conditions.   It’s run early in the year – April – and Aileen first ran in it in 2007.   Her time of 11 hours 16 minutes and 20 seconds saw her finish 25th which was in the first half of the field and placed seventh of the twelve women taking part.   The progression from running part of the West Highland Way is to run the whole way and Aileen did just that in the race held on 23rd June.   Her time of 24 hours 19 minutes 16 seconds was good enough to see her in the first half of the runners who completed the event – 35th out of 76 – and fifth woman of 11 who also made it to Fort William.  

Aileen finishing the Highland Fling in 2008

(the Fling is a 53 mile race from Milngavie to Tyndrum along the West Highland Way route)

Not content with having run in the Highland Fling once, Aileen was there on 26th April in  2008  in a bigger field of runners and this year finished in 11 hours 24 minutes and 20 seconds which was a bit slower than the previous year but the measure of her progress is in the placing – this time she was 44th out of 104 and in the women’s race, fourth out of 15.

Later in the year, on 21st June 2008, she was out there taking part in the West Highland Way  which she completed in 23 hours  28 minutes 48 seconds to be   48th of the 97 finishers and tenth woman of 16.

  Aileen’s best years were probably 2009 and 2010.    In April she was again in action in the Highland Fling, this time running 10 hours 45 minutes 25 seconds which was her best time by far for the 53 miles and it showed in her placing of 93rd out of 242 and 9th woman to finish of the 37 who entered.   This could maybe be seen as preparation for the West Highland Way race which was held on 20th June.    Run over the full 95 miles distance from Milngavie to its finish in Fort William, Aileen tackled it well finishing 29th of the 122 men and women who started and was fourth woman to finish of 122 runners.   It seemed as though the further she ran, the better she ran.   

The biggest event of her career up to that point, possibly ever, was saved until 17th October when she ran in a 24 hour race at Tooting Bec in London.   She ran a superb distance of 117 miles 610.6 yards in the time and was not only tenth of 32 but the first female runner.   How did she get into such a race?   She herself says “I entered Tooting Bec because someone mentioned to me that the woman’s commonwealth qualifying standard for a 24hr race was 115 miles. I thought that sounded do’able based on my WHW experience and so entered to see if I could run the commonwealth qualifying distance.”  The standard for  Commonwealth Games selection was to run 185km/115 miles.   The Games in 2010 were to be held in Delhi in India and it was not clear whether there would actually be a 24 hour race held there but, if there weren’t, she was hoping for a place in the 2014 Games to be held in Glasgow.   It was quite a race – run on a 400 metre track, the athletes had to run round and round for the full 24 hours!

It certainly was “do’able”!    The organiser’s, Sri Chinmoy,  report read:   “In the Ladies race, Jane Riley took an early lead but was soon overtaken by Aileen Scott before six hours and was chased by Elisabeth Karlsson who stayed close to the end.”   Short and to the point – Aileen took the lead before six hours (ie before even a quarter of the race) and was not caught finally winning by more than five miles! 

The full result after the race was as follows.

If we look at the race in more detail we see that he splits, according to the sri chin moi races website were as follows:   

The full marathon distance was covered in 4 hours;   

50 miles in  8 hours 14 minutes ;

70 miles in 12 hours; 93.95 miles 18 hours;  

113 miles in 23 hours ;

117 miles  610 yards in 24 hours.

It was a quite remarkable feat and it is doubtful if any club member, male or female, has covered such a distance in the time since it was established in 1885, and it earned her a Scottish selection just a year later.

In 2010 her first ultra was on 14th March when she took part in the Edinburgh to Glasgow 50 miles road race.   Fellow Harrier Peter Halpin was also running and they ran the second half of the race together crossing the line in 9 hours 48 minutes 43 seconds.   Just over a month later, on 24th April, she was out running again in the Highland Fling and again she ran faster than in previous years – 10 hours 13 minutes and 27 seconds which placed her comfortably in the first quarter of the field overall and seventh woman of the 59 who took part.   There is also a race over the second half of the West Highland Way known as the Devil of the Highlands which at 42 miles is a bit shorter but more than makes up for that with the much hillier terrain over which it is held.    It is held at the start of July and on the seventh of the month Aileen covered the distance in 8 hours 01 minutes and 21 seconds to be 34th of the 94 participants and eighth woman of 31 who finished the course.   

The 24 hours race run in London in October 2009 led to Aileen being selected to run for Scotland in the international 24 hour race being held in Perth in September 2010.    It is worth remembering that already in the 2010 lead in to the Perth race she had already run the Edinburgh to Glasgow, the Highland Fling and the Devil of the Highlands on a variety of surfaces.   Before the race, Aileen was interviewed by the Perthshire Advertiser from which the following extracts come.   She said  “Aileen Scott, a partner with accountancy firm Campbell Dallas, has been chosen to represent Scotland Ladies after being placed first at Tooting Bec last October in her 24 hour racing debut.   Aileen told PA Sport  “I was delighted to earn a place in the team alongside the Scottish record holder Pauline Walker and her twin sister Fiona Rennie.   It’s great to be running at Perth and I hope that my colleagues from the local office are able to come down and support me at some point in the day or night.”   Campbell Dallas has a branch in Perth – one of 50 branches they had at the time.   Quoted in the Daily Record, she said that she had got into the race off the back of the London race, after which she got an email to say she was being considered for selection and to advise them of what races she would be running so that she could be assessed on them.   She put the West Highland Way race forward and that and her time was good enough for selection.  There were also articles in the local papers in Helensburgh and district.      

Aileen and Fiona Rennie with two of the Scottish men before the Perth Race.

The race started at 10:00 am on Saturday, 4th September on a flat 1.5 mile loop round the North Inch in Perth.   The runners were from Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales, Italy and France.   

Aileen was third in the race – first Scot and only beaten by two English runners.  It was also belatedly designated as the Scottish 24 Hour Championships so she was also Scottish Women’s Champion.  Afterwards spoke to the Daily Record about it.   “The race went well and I’m delighted with coming third in my first time representing Scotland.   I didn’t run as far as I have done running 24 hour races in the past, but quite a lot of people’s mileage was down because of the heat.   It was a really warm day on a running loop which was quite exposed to the weather.   The most difficult part was around 3 a.m, to 4 a,m which is always the case when I run 24 hour races.    I was desperate for sleep at that point, and I was also vomiting which was the case for quite a few of the runners,   I don’t know when I’ll do a race like that again.”   

Result for the race is as follows.

The Power of 10 website lists only 9 events from Aileen’s running career, and lists her personal bests at standard distances, as well as 24 hours as follows.

That was to be her last Scottish international appearance and her last Scottish championship.   Aileen’s business demands became much more intense and she simply had to turn her attentions in that direction.   It was not only a loss to Clydesdale Harriers of her enthusiasm, imagination and work rate but Scottish athletics also lost a talent that could have done much for the sport in the country as a whole.

Running in the Six Stage Relays in 2011

Iain Robertson has been a member of Clydesdale Harriers since the end of the 1980’s and been the kind of member that all clubs need – a regular attender on training nights, a runner who is dependable and gives his best every time out; if he is prepared to be elected to the committee then that’s a bonus. Iain ticked all the boxes.  We all knew that Ian was a good runner but no one  expected the degree of excellence in track running that he displayed when he became a 35 year old competitor in Masters events.    We will come to that later but we should start with his own view of his career and his attitude to the sport as explained in his replies to the questionnaire.  

Name:   Iain Robertson

DoB :  18/01/1978

Club/s: Clydesdale Harriers

Occupation: Chartered Surveyor

Events: 800m to Half Marathon

Personal bests?

400m: 55.17    Kilmarnock, 2016

800m: 2.01.20     Gothenburg, Sweden 2012

1500m: 4.12.61  Gothenburg, Sweden 2012

3000m: 9.55.24 Grangemouth 2010

5k:  17.39 Dunky Wright Road Race 2009

10K: 37.30 Glasgow 2008

Half Marathon: 1.23.43 Balloch to Clydebank 2010

Can you give some details of sporting activity development:

How did you get into the sport initially?

In first year at Braidfield High School, I volunteered to take part in a schools cross country race at Braidfield Farm. After the race, my P.E. teacher, Mr Chudleigh, asked me if I’d enjoyed it. I said I had and he then pointed me in the direction of Derek McGinley who was there watching the races. I spoke to Derek and he invited me and a couple of my friends to come down to Whitecrook the following Tuesday. I went down to the club on the Tuesday and met the other boys Derek was coaching, they were a good group. Derek told me a bit more about the training and competitions I could get involved in. I decided that I wanted to be a part of it, so I became a Clydesdale Harrier.

Has any individual or group of individuals had a marked influence on your attitude or performances?

Derek McGinley – Derek was the first big influence in my early years getting to know the sport. He was generous with his time and you felt like he genuinely cared about athletics and the athletes he was coaching. He was always there with a bit of advice or encouragement and he taught you about discipline and etiquette as well as how to train. I remember being surprised one morning when I was running a 1500m race at Braidfield High in the school sports. Shortly before the race started, Derek appeared at the side of the track to watch. He didn’t have to do that, but I really appreciated it.

I had drifted away from the sport after I left school and went to University. After I graduated, I started doing a bit of running again to improve my fitness. A short while later I met Derek by chance in Clydebank. He was pleased when I told him I’d been running again. He told me about a training group who went to Clydebank Business Park on a Tuesday and said I’d be welcome to come along. I didn’t realise quite how high the standard of training was until I went along. Allan Adams, Charlie Thomson and James Austin were all regulars. I was out of my depth but the guys made me feel welcome. I joined in and certainly got fitter!

Derek played a big part in my return to Clydesdale after a few years out. He later said to me that one of his aims was to see the boys he’d coached go on to run as seniors. I was pleased that Derek saw me run as a senior and I will always appreciate what he did for me.

Phil Dolan – I think I was about 28 years old when Phil asked if I’d like to train with his group on Tuesday nights. I went along and it soon became Tuesdays and Thursdays. Phil’s training methods were more focused and structured than what I’d been doing before and it really opened my eyes. His initial assessment of me was that I should be running faster and if I followed his advice, I would. There were a few talented young athletes in the group at the time including Peter Bowman and Ryan Savage. I enjoyed the training and I was able to see improved results pretty quickly. Phil’s advice and influence changed my perceptions of what I was capable of and over the next few years, I would say that my running improved significantly.

Phil has been the biggest influence on me in my athletics career. He taught me a lot about preparing for races, adapting the training to suit different circumstances. He’s provided me with endless support, guidance and encouragement. I’ve learned a lot from hearing about his experience in the sport. I knew I would never get to the level that Phil achieved, but he made me believe I could be better and to work hard to achieve my own personal goals. His training is always fun and he’s never short of a tale to tell, he makes it enjoyable. All of my PBs have been achieved under Phil’s guidance but perhaps even more importantly, Phil’s judgement in the build up to key races is excellent. He has helped me to reach my season’s best performance at just the right time on many occasions. He has clearly helped me to be a better runner and get a lot more out of the sport.

Something about attitude:

What exactly did you get out of the sport?

I’ve really enjoyed being part of the sport. I was never the fastest but I felt it was something I could do reasonably well. I’ve tried lots of different sports and activities but athletics is the only sport I’ve really taken seriously in a competitive sense. I liked the challenge and the satisfaction of feeling that I’d achieved something. Over the years, it’s helped my physical health and my mental wellbeing. I’ve met some great people and travelled to lots of different places so it’s given me a lot of experiences that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Can you describe your general attitude to the sport?

I think my general attitude is to have a healthy lifestyle and to participate to the best of my ability. I place more importance on being involved in the sport rather than being the best, but I like to think I always try my best.  I particularly enjoy the team events like relays and league competitions, where my own performance is also contributing towards the team as well. It’s a different feeling from running purely for yourself. Running has also been an outlet for me to relax and de-stress outside of work. 

What do you think was your best event?

I would say that the 800m has been my best event over the years. I think my times and performances would say that I’ve been more competitive in the 800m that any other event. I really enjoyed the event as a schoolboy. As a senior, I didn’t really think I’d do much track running. But when I got a couple of chances to run in the Men’s League I got a taste for it again. When I started training with Phil, the 800m and 1500m became more of a focus and my times were getting quicker. I’ve taken this into the masters events and I generally have more success in the 800m than anything else.

What do you consider your best ever performances?

I think my 800m and 1500m pbs over two days in Gothenburg 2012 were my best performances. Winning the 2014 British Masters 800m in Birmingham with a time of 2.02.31 was definitely a highlight for me. Winning a number of Scottish Masters medals over 800m and 1500m was very pleasing as well. 

What has running brought you that you would not have wanted to miss?

There are lots of races I remember being involved in which have given me a great sense of satisfaction. Running personal bests or achieving a particular goal is always a rewarding feeling.

I really value the experience and feeling of just running whether I’m on my own or in a group. I always feel better after a run.

One of the main experiences that stands out are the two trips to Gothenburg. Phil took a group out there in 2009 but unfortunately I couldn’t go. Johnathan Farrell and Peter Bowman were keen to go back over, so I went with them in 2011 and 2012 and I really enjoyed both trips. Running two pbs in my favourite events at the time in 2012 was particularly memorable.

The camaraderie of the training groups I’ve been part of has been very rewarding. You feel a common purpose. Everyone is helping and encouraging each other to improve and you celebrate each other’s achievements. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss the different people I’ve met and friendships I’ve made.  

In truth, I really wouldn’t have wanted to miss any of it!

Can you give any details of your training?  (now or in the past)

I’ve never been someone who runs high weekly mileage. I found that I would often pick up injuries if I did too much. Phil helped me a bit by guiding me as to how to increase my training and avoid getting injuries and I definitely trained harder and with more purpose under his guidance. Throughout the period I have been coached by Phil, I would say my running has been pretty consistent. A large part of that would be down to training consistently. I would run six days a week most weeks. A typical week would be two or three interval sessions with some easier runs in between. At the weekend I would do a longer run of around 90 minutes. The interval training would vary depending on the time of year and what races were coming up. Winter being more grass based intervals over longer distances and summer would more track based with shorter, faster repetitions.      

Now, as I’m getting closer to 50, I find it helps to have some extra rest days to help with recovery. I also try to cross train a bit by cycling or going to the gym. At the moment, my aim is to keep going for as long as I can and try to be as fit as I can.

–

The responses above are thoughtful, informative and revealing of his attitude to the sports.   He refers to Derek McGinley who was a much under rated coach.   Derek coached only boys at first and then followed the athletes as they grew older.   Although he seemed to prefer the endurance events, he worked to give the athletes under his guidance a taste for all events because they had different talents and he produced good athletes in the sprints, in endurance events, in the javelin and in the long jump.   Obviously some moved to other club coaches for specialist guidance, often at Derek’s prompting, but all gained from his input.   Phil, of course was a top class endurance athlete in his own right having won international honours on the track and over the country.      

Scottish Masters Outdoor Championships

British Masters Athletic Federation

Iain in 2025 Scottish Masters indoor championships

Iain’s performances on the track as a Masters athlete, right from the beginning as an M35 to date have been excellent and they show no signs of letting up.   This year, 2015 as a MV45, he has raced in the Scottish |Masters Indoor Championship on where he was second in the 800m in 2:12.90 and fourth in the 1500m in 4:46.48.    Later in the year, 27th July,  he had a double first – 800m in 2:11.01 and 1500m in 4:38.80.   See the picture below.

   Where does he go from here?   When asked about his future in the sport Iain was clear that he wanted to carry on running but maybe not the intense competition of Track League matches.   In all probability he tells us he will run in park runs, over the country and on the roads – the question is whether he will compete in veterans races.

Des Gilmore was a well known and very well liked and much respected figure in Scottish athletics.  For many over the last 50 years or so, he WAS Glasgow University AC and Hares & Hounds.  A  first rate official, he was qualified as a track judge, a field events official, wind gauge operator,  and a Grade 1 timekeeper.   He was also an administrator and long time secretary of the Dunbartonshire Amateur Athletics Association.   Also associated with the annual open University Road Race, he was efficient, organised and always, always on top of the job.   When he died this year many were surprised but all were saddened.   I reproduce here the obituary from the Glasgow Herald, but first have a report on one of the highlights.

There is an inevitable bit of repetition between the two articles and the obituary has had to be chopped in two because of the way it was originally laid out over five columns.  It follows:

He will be sadly missed for many years to come and we finish with a picture of him at the farewell party for the Westerlands Pavilion – a building with which he will be long associated.

There used to be a radio programme called “Where Are They Now” which looked at the lives of great or famous men after their active career had ended.   It was a good idea and some newspapers have from time to time picked up on it.   Lachie is, without any doubt, an all-time great of Scottish athletics.   Others before him had competed for Britain, had taken part in the Olympics, had won gold at the Empire Games but in the opinion of many of us none had the effect on Scottish athletics that he had.   That one win in 1970 did more to attract more runners to the sport over many years than any single campaign.    He was seen in anti-smoking adverts and on posters, he spoke at many functions from individual athletic club dinners to major national functions and was so well known that when Facebook pages in the 21st century posted a picture, he was easily recognised and the photograph attracted dozens of ‘likes’.   That is all obviously true, but what did he do with himself?

He did keep running of course for several years as a member of Spango Valley AC, competing for them in championship races and relays from 1980 to approximately 1990 as a veteran runner.

There was his coaching of course.   He helped numerous athletes with the outstanding success being his son Glen.   I remember taking one athlete down to Postie’s Park in Dumbarton for a one-on-one and there was Lachie, away from the crowds, away from any club, on a red blaes track, on a quiet night with Glen as a 15 year old practising a kick finish, telling him how to accelerate effectively.   I just happened to listen and learned a lot.   I’d known Lachie since the 1960’s but never heard that kind of information being passed on so clearly.   Glen wasn’t the only one of course – Lawrie Spence profited from his wisdom as did Frank McGowan and many others.   The quality of his advice was clear from early on and Lawrie Spence, said by many to be the best all round Scottish distance runner ever because of his times from the mile to the marathon, profited from his advice and says:

“Like many Scots I was inspired by Lachie’s Commonwealth gold in 1970 at Meadowbank.   I still remember going for a long run (which seemed to pass by so quickly as I was filled with enthusiasm and dreams that one day it could be me!) with my Brothers after we had sat and watched the race – and the classic of us all shouting at the TV as well!   I was lucky in that a few years later,  Lachie had agreed to help me with my breakthrough into international racing.   I was doing well but really needed to make the next step up to consolidate at Scottish level and move on to the British level.   From getting me a run at Hampden Park at the  pre-Scottish Football Cup Final entertainment organised by Dunky Wright (and running in front of massive crowds), races down south and, most of all, allowing me to join him in training sessions and runs, so helping me to improve and be better prepared for these key races.  

He goes on to talk about Lachie’s racing brain and how he profited from it.   His coaching after he retired was of a very high standard but when a vacant national coaching post came up and Lachie applied for it, he didn’t get it because they said he didn’t have any paper qualifications, his quiet comment was simply, “They didn’t ask me – I have two coaching qualifications.”    

Lachie with his model of the Maid of the Loch.

In addition to the athletics aspect of things, He had of course his boats.   His hobby had always been making detailed models of ships and boats of all kinds.   From Clyde puffers to Ocean going liners via the Maid of the Loch they were all superbly crafted.  The photograph above is from the local Vale of Leven magazine “The Democrat”.   One of them was of the ‘Flying Phantom’ which had been built for the Clyde Shipping Company and based in Greenock.  The tug sank in 2008 and three crew members were lost.   The authorities approached Lachie and asked if the model could be used to assist the rescue workers because it was the most detailed available and was also in three dimensions.   Then when there was a court case subsequently, the police asked if they could use his model in court.   

Mixing with runners and former runners is always a pleasure and Lachie, although a very quiet and gentle man, was very sociable and good company.   He was a popular guest and speaker at reunions, dinners and presentations across the land.    The picture above is of Lachie having a good time chatting with international distance runner Doug Gunstone at a reunion dinner held in Buchanan Castle Golf Club in Drymen in 2012 where there were three Olympians (himself, Don Macgregor and Fergus Murray), eight GB international athletes and many Scots in attendance.   That of course was only one of dozens.   

We see already that he was not an idle man after his career at the very top of athletics was concerned – running as a veteran, coaching, model maker and the social scene, all in addition to a happy family life, would have kept anyone happy.    

There were two rather serious setbacks that would have flattened a lesser men but the biggest tribute we could pay to Lachie was that he kept living a normal life.  Glen tells us about one incident that made it to the national papers when he says:  

Lachie carried on with his life until in 2020, at the age of 77 Lachie had his leg amputated.   How did he deal with this set back?   He is quoted in The Democrat as follows:

In 2020 he had the lower half of his leg amputated after complications with diabetes.   “I had an ulcer between my second and third toe and it didn’t seem to heal too well,” he told BBC Scotland at the time.   “It quickly went from that to the doctor saying I can either live with the pain, which was unbelievable, or we can amputate below the knee. I said to him right away to just take the bottom of the leg off because I just couldn’t stand the pain.   “Sport makes you more determined. I don’t have any hang-ups about losing the leg.”

As in his racing career, he did not give in to it.   He responded to it as a fresh challenge.   He went on with life with as much enthusiasm as ever.   His models were shown in a whole series of venues around Scotland and he was at them all, doing what he always like doing.   Talking about the ships was a given, but talking with the many runners among the general public who came along.   The photograph below, taken by Glen on 29th October, 2022 at the exhibition at the Maid of the Loch.   There are three County Champions and one Ben Nevis winner there – from the left Bobby Shields (Ben Nevis winner), Phil Dolan, Lachie and Douglas Gemmell.

Lachie died on 31st May 2025, with the funeral held in his local Kirk, the Bonhill Parish Church on 23rd June.    Many will remember him as winner of that wonderful race in 970, many will remember him as a great Scottish athlete on any surface he tackled but almost everybody who knew him will remember him as a quiet, friendly man who always did his best and brought happiness and laughter to them.   Look at his face in the photograph from Drymen in 2012!   A friend of my own whom I hadn’t seen for about 20 years and I asked him what he was doing said “Just taking it easy,   That’s what you’re supposed to do when you retire!”   He was only 67 at the time.   That was never Lachie’s line – cardiac arrest?  Leg off?   Just carry on as though nothing had happened.  That’s a huge compliment to the man. 

No apologies for returning to the 1970 Commonwealth and Empire Games in Edinburgh in 1970.   What Lachie did that early evening in Meadowbank did more for Scottish endurance running than anything I’ve ever seen before or since.   The reason for returning to it is that I found in a bundle of old magazines the Athletics Weekly coverage of the race before and after the event.     They reflected the widely held pre-race assumptions and the post race lamentations for Ron Clarke.    I simply reproduce them here.   First is Mel Watman’s preview on 18th July, 1970.

Given that Lachie has been written out – or rather omitted completely – from the above, we might all be excused for thinking he came from absolutely nowhere on the day of the race.   But wait a minute: look at the Commonwealth rankings for the race as reproduced in A.W. of the same date as Watman’s article.

Jerome Drayton, better known as a marathon runner, is at number one but then – whose name leads all the rest?   J Lachie Stewart and who follows him in third place?   Dick Wedlock.   They were 10 seconds (Lachie) and 9 (Dick) seconds ahead of Ron Clarke; 33 and 31 second ahead of Dick Taylor.   As for Stan Green’s predictions, Lachie was 85 second ahead of Roger Matthews and 6+ seconds slower than the man forecast to be third!    

Came the race and the report.   The report appeared in the AW of August 1st.

That’s a lot of information about Lachie Stewart and his career pre-1970, the only question that arises is about why it was not imparted in a separate report before the Games started.   After all, he was top British athlete at the time placed above everybody from England (3 of them) Wales (2 of them) and Northern Ireland (1).    It was similar to the attitude of a very famous BBC athletics commentator who commented at the AAA’s championships that “Stewart is said to have run 23:34 for the distance at the Scottish championships.”   He wasn’t said to have run it, he HAD run it – maybe the Scottish time keepers were not as good as the AAA’s ones.   Maybe it’s a chip on my shoulder but I still, after all those years, feel that he did not get the credit he deserved.   The testament to the SAAA selection race can be seen in the faces of Stewart and Wedlock after the race, seen in the photo below.

I can remember when I started in the sport that the local club starting blocks were made in the local factory as a private enterprise.   They came in sets of two adjustable blocks with a carpet covered foot plate, and four spikes to be slotted through holes in the bottom of the block which were hammered  hammered into the track.   Each block was fixed to the track separately, the whole process taking some time to complete.    It did not take the experts long to bring forward blocks fixed to a central column which speeded up the setting of the blocks.   But how did we get to the place where starting blocks were developed at all, never mind to the sophisticated starting aids we have now?   Tom McNab gives us a brief history of sprint starts through the centuries. 

HUSPLEX TO STARTING BLOCKS

I recently posed a good friend of mine, a fine sprints coach, a few questions on his event. When, I asked him, was the crouch start invented? He was about twenty years out, and no wiser about the date of the invention of the starting block.

Before answering either of these pressing questions, let me say that I believe that any coach with a passion for his event should immerse himself in it. For that interest should surely travel far beyond the most recent Powerpoint presentation or the latest drills, and involve at least a passing interest in the history of his event. Perhaps that is just the opinion of an old fogey, but that’s the way I feel.

The crouch start was invented around 1885 by the Irish-American coach Mike Murphy ( father of the film star George Murphy), and presented a year later on May 12^th at the Rockaway track to a bewildered starter by the sprinter Charles Sherrill, who was advised by him to adopt a proper position. I have the photograph to hand as I write. There are three other sprinters, all adopting various versions of the standing start. These were the ”lunge”,( a half-twist), a basic standing start, and the “dab” start, which meant that the front foot came down first. And then there is our man Sherrill, knuckles on the ground, toe on the line and wearing a woollen hat, with left knee way out of line.

By the first Olympics of 1896, the crouch start had begun to establish itself, but even in the 100m. final only one runner adopted it. Another had a semi-crouch, supported on high pegs, the rest simply stood.

There was little in the way of technical development of the crouch start in the next forty years, when the starting block was invented. But I am getting ahead of myself. For the Greeks had invented a starting-sill, with grooves set a few inches apart in the stone sill. And they had also invented a starting-gate, the husplex. This was a right -angled gate, with the runner behind a horizontal wooden slat, held so by a string which passed down the vertical post into grooves on the sill, back to the starter, who held the strings for each husplex. When he dropped the strings, the horizontal slats fell, allowing the runners to surge forward.

What happened before the husplex? Simple. False starters were whipped. I have put this idea to the Technical Committee of the IAAF, but have so far received no reply.

Husplex being used at a relay changeover

The modern starting block was invented by the American George T. Bresnahan in 1927, was called “the G.T. Bresnahan Foot Support”, and given Patent Number 1701026 on April 29^th, 1927. Within a year George Simpson had run 9.4 for 100 yards using them, a time which was not accepted as a world record.

By the 1948 Olympics starting – blocks were accepted. I remember them well, heavy cumbersome things, with coconut matting to cover the block- surface. The 1980 Games saw the introduction of pressure-sensitive starting- blocks.

So there we are, from husplex to starting- blocks, but that isn’t all. For what happened before the starting gun? In rural sports, starts were made using a drum or even a trumpet. In betting-based two man match-races, starts were “by consent”. This meant that they were rather like a Western gunfight, the only difference being that if one runner was unhappy, then the whole process had to be repeated. This led by the middle of the 19^th century in contracts insisting on a gun-start if consent was not secured within a given time, and soon consent had virtually vanished. By the 1860s match-races had begun to fall out of favour, and handicap-based “Pedestrian Carnivals” began to dominate, making consent impossible.

So we are at end of this particular story, from husplex to starting- blocks, from “consent” to gun, from the “dab” start to the crouch. Perhaps it doesn’t matter, what happened in the distant past, but there is a saying that those who know nothing of the past are lost in the present.

But our governing body clearly thinks that the past is of some importance, for in a high jump instructional poster it states that the Greeks “probably” practiced high jump. No ,they did not. And that women first competed in Olympic athletics in Paris in 1924. No, it was 1928, in Amsterdam. But what does it matter?

Lastly, sprinters had traditionally made their own rudimentary starting blocks, but when it was announced that the London Games in 1948 would allow such aids for the first time, Rottenburg came up with adjustable blocks and a system to anchor the mechanism to the track.

Born in Glasgow, Rottenburg attended Kelvinside Academy and Loretto School, before studying mechanical science at King’s College, Cambridge, where he was a varsity rugby fullback. He also played for representative matches with Middlesex and was capped five times for Scotland, which included regaining the Calcutta Cup from England in 1899.   After a spell in America, Rottenburg returned to Cambridge in 1904 and lectured in electrical engineering. He was involved in athletics as a measurement official for the Amateur Athletic Association and is crediting with inventing the modern starting blocks, having come up with the original design of blocks that were adjustable and anchored to the track.

The story of Rottenburg and the starting blocks can be found at:

  ‘No fee’ was to be charged for their services: Amateur athletics advisors in 1935. Part 2. Henry Rottenburg, Athletics Innovator. | Playing Pasts

Rottenburgh testing his blocks,

I once walked through the streets of Springburn carrying two knives with 12″ blades, albeit that they were in a nice box.  That’s one of them above.  They were the first handicap prize from a 12 mile road race.   Handicap prizes were not always appropriate.   I was once chased through the streets of Helensburgh by a team mate after the 16 mile road race.   There were four in the team, the first three were the scoring runners who had won the team race, and I won the first handicap prize.   Their award was 6 coasters + 6 place mats with pictures of highland cattle up to their knees in water  –  mine was a Schreiber coffee table.    Handicap prizes were not always distributed equably.   For the team prize at another meeting we won fireside rugs (57″ x 25″ I think) and mine was given to a friend as a wedding present.    Handicap prizes were sometimes useful.   On another occasion I ran a 16 mile point to point, won a handicap prize that was a metal fire screen which I had to transport home on a bus.   Handicap prizes were sometimes sources of puzzlement . . . or puzzlement.

The races above were in the 1960’s and early 1970’s and in the amateur ranks subject to many rules.   They were much less uniform across the country as far as the professionals were concerned – see Handicapping – SCOTTISH DISTANCE RUNNING HISTORY .    The form below tells us that the practice was very well established in the ranks of the amateurs well over a century ago.   Tom McNab’s look at the history of handicapping is below.

Handicaps . “ T. Cowburn will run any of the following men 100yards, R. Haworth, Manchester, if he will allow two yards start, or Oakes of Bolton, one yard in a hundred. Or Winstanley of Miles Plattin 120 yards, level. Any of the matches can be made at Crompton’s Rifleman, Hulme, for £5 or £10 a side.”

Thus Bell’s Life, September 8, 1861. The newspaper records fifty matches for September, but that probably represents only a small fraction of the foot-racing matches in that month, (most of them local), between men far short of championship class.

The culture of handicapping depended on betting, with the aim of dead heats, or certainly close races, something which scratch  competitions rarely offered. It centred, as did pugilism, round public houses. The rapid growth of the railway system after the “Rocket” in 1825 meant that, even as early as 1861, local handicap-based match-racing would begin to decline, to be replaced by “Pedestrian Carnivals” in the major towns. Of these, Sheffield was the Blue Riband, to be replaced in the final quarter of the century by the Powderhall New Year Handicap .Twenty years later, Bells Life advertised no local match-races, though a handful still occurred, almost always between elite athletes, and mostly on a scratch basis. Match-racing ended in Scotland , in the early 1930s.

Corruption eventually killed Sheffield as a centre for professional handicap racing by the end of the 19th century.  Not so Edinburgh’s  Powderhall Handicap, which stood above all  other meetings in the quality of its ethics. By this time, there had been the ghastly Hutchens-Gent fiasco at Lillie Bridge in 1884. There, no agreement on the winner having been previously reached, neither athlete ventured from his dressing-room, and an enraged crowd burnt down the Lillie Bridge stand. This sounded the death-knell for professional footracing in London.

So handicap professional athletics retreated to Scotland, Wales and the industrial north, though it lingered in the minefields of Kent and in occasional rural meetings in southern England.

Enter the amateurs, in the final quarter of the 19^th century. Ignoring the fact that handicaps rested upon betting, they ruled over a network of mainly rural handicap meetings. This meant that it took till 1906 to remove bookies from amateur meetings, and the corruption that went with them.

A major problem which faced the amateurs was the question of prizes, for its administrators believed that men should compete for the joy of it, rather than for a prize. So at first the meet-organisers offered cups and medals, which the athletes firmly rejected. Next on offer from governing bodies was any prize upon which an EPNS plate could be riveted. Here the aim was probably to avoid the re-selling of prizes. This naturally limited the type of award which could be offered, and was almost equally unpopular. Finally, the blazerati caved in and offered straight prizes, usually a useless piece of bric a brac, thus obliquely preserving the ethic of sport for sport’s sake.

Which is where I come in, around 1950. I found that there was little competition in our Scottish handicap open meets for fifteen year olds, and all of it was in running events. And when senior status was secured, field events were rare, despite the fact that Scotland had bequeathed to the world most of its field events programme. And, lawdy lawdy, all field events were also on a handicap basis, something quite alien to the professional Highland Games whence they had derived. Handicaps ruled. Hell, we even had 120 yard hurdles handicaps, a nightmare to anyone who had any realistic aspirations in the event.

Thus it was that I was regularly given a 30cm. start on our great Scots high jumper Alan Paterson, and it shames me to admit that I never once defeated him. And later, when I was Scottish triple jump champion, I had to give away starts of over two metres.

The basic principle of the amateur handicap system was to hand out prizes to the mediocre, to retain them in the sport. And it was based on fixed penalties, ie a win in 100yards lost you 1.5 yards. But it went beyond that. I well remember winning prizes in one meet in shot put and high jump. As a result, my handicap in the sprint next week was immediately reduced by a yard, and my mark in half mile by 20 yards.

Handicapping in professional athletics was driven by betting, but in amateur athletics it was driven by the desire to evenly dole out prizes. In the races, it had the advantage of occasionally providing blanket finishes, but only rarely, because handicaps were not based on time, but on fixed penalties. The “blanket finish “ advantage did not, of course, apply to field events, where handicaps simply meant handing out prizes to athletes with big starts.  And the prizes! Each meet-organiser seemed to have a friend in town who earned his living by selling junk. Thus it was that I returned to my mother many a summer Saturday with barometers, cake-dishes and cutlery. And woe betide any athlete who found out where that junk had come from, and took it to the shop to replace it for something which he actually wanted. For he immediately became a “professional”, as he did if he dared to sell his prize for filthy lucre.

So much for the history of handicaps, hardly an honourable one, one of corruption in professional athletics and the rewarding of the mediocre in the amateur sport. I have no objection to their occasional revival, as a curiosity, or for variety, though if we wish to operate with betting-odds and bookmakers, as did the old professionals, then buyer beware. And handicaps can undoubtedly be of great value with children. They have, however, no place at all in field events, and that is not because, fifty years ago, I had to give away two metre starts in triple jump!

The extreme was events such as the one retold to me by a very good Irish runner living in Glasgow in the second half of the 20th century.   He and his wife or brothers would go on their bikes to what he called a “wee flapper meeting” out in the sticks, he wearing his work boots and long trousers.   He’d approach the handicapper and ask if he could get a run, mister.   He’d be looked up and down and told to start up there, the official pointing at a favourable mark.   Off the runner went, removed his trousers, changed his shoes and won the race.  He’d collect the prize at the run and they’d all take off on their bikes as fast as they could go.   There are similar tales told in  Powderhall & Pedestrianism: 1 – SCOTTISH DISTANCE RUNNING HISTORY about even quite famous  runners such as the Irishman Tincler.   It’s a subject that lends itself tales told.

Walter Eadie (33) in Strathclyde University colours in Scottish Universities Championship at Cambuslang.

Walter Eadie was a talented runner on the road and over the country and it was a sad loss to Scottish athletics when he emigrated to Canada after graduating from Strathclyde University.    He started out with the Stirling club St Modan’s which had been the home club of marathon great Joe McGhee whose victory in the Vancouver Empire Games was never properly recognised or celebrated outside Scotland.   St Modans was a good club which catered for more than endurance runners with George McLachlan a GB decathlon internationalist, as well as Mike Ryan who ran for New  Zealand in the Olympic Games in Mexico and won a bronze medal for doing so.   

We can start by looking at some of Walter’s replies to the questionnaire to find out more about him, his beginnings in the sport and where  went from there.

Club/s: St Modan’s AC, Stirling AC, University of Strathclyde
(despite the catholic high school name, St Modan’s was a community club. They later changed the name to Stirling AC to make that clear)

Date of Birth: 3 Oct 1945

Occupation: Product & Marketing Manager, Plastics Industry (Ontario, Canada)

Is there any family background in athletics or any other sports?   No

How Did You Get Into The Sport Initially?
I ran x-country for Denny High School in the annual Joe McGhee Trophy race, the Stirlingshire schools championships. I was invited to go to the St Modan’s club by a committee member who saw me run the year I finished 4^th. A week later I won the St Modan’s Boys race and a week or so after that finished 3^rd in the NCCU Scotland Boys race (March 1962, behind Middleton and Wedlock – our team was 1^st).  

Personal Bests?   Nothing that was remarkable or memorable.

What exactly did you get out of the sport?  Success in running gave confidence as the first in my family to go to university. Discipline in training carried over to discipline in studies which resulted in academic success. 

Can you describe your general attitude to the sport?  I just generally loved running and training. I liked the “Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner” aspect of training but, on the other hand, I still have great memories of the people I trained with and competed with 60 years ago

What goals did you have that were unachieved?   I should have run a marathon when I could have, instead of putting it off “until I was really ready”    

Can you give some details of your training? Too far in the past to remember much. 

When did you head for Canada?    Did you do any running when you got there?  Have you kept up with the sport?

I left for Kingston Ontario in December 1968, and in 1969 got to know the Queen’s University track coach. I ended up coaching (and training with) the Queen’s cross-country team until 1977. In that time, I represented Ontario in the Canadian championships in Edmonton Alberta. I ran lots of cross-country and road races in that period. After my son was born, I became more involved with football coaching, refereeing and administration. Too many years of road running with poor footwear left me with knees that no longer liked the pavement pounding.

–

Lots to look at there – for instance what he got from running is more than just the travel and friendships but developed  confidence which transferred to other spheres of life.   That and the associated discipline required to be a successful runner are life lessons to be noted.   It is also noted that like several others who emigrated at a relatively young age he continued in the sport in various categories – coach, runner, team member.   Having won trophies at St Modan’s, he also made his mark at Strathclyde University as John Myatt says in his own “Strathclyde University Reminiscences”  :   ” Strathclyde, as a newcomer to university athletics, was developing its own traditions from scratch.  Walter Eadie had set the standard in representing Scotland in the Junior International in 1965 while the founding fathers had developed an active social life to complement the running.” 

Walter’s first appearance in the National Championships was on 3rd March, 1962 at Hamilton Race course where his third place was a remarkable run for one so young in his first major championship, indeed it was his very first competitive race..   That opening race of his career is noted below

The complete result is available at  National XC Results 1961-2 Men.pdf 

He had joined a very good team – the St Modan’s Boys team had finished third in the Midland District Championships at Renton in January, less than two months before the National but there was no mention of young Walter, he was not even on the programme.  Reason?    See above, the SCCU Championships was his first competitive race.  The coming of Eadie strengthened an already good squad and St Modan’s AC won the team race with Eadie 3rd, Brown 6th and Fleming 12th,   The following year he was up an age group and ran in the Youths (Under 17) age group where he finished eighteenth.   Tom Brown was the top St Modan’s runner that year when he finished 5th and the team was also fifth.   He had missed the District Championships again although this time he was on the programme.

BY season 1964/65 Walter’s name was appearing in results from all over the country – the success rate was high and many of the athletes beaten were of very high quality.   For instance in November 1963 he was in Clydebank for the Youth Ballot Team Race.   The race first appeared at the end of the War and was one of the very first open races for the Under 17 age group.   The report on the race read:

E Knox (Springburn Harriers) won Clydesdale Harriers open youths two and a half miles road race in the new record of 13 min 51 sec, 2 sec better than the time returned when I McCafferty (Motherwell) won the race last year.   Other positions:- 2.   W Eadie (St Modan’s) 14:04;  3.  AD Middleton (Springburn)  14:05; 4. T Brown (St Modan’s) 14:09;  5. J Brennan (Maryhill) 14:12; 6. C Martin (Dumbarton AC) 14:35.    Ballot Team Race:- 1.   T Brown 4th, M Bradley 7th, A Johnston (Victoria Park) 16th   27 points;  2.  W Eadie 2nd, J Fleming (St Modan’s) 14th, T McEwan (Beith) 21st    37 points.

Look at the names there – Duncan Middleton, Colin Martin, Jim Brennan, Mike Bradley and Alistair Johnstone were all international representatives.   The Ballot Team had been originally devised to give every young athlete the opportunity t win a prize even if he were the only one in the age group in his club.   Before the start of the race, the names of the entrants were sorted into three piles of equal size with the most successful in the first pile, the least successful in the third pile and the rest in their own.   Before the race one athlete from each bundle was picked out at random to make a team of three.  At the end of the race, the team with fewest points was the winner.   

In January 1964  the District Championships were held on the heavy going and hilly course in Strathleven Estate, Renton, and again it was a superb field in which Walter was sixth in 15:14.   The team of Tom Brown (5th 15:12) and Jim Fleming (8th 15:42) was second.

On 1st February , the Inter Counties Championships were held at Cleland Estate, where the first four in the Youths race were:  1.  E Knox (Lanarkshire);  2.  AD Middleton (Lanarkshire); 3. R Wedlock (Lanarkshire); 4. W Eadie (Stirlingshire).    Team Race:  1. Lanarkshire;  2. Midlothian;  3. Dunbartonshire.   Another good race on the lead in to the Scottish Championships.   These were held on 29th February, 1964;    Youths  W Eadie 4th 15:18  [E Knox, D Middleton, R Wedlock] Team 2nd (T Brown 5th 15:19, J Fleming 19th, A MacFarlane  31st).   First ten listed below:

On the track in 1964 Walter represented the University as he had done over the cross-country season to good effect when won the Scottish Universities 3 miles championship race in 15:07.    

In season 1964/65, running in the Junior Men’s age group, he was a student at Strathclyde University which opened up the whole field of University athletics to him as well as having to run in what was probably the toughest County Championships in the country – Lanarkshire.   The first really big race that he took part in was the Edinburgh to Glasgow elite 8 stage relay race.   There were two stages recognised as for the toughest of the tough, the stages of champions and these were the second and the sixth.  On his first run in the race Walter was asked to do the second stage.   No easy task and in that year the opposition included Fergus Murray, Mel Edwards, Hugh Barrow, Bill Ewing, Bert McKay and Bert Irving.   Taking over in 17th position, Walter worked his way up to 14th over the six miles.  Not a bad run at all.    He was tenth fastest on this ferocious stage despite probably being the youngest runner there.    

The Scottish University Championships, held on 23rd January, 1965, were held at Cambuslang where the photograph above was taken.    Walter ran well in the race and finished fifth leading the Strathclyde University team home into fourth place.    

 The Midland District Championships were held at the Renton again and he and he was placed 25th, leading the University team home.     Came the National Championships and on 27th February over the well known trail at Hamilton Race course Walter was fifth in a very good field – see below.   The Strathclyde team finished fourth.      

The Senior and Junior Men’s teams were selected for the international that year immediately after the championships and the Junior team consisted of R Wedlock (Motherwell YMCA), W Eadie (Strathclyde University), I Young (Edinburgh University) and E Knox (Springburn Harriers) with J Brennan (Maryhill) and JW Raeburn (Teviotdale) selected as reserves.

The venue that year at the Hippodrome Wellington in Ostend, Belgium on March 20th, 1965.     The Championship had grown from the previous year with first appearances from Argentina, New Zealand and West Germany.   Complete results were published in the Glasgow Herald”, one of the few papers to do so, and for the Junior event, there were only to be three counters.   Walter was third Scot to finish when he crossed the line in 22nd position.   Results of the race are below to indicate the calibre of runner in a very hard race – Walter’s time was only a minute behind the bronze medal winner over the 4.75 miles (7.5 kilometre) distance.

Walter ran in his second Edinburgh to Glasgow relay in November 1965  and again ran on the second stage.   Alex Wight, Alistair Heron, Eddie Knox, Dick Hodelet, Jim Johnston and Mike  Bradley were among the runners on that stage.   Walter took over in tenth place and held that to pass the baton in tenth place at the end of his leg to Stewart McCrae.  He was ninth fastest on stage.   At the end of the season, still a Junior, Walter ran in the National at the end of February 1966 and finished twelfth, sandwiched between Alistair Johnstone and Duncan Middleton for the Strathclyde team that was placed fifth.   

In 1966, he ran a different stage for the University – the longest and some would say the toughest stage in the race – when he started out on the long 7 miles of the sixth leg.   It was one of the toughest in terms of competition that some had ever seen – Olympians Alder, McCafferty and Macgregor, Games athletes like Bryan-Jones and Joe Connelly, Scottish internationalists like Pat Maclagan, Mel Edwards, Eddie Knox, world class hill runner Bobby Shields were all out there.   Walter could not fail to be a bit disheartened – the Strathclyde had dropped to 20th place of the 20 teams running at the end of the second stage and stayed there until the finish.   He started out four minutes behind the second last man – internationalist Jim Johnstone of Monkland.   It came of course at a crucial time as far as his University studies were concerned and training was clearly taking second place.   The studying resulted in a first class honours degree in 1967.    

It was a time of runners doing big mileages in training –  many runners, including university athletes, were running some ferocious miles in training.   After graduation, Walter stepped up his training mileage in 68 and 69 and there were associated injuries that hampered any progress he might have made post-graduation.

He emigrated to Kingston, Ontario in December 1968 and got to know the University track coach the following summer.   As he says above, he also became in volved in cross-country and road racing.    How well did he do?      He was  fourth in the Eastern Canadian cross-country championships in Ottawa in 1970 and was on the Ontario team in the Canadian Championships in Edmonton, Alberta.   However, he tells us that a lack of familiarity with ice and snow underfoot conditions resulted in a disappointing race.   In 1974 he was fifth in the Ontario cross-country championships and continued to run road and cross-country through the 1970s (10k times on the road around 32 min).   

At that point in his life, as with almost all runners, there were more demands on his time and he says that family and work pressures reduced his serious running after that and he became more involved in football refereeing and volunteer administrative roles.

Walter came into the sport as an Under 15 athlete who had a great degree of talent and won two medals (individual and team) in his very first race.   When he was allowed to train as he wanted and follow a good racing season, he showed that the talent was there and was developing. It is good to see that he kept running with some success despite all the adaptations necessary after emigrating.   He can be justly proud of his  athletics career, and Scottish athletics was the poorer for his leaving.

It might be difficult to realise in the 21st century with telephones that can take photographs, but there some runners who had no pictures taken of them in action.   Jim was one of whom there are few: the picture above shows the start of the Edinburgh to Glasgow with Jim the runner in the red box.   Any others out there would be welcome.

One of the finest young runners that I have seen in a career in the sport that has so far lasted for almost 70 years was a chap called Jim Finn who ran in the colours of Monkland Harriers.   The pity is that he barely raced as a Junior or Senior athlete and his talents have been almost forgotten.   Joe Small, who himself ran for the club has written this account for us.   Joe writes.

Speaking to Tom Callaghan over the years, he has occasionally mentioned a runner called Jim Finn who normally appears in results, reports and athletics journals as J. T.  Finn.   Jim was a tremendously talented cross-country runner who won numerous races as a boy (Under 15) and Youth (Under 17) before disappearing from the scene as a Junior Man (Under 20).    From the village of Mount Ellen near Coatbridge, he joined Monkland Harriers in the late 1950’s.   He was successful right from the beginning.   Note the progress in the National Championships:

*In the 1958/59 National Cross-Country Championships he finished seventh and was a member of the Boys team that finished second, the other runners being J Grant (3rd), R Grant (12th) and T Callaghan (35th).  The team was only three points behind George Heriot’s School.   

*By 1959/60 he had moved up to be in the Youths age group where he led the club to fourth: Jim actually won the race in his first year as an Under 17 with R Grant  15th, J Johnstone 19th and EN Marshall 59.   With 94 points they were only one single point behind the Dundee Hawkhill team that took bronze.   The Glasgow Herald race report read – “JT Finn (Monkland Harriers) caused a surprise when he beat the holder, W Fleming (St Modan’s AC) for the Youths title run over 3 miles.   Finn won by 60 yards with M Ryan, also of St Modan’s, just beaten on the line for second place.”  

*In 1960/61 he was again first in the age group, followed home by such talents as GB Brownlee (ESH), Hugh Barrow (VPAAC), JC Douglas (Teviotdale), A Leitch (Gateshead) and L Stewart (Vale of Leven).   The club was again fourth with Jim followed home by J Grant (5th), T Gallagher (55th) and F Thomson (65th) but missing third place medals again by only one point behind George Heriot’s.    The report this year said: “Easy win for Finn – JT Finn the holder, of Monkland Harriers, beat his principal rival, GB Brownlee (Edinburgh Southern), the Eastern District champion, by 60 yards in the Youths Three Mile event.   H Barrow (Victoria Park, last year’s boys champion, finfished a good third.”

*His first year as a Junior (1961/62) saw Jim finish a very creditable sixth.   Sixth in his first race as an Under 20 Junior runner.   He was of a generation blessed with genuinely highly talented runners as can be seen form those in front of him – AIC Heron, Craig Douglas, Mike Ryan, Allan Faulds and Jim Bogan.   Bearing in mind that this was his first year in the age group he had behind him such as Lachie Stewart (8th) Leitch (9th), Chris Elson (10th), and others such as Fergus Murray and Martin Craven.    This result saw him selected for the International Cross-Country Championships where Scotland was third team with the medal winners being Lachie Stewart in tenth, Alasdair Heron eleventh and Jim sixteenth.   The Glasgow Herald reported on the race briefly  as follows: 

“Scotland’s Junior team performed creditably, finishing third to England with a total of 37 points.”

*In the National in 1962/63 he finished 20th in the Junior race – the first time that he had finished outside the top ten.   The opposition was even stronger than in the previous year but there were some ahead of him who had finished after him more than once.   

This progression was of course shown in other events such as the District Cross-Country championships. where the results were as follows.   

Senior Junior Career

Jim had had a stellar career as a boy and Youth, especially over the country but his career in the Senior ranks was sketchy with only a few appearances at the top.   For example he only had one run in the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay.   That was in November 1962 where he was twelfth of the twenty runners on the first stage. sandwiched between former internationalists Tom O’Reilly of Springburn Harriers and Dick Penman of Bellahouston.   Not in evidence at the Midland District Championships his run in the National Championship that year seems to have been his last race ever.    Placed 20th, it was not a bad run at all.   He was two places behind Dick Hodelet of Glenpark Harriers and one place behind Ray Baillie of Glasgow University, one place ahead of R McKean of St Andrews University and two in front of Brian Scobie (Maryhill) and three ahead of Albert Smith of Victoria Park.   

The name of Tom Callaghan has appeared in many of the results noted above  and he was a team mate of Jim’s in County, District and National medal winning races.    Tom comments:     “JT Finn was an outstanding talent as a Youth who was able to perform to the level he did with a limited amount of training.   He seemed to have so much natural ability that he should have been a top performer at 5000m on the track.   Perhaps the natural ability wasn’t enough and the work ethic was missing.   

Our three for most races was Jim Grant, Jim Finn and myself, with Tommy Gallagher as fourth choice.   During the two seasons we ran as Youths, we were almost unbeatable in relays.   I would run first, Grant second and Finn on the last leg.  Our one regret was that we never won the National as a team despite JT Finn winning the individual title twice in 1960 and ’61.   I think it was in ’61 that Finn was beaten in the Midland District cross-country at Renton, after which one of the senior members of the club said to him, “What happened to-day?”   Finn replied “Wait till the National.”   In those days the National was held at Hamilton Racecourse.   Finn allowed whoever wanted to make the pace do so, until the final hill where he just ran away from the field to score a convincing victory.”

The following results in very high quality relays verify what Tom said above.

• Garscube Harriers Youths Relay, 1960:  1st Monkland Harriers (T Callaghan 11:58. R Grant 12:50, J Finn 12:30)    Finn beat Lachie Stewart’s course record by 29 seconds.
• Lararkshire County Road Relay championship in 1960: 1st Monkland Harriers (T Callagahan 11:58, J Grant 11:17, T Gallagher 12:04, J Finn 11:11)   Fastest individual: JT Finn.

Summing up, another immensely talented runner as a Boy and Youth who never made the transition to the Senior Ranks, reason unknown – a great loss to the sport.