Author: The Author

Adrian Jackson, front row right – next to Hunter Watson.

Adrian Jackson was a very fine runner indeed and when I first came into the sport in 1957 he was one of the best in the country – bear in mind that the 1950’s was almost a ‘Golden Decade’ for Scottish distance running.   Colin Youngson wrote this profile and as you read it, note the names that he crossed swords with and you will appreciate the quality of the athlete.

Adrian Sylvester Jackson was born on 15^th December 1933. As a young man he ran for a club in Leeds but then went away to study at Edinburgh University between 1953 and 1960, when he completed his medical degree. Throughout this period AS Jackson was an outstanding athlete, and frequently the best runner in the East of Scotland. He was EU CC champion from 1954-1959; and won full blues for Cross Country in 1954, 1957, 58 and 59; and for Athletics in 1954, 1955, 56, 57, 59 and 60. He was a Scottish International athlete on both track and country

Hunter Watson, who later became a long-serving Club Secretary for Aberdeen AAC, was studying at Edinburgh University when news came in Autumn 1953 that an outstanding young runner from Yorkshire was about join the Hare & Hounds. [Hunter was a talented athlete who went on to win the East District Youth CC in 1954 and to finish second in the Youth National CC. Later that year he became Scottish Junior Mile Champion. In 1955 Hunter was East District one mile champion and in 1956 secured Scottish Universities titles at one mile and three miles. He enjoyed a long career, winning bronze and silver medals in the Scottish Senior 880 and Mile; and eventually retired to concentrate on coaching after victories in: the 1976 British Veterans 800m; 1976 Scottish Veterans 800m (in record time); and 1977 Scottish Veterans 1500m (also a new record).] He remembers sitting in a train compartment, travelling from Edinburgh to Kirkcaldy before the first East District League race of the Winter season, and trying to guess which of his team-mates was this new star from the North of England. He did not realise that the short fellow opposite was that very man, Adrian Jackson, who was to be the Best Man at Hunter’s wedding and a lifelong friend. Hunter sums Adrian up as “a very pleasant, unassuming wee chap”. Hunter featured along with Adrian in many winning EU teams, including the 1955 Scottish Junior CC.

In early 1954, after a thrilling race for the East District CC title, Adrian finished only three seconds behind the winner, Sandy Robertson (ESH), but led Edinburgh University Hare & Hounds to the first of three consecutive team victories, when they lifted the Fraser Trophy. Adrian, that year’s Scottish Universities CC Champion, was favourite in the 1954 Scottish Junior National but, as Colin Shields noted in his centenary history of the SCCU “Young John MacLaren of Shotts Miners Welfare Club, who had the handicap (due to a childhood attack of polio) of a withered left arm tied to his chest, ran a sensational race …. showing grit and courage to defeat Jackson by four seconds.” Nevertheless, Edinburgh University won the award for first team.

In early summer, Adrian won the Scottish Universities track events over one mile (in front of Hunter Watson and Alastair Wood) and three miles, a feat he repeated in 1955, 1958 and 1959. He also broke SU records at these distances. In the East Districts, he was first in both one mile and three miles. His time in the latter (14.27.1) was a new record.   Then on the track at New Meadowbank, Edinburgh, Adrian Jackson became SAAA Champion at one mile. After a tactical race against J.L Hendry of Walton AC, Jackson won in 4 minutes 19.5 seconds. Emmet Farrell commented in The Scots Athlete “The time might be considered workmanlike, but for a man regarded primarily as a two or three-miler, it was a grand effort”. Apart from the mile, Adrian’s best times that season were: 2 miles 9.14.8; 3 miles 14.22.1.

 In November 1954 at Galashiels, Edinburgh University won the Mackenzie Cup after winning the Eastern District Ten Miles CC Relay. A few days later Adrian ran on the prestigious Stage Six in the Edinburgh to Glasgow Road Relay, when the Edinburgh students did very well to finish fourth.

Adrian won the 1955 British Universities CC title, by 150 yards on Wimbledon Common. That season’s Scottish National Junior Cross-Country Championships produced a similar result to the previous year: A.S. Jackson second to John McLaren (who later had a tremendous run to win the English Junior CC as well), with EUH&H retaining their team title. Scorers were ‘The Famous Four’ – Adrian Jackson, Adrian Horne (1956 East District CC winner), Hunter Watson and Jim Paterson (who won Scottish titles at 440, 880 and Two Miles Steeplechase and in 1957 became National Record holder over 800 metres with the outstanding time of 1.47.5).

During the track season, Adrian won the Scottish Universities mile (once again, in front of Hunter Watson and Alastair Wood) and three miles. However in the East Districts mile, Hunter outsprinted Adrian to win in 4.18.1, which was a new record. Then AS Jackson defended his Scottish One Mile title, but finished second, well behind the new star Graham Everett. Undoubtedly, one of Adrian’s finest achievements was when he won the 1955 World Student Games 5000m in Spain. San Sebastian was the venue; the redoubtable General Franco presented the trophy; and shortly afterwards, Adrian lost it and never saw it again! He was third in the Scottish rankings for Three Miles (14.13.0).

Later that year in the E to G, the Edinburgh Students were eighth, with Adrian again on the longest Stage Six, only 28 seconds slower than the fastest man, Eddie Bannon of Shettleston (who was National CC Champion four times).

1956 was a very successful year for Adrian Jackson. In the summer he won the East Districts One Mile and then became Scottish Champion in the Three Miles track event – another tactical victory (14.33.6) at New Meadowbank. In The Scots Athlete, Jim Logan reported: “This race was another cat-and-mouse, with the issue clearly between Adrian Jackson and Andy Brown. Jackson began his effort at the second-last bend and almost met disaster when he collided with a lapped man who politely, but belatedly, moved out to let the leaders pass inside. Jackson was undisturbed by the incident and raced home seven seconds clear in a very fast finish.” The cover photo of The Scots Athlete magazine for August 1956 shows Adrian stalking the early leader Bobby Calderwood, with a very young-looking Andy Brown tucked in behind. Adrian’s fastest time for three miles that season was 13.55; and for two miles 9.00.7. He was first in the Scottish Rankings for both events.

Bobby Calderwood, Adrian Jackson and Andy Brown in the Three Miles in 1956.

He also won the British Universities 3 Miles Championship. After that, an invitation came to take part (one of two British athletes) in the Mannerheim Games in Helsinki, on the 1952 Olympic track.    On 4^th June he won the 5000m in 14.13.6, which was tenth on the British all-time list. That time would have been good enough for fourth in the Olympics (when Emil Zatopek had won in 14.06.6). In 1924 Paavo Nurmi’s world record had been 14.28.2. Adrian was first in the Scottish 5000m Rankings.

In November EU finished 7^th, but Adrian broke Pat Moy’s record for the important Second Stage by one second, with the time of 29.48. (In 1958 EU were ninth, but Adrian ran very well for fourth fastest on Two, only 16 seconds slower than the fastest man –  Shettleston’s Joe McGhee, the 1954 Vancouver Commonwealth Games marathon victor.)

In 1957, Adrian regained both the Scottish Universities CC (in Aberdeen) and the British Universities CC titles. He also won the East Districts CC (and repeated this feat in 1958, 1959 and 1961). In 1961, having graduated from EU at last, he represented Braidburn AC and narrowly defeated the rising star John Linaker from Pitreavie AC. In the summer of 1957, Adrian did not compete, probably because of injury or studying for important examinations. In 1958 he retained his SU CC crown in Edinburgh; and was second in the Scottish Three Miles (14.16.2). He also ran 14.05.6 that season and was third in the ranking list.

George Brown (later on a stalwart for ESH, see The Fast Pack) studied at EU between 1956 and 1959 and ran well on track (4.12.7 mile), country (featuring in SU CC team victories) and road (sub 50 minutes for the Tom Scott 10 Miles.) George remembers Adrian as quiet, pleasant and extremely modest. They used to train by running five and a half miles from King’s Buildings, down to Liberton Dam, across some flat country, then farmland, followed by a tour of the tough Braid Hills. This demanding route was also used for EUH&H time-trials!

Scottish International runner and Scottish Three Miles Champion Steve Taylor of Aberdeen AAC remembers Adrian Jackson as a polite, well-liked gentleman. However Steve recalls with chagrin one East District so-called Cross Country Championship at Newcraighall, during a foot-and-mouth crisis in 1961, which had to be run on the road. Taylor had a good lead but Jackson finished very strongly to push him into second place. Steve also remembers a dreadfully hot International CC Championships (1961 at Nantes) when Adrian and he both suffered, due to the temperature and the formidable concrete barriers which had to be cleared.

Adrian Jackson’s best placings in Senior National CC (contested over nine gruelling miles at Hamilton Racecourse) were 7^th in 1958 and 6^th in both 1959 and 1961. Consequently he was chosen to run for Scotland in the International Cross Country Championships in: Cardiff 1958, (46^th), Lisbon 1959 (30^th) and Nantes 1961 (51^st). He was a scoring member of the Scottish team in 1958 and 1959.

In 1959, Adrian won the Scottish Universities CC title in Glasgow, with David Carter from St Andrews University in second place. That summer Jackson ran very well to win a silver medal in the 1959 SAAA Three Miles, losing narrowly (by two tenths of a second) in a sprint against Alastair Wood of Shettleston (and later Aberdeen AAC), who finished in 13.58.6. That season, Adrian recorded a faster Three Mile time of 13.52.2 and was fourth in the Scottish ranking list.

After 1961, it seems that Adrian Jackson retired from athletics and concentrated on his medical career, becoming a Consultant Anaesthetist in Cheltenham. However from 1982 onwards he competed with considerable success as a veteran in the World Medical Games, winning fifteen gold medals. In 1982 the event was termed The Medical Olympic Games and Adrian won both 1500m and 5000m (16.58, which set a new record). Later on, he competed in half marathons, triathlons and even the 1992 London Marathon.

It is however as a runner with Edinburgh University that he will probably be best remembered in Scotland/   He was probably at the height of his powers as a runner then – note his racing in international races during that period .   There was an interesting double act with Hunter Watson at that time: invariably when representing Edinburgh University against another university or a club, Hunter led for the first three laps and Adrian got away from him on the final lap. No one ever split them . However, the tables were reversed on one occaion  when Hunter did manage to beat Adrian in the mile:  on that occasion  for some inexplicable reason he led and Hunter was able to out sprint him on the final straight. Thanks to his pace making his team mate was able to get down to 4:18.1 on that occasion and, as a consequence cut 5.2 seconds from the record for the East of Scotland mile championships in 1955. The press did not report who the previous record holder had been but, almost certainly it had been G.M. (Morris) Carstairs, someone who had finished sixth in the 5000 metres in the 1938 European Championships.   

There is no doubt that Adrian Jackson would have been a top class athlete in any generation and Scotland was lucky to see him racing at his best.   He died on 1st May 2014.   

Leading in the AAA’s  in 1949

Scottish athletics has often been enriched by the presence of Irish runners.   During the dark years of the 1920’s and 1930’s many Irishmen came to Scotland looking for or following the work that was available.   For instance a large group came to Clydebank to work on The Empress of Britain and stayed on, or left and came back to help build Job Number 534 (The Queen Mary).   Many signed up with Clydesdale Harriers with the best being Hans Noble, who ran for Ireland in the International Championships in Wales in 1933.   He was to return after the war and become the first official coach in the club – in common with other clubs pre-war, his predecessors in the role were designated ‘trainers’.   However, the one who made the biggest impact in the country was almost certainly John Joe Barry.   When in Scotland, he ran for the small St Machan’s AC based in Lennoxtown under the Campsie Fells and he would go on set world records and win many championships and become one of Ireland’s best ever runners.

He was born in the United States, in Joliet, Illinois on October 5th 1925.   After leaving school he joined his local club, Ballincurry AC when he was 19 and for the remainder of his running career he was known as The Ballincurry Hare – and that nickname became the title of his autobiography published in 1986 but now, sadly out of print.   While with Ballincurry AC, he won the Irish cross-country title plus the track mile and four miles championships in 1945.   After joining the Civil Service Harriers, he he won the half mile and mile championships in 1946  and in 1947 he ran an Irish record for the mile of 4:15.2 breaking the 4:15.6 set by Tommy Conneff in 1895 which was a world record at the time.   In 1948 he won the half mile and mile titles again running in the colours of Clonliffe Harriers.   In 1949 he won the SAAA three miles and also the AAA three miles.   When he won the 1950 American indoor mile title he held simultaneously the Irish, Scottish, English and American mile titles.    He had gone to America to attend Villanova University, the first of many Irishmen to do so.   He graduated in commerce and finance in 1954 following which he spent most of his business career in the States.   After he retired he returned to live the rest of his time in Dublin, where he died in December 1994.

His personal best times were: 1500 – 3:51.4 (1949);    Mile – 4:08.6 (1949);   2 miles – 8:59.0 (1949);    3 miles – 13:56.2 (1949);    5000 – unknown.

John Joe Barry lived and competed in Scotland in 1948 and 1949 racing a lot – many said too much – and in 1949 was the best and most consistent distance runner in the British Isles.   We will look here at the lead-in to and then his wonderful 1949 summer season.  His 1948 Scottish season was not notable but the first mention we get of him is in the ‘Scots Athlete’ of December 1948 which simply says, “Another favourite with the fans is the Irish miler JJ Barry.   Now resident in Lennoxtown we should see plenty of him next season.   Although apparently established as a miler, it is possible that the “Ballycurren Hare” may yet gain even further distinction over the longer stretches.”   Although he didn’t seem to race much over the country, in the Midland District Championships on 5th February 1949, the winner was JJ Barry of St Machan’s AAC by a second from JF Fleming of Motherwell YMCA.   Eddie Taylor’s race report read “Olympic runner JJ Barry of St Machan’s AC getting there by one second before Jim Fleming of Motherwell YM followed by Jim Stuart of Shettleston 20 secs behind.   These three dominated the race taking it in turn to be in the lead and trying to ‘break away’.   John Joe made an effort twice in the wood to cut loose, Stuart had one or two tries and Fleming about half a mile to go tried to shake off the opposition, but all these endeavours were unsuccessful and it was ‘cat and mouse’ to the finish.   Barry obviously has the class and these three reputed milers will shake up our long distance stars for National honours.” 

 The report in the ‘Glasgow Herald’ on the Ibrox Sports organised by Bellahouston Harriers on 28th May, 1949, started “JJ Barry’s winning time of 14 min 30.2 sec in the special three mile race was remarkably good considering the conditions.   Seconds were lost because of the gusty wind with which he and the other competitors had to contend in the finishing straight which had to be traversed in each lap of the 12 lap journey.   Andrew Forbes, the Scottish champion, cut out the pace for most of the race.   He led at one mile in 4 min 48 sec and at two miles in 9 min 50 sec and still had a chance of beating his own record of 14 min 32.2 sec.   It was obvious however that the all-comers record of 14 min 03.4 was in no danger of being broken.   Over the last lap Forbes continued to lead but with 300 yards to go HA Olney (Thanes Valley Harriers) shot out from behind and Barry immediately followed him.   The pair raced up the home straight but 30 yards from the tape, Barry went to the front and, confidently glancing over his left shoulder, the Irishman won by two yards from the Englishman with Forbes another 30 yards behind.   Forbes covered the distance in 14 min 34.8 sec.”  

In the Glasgow Police Sports at Hampden on 11th June, Barry took on Fred Wilt of the Unites States in a special two miles race in which both men ran from scratch in a handicap event.   The ‘Herald’ said:“One of the best races in the programme was the two miles in which JJ Barry of Eire found more than his match in Fred Wilt of the United States.   Finishing the first mile in 4 min 32 sec, the Irishman did more than he was accustomed to do by making the pace.   Neither he nor Wilt was concerned about the field of handicap runners during the first mile and a half.   Then both made substantial progress, and over the last lap the American put in a finish with which the Barry was unable to cope.   He as well as the winner was inside the 45 year old record of Alfred Shrubb, the winner by 4.4 sec and Barry by 3 seconds.  

In the April issue of the magazine there was a report on the all-Ireland championships held at Finglass where Steve McCooke won for the third time in four years over a minute in front of John Joe who finished strongly to be second just one second in front of third man P Fahy.   The international that year was held at Baldoyle Racecourse in Dublin and he was second Irish finisher (14th) in the team that finished third.   He was one place in front of Scotland’s first finisher Andy Forbes of Victoria Park by seven seconds.   Emmett Farrell, in the preview of the SAAA Championships to be held in June said.“JOHN JOE BARRY IS ELIGIBLE.   Now resident in Lennoxtown, and running under the colours of the local St Machan’s, John Joe Barry will be eligible for this year’s championships.   Thus early in the season John Joe has shown that his cross-country efforts have not blunted the brilliant speed which earned for him the title of ‘The Ballycurren Hare’   Barry is both versatile and unorthodox to such an extent that he could run in the 1 mile or the 3 miles or even both events.   Should he confine his attentions to the mile, he would appear to have the edge  on his opponents including holder Jas. Fleming and ex-holder Frank Sinclair.   Still the Motherwell man should be capable of improvement and could the latter really get down to a serious preparation, well even Barry would know he had been in a race.” 

On Monday evening of 13th June, at Helenvale Park in Glasgow, John Joe ran one and a half miles in 6:33.8 – a world’s best time for the distance.   The distance was not recognised as a world record because the distance was not recognised but nevertheless it made the whole athletics world sit up and take notice.   The Glasgow Herald athletics correspondent said: “John J Barry the St Machan’s and Clonliffe Harrier (Eire) runner created a new world record for one and a half miles at Helenvale Park last night when at St Machan’s Sports meeting he covered the distance in 6 minutes 33.8 seconds.   Barry’s time was 2-10th sec faster than the previous best set by Glenn Cunningham (USA) in 1937 and 2.7 better than the British record set by Tom Riddell (Shettleston Harriers) in 1935.   With the Scottish mile and three mile champions J Fleming and A Forbes running from 20 and 25 yards respectively Barry covered the first mile in 4 min 22 sec and had his field well in hand. Round the last lap he put in a superb effort to beat W Lennie (Vale of Leven) to whom he was conceding 85 yards  and won by 30 yards.”   A world record set in Glasgow in a handicap race at a meeting organised by St Machan’s AC from Lennoxtown.   That’s a thing that will never be seen again – and not just because St Machan’s AC is defunct.  I’ll say more about the club below.

Andy Forbes and Barry had some great duels and none more exciting than in the SAAA Championships in June, 1949, in the Three  Miles Championship.   The Herald’: “Probably the best achievement on Saturday, was that of A Forbes in the three mile event.   In one of the finest races seen in Scotland for many a day, Forbes covered the distance in 4 min 18.4 sec – 13.8 sec  better than his previous native record.   JJ Barry (St Machan’s) the winner of the event in 0.2 sec faster time put in a tremendous finish to catch the Scot.”

The report by Emmet Farrell in his ‘Running Commentary’ in the Scots Athlete also made a bit more of Forbes’s running than of Barry’s but gave his reason why.   “The duel between John Joe Barry and Andy Forbes in the 3 miles was a classic and will be a fragrant memory to those privileges to be present.   Forbes in particular ran the race of his life and although losing his title cracked his own native record to the tune of 14 seconds, a remarkable display of powerful and artistic running.   It may seem churlish to lavish more praise on the runner-up than the victor.   Barry after all came back in magnificent fashion after his disappointing show in the half mile to win the three miles title in gallant fashion despite the reaction caused by his earlier racing and previous heavy programme.   He too proved himself a “bonny fechter”.   But we knew John Joe was capable of such running.   On the other hand, Andrew Forbes surpassed himself.   Not only did he bear the heat and burden of the day, by assuming the role of pace maker, but he took John Joe right to the tape, demonstrating an entirely unsuspected brand of finishing power.

The finish of 1949 SAAA Three Miles Championship

Despite Barry’s four star display in the 3 miles at Hampden, I had a feeling that he was beginning to feel the strain of his recent terrific programme yet the proof of the pudding is the eating.   A few days later the Tipperary man completed the mile at Helenvale Park in the wonderful time of 4 mins 12.1 secs , just 1.1 secs outside Wooderson’s all-comers record of 4 mins 11 secs.   Barry lapped in respectively 61, 64, 66 and 61.2 secs.   Wooderson in 60, 64, 66 and 61 secs.   A remarkable similarity indeed.  

As if that were not enough, Barry competed at Dublin next day where he gave an example of his amazing powers of recuperation.   In the 2 miles invitation event he ran clean away from Douglas Wilson who joined him on the scratch mark and passed Andy Forbes off the 35 yards mark to put up the magnificent time of 8 mins 59 secs, 6 secs faster than the time put up by Sidney Wooderson 3 years ago and claimed as a world record for a grass track.   Barry’s time is the fastest ever run in these islands.   The British record stands to the credit of Gunder Hagg of Sweden with his time of 9 mins 0.6 secs set at the White City in 1945.   Incidentally, though again beaten by Barry, Andrew Forbes ran another grand race, clocking an approximate time of 9 mins 17 secs, only 4 secs outside Scottish native record time.”   

Barry went on to win the AAA’s 3 miles on 16th June at the White City.   “Andrew Forbes (Victoria Park) knew quite well that to figure among the leaders at the finish of the three miles he had to get out to the front, and so he made most of the pace in the early stages, and then JJ Barry, who was the favourite for the race, took a hand in the leading out work.   Between them they they reeled off the first mile in 4 mins 47.6 secs, two miles in 9 mins 33 secs and despite a determined challenge by the Englishman AH Chivers Barry stayed on to win in 14 mins 11 sec.   Forbes finished fourth behind HA Olney in 14 mins 36.8 secs, a time which he has beaten handsomely more than once.”

This prompting Emmet Farrell to mention him as a possible British athlete of the Year.   “John Joe Barry has of course put up the most consistently high standard of performances in these islands.   Technically John Joe does not rank as a British runner as in International competition like the European or Olympic Games he would represent Eire.   The great Irish runner is the promoter’s dream, a colourful, brilliant whole-hearted trier.   Last year he ran like a novice this year he is on the fringe of world class.   What of the future?   Sooner or later he must meet men of the Reiff-Zatopek class.   Will he endeavour to conserve his energies somewhat?   Will he get down to a definite schedule?   We shall see.”

Before meeting these stars however, it was back to earth with a bump when he ran a mile at Linlithgow the following week in 4 minutes 20.8 seconds but could only finish fifth – he was conceding starts up to 165 yards in the handicap.   A week later in the Vale of Leven Sports he had a tussle with Walter Lennie of the home club (who had a 55 yard start on him)  to finish second to the home runner by the width of a vest in 4:20.5.   On August 6th at the Rangers Sports, Barry “was his usual rampant self” in winning the two miles – “never before had he made his opponents appear such novices” – from Andy Forbes (off 20 yards) and James Reid (off 40 yards) in 9:14.2.   On 13th August in the international between England & Wales and Scotland & Ireland, he won the three miles in 14:41.6.   On 27th August he set a new Irish record for the mile of 4 minutes 8.9 seconds.   The ‘Herald’ said: “JJ Barry whose previous best time for the mile was 4 mins 9.4 secs failed in his attempt in Dublin to reach the goal of all milers – a four minute mile.   He did, however, set a new Irish record of 4 mins 8.9 secs.   A second lap of 65 seconds ruined his chances, but his times for the first third and fourth laps of  60.6, 60.7 and 61.3 seconds were creditable efforts.”

At the start of September he ran in Belgium over a mile against Willy Slijkhuis of Holland but was beaten by almost four seconds – 4:12.4 to 4:16.0 – and the report on the race in the Scots Athlete ended with the following paragraph:   “Unless he changes his mind Barry intends to settle in the USA after appearing in the indoor season early next year, and if so we may see him only on rare occasions if at all.   I feel certain that the “Ballycurran Hare” will prove a popular figure over there.   Our loss will be America’s gain.”   And so it proved – John Joe moved to USA and was the first of many great Irish runners to study and train at Villanova University.

Over his career, John Joe Barry won nine Irish track titles, one Irish senior cross country title, one English AAA 3-mile title (1949), one Scottish AAA 3-mile title (1949), and one American indoor mile title in 1950. He won his Irish cross country title as well as an Irish mile and 4-mile title in 1945 with Ballincurry AC. In 1946 he won the 880 yard and mile titles with Civil Service Harriers, in 1948 he won the 880 yard and mile titles with Clonliffe Harriers, and in 1949 he won the 880 yard, mile and 3-mile titles also with Clonliffe Harriers.  

The St Machan’s club in Lennoxtown was set up by Father Denis O’Connell in a little village under the Campsie Fells just north-east of Glasgow.   During his early years in Scotland, Father O’Connell was alarmed at the divide between Catholic and Protestant and set about using athletics as a means to bring the communities closer together.    Among his activities was a Community Games where all could come together and he also established the St Machan’s Athletic Club.    During his time in Lennoxtown, 1941 to 1949, the club grew steadily with John Joe Barry being an outstanding example to all in the area, not just the athletes.   Strangely enough, his departure to Methil in Fife coincided almost exactly with John Joe’s move to USA.   He organised sports meetings in Lennoxtown and further afield bringing many of the very best athletes in Scotland to compete there.  

Father Whelan in Lennoxtown presents John Joe with a trophy: Father O’Connell in the middle.

John Joe Barry was the first of many, many famous Irishmen to travel to the United States – he was followed by such as Olympic champion Ron Delany, Eamonn Coughlan, Ray Flynn, Frank Murphy, Noel Carroll and Sonia O’Sullivan.

There is a mass of information about him on the internet but I only found one clip of him in action – winning a mile in Dublin in 1949 – and it is here at –

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/barrys-mile-highlights-dublin-sports

Look him up and read about him.   A wonderful runner, a charismatic character and a great role model – we were fortunate that he ran in Scotland and brought out the best in our best men as well as bringing the crowds out to athletic meetings.

Dick Wedlock (3) leading the international field at Elgoibar in 1972 including Lachie Stewart (1)

His record here was a good one: 1970  5th, 1971  8th; 1972  4th (10th M Gammoudi!)

Dick Wedlock was a superbly good athlete who was maybe unfortunate to be competing at the same time as Lachie Stewart, Ian McCafferty, Ian Stewart, Fergus Murray and Don Macgregor.   A Commonwealth Games competitor in 1970, his run was overshadowed by Lachie’s superb victory, a multi-international in the world cross-country championships and a very good road runner, he always found the spotlight on others.   In the twenty first century he would be an undoubted star of Scottish and British endurance running.   His unfortunate accident brought him headlines of the wrong kind altogether and to some extent ensured that he would be remembered for something other than his athletic qualities.   How good was he?   Let’s just list some of his achievements:

• 5 senior appearances in the World Cross-Country Championships and 1 Junior
• Dick won the Scottish cross-country championship as a senior in 1969, was second in 1970  and third in 1971, plus bronze medals in the Junior and Youth Nationals
• 5 gold and 3 silver team medals in the Edinburgh to Glasgow from 9 runs plus a gold, two silver and one bronze in the Senior National,
• Team gold in the English CC championships.
• Team silver in the European Clubs CC Championship twice
• Commonwealth Games 10,000 metres, 1970
• Best times of 8:17.8 (3000m, 1970), 8:59.4 (Two Miles, 68), 13:47.0 (Three Miles, 68), 14:21.6 (5000m, 70), 29:57.4 (Six Miles, 66) and 28:42.6 (10,000m, 70) as well as being an able steeplechaser.
• Three silver and two bronze medals at SAAA Track Championships.

Well-liked and highly respected he has been overlooked for too long.

Dick Wedlock (Born on 26th January 1946) started off as a Junior Boy in Shettleston Harriers.    The Shettleston Harriers Centenary History tells the story of his beginnings: “Allan Scally first spotted Dick as a 12 year old at the St Bridget’s Secondary School Sports at Maxwell Park, Baillieston, in 1958.   Within months Allan was predicting a great future for his new protege: ‘I have complete faith in this new boy.   His performances to date are comparable to any of the well-known athletes I have coached, even Eddie Bannon and Graham Everett.’   Perhaps the fact that coach and athlete shared the same birthday served to enhance the relationship.   For the next four years Dick was a regular member of the boys teams and by the age of 16 was Midland District Champion, Lanarkshire champion, Lanarkshire Mile and Scottish Half Mile record holder, culminating in the National Senior Boys title in 1961.   When he defended his title the following year he was beaten by Duncan Middleton, Springburn Harriers, his first defeat in two years, a result he reversed a few weeks later”

Dick was clearly very good right from the start and had dominated the Shettleston club championships winning the Senior Boys titles in 1960, 1961 and 1962 and the Youths title in 1963.   Not surprisingly it came as a shock when he decided to leave later in 1963.   Shortly after the defeat by Duncan, he joined Motherwell YMCA in a move that took many by surprise,   Barred from team competition for 14 months, he ran as an individual and won many races and titles before helping helping Motherwell win District and Edinburgh to Glasgow titles.   When he left, champion decathlete and staunch Shettleston man Norrie Foster is quoted as saying, “The first thing we must remember is that we are amateurs and if Dick feels that he can better his running by leaving, then he has every right to do so.   Instead of grumbling, let’s find out why he is leaving, and if the fault lies with us, put it right.”   This magnanimous attitude is possibly one of the reasons that Dick returned to Shettleston when the Motherwell YMCA club split on the formation of Law and District AAC.

He started his career with Motherwell in 1964 in the style that he left Shettleston: third in the Inter-Counties behind Springburn’s Knox and Middleton, first by 15 seconds in the Scottish YMCA Championships, third in the National, again behind Knox and Middleton all achieved in February before winning the British YMCA Championships (held at Paisley) by 200 yards.   Into the summer and in the Lanarkshire Championships he won the Junior 880 yards in 2:02.3, and finished second in the mile.   He was not placed in the West District Championships the following week and was also unplaced in the SAAA Championships – no disgrace with opposition like Graeme Grant (Dumbarton), Knox and Middleton in the same age group – but came the winter and he ran in his first Edinburgh to Glasgow in November 1964.   Motherwell and had no fewer than five best stage time – Alex Brown was first on the first stage, Andy on the fourth stage, David Simpson on the fifth, Ian McCafferty on the sixth, Dick on the seventh (32 seconds faster than the second quickest) and John Poulton on the final stage brought the team home.    Bert McKay and Willie Marshall made up the team.   It was an excellent debut.    At the start of the season in October he was in the second team for the McAndrew Relay, the Lanarkshire Relay (sixth fastest Motherwell man) and the Midlands District Relay at Cleland where Motherwell teams were first and third (he was fifth fastest Motherwell man) before the ‘big one’ – the E-G in which he performed so well.   Motherwell was so strong at this time that they were winning in virtually every race and although he probably raced in the Lanarkshire Championships, the Nigel Barge, etc his name does not appear again until the Midland District in mid-January where he finished sixth to be first Junior.   In the  Inter-Counties in February he finished third behind Lachie Stewart and A Carse of Edinburgh and fourth in the Scottish YMCA Championships.   On to the National Championships in February where he was a first year Junior who had been third in the Youths race the year before.    This time he was fourth in the Junior race behind McCafferty, Roger Young of Edinburgh University and Alex Brown.    This gained him selection for the Scottish team and in the International he finished twenty fifth to be a scoring runner for the team.

His only ranking the following summer was for the steeplechase where he recorded 9:49.4 to be fourteenth in Scotland but Dick’s name did not appear in any championship or open meeting but he was no doubt a member of several Two and Three Mile teams held throughout the summer because he came into winter 1965/66 in good shape.   We don’t know how well he did in the McAndrew since he wasn’t in the first team of McCafferty, McKay, Brown and Brown, but the following week when Motherwell mixed their first two teams to take first and second in the Lanarkshire Relays, he was in the first team of AP Brown, I McCafferty, R Wedlock and M McNulty who won with Dick’s 12:39 being the sixth fastest of this outstanding club squad.  Seven days afterwards he was lead off man for the second team in the YMCA relays and led the first team at the changeover – despite this he was still only sixth fastest club man in the event.   He was therefore not in the first team which won the District Relays at the end of October, and he may also have run in the Glasgow University Road Race but the big one was the Edinburgh to Glasgow in the middle of November.   This time the Motherwell club had to be satisfied with second place to Edinburgh University  described as the best University cross-country team ever assembled – with the students faster on six of the eight stages.   Dick ran the third fastest time on the final stage and took over over a minute behind Roger Young for the University: he had third fastest time behind Alastair Johnston (VPAAC) and Young who was ten seconds quicker than he was.   Thereafter it was back to the second team for this talented runner who had, probably without realising it, run his last E-G for Motherwell.   Motherwell won the Nigel Barge Road race at the start of 1966 (with the two Browns and Bert McKay the top team and the second team was sixth) and also the  District championship where Dick was probably among the counting runners but not among those named in the Press.   It was into the National Cross-Country at Hamilton where Dick did not figure in the results at all.    In summer 1966 he won his first SAAA Senior track medal.  It was in the Six Miles where he was third in a time of 29:57.6.   But, maybe more important, 1966 was the year when Dick left Motherwell and moved back to Shettleston.   He was now just coming up to twenty one and had had a very good career so far.   He had raced with and watched and learned from some of the very best athletes in the country at both Motherwell and earlier with Shettleston.    It was natural that his very best years were yet to come and would be spent in the blue and gold of that club.   The Shettleston Harriers history remarks “When some Motherwell members left to form Law and District AC, Dick returned to Barrachnie to play a key role as the club emerged from its fallow time.”

I am going to jump to the winter of 1967 which was when he was available for team duty and things really started to hum – for Dick and also for Shettleston.   The October relay season saw the Shettleston team unbeaten abd unbeatable – he had come from the totally dominant Motherwell YMCA to the equally powerful Shettleston just at the point of transition.   The results of October are summarised in the table below.

It was clear that this team would do well and in the Edinburgh to Glasgow in November the club, seventh in 1966, improved to second with a very good squad forward: Norman Morrison third on the first stage, A Blamire held third, Martin McMahon was still third at the end of the third stage, Bill Scally pulled the team up to second, Les Meneely on five dropped back to third, Dick ran the long and very competitive sixth stage and pulled the team back up to second with the third fastest run of the day, Bill Mullett and Henry Summerhill brought the club home in second. This was the famous race where there was a dead-heat awarded for second place.   Henry Summerhill for Shettleston and Terry Baker of Aberdeen were neck-and-neck heading for the line when a taxi cut across in front of the Aberdeen man; Summerhill took the chance and accelerated away to cross the line first.   The judges held a street corner conclave and announced a dead-heat.      Not only Dick’s first year back but he had already won three gold medals in the short relays and here was a silver one in the Edinburgh to Glasgow.   At the time of the Kingsway Relay, Ron Marshall of the ‘Glasgow Herald’ spoke to Dick who “attributed his big improvement this season to avoiding injuries and having a fast group of men to train with.   It has also been no disadvantage for him to set up home a mere sprint away from Shettleston’s track! 

On 25th November Dick won the match between the SCCU and the Army and was selected for the match against the Universities on 9th December.   On 2nd December in the Lanarkshire Championships, he was fifth – behind McCafferty, Knox, Brown and Brown!   Three of his former Motherwell team-mates in the first four.   In the match against the Universities he was fifth but moved up to fourth because in fourth place was a non-scoring reserve – the very good Jim Brennan of Maryhill.     At the start of 1968 he took part in the Nigel Barge Road Race at Maryhill and finished fifth in the same time as team mate Norman Morrison in the Shettleston team that finished third.   The following week, Dick won the Springburn Cup road race from Jim Brennan and the ‘Herald’s’ reporter suggested that the carrot of a trip to a European cross-country race had encouraged the vegetarian Wedlock.   He was listed as a reserve for these events which were frequent at the time.   There were several cross-country races held on the Continent every winter and the Scots three- and four-man teams were popular and successful with Lachie, Ian, Fergus Murray, Jim Brown and company all doing well and advertising the quality of Scottish endurance running.   One of these was in Elgoibar and on January 20th Dick finished fourteenth there in a team where Lachie Stewart was second.   In the National at the end of February, won by Lachie Stewart of Vale of Leven AAC, Dick was the first Shettleston Harrier to finish when he crossed the line in eighth place.   Shettleston were fifth placed team.   No place was found for him in the team when it was selected the following Monday evening.

In summer 1968, Dick was ranked in the One, Two and Three miles with best times of 4:11.6, 8:59.4 and 13:47.   In the Scottish Championships at Grangemouth on 22nd June he was second to Lachie Stewart in the Three Miles in 13:50.4 to Lachie’s 13:48.4 with Alastair Blamire third in 13:52.6.   Although running for Vale of Leven, Shettleston and Edinburgh University, they would soon all be running as part of a superb Shettleston Harriers team.   In general though, he kept a low profile over the summer season.

Winter 1968/69 started with the McAndrew Relays at Scotstoun, and the headline in the “Glasgow Herald” read ‘Easy Victory For Shettleston In McAndrew Relay’, and the text read “Shettleston Harriers gave notice on Saturday of what should be a succession of relay wins in the coming months when they led the field in the McAndrew Relay at Jordanhill from start to finish.   Their winning time, 55:20, was less than a minute outside Motherwell’s record set three years ago.    The move to Shettleston from Vale of Leven of Lachie Stewart certainly bolsters the formers strength but  as it turned out on Saturday, they could have won just as easily using their fastest man in the B team, Alastair Blamire.   He had been unable to run in the club’s trial the previous Saturday and so went automatically into their B quartet.   Blamire chased his clubmate Dick Wedlock spiritedly round the three mile circuit and finished only 16 seconds behind, well clear of any chasing runners.   For a long time afterwards, the B team looked capable of finishing second overall, but Summerhill who dropped one place and, more particularly Patterson on the third leg let the chance slip.   Stewart and Wedlock shared the fastest individual time of 13 minutes 30 seconds and fourteen seconds slower came Ian McCafferty”   Team and times:   R Wedlock   13:30;   M McMahon   14:09;   JL Stewart   13:30;   W Scally   14:11.      Seven days later it was the Lanarkshire Relays where the Seniors won again, thanks to a good team performance- Bill Scally’s first stage where he kept Alex Brown at bay, Lachie Stewart’s second stage where he increased the lead against Ian McCafferty and Dick Wedlock and Martin McMahon on the last leg.   .   The four fastest times were Stewart, Wedlock, McCafferty and Scally.    In the Midland District Relay Championship two weeks later they won again, this time the heroes were Tom Patterson 11:53, Dick Wedlock 11:47, Bill Scally 12:03 and Lachie Stewart 11:44.  It was a surprisingly good run by Tom who had been in the second team for all the other relays.

The short relay season over, all the ‘big’ teams – Shettleston, Law and Bellahouston – kept all their men out of the GU Road Race.   Came the Edinburgh to Glasgow eight-man relay the following week.   Martin McMahon was fourth at the end of the first stage and Norman Morrison dropped to fifth on the second stage, Tom Patterson on the third stage moved them from third to second and Dick Wedlock put them in front – from then on it was no contest and they were only two seconds (a quarter of a second per man, as Ron Marshall said in the ‘Herald’) outside Edinburgh University’s record.   On the very last day of the month, Dick ran in the SCCU v The Army and was third behind Blamire and McCafferty.   In the Lanarkshire championships on the first Saturday in December, he was second behind Lachie Stewart in the winning team.   Dick received a nice early Christmas present when he was chosen in December as part of a three man team – Lachie Stewart and Jim Alder were the others – to race in Hannut, Belgium, at the start of February.   In the Nigel Barge at the start of January 1969 he finished second, behind Lachie but in front of Andy Brown and Bert McKay.   The following week, in Lachie’s absence Dick won the Springburn Cup by almost a minute from Harry Gorman of the host club.   Then came the race in Hannut on 1st February: won by Gaston Roelants from Tim Johnston, the Scots runners were down the field a bit.   Lachie who had won the race the previous year, was clearly out of sorts and finished twenty fifth, Jim Alder was fifteenth and new boy Wedlock (referred to in the report as ‘Ron’) was eighth and first Scot.   Selection repaid!   On 8th February, Dick won the Shettleston Harriers club championship and the Nationals were not far away.   It was Dick’s chance to shine and he had a brilliant run to beat them all – McCafferty, Lachie (recovering from ‘flu to be fair), Myatt, Alder and all the rest.    Selection certain. for the international which, this year, was a ‘homer’ for the Scots being held over a  hilly course at Mountblow Golf Course in Clydebank.

The events are covered on page 138 of Colin Shields’ official history of the cross-country union as follows: Lachie Stewart defeated Mariano Haro (Spain) in the Elgoibar International race before being struck down by ‘flu.   He had barely recovered by the time of the National Championships at Duddingston Park in Edinburgh where the ground was icy, rutted and rock hard after a bad spell of weather.   Still suffering from the after effects of the ‘flu, Stewart had no chance of achieving his third successive win and finished a disappointing tenth.   Dick Wedlock shared the lead with Alder for three of the five laps before striking out on his own over the final three miles to score a deserved victory.   His only other National win had been in the Boys race eight years earlier and in the intervening years he had the misfortune to record good performances, which would have won races in any other era, behind such illustrious names as McCafferty, Murray and Stewart.   Alder faded in the last couple of miles and Fergus Murray sped through to take second place, 8 seconds behind the winner.   …..   The international championships, for the first time since 1960, were staged in Scotland and the Union, in conjunction with Clydebank Town Council, staged them at Clydebank.   A hilly picturesque course was laid out around Dalmuir Park and the adjacent golf course, that was acclaimed as the most testing course over which the championship had been held for a number of years.    Without any of the bad luck that had affected his performance in previous international championships, Ian McCafferty fiished third for the best individual performance by a Scot since Flockhart’s victory in 1937 in Brussels.”   Dick finished 36th to be one of the scoring men in a good Scots team.

Scottish team at Vichy: Weatherhead, Stewart, Stoddart, Falconer, Wedlock, Bryan Jones, in front: Morrison, McCafferty and Alder.

With the Commonwealth Games being held in Edinburgh in 1979, 1969 was a key year for all Scots track runners.   Dick started his season on 17th May with a win in the Land o’ Burns Trophy meeting Three Miles in 14:9.4 – three and a half seconds clear of Eddie Knox in second, but he didn’t appear in the first three in any of the middle distance events at the West District Championships at the end of the month..    He next appeared in the columns of the Press after his second place in the SAAA Championships at the end of June.   Held at Grangemouth, the 5000m race was won by Lachie Stewart 14:09.6 with Dick second in 14:24.8 and Bert McKay third in 14:30.8.  By the end of the season, Dick was ranked 14th in the 3000m with 8:27.8, third in the 5000m with 14:03.4 and twelfth in the 3000m steeplechase with 9:34.8.     The 5000m time was actually third equal with Michael Bradley who was better known as a miler/1500m runner, and they were both behind Lachie Stewart (first with 13:55) and Gareth Bryan-Jones (second with 13:56) and ahead of Jim Alder (14:03.6), Fergus Murray (14:06), Alastair Blamire (14:07) and  Ian McCafferty (14:13.6).    With scalps like these under his belt, the selectors had to take even more notice of Dick Wedlock in Commonwealth Games year.

The winter of 1969/70 started as normal with the McAndrew Relay race organised at Scotstoun by Victoria Park AAC.   Except that for Shettleston, Dick Wedlock did not run – he was substituted by Junior Man, Joe Brolly and the best they could do was second.   He was however forward for the Lanarkshire championships where he ran the third stage and came from 170 yards down on Law & District to hand over a winning lead to young Joe Brolly.   He ran the first stage of the Kingsway Relays at Dundee the following week, led the field home and shared the fastest time of the day (13:25)  with Fergus Murray.    The team could only finish third this time.   The West District Championships were held on 1st November and the Shettleston team were given a big lead by Dick Wedlock on the first stage over Andrew Brown of Law and District – this time he was fourth fastest over the course.   Shettleston’s top men all avoided the Glasgow University race and then in the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay, they finished second to Edinburgh Southern Harriers – Dick was one of three club men who set the fastest stage time of the day when he was 19 seconds faster than Bryan-Jones on the fourth stage.

1970 started with a victory for Dick in the Beith race on 1st January and two days later,  the Nigel Barge road race where he was again second to Lachie Stewart in a very illustrious field.   After the race, the Scottish selectors agreed that the team for Elgoibar and for San Sebastian on the 18th and 25th of the month would be Lachie, Dick and Adrian Weatherhead of Edinburgh.    In San Sebastian, the Scots were fourth with Lachie Stewart fourth, Dick was sixth and Weatherhead twentieth, other than Lachie winning, the result of the Elgoibar race is not known.   His good running continued with a victory in the Inter-Counties cross-country championship on 31st January when he won by 9 seconds from  Ferguson of Ayr having led from start to finish and his second successive victory in the Shettleston club championships in the next two weeks.   In the National on 24th February, on Ayr Racecourse, was won by Jim Alder with Dick Wedlock second and Bill Mullett third.    The team in the photograph above was chosen with Bill Stoddart and Jim Wight as reserves.      In the race itself, the Scots team again were ‘so near and yet so far’ and their excellent team finished fifth with their last three scoring runners in 42nd, 4th and 46th – Dick was 45th.   It had however, been a very good winter for the Shettleston man and he went into the summer of 1970 in great shape.

His first appearance that summer was the West District Championships and in the 5000m on a slow Westerlands track, he was third behind Lachie Stewart (14:10) and Mike Bradley (Springburn, 14:20) in 14:30.   Bradley was the form man – he had won the 5000m at Meadowbank at the beginning of May and the 1500/5000 double in the Lanarkshire championships.   Dick made his big bid in a tremendous race with Lachie Stewart in the Scottish Championship at Meadowbank on 5th June when Lachie won in 28:33.4 and Dick was second in 28:42.0.   If you want to see how hard it was, have a look at the photograph below, which I obtained from Lachie.        They went into the Games as second and third fastest behind Jerome Drayton of Canada.   Most of  the English Press didn’t believe it: I remember watching the English 10000m championship and hearing the commentator (I think it was David Coleman) saying that “Lachie Stewart is said to have run 28:33 in Scotland”.    Mel Watman in the “Athletics Weekly” of 18th July 1970 had an article on ‘Who To Look Out For In Edinburgh’ in which he said about the 10000m: “I confess I shall be unable to view this race with professional detachment.   I badly want Ron Clarke to win.  Clarke is the athlete I admire most in the world and I feel that it would be a gross injustice should he pass from the scene without a gold medal to his name.    If he can’t make it, and there has been little evidence lately that he is anywhere near his very best form (which may prove beneficial as the “big one” may come at just the right time), then I hope it’s Dick Taylor who succeeds – just to shame the critics who kicked him when he was down last September.   Temu (the Olympic champion), O’Brien, Drayton and Matthews among others should make sure it does not develop into a private duel.   Mel Watman:   1.   Clarke;   2.  Taylor;   3.  O’Brien.   Stan Greenberg:  1.   Matthews;   2.   Clarke;   3.   Drayton.”    Two eminent statisticians and not a mention  of the men ranked second and third in the Commonwealth and no real reason for their prediction – Clarke because he ‘deserved it’ and Taylor ‘just to show them.’   A reminder of the top ten going into the race:   1.   Drayton (Canada)  28:25.8; 2.   Stewart   28:33.4;   3.  Wedlock  28:42.0;   4.   Clarke   28:43.8;   5.   O’Brien (Australia)   28:47.2;   6.   Caine (England)   28:51.0;   7.   Matthews (England)   28:59.8;   8.   Taylor (England)   29:05..0;   9.   Stephen (Tanzania)   29:15.6;   10.   Plain (Wales)   29:26.8.

The story of the race, and Lachie’s triumph is too well known to bear repeating here but in all the hullabaloo about the race, Dick Wedlock acquitted himself nobly in this, his first Games of any sort and at the age of only 24 in an event where athletes mature with experience.   He finished  thirteenth in 29:09.8.   The full results are at the Commonwealth Games website, just click on the link for a or the full list  http://www.thecgf.com/games/results.asp      Undoubtedly the high point of his career so far, Dick and his supporters were looking forward to even better things to come.

Dick and Lachie after the trial: they knew they’d been in a race!

Not surprisingly with both Stewart and Wedlock plus Norman Morrison in the team, Shettleston won the McAndrew Relay with Bill Scally the fourth man running only one second slower than Dick.   The club mixed the runners up a bit and won the Lanarkshire 10 Mile Road Relay with their B team in second place.   Dick ran the last leg of the A team and like the previous week, was not the fastest man in the team – even with Lachie Stewart in the B squad.   By the Midland District Relays on 7th November he had started to show his true form with joint fastest lap with Shettleston team-mate Norman Morrison.   As in the Lanarkshires, Shettleston had first two teams.   The Shettleston runners again avoided the Glasow University road race, preferring to prepare for the Edinburgh to Glasgow relay – it was clear that they had an outstanding team.   The very good quartet from the previous winter of Stewart, Wedlock Morrison and Scally were still there and arguably in better form than twelve months before and such as Henry Summerhill, Tom Patterson, Les Meneely and Tom Grubb were all looking sharper and were certainly a year more confident.     The team on the day in running order was Grubb, Wedlock, Patterson, Morrison, Summerhill, Stewart, Meneely and Scally and they were given a really hard time of it by Edinburgh Southern Harriers – ESH led for the first four laps and there were seconds in it all the way – indeed at the end of the third lap the were neck and neck with a time of 1:20:33 each, after the fourth stage the times were 1:50:32 and 1:50:33.  Even after the long sixth stage the gap was only 46 seconds and at the end of the race Shettleston won by 13 Seconds.   Dick had had a super run on the second stage, turning in the fastest time ahead of Fergus Murray, Hugh Barrow, Frank Clement, Jim Wight, Colin Youngson and Doug Gunstone.   The ‘Glasgow Herald’ for 7th December had the headline, ‘Splendid Victory for Wedlock’ after he had beaten Lachie Stewart by 66 seconds in the Lanarkshire Championships with Tom Patterson third.

On 12th December the SCCU team was beaten into fourth place but Dick Wedlock had a superb run finishing second to  Andy Holden after a hard race.   The three top men were absent from the SCCU team since they were racing in San Sebastian.   The report on the race read: “Wedlock made a change of plan a few days ago as to how he would tackle the race.   A couple of weeks ago he had little intention of going all out.   As far as he was concerned the Solihull event would be just a workout at the back of the field.   He changed his mind however in mid-week and it was just as well for the SCCU as the nest Scot was Norman Morrison in twentieth place.   Andy Holden, an international steeplechaser from Preston, was the individual winner, but not before Wedlock had tested him to the utmost over the four-lap trail covering a total distance of 7 miles 600 yards.   At half-distance a bunch of about ten runners were setting the standard, when Wedlock, swiftly pursued by Holden, broke away.   The short striding Scot with the imperceptible heel-lift created a bit of space for himself but not enough to snap the thread of contact between himself and the man from Preston.   Towards the end of the third lap, being run over heavy grassland with  few undulations, Holden took over the lead and had about six seconds in hand.   He extended this to about ten seconds on the next lap but Wedlock came again on the run-in and was down once more to six seconds.   Alan Blinston bronze medallist in the European 5000m last year was eight seconds behind Wedlock”

In the second week of the New Year, He won the Springburn Cup ra e from Alastair Johnston of Victoria Park.  but a week later in the Nigel Barge Road Race he was beaten by Ronnie McDonald of Monkland Harriers who was still an 18-year-old schoolboy.   They, together with Alastair Johnston, were together until at about 200 yards to go, McDonald just took off.   “He was just too fast for me,” said Dick after the race.   The National was in February and on 31st January Dick was the highest placed Scot when he was eighth in the San Sebastian International Cross Country Race Don Macgregor was eighteenth and Gareth Bryan-Jones thirty fourth which set him up nicely for the National Championship at Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, where he was third behind Alder and Blamire to lead Shettleston to victory in the team race  and earn him selection for the world championships in Spain.   Before then however came the English Cross-Country Championships and Shettleston completed their wonderful unbeaten winter season by winning yet again.   Blamire (11th), Stewart (19th), Wedlock (24th), Morrison (32nd), Summerhill (64th) and Grubb (131st) were the men.   In a very muddy trail for the international championship in Spain, Wedlock was the second Scot behind Ian Stewart (9th) when he was twenty fourth.   He had been a counter in every cross-country championship he had run.

The 1971 cross-country team:

Back Row: Bill Scally, Henry Summerhill, Dick Wedlock, Norman Morrison and Alastair Blamire

Front Row: Les Meneely, Tom Patterson, Lachie Stewart and Tom Grubb 

In the West District Championships at the end of May 1971, Dick shared the pacemaking with Ian McCafferty before finishing second in 14:45.6 ahead of Hugh Barrow on 14:52.4.   It was a good start to the summer if a bit slower than the previous year and a week later in the 500m at Rawyards Park, Airdrie he was second to Jim Brown in an almost identical time of 14:45.8 with Paul Bannon third.       There were however no Scottish titles for him this year although he ended the summer with best performances of  8:33.4 for 3000m, 14:27.0 for 5000m and 29:42.6 for 10000m when finishing third in the SAAA Championships, won by Lachie in 29:00.0.

Winter 1971/72 started with the McAndrew Relay.   Shettleston won this yet again with Dick Wedlock on the last leg after Scally, Stewart and Summerhill had all done their bit.   In the County relay the following week, Paul Bannon of Shettleston was struck by a car on the opening leg; fortunately he was unhurt but the team could only pull up to third by the end of the race with Wedlock on the final stage after Stewart and Meneely.   In the Allan Scally Relay at Shettleston Dick had the unusual experience of dropping two places – to Pat Maclagan (VPAAC) and Alastair Wood (AAAC) and could only say at the end that it was just one of those days and he just couldn’t get going.   The team won however. The following week, he was back in form and running on the third stage he was the fastest of the Shettleston contingent and second quickest on the day ahead of Lachie Stewart and ten seconds behind Jim Brown.   The big one – the Edinburgh to Glasgow was the next race on the fixture list.   Shettleston triumphed but not without a serious fight.    However it was down to Dick Wedlock to get the team clear when he set off only one second behind Alastair Johnston on the long sixth stage.    He was content to run on Alastair’s shoulder right up until the last mile when he moved away to hand over a 70 yard lead and they were never caught thereafter.    Only a week later there was a televised cross-country race from Parliament Hill in London and Dick in 15th place was third Scot home, behind Lachie Stewart and Jim Alder.   Seven days after that, it was the Lanarkshire Cross-Country Championship which Dick had won the previous year.   This time he led until after the halfway mark before the ‘find of the season’, the prodigious Junior, Jim Brown and Ian McCafferty broke away with Brown the winner.    At the start of the New Year, 1972, Dick won the Beith race from clubmate Henry Summerhill but the main article in the ‘Glasgow Herald’ was about the European Clubs championship which Shettleston had won the right to contest having won the British championships.   It was to be on the 16th of January in Belgium.   On January 8th, not running in the Nigel Barge this time, Dick won the Springburn Cup race at Auchinairn by getting clear of club mate Norman Morrison a mere half mile from the finish.

Clearly in fine form Dick went with the rest of the Shettleston team to Arlon in Belgium, representing Britain in the European clubs championship.   He performed nobly finishing second to Karel Lismont, European marathon champion.   Shettleston, who were ‘set a marvellous example by Wedlock’ finished second with 41 points to the Belgian 17.   Dick missed the National because of ‘flu but he was nevertheless chosen for the international championships in Cambridge.   With an in-form McCafferty, Lachie Stewart, Jim Alder, Alastair Blamire, Ian Stewart and other first class athletes all chosen, the disappointing results of the previous years were expected to be over.   Great things were expected of the team.   Meanwhile back with the Shettleston team, if they were to qualify for the European championships they had first to win the English national.    Unfortunately 1972 was the year of the notorious Sutton Coldfield race.   A severe snowstorm started up as the race began and got steadily worse as the event went on.   Many athletes dropped out distressed, some developed frost bite and generally the race was a disaster – Shettleston finished down in 23rd place with1263 points..   Dick Wedlock however ran on and was their first finisher when he crossed the line fifteenth.   The Scottish team finished fourth the following week – not bad but everyone, athletes, officials, Scottish runners, the team themselves – all thought that this could be Scotland’s year.    Scotland’s long-suffering team manager Jim Morton was not just disappointed, he was angry and gave the team a real tongue lashing in the public prints.   He did however, exclude from his tongue lashing Dick Wedlock, who finished seventy second, as ‘this is the first time he’s let me down.’

In summer 1972, Dick appeared in two ranking lists: in the 5000m he was twentieth with 14:31.4 and in the 10000, he was seventh with 29:59.2.   He opened the season with a win in the West District Championships at a rainy Carluke in 14:31.4, exactly one second ahead of Alastair Johnston of Victoria Park.

Norman, Dick, Paul Bannon and Lachie won the McAndrew Relay in 1972 and set a course record but Shettleston lost their District Relay title in early November but with Lachie, Dick, Paul Bannon and Alastair Blamire were all absent, being rested by the club for the following week end’s race at Parliament Hill in London.    Shettleston did in fact win the team race and Dick was forty third.   The Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay of 1972 is remembered as ‘Ian Stewart’s Second Stage’ when the Anglo, running in the colours of Aberdeen AAC, smashed the record of that stage.   Dick took over from Alastair Blamire in second place on the fifth stage and Ron Marshall’s report in the ‘Glasgow Herald’ read as follows: “Dick Wedlock chose the right day to turn it on.   Chasing after Aberdeen’s Steve Taylor on the five and a half miles to that oasis called the Forestfield Hotel, Wedlock smashed the course record of 26 min 19 sec by 21 seconds and , more important, sent lachie Stewart away with a lead of 48 seconds.   The race was over.”      Dick started 1973 with fourth place in the Nigel Barge Road Race behind Norman Morrison, Paul Bannon and Doug Gunstone but this time passed on the Springburn Cup race at Bishopbriggs and was also an absentee at the Midland District Championship.   It was in January 1973 that Ian McCafferty started talking openly about turning professional and of taking payments – sometimes as much as £100 – and by the end of the month he had burned his boats as an amateur by telling ‘Scotsport’ on STV that he had an offer from USA to join their pro group but he was taking his time about taking up the offer because he had other propositions put to him, such as working with sports goods firms, particularly Puma with whom he already had an ‘arrangement’.    The international team would no longer have McCafferty on board.    The team was selected after the National in February and Dick was again one of the runners having finished ninth in the championship.   The international itself was run in Waregem, Belgium, and in deep mud in some places, shallow mud in others and not very much in the way of firm ground.   It was the year that Jim Brown won the Junior Championship to give him the complete set of gold, silver and bronze medals for the event.   Dick was well down the field in 120th position.   Shettleston, as Scottish champions this time, again took part in the European Clubs Championship in season 1972/73, and again finished second – Norman Morrison won the race, Lachie Stewart was third, Alastair Blamire ninth but Dick, who had been second the year before, dropped this time to eighteenth which gave a total good enough to defeat English team Tipton but not enough to depose the home team.

Summer 73 and the opener for Dick so often in the past, the Lanarkshire Championships at the start of May, had not one single Shettleston Harrier among the competitors.   Ron Marshall in his column directing a word of criticism a those on the lookout for non-Scottish competition.   They are, he said, becoming so selective that dozens of Scottish competitions are becoming denuded  of   their presence and so devalued.   BY the District Championships at the start of May he still had not shown his hand – the District Championships were contested mainly by Lachie (the winner), Alastair Blamire and Lawrie Spence.   Nothing at all that summer on the track – and it was the summer before the Commonwealth Games in New Zealand in January 1974.   The official Shettleston Harriers history said that a long term injury had ruled Dick out of contention.   Summer 1973 was basically written off.

Into season 1963/74 and the ‘Herald’ report said that Shettleston fielded none of their top four runners and paid the penalty.   They were actually ninth in the race and then eleventh in the Lanarkshires.   There was some consolation when they finished second to Victoria Park in the District Relays.   Although the team did not do as well as the year before, they finished sixth, Dick was on the fifth stage where he pulled the team up two places from ninth to seventh with the second fastest time of the day behind Martin Craven.   He was not in either the Nigel Barge or the Springburn Cup or the District Cross-Country races in January.       In February, he did run in the National and finished forty first and was nowhere near selection for the international.   Summer 1974 was like summer 1973 with no medals or rankings.

When Ron Marshall came to report on the McAndrew Relay in October 1974, he wrote towards the foot of his piece, “one competitor conspicuously missing from the fray was Dick Wedlock who is ill in hospital after a road accident on Thursday.   So often in these four man relays, Dick was considered as one of the mainstays of the Shettleston team.   His absence on Saturday cast a cloud not only over his club colleagues, but over all of us who have watched his many fine performances these last six or seven years.”   The report sounded a bit like an obituary – and Dick’s running career was certainly over.   The story is told in the Shettleston Harriers centenary history.   “The main talking point at the McAndrew Relay on October 5th, 1974, had nothing to do with athletics – at least not directly.   Three days previously Dick had been taking part in a Fire Service sponsored run from London to Edinburgh.   As the group approached Newcastle, he was resting with other runners in the back-up minibus parked in a lay by.   In 2003 he recalled the seconds that changed his life forever.   ‘I was stretching out on one of those long seats with my foot against the door and my head resting against the back of the driver’s seat.   I had just been handed a cup of tea when through the rear window I saw a lorry heading straight for us at speed.   I was the only one to see it and though I shouted out a warning, it was too late.’   The force of the collision drove the rear of the bus towards the driver’s seat.   Of the three other fire-fighters on board, one was thrown clear, another wrenched his back and a third, Sinclair Watson of Maryhill Harriers, was badly cut by flying glass.   Dick sustained a broken foot and a broken neck, was paralysed from the neck down and in spite of early hopes would never walk again.”  

Dick was just 28 years old and at an age when distance runners are just about at their best and at a time when he should have had another fifty or so years at least of normal life ahead of him.   There is no way to quantify the enormity of what happened to this talented and likeable young man.  The running community did what they could to help – mainly by fund raising efforts.   For instance there was a 24 hour relay held on 28th December that year organised by the Fire Service from the Fire Station at Anniesland Cross round the McAndrew relay trail with runners from all the local clubs taking part.    International athletes such as Hugh Barrow, Alastair Johnstone and Norman Morrison all took part in this one.   There were also social events held for the same purpose.    Dick came about several races for a while after the accident and died on 16th August 2007.

(from The Observer, probably in early 1981, making her born in 1948?)

Leslie Watson is a beautiful woman with a magnificent shape which is famous throughout the world of long-distance running: famous because its beauty brings a smile to all men who run with her.

She is 32 years old, 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighs 8 stone, and she has run 47 full marathons, plus two London to Brighton races (each of 54 miles 460 yards), plus one 100 kilometres race. She has even run two marathons in the same weekend. Is it any wonder, therefore, that we men who occasionally venture into the supposedly muscle-pounding, gut-wrenching realms of marathon running regard her with awe and with love?

She comes from Glasgow, from Sauchiehall Street, the only daughter of a doctor and a dancer. Her father was a university boxing Blue, her mother a professional dancer who specialised in Russian Cossack dancing. Leslie does not know why she started to run. “When I was only five, I used to arrange races with my friends after school, or after dancing classes. They always beat me so I went on and on, race after race, until eventually I outlasted someone.”

When she was ten, one of her school friends who was a member of Maryhill Harriers told her that there was a girl as slow as Leslie in the club, so she joined and thus began her athletic career. There is no doubt that she was an athletic scrubber – a scrubber being a person with little or no talent. Bruce Tulloh was a scrubber. So was I.

Scrubbers need a certain amount of luck and Leslie was lucky to find that the scrubbers of Maryhill Harriers were looked after by a P.E. teacher called John Anderson. While others trained the potential champions in the club, John made his girls work hard – so hard that complaints were made to the Scottish Women’s Athletic Association that this man was damaging the girls permanently. The damage he caused was to get three of them – Margaret Crawford, Cathy Kelly and Leslie – into the Scottish cross-country team. Leslie, at the age of 18, became the Scottish Mile Champion. And John Anderson became the Scottish National Coach.

By now she was training also to be a physiotherapist and shortly after she qualified she came down to London to take a job at St George’s Hospital, Hyde Park Corner. Six months later she resigned because she found it impossible to live, and impossible to go training, on her Health Service salary. Now she has her own practice, hard by Harley Street and Wimpole Street: an independent, successful woman.

She ran her first marathon when hot pants were fashionable. “I wore them but really I was a little too fat, so one day when I saw an advertisement for the Masters and Maidens marathon it crossed my mind that marathon running might be slimming.”

At the time she was doing some running, but no more than 20 miles per week in a good week, although she did go for one very long run of about 20 miles, very, very slowly before the Masters and Maidens “just to feel what it was like”.

That marathon would have been the end for most people. She started out far too fast, recording a personal best for five miles (29 minutes), and she was wearing light unpadded shoes which covered her feet in blisters. But she finished in 3 hours 31 minutes “knowing that I had run a stupid race and knowing that I was unfit. But it was certainly slimming!”

That marathon, the Masters and Maidens marathon, was also a landmark in the history of British sport. It was organised by a man called Alan Blatchford, the originator of challenge walks in the south of England. His events were for everybody, male or female, honoured knight or street cleaner, professional or amateur. He set a challenge and hoped that everyone who attempted it would enjoy themselves. But some athletics officials did not like this approach, and besides, it was forbidden for women athletes to run against men.

So the second time that Leslie ran in the Masters and Maidens she entered as Julie Kemp. But by now she was becoming famous in the sport as the pretty lady who always had a smile on her face and loved marathon running. And so it was inevitable that her real identity leaked out. The result: a warning that if she did it again, she would be banned from all athletics under Women’s AAA laws.

She says that people in this country seemed to be frightened of authority. “I have a Canadian friend who says that if such threats had been uttered in Canada, the whole Canadian team would have turned out in the next race and challenged the authorities to ban them all.”

But now, thanks to people like Leslie Watson and Alan Blatchford (who died, tragically, three months ago at the age of 44) sense has prevailed and women are allowed to compete with men – sometimes. Medically there was never any reason for not allowing women to run whatever distance they chose. The American College of Sports Medicine has issued a statement recommending “that females be allowed to compete at the national and international levels in the same distances in which their male counterparts compete.”

The discrimination against women was a social relic of the Victorian age, when women were regarded as the weaker sex, always having the vapours. But now there are thousands of men in Britain who have proof that women like Leslie, utterly feminine and delightful, have bodies which can outrace them and minds which never give in.

So I, who have run only one marathon, asked Leslie, who has run 47, for some advice. She said, “Don’t be put off psychologically by the distance. It’s not such a phenomenal way if you start slowly. I can remember a friend of mine, Barry, saying to me before my first marathon ‘Anyone can run a marathon – it’s just a question of at what speed.’ I agree – anyone can run a marathon if they are healthy, wear good shoes, and do a little training.”

What sort of training is she doing for the Gillette London marathon in March? “The problem about the race,” she said, “Is that it is so early in the year. I tend to use early marathons as training runs, just because I am a very lazy trainer. That’s why I would advise everybody to try some races at various distances – especially women who seem frightened of racing.”

“And as to the training itself, it is always better when you have some company. I’m now doing some speedwork with another marathon runner, Caroline Rogers, but a typical week in August this year would have been: 12 miles on Saturday, 20 miles on Sunday, 6 miles on Monday, nothing on Tuesday, an easy 9 miles on Wednesday, 12 miles on Thursday, and 6 miles on Friday. Mark you, that’s about the best week I’ve ever done – 65 miles.”

“The basis of my training is to try to concentrate on two long runs – one on Sunday of 20 miles or over, and one on Thursday of up to 15. But I wouldn’t recommend that to anybody who is only doing 20 miles a week at present. Gently, gently does it, and never get put off by the thought of the distance.”

The picture above is of Leslie Watson, in her London Olympiads kit, winning the London – Brighton race in 1979.   It is typical of how she always appeared in races – elegant, long striding, hair flowing and she always seemed to enjoy every step of her running.   Leslie Watson was one of Scotland’s top specialist marathon runners of all time – of either gender.   Starting as a young 800 metre runner with Maryhill Harriers Ladies, she became also one of the most prolific and successful of Scottish marathon and ultra distance runners with 68 career marathon wins in Scotland, England and abroad.   In 1981 she had an astonishing seventeen races in the top twenty of the Scottish rankings, all inside three hours, with Rosemary Wright (2) and Priscilla Welch filling the other three places.    The following year she only had thirteen times in the top twenty!   Remember that these were early days for women’s marathon running and she was a regular in the world rankings too with the best year being 1979 when she had no fewer than five times in the world lists.   If we go back to 1981 and list the races in chronological order rather than in ranking order we get the following table.   Two a month were not uncommon and there was not a month without a marathon between March and the very end of November!

The marks with aa asterisk indicate that the time found a place in the World Rankings for the year.   It should be noted that in the year in question she also ran a world’s best time for 50 miles on the road and at the other end of the scale had a 10:15.2 time for the 3000 metres.  She had had a good career on the track prior to taking up the marathon – the earliest mention I can find for her in any ranking list is in 1963 when she was eleventh in Scotland in the 880 Yards  and two years later she won the SWAAA One Mile Championship.   She also had World Bests at 50K on both road and track as well as a British 100K record.   Over the country she was twice Scottish Champion.   These are just the headline facts from a remarkable career which needs and deserves to be looked at more closely.  

Leslie second from left at Westerlands in Glasgow, early 1960’s

How did she get into the sport of athletics in the first place?    An article by Chris Brasher in ‘The Observer’ in early 1981 explains it as follows: “She comes from Glasgow the only daughter of a doctor and a dancer.   Her father was a University boxing blue and her mother a professional dancer.   Leslie does not know why she started to run “When I was only five I would arrange races with my friends after school or after dancing classes.   They always beat me so I went on and on, race after race, until eventually I outlasted someone. ”   When she was ten, one of her school friends who was a member of Maryhill Harriers told her that there was a girl as slow as Leslie in the club, so she joined and so began her athletic career.   There is no doubt that she was an athletic scrubber – a scrubber being a person of little or no talent.   Bruce Tulloh was a scrubber and so was I.   (Tulloh won the European 5000 metres championship and Brasher was Olympic steeplechase gold medallist.)   Scrubbers need a certain amount of luck and Leslie was lucky in to find that the scrubbers of Maryhill Harriers Ladies were looked after by a PE Teacher named John Anderson.      While others trained potential champions in the club, John made his girls work hard – so hard that complaints were made to the SWAAA that this man was damaging the girls permanently.   The damage he caused was to get three of them – Margaret Crawford, Cathie Kelly and Leslie – into the Scottish Cross Country team.   Leslie at the age of eighteen became the Scottish Mile Champion.”

How did she progress under John’s regime?   In 1961 as an Intermediate (Under 17) she recorded 2:33.8 for 880 yards to be second Intermediate in Scotland and twelfth in the Senior Rankings.   This time came down to 2:31.6 in 1962, 2:30.5 in 1963, 2:23.3 in 1964 and 2:21.5 in 1966.   The 1966 time placed her seventh in Scotland but her Mile time was second in the country with 5:14.4 and she won the SWAAA Mile title as well as being second in the West District.  In 1965 she had topped the Scottish rankings for the Mile with 5:12.5 run in Wimbledon and she finished second in the SWAAA Mile Championship behind the English girl Tomlinson (5:15.6 behind 5:06.7).    She kept running well on the track but moving up when the opportunity arose – the 3000 metres for women was only introduced in 1969 but there was no mark recorded by her in the rankings at that point although she was to go on to run inside 10 minutes for the distance.

Like all endurance runners she competed in the cross country races that were held throughout the winter with considerable success.   One of the interesting features of this racing was the number of times she finished close to the original Scottish Marathon Pioneer, Dale Greig.   In 1964 Dale won the SWCCU title with Leslie down in fourth, in 1966 Leslie won leading the Maryhill team to victory with Dale second a mere eight seconds behind.   The result was repeated in 1967 with the difference ten seconds.   In 1968 Dale won with Leslie sixth. In 1969 Lesley was seventh with Dale eighth (14 seconds difference), in 1970 Dale was eighth with Leslie ninth (12 seconds difference), in 1971 Leslie was ninth and Dale tenth – three seconds separated them.  Leslie’s next appearance in  the National was 1974 and her placings were ’74: eighth;   75: sixth;   ’76: seventh;   ’77: sixth;   ’78: sixth;   ’79: ninth;   ’80:  tenth.    Sixteen years and never lower than tenth, and then only once.   The 1974 race was the first one that had her listed as ‘London Olympiads’ rather than Maryhill.

Had she stopped there, then she would have had a successful career – very few win national titles on the track or over the country but she had both.    Back to Brasher: “After she qualified as a Physiotherapist, she came down to London to take up a job at St George’s Hospital, Hyde Park Corner.   Six months later she resigned because she found it impossible to live ,and impossible to go training, on her Health Service salary.   Now she has her own practice hard by Harley Street and Wimpole Street, a successful woman.   (The picture below is from her Clinic website).  “One day when I saw an advertisement for the Masters and Maidens Marathon it crossed my mind that it might be slimming.”   At the time she was doing some running, but no more than 20 miles per week, although she did go for one very long run of about 20 miles very slowly before the Masters and Maidens “just to find what it was like.”    She started out far too fast setting a personal best for five miles (29 minutes) but she finished in 3 hours 31 minutes “knowing that I had run a stupid race and knowing that I was unfit.” 

XXX

She started running marathons in 1975 at the age of 28 and her first win was at Barnsley and she was timed at 3:18:46.   And a brilliant career took off.   If we look only at her marathon victories then she won 52 races in the period from 1975 to 1985.    In tabular form we have the following.

These are by no means all the marathons that she ran in this period – remember that in 1981 she had seventeen of the Scottish top twenty!   In 1978 she was third in the English WAAA Marathon which was won by Joyce Smith and then she won the event in her own right in 1981 in a time of 2:49:08.   I think, looking at the results that 1979 – 1980 might be regarded as her peak for endurance running magic.   She won 24 marathons (and ran and was placed in many more) in three years;

In 1979 three women ran unofficially in the London to Brighton race and Leslie won that in 6:55:11 (the picture above in the London Olympiads vest is from that race – no number because it was unofficial!) and in the following year when the first women’s race was held over the course, she won it again in a slightly slower time of 6:56:02.

* She set a world 100K Record of 8:15:50 in Grantham

* She set a new World Record 50 miles record on the road at Lake Waramaug in the USA of 6:02:37

* She set a new World 50 Mile Record of 6:20:42 at Barnet in 1983.

The American ‘Frontrunner’ magazine reported the Lake Waramaug 50 Miles as follows: “Leslie Watson (33) came over from London, England, with the intention of breaking the women’s world record for 50 miles.   She did with a sensational 6:02:37 to break the record by two minutes.   She was tenth over all in the race, starting fairly fast, slowed a bit, but ran steadily.   She finished strong and looked good.”

But she was not yet finished with the marathon and won in Maidstone again in 1988 at the age of 40 and in 1989 won in Adelaide, Australia; Rennes in France and New Milton on Humberside.   In 1989 she also won the Davos Mountain Marathon in 6:52:51.   In 1985 she had a marathon best time of 2:46:53 and, to demonstrate that she had lost none of her track speed, recorded 9:59.9 for 3000 metres.   In 1986 her top performance time-wise was 2:45:50.   When asked by Brasher about her training, she had this to say: “Training is always better when you have some company.   I’m now doing some speedwork with another runner,  Caroline Rodgers, but a typical week in August this year (1981) would have been 12 miles on Saturday, 20 miles on Sunday, 6 miles on Monday, nothing on Tuesday, an easy nine miles on Wednesday, 12 miles on Thursday and six miles on Friday.   Mind you that’s about the best week I’ve ever done – 65 miles.   The basis of my training is to concentrate on two long runs – one on Sunday of 20 miles or over and one on Thursday of up to 15 miles.   But I wouldn’t recommend that to anybody who is only doing about 20 miles a week at present.   Gently does it and never get put off by the thought of the distance.”

Her annual progression in terms of times was, starting in 1975 was 3:18:46, 1976  3:02:24, 1977  3:05:07, 1978  2:58:23, 1979: 2:50:58, 1980 2:47:07, 1981  2:45:46, 1982  2:46:18, 1983  2:45:47, 1985  2:46:53, 1986  2:45:60 and there was the wonderful year in 1989 when at the age of 44 she won Adelaide, Australia in 2:49:49, Rennes, France in 2:47:58 and New Milton, Humberside in 2:51:33!    Lifetime personal bests – so far! – are in the table below

Six years later, her best marathon was 3:05:52.   In 1993 she ran 3:00:25 at Windsor as a LV 45 and also ran 10 miles in 61:54.   In 1994 her best was 3:00:59 as well as racing to 2:11:31 in a 20 miler where she finished third.   I could find no trace of her running a marathon in 1995 or 1996.    She continues to run and it does not take too much scanning of the web to find results for Leslie in the 21st Century.    From the early 1960’s to 2010 she has had a running career of almost 50 years.   The table below shows her current (2010) UK  rankings.

She is still however a very competitive sports person.    She takes part in powerlifting as well as swimming and other physical fitness competitions.    A quick look at power lifting websites reveals that she is still winning.   eg in the Greater London Powerlifting Championships in 2007 she won the 48Kg Class.   With a Body Weight of 46.65 kilos she lifted 85 Kg in the squat, 65 Kg in the Bench Press and 105Kg in the deadlift making a total of 255 Kg.    If you want to see her in action, she appears in many clips on youtube: just go to www.youtube.com and type in Leslie Watson and there among the clips are several of her in action looking just as she did in all those marathons.   The picture below shows Leslie in her GB Tracksuit at a powerlifting competition in USA in 2007.   She has also appeared in all the various forms of the media from the covers of such as Athletics Weekly, Runner’s World and the now defunct Jogging Magazine to commentating on the London Marathon as part of the team, taking part in a programme with Ian Thompson advising newcomers on preparing for the marathon and in many news and sport features in the Press (such as the article by Chris Brasher quoted here).

If Dale Greig broke through the glass ceiling keeping women out of marathon racing – remember that it was only in 1969 that women were allowed to race as far as 3000m on the track – then Leslie shattered it so that it could never be put back together again.   As an athlete she was of the very highest calibre on track and country but on the roads she achieved feats that no other Scottish marathon runner of either sex did.

Here is another 1981 Interview, this time from ‘Athletics Weekly’.

The Brasher Interview

Alan Wilson in 1986

Alan was a tall, slim runner who, although of a naturally quiet disposition, was pleasant to talk to and a man who clearly thought a lot about his sport.   A member of Victoria Park AAC he seemed to be at his best in the 1980’s when the standard of road running was at its highest in Scotland – indeed arguably that was the case throughout the UK.   His best times as recorded by the statisticians were as in the table below.

I knew Alan slightly and it surprises me now looking back to see how seldom he appeared in the lists – but at that point the road races on the fixture lists were at all sorts of distances from 7 miles to ultra marathons and not the mass of 10K’s or proliferation of half-marathons that we see nowadays.

In May 1983 he set his own personal best for the half-marathon when he finished ninth in the Luddon Half Marathon at Kirkintilloch in a time of 66:48.   Later that year he was thirteenth in the Glasgow Marathon in 2:23:54.   The marathon for which he is most remembered, however, is the Glasgow Marathon at the end of September 1984 and his run was quite excellent – never mentioned by the ‘Glasgow Herald as one of the leaders, he was placed ninth of 9449 finishers.   The quality of runners in his wake was high: first vet was Donald Macgregor one place behind in 2:19:01, followed by Jim Brown (2:19:08) and many others of the country’s top men.

So – a very good runner who, in the days of the 10K would have been one of the highest rated in the country.   As it is, his times, especially the 2:17:40, would have earned him Scottish vests for at least the Commonwealth Games.  We also have a half marathon tine of 66:48 when he finished ninth in the Luddon Half Marathon in May 1983.  His former team mate and friend Alastair Douglas has this to say about him

“Alan did not initially appear to have a lot of natural talent but by sheer hard word, single-mindedness and using a scientific approach, he achieved some very impressive results.   He finished second in the Junior National in a very good year.   He managed to get himself very good personal bests for 10000m and the marathon and was a member of Glasgow University’s famous BUSF winning team in 1984.  

I remember hearing about one incident when he was running a cross-country race when it was very icy.   It was debatable whether spikes or road racers would be better.   He opted for the spikes.   Unfortunately for him he was winning the race going into the last 200m   However a road ran parallel to the finishing straight and he got outsprinted by somebody in road racers.   However he produced the rule book which apparently stated that he should have won under the rules of cross-country and he eventually got a share of first prize.  

Alan’s career seemed to span his University years.   It was probably wrong in retrospect to label him as somebody with a lack of natural talent.   He had the ability to absorb and benefit from a lot of hard training – something which a lot of seemingly more gifted runners could not do.”

Alastair is right in his remark that Alan’s career spanned his University years because we seem to have lost track of him since then.    The next contribution is from an article in the Glasgow Academy’s magazine by Hugh Barrow who also ran with him for Victoria Park.

“Alan Wilson of Victoria Park recorded 2:17:40 in 1984 and this earned him a British vest.   Alan also recorded good times of 3:34.0 for 1500m and 14:07 for 5000m running in the colours of Westbury Harriers, Bristol.   Alan also represented Scotland in the World Junior Cross Country Championships in 1983.   When you consider that the first Briton home in this year’s London Marathon, Andrew Lemoncello, recorded 2:13 it puts Alan’s performance of 30 years ago in perspective.”

The Junior National referred to twice above was in 1983 when Alan was second to John McNeil, an outstanding Junior from Law & District who had a very short athletics career and ahead of such as Alan Puckrin of Greenock Glenpark.  He didn’t do too much cross-country running, however,  In the previous year he had been twenty second in the National, as a Youth in 1981 he had been twenty fifth.   The best I can see as a Senior is for the 1984 race when he was twelfth – one place behind George Braidwood, and one place in front of Graham Laing and Neil Tennant.

Alan was a runner who developed as a University age athlete, who seems to have organised his own athletics career and who, had the career been a bit longer, might well have been even better.  After all, his 2:17 was run when he was just 20 years old (DoB: 3/03/64).  One of the tasks is now to track down some of his road and track races in the mid 80’s and record as many performances as possible.

Tommy Tracey of Springburn is almost a forgotten man as far as the Scottish distance running fraternity is concerned and this profile is an attempt, however slight, to put it right. He is very highly spoken of by those who knew him, and the reports of his running and racing indicate that he was a quality athlete. His career was almost all within the period 1948 to 1957.

Season 1948-’49 and Tommy’s first run was in the McAndrew Relay at Scotstoun and although there was no outstanding time this time, John Emmet Farrell in the ‘Scots Athlete’ commented that ‘Tracey, who proved best of a well-balanced Springburn quartette, looks a good prospect.’ Two weeks later he was in the team for the Kingsway relay in Perth as part of a Springburn team that finished second with McLean, Reid and Jim Morton (who was fourth fastest on the day). In the Midlands Relays in December 1949 he was in the Springburn team which finished down the field: he himself had a good run though and was equal second fastest in the race. In the Midland Championship on 5th February 1949 he finished sixth. Then in March, he was nineteenth in his first National in a Springburn team which finished fifth and not far from the medals. There were two Edinburgh to Glasgow relays in 1949 and Springburn only participated in the earlier race, in April. Tommy made his maiden run in this event running on the second stage and pulling the club from seventh to fifth time on the leg. Emmet Farrell reported in September 1949 when reviewing the summer season that “The steady running of the Springburn Harriers in the Two Mile Races was a feature. Jim Morton and company certainly demonstrated that good team running can often defeat brilliant individualism and a weak tail. In the Three Miles Scottish Championship, Tom Tracey and Jim Morton ran above themselves to finish third and fifth and handsomely beat the standard time into the bargain.” So he was not just a winter season runner – the times for the event were not published in the magazine which only gave the winner’s time.

In the McAndrew on 1st October 1949 the Springburn Harriers team was fourth with the team being McLean (16:18), McGill (17:10, Morton (16:25) and Tracey (16:10). Tom’s time was fourth fastest of the day. In the Dundee Kingsway Relay on 15th October, he had third fastest time and it was on into the Edinburgh to Glasgow. In the Midlands four by two and a half mile relay, and had the third fastest time of the day although the team was unplaced. In the Midland Cross-Country Championships in February 1950, Tommy was second and nine seconds behind Walter Lennie (Vale of Leven) leading his team to second place behind Shettleston but in front of Victoria Park. In his preview of the National Cross-Country, Emmet Farrell said, “Tommy Tracey of Springburn’s form over the shorter stretches has been little short of devastating and if he does not burn himself out before the National should come well into the reckoning.” In a separate item he said of Tommy and Ben Bickerton (Shettleston), “Bickerton and Tracey both have a brilliant turn of speed ranking second only to Forbes in that respect. How will they react to 9 miles of country?” A month later in his second National that he confirmed both form and ability with third place in a team which finished fourth. Emmet Farrell reported on it under the headline “Brilliant Youngsters Prove their Class”, Showing brilliant pace and judgment Tom Tracey of Springburn and Ben Bickerton of Shettleston removed any lingering doubts as to their ability to get to the full distance in class company. Both fully earned their first jersey. Tracey by finishing third proved himself to be the best home Scot, a grand and colourful debut.” First and second had been Bobby Reid of Birchfield and Frank Sinclair of Blaydon who had travelled up for the event. This was to gain him his first international vest and he ran for Scotland in the IAAF Cross-Country Championships where he finished seventy fifth. In summer 1950 he won the SAAA Three Miles Championship on 24th June at Hampden Park from Adamson of West Kilbride in 14:57. This prompted a a mini-profile in the ‘Scots Athlete’ of July that year, which read:

“With Victoria Park’s Andrew Forbes still troubled with his leg and out for the season, Tom Tracey, 22 year old painter of Springburn Harriers has stepped right into his shoes as king-pin of Scottish distance men. Delighting his clubmates most with his recent National 3 Miles championship win, he has been unbeaten in Scotland so far this season over 2 and 3 Miles. His best 2 Mile time yet is 9:32.8 at Helenvale, and at Belfast he clocked the equivalent of a 14:37 3 Mile when finishing second to H Ashenfelter (USA) in a special handicap on a grass track.

He started running at 14 and was sixth in a Scottish Youths Cross-Country Championship running for South Glasgow AAC, but gave up the sport for a couple of years with his club going defunct. Joining up with Springburn in 1947, he came under the eye of Jim Morton and nursed into the 2 Mile team the club were patiently building. Honours came over cross-country, winning his club championship in 1949 and 1950, and he gained his international jersey at Brussels by finishing third in the National.

Characteristic of the true spirit of amateur athletics, he recalls well his trial days of making the grade and without fail hands over his own team prize to his fourth and non-counting clubmate when taking an individual award. He has leg speed too as he proved when winning the Lanarkshire mile championship. “Wait a year or two” says Jim Morton, “he’s only beginning to show his running.”

In the McAndrew on 7th October, Victoria Park won from Shettleston with Springburn third and there were two Springburn runners in the top six times but Tracey led them all with15:42 followed by Andy Forbes on 15:45, the second Springburn runner being McLean in fourth (equal to Ben Bickerton) with 16:08. On 21st October in the Dundee Kingsway Relay, Springburn were second to Victoria Park with Tom Tracey having second fastest time of the day with 13:47 to Andy Forbes’s 13:44. Revenge for the senior athlete! After praising Forbes’s return to form, Emmet Farrell said that Tracey is going great guns showing form equal to Forbes himself and is proving himself a grand leader of a splendid Springburn team. he ended by looking forward to the Forbes Tracey duels. In the District Relays on 4th October, Springburn were second to Victoria Park, and Tommy had fastest time ahead of Andy Forbes. The Edinburgh to Glasgow settled into the place that would become its own in November, 1950, and Tommy ran the sixth stage for the team that would finish fifth. Second fastest on the stage behind Andy Forbes, he picked up one place from sixth to fifth. The report in the ‘Scots Athlete’ refers to Springburn Harriers deserving sympathy for their plucky and courageous fight back after the mishap to their first and incidentally one of their best runners. It goes on to say, “Tom Tracey of Springburn excelled in the long 7 miles sector”. Looking ahead to the Beith Harriers New Year race, Farrell said The individual struggle may be the high-light with Forbes and Tracey setting a merry pace in front of the others. Both men have been within seconds of each other for fastest lap times this season with honours fairly even except in the ‘News of the World’ race where Forbes had the edge. This will, however, be the first time this season that they have met in actual scratch competition and fit and well they should provide an epic race with the winner anybody’s choice. For myself, I have a feeling that Forbes’ experience will still prevail against the Springburn crack’s youth.” The Beith race was not reported on but the Nigel Barge Five Miles Open Road Race on 6th January 1951 was and victory did indeed go to the older man with Forbes winning in 23:41 to Tracey’s 24:31 with Farrell himself in third in 24:48. The Midland Championships in February 1951 were held at Millerston with “under Arctic conditions with 7″ of snow lying” according to the ‘Scots Athlete’. It went on to report on the race, “The seven mile race served up some surprises when it was seen that Bannon and Tracey were alternately setting the pace and slowly dropping Forbes. Tracey ran out a worthy winner with Victoria Park taking the team award, coming away in the second half to wipe out Shettleston’s earlier points advantage.” Springburn was the third team with their counting runners being Tracey, John Stevenson seventh, Jim Morton eighth, J Wallace twenty sixth, N McGowan Twenty ninth and A Stevenson thirty seventh. Looking ahead to the National, Farrell thought it would be between Forbes and Reid before saying, “I cannot just see Tracey and Craig as serious challengers for the individual title yet I feel they are reasonably certain of forward places and international selection.” The story is told of Tommy, a month later, virtually missing the start the National of 1951 because he was on the wrong side of the fence talking to some club mates when the gun went off! He was not the only one to be caught out – the start was generally reckoned to be a wee bit early.   Nevertheless, he made up enough ground to finish in second place behind Andrew Forbes who was also behind the line at the start.

XXX

The photograph above gives the first six places. Tommy went home that day with two silver medals since the club had been second team. The ‘Running Commentary’ said: Despite a most indifferent start which caught Forbes, Tracey and others napping a most engrossing duel ensued between these two runners which ended in a narrow 20 yards victory for the former in a nip and tuck finish. These two were really out on their own. Andrew Forbes ran superbly and with magnificent judgment. Tom Tracey’s display was equally impressive and it is obvious that there is little to choose between these two grand athletes. When it is considered how much Tracey lost at the start and how near he was at the finish it looks only a question of time before he adds the cross-country to his three mile title.” The international in 1951 was a good one for Tommy Tracey. He was twenty fourth and the first Scot to finish, but the race was not without incident – “Tracey – Scotland’s Star. Despite the loss of a shoe, Tom Tracey ran a grand and gallant race to finish twenty fourth.” Shortly after the International, there was an invitation Festival of Britain 9 Miles Race in which Tom Tracey ran a sensationally brilliant race to take third place beating among others ‘laughing boy’ Saunders the International champion. Even though Saunders may be suffering from reaction after his brilliant Newport victory, nothing can gainsay Tracey’s great performance. Tom Tracey and Eddie Bannon have both put up performances worthy of great intrinsic merit and could prove a great Scottish spear-head for next year at Hamilton. Their deeds should also instil into Scottish runners a greater ‘conceit’ of themselves, should supply them with that confidence which has been lacking.” .

The Forbes-Tracey duel carried on into the summer. The preview of the SAAA Championships contained this paragraph from Emmet Farrell: “Unless Anglo-Scot AT Ferguson enters, the Three Miles may develop into a tussle between present champion Tom Tracey and former champion and present record holder Andrew Forbes. The versatile Victoria Park man has up to the present revealed a slight edge over the Springburn man. But it should be a great battle between experience and youth. My preference is for Forbes who I believe has not entirely given up hope of Olympic selection next year. After Andy’s superb Three Mile win in 14:18 at the London Caledonia Games, he looked unbeatable but the Springburn star is ever-improving and has subsequently beaten Forbes over Two Miles in 9:25 and so this obviously looks the race of the day.” The race was at Hampden Park on 23rd June and the result was a win for Forbes. 1. A Forbes 14:28.8; 2. T Tracey 14:47.1; 3. I Binnie 15:05.0. The report read: “The Three Miles did not turn out to be the race it promised to be. Holder Tom Tracey who seemed off form a bit, could not match the pace of the machine-like Andrew Forbes who won it in the second fastest championship time of the series – and his own second best in Scotland with the time 14:P28. Andy complained of the track being slow and heavy.” The season’s rankings produced by the ‘Scots Athlete’ had Forbes first, Tracey second, Ferguson third, Binnie fourth and MacDonald (Maryhill) fifth. The actual best performances were first Forbes with 14:15, second Tracey with 14:45.5, third Binnie with 15:05.6.

The McAndrew relay signalling the start of the cross-country season was on 6th October and the result was a win for Victoria Park with Springburn second. On the third leg Tracey lowered the course record by seven seconds – only to see Eddie Bannon take it even lower on the last leg by another four seconds to 15:20! In the Midland Championships of November 1951, Springburn struck gold and won from Shettleston by 20 seconds. The report in the ‘Scots Athlete’ read, Showing a return to form, Harry Fenion handed over a surprise lead for Bellahouston, with a five second advantage over Springburn’s John Stevenson and eight seconds ahead of holders – and favourites – Victoria Park (I Binnie). Running sweetly through, Tommy Lambert (14:36) took Springburn into the lead. Meanwhile Johnny Stirling (VP) was not his usual and dropped six places to ninth, and was passed by the club’s second string runner, R Kane who kept his team in fifth. At the end of the third lap, Springburn still held the lead through RF McLean but Victoria Park made ground through young Syd Ellis moving through from fifth to second, returning with 14:38, and Chic Forbes bringing the A Team to fifth with 14:32. With the last leg in the capable hands of Tom Tracey with easily the fastest time of 14:01. Springburn were proud and worthy winners with the total time of 58:27. Times and places: 1. Springburn Harriers 58:27, (J Stevenson 14:57, T Lambert 14:36 , RF McLean 14:53 , T Tracey 14:01); 2. Shettleston Harriers 58:47 (J McNeil 15:12, B Bickerton 15:08, RC Wallace 14:40, E Bannon 13:47. Fastest times: Bannon 13:47, Tracey 14:01. Then in the Edinburgh to Glasgow later in November, the team was third at the end of the first stage after a good run by John Stevenson and they were third at the end of the final stage after Tommy Lambert had a good run home. Tommy himself ran on the sixth stage again and was third fastest behind Bannon and Forbes. The team was Stevenson, McFadden, Morton, Wallace, Rankine, Tracey, McLean and Lambert. On 5th January 1952, Tom was third in the Nigel Barge (25:13) behind Forbes (24:48 and Binnie 24:58 and won the Inter-Counties contest at Westerton from Nelson and Gibson – all three from Lanarkshire.

The Midland Championships were held in the extensive grounds of Woodilee Hospital in Lenzie on 2nd February, 1952. Bannon won again but Tommy was down in fifth position with the team third – they had three men in the top ten though – Tom was fifth, J Rankin was sixth and John Stevenson eighth with the their counters being Jim Morton, D Wallace and N McGowan. In his preview of the National Championships, Emmet Farrell said, “Coming to the individuals, Scotland’s big three are undoubtedly Eddie Bannon, Andy Forbes and Tom Tracey, and of these Bannon is the bright particular star and on present form must be a strong favourite to win our National cross-country title. Up to the present he has shown devastating speed and last year’s brilliant fourth in the English national demonstrated that he has the stamina to go with it. Andy Forbes, present National holder, despite some worry over foot trouble continues to reveal remarkable consistency of form and with his ability to rise to the occasion is a hard man to beat. Tom Tracey is also running well though perhaps not at the peak of his form.” In the National at Hamilton in March Tommy was third behind Eddie Bannon of Shettleston and AT Ferguson of Highgate Harriers in London but in front of Andy Forbes, Tom Stevenson (Greenock Wellpark) and Charlie Robertson of Dundee. He still qualified for the International Championship where he was twenty third and a scoring member of the team.

Having missed almost all of the summer, Tom Tracey was absent from the Springburn team for the McAndrew Relay. In November, there were many familiar faces absent from the club team for the Midland Relays, including Tommy’s. The best that they could manage was thirteenth. Tommy did not turn out in this one. Unfortunately he did not run in either E-G, the District Championships or the National in 1953. Season 1953-’54 made up for the disappointments of the year before. He again missed the entire summer but there was a wee paragraph in Emmet Farrell’s Running Commentary in the December 1953 issue of the ‘Scots Athlete’: Tom Tracey’s Welcome Return: It is very pleasing to note the grand return to form of Tom Tracey, off for over a year through illness. This should inspire his Springburn clubmates as well as considerably brighten the hopes of a good Scottish international team for Birmingham.”

In November 1953, Springburn were again out of the medals in the District relays, but that was not down to anything Tommy Tracey did or didn’t do! Fastest time of the day was by Eddie Bannon with 13:42, Tracey was second with 13:46 and Clark Wallace of Shettleston was third with 14:20. The Springburn team of McFadden, O’Reilly, A Stevenson and Tracey was seventh. In the E-G Springburn missed out on third placed medals by just four seconds to Edinburgh Southern Harriers. Tommy ran on the sixth again where he was third quickest behind Binnie and Bannon but picked the team up from ninth to fifth. S McFadden had the fastest time on the final stage but could not quite get to the Edinburgh runner. There were some new faces in the West District Championships at Lenzie in 1954 with the race being won by Harry Fenion of Bellahouston from John McLaren of Shotts with Tommy in third place leading the team to bronze medals. Emmet Farrell forecast the finishing order for the Nation thus: 1. E Bannon; 2. J Stevenson (Greenock); 3. R Reid (Birchfield); 4. T Tracey; 5. J McGhee (Shettleston); 6. H Fenion (Bellahouston; 7. WA Robertson (ESH). In the actual race, Tommy Tracey was second individual with the team in fourth position, only eleven points down on third placed Edinburgh Southern Harriers. After the E-G, then this – again losing out to ESH by the smallest of margins. How close was the individual race? 1. Eddie Bannon 50:19; 2. Tommy Tracey 50:42; 3. Harry Fenion (Bellahouston) 50:49; 4. R Kane (VP) 50:50; 5. F McKenzie (Shettleston) 50:51. His fourth and final run in the IAAF Championships was in 1954 and he was placed fifty first.

In summer 1954 Tommy had some good races but did not compete in the National Championships. His best times were good ones: 9:23.3 for Two Miles at Helenvale on 16th June and 14:25.6 for Three Miles at Ibrox on 2nd April

2nd October 1954 was the official start to the winter season because that was when the McAndrew Relays were held. Shettleston defeated home club Victoria Park as winners and had three teams in the first five. Springburn was third team and Tom Tracey was fifth fastest, behind Bannon, Andy Brown, Fenion and Russell. The 1954 Midlands Relays were held at Stepps Stadium again and the Springburn lost third place by six seconds to Shettleston B with Shettleston A and Victoria Park in the first two slots. Tommy Tracey ran the last lap in the fifth fastest time of the day (16:46) behind Bannon, Andy Brown, Harry Fenion, and Jim Russell. The exact same order as in the McAndrew. Tommy was again on the long sixth stage of the E-G in 1954 and again he was third fastest – this time behind Binnie and Joe McGhee. The team had been eighth at the end of the first leg but thanks to good runs by McLean, A Stevenson, O’Reilly and Futon, Tommy took over in third and handed over in third – from third to third in third fastest time – and the team was third in the race! In the Springburn team for the Midlands of 1955, Tommy Tracey was only second counter for the club: first scoring runner was Peter McParland who had had a glittering career as a Junior and on this occasion finished sixth with Tommy twenty first and the team again third. In his preview of the National, Emmet Farrell said: “Tracey, Fenion and Binnie: In normal circumstances, Tom Tracey, Harry Fenion and Ian Binnie might appear racing certainties and even now they could make up the first nine but leg injuries have severely limited the training of Tracey and Fenion and they may find their task of finishing in the first 8 or 9 by no means an easy one but they have class and the knowledge of past success to sustain them. Binnie on the other hand has rarely shown up well on cross-country but Hamilton race course should be made to measure for him.” But 1955 was the second time in three years that he missed the National at Hamilton and the team was fifth, probably regretting the absence of their top man. There were no appearances at all in the top rankings that summer for Tom Tracey.

Tommy Tracey was in the Springburn Harriers C team for the McAndrew Relay on 1st October, 1955, but his time of 15:45 was faster than any of the runners in the A team and only fifteen seconds behind Gordon Nelson of Bellahouston who was fourth fastest. In the Lanarkshire Relays at Cambuslang he ran the first stage for the Springburn team that was third behind Shettleston A and B teams. In Stepps on 5th November 1955, the race for the Midland Relay Championship brought the club more medals. It was a much closer race than the previous year with Shettleston first in 56:16 and then Garscube 57:13, Springburn 57:29 and Bellahouston 57:42. Tommy was third fastest in 13:53 behind Bannon 13:46, Brown 13:51 and in front of Everett 13:57 and Nelson 13:58. In November, Tommy had the four thirds again! Still the man for the sixth stage he was third quickest behind Bannon and Binnie – and this time Tom Tracey was only one second slower than Binnie – he maintained third place and by the finish that’s where the club was. Despite this fine running, he was down to third club counter in the Midland District championship with another new face ahead of him: the first three scorers for the team were John McCormack in sixth, Peter McParland eleventh and Tommy Tracey in twentieth. The team was second with more new names – John McGale ( a friend of McCormack’s) twenty second, Eddie Sinclair thirty fifth and John Ballantyne forty fifth. March, 1956 was to be his last run in the National and it was his lowest finish of all – he was twenty seventh, eight places lower than his first run in the event.

In the Midlands Relays in 1956, Tommy ran the last stage for his club team of O’Reilly (15:10), Rooney (14:28), McCormack (14:08), and himself (14:24). The team was fourth, missing medals by only fourteen seconds. He ran Stage Two of the Edinburgh to Glasgow in 1956 but was clearly injured or out of sorts because he dropped from the third place handed to him to thirteenth. The club was tenth.

For Scottish endurance running, the period just after the War was a high spot. There were good committee men who had some drive – the Scottish Marathon Club is an example of that – and the standard of running, maybe in part caused by the level of fitness in the general population after the War, was very high. Victoria Park in the 50’s were Kings of the Road, Shettleston nearly Kings of Country, both being hotly pursued and not at all held in awe by Bellahouston Harriers, Springburn Harriers and many other clubs. For Tommy Tracey to maintain his position in open competition for as long as he did, is quite remarkable – look at the list of names he was competing against and then see his second and third places in the National for what they were. When I asked why the career was so short, the word was that his occupation as a painter did not help because of the constant exposure to paint fumes in sometimes very confined spaces and was possibly the cause of his lengthy absence in 1952-53. Whatever the reason, Scottish athletics was the poorer for the departure of Tom Tracey.

Trudi Thomson was born on 18th January 1959 and first appears in the Scottish Ranking lists in 1992 when she was in her thirties.  The following year she had no fewer than six marks registered including two in the number one slot.   The distances range from the half marathon to the 24 hours race in Brechin.    Prior to that she had not appeared in any fixture list so the question right at the start has to be about how she arrived on the scene.    The story as told by one coach is that she worked as a postie (a wee clue to the basic fitness?) but was also a smoker and drinker who one day saw some women running.   She thought she was ‘fat’ into the bargain, so she just decided to start running.   She ran morning, noon and night and her career led her to race all over Britain, Europe and the world with races at Valladolid, South Africa, Japan and even Pyongyang in North Korea.    She last appeared in the rankings list as a Vet45 in 2005 with nine time over four events.    She has been described by other runners as “very slim, “very attractive”, “easy to talk to” and was clearly popular with fellow athletes.   So – where did it all start?

The Ultralegends website tells us that she suffers from rheumatoid arthritis – which may tell us something about why she stopped running – and that she took up jogging at the age of 31 ‘when her 5 ft 4 in frame topped 13 stone’.   In 1992 Trudi’s single appearance in the ranking lists was with a time of 3:05:43 – nine seconds in front of Leslie Watson – which placed her eighth in Scotland for the event.    Maybe more important is that in spite of the rather slow time, it was for winning the Black Isle Marathon.   She also won the SWAAA Marathon Championship for the first time in 3:14:30 when it was held in Elgin.  This was the furthest north the championship  had ever been held: starting and finishing in Elgin’s Cooper Park followed a series of quiet roads past Burghead and Lossiemouth.   She raced a lot and was known for being a serious trainer who normally trained twice a day: she is also known as an ultra distance runner and in 1992 she also won the Two Bridges 36 mile classic in 4:48:51 and was to go on and win it in ’93 and ’94 as well.    The work was paying off and in 1993 her appearances in the Scottish Rankings were as follows.

These were not of course her only races that year but one website indicates that she ran another 100K race in 1993 – at Eltham where she finished second in 8:36:53.    Selected for the British team for the World 100K Championships at Torhout, she was a member of the team which won silver medals and, as already indicated, won the Two Bridges for the second time – this time clocking 4:36:37.   She was being recognised as a world class ultra runner and an international marathon runner  but from here on in, she began to appear in the rankings for shorter races on the track as well as shorter road races.

Trudi ran the Lochaber Marathon in April 1994 and ran 2:52:12.  Later in the year, on 5th June, a report on the Dunfermline Half Marathon (which incorporated the five nations home countries international) contained the following: “Trudi Thomson of Pitreavie AAC emerged as the star home performer.    The 35 year old mother of three girls finished fourth (81:10) ten seconds clear of her nearest Scottish rival, Elaine MacKay of Shettleston.   The winner was Lesley Turner of England (79:02).    Thomson, who has already won the Scottish veteran cross country and marathon titles this year, thought that she had won a further two titles, her first open national championship, as well as the national veteran crown, and was stunned to be given only the winner’s medal for the latter since the National medals were given controversially to the English runners.   She displays an amazing appetite, having finished third in the UK Inter County 20 miles championship at Corby only six days earlier.   And only last month she placed fifth in the Two Oceans (Indian to Atlantic) 35 mile race in Cape Town.   A fortnight on Sunday she represents Great Britain in the World 100 kilometre championships at Lake Saroma in Japan.”    Both early events were maybe significant in her preparations for the big one.

She did indeed travel to Japan where she finished second individual in the 100K world championships in the wonderful time of 7:42:17 which is still the Scottish and British record for the distance.  Adrian Stott says “ Trudi Thomson of Pitreavie, having established herself as one of Britain’s best, had the race of her life to take the silver medal at the World 100K championships in Saroma, Japan.   She recorded 7 hours 42 minutes and 17 seconds  which still stands as the current Scottish record and third on the UK all-time list.”   She also won her third Two Bridges 36 Miles in a much faster time than before – 4:06:45 which is still the course record for this event which has sadly been discontinued..    The Edinburgh to North Berwick 22.6 miles road race was also won in a course record of 2:15:31.   Her top times of the year appear below.

It will be noted that not only has she more short fast races in her armoury, she has improved at almost every distance run by a fair margin – ten minutes from the marathon, two and a half from the half marathon, 30 minutes from the 100K .  *The actual distance of the 50K race in South Africa was reported to be 56 miles as no split was taken during the race!   It only makes the time more remarkable.   This mix of relatively short fast races mixed with her marathon and ultramarathon racing was to become a feature of her career.   The other feature to be noted here is the determination to travel in search of the appropriate races, no matter how far.   Cape Town was in April, Japan in June and Dublin in October.

She also officially became a veteran runner and her times are also ranked in the V35 category. At the end of her outstandingly successful 1994 season, ‘Runners World’ magazine named Trudi Thomson ‘Veteran Woman Runner of the Year’.  A wee diversion: although Trudi is better known as a road runner she is also an excellent country racer and this is perhaps best seen in her superb record as a veteran after 1994 when she was overall winner, regardless of age category, five times in seven years – the record is 1994 – 1st;   1995 – 1st;   1996 – DNR;   1997 – 1st;   1998 – 4th;   1999 – 1st;   2000 – 1st;   2001 – DNR;   2002 – 2nd.   She had not run in the National Cross Country often as a Senior – I can only find four runs in the National – but when she did, she ran well: 12th in 1994, 13th in 1995, 5th in 1999 and 4th in 2000.   But back to the main story.

In 1995 the statistics continued to improve.   The road 10K dropped to 34:59 in Coventry, almost a minute and a half from the half marathon to 74:48 at Montbeliard in France and five minutes from the marathon with 2:38:23 in Dublin for a time which was to remain her personal best and place her fourteenth on the Scottish all-time list.   Trudi was selected to represent Britain in the World Championship in Gothenburgh where she finished 22nd, three places behind Fatuma Roba who had won the Olympic Marathon in Atlanta.    Still improving, still travelling to get the races she needed.

In 1996 she returned to Cape Town for the 50K race and again it was over 56 miles with no split taken and she was a bit slower this time – 3:58:46 to 3:56:28 but she was third this time, two places higher.      It was reported in the ‘Herald’ by Doug Gillon under the headline “Thomson foiled by late attack”.      The relevant passages read as follows –

Scotland’s Trudi Thomson ran an impressive race in blustery conditions to finish third in Saturday’s 35 Mile Two Oceans Marathon in Cape Town.   After lying second for the first half, the Dunfermline mother-of-three caught the early leader, Cape-based Jowaine Parrott, on the two mile climb to Chapman’s Peak (590Ft) but Parrott held the pace on the long downhill and continued in front as they passed the 25 mile  point.   Again Thomson used the hill and this time passed Parrott.   Although she led the field through the 30 mile mark at the top of Constantia in a time of 3:15:43, she was soon overtaken by German Maria Bak, who excelled on the hills.   The German had been content to stay in fourth place for the first half, before unleashing a surge that saw her go through 50K  in 3:22:56 which opened 27 seconds on Thomson in less than a mile.   Bak crossed the line in 3:45:16.   Parrott used the final three miles downhill to recapture second place from Thomson and finish runner-up for the third successive time in 3:47:07.   The Scot finished 1 minute and 39 seconds later .

“I really felt motivated when they played ‘The Flower of Scotland’ at the start and I saw the piper and the flags along the route,” said Thomson,”I was right on schedule for most of the race, but I don’t remember the downhills being so long when I last ran here in 1994.   Although I ran well on the uphills my legs were sore and didn’t respond when I tried to stay with Jowaine.   I am quite disappointed, I came here looking for a win.”   Despite this the record will show that her time would have won every event in 1990 and her times through 30 miles and 50-kilometres are likely to be ratified as Scottish and UK bests.     Result:   1.   M Bak   3:45:16; 2.   J Parrott   3:47:07; 3.   T Thomson 3:48:46.

Although it was run early in the season – in April – Trudi had already run a marathon in Las Vegas in February where she recorded 2:44:39.   Other notable times that year were a personal best for 5000m on the track at Coatbridge where she ran 17:43.4.   A 10,000 in 35:00 in July was followed, also in July with  74:34 for the half marathon in Helensburgh and in October 10 miles were covered in Portsmouth in 58:05.   The half marathon time was to remain as her personal best.

She seemed to like Cape Town because she was back there in 1997 finishing fourth this time in 3:51:02.    Otherwise it was a relatively quiet year – winning the Inverness half marathon in 75:18, 35:00 for the 10K at Strathclyde Park a week later, Cape Town in March and then twenty eighth in the London Marathon in April in a time of 2:41:45.   There were two trips to Ireland in 1998 – Newry in September  for 10 miles in 57:04 and Dublin for the marathon in October where she ran 2:52:19 for fourth place.   Two second places in good times were her only other ranking performances that year – 3000 metres on the track at Coatbridge in 10:27.26 and 10K on the road in Perth in 36:12.

Becoming a veteran V40 in 1999 seemed to suit her because Trudi appeared in no fewer than eight different lists from 3000 metres to the marathon.   Off road she ran in the World Mountain Trial, finished third behind Tracy Brindley and Sheila Armitage and was selected for the Championship which was in Mount Kinabalu Park in Borneo where she was  twenty second and second Scott in the team which finished fifth.  It was a very good year all round for her, in November she won the V40 British International Championship at at Grenville College, Bideford.   Apart from Trudi, only five Scots have won this title, the others being Christine Price, Lynn Harding, Janette Stevenson (an amazing four times!), Sue Ridley and Jane Waterhouse.      The local Press announced that she was first Vet in the Dublin race  And again off road she went to the English CAU Inter-Counties representing Scotland East and finished thirteenth to be second Scottish finisher, Angie Mudge being the first.  If you look closely at the table below you will see that in her first year as a V40 she set three  personal best times – for the  road Mile, 5K and 10K on the road – and all at the bottom end of her distance range.

In 2000 although there were no personal bests there were many fast times and she raced outwith Scotland on at least seven occasions of her ten best times of the year.   Her best 10K was when she won at Grangemouth in February in 34:53 and at ten miles she recorded 56:22 in Ballycotton when placing second.   Her four top half marathons were in Valladolid (May: 78:16), Bristol (Oct: 87:19), Glasgow (Aug: 78:29) and Glenrothes (79:00)   The Valladolid race was at the World Masters – Non-Stadia – Championships where she won the V40 race.   She had four marathons listed too, these were in London (April: 2:40:40), Stockholm (June: 2:45:35), Dublin (Oct: 2:49:37) and Dubai (Jan: 2:50:37).     These were all first class times and the distances that she travelled in search of the times were huge.   Clearly her appetite for new challenges had not diminished.

This is emphasised by her racing the following year (2001) when she started with a trip to The Hague for a half marathon in March finishing tenth in 77:40 – the time placed her second in Scotland.   A month later she had a marathon in 2:41:49 in North Korea in which she finished fourteenth.   The heavily politicised account of the race put out by the organisers began with the paragraph: “15 April 2001 – Pyongyang – At least 200,000 North Koreans wildly cheered 51 foreign runners allowed to compete in the groundbreaking Pyongyang International Marathon on Sunday, but they could not beat the best from the communist nation.”    For the women’s event it read “Chong Yong Ok won the women’s race in a course record of 2 hrs 28 min 36 sec, more than two and a half minutes faster than the previous best.   North Korean women took all top ten positions…….. In the women’s race Banuelia Mrashini of Tanzania and Trudi Thomson, a member of Scotland’s Commonwealth Games squad, were the only two foreigners in the top fifteen.”   An excellent result in what was essentially hostile territory, have a look at these quotes from the same article.   The race was one of the centrepiece events for the birthday of the North’s late founding leader Kim Il Sung.    There were 70,000 people in the packed Kim Il-Sung Stadium.   And the 500 runners raced past lines of Pyongyang citizens along the streets, playing traditional music and queueing for specially rationed food for the main holiday of the year.   Kim Jong On, the winner who won $3000 said, “I have trained every day for this race under the guidance of the Great Leader Kim Il Sung and I am now determined to bring glory to my country at the World Championships in August.”    Again the time placed her second in Scotland.   A time of 2:50:28 gave her fifth place in Dublin and when the Scottish Marathon Championship returned to Elgin that year, she returned to win it for the second time nine years after her first success in 1992 with a time of 2:49:33.   Her support for the national championship is noted at a time when the top women marathon runners were avoiding them like the plague.  Other notable times that year included 59:48 for 10 Miles at Portsmouth and 10K in 35:31 in Alexandria.

Trudi on the right with the Royal Mail Letters Team that won the Corporate Challenge in Park Avenue, New York, in 2003

In 2003 Trudi ran three marathons – winning in Belfast in 2:45:48 and in Inverness in 2:50:03, and finishing eighth in Beirut (Lebanon) in 2:50:53.   10K in 35:42 and 10 Miles in 56:11 almost completed her best times – but there was a 3000 metres on the track in the Women’s League in 10:40.36 to show that she had not lost any speed.   In 2004, her final year as a V40, she recorded 3:00:31 for the marathon in Mumbai, India, 83:10 for the Half Marathon at Morpeth and 37:00 for the 10K at Halhill.   Just as she seemed to have a new lease of life when she moved up an age category at 40, so when she moved into the V45 category in 2005 there were nine entries in the ranking lists.

These were all near home, no foreign trips that produced good times and all relatively short distances for an athlete who had performed so well at the very top levels as a marathon and ultra distance runner.

Although she continued to run at local level Trudi does not appear in any national rankings thereafter.    Her reputation remains such that in an article in 2009 on the Sri Chinmoy website, Adrian Stott says in reply to the question “Can women excel at Ultra-Distances?”  –    “Certainly, Pitreavie’s Trudi Thomson ran successfully for GB at 100K earning a silver medal at the ’95 World 100K event.   Like Ritchie and Pride she trained fairly methodically with good results, also representing GB at the marathon”    A little known fact about Trudi’s career is the link with Scottish steeplechase great John Linaker.   John advised and coached Trudi for a spell and was largely responsible for her improvement in the marathon and Two Bridges races.   An over 50 veteran capable of 2:40 for the marathon himself, he trained with her a lot.

We have concentrated here on the principal races of her career but of course Trudi has been a prolific racer at home as well as abroad with her name appearing at events all over the country: the Portobello Promethon, the Round the Castles series, the Polaroid 10K series, the Sandy Slither and Chariots of Fire beach races in Fife and so on.   She was never one of the ‘precious’ athletes who restrict their racing at home or who limit themselves to a  particular distance or surface – her cross country talents have been mentioned as has her mountain running ability.  She always represented Scotland well and we can all be justly proud of what she has done.

“Oh, Yes, one other thing,” as Columbo might say,” Trudi is the only woman ever to have run in the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay!”    It was in 1998 and she ran the fourth stage.   Unique in Scottish athletics!

Steve Taylor and Fergus Murray share the lead, 1961

Given that our running days overlapped for quite a number of years, I should really have known more about this remarkable runner than I do.    There are some moments that spring to mind such as the time several of us went in Jimmy Scott’s minibus to run in the Brechin Rights of Way race and on the way up sorted out in our own wee heads who the first three or four would be.   Then into the room where the entries were being taken strode Steve Taylor, Dennis Whiting and another AAAC runner and the ball was up on the slates.   First three places gone with the wind!   Anyway the following account of – and tribute to – Steve’s running career has been written by his friend and team-mate Colin Youngson.

Stephen Taylor (universally known as Steve) is an Aberdeen AAC legend.   Perhaps he is best known as Alastair Wood’s most important training partner and friend; but there is a lot more to Steve’s impressive athletics career than that.   As well as being a very talented elegant runner, he had considerable success over many years at distances ranging from one mile to thirty!   In addition he was fantastically strong in training: and a captain who truly led by example when his beloved distance-running club proved to everyone that it was one of Britain’s very best.

Steve (born 17/3/1938) started running while with the RAF in the 1950’s.   Steve writes that “Frank Seal was hugely influential and a hard task-master to boot.   On not a few occasions in the summer he would drag me off to Sports Day to do 4 x 880 yards in about 2 minutes – and on a grass track.   Testament to these efforts was a dramatic reduction in my mile time.   At the start of my first RAF Track Championships, between the heats and the final I reduced my mile time from around 4:27 to 4:15, not far off the best performances in the Junior rankings at that time.”

During his time in the RAF Steve was also guided by Ian Boyd (Oxford University Blue half-miler, miler and cross-country runner and a 1954 Empire Games bronze medallist (880 yards), as well as GB athletics Team Captain at the Melbourne Olympics and later President of the New Zealand AAA).   Steve remembers training at Henslow in cold weather with “this frail RAF officer and not being particularly impressed.   Then as spring approached he stripped off his top layer to reveal a British tracksuit bearing the legend ‘GB & NI Olympic Games Melbourne.’   A more modest and unassuming person I have never met, as never once did he mention what he had achieved.”

During his best racing years, Steve was advised by his long-term coach, the great Gordon Pirie (world record-holder for 3000m and 5000m and Olympic silver medallist at Melbourne).   He also met Alastair Wood, born in Elgin, an Aberdeen University and later Oxford University Blue at both athletics and cross-country, a GB International runner and one of the most charismatic and outspoken characters anyone could hope to meet.   During his RAF career, Steve represented the Services in most of their major cross-country races, most notably the annual fixture against the Midland Counties and the Universities Athletic Union which featured several English CC Internationalists, including Ron Hill and Bruce Tulloh (who also ran once for Scotland).

After leaving the RAF, Steve returned to Aberdeen and became a member if the fledgling Aberdeen AAC.    As he states in his book: “We Have To Catch The Ferry”, which is a personal reminiscence about AAAC mainly in the 1960’s, their first notable win was in 1959 when they won the East of Scotland Cross-Country Relay Championships, pipping holders Edinburgh Southern Harriers.   That summer in the SAAA Championships, Steve Taylor won a bronze medal in the One Mile,  behind Scotland’s finest miler Graham Everett.   A somewhat unusual but very popular competition at the time, sponsored by the ‘Athletics Weekly’ was the two-man, ten-mile track relay or paarlauf (which entailed each runner completing 40 x 220 yards with a minimum of rest, often just a jog across the middle of the track).   John Gray and Steve Taylor finished second in the British rankings, beaten only by the Portsmouth duo of Bruce Tulloh and Martin Hyman, both of whom became very important and very successful athletes.   Remote the city might be, but Aberdeen runners refused to be undervalued.

Despite being best known initially as a middle-distance runner, Steve Taylor made quite a mark in Scottish cross-country circles.   Aberdeen AAC usually managed to win the North-East Cross-Country League (with Steve himself being a frequent victor).   In 1961 Steve Taylor, the race winner, led his team to success in the annual Carry Trophy event between the selects from the cities of Aberdeen and Dundee.   That was the year when Steve finished second to Adrian Jackson in the East Districts Cross-Country Championships; and in 1962 he was second once more behind his new team-mate Alastair Wood, who had switched from Shettleston Harriers.   Eventually in 1967 Aberdeen AAC  succeeded in winning the East District team contest and Steve was fourth counter.

Wood and Taylor had actually had been training together since summer 1960, when the former moved to Aberdeen and took up a teaching post.   Their running partnership not only led to great success for both individuals, but also inspired many Aberdeen runners for considerably more than 20 years.

In the National, contested over nine exhausting miles at Hamilton Racecourse, he had a succession of good placings:   1960: 7th in his first season as a senior; 1961 – 4th; 1962 – 4th; 1963 – 6th; 1964 – 7th; 1965 – 9th.   Aberdeen AAC’s best team placing  was second, not only in 1962 but also in 1964 and 1965 – a remarkable feat for a club with only a handful of dedicated athletes.   Steve himself represented Scotland in the International Cross-Country Championships three times in a row (1960-62) at Hamilton, Nantes and Sheffield, respectively; and only a bout of ‘flu in 1963 stopped him participating once more.   Steve’s best run in the International was 35th (3rd Scot) in 1962.   In 1968 he was 18th in the National, and fifth counter in a valiant  AAAC team which only lost by one frustrating point in a classic encounter with the brilliant Edinburgh University outfit which was completing a third successive National triumph.

                                                           Steve Taylor’s three ICCU memento badges: left to right 1960, 1961 and 1962

                                                                               Steve’s Scottish International Cross-Country vest badge

In the 1960 Edinburgh – Glasgow Relay, Steve ran particularly well to move AAAC up six places on the long Sixth Stage (achieving a fastest time only 24 seconds slower than Scottish distance running legend Ian Binnie’s record).   Steve’s club held on to that position, finished sixth and were awarded the medals for the most meritorious performance in the race.   Steve Taylor’s longevity and consistency is evident from the fact that he took part in this wonderful event every year  from 1960 to 75 apart from 1973.   He ran for Aberdeen University in 1974; but AAAC on every other occasion.    Another fine individual performance was fastest time on the Fifth Stage in 1967.   Aberdeen AAC’s best positions were: 3rd in 1963; 2nd= in 1967 and 2nd in 1968 and 1972.   The club finally won three times in the 1980’s but Steve’s team mates included luminaries such as Alastair Wood, Mel Edwards, Bill Ewing, Sandy Keith, Rab Heron, Don Ritchie and Graham Laing, not to mention Peter and his even-more-famous brother Ian Stewart (from that little known suburb of Aberdeen called Birmingham) whose untouchable 1972 record in an Aberdeen vest on the second Stage must have been the most marvellous performance in the illustrious history of the event!

Steve Taylor’s best performances were frequently on the track.   In 1960 he won the East District mile title, as well as the subsequent Inter-District mile in Glasgow.   In that year’s SAAA championship he improved to second in 4:10.4, one of the fastest times recorded by a Scot at that time.   In the Invitation International Mile at the prestigious Rangers Sports at Ibrox Stadium , Steve represented Scotland, along with Graham Everett.   They faced an elite field of Olympic contenders including former world mile record holder Derek Ibbotson and Laszlo Tabori of Hungary.   Steve agreed to make the pace and there is a colour photograph of him doing so.   He took the field through 880 yards on schedule.   Tabori won in 4:01.1 with Steve eventually finishing in 4:10 once more.

Dennis Whiting to Steve Taylor in the North Inch Relays, 1961.   Graham Everett of Shettleston is in the background

In 1961, having won both the mile and three miles in the East of Scotland Championships, establishing a championship record in the longer event, Steve Taylor went on to defeat his team-mate Alastair Wood to win the SAAA Three Miles title – his first National gold medal.   Aberdeen AAC’s four-man team was a very good fourth from the twenty clubs invited to the Inter-Club Three Miles event at the Vaux International meeting at Gateshead.   This was enhanced by the presence of the famous coach Arthur Lydiard and his Olympic champions Peter Snell and Murray Halberg.   Steve enjoyed the thrill of an early Sunday morning run with the 5000 metres champion Halberg, a most self-effacing man who overcame the effects of polio as a child to become truly a legend in his lifetime.   Then Steve Taylor ran for Scotland against Ireland and Wales in the Triangular International in Cardiff.   He finished a close second to Welshman Dave Richards, who set a Native record of 13:48 in front of Steve’s personal best 13:51.   In the Edinburgh Highland Games at Murrayfield Stadium, in the Two Miles, the Aberdeen pairing of Wood and Taylor finished 1-2 for a Scotland  Select versus a West German Select.

Having retained his East District Three Mile title, edging out Alastair Wood and setting another Championship record in the 1962 SAAA Championships   Steve Taylor not only improved his personal best to 4:09.5 for the Mile but also retained his Three Miles Scottish title, winning by over 100 yards.   He was very unlucky not to be selected for the Empire Games in Perth, Australia.   However Steve did run the Three Miles for Scotland against Ireland in Belfast, the Two Miles against Holland, where Steve and John Linaker finished 1-2, and representing ‘Edinburgh’, the Two Miles against ‘Munich’ at the Edinburgh Highland Games where Steve and John achieved another 1-2.

In 1964 Steve Taylor won bronze in the SAAA Six Miles won by that year’s Olympic 10000 metres runner Fergus Murray.   Then in 1965 it was silver in the SAAA Three Mile for Steve behind future Commonwealth 10000 metres gold medallist Lachie Stewart.

I must have met Steve in 1966 and until the early 1970’s as well as being very impressed by his training speed on Sundays, I trailed in behind him in many cross-country events and several track races, not only in championships but also on the grass at King’s College and the Huntly Highland Games.   In 1969 at the Forres Highland Games, Steve (who was brought up at Kintessack only three miles away) was retaining his North of Scotland 3000 metres title while I was plodding through my debut marathon in 2:41:13 to finish third about 14 minutes behind AJ Wood.   However Steve’s focus was beginning to switch to really long-distance racing.

The infamous Sunday Run – undoubtedly the key session in the ‘Aberdeen Training School’ began in the early 1960’s.  In his book, Steve asserts that these were not as lightning fast as legend insists.   However I would disagree, having first tried them out when I could barely handle six miles, as a callow and probably hung-over ‘Fresher’ at Aberdeen University.   The group met at Ally Wood’s house in Cairnaquheen Gardens.   Just round the corner was King’s Gate, a very steep hill followed by a roundabout and a slight rise to the gates of Hazlehead Park, then along to the bus terminus, followed by a half circuit of the pony track, a long stretch of rustic road, fun and games in the forest trails and an arduous bash on the roads back to the city, finishing with a two-mile sprint in from Cults, plus another mile or two warming down, pretending not to be knackered.   13 to 15 miles – and quite far enough.   In the early days, I could be off the back by the roundabout!   It really was a de’il-tak-the-hinmost!   The fitter you got the longer you could hang on.   Ally tended to motivate by ignoring you, then insulting you and finally by saying nothing.   Steve by contrast was always encouraging, but seemed to reserve Sundays for a demonstration of astonishingly relaxed speed and stamina, despite insisting that he had retired from serious running in 1966!   He made even Mr Wood suffer more often than that gentleman cared to admit.   Even in the 1970’s when I could often beat Steve and Ally in races, they could run away from me if I dared to visit my home city on Sunday mornings!

As early as New Year’s Eve 1960, Steve Taylor showed real potential in a long road race – the famous Morpeth to Newcastle.   Having arrived late and started at the back of the 120 strong field, in the closing stages he was ten yards in the lead before losing valuable seconds due to his unfamiliarity with a ‘quirky’ finish to end up in a still very good fourth place, behind the winner Laurie Sykes and   Olympic marathon runners Arthur Keily and Brian Kilby.   Then in 1964 he was a close third behind Alastair Wood in the 13.5 mile road race at the Athol and Breadalbane Agricultural Show when the course record was smashed by two and a half minutes.

One of the finest performances by Alastair Wood and Steve Taylor took place on 13th December 1969: an attack on the World 40 Mile track record held by New Zealand’s Jeff Julian.   In Steve’s book he says that it was very appropriate that it should be Alastair and himself, “whose friendship and rivalry had up until then extended over a period of some 15 years who were to be the main players in bringing success to Aberdeen AAC in the sport of ultra-distance racing.   Alastair was buoyed up by his record breaking win in the 36 Miles Two Bridges race in August.   On a bitterly cold  mid-December day with a strong cross-wind blowing, the conditions at Pitreavie, Dunfermline were far from ideal.   Delayed for an hour because of the frozen state of the track, the race finally got under way at 12 noon.”   There were only two other competitors: Phil Hampton, a well-known English ultra specialist who later broke the World 50 Mile record; and Shettleston’s Willie Russell who had several good runs in the Two Bridges.   “With the quality of the opposition unknown, the two Aberdeen athletes had decided on  a ‘fall back’ strategy should the pace fall away in the early stages.   Steve Taylor would make the pace for as long as his less-than-ideal preparation of 40 miles per week schedule would permit.   The two had also agreed that in the likely event of Scottish records falling during the run, these would be shared.   By around 15 miles the Aberdeen pair were clear of the other runners and Steve Taylor took on the task of shielding his club-mate from the troublesome wind which he did up to the 30.25 mile mark, before retiring from the race as he was no longer capable of maintaining world record schedule.   (The marathon distance was passed in 2:29:21).   Despite running solo over the remaining 9.75 miles Alastair Wood brought the club its first World Record in the gathering gloom with a time of 3:49:49, some three minutes forty five seconds inside the New Zealander’s previous record.    At 30 Kilometres, 20 miles and two hours both Scottish and All-Comers Records had been broken, the latter having stood for 36 years.  These achievements placed them in the World All-Time Rankings ahead of, among others, running legends Emil Zatopek and Gordon Pirie, Steve’s long-time coach and thus completed a memorable day for the club.”

Steve Taylor and Alastair Wood in the early stages of the 40 miles track race – Phil Hampton in front and Willie Russell at the back

The ‘Press and Journal’ article asserts that this was the greatest run of Alastair Wood’s career (although there are several other candidates!) and that he “got plenty of assistance from Aberdeen AAC club-mate Steve Taylor, who did the brunt of the pacemaking and sheltered Wood from the gusty wind for 30 miles.”   A footnote adds “despite his experience on Saturday, Taylor was out on the road training the next day as usual.   Wood however was troubled by a bruised foot.”

In 1970 Steve Taylor won his third Scottish track title: this time the 10 Miles event on the cinder track at Scotstoun, Glasgow.   His time was a good 49:53 with his team-mate Donald Ritchie a minute behind in second place.   Then in 1971 Steve at long last investigated his ability to run a marathon.   On 8th May he won his first one, the Shettleston Marathon in 2:23:25, just six seconds in front of Donald Ritchie again.   On 13th June in the European Championships trial – Manchester’s Maxol Marathon (the ‘London’ of its day in terms of sheer quality at the front) he broke the 2:20 barrier to record 2:19:28 for 17th place, one in front of the following year’s Olympian Donald Macgregor.   If only Steve had tried this distance a few years earlier who knows what he might have done!   Steve also came 5th in the SAAA 10000 metres and fifth in the SAAA 10000 metres, and fifth (11 miles 1603 yards with Alastair 22 yards in front  and Donald Ritchie another 57 yards in front of him!) in a one hour event at Meadowbank which was won in a Scottish National and Native Record (12 miles 616 yards) by Jim Alder from Pat Maclagan (12 miles 400 yards).    However Steve did beat Jim Wight  and Bill Stoddart, the 1970 Scottish marathon champion.

In 1972 Steve took part in another long-distance track race at Walton in Surrey.   This was a 20 miles event won by Jim Alder in 1:40:50 ( a Scottish National Record) with Steve being timed at 1:45:40 some distance in front of Donald Ritchie.   A good result in 1973 was second (2:23:17) to his flying club-mate Rab Heron (2:17:07) in the Edinburgh to North Berwick Marathon.   However Steve badly injured a heel in this race and consequently retired from long-distance road running.

Steve remains a good friend of mine, a sensitive, enthusiastic man with wide interests.   My memories of him include youthful ones of sheer awe at his talent and dedication.   In addition I was horribly impressed with him in the 1973 John O’Groats to Land’s End Relaywhen he was team captain.   This was Aberdeen AAC’s second attempt.   We had missed the record by half a frustrating hour the previous year; but this year despite having a weaker team we made no mistake and beat it by half an hour.   The whole idea had been Steve’s and he had driven both events, arranging sponsors, organising , and – that word again – encouraging us all.   I was lucky/unlucky to be paired with him.   At the time I could usually beat him in races.   However before we were halfway to the finish, I was struggling to match him for stamina, and often uncomplaining he did more than his share of our two-hour stints.   His quiet steely example motivated us all to succeed.

Steve Taylor continued to train, and occasionally race, for many years thereafter.   As I explained he was always a hard man to keep up with on Sundays!   Eventually he retired to Aberlour in Speyside and particularly enjoys striding out on long-distance walking trails.   His usual companion these days is another sporting former pupil of Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon’s College, the ex-European champion swimmer Ian Black.

It really is some story of a man too little known in Scottish athletics with championships and international vests littered all the way through it and we owe a debt to Colin for bringing this remarkable man’s achievements to the wider athletics community.    All pictures here are from Steve’s book – “We Have to Catch the Ferry.”

Steve had a wonderful career with success on many surfaces and at many distances.   His success can to an extent by having a look at his Trophies and medals.   We are indeed fortunate to be able to show them to you.   Just click on this link:   Steve Taylor’s Trophies and Medals.

Steve training was also influenced by Gordon Pirie and he has kept the correspondence from which he has allowed us to publish some of the letters.   Colin Youngson wrote it up and it can be found here.   Steve has let us show some of his own photographs and programmes on the website and you can see them at this link

A tribute to Steve by Fraser Clyne can be found by clicking on his name.

Ian Stewart wins the Commonwealth Games 5000m in 1970 from Ian McCafferty

The tale is told of a young Ian Stewart being defeated by the experienced German Harald Norpoth after a really hard battle after which they were both totally drained; Lying on the ground Ian saw a TV cameraman passing and called him across.   Looking into the camera he is quoted as saying something like “That was bloody hard Harald and you won this time but I’m telling you now, you can expect more of the same every time you come up against me!”   This  illustrates his reputation a a hard opponent – the word ‘gritty’ is used (mainly by the London Press it has to be said), the tabloids called him ‘The Sandpaper Kid’ at one time but the title was too long to stick, but he was surely one of the toughest endurance runners that Britain ever produced.

Ian Stewart was born in Birmingham of Scottish parents on 15th January 1949.   He became involved in athletics as a teenager and joined Birchfield Harriers where he was coached by Geoff Warr.   He was a famously hard worker and early on he won the English Midlands Youth cross-country title in 1966 and both Midlands and National titles as a Junior in 1968.   At the age of 16 he set a UK age-best for 2 Miles of 9:12.8.   In 1968, his final year as a Junior, he set European Junior records of 8:01.2 for 3000m, 8:35.32 for 2 Miles, 13:28.4 for 3 Miles and 13:53.32 for 5000m.    Clearly he was an athlete of talent and as a Senior in 1969 he won not one but two European Championships:   indoors in Belgrade he won the 3000m in 7:55.4 and in Athens later in the year he won the 5000m in 13:44.8 where his last lap was 56.6 to destroy the field.   He also had his first real head-to-head with a man who would be a regular opponent over the years to come – Ian McCafferty of Motherwell.   They met in the Invitation Mile at Reading on 11th June.   The pace-maker took them through the lap in 58.1 and the half mile in 1:58.9.   McCafferty went in front at that point and a mere 220 yards further on Stewart went to the front.   With 220 to go, McCafferty took the pace again and held on to win in 3:56.8 and Ian Stewart was second in 3:57.3 with brother Peter third 3:58.7.  

      The famous Sub-4 mile at Reading in 1968: Ian Stewart (1) with Peter’s face showing behind, Ian McCafferty (5), Hugh Barrow (26)

Later in 1968, on 1st September, Ian Stewart ran 3:39.0 in a GB v France at Reading – the time was a British record.  In 1970 he declared that he would henceforth compete for Scotland, his parents’ country – it is interesting to note that his brother Peter who is better remembered as a 1500.Mile runner was actually born in their parents’ home town of Musselburgh.   Doubt has been expressed about Ian’s Scottish qualifications but Colin Youngson from Aberdeen explains it as follows.   The father of Carol, Ian, Peter and Mary Stewart was a Scot from Musselburgh and Peter was actually born there.   This was the reason that Ian chose to run for Scotland although Peter and Mary ran for England despite Mary winning the Scottish Under 17 cross-country title.   Peter chose to run for Scotland after Ian did and both ran for Scotland at the 1970 Games.   A friend of the Stewarts at Birchfield Harriers in Birmingham was Tom McCook who later married Carol Stewart.   Tom came from Inverness and had been a promising runner for Inverness Harriers at cross-country.   Tom had been a second-claim member of Aberdeen AAC.   When Ian was looking for a Scottish club in 1970, Tom recommended Aberdeen AAC.   Peter ran for them in the Scottish National Cross-Country Championship in 1968 when they finished second team to Edinburgh University by a single point.   Then in that year’s prestigious Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay, both Peter and Ian ran for the AAAC which again finished second.   In 1972, Ian took part again setting a fantastic new record on the classy second stage which still exists.   Finally Ian ran in the 1973 Aberdeen team that finished third in the E-G and so did Tom McCook.   Nowadays Tom McCook is President of Birchfield Harriers, one of England’s most famous athletic clubs.   Since 2008, Ian has been the successful European coach for such runners as Mo Farah”. 

 Both were to take part with distinction in the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1970.

His first race in Scotland had been at the SAAA Championships on 6th June at Meadowbank where the Games would be held.   On that day he won the 5000 metres from Lachie Stewart (no relation) in a Championship record time of 13:47.8.  Brother Peter won the 1500 metres from Ian McCafferty on the same day but just one week later at the same venue, Ian won the family duel in the Emsley Carr Mile with 3:57.4 being the time allocated to them both.   Ian McCafferty was second to Dick Taylor in the 5000 metres with 13:29.6 making him the second Briton to run under thirteen and a half minutes for the 5000m.   The build-up to the 5000 metres continued.    The Games had started with a great win for Scotland in the first Final of the Games when Lachie Stewart defeated Ron Clarke and Dick Taylor in a very good race which set the tone for the Games.    Lachie was also in the Final of the 5000 metres on the last day of the Games along with Ian Stewart and Ian McCafferty.    Dick Taylor of England drove the pace on until with 800 to go Ian McCafferty took over and upped the pace.   Only 200 yards later Stewart went to the front and kept there although McCafferty had another go at him over the last 200 metres – he even looked like catching him at the start of the finishing but Stewart’s famous determination kept him in front to win by less than half a second in 13:22.85.   Keino was third.   The Scots times (McCafferty was 13:23.4) put them second and third on the all-time list and gave Stewart new European, UK and Scottish National records and McCafferty had a Scottish native record.   Ian was later reported as saying of the race, “That has got to be regarded as a highlight.   I couldn’t hear the lap times because of the noise the crowd was making and so I was surprised the time was so fast.   When we came up to the bell, I just kicked and tried to make Keino run wide.   If people wondered why I ran for Scotland, that was it.”

After 1970, 1971 was a bit of an anti-climax.   Stewart was ill for most of the year which he had started with a UK All-Comers’ best of 7:50.0 when winning the AAA Indoor 3000m Championship.   1972 however was Olympic year and both men were determined to go and determined to pick up medals.   The ‘trial’ from which the team would be selected was the AAA 5000m Championship at Crystal Palace on 15th July.   David Bedford knocked the idea of a trial out of the window when he just ran away from the field to win as he liked in 13:17.2.   McCafferty pulled away from Stewart with three laps to go and closed the gap on Bedford who was still nearly three seconds up on his 13:19.8 with Stewart content to qualify in third place with 13:24.2.   In Munich they both seemed to be in the shape to do great things: in the Heats McCafferty won with 13:38.2 (last lap – 54.7) and Stewart qualified in second place in Heat 2 behind Vaatainen (Finland) with a time of 13:33.0.   Bedford also qualified for the final which was to be held on 10th September but none of the three did himself justice in the Final.   John Keddie describes that race thus: “After a fairly leisurely 3000m (8:20.2) the Finnish winner of the 10000m, Lasse Viren, made an irresistible prolonged run for home and was never headed over that 2000m which occupied only 5:06.2.   McCafferty alas, probably suffering from anxiety and sleeplessness over a race he knew he could win, rather went through the motions and was dropped along with Bedford and Vaatainen over the last few laps.   They finished 11th to 13th, McCafferty clocking 13:43.2 behind Viren’s 13:26.4.   Ian Stewart fared better and probably lost because he let a gap develop 800m from home.   He did however come with a rush over the final to 200m to snatch the bronze medal in 13:27.6, but he too was disappointed.   What is not mentioned is the fact that Stewart was knocked by the American Steve Prefontaine and lost ground that maybe cost him the race.   He only overtook Prefontaine in the last 90 metres to get the bronze medal.   There was something else that happened in Munich at the Games – the Black September gang forced their way into the Village to capture Israeli athletes and there was a stand-off at gunpoint before the athletes were killed in an airport shoot out.   Did this affect Stewart and the others?   When asked about it by the ‘News Chronicle’ in June 2006 Ian replied as follows: “Stewart could easily hide behind the gruesome stake-out when crack German marksmen targeted terrorists and hostages alike, but, typically he does not.   He alone, he says, was to blame for his failure.   Failure, incidentally, brought an Olympic bronze medal in the 5000m  which many would view as great success but Stewart says, ‘You don’t win a bronze medal, you lose a gold medal instead.  

Of that terrible day, Ian told me, ‘It was weird to be truthful.   The break-in occurred during the night and it was only at breakfast that I discovered what had happened.   the Americans have talked since of hearing gunfire and the like, but I certainly didn’t.   It all took time to sink in – the full horror only hit me afterwards.   But in no way do I blame it for my performance.   That failure was down to me and me alone.   I’d trained in San Moritz with Brendan Foster and was in the best shape of my life.   I should have won the 5000m going away from the field, but I ran a stinker.   I was absolutely sick – the Olympics come around only every four years so you probably only have one shot at a gold medal when you are at your peak both physically and mentally and in terms of form.”

Ian Stewart returned to the track with a victory early in 1973 when he won the AAA Indoor 3000m in 7:58.0.    In 1974 he took part in his second Commonwealth Games in January 1974 with deeply disappointing results.   In the 10000m he was sixth in 28:17.2 in an event won by Dick Tayler of New Zealand in 27:46.4 and in the 5000m he was fifth in 13:40.32 with Kenya’s Ben Jipcho winning in 13:40.32.   To make matters worse, two of his domestic rivals finished second in the events – Brendan Foster was second in the 5000m in 13:14.6 and David Black was second in the 10000m in 27:48.6.    Like McCafferty after the Olympic disaster of 1972, Ian retired from athletics and took up cycling.   Unlike McCafferty, however, he was unable to stay away and returned in December that year.   The results soon started to come and he had two magnificent victories in consecutive weeks in March, 1975.   On the ninth at Katowice in a British vest he won the European Indoor 3000m with a time of 7:58.6 and the following weekend he won the IAAF International Cross-Country title in Rabat, Morocco wearing a Scottish vest.    The quality of the field in this race is well worth noting.   With 173 finishers the first ten were :

Other runners included Emiel Puttemans, Waldemar Czierpinski and Frank Shorter.

In 1976 he had hoped to run in the Olympics in Montreal but dropped out of the ‘trial’ at the Kraft Games and refused to take part in a run-pff for the third slot against Bernie Ford which ruled him out.   He did however qualify for the Olympic 5000 metres where he could only finish seventh in the Final which was won by Viren. At the bell he had been on Viren’s shoulder but he just did not have the pace to finish the job.   It was a very good run but not what he had wanted.   13:27.8 was the time – a season’s best but a journalist quoted by Keddie in his centenary history of the SAAA remarked “it was the sort of race in which earlier in his career he might have flourished but the world has moved on.”

In 1978 he ran in the English National Cross Country Championships for the first and only time and finished second to Bernie Ford and retired that summer.   He was awarded the MBE in 1979 – his career as a runner was over but a new career within athletics was about to open up.   Before that, let’s look at some of his achievements as listed on the UK Athletics website:

International Championships

1969: 1st 3000m European Indoors; 1st 5000m European Championships                                                          1970:   1st 5000m Commonwealth Games                            1972:   3rd   5000m Olympic Games

1974: 5th 5000m, 6th 10000m Commonwealth Games                                                                                       1975:   1st World CC, 1st 3000m European Indoors             1976:   7th   5000m Olympic Games

International Cross-Country: 1968 – 6th Junior, 1971 – 9th, 1972 – 3rd, 1975 – 1st                                             UK Internationals – 18 (1968 – 1977)

Won AAA 5000m 1969, UK 10000 1977, Indoor 3000m 1972, 1973, 1975, National Junior CC 1968, Scottish 5000m 1970

In addition to the above times, he ran a 10 miles road race at Stoke in 1991 in 49:17 as a M40 veteran.   He was one of six children three of whom were GB Internationalists and all three won European indoor championships!    As well as Ian, Peter won the 3000m in Sofia in 1971 and sister Mary won the 1500m in San Sebastian in 1977.

Ian Stewart: Promotions Officer

After he retired from running, Ian became a coach and worked with some excellent young talent – Darius Burrows being maybe the best of his protégés.   he was a keen motor-cyclist and got involved in motor-bikes and athletics simultaneously after he stopped running.   It started when he rode to Oxford to watch an athletics road race and the BBC asked if they could put a cameraman on the pillion seat to film the race while it happened.   It went well and he ended up working for many British and foreign TV stations at all sorts of road events such as the Tour de France.   He is quoted as saying,  “It was crazy – lashing down mountains on the wrong side of the road with the cameraman standing up on the pillion!   It was also great fun!”    He did that for about eight years until in 1994 he was appointed to succeed the notorious Andy Norman as Promotions Officer for British Athletics.   Andy was very controversial – a demon to some (and I know of several Scots international athletes who have been on the wrong side of the man) and a hero to others because of his effect on their careers – but he had lots of power and Ian inherited that power.   He was made responsible for putting together the top-class fields for the international meetings that took place in Britain every year.   The ‘Evening Chronicle’ article has this to say about the job: “It wasn’t very pleasant for the first three years.   What I quickly learned was not to take any rejection personally.   Athletes and their agents will let you down, change their minds.   I’m always on the move, all over the place,” he said.   “However  I’m single and I only have myself to please.”    Reality doesn’t seem to depress Stewart and well it might not.   He is rich in memories and achievements, has gathered about himself not a little fame and has worked continuously in a sport which clearly is the real love of his life.   That is enough for any man.”   

In addition to the job of race promoter for Fast Track he is now Head of Endurance for British Athletics tasked with restoring success to a branch of the sport which has fallen somewhat from the standards of his day.

Looking back at his career, does he have any regrets about the lack of financial rewards or envy of the present generation?   “There’s no question that if Bren and I were running today we would very quickly have become millionaires,” Stewart told me.   “We got expenses whereas now the top men and women demand figures in noughts.   I remember Bren and I clashing at Crystal Palace.   Our photos were splashed all over the cover of the Radio Times because the meet was live on telly – but Bren ran for the price of a train ticket from Newcastle and me for a ticket from Birmingham.   When I was only 20 back in 1969 I was in the GB  squad against the USA at the White City.   All the great Americans were on display and 50,000 squeezed into the stadium to watch us – me and Dick Taylor were the only GB one-two all night.   I appeared for my £3:10:00 rail fare and then haggled over the cost of my breakfast!”   Surely that must gnaw at a man renowned in his pomp for being brash, controversial and just plain bloody-minded.   “Athletics has moved on greatly and in the main it has been for the good, insisted Stewart”, perhaps surprisingly.   

Ian was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2002