Author: The Author

Henry Summerhill, second from right

Henry Summerhill,  a tall, easy-to-recognise runner with his spectacles and head to one side  running action, was an interesting athlete.    He never served on District or National committees, never held major office within his club but nevertheless was an outstanding clubman.   Henry Summerhill and Shettleston were synonymous.   It is common to assume that good clubmen are automatically also multi-task people.   This is not automatically the story – eg Doc MacPhail was never a top class runner, but he WAS a top class club man.    Henry was a runner, pure and simple but a superb and loyal  member of Shettleston.    He has earned his place in this section.

He spanned at least two generations of Shettleston Harriers and ran with the best of both generations of stars, earning his place with  them both.  He turned up at the club’s Christmas Handicap in 1955 as Eddie  Summerhill’s wee brother and went on to out-do Eddie as a runner.   He was  spoken of above as ‘spanning the generations’; for proof we only have to look at  his record in the Edinburgh to Glasgow where he ran 15 time including a streak  of fourteen right off the reel.

15 runs; Six gold, One silver; Three fastest times on stage.

Over the country, he was the same reliable, hard working, club runner but it was  1962 before he broke into the top team and finished twelfth and second counter  (behind Joe McGhee) in the winning team.   In 1963 he was first counter when he  was tenth in a team that was fifth; in 1965, he was first counter when he  finished seventeenth in the fourth placed team; in in 1966 he again led the team  home (twenty sixth) into fourth; in 1967 the order was Summerhill 19th, Wedlock  21st … with the team again fourth; 1968, Henry was twenty seventh, third  counter and the team was fifth; 1969, he was twenty third, third counter in the  second placed squad; 1970, he was twenty first, fourth counter in the third  placed team; 1971 he was sixteenth in the winning team;   1972, twenty fourth  and the team won again; 1973, fifty seventh and last counter in the silver medal  team;    1974, nineteenth in the fourth placed team;   1975, twenty fifth in the  third team and in 1976, Henry was fortieth and the team third.   Thirteen races,  three golds, two silvers, three bronzes.   Not a bad haul.   And then there was  the quota of District and County awards.   And the four London to Brighton  relays.   And being in the winning team in the first Allan Scally relay, and in  the winning team in the third Scally Relay.   Oh yes, and he was club champion  five times!   Henry Summerhill was a very valuable member of several Shettleston  teams.

On the track Henry raced in many team and open races and was ranked eleven times  over seven years in the 60’s with best times of 9:20 (2 Miles), 14:29.0 (3  Miles) and 30:38.0  (6 Miles) with a third place in the SAAA Six Miles in 1962,  but it is as a cross-country and road runner that he will be remembered by most  of us.

When I asked around about Henry the word among those who really knew him was the same – a hard running, hard training, good guy.    First  John Wilson, who trained with Henry for a long time before he moved to England said that  Henry worked in a printers office, he thought it was somewhere off St Vincent street (or thereabouts) where he only got something like a 40 minute lunch break so he had a tight schedule if he was to fit a run in.    John worked in Dial House (next to the Kingston Bridge) and would jog down to meet Henry at his work place so that there was no waiting.    Henry would be on pace from the start.   The route was often up Argyle Street, turn at Kelvin Hall and loop back via Sauchiehall Street and finishing with a series of short sprints up several steep hills in the Heron House area.    Henry was relentless and if the streets were busy he’d zig- zag his way through people, cars but not slow up. Once a car nearly ran into them and, so the story goes,  Henry, placid as he was, almost punched the windscreen in to tell the driver off.   This could have been kind of hazardous given that you never knew who the driver was but Henry was undeterred as he was in the right!

John reckons that this gave him an insight into Henry’s commitment to quality training no matter what.   Limited time, traffic and pedestrian congestion, obnoxious drivers or the Glasgow weather as he always finished with the short hill reps even when there was ice or snow – no doubt he would also be running that evening whereas often for John the 3 miles with Henry was like a race and all he could reasonably do that day!

Then there is this comment from Tony McCall who trained with Shettleston Harriers for several years and was an admirer of Bill Scally as well as of Henry.   I reprint it as Tony gave  it to me:

I trained at Shettleston for a couple of years. Henry had been injured and started back a few months after i ahd been there, training with Bill and a few others.

Henry did not mess about; having been injured or no, he was into fast long sessions almost immediately. He  ran a pace I struggled to keep up with but being a gentleman he would wait for me (and others) if a significant gap had developed. From the hut at Barrachanie we covered Lenzie, Steppes, Chryston, Cambuslang, Dechmont, and bits of East Kilbride all at a good pace . Some of it on the road and some of it over the country. Most of time, these runs were at the weekend. Steady but fast; I certainly benefitted from them. The distance would vary  between 13 to 20 miles depending where we went.

During the week normally Tuesday and Thursday the runs would be between 8 an 10 miles and the last few miles were very pacy particularly if Bill was along. I was always blown away no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t live with them nor could anyone else.

Henry talked a fair bit on the run; mainly about running! one of his favourite expressions was – ‘Youv’e got to gut yourself in training to get the best out of yourself – always remember that’. He gutted me a few times.

Sometimes we would do a paarlauf arounf Barrachnie on a Tuesday. It was a mile circuit and there was two teams of half a dozen or so. Bill and Henry headed the teams. If my memory serves me it was 5 or 6 miles pretty well flat out. I was always in Bill’s team. Bill always paced it to keep the team together for as long as possible. Henry being Henry ‘gutted’ it from the start and his team were all over the place within a couple of laps. Some even gave up. ‘He’s murdering me’ was quite common. He never finished with a full team. Some of the boys called him Henry the Horse – but not to his face!

He always believed, like Bill, in a high mileage training regime. Hard sessions were always the order of the day. He took his cue from Andy Brown. He admired Andy a lot. ‘The first guy in Scotland who was running 100 miles a week’.

I remember once at the University race Bill and Henry were warming up around the track together. If they ran a mile they ran 4; the sweat was running off them like a wee stream. The laps got faster the longer they went. I watched this and thought to myself -‘your knocking lumps out of each other on a sort of personal I’m no giving in to you basis’. I thought ‘ Your leaving your effort behind on the warm up track’. But I was wrong I had a decent run that day but they ran a good race and finished pretty high up the field. Theri fitness levels had coped with what I thought was an excessive warm up. Henry was right about his ‘gutting theory’!

I remember the Western District Relays took place at East Kilbride one year in the early 80s. The Shettleston team was Henry, Nat, Laurie Spence and Bill and Shettleston won it with two vets in their team and won it well. Bill ran the last leg I always remember watching it and was really impressed. I was training with these two guys and they had just beaten some of the best runners in the west area and they were vets!

i can’t tell you much more about Henry. He was a very likeable guy, he admired effort from others no matter the level they achieved and gave out encouragement when he thought it was warranted. his attitude like Bill’s was nothing will be achieved without hard work and he certainly knew all about that. He didn’t have time for people with a half hearted approach to training or racing and he probably upset one or two along the way. But he was club man and always wanted the members to do their best for the club.

He never went near the track when I trained with him, neither did Bill. Road and country only. He eventually suffered from internal bruising  in his calves probably caused by his printer’s job as he stood at his machines all day. He never really got back after that; I’m sure he suffered from cramps quite a bit and then he had his heart problems as well. He reckons caused by running the E to G with a virus. ‘ I gutted myself but was 2 minutes slower than I expected’-. Because it was the E to G he ran because he didn’t want to let the team down – that was typical of Henry.”

The picture is of a man who would run anywhere, anytime, no matter how he felt at the time, for his club.    The expression “he would run through a brick wall for his club”  certainly applied to the outstanding Henry Summerhill

Hugh Stevenson is well known by sight to everybody whose club takes part in the Scottish Athletics League where he has been Treasurer for over 30 years,   He is always in the control room, usually as an announcer but he always helps out elsewhere if required.    At one point in the 1980’s he was announcing but taking time off to run in the sprint hurdles for his club, Victoria Park AAC, before returning to the announcer’s chair.   Well liked and respected, Mike Clerihew who has worked with him on the League committee says, “he was a great person to work with on the committee and a fine, extremely knowledgeable commentator at league and many other meetings.”     One of the best of club men, Hugh is well known all over Scotland.    He deserves to be better known, so we should maybe start by looking at his athletics career chronologically.   Much of the information below came from his club mate and athletics journalist Doug Gillon. 

He was educated at Daniel Stewart’s College in Edinburgh before it amalgamated with Melville College, Edinburgh College of Art and then at Edinburgh University where he gained an honours degree in fine art. A regular member of the University athletic club, he captained Edinburgh University AC in 1968.   He has however spent all his working life at Kelvingrove in Glasgow in the Museum and Art Gallery  where he became curator of British Art.  He also competed for Edinburgh AC, Octavians, Red Star Belgrade, Edinburgh Southern Harriers and Victoria Park.  Frequently his job involved international travel, as chaperone to works of art being exhibited abroad. He also studied for a year in Belgrade where he became fluent in Serb (of which more later).

Hugh (right) running in Bislett in 1967

He competed in the hurdles in the Schools International in 1964  and as a schoolboy was ranked nationally in both high jump and sprint hurdles.    He was a very decent and stylish 110m hurdler, adept at (very exaggeratedly) aping the style of contemporaries.    His main events as an athlete were the sprint and one-lap hurdles races although he competed well in both high and long jumps.     How good was he then?   He was ranked at one time or another in all four events.   His winning time of 14.9w in the SAAA 120 yards hurdles in 1965 stood as a Championship Best Performance until the distance switched as metric.    He was eight times in the top ten and his personal best performances were:

120 yds Hurdles: 15.2 (1966, ranked 5th); 440 yds Hurdles:   56.7 (1967, ranked 5th);   110 m Hurdles:   15.6 (1969, 8th); 400m Hurdles:   55.9 (1969, 9th);  LJ: 6.60m (1966, 12th);  HJ:   1.78m (1965, 11th)

Away from the track, Hugh is also reliably reported to be an excellent vocal mimic, if not in the Rory Bremner class. Beside his gift for art, he lampooned many of his friends and colleagues. Some of his cartoons, as well as his paintings, hang on the walls of friends.   

He studied in Belgrade and joined the Red Star athletic club while he was there.   As a result, he was Yugoslav team attaché for the European Indoor Champs in Glasgow (1990) on account of his fluency (having studied in Belgrade).    He made such an impression that he was promised free accommodation if he went to the European outdoor champs and helped them that summer in Split.     However, the country was on the brink of civil war and in some disarray. Hugh’s billet in the Croatian coastal town was not forthcoming, but he managed to share with a friend.   Attempting to repay hospitality with beer, he stood at the bar, but was studiously ignored for at least 10 minutes.   When asked by another guest what one had to do to get served, the barman said words to the effect that he was not serving that “Serb b*sta**”.     Hugh’s accent was so perfect, he had passed as a Serbian native. Suffice to say, war broke out inside a year.  

Despite his history of athletics involvement including Edinburgh and Belgrade, he has been and is a loyal member of VPAAC since 1972.   He is the type of unsung volunteer without whom the sport would not survive.   His soup teas after the Edinburgh to Glasgow were famous and he also holds open house after the McAndrew Relay hosted by his club.   The entertainment at both of these inevitably included his performance using his excellent powers as raconteur and mimic.   Always witty and mischievous but never spiteful.

He is reported by all who know him to be very gregarious, with passions for real ale and cycling.    A member of CAMRA his knowledge of pubs around Scotland is said to be prodigious and he has recently made a beer tour of Belgium by coach.   The comments by some of his friends and club mates make interesting reading.   Alistair Johnston meets him regularly on a Tuesday night at The Three Judges, at Partick Cross – one of the best real ale pubs in Scotland.   He says that Hugh is an expert (among many other things) in real ale and pubs in general and cycles many miles since his recent retirement around local areas visiting their hostelries.    This is a thread that keeps coming through when Hugh is mentioned although Colin Young gives a slightly different perspective on this fact later.  Alistair, Hugh, Albie Smith, Dave McMeekin (and various guests from athletics from time to time) of course talk a lot about their running days and how the standard has fallen and how good we were in comparison!! 

Hugh also now travels to Europe a lot – particularly to the likes of Bosnia and Croatia (where he spent time as a student) and other ex-communist USSR countries – he also speaks some of their languages!    He visits their museums and art galleries, etc – at home he worked for forty years at Kelvingrove Art Galleries as an art  curator.   He did’nt like to talk about his work and when he did it was usually something negative about the management!    However, he must have been well thought-of in his field because he appeared occasionally in TV documentaries – it was always a bit of a shock, says Alistair, seeing him on screen wearing a jacket and tie and speaking eloquently about Scottish artists, history or whatever, compared to the ragged, beer-swigging eccentric (slightly exaggerated) we see at The Three Judges!    He can still be seen in this capacity on youtube in fact.

He is still very friendly with many of his ex Edinburgh University athletic pals – Alistair Blamire, Dave Logue, Iain Hathorn, Jack McFie, etc – whom he meets regularly including going with them to big athletic meetings abroad and rugby internationals at Murrayfield. .

A former member of the club and still at heart very much a Vicky Parker, Colin Young re-inforces the convivial Hugh Stevenson image and says –

“My main memory is going with Hugh  and several others – Ian Binnie is the only one I can recall –  to some of the interesting pubs in Glasgow after training. The Old Toll Bar  at Paisley road Toll and Kai Johansens  stick in my mind. This was due to Hugh’s interest in the architecture and stained glass had nothing to do with beer – the rounds were not expensive being mostly shandy! My own interest in art and antiquities was building up at the time so it was good to be with somebody like Hugh.

I was on and off the committee a few times in my later spell with VP and would guess that Hugh was too – but I am not sure! It was only relatively recently – in the last few years- that I learned from a casual conversation on a coaching course that Hugh was still very much involved with VP! “

A man of many sports, we are told by Jim Preacher of a rugby playing incident:

 But Hugh always had style and class – long-time friend Alistair Blamire comments

Re the stylish Hugh, he always won the “Style Prize” at the University Sports. We often make reference to this when we see someone showing a bit of “class” in any walk of life, whether lampooning them (in the Hugh way…) or giving them a stamp of approval.

Denis, in the cap, winning the club 400m championship in 1981

Denis Shepherd, born on 5th June, 1952, has for decades been one of the mainstays of Aberdeen AAC.   A more than useful athlete, he has covered every single track event ranging from 100m all the way up to the half-marathon, plus all four jumps and the decathlon.   When I say every single track event, I mean them all, including 110m hurdles, 400m hurdles and steeplechase.    As a veteran he has creditable marks at 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 400m hurdles plus high jump and long jump.    When he ran 2:01 for 800m as a veteran, it was a Scottish best.   If that were all there was to Denis, then it would be a creditable athletics career to say the least but there is more to come.

I drove an Aberdeen AAC athlete, a senior Scottish internationalist, down to Stretford in Manchester in the mid-90’s  to run in a British Milers Club 800m.   He finished a good third in an excellent field and turned in a time of 1:49.3.   He was delighted and added that Denis would be happy that the club record was now below 1:50!   Denis was, and still is, the Aberdeen club statistician.   He keeps the records and is meticulous about keeping to the rules.   For club records and best performances, the athlete has to be at the very least a second-claim club athlete or there is no club record or even certificate awarded.   Denis says that on records, “I pass the information on to the committee who make the decision but I try to keep to the rules.   However, so long as an athlete is a member at the time they qualify regardless of whose colours they are in.”   There is also an annual Aberdeen statistical book that is a wonderful piece of work, well produced and exhaustively researched – all from Denis, without payment and solely for the good of the club and its athletes.

Denis (21) at the Nethy Games, 1981: backmarkers in the 800m handicap

Where did it start for Denis?   I’m always intrigued how people got involved in athletics in the days before ‘sport4all’ or the ‘running boom’ made it a fashionable thing to do.  In Denis’s case, he went to Alford School from the top end of Primary School until the end of Secondary 4, where the PE teacher was a Mr Harvey who was keen on athletics and entered the pupils in various inter-school events.   Secondary 5 and 6 were spent at Inverurie Academy where the teacher responsible was Brian Pratt, assistant games master, and he helped Denis to develop as a high jumper and hurdler.   It was then on to Aberdeen University where he continued his progress as an athlete.   His range of events has been referred to above and we should look at his personal best performances.

100m – 11.9; 200m – 23.6; 400m – 51.8.

800m -1:56.1; 1500m – 4:07.7; 5000m – 16:46; 10000m – 35:33.1.

Half Marathon – 81:33.

110 metres Hurdles – 17.4; 400m Hurdles – 57.1; 3000m SC – 10:21.6.

HJ – 1.68i (1.67); PV – 2.45; LJ – 19ft ¼”; TJ – 12.13; Decathlon – 3563.

He was the kind of athlete team managers love: 14 events plus relays and a real competitor in every one!   He did actually compete once in all four throws events.   The performances would probably have been better but Denis was plagued by sinus problems from the age of 15 until they were cured by the removal of a growth at the age of 29.   He kept on training for fitness and when he turned 40 in 1992 he started to come quite close to his pb’s.   His personal best performances as a vet were:

100 – 12.1; 200 – 24.6; 400 – 53.0; 800 – 2:01.0 (Scottish best at the time); 400H – 59.9.

HJ – 1.68i (1.67); LJ – 5.46

And if we check out the archive at www.scotstats.net, we find that he was ranked nationally over 400 metres hurdles in 1973, ’74, ’75, ’77, ’78, ’79, ’80,  ’82, … ’92 and ’93.

When asked what his best performance was, he replied that he wasn’t sure about the best, but they were probably some of his vets running which included 59.9 for 400m hurdles in a Men’s League match, and also doing a Scottish best of 2:01.1 for 800m as a non-scoring athlete in a North East League match, defeating the club’s scoring runners in the process.   It beat club mate Hunter Watson’s club record by 0.1 seconds.  There was also some satisfaction as a veteran to defeat  a senior runner, and the previous year’s winner, Alan Banks, in the 800m at Lochaber Games.

A fast finish at Haddo House in the ‘Round the Castles’ series in the 1980s

Like many athletes, Denis began coaching while he was still a competitive athlete.   He tells us that “My coaching started in 1975 when Jean Wood (then secretary) suggested I go to the assistant club course in Largs.    It seemed funny on the first course because I kept identifying myself as an athlete rather than the coach they were speaking about but it inspired me to go out and coach athletes – I was a hands on, or rather feet on, coach as I joined in the sessions whenever possible.   I initially regarded myself as mainly a coach and in the latter years of my own running career, but after recovering from injuries around 1976-78 I started getting PBs again and prolonged my first-team career until I retired at 30.”

From 1975 Denis was coaching while competing and bringing his times down – eg the 400m hurdles pb was 59.3 in 1975 but came down to 57.1 in 1979.   There had been various unspecific medical problems of a glandular nature which had been bothering him since he was about 25 years old which eventually forced his retirement in late ’93.   There has been some competition in recent years although it has been infrequent due to these problems as well as the more usual sprains and strains.

As an administrator, he became a member of the Aberdeen AAC club committee from August 1975 until October 1999.  Among the posts held he has been assistant secretary, men’s captain, cross-country captain and ladies secretary.   Outwith club positions, Denis has also been secretary/treasurer of the North-East League from 1976 until it disbanded in 1996, also has served as minutes secretary of the Petrofac (previously Grampian) League for many years, a post he still holds.

Runner, coach, administrator – quite a load but it was not the end of the story, not by a long chalk.   He is also a qualified track judge, timekeeper and marksman and although there are no recognised qualifications for seeding or for announcing, Denis is experienced in both.  As a coach he is a level 2 coach in sprints and middle distance and has coached SAAA champions in various events of whom the most successful was Paul Allan, a GB junior decathlete.    In addition to competing for the club and coaching other athletes to compete for the club, he has acted as team manager for many years including 1995 when Aberdeen won the Scottish men’s league for the first time in its history.

Also known as a statistician, Denis produces an annual book – too big really to be called a booklet! – of club statistics which this year runs to 60 pages.   Its contents include:

* Club Records for All Age Groups

* Highlights from the Club’s 2013/2014  and 2014 Seasons

* Club All Time Lists of Senior Champions

* All the Club’s Major Games Representatives

* Club All-Time Indoor Rankings for Senior Athletes

* Club Indoor Records for All Age Groups

* Club All-Time Top 20 Lists – Senior Events

* Club All-Time Top 10 Lists – U20, U17 and U15 events

* Club All-Time Top 10 Lists – Veteran Men and Women

* 2014 Top 5 Rankings for All Age Groups

The Year Book is compiled by Denis with assistance from Mark Davidson, Fiona Davidson, Joyce Hogg, Alasdhair Love, Marina Millar and Bob Masson.   It includes approximately 30 full colour photographs of club members, a quiz and several colour adverts placed by local businesses.   It is far and away the best of its kind that I have seen, bigger, brighter and more detailed.

Denis (14) at his first Scottish Veterans Championship in June 1992 at Inverness

(With the late Jack Gelder)

Denis was kind enough to complete the questionnaire and it is time to look at some of some of his replies.

Name: Denis James Shepherd

Club: Aberdeen AAC

Date of Birth:  5th June 1952

Occupation:  Self employed massage therapist and Press results compiler (also part time entertainer and ceilidh dance caller)

What has athletics brought you that you would not have wanted to miss?   The buzz of going to competitions and the ‘high’ after doing well.   The satisfaction of seeing others doing well and knowing I had helped them either as a coach or as an official.

What changes, if any, would you make in the sport?  I think the coaching of youngsters should be more regulated.   Coaches go on courses which teach them that youngsters should not specialise too early or do certain types of training; but in practice in clubs new members who show promise in one discipline are often sent to a specialist coach who may not have the time or inclination to devise different schedules for different ages of athletes, or to organise sessions with other specialist coaches so that they can reach their full potential in all events.

I also think that coach education should be standardised.   As an illustration, when I did the middle distance coaching courses, a well-known national coach gave us examples of speed endurance sessions, presumably for a middle distance (800/1500m) athlete.   Soon afterwards I asked another locally based coach to have a look at a programme I had done for one of my athletes  which included some speed endurance sessions based on the above.   He wrote against these, “This is not speed-endurance!”   The course training was apparently for cross-country and not 800/1500m as the qualification should have been.

Administration-wise I think that precise results should be available within a certain period, as often there are only provisional results available months later.   Sometimes SAL don’t publicise their own championship results at all!   Results should also automatically show the distances of races, often the compilers have to trawl through various results websites to find the distance and sometimes, as I was told with regard to the schools road championships, the course has not been measured at all.   I also think race organisers should be forced to include actual age groups in the results – M40, W50, etc instead of saying  V  or SV as nowadays there are no uniform definitions of these and they can mean anything.

Any work as Press Reporter, club magazine, etc?   I edited the ‘Aberdeen Athlete’ (comprehensive club magazine) for fourteen years.   For the past 26 years I have produced the club year book.   I have also provided results to the ‘Press & Journal’, ‘Courier’, ‘Herald’ and ‘Telegraph’ and done reports for ‘Scotland’s Runner’.   I am currently results and editorial contributor to ‘Athletics Weekly’.

Currently?   Apart from the above athletic activities, my competitive instincts are now geared towards traditional entertaining, and this year I won the Scots Verse trophy at Kirriemuir, mouth organ at Kirriemuir and Keith, and story telling at Kirriemuir, as well as the free-style (accompanied) traditional singing at Aberdeen.   But above all, I won a bothy ballad event for the first time at Strichen, and, as a result, have been invited to compete in the Bothy Ballad ‘Champion of Champions’ event in Elgin Town Hall on February 13th, 2016.

Denis receiving the Bothy Ballad Trophy at Strichen

If it is true that the definition of a good club man is the fact that he does what his club needs him to do is correct, then Ian Ross is an exemplar.   In fact the definition could be stretched to a good man for athletics is one who does what his sport needs him to do, then you still come up with him as a role model.   

* As a runner, he started his career as a runner and, joining Edinburgh Southern Harriers club in 1927, he ran in the National cross-country championships seven times between 1928 and 1939.   Hie also ran in the Edinburgh to Glasgow in 1931 when he was sixth on the first stage for the team that finished 10th of 17 competing, and he ran the first leg in 1931, finishing seventh of 20 teams with Edinburgh Southern being seventh.   He ran track, road and cross country for the club, and in summer ran on the track.   His performances are detailed on the previous page along with a good photograph of just some of the ‘glittering prizes’ that he won in his career.

*As an administrator, he worked his way up through the cross-country committees f club and District to join the ranks of the NCCU to become President  in season 1959-60.   The Cross-Country Union has a system where club representatives are nominated to the District Committees and then those Committees elect their representatives to the National Union.   He served his time there and deserved the Presidency when it came.   The SAAA had a different system and the members of the District Committees were elected at the AGM and then were all part of the National Association after serving their time effectively on various sub-committees and in a variety of capacities.   He became President of the SAAA in 1966.   Both associations also employed him as a team manager for district and for Scottish representative teams.

*As an official, Ian was a Grade 1 official on the track, in the Throws events and in the Jumps events.   It was unusual for all three to be maintained at Grade 1.   These also qualified him to act as a referee at sports meetings and championships.

*As a coach, Ian was Senior Coach for Middle Distance running, Senior Coach being the highest level that a coach could attain.   

Part of a Generation of officials that included such able men as Willie Carmichael, Neil Campbell, Fred Graham, Joe Walker and others he was a man who did more than his share for the sport in Scotland.   

Alex Jackson, a well-known, popular official and statistician, wrote:

“Ian Ross in 4 photos. 1st one as an athlete in the 1930s. 2nd one as an Edinburgh Southern official with athletes in the 1950s. 3rd one at a club presentation night in the 1970s. 4th one some of the prizes he won as an athlete. I knew Ian as an SCCU official but not very well, yet I feel through his scrapbook I’m getting to really know him. He did a lifetime of service for Edinburgh Southern, He died in 1990 during the SCCU centenary season.”

There is a short, complementary account of Ian’s involvement in the sport at this link.

Colin Youngson (who, wearing ESH colours, won the 1975 Scottish Marathon Championship) remembers, “When I was fortunate to race for ESH between 1974 and 1981, the club was extremely successful: not only in Track and Field; but also in Cross-Country and Road Running (with Allister Hutton and John Robson often starring). Glory years! I remember Ian Ross as a well-liked, respected, kindly official and, since Alex Jackson and Ron Morrison (SCCU President from 1985-86; then SAF President; and now SAL President) have sent me photographs of Ian’s Athletics Scrapbook, it is a privilege to select several for this website and to add some comments. Ian Ross had every right to be very proud of his long association with Scottish Athletics.” 

                                                                           Ian Ross, wearing spectacles, second from left

                  Hamish Robertson, future ESH Club Secretary and, between 1972-75 and 1984-86, ESH President, in athletics kit, standing on the far right of the photo.         

Ian Ross standing in the middle, suit and spectacles

      1975, when ESH was one of the top Clubs in the UK. Standing, far left, is a very young Allister Hutton (Future London Marathon winner). On the far right, Ian Ross.

                                                                                         Some of Ian Ross’s running trophies

                                                                   Ian Ross, President of the Scottish Cross-Country Union from 1959-60

                                                         Ian Ross, President of the Scottish Amateur Athletic Association in 1966

                                                                                                                          ESH History

                                                                                                         ESH history continued

                                                                     Ian Ross, President of Edinburgh Southern Harriers from 1960-63

                                                                     Jimmy Smart, a real gentleman, was ESH President from 1971-72

Ian McKenzie, an excellent team manager, was ESH President from 1975-77. Ian Clifton, a very popular Scottish official, was ESH President from 1978-80, SCCU President from 1977-78 and SAAA President in 1986. Martin Craven, a GB and Scottish International runner, and a great team man, was ESH President from 1980-82. George Brown, another fine runner and invaluable team man, was ESH President from 1982-84. 

          Season 1978-1979: the Grand Slam (or Clean Sweep) of Autumn and Winter Scottish Cross-Country and Road Relay trophies

Ian Ross’s good friend, and fellow ESH enthusiast Ian McKenzie wrote the following tribute:

“I first got to know Ian Ross back in the early 1950s, when ESH were constructing the clubhouse at Fernieside. As a qualified carpenter/joiner, Ian was Clerk of Works on the build and was part of the team of club members involved every weekend in the construction. He was very much the driving force behind the completion by 1955.

Edinburgh Southern Harriers and Athletics played a major part in his life, initially as a good class middle distance runner and then later as an official for club and governing bodies, He attended the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Jamaica as Head of the Scottish Athletics team, and later played a part in getting the Games to Edinburgh in 1970, where he was Technical Manager.

His enthusiasm for the sport was unparalleled and remained so. Towards the end of his life, he was Honorary President of ESH, a position he greatly treasured, and he continued to attend every monthly meeting, where his knowledge and wisdom was invaluable.

Personally, I benefited greatly from his grasp of the sport. Outside of Athletics, he owned a very successful joinery business and enjoyed visits to the pub for a beer and a nip of whisky. However, Athletics was his overwhelming passion and even most of the pub visits were to meet those with a similar interest. This is only a brief insight into the person I knew and held in high esteem.”

Bobby Quinn (left), SAAA Championships 1955

Bobby Quinn was a lifelong member of Victoria Park who was an international class sprinter over all three sprint distances of 100, 220 and 440 yards and very good relay runner in 4 x 110 yards, 4 x 440 yards and medley teams which almost monopolised the Scottish championships.   His contemporaries included Willie Jack, Ronnie Whitelock, Alan Dunbar and his twin brother Harry.   Unlike the others Bobby and Harry continued in the sport as officials long after their running career had finished and officiated at international and national fixtures and championships as well as at Commonwealth Games. 

The Victoria Park website tells us of his early years: 

“Born in Detroit, USA in 1929, Bobby and his twin brother Harry came to Scotland when they were 3 years of age.   Like many of his generation, Bobby started out by doing his national service in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) and was based at Mill Hill Barracks near London. His time served in the army prepared him for a life as a motor mechanic with the Scottish Development Agency.
Bobby and his twin brother Harry were encouraged to join Victoria Park Athletics Club by the great Ian Binnie and trained with the top athletes in the country. He wouldn’t have known then that his association with athletics would last a lifetime.”

Bobby second from the right

In the national championships in June 1951 Bobby qualified for the final o the 100 yards but was unplaced.  His first SAAA medals came in July 1951 when he was part of the 4 x 110 yards relay team that won the national title along with W Jack, R Kennedy and W Christie.   In August, running from 5 yards he was third in the open 120 yards at the Rangers Sports, won by club mate Willie Jack in 11 seconds.

Then in the 100 yards at the national championships in June 1952 he was fifth in the 220 yards won by Willie Jack (Victoria Park).   He followed that with two medals in the SAAA Relay championships at Helenvale Park in July when he was in the winning 4 x 110 team (McDonald, Quinn, Wilson and Whitelock) and ran a 220 yards leg of the Medley Relay team (Sime, Whitelock, Quinn and Mill).     Then in the Rangers Sports on 3rd August, off 3 yards, he was giving his twin brother Harry and yard and a half in the open 100 yards and that was how they finished – Harry won with Bobby runner-up.   The photograph below is of the team that won on 23rd August, 1952, running in the order of McDonald. McLachlan, Quinn and Hamilton.

The following year, in June 1953, in the 100 yards he was fourth behind W Jack (VPAAC) in 10.0, R Whitelock (VPAAC) in 10.1 and A Dunbar (VPAAC) in 10.1.   Four runners from the same club were the first four in the national championships.   Quinn was also fourth in the 220 yards in 22.8 behind Jack, W Henderson (Edinburgh Northern) and Whitelock.  The Quinn brothers won their first medals together on 3rd July, 1953, when they were members of the club 4 x 110 team that won the SAAA championships, and then they ran the two 220 yard stages for the winning medley relay team.  Four medals for the Quinn Twins on the one afternoon.  He followed this excellent weekend with a victory in the invitation 120 yards at Rangers Sports on 1st August off 4 yards from Crawford of Bellahouston.

1954, ’55 and ’56 were undoubtedly his best years and more detail will be given for them.

Although he took part in the 1954 early season club events and inter-club fixtures, the standard in the sprints was very high indeed but the Glasgow Highland Gathering at Scotstoun on 29th May saw him win the invitation 440 yards handicap off a mark of 18 yards in 49.2 seconds.   A week later he raced on the south side of the river at Shawfield Stadium in the Lanarkshire Police Sports where he won the 220 yards from 5 yards in 22.9 seconds.   The next medal was on 19th June in Edinburgh when the Glasgow Herald had this to say:  “R Quinn (Victoria Park) resisted a strong challenge by KA Robertson (Edinburgh University AC) in the last leg of the Scottish 4 x 440 yards relay championship in the Edinburgh Lighting and Cleansing Department Sports at Meadowbank and brought victory to his club.   Quinn passed Robertson in the final straight.   Robertson made a supreme effort and only the judges knew who had broken the tape.”       

With the SAAA Championships on the weekend of 24th June, 1954, Quinn was rounding into form very nicely when he won the 100 yards at the Glasgow Inter-Club race at Westerlands on 15th June in 10.2.  In the June 1954 issue of the Scots Athlete, Emmet Farrell was looking at the SAAA Championships with a view to spotting potential team members and for the sprints he hedged his bets by listing McKenzie (EUAC), Alan Dunbar, Henderson (Watsonians) and R Quinn as contenders.   On the actual day, Henderson won both sprints with Quinn being third in the 100 in 10.5 seconds – the same time as winner and second placed Dunbar!  Three men together on the line in the same time.  He was second in the 220 with Dunbar back in sixth place.  Emmet commented after the championships that “versatile R Quinn in the sprints has been a sheet anchor in in Victoria Park’s great winning relay efforts when his courageous finishing efforts have frequently taken the tape from his opponent’s vest.”

At the end of June 1954 he was fourth fastest in the country with the 10.2 from the Westerlands meeting.   By the end of September, he topped the rankings with that same time his best – and Scotland’s – for the season with Gordon Cain of Edinburgh Northern on 10.3.   Not in the first four in the 220 he was down as ‘notable’ with his time of 22.3 off 3 yards at Ibrox on 7th August.   That time was done in the Rangers Sports where he won the invitation 100 yards from clubmate W Breingan and Donnie McDonald of Garscube Harriers.     On 21st August he was back in Edinburgh again on relay business at the Highland Games but unfortunately the Glasgow team of McDonald, Dunbar, Quinn and Kirk could only finish third behind Birmingham and Manchester in the Inter City Medley Relay, and third again in the  Inter Association Medley Relay behind England and Ireland with a team of Stoddart, Henderson, Quinn and McDonald.   

In the national sprint relays, Harry missed out but  Bobby was in both teams again running the anchor stage for each – the relay leg being the 440 yards.    By the end of 1954 he had been in three gold medal winning relay teams – 4 x 110, 4 x 440 and the Medley Relay.   The club went on to win the 4 x 110 every year until 1959 and then again in 1961; they also won the medley relay every year between 1952 and 1955 inclusive.

On 7th May 1955, in an inter-club with Shettleston Harriers and Heriot’s FP he won the 440 yards in 50.8 seconds and also ran in the winning relay team for the club which won easily.   A month later on 4th June, in the Glasgow Police International Sports at Ibrox Park, Bobby won the 440 yards from the back mark of 1 yard in 22.5 seconds, a performance that the Glasgow Herald described as one of his best.   At the same meeting he was part of the team which won the championship medley relay, the team being Henson, Hamilton, Archibald and Quinn.   Next up was the national 4 x 110 yards relay on 11th June at the SWAAA championships, where Victoria Park teams were first, second and third.   It was now a race a week for him and on 18th June at the Lanarkshire Police meeting at Shawfield, he won the 220 yards in 22.4 seconds from the mark of 1 yard (which is really no mark at all).   

  A week later in the nationals, he was a finalist in the 100 yards but his first individual gold medal came in the 440 yards where he defeated JV Paterson with both men credited with the fine time of 49.6 seconds.  It was such a good race and showed so many of Quinn’s qualities that it is worth reproducing the ‘Scots Athlete’s report in full:

“Three heats were held on Friday evening.   Many enthusiasts considered JV Paterson a certainty, and even more so after the way in which he covered the distance sensibly in 50.2 seconds in his heat.   However, it was to be no easy task for Paterson but the toughest, closest and most exciting event of the championships.   Atr the start it was Quinn off for a very fast 300 yards closely followed by Paterson.   D McDonald who had been runner-up in three previous years, was sluggish on the outside while Sanderson, Steele and Taylor were completely left at this stage.   Round the bend Quinn’s very fast pace early on showed itself and he began slowing.   It was then Paterson began to move away and he entered the straight in the lead.   50 yards to go it looked Paterson but slowly and perceptibly Quinn closed the gap and at the tape, although both dipped, Quinn’s burly chest got there.”

On 2nd July that year the club suffered a rare defeat in the SAAA 4  x  440 yards championship at Westerlands in the Scottish Schools Championships.   The race was won by the Clydesdale Harriers quartet with Shettleston second and Victoria Park back in third.    On July 23rd he was at the Linksfield Stadium for the Aberdeen Corporation Sports where he won the quarter mile: 

“R Quinn (Victoria Park AAC) , the Scottish quarter-mile champion, equalled the ground record of 49.5 sec when he won the 440 yards.   He and JV Paterson ran from scratch in the ‘quarter’ but Paterson was beaten into third place by D Martineau (Aberdeen) who had a handicap of 35 yards.”

Unusually, Bobby did not feature in the prize list at the Rangers Sports at Ibrox but in the other major meeting – the Highland Games at Murrayfield on 20th August – he was in action in no fewer than three races.   In the Invitation 440 yards race against the real ‘big boys’ of quarter miling, he finished third behind Peter Fryer of England and S Steger of Switzerland.   Then it was on to the two medley relays: in the Inter Association race the Scottish team of Gorrie, Robertson, Henderson and Quinn was second behind  England and ahead of Eire, and in the Inter City race Glasgow was second behind Birmingham with a team of McDonald, Robertson, Quinn and Stoddart.   On the first Saturday in September at the Shotts Highland Games,  Victoria Park won the 4 x quarter lap relay but it is not clear whether Bobby was in the team.   The season was pretty well closed by now with only the Dunblane meeting to go but that was avoided by most Victoria Park runners – they had had a good season and Bobby in particular had a lot to remember.

On 5th May, 1956 in an inter club fixture with Clydesdale Harriers and Shettleston Harriers, Ronnir Whitelock won the 100, Dunbar the 220 and Bobby took the 440 yards in 51 seconds before being part of the winning 4 x 440 relay team with McIsaac, Christie and Reilly – McIsaac being another top class sprinter to roll off the VPAAC Production line.   There was also a Quinn in the winning 4 x 110 team but this time it was brother Harry.   The result of the meeting was a victory for Victoria Park (84) points from Clydesdale (36) and Shettleston (26).   In a match at Craiglockhart on 12th May, Bobby was part of the 4 x 440 relay team which won in 3 min 27.4 sec.   There was no Scottish record for the event at the time but it was believed to be the fastest ever run by a club team.  Bobby ran the firsts stage this time then it was Smith, McIsaac and Thomson.   On 9th June, the team could only finish second in the SAAA Medley Relay behind Edinburgh University.    

Quinn and Paterson were again first and second in the national quarter mile championship on 23rd June 1956 but this time there was daylight between them with Quinn timed at 49.8 seconds and Paterson at 50.3.   Bobby also ran in the 220 yards that afternoon where he was unplaced in the final.  

Harry and Bobby were again in the winning 4 x 110 yards relay team on 7th July at New Meadowbank during the Scottish Junior Championship meeting.   The club were second however in the 4 x 440 relay behind Edinburgh University who ran a new best time for the distance of 3 min 26.8.    In the Rangers Sports at Ibrox on 4th August Bobby ran very well in the invitation 440 yards to be third behind TS Farrell and H Kane of the AAA’s but the family honours went to Harry – read this one:

“The feature of the open events was the sprint double of H Quinn (Victoria Park) , twin brother of the Scottish quarter mile champion.   He won the open 100 in 10.0 seconds from four and a half yards, and the furlong in 22.1 from 10 yards.”

It had been a very good three years for Bobby.

*

On 17th May in a club competition, Bobby ran a fast 440 of 50.9 seconds on the cinders at Scotstoun which indicated that he was back and running well in the new season.   In 1957, his sole medal in the SAAA Championships was a silver in the 220 yards behind W Henderson of Watsonians with 0.2 seconds separating them (22.7 to 22.9).   Two weeks after that  he was a member of a brilliant, even by their own high standards, 4 x 110 yards relay team  of Dunbar, McIsaac, R Quinn and R Whitelock in the SAAA Championships at the Scottish Schools Championships at Westerlands when they won in 43.4 to equal their own 5 year old Scottish record.   Unfortunately they could only finish third in the 4 x 440 relay behind Edinburgh University and Glasgow University.   That was to be the last of the medals for season 1957: Bobby was not in the first three at any distance in the Rangers Sports or the Edinburgh Highland Games meetings where he was not in either of the relay teams.  

We have concentrated on his career individually and as a member  of the club teams but there was more than that.  At a time when there were very few international fixtures, and when there was often only one man per event, Bobby ran for Scotland in two internationals: on 17th July, 1954 at the White City in London when England & Wales took on Scotland & Ireland where he was fifth in the 220 in 22.9 seconds and a member of the 4 x 110 yards team that finished second.   Three years later he competed for Scotland against Ireland at College Park in Dublin where he was second in the 220 yards in 23.2 seconds.

He was clearly a very good runner whether  you measure success by fast times, championship medals or competitive spirit – just look at the photograph at the top of the page of his victory over JV Paterson in 1955 for determination, drive and will to win.   Brother Harry was also a tough competitor and both went on to become top class officials over the next 30 years and more.

Bobby Quinn and Willie Jack

Bobby, Harry and Ronnie Whitelock all stayed in the sport as administrators and officials long after their running careers were over and all served their club and the wider sport in Scotland well.    At club level Bobby served on the committee for many years and was elected on to the SAAA General Committee. He was further elected as West District secretary from 1976 to 1980.     A very capable administrator he was also on several sub-committees and given additional tasks.   For example in 1979 he was not only a member of General Committee and West District secretary, he was also a member of the General Purpose and Finance Committee, Convener of the Selection Committee and Equipment Officer for the West District.   The following year he was also one of the Association’s auditors.   Come the 1986 Commonwealth Games, and there was Bobby again – transport co-ordinator and in charge of training officials and administrators.   You will note that one of the others on his small group was ‘H Quinn’.   To a remarkable degree the twins overlapped as administrators for the SAAA  

At the same meeting, Ronnie Whitelock was one of the timekeepers.   It is always good when an athlete goes on to put something back into the sport and to see three sprinters from the same generation of the same club still putting something back more than 30 years after their medal winning days, is praiseworthy but all too rare.   In the list of officials for 1979, Bobby was listed as a Grade One official for track judge, judge for jumps, for throws and as a marksman (now called a ‘starter’s assistant’); Harry was a Grade Two jumps judge and marksman.   To some extent this reflected their future careers with Harry becoming slightly more of an administrator, while Bobby was much more seen in action as a judge, referee and clerk of the course.   Harry made his debut on the General Committee in 1977 and became SAAA President in 1988/89.   

The programme extract below comes from 1979, May 20th, at Scotstoun Playing Fields, where Bobby was SAAA Representative and Ronnie was a judge.   Both liked to be where the athletes were.   All the time he was on the various committees at club and national level, he was working his way up the officials ranks.    

Bobby added timekeeping to his qualifications and then became a qualified referee for track events.   When I was asked to organise the SAAA Decathlon Championships in 1978, I sought advice on the best men to help organise and Bobby was highly recommended as Arena Manager, a most important post for two days of athletics with some very temperamental athletes.   He was a first class official for that particular job.   He turned up at the few committee meetings held before the event as he would on the day of competition in his blazer and flannels, brisk of manner, every hair on his head in place.   Of course he had a clip board too.   There are many tales of the three decathlon championships I organised but the two ever presents were Bobby and David Morrison as field events referee.       

He was by this time, a much respected official and officiated at events the length and breadth of the land.  Always on the side of the athletes, he was never a soft touch.   There was one decathlon, held in a Games year, where on the first day the national staff coach for decathlon asked if the 100 yards could be run the other way.   It was at Grangemouth where there were starting lines at both ends of the straight and, of course finish lines at both ends of the straight.   The staff coach wanted to give the guys the chance of a good time because selection was at stake, there was a head wind and there were no other decathlons that year for the athletes to get their points.   I asked Bobby who agreed.   Then later in the afternoon, there was a request for the long jump to use ‘the other pit’ so that the wind was behind them and it was a Games year, and …, and …  Bobby agreed to that.   The second day of the decathlon starts with the men’s sprint hurdles.   On arrival I noted that the hurdles had been set out, the starter’s rostrum was in place, and it was all systems go.   Then the staff coach appeared again and asked if we  could run the hurdles ‘the other way’ because …   It meant asking the ground staff to reposition every one of the hurdles right at the start of the day.   Bobby agreed, then took me aside and said a few choice words that it was the last time we accommodated the coach!   He was all for helping the athletes but there had come a point where the demands on the ground stewards and the timetable were becoming excessive.  

Bobby officiated at Commonwealth, national, district, county and club championships; he officiated at sports meetings, highland gatherings and open meetings.   He officiated mainly as a track official (judge, timekeeper, meeting referee) but to every one of these events he brought the same efficiency and professionalism.    He also officiated at club events such as the classic road relay that was the unofficial start of the winter season – the McAndrew Relay.

Still officiating in 1990, he had ceased by 1995 and the page in that year’s SAF handbook read 

The picture above is of Bobby carrying the torch for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.   There is more about this, and about Bobby’s life away from athletics in the excellent obituary by Jack Davidson below.

Bobby Quinn

Born: May 13, 1929; Died: October 28, 2019

BOBBY Quinn, who has died aged 90, was a leading Scottish track athlete in the 1950s and later a well known and highly regarded official. He was a versatile sprinter covering 100 to 440 yards, twice winning national championships in the latter event while collecting silver medals three times at 220 and a bronze in the 100.

In the colours of Glasgow’s Victoria Park, he was an important member of their highly successful relay teams with whom he claimed 15 national championship medals, including 12 gold. Although they claimed medals at three relay events, the 4×110, 4×440 and Medley (1x 880, 2x 220 and 1x 440) they excelled in the sprint version, winning seven consecutive titles from 1951 onwards with Bobby carrying the baton each time. He was the first to recognise the contribution of teammates of the calibre of Olympian Willie Jack, Ronnie Whitelock and Alan Dunbar among others and the expert coaching of Willie McFarlane, former double Powderhall Sprint winner.

Bobby’s excellent form was recognised with the award of two international vests, in 1954 at London’s White City for a combined Scottish/Irish team against England/Wales and in 1957 for a match in Dublin against Ireland. Domestically he also enjoyed success at many of the top meetings, including Rangers Sports, Glasgow Police Sports, Glasgow Highland Games and Edinburgh Highland Games at Murrayfield where he featured in the Glasgow relay team competing against rivals from Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh etc.

After competing he took a break from the sport but later made an important contribution as an official for more than 30 years as both a committee member of Victoria Park and secretary/treasurer of the West District of the SAAA. He was very involved in the preparations for the initial Glasgow marathons and at the 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games was transport co-ordinator. In 2014 he was delighted to be given the honour of carrying the Commonwealth Games baton along Paisley Road West, days before the opening ceremony.

On the track, seasons 1954-56 were particularly memorable. In 1954 he was a member of the club’s relay teams which claimed gold in all three events in the national championships, a feat which it is understood has never been repeated. At the same time he won his first individual medals, at 100 and 220, with the club awarding him life membership for these achievements.

In 1955 and ’56 he won individual gold over 440 yards at the national championships, on both occasions against the much more fancied J.V. Paterson who in 1957 would win the event at the World Student Games in Paris. The first of those races was described in the Scots Athlete magazine as “ the toughest, closest and most exciting event of the championships … Paterson leading off the final bend but with 50 yards to go Quinn closed the gap and his burly chest got to the tape first,” while his 1956 triumph was reported as a superbly judged effort from the outside lane.

An injury at work led to his retiral in 1958; as a highly competitive athlete he only wanted to race if able to give his best.

Robert Quinn was born in Detroit, a twin of Harry also an athlete, to parents Benjamin and Elizabeth who had emigrated from the Gorbals. This unfortunately coincided with the Depression resulting in their return when Bobby was three to Glasgow where his father worked in manual jobs. There were another five brothers, Benny also born in US, and Joe, John, Tony and James. The family initially lived in the Gorbals, then Drumoyne and latterly Penilee with Bobby attending St Gerard’s school in Govan.

National service in the REME near Reading followed during which his running career began. Once demobbed, Victoria Park’s distance running champion Ian Binnie who worked alongside Harry, arranged for Bobby to join the club in about 1950, paving the way for athletic success.

He worked as a motor mechanic in Hillington, mostly for the Scottish Development Agency and in 1957 married Marie Kilpatrick, also from Glasgow. They enjoyed a happy marriage of almost 50 years till Marie’s death in 2007 during which they had five children, Robert, Tony, Elizabeth, John and James. In 2009 he married Anne with whom he enjoyed his latter years, the couple regularly going on cruises to the Norwegian fjords and the Mediterranean.

In retirement he took up bowling at Paisley’s Hawkhead Club where he had success on the green while another sporting interest was Celtic where he had a season ticket. His faith as a member of Our Lady and St George’s Church was important and he assisted the St Vincent de Paul Society in the parish. He liked to make a contribution in every aspect of life and his humility and sense of fun endeared him to all. Over his final months he was extremely well cared for in Erskine Park Home.

He is survived by his wife, sons, grandchildren Hamish, Michael and Charlotte and brothers John,Tony and James.

JACK DAVIDSON

Click to go to  Kenny Phillips: the runner

This interesting section is not really only about Kenny himself: it concerns the running of athletics in a locality, any locality although this one is in Beith.   It illustrates the difficulties that beset any voluntary organisation and all the problems that arise from raising the funds to the occasional unsympathetic official and relations with the governing body.   

Kenny returned from Lancashire to Stewarton in 1962 and replaced Harry Maxwell as Secretary of Beith Harriers with Mattha Barr and Hugh Walker as Chairman and Treasurer.   The Ladies Section was at a standstill as they had lost the use of the Backburn School but they were thanked for helping with the teas at the New Year’s Day Race and for organising the Bus Run.  Members subscriptions were raised from 15/- to £1 for Seniors and from 1/6d to 2/6d for Boys.  The District Council was to be asked to organise a Sports Meeting.  Harry Maxwell and Kenny were appointed as Representatives to the Ayrshire Harrier Clubs’ Association.   The Committee was authorised to spend up to £100 to make the Clubhouse watertight.  During his annual report for 1962-63, Kenny congratulated the cross country runners, despite the difficulty in getting sufficient numbers, of being second in the Ayrshire and SW Relays and first in the Ayrshire and SW 6 miles.   During the track season, Beith members won prizes at almost every sports meeting but he complained that no team events were entered, training was done individually instead of in groups, the Clubhouse was neglected and the Ladies Section did not meet.   The only summer club activity was the Bus Run to Balmaha.   Outstanding individuals were:

Ian Harris, who won the Scottish Marathon and was in the Army Cross Country Team which won the Inter-services Cross Country Championships.

Danny McFadyean, who won the Navy, then the Inter-services Cross Country Championship and, the following day, was 12th in the Scottish Cross Country Championship.

Tom Cochrane, who won the Ayrshire 6 miles, SW 6 miles, Club Championship, 9th in the Scottish Cross Country Championship, represented Scotland at San Sebastian, won the Ayrshire 3,000m and 3 miles Championships.

Tom Findlay, who was first in the Boys Ayrshire and second in the SW races.

Jim Millar, who won the Ayrshire 1 mile and was 3rd in the Ayrshire 1/2 mile.

Dave Shedden, who was 2nd in the Ayrshire 100 yards and long jump and in the Scottish Junior Championships was 2nd in the long jump, 3rd in the 100 yards and 220 yards.

*

In 1966, Kenny, along with Harry Maxwell, when representing Beith Harriers at the Ayrshire Harrier Clubs’ Association, were appointed as Secretary and Treasurer of the AHCA.  The Chairman was former Clydesdale Harrier Ernie Thursby who was good at getting others to do the work.   Harry arranged 12 Ayrshire sports meetings in the winter at Ayr, Kilmarnock,  Stewarton, Harriers Vs Cyclists at Irvine, Dundonald, West Kilbride, Beith, Cumnock, and Girvan.  He invited teams from schools and youth clubs and, as the Commonwealth Games would be held in Edinburgh in 1970, he asked for anyone interested in forming a new club, helping at races or attending courses for Coaches, Judges, Timekeepers, etc.

The total funds of the AHCA received by Kenny as Treasurer amounted to £16 in cash and the former officials were horrified when Harry and Kenny decided to spend it all at the first track and field event at Irvine Meadow’s football ground.   The meeting was a financial and athletics success and set the pattern for future events.

Kenny wrote to the 16 Town Councils and all the factories in Ayrshire asking for sponsorship and the £5 and £10 donations soon mounted up.  Some of the Town Councils promoted Gala Days, for which the AHCA provided Officials and helpers.

Harry, in conjunction with Ayr County Council’s Community Development Officer, arranged  a series of meetings in the winter in Kilmarnock to train Coaches and Officials under the tutelage of experts such as Dickinson of Jordanhill College, Chapman of the Scottish Council for Physical Education, and then in the summer at the Dirrans, Kilwinning, under Anderson, National Coach.    Coaching certificates were issued by Ayr County Council to all those taking part.  At its peak, 500 competitors took part in the Ayrshire track & field championships, 800 at the Cumbrae 10 miles road race and 800 at the Stewarton cross country races. At a later time at the Largs Inverclyde Centre, Frank Dick gave further instruction and led discussions about coaching and administration of athletics under the new Scottish Athletics Federation.   Frank was not happy when Harry and Kenny disagreed with some of his suggestions.    When Harry arranged a Coaching Exam, all the Ordinary Coaches passed but the only 2 applicants for Senior Coach, Harry and Kenny, were failed by the examiners,  Frank Dick and Alex Naylor.

1n 1973 some Ayrshire athletes proposed the amalgamation of all the harrier clubs in Ayrshire in order to field a stronger team in the League.   This found general favour but Beith Harriers suggested several conditions:

1 The club should promote athletics for all athletes, whether competing for fun or at higher levels.

2  The headquarters and centre of activity should be Irvine.

3 The club should start on a sound financial basis, say, £200.

4 The Community Development Service should be brought in with the aim of appointing a full-time professional sports administrator, similar to that at Grangemouth.

5  Negotiations should start with the Director of Education, Ayr County Council, and Irvine Development Council to get a Stadium-Sports Centre at Irvine with full-time administrator.

6 There must be a working committee, meeting at least every two months, to avoid the club relying entirely on the Secretary.

At the Beith Harriers Annual General Meeting on 3rd March, 1974, a discussion took place on whether all the members should join the Ayrshire Athletic Club.  Some members felt that the proposed constitution and organisation of the new club would be to the detriment of young athletes, existing sports meetings and the maintenance of the Beith Harriers Clubhouse. Those members who wished to join Ayrshire AC then left the meeting.

On 1st July, 1974, Beith Harriers Committee allocated the use of the Clubhouse to:

Karate Club, Monday, Thursday and Saturday morning; Ayrshire AC, Tuesday; Beith Harriers, Wednesday.

Each section to contribute £25 per annum and the Karate Club to get a 5 year agreement in writing.

On 11th September, 1974, it was reported back that Beith Harriers were now the only member of the Ayrshire Harrier Clubs’ Association, as all the other clubs had joined the Ayrshire Athletic Club, which in turn refused to join the AHCA.  Harry Maxwell and Kenny Phillips were authorised to take control of the AHCA and organise the Ayrshire Championships at Beith.  In 1975, the SAAA declined to investigate the AHCA but Jim Young former Secretary of the AHCA agreed to hand over the books to Beith Harriers for administration.  Ayrshire AC no longer wished to use the Beith Clubhouse and it was agreed to share the costs of maintenance with the Karate Club as before, viz, £25 each.

On 3rd September, 1975, in the Beith Harriers Clubhouse, an Open Meeting of the AHCA  was held of all people interested in the promotion of athletics in Ayrshire.  Seven events were proposed, Ayrshire Relays at Beith, Harriers Vs Cyclists at Irvine, Stewarton Cross Country, Ayrshire Championships at Cumnock, Kilmarnock Youth Panel at Kilmarnock, New Year Races at Beith and Carrick Youth Panel at Maybole.  A Management Committee was formed consisting of President – H Maxwell, Secretary – K Phillips, Treasurer – T McCulloch, Affiliated Club Beith Harriers – 2 members, T Cochrane, J Sloss, Sponsors 1 member – A McMaster Maybole Community Association, R Ballantyne Stewarton Sports Association, W Fulton Irvine Recreation Club, I Turnbull Kilmarnock Youth Panel.

However Ayrshire AC gradually broke up and the individual former clubs regained their independence and rejoined the AHCA.

At the Beith Harriers Annual General Meeting on 29th April, 1977, it was agreed not to affiliate to the SAAA but the members would run for the newly formed Longbar AC for a season.   Affiliation to the SCCU was agreed for the coming winter season.   Amalgamation of Beith Harriers and Longbar AC was proposed on 9th September, 1977.

At the reorganisation of Local Government in 1975, Kenny applied for the post of Director of Leisure and Recreation of the newly formed Cunninghame District Council.   He was selected for the short leet of three.  One applicant coached international swimmers in Aberdeen and withdrew at the interviews as he wanted to continue coaching his swimmers.   One applicant was a weight lifter and Kenny had 29 years experience in local government and athletics.   A prominent Strathclyde Regional Councillor, known as the Silver Fox, had met Kenny some time before in the Ayr County Buildings canteen and told Kenny that he had been taught his Marxism by Kenny’s father.   Before the vote, the Silver Fox, now a District Councillor,  blackballed Kenny by telling the other councillors that they would not want a Communist as a Director.

On 23rd December, 1978, it was agreed to sell the Clubhouse to Beith Karate Club for the sum of £2,000, to be paid over 5 years.

In 1984 Inland Revenue appointed a Tax Inspector in Ardrossan specifically to collect Corporation Tax.   Cunninghame District Council had printed a small handbook for the benefit of the public showing all the clubs and recreational organisations in the district.   This Tax Inspector classed all these clubs as Corporations and sent them tax forms to complete showing any bank interest credited and any assets acquired or disposed of in the past two years.   Only two clubs, Beith Harriers and Dreghorn Boxing Club took the trouble to fill up the forms. A member of the Dreghorn Boxing Club visited the Tax Inspector and warned him that if he received any more such demands he would return and punch in his head.   Beith Harriers were then plagued with further demands for details of the interest from 1980 to 1985, the cost of the clubhouse in 1934, details of the actual sale, date of sale and full postal address of the Clubhouse.  The Tax Inspector refused to cease his demands despite explanations about the struggle for 60 years to build and maintain the clubhouse and develop athletics in Ayrshire, When the maintenance of the clubhouse become too much, it was offered to the District Council and Regional Council for recreational use but they declined and suggested offering it to the Karate Club.   Any income was ploughed back into the sport for prizes and events for the benefit of the local community.   Advice was sought about obtaining charitable status and a Covenant to pay Ayrshire Harrier Clubs’ Association the sum of £200 per year for 10 years for the purpose of promoting Amateur Athletics in Ayrshire.  The Tax Inspector was prepared to accept that no Capital Gains arose on the sale of the Clubhouse to the Karate Club but he issued assessment notices for sums ranging from £33.90 to £76.   A request to delay any Sheriff Office or Court proceedings was refused. and a further tax of £60 on the Covenant was demanded.  Help was requested from the Scottish Sports Council, Cunninghame District Council, the 4 Ayrshire MPs, pointing out that the covenanted £200 was liable to £60 tax and that the £200 received by AHCA made them liable for Corporation Tax returns.  Instead of saving tax, athletics in Ayrshire would be worse off.  No member of staff of the Finance and Accountancy Department of the Glasgow College of Technology was willing to help and advised that an accountant should be employed at commercial rates.  William McKelvey, MP, wrote to Nigel Lawson, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and received a reply on 8th May, 1986, explaining that Clubs such as Beith Harriers were liable for Corporation Tax and that there was no case for singling out this kind of body for favourable tax treatment.  The complicated tax returns would be avoided by the intention to apply tax deduction at source. Mr McKelvey was “sorry not to have been more helpful but an incoming Labour Government is committed to ensure that truly non profit making organisations are able to flourish more readily.”

Kenny wrote on 12th March 1987 to George Younger, MP, requesting him to have another word with Nigel Lawson, as Beith Harriers were still being persecuted by the Inland Revenue, despite the letter from the Inland Revenue Operations Division confirming the redeployment of 850 staff to catch tax evaders and almost apologising for the fact that in the Ardrossan District these staff had decided to concentrate on the voluntary youth organisations etc instead of proper businesses involving larger amounts of tax.   These threats had caused the resignation of the President, Secretary and Treasurer of Beith Harriers and the club was faced with the prospect of folding up. James Swindale wrote to the Inland Revenue Solicitor on 5th July, 1988 …”Beith Harriers is a non profit making body and all income is ploughed back into the sport.  Following the reduction in our membership, in recent years there has been a net loss but it appears that this can not be offset against profits, unlike proper Corporations which can afford to employ accountants.  Our funds are now reduced to about £132 and we shall have difficulty in paying our annual subscriptions to the Scottish Cross Country Union, £35, Scottish Amateur Athletic Association, £37, Scottish Women’s Cross Country and Road Racing Association, £20, Scottish Women’s Amateur Athletics Association, £42, Cunningham District Sports Council, £5, Garnock Valley Youth Panel, £3, and Ayrshire Harrier Clubs’ Association, £2-50.  In addition, each year we promote and sponsor local sports meetings, viz. Beith New Year Races, Beith Civic Sports, Dalry Civic Sports and Bigholm Road Race.  I trust you will give this matter your careful consideration and use a modicum of common sense instead of continuing the action of the Tax Officers who have a duty to follow the rules of the Tax Laws once the bureaucratic machinery is set in motion”   Further demands and threats of poinding goods and chattels were issued until James Swindale wrote to the Inland Revenue Solicitor on 8th February 1989 that “the three temporary office bearers have been unsuccessful in their struggle to keep Beith Harriers going.  When the funds were exhausted, it was impossible to continue and the Club was disbanded.”

It has taken 30 years for the Government and Inland Revenue to treat Sports Clubs, etc. in the same way as Charities for Tax purposes and Clubs can now claim back tax in respect of membership fees.

***

Kenny organised and promoted many athletics events over a long number of years and as an Office Bearer of the Ayrshire Harrier Clubs’ Association he served as judge, timekeeper and  referee at track & field events and laid trails for cross country races.  When he retired he was able to help during the day with indoor schools, university, blind & deaf meetings and kept himself up to date by qualifying as a Level 2 Field Judge Official and Cross Country Official.  When he came to renew his UK Licence, an ex-policeman had been appointed as Welfare Officer and refused to accept the application form as Kenny refused to tick a box consenting to the information being passed to other Government organisations and law enforcement agencies.   Kenny knew a Housing Officer, who worked at weekends as a Special Constable and boasted that he could get into the Police files to gather information about his housing clients.  A Government Minister had left a dossier of confidential files on a public park bench.

The following three letters from Kenny give a fuller explanation:

29/2/08

D Brown, CBE

Athletics Welfare,

Sale.

Dear Mr Brown,                      Disclosure Scotland – Officiating

I thank you for your letter of 6/62/08 formally requesting me to complete a Disclosure Scotland enhanced disclosure check.

I have no objection to the Police making such a check and, in fact, it is their duty to do so if they have any suspicions.  They have already checked all the adults in my street before the safe housing of at-risk young persons in my street by the Social Work Department for East Ayrshire Council.

What I object to is the box in Part E of the application form consenting to the information being passed on to other Government organisations and law enforcement agencies and the payment by Scottish Athletics of £10 per form to the Police.

In my opinion the present Government has a fixation with ID cards and DNA data and plans to enforce it with underhand methods, such as passports, driving licences, job applications, student bank accounts and loans, housing benefit, etc.  Disclosure Scotland is just one of these ploys.  Four million people are already on the DNA database.

It is wrong to collect such data for everyone instead of targeting offenders as it attacks the liberty and basic dignity of the citizen and it is a waste of  Police time, who at present can not cope with terrorists, murderers, burglars and fraud.  The privacy of such date is notoriously lax and misused in many ways.

I have been involved in athletics for 60 years and I find that Disclosure Scotland is depriving clubs of leaders, parents and helpers, who can not be bothered with all the needless red tape.

Yours sincerely,

Kenneth Phillips.

12/9/2008

1. Brown, CBE,

Athletics Welfare,

Sale.

Dear Mr Brown,                                  Disclosure Scotland – Officiating

I refer to your letter of 10/9/08 informing me that UK Athletics Case Management Group had withdrawn my Technical Official’s Licence on 10/9/08 and that UK Athletics will notify all relevant organisations and accompany the written notification with photo identification after the 14 days period of Appeal.

I expected you as an officer responsible for Athletics Welfare to be aware of the Starting Rule, “Do not jump the gun”.

My club, Beith Harriers, and the Ayrshire Harrier Clubs’ Association, of which I am Vice-Chairman, were notified in July and instructed not to use me in any official capacity.

I wrote to you on 29/2/08 explaining my reasons for not completing the Disclosure Scotland form, mainly because of the lack of security with confidential and personal data but you have confirmed and exacerbated my concerns by threatening to notify “all relevant organisations” and publish it on the UKA website with photo identification.  This contravenes the Data Protection Act and I expressly forbid you to disseminate such information.

I still have no objection to the Police making such a check and, in fact, it is their duty to do so if they have any suspicions.  You have a right to withdraw my Licence but no right to pass on my data without my consent.   As you have withdrawn my Technical Official’s Licence, there is no longer any need for you to hold any information about me and I instruct you to destroy it all immediately.

Yours sincerely

Kenneth Phillips

8/10/08

David Brown CBE

UK Athletics Ltd

Athletics Welfare.

Dear Mr Brown

I do not agree to you publishing any information about me on the UKA website, either as originally proposed or as amended.

The facts are:

1  I have for many years been a “Responsible Athletics Official” and complied with the “Terms and Conditions”,

2  I have no objection to a Police or CRB check and Cameron Ewing of Scottish Athletics told me at a meeting in East Kilbride that he would arrange that.  Everyone in my street has already passed a Police check in connection with Social Work affairs.  What I object to is the dissemination of such information among public bodies.

3  Nothing has changed since you issued my Official’s 3 yearly Licence in 2007.    None of the circumstances in 5.1 for the withdrawal of a Licence applies.  Nonetheless, I willingly give up my Licence if you insist on your need to disseminate people’s personal details.

4  You have not supplied me with the Information Commissioner’s formula, which is intended to deal with “offences”.  The Information Commissioner’s primary duty is the protection of personal information.

5  You now agree that UKA is not treating this matter as disciplinary and that I have not committed any offence.  Anything therefore published on the website would be vindictive and without justification.

In the event of any such publication, I shall hold both you personally and UK Athletics liable for damages and I again expressly forbid you to do so.

Yours sincerely

Kenneth Phillips

***

When the Scottish Athletics Federation was formed it was funded with £500,000 per annum and the Chief Executive’s main job was to attract more funding from sponsors.   Kenny objected when his successor on appointment proposed that that a full-time person should be employed to deal with the sponsorship to enable himself to travel around Scotland visiting all the clubs.  Most of the £500,000 appears to be spent on the salaries of a large number of staff but clubs are still expected to do all the work involving sports meetings.  The number of staff appears grossly excessive when compared to the work done formerly on a spare time basis by Ewan Murray, Secretary of the Scottish Cross Country Union.   Simple but essential things like the venue and starting times of sports meetings on the website fixture list are often missing.  Kenny also complained about the Health & Safety aspects of the Finish Gantry at the National Cross Country Races during windy weather and the expectation that the Ayrshire 70 year old Volunteers would drive in 3 miles of fencing posts for the Edinburgh events.   He suggests a better expenditure  of the £500,000 would be to offer clubs, say, £200 to organise local, district and national events for all age groups, male and female.

Kenny Phillips is a well kent face in Scottish athletics – nowadays he is mainly seen with camera in hand taking his excellent photographs at athletics meetings all across the country in all weathers in every season of the year.   The photographs are posted in picasa web and he encourages clubs and individuals to download them first of all for the individuals concerned and also for club purposes.   The motivational power of  photographs for athletes is considerable.   There is however much more to Kenny than that.

Kenny started out 70 years ago as a club runner for his local club, Beith Harriers and ran in no fewer than 50 consecutive national cross country  championships – a quite remarkable record.   He also ran in the prestigious Edinburgh to Glasgow relay race with the first run in 1954 when he turned out on the first stage.   The ‘News of the World’ as it was often called because of the sponsorship was a hard race to run.   The top 20 teams in the country, entry by invitation only and supported by eight buses, one for each stage, and a fleet of Rolls Royces for the officials and a slap-up meal in the Ca d’Oro in Glasgow for the prize giving.   Kenny’s best run in the race was probably in 1958 when he ran the third leg: Ian Harris (an SAAA marathon champion), despite an accident on his new motor scooter just before the race, had run in to ninth, place on the first stage, Tommy Cochrane (another cross-country international runner) moved Beith Harriers up to seventh and then Kenny, with fifth fastest time of the day, took them up to sixth.   Unfortunately the team could not maintain this high position but Kenny had had a terrific run. 

The question asked of every runner is about how they got involved in the sport in the first place and the response is usually has usually to do with friends or family taking them along.    Ian McCafferty was taken along by Alex Brown to make up a team, another went because the club had a shower and the family home didn’t.   Kenny’s story is a bit more complicated than that and is well worth reading as part of Kenny’s story and also for a view of society and the sport that most in the 21st century have little or no knowledge of.   Kenny writes:

“When I was in the primary school, I used to get into fights nearly every day, especially when the Den School closed and their pupils were transferred to Dalry and after the Clydebank blitz when the Glasgow evacuees arrived. I was often sent up to the Headmaster at the secondary school to get 3 of the belt.   My father was usually unemployed for the first 10 years of my life during the Depression and the headmaster used to supply me at the beginning of each winter with a pair of tacketty boots – so he knew me well. There were 50 pupils in my class when we started school and the class was split into two at the beginning of each year and moved to higher classes.   The result was that some of the slower pupils reached the end of the primary school and left school at the age of 14 without ever getting to the secondary school.   I arrived in the third top class at the age of 10 and, when we got an Intelligence Test and adjusted it for my age, I got an IQ of 129. I never got into the Preparatory Class as the headmaster sent me straight up to the secondary school at the age of 11 along with one other boy from the Den. I am not sure whether it was because of my fighting and he wanted to keep an eye on me or whether it was an educational experiment or whether he was far sighted and wanted to advance my opportunity to sit the Highers at the age of 15. In any case, I soon learned to stop fighting the bigger boys and the Headmaster insisted on me taking Latin instead of Woodwork.

I lived in a tenement in Smith Street and a neighbour, James Walker, about 5 years older, used to take me on long walks up the glens in Dalry. We had a gang in Smith Street and all the boys in the summer used to hike 7 miles over the Fairlie Moor to Portencross to spend the day at the seaside, playing among the rocks and gathering “wulks”. I joined them at the age of 5.

One day at the age of 10, some of us went for an adventure up the Hindog Glen and arrived at the Gowanlea Farm, where the farmer’s daughter, Jenny Longwill, allowed us to stroke and sit on the two ponies.   Two of us often returned and soon Jenny had us feeding the hens and calves and doing odd jobs. We returned every weekend, in the summer making hay and in winter exercising the ponies and Clydesdale horses.   During the War with the shortage of petrol, I harnessed the pony and trap on Saturday mornings and accompanied Jenny to her shopping in town.   We became very fit, expert cow milkers and bareback horse riders, tanned almost black working in the fields and familiar with the surrounding hills. I continued to work at other farms until I left school and would consume up to 16 pints of milk a day, becoming very strong.

Back at school, I was the smallest in the class and was outclassed in the sprints, high jump, long jump and shot putt.   In the 2nd year, everyone was unsure about completing the mile and hung back in a bunch allowing me to open up a large gap which they never closed.   I started training for the mile at dinner time along with a small boy, Andrew Sampson from Longbar in the 1st year, and, using the same tactics, won the mile every year afterwards.

At the end of World War 2 in 1945, , the Co-operative Youth Club was formed and the returning troops started to teach us.  Sanny Tait became the trainer of the Dalry Thistle Football Club and taught us the football rules, Dougie Kell got us interested in Music, Dr Watt gave medical advice and Jimmy Scott taught us Gaelic.  

A Sports Meeting was held at Merksworth Park and I saw a competitor limbering up, whom I thought had a good athletic build.   I was right as it turned out to be Frank Sinclair of Greenock who won the 1 mile race.   One of my neighbours, “Panny” Goldie played at left back for the Thistle football team and he asked me to join his team for the relay race.   I ran the first lap and came in last.   I was dejected and disappeared into the crowd not waiting to see the finish. “Panny” eventually found me and told me that his team had won and he presented me with my first athletics prize – a plastic cheese dish.

At the Co-operative Youth Club I was in the football team at outside left position and purchased a new pair of football boots with hard toe caps and took great care to dubbin and polish them up.   I was disillusioned however at the next match when one of the captain’s pals was picked to play in my position and who then asked to borrow my new boots.   I had started to work in Beith by that time and decided to join Beith Harriers. The football boots came in handy when running over ploughed fields.”

Kenny’s story took place at about the same time as Emmet Farrell’s as described in ‘The Universe Is Mine’ (elsewhere on this site) and between them they tell an interesting tale: sport from a historical perspective.   Emmet’s early days in the sport were based on Maryhill Baths in the middle of industrial Glasgow.   Kenny’s was in rural Ayrshire where the trails are renowned for their ‘traditional’ nature and where the phrase about ‘long Scots miles’ originated.       He now turns to his early days at Beith Harriers.

Beith Harriers Clubhouse had been requisitioned during World War 2 and in 1946, when Kenny first visited it, it had just been handed back to Beith Harriers.  It was surprisingly roomy and equipped with the main hall containing a mat, horse, parallel bars, rope rings, weight lifting equipment,  boxing gloves, batons and massage benches.   One end was divided off with concrete floor, shower and two large baths with hot and cold water.   A further small extension contained the coal-fired boiler for the hot water.  It was one of the few harrier clubs with such facilities and was often selected for inter-club, Ayrshire and South West cross country events.

The club trainer was John Gibson who had retained that position since the 1920s. The President , AF (Sanny) Neilson, was a founder member of  both Beith Harriers and the Ayrshire Harrier Clubs’ Association and a future President of the Scottish Cross Country Union, Tom McAllister, a former Empire Games 400 yards athlete, attended with Mattha Barr, a pre-war cross country runner, to give the runners a rub-down with talcum powder or olive oil after the road run.  Secretary, Mattha, during the rub-down, used to regale the runners with his tall tales about former races.  In arguments with his former colleagues, George Murdoch, Jock Calder, Bob Burniston and George Morrison, who visited often, he used to produce his “Bible” containing cuttings, photos and results to prove who was right.   Jack Millar, the 1929 National Novice Cross Country Champion, took the track and field training in the summer.   John McRobbie led a group of weight lifters, organised the annual Christmas Draw and became the British Weight Lifting All-Round Champion for two years in succession. One of the weight lifters (Morrison) competed with distinction at the Empire Games in New Zealand and was awarded a plaque by the British Weight Lifting Association.   Albert Barrett continued to run on the road on his own but conscientiously lighted and stoked the boiler for the hot water. Leslie Martin was Treasurer with a bank balance of £10-16/9d.   George Lightbody was Club Captain and went round chapping doors to get more members.  George Lightbody, Jimmy Davidson and Frankie Thomson were the only members who did cross country running and when Kenny joined he was automatically selected for the relay teams.

Winter training on Tuesday and Thursdays nights consisted  of 2¹/₂ miles on the road and on Saturday afternoons up to 5 miles cross country. The road run took only 15-20 minutes and the remainder of the evening was filled with gymnastics, weight lifting , boxing etc. Sunday training was frowned on in those days, no girls were allowed and boys had to be at least 17 years of age.

 When Walter Howie, Ayr County Council Youth Organiser, formed the 10 Ayrshire Youth Panels, including athletics, he appointed Jack Millar as Athletics Coach in the 3 towns of Beith, Dalry and Kilbirnie.   This introduced a large number of both Boys and Girls to athletics and there was a demand to start a Ladies Section in Beith Harriers.   Despite some opposition, a Ladies Section was formed under the control of Jack’s wife, Margaret, meeting in the Backburn School, Beith, on Saturday afternoons.   When the boys were running cross country from the Harriers Clubhouse, the girls played badminton in the School.   The boys then joined the girls at badminton in the early evening and then sometimes on to the Cinema in Beith.  There was a good social atmosphere which attracted many others from outside athletics and led to several marriages.

In the summer months, Jack Millar introduced some new methods of training for the track and field.   First of all he had to mark off a 220 yard track on the grass field, which he quickly did with pegs and a 22 yard length of string.  After exercises and a warm up, we all did starts and then fast and slow laps with Jack timing us with a whistle at each half lap to aim for exact pace judgement for the different race distances.  We always finished with a warm down which did away with the need for a massage.

In 1948 George Lightbody managed to procure 3 pairs of spiked shoes suitable for the track runners and suggested that the club should pay for them now while the members paid back at, say, 2/6d per week; also that an application should be made to the Education Authority for coupons, as shoes and clothing were still rationed.

George worked in Glasgow on Saturday mornings and had to make some arrangements to compete in the Ayrshire Cross Country Championships at Benwhat, 3 miles above Dalmellington.   He packed his travelling bag with his strip, tracksuit and spikes and added his badminton racket to enable him to join the Ladies Section in the evening.   He took the train to Irvine where he had arranged to join the Irvine YMCA bus.   On entering the bus, big Tam McNeish asked him what it was sticking out of his bag.  George replied by asking Tam if he did not know that there was 6″ of snow at Benqhat and he was carrying his snowshoes.

After the race George had to avoid Tam and quickly join the Beith Harriers bus back to Beith for the badminton.

Kenny had never run 7 miles before and it turned out to be more like 10 miles on a steep hillside with constant jumps over rashes and ditches.   He arrived back last.

The race was won by the favourite, John Fisher of Ayr, and the winning team was the local Doon Harriers, most of whom had already worked an extra shift underground as miners digging coal to restore the economy.

Benwhat consisted of one row of miners houses and a school.   A collection was taken by the Ayrshire Harrier Clubs’ Association after the race and the can contained more than the total of all the other races in Ayrshire.   Such was the generosity of the miners and their families.

Work parties were continually being arranged to deal with the leaking sloping felt roof, installation of a new boiler and heating system, constructing a weight lifting platform to protect the wooden floor, painting and repair of doors and window, repairing drains, etc.

Beith Harriers made a substantial financial contribution to the formation of the Beith Orr Trust Field and Running Track and were then asked by the District Council to organise an Annual Gala Day and Sports Meeting in the summer of 1956.  At this time Kenny was appointed Secretary of the Club and had to arrange a work party, Presentation of Prizes and Presentation to AF Neilson in appreciation of his long service as President of the Club, two summer Bus Runs, summer activities in Beith and Kilbirnie and the Annual Beith New Year Cross Country Race .  The Ladies Section was organising a Beetle Drive in the Backburn School. The Sports Meeting was held on 23rd June, 1956, with fine weather in the afternoon, short thick grass in the field, a well rolled track and the loudspeaker helped the competitors and spectators to enjoy the varied programme which consisted of men’s, women’s and children’s races, high jump, weight lifting, BB gymnastics and five a side football.  The arrangement for Emil Zatopek to make a guest appearance fell through due to the political disturbances in Hungary.    Ice cream and lemonade were on sale in the field , entrance to the field was free but programmes were on sale at 1/- each and a collection was taken.   At the end of the day, a light tea for officials was served by the Ladies Section in the Town House.   The District Council had guaranteed the sum of £50 to run the sports meeting and agreed that the surplus of £26-14/8d should be put in the bank under the “Beith Orr Trust Park Sports Fund” to start off the next year’s sports.

Kenny moved to Sanquhar and James Walker was appointed Secretary in 1957.   Harry Maxwell obtained estimates of £15 for felt to be applied to the whole roof  by the members and a separate estimate of £54 from a contractor to cover the roof with concrete tiles.  The low price of £54 for the tiling was because the contractor had a stock of surplus tiles of different colours from several jobs and he was charging for the labour only.  The members agreed to accept his offer as it would save them much maintenance work in the future.

In 1958 it was noticed that the roof was sagging due to the weight of the tiles on the unusual timber roof structure and it was decided to remove the tiles and return to the felt covering.  Kenny managed to sell the tiles to Sanquhar Town Council for the original £54 price as spares for their different coloured tiled houses.

When in Sanquhar, Kenny met and trained at the Nithsdale Wanderers Football ground with a group of youths from Kirkconnell and Kelloholm under the leadership of Jock Hammond.  Margaret Smith, a girl aged 15, trained with the boys and was as good as them.   Kenny took her to the Cumnock Sports and, when Kenny told the Ardeer Ladies how good she was, they tried to ban her under the newly formed Women;s AAA’s rule that the women competitors had to be members of a club affiliated to the WAAA.   Kenny had to quickly get Margaret enrolled in Beith Harriers.

One of the boys from Kelloholm was Danny McFadzean who was just an average runner but also enrolled in Beith Harriers.   He joined the Navy and  during skiing training in Norway broke a leg.  Six weeks after breaking his leg he took part in the Beith Harriers annual 5 mile road handicap race.   With a good handicap position, he easily won the race.   Danny later became the Navy Marathon Champion.   Danny was in the same era as Ian Harris, Army Marathon Champion, and Tom Cochrane, International Cross Country runner but Beith Harriers never managed get them together in the same team.   Unknown to them, Danny running for the Royal Navy and Ian running for Walton competed in the 19th Chichester to Portsmouth 16 mile race when Ian was second and Danny was tenth.

Another boy training at Sanquhar was the Professional Handicaper’s son from Kirkconnell.  The boy was a good half miler but it was rumoured that the father instructed his son to compete only in 220 yard races and work up his handicap with the intention of making a betting fortune a few years later in the half mile.    It was disappointing for the boy and Kenny never heard later about any fortune being made but it confirmed Kenny’s resolution never to run as a professional.   He had already met Hugh McWhinnie when training at the Beith Clubhouse.  Hugh had been a good miler but had been persuaded to join Mitchell, the Bookie’s stable when his mother owed £10 for the rent.  Hugh became disillusioned when he got instructions not to win any races as the bookie needed to keep him as insurance against any large betting losses.   John Glen, brother-in-law of the Murdoch Brothers of Beith, also kept in touch with the Powderhall sprinters and used to tell of professional runners laughably speeding up a high knee action near the tape to allow others to pass.

The Beith Harriers clubhouse was the cause of many a discussion at committee meetings, and no doubt on training evenings as well but there were, as in all running sagas in clubs up and down the land, some humorous tales too.   One concerns the the nearby List D school.  It was clear that the club house was too small to accommodate all the runners involved in the successful and classic New Year’s Day races and the head at the Church of Scotland’s Geilsland School offered them the use of the large gymnasium and showers at the school.   In return the club offered to provide coaching in athletics for the pupils.   The offer was graciously turned down because, the headmaster said, they’d never be able to catch the absconders!

 Kenny winning at Dam Park, Ayr, c1947

Kenny Phillips is a well kent face in Scottish athletics – nowadays he is mainly seen with camera in hand taking his excellent photographs at athletics meetings all across the country in all weathers in every season of the year.   The photographs are posted in picasa web and he encourages clubs and individuals to download them first of all for the individuals concerned and also for club purposes.   The motivational power of  photographs for athletes is considerable.   There is however much more to Kenny than that.

Kenny started out 70 years ago as a club runner for his local club, Beith Harriers and ran in no fewer than 50 consecutive national cross country  championships – a quite remarkable record.   He also ran in the prestigious Edinburgh to Glasgow relay race with the first run in 1954 when he turned out on the first stage.   The ‘News of the World’ as it was often called because of the sponsorship was a hard race to run.   The top 20 teams in the country, entry by invitation only and supported by eight buses, one for each stage, and a fleet of Rolls Royces for the officials and a slap-up meal in the Ca d’Oro in Glasgow for the prize giving.   Kenny’s best run in the race was probably in 1958 when he ran the third leg: Ian Harris (an SAAA marathon champion), despite an accident on his new motor scooter just before the race, had run in to ninth, place on the first stage, Tommy Cochrane (another cross-country international runner) moved Beith Harriers up to seventh and then Kenny, with fifth fastest time of the day, took them up to sixth.   Unfortunately the team could not maintain this high position but Kenny had had a terrific run.

He was also a good track man who specialised in the Mile.  His career is summed up on the Beith Harriers website as follows:

“Kenneth Phillips specialised in the mile but also ran the half-mile and cross country.   He competed in the National cross country championships 50 times. His favourite course was at Stewarton where the field was similar to that at Beith, rough, sharp corners and 8 laps to the mile.    He often won both the ½ mile and 1 mile at the Bonnet Guild Sports and, one year, was the first to break the 4 minute mile when he was the only competitor to realise that the lap counter had made a mistake with 3 laps to go instead of 4.   On another occasion at Stewarton in the Medley Relay, Kilmarnock and Beith were neck and neck at the final changeover for the final ½ mile.  Kenny was up against the Ayrshire Champion, Willie More, and dropped the baton when it was accidentally knocked out of his hand by Willie.    Willie, being a perfect gentleman and sportsman marked time until Kenny caught up and passed him. Kenny then hugged the sharp corners and made Willie run wide each time he tried to pass. By the time they reached the final uphill stretch, Willie was exhausted and Kenny easily romped home for the winning team.”     To those who don’t know, More was a first rate athlete with a 3 miles best of 14:21 – a good track man in all distance events, maybe particularly the steeplechase.

The sport was different at that time, and many from that era feel strongly that it was a healthier sport too.   The website has a record of a typical summer for Kenny.

15/5/54 Glasgow Telephones, Helenvale:  1 mile open (90yds) Unplaced

22/5/54 Stevenston 1 mile open (90yds) 1st

29/5/54 Glasgow Highland, Ibrox 1 mile open (90 yds) Unplaced

5/6/54 Singers Sports (Clydebank) 1/2 mile open 3rd in heat; 1 mile open (75yds) Unplaced

12/6/54 Glasgow Police, Ibrox 1 mile open (75yds) Unplaced

16/6/54 Bellahouston, Saracen Park 4 x 1/2 mile relay; 2 mile Team

19/6/54 Babcock & Wilcox 1 mile invitation (75yds) 4th

26/6/54 Stewarton 1 mile (75yds) 1st

29/6/54 Glasgow Transport, Helenvale 1 mile (65yds) Unplaced

10/7/54 Saxone 1 mile (65yds) 4th

21/8/54 Bute 1 mile (65yds) 3rd

28/8/54 Dirrans (Kilwinning) Medley Relay (1/4) 1st; 2 mile team 2nd individual 1st team; 1/2 mile open (30yds) Unplaced

12 meetings in three months, often two or more races in the one meeting.   Four first place awards, a second and a third.   The figure in brackets was his handicap for that particular race and the handicapping system was the one that prevailed.   There was usually one or maybe two runners with very favourable handicaps and many more who claimed that the handicapper had done them an injustice with an unfair handicap.   It was possible to be a good runner and never win a handicap race.   Kenny’s four firsts from 12 meetings was an achievement!   The photograph at the top of the page was taken by the photographer of the Ayr Advertiser after a mile at Dam Park.   Kenny says:

“Dam Park was still a grass track..  I had a pound of honey pears and a pint of milk before the race and studied the competitors limbering up beforehand.   The favourite for the mile was the international cross country runner Gibby Adamson from West Kilbride  and there was a tall, athletic looking Latvian, a Displaced Person, with long flowing blond hair, about whom we knew nothing.    The second prize was a wrist watch, which I planned to aim for as I did not possess a watch.   During the race my plan was working fine with me lying behind Gibby but my competitive spirit erupted and as the reporter printed when describing Gibby…. “when out of the blue came K Phillips of Beith”…… Instead of the watch, I won my first individual first-prize of a rug, which wore in my bedroom for years.” 

The area covered by meetings was wide – Glasgow, Clydebank, Ayrshire, Renfrew, Bute and all over the Central Belt – with transport often by public transport or pushbike.

 Kenny is a very quiet and modest man who doesn’t like to talk about himself but he did say that he thought one of his best his best races was when he won the 1500m at the World Youth Festival in Moscow in August, 1957.   The picture below gives an idea of the size and splendour of the opening ceremony at the Lenin Stadium.

This was Kenny’s first experience of a major games with a massive opening ceremony.   The World Student Games had begun in 1923 and continued under other titles until 1957 when they were under the banner of the World Festival of Youth and Students.    The World Student Games continued as before but the Festival of Youth had been attached from 1947.   Venues for the event, which was held every two years, in the 50’s up to ’57 were Bucharest, Warsaw and Moscow.  By 1957 Russia had realised the publicity value of sport and made it a really big event, which was run in parallel to the World Student Games.  The meeting was combined with cultural activities such as a visit to the Bolshoi Ballet.   There was also time for seeing how the ordinary Russian families lived and there were some eye-opening experiences for Kenny and his team mates.   He ran in the 1500m with the race run on a warm day at 2:00 pm.   There were some cultural visits in the forenoon  and the athletes had to compete thereafter.   Kenny’s attitude was never to let others have an easy run, always make a race of it.   This time was no different, he went for it – and won!   It was a wonderful experience, he made many friends from other countries and he still writes to one of them to this very day.

Kenny in his kilt with Judy Wolfe and two others of the English delegation.

Kenny however bracketed that with his many double victories (Mile and half mile) at the Stewarton Bonnet Guild Festivals – when he usually returned with two clocks donated by the Provost whose son had a jewellers shop.    Although he was mainly a miler, he often ran in the 880 yards simply because the mile was usually last on the programme and the half mile was fairly early so he ran in that as well.   Initially he would ‘hare away in the first lap’ and be passed by several others in the second lap.   He changed his tactics when in one particular race  at Babcock & Wilcox the Scottish mile champion Jimmy Reid was back marker and he was off 25 yards.   He was passed early on by the other runners in the first lap but hung in behind Jimmy until the finish when he pipped him on the line.   He changed his tactics after that.

One of the big race meetings was the annual Rangers Sports at Ibrox where the field for the open handicap mile was a specially permitted 165 instead of 100 with three or four men on each handicap position.   He remembers being off 65 yards with dozens of runners starting ahead of him and he had to make ground in each of the eight straights, hold it on the bends – and he eventually finished fourth, 50 yards behind the third man and out of the prizes.

What training did they do?   When he started it was a two and a half miles run on a Tuesday and again on the Thursday with a race or two on the Saturday.   Then when they saw how good George Lightbody was they began to follow his training methods.   George was a very good athlete and raced successfully at distances between 100 yards and 10 miles although he was principally a half miler with a sub-two minute time.   Everybody started to do that kind of training and the club at one point had half a dozen runners running two minutes for the half mile – that at a time when almost all tracks were grass or cinder of varying quality and shoe technology was not as advanced as today.   The cross-country and distance runners were also later on influenced by reading of Zatopek’s training – as indeed were athletes all over the world – and the training load was increased.    One of the local men who first took up the big mileage was Tom McNeish from Irvine who was even training on a Friday night before a Saturday race – and he was the Ayrshire and South-West champion.

Over the country  a source of pride is that he won the Over 50’s veterans cross-country championship at Troon and takes also great pride in his 50 consecutive national championships.

Kenny second from the right

I have looked at his running first because that’s what we all came into the sport for in the beginning.   But he has been a one-club man and Beith Harriers was that club.   When he was working in England he ran additionally for Rochdale AC and Horwich RMI but he has always been first claim for Beith (and Longbar) for his entire career.   The willing always get the work to do and Kenny has been Secretary and Treasurer of Beith Harriers, Secretary and Treasurer of Ayrshire Harrier Clubs Association, and  SAF Official.

A tireless worker for the club and for the sport, he formed an offshoot at the Stewarton Sports Association (Athletics Section) and promoted the Stewarton Cross country Races for 30 years.    When he moved to Stewarton, the Territorial Army was leaving and wanted to give their hall to the council but they did not want it.   One of the councillors, Bob Craig, a cyclist, wanted a Stewarton Sports Association to be formed which would use the hall as their headquarters.    The Association encompassed cyclists, footballers, and all sorts of sports and Kenny was responsible for athletics.   He says that he had an empty hall and 50 youngsters with no equipment, not even a ball.   He worked with them for years and many are still involved with the sport at some level, even if it is only running in some local 10K’s.   There were several good athletes came from his club – one group , Matthew Porter and twins Gary & Keith Haro, with no experience at all finished first second and third in the under 13s mile at the Beith Open Sports meeting, and then in the national cross-country at Irvine Matthew came in second – he let a more experienced boy beat him at the finish when with more races under his belt he could have won.   Another athlete in one of his groups was Rose Reilly.   She could run and jump well but went on to become a real professional football star in Italy.  Among her teams were Reims and AC Milan.   Rose was quite a talent, just how good can be seen by looking her  up on Google.   A youths team, consisting of Tom Findlay, Robin Young, Tom McEwan and Freddie Slaughter, won both the Ayrshire and West Cross Country Championships.

The Stewarton Sports Association was also in action on a Sunday morning from the Strandhead Pavilion with many local, and some not so local, coming to jog and run over the local Ayrshire countryside.   All levels of athlete came along – many will remember the talented Jim Ash, Ultra Runner Peter Dawes, Ironman Alex MacPhee, Jim Auchie, with his 2 sons and daughter, who started the Dalry Thistle Club, Chris James, the British Orienteering champion came down when he was working in the area and many more.  A favourite course was both banks of the River Annick with a wash and swim near the finish, summer and winter, and often having to break the ice.

Kenny got married at the age of 30 and moved to Lancashire.   He stopped training, put on some weight but continued to enjoy cross country running on a Saturday with Horwich Mechanics and Rochdale Harriers.   Horwich Mechanics was similar to Beith Harriers, having started in 1924 and struggling to field a team but now has a membership of 250.  The chairman had participated in the 1930 Kinder Scout Mass Trespass to open up the countryside.   Rochdale Harriers was a much larger club and hired the Town Hall every Christmas to hold a Dance and raise enough money to finance the club for a whole year.   Kenny’s eyes were opened when he saw the mass participation in the cross country events for boys and girls due to the co-operation with the schools.   This was in 1962 and he tried to bring some of that to Scotland when he returned.   One of the the events he started up was the Stewarton cross-country race.   They were run for 30 years – pretty well until all the original organisers had left – and attracted most of the best of Scottish talent including Liz Lynch and Lachie Stewart.   In one year they had 800 competitors.  They had help from the County Youth Services whose head Walter Howie would send someone to help with entries and results, lend them a Gestetner machine to print out the results, hire of the hall only cost them £1.    But there were also problems –  they had to get permission from a separate letting committee which included ministers of religion from all local denominations who were reluctant to give them that permission to use the school and hold the race on a Sunday.   That meant an appeal to the whole county council where they got their decision.   Then there was the problem of sweeping out the accommodation after the race, scrubbing the floor, etc and then have to pay £75 for professionals to do it because, no matter how well they had done it, that was what the system required.   That is all in addition to organising the race with advertising, entry forms, prizes, result organisation and in addition Kenny and his colleagues had to lay the trail and their wives made the teas and baked the cakes.   It was a lot of real work and to carry it on for 30 years with no complaints was a wonderful job on the part of all involved.

He was of course also active outside Ayrshire and was one of the men who, along with the late Alex Johnston helped lift the Glasgow Women’s 10K to the big 10K – OK event that it became.  Over 1.000 3 feet high, high-tensile steel trail markers with coloured plastic were hand made but one spring at Pollok Park some of the students got lost where the yellow flags passed through a “host of golden daffodils”.

But it is as an Ayrshire enthusiast that will be best known.   Kenny with the aid of the BBC Children in Need grant for 3 years also promoted the Garnock Valley Athletics Project with branches in Beith, Glengarnock, Kilbirnie and Dalry schools.  The Harriers provided 4 coaches, Trish Sloss, Stewart Ferguson, Lindsay McMahon, Robert Connelly, and the schools co-operated with 4 teachers.   A SAL senior coach was engaged to train the coaches.

For more on Kenny and the organisation of athletics in Scotland, specifically Ayrshire, go to     Kenny Phillips: Official and administrator

Kenny on the right in the back row.  

John Morgan standing on the right.

Johnny Morgan, who joined Clydesdale Harriers in season 1936/37, was always easy to recognise because of his very small stature.  He maybe had to look up to Harry Fenion.   However his contribution was immense at a time when many such as Andy McMillan, James P Shields and David Bowman were also making big contributions.    John was one of the most respected men in the club when I signed up in 1957.   Like so many good club men of whatever outfit, he did some running but his main contribution to the club was as an official, an organiser and a coach – he was also the recognised club starter.   The club records for the period 1936 – 1939 have him turning out in only six races.   In October 1936 he was eleventh of eleven in the club Novice Championships, in October 1937 it was the same position (11^th of 11), December 1937 he was twenty fourth of twenty four in the 5 Miles Handicap, on 25^th December 1937 he was sixteenth of thirty in the Christmas Handicap, a year later he was fourteenth of 21 in the Christmas Handicap and in February 1939 he was sixteenth of twenty in the Seven Mile Handicap.   After the war started he was tenth of fourteen in the 1940 Christmas Handicap and that was his last race until he went into the Army in 1942.   What he was to do for the club and for athletics generally after the War cannot be over-estimated.

John was club secretary from 1939/40 to 1942/43 and 1946/47 to 1950/51.   The two spells in office were broken by his war time service in the Army.   John served in Burma with the Chindits so must have seen a lot of the action.   The Chindits were the Indian Division of the British Army in World War II and carried out guerrilla warfare on the Japanese in Burma (now Myanmar) under the command Brigadier General Orde Wingate.   The name came from the mythical beast half lion/half eagle that was placed at the entrance to Burmese temples to scare away evil spirits.   He also contracted malaria there and as is the case with the disease suffered off and on afterwards from recurrences.   Many other local athletes also served in the Far East: one of these was Alex Kidd a member of Garscube Harriers and well known and respected throughout Scotland.   He also came home suffering from malaria and although they made light of it, the disease had to be respected and showed itself from time to time.    After one race on a particularly bad day at the Woodilee Mental Asylum (as it was called at that time) in Lenzie, the Changing Room became flooded because of a burst pipe.    Alex was lying on a bench shivering and shaking and as the others all scrambled out with their clothes and gear leaving him there, he was saying, “it’s all right – it’s just the malaria!”

Although John joined the club as a runner he ran mainly in pack runs and inter club fixtures with no major trophies to his name.   His racing record has already been detailed.   His running after the War was seriously affected by the malaria but he used to turn out every now and then with Andy McMillan, James P Shields, Dan McDonald and Jim Murphy just for a run.   In my time in the club he was best known as the official club starter and kept the two guns and ammunition at his house.   He was an ever present at club fixtures and championships whether track, road or cross country

 His big contribution to the club and to the sport was as an administrator and official.   He attended a few committee meetings in the 1930’s before he was elected as club secretary a mere three years after joining the club.   This was not simply because no one else was capable of doing the job or wanted to do the job – it was because he was recognised as being a good administrator.   Came the war and he was elected as secretary to the war time committee whose job was to keep the club in good order until the cessation of hostilities.   He worked well in the job and only left the committee when his Army Service took him off to Burma.   This service left him as already noted with malaria and he had to take quinine for the rest of his life.   One story is that when he said he would have to go home to have some quinine, the others remarked that he meant “Queen Anne” which was a type of whisky.

As soon as he was back home, it was not long before he was back on to the committee and his second spell in the hot seat was possibly his best.  The club race results book opens a new page with the following:

SEASON 1946-47

In which it is hoped to carry out our full

Pre-war runs programme.

                                                                                                   (John Morgan, Secy)

 He was not only on the club committee but he was a member of the County Association and served on the Committee of the SAAA – the governing body of the sport in Scotland.   He not only sat on the Committee of the Dunbartonshire AAA’s but was one of the pioneers of the organisation and the club representative in the setting up of the association.   In addition to his committee work he did a lot of coaching and was the club’s official starter.  He had two guns of his own and the ammunition was supplied by the club.   The part he played in the organisation of the Clydesdale Harriers Youth Ballot Team Race when it started up in 1947 was such that the trophy awarded to the winner was named the Johnny Morgan Trophy and it is still in the club’s possession.    The picture below is of Eddie Sinclair winning the Johnny Morgan Trophy.

Eddie Sinclair winning the Clydesdale Youth race, 1954

At that time he was always very helpful to the younger committee members and Alex Hylan said that he would come before the meetings and ask if he, in whatever capacity, needed any help in preparing for meetings.    John also donated the Zetland Trophy for the Ladies Track Championship and named it after the Zetland Estate where his parents worked – the earldom of Zetland was created in 1838 for Laurence Dundas (of Port Dundas fame).

In the mid 1950’s the club had a quite superb Ladies Section with many first class athletes including not only Scottish but also British champions and international athletes.   The section was led by Jean Struthers and John was the main coach.   Then in the late 1950’s Tom and May Williamson formed a new club to be called Western AAC and it would be based at Kirklee in Glasgow.   They attracted girls from all clubs and the effect on several clubs in Glasgow (Springburn Harriers Ladies, Bellahouston Harriers Ladies and Clydesdale for instance) was devastating.   When one of the best runners in Bellahouston Harriers joined up with Western, she was asked by her regular training partners in Maryhill Harriers Ladies why she had not joined them if she was leaving Bellahouston.   Her reply was that they had never asked her!   Virtually all the Clydesdale Ladies left en bloc to join this attempt to form a ‘club of champions’.   These outfits keep appearing – Sans Unkles’ and Dunky Wright’s Caledonia AC, the Robson brothers and their Edinburgh/Reebok/Leslie Deans/Mizuno Racing Club and so on – and seldom last long.   The damage inflicted on other clubs is at times considerable.   John Morgan was so upset that he gave up coaching on the spot and another coach had to be found.   He stayed to work for the club at Committee level and as starter and timekeeper at club and county races.

Runner, committee man, coach, official club starter – and one of the first class group of men who kept the club functioning after the war.   When he died in November 1967 the ‘Clydebank Press’ said: It is with deep regret that I have to announce the death of Mr John Morgan one of our older members.    Johnny as he was known to young and old alike served the club well in many official positions since the War and although he was dogged by illness in recent years he still turned out as an official SAAA starter when needed.   His services were not limited to Harriers activities as he was well known for the help he gave to local schools and Youth organisations and often at considerable expense to himself.   We in the club will miss Johnny greatly and extend our deepest sympathy to his family.”