Author: The Author

Hugh’s Gems pages are quite popular with regular viewing figures to prove it.    We start this time with a photograph of John Anderson, former national coach, and of course of Gladiators fame at the age of 94.

Below: Allan Wells in the Ibrox Trophy Room

Celtic Sports, 1910  (courtesy Eric Giacoletti)

Ian McCafferty at the back in a race at the dog track in Tranent at the start of a short lived professional career.

Below: Back in the day – but before yours and mine !   Dam Park in 1898

Herb Elliott, everybody’s hero in the 1950’s, with the much under rated Laurie Reed the Brit in third

A short report on the founding of the Glasgow Academicals Club  –  in 1866!

Early cross-country: from Rugby School arcioves

The selection of pictures of top class field events athletes.   Action photographs taken during the warm up, close-ups of the highest quality: beautifully framed for the subject and very clear and sharp indeed.   The first two are from the Commonwealth Games in 1986.

Tessa Sanderson at the 1986 Commonwealth Games

Steve Backley at the 1986 Commonwealth Games

The next XXX are from the Tarmac Games in 1983 where Tessa set her UK record

Fatima Whitbread

Tom Petranov: World javelin record holder

James Mays at the same meeting

Mary Anderson, EAC, in the SWAAA Championships 1985: a very talented all-rounder; a fast 800m runner and a good heptathlete

Karen Pugh,Birchfield Harriers – Alastair says -“she and Jacqueline McKernan from Northern Ireland came up/over for the Scottish Champs every year. Pugh finished 4th for 4 consecutive years. This was her first win in 1985. JMcK finished 2nd for 3 years in a row. I think the Scots were mildly aggrieved at the interlopers but, to be fair, the Scots thought nothing of invading the WAAA if they thought they could do well.”

Lynne Marshall having a practice throw at the 1983 Championships with Glasgow coach Eddie Coyle in line of fire . . .

. . . and below, Geoffrey Parsons in 1985

Alastair on the left from ‘The Scotsman, August 1st, 1988

Despite being in the sport of over 50 years covering competition, officiating. administrating the sport al all levels up to the international, Alastair is not a well known or easily recognisable figure even to those who have benefited from his work as competitors.     We asked him for some detail of his athletics career.   

He started as a teenage athlete, a sprinter, at Victoria Park AAC and ended it as an 800m runner coached by the legendary Jimmy Campbell.   At the age of 19, in  mid 1975 , he was injured with a back problem and offered to coach at Glasgow AC whilst he was incapacitated. He was asked to take on the throws as that’s where the club had most need.  Following the old  adage of  ‘doing what your club needs you to do’. he started helping with judging, team management, announcing, etc.   Already he had a wider experience than most, and he took this with him when he moved to  Tillicoultry and joined Pitreavie) in 1983, and later Dunfermline in 1987.   His involvement in athletics was gradually reduced as family life developed and children grew up before ending his involvement in the sport in about 1991.

The back injury referred to above effectively ended his racing career, although he did return for a bit,  running a few half marathons – namely Falkirk and Alloa (twice)

We asked about career highlights and he replied: 

• Club Coach awards in shot, discus, javelin, sprints and middle distance 
• Coached Lynne Marshall in shot from junior age to Scottish International
• involvement with visually handicapped athlete coaching around 1979/81 inc. organising their UK Championships at Coatbridge
• Occasionally involved with Ass. Club Coach training for JCC
• Grade 1 field official in Jumps and Throws (Including Scottish Internationals, Commonwealth Games 1986 (jumps), European Indoor 1990 (athlete assembly and marshalling)).
• SWAL secretary for 6 years mid 1980’s
• I/c Watering Stations for the 1982/83 Glasgow Marathons and continued assisting with the finishing area until 1984/85
• Committee member of Pitreavie for a few year

Some comments are maybe appropriate about the above.   

1. First of all, the coaching qualifications are seriously good.   At the time there were three awards: Assistant Club Coach, Club Coach, and Senior Coach.   For Club Coach, the candidate had to spend two weekends at Inverclyde, sit a written exam and be assessed via a practical.  He had four of these.   
2. Lynne Marshall was a very talented shot and discus athlete whose Scottish Championship record includes 2 firsts in the Shot Putt (1981 and 1983), 1 second (1985) and 2 third places (1982 and 1984) and she was ranked in the first 3 in Scotland on 4 occasions.
3. The field of disability or para athletics was just becoming established and he was maybe a bit ahead of the games in being involved and any championships at UK level is a difficult task with a wide range of disciplines and administrative matters to be dealt with. 
4. The JCC was the Joint Coaching Committee which was made up of 5 members from around Scotland and was responsible for coach education.
5.  Officiating is different from administration in that the officials are those who do the work on the day, dealing with the athletes as well as performing all the tasks associated with the event in question.   There were Grades 1, 2 and 3 with Trainee officials also being recognised.   Only the best of these are chosen for international duty.
6. To be any League Secretary is an onerous task – not just keeping things running smoothly (eg getting the results of the meeting sent out quickly after a meeting), but also helping staff the meetings, keeping committee meetings running smoothly and working with a whole range of different personalities.

It can be seen that his talents, industry and experience was wide and that the sport suffered a serious loss when he ceased being a major participant.  

Alastair also took lots of high quality photographs, many of which we have on the following pages, and he worked as hard at the photography as he did at athletics as can be seen from those displayed.    Links below.

The Officials      1986 Games     The Glasgow Marathon 1985        The SAAA 1500m 1981   The Field Events 1985 and 1986

For all the photographs that are taken at Scottish Championships, we seldom see a series taken of the same race.   One of the great things of Alastair’s pictures is that he finds the spot, doesn’t leave if but takes the pictures as the race develops.   Take this short series of the 1500m  at the SAAA Championships.   It starts with John Robson and Nat Muir prowling around waiting for the start and is followed by three photographs of the race – taken from approximately the same spot of the athletes at the end of lap1, lap 2 and lap 3.   Main characters are Robson 15, Muir 2, Ian Archibald 6, John MacKay 24, 

Before the Start of the Glasgow Marathon, 1985

The first Mass participation marathon in Glasgow was in 1982 and by 1985 the event was well established with thousands of runners, male and female, young and old, neophytes and grizzled veterans all keen to run in the event.   Bob Dalgleish, centre of the first picture, was the ‘Main Man’ as far as organisation was concerned.   The pictures below give a notion of the buzz that there was at the start: Alastair was taking the shots that other would never have thought of.   The feeling of excitement, nervousness and action is all there.

Alastair, working as an official attended many Scottish track championships but even officials get a break during the day and he managed to use his skills with the camera to capture the atmosphere of the meeting.   The first  here are from the SWAAA Championships in 1983.

The 1984 Championships

We now have two from the same year of the 800m at the SAAA Championships.

From 1985, we have the women’s 1500m 

The Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh were, despite all the financial obstacle, a great success and of course Alastair was there.   He was officiating as one of a team of Field Event Judges and when he was not officiating managed to get some excellent photographs thirteen of which we have here.   The quality of the pictures and the clarity of the images are of a high quality.

Steve Cram

Ann Purvis

Sandra Whittaker

Start of the women’s 4 x 100m relay

Daley Thomson in the Decathlon 1500m

Men’s 100m start

Jamie Henderson in the 4 x 100m relay

John Robson

Yvonne Murray

Yvonne in the women’s 3000m

Later in the race

Allister Hutton, 10,000m

Liz Lynch, 10,000m champion

Alastair Shaw was never a regular photographer for any of the Scottish athletics magazines, nor for the SAAA or Scottish Athletics governing bodies but he was and is a first rate exponent of the art.    There are many of his photographs on this website illustrating events or people involved and he is the only one I know of who has so many pictures of the officials who helped the meetings run so efficiently.   An official himself, he was able to catch them at work during meetings and there are good pictures of many kenspeckle figures.    We start with the officials and the first one is of the Jimmy Campbell – sprints coach, Grade 1 official and highly respected.

Starter Joe Cameron

Another good photographof the track judges between races at Grangemouth with the marksman apparently heading off across the grass and a great shot of the track with the cycle track providing informal seating and sunbathing with the outer banking and its trees at the top of the picture.   [From the top: David Lyle, Dora Stephen, – , Eleanor Gunstone, Netta Sinclair.  Also Jimmy Campbell]

Netta Sinclair dictating confirmed result to Carole Shaw

Hilda Everett noting the times from Tom Bolan (Colzium) (top) and John Robertson (ESH)

The above were all taken at Grangemouth and as well as showing the officials at work, the track enclosed within the cycling track.

Officials at Meadowbank in 1986 led by Willie Laing and Davie Morrison with Bill Gentleman at the back in front of Willie Laing’s daughter 

Bob Dalgleish, centre, before the Glasgow Marathon

Even when the subject was ostensibly the official, some did creep in –

Back at Meadowbank, Eddie Coyle scrutinises the shot putter but in the background are Davie Morrison and Willie Laing. 

None of the officials in any of the photographs knew they were being caught on camera.   That is the thing that makes them special: the men and women who make the meetings run being seen at their work, doing the various jobs diligently without any fuss.  Most of Alastair’s pictures of officials in action were taken at Grangemouth.   It is an interesting track – the last track in Scotland to host a full-scale international meeting with every track event for men and women, every field event and all the relays.   No other track had that capability.   It also had a straight marked so that the short sprints and sprint hurdles coule be held in either direction to give the athletes the benefit of any wind if that was felt appropriate.   The first photograph below is of the 110 men’s hurdles going the ‘wrong’ way in the straight.   Note also the black outside track, originally intended for cycle races.

Looking back at race results and seeing how the Scots performed is always a fascinating occupation.   Alastair Macfarlane has passed on the results of the AAA’s marathon championships of 1975 and also of 1976 when it was an Olympic trial.   Look at the number of Scots competing, look at the quality of these runners: it’s what we look for in all events – the number and the quality of these numbers.   1975 first.

And for 1976

… runners like Sandy Keith, Don Macgregor, Doug Gunstone, Alastair Macfarlane, Jim Dingwall, Colin Youngson, Willie Day, Donald Ritchie, Alex Wight and Martin Craven all on the first page on a very hot and sticky day.   A Scottish marathon championship, held domestically would be very happy even now to have so many talented runners battling it out.

By 1981 the race was back to mid-October and the numbers had increased as shown in this brief preview from ‘The Scotsman’.

The race was held, 101 runners finished the race, 5 inside 2:20, another 12 inside 2:30 and runners from all over Scotland from the Shetland Isles to the Cheviot Hills.  The detailed results below were provided by Colin Youngson who was first Scot to finish and Scotland won the team race on countback.   With only two to count, the home country had three in the first six finishers

Colin’s medal for the race is shown below – even for a good athlete like Colin, it had special value since the race was an international and there were so few of them for road racers (but more international contests did take place, at Glasgow and Aberdeen, during the imminent ‘marathon boom’ years). 

That it had been a successful event, there was no doubts but the Glasgow Sports promotion Council had bigger plans yet.   Ron Marshall in the ‘Glasgow Herald’ comments on the race but looks ahead to the city’s plans for 1982.   He writes:

Did the Council’s plans for a bigger event in 1982 come to fruition?   Elsewhere in this website Joe Small who ran in the ’79 and ’80 versions of the race says:   “Following on from the success of large marathons such as New York and London, the race this year was the first “Scottish People’s Marathon” with a new course taking in much of the city, starting on the Saltmarket, via George Square taking in Byres Road, Dumbarton Road, the Clydeside Expressway, the Broomielaw, Bellahouston Park, Pollok Park then through the south side and finishing at Glasgow Green.   From the hundred or so starters in previous years a huge total, 7100, set out on Scotland’s first mass participation “people’s” event.”   See the picture below if any evidence is required.

It was a pity that the Glasgow International Marathon had to go.   It was a very good race over an interesting course that was a success by its own lights.   The day of the mass marathon was upon athletics by the 1980’s and the new race was maybe an even bigger success – the sheer numbers, the new athletics enthusiasts that it brought into the sport, the rise in the numbers of sub-2:20 runners was high, the rise in sub:2:30 higher and the number inside 3:00 hours would have been unbelievable at any point in the past.