Author: The Author

Eddie Stewart

For decades the high spot of the cross country season was the International Cross-Country Championship.   Anyone with any pretensions wanted to make the team and worked really hard to do so.   There were, as is natural with any event as prominent as this one, sometimes problems and controversies that arose.   eg the choice of venue for the 1978 world cross-country championship.    The commonest cause for disagreement however was team selection.   In 1985 there was what was possibly the biggest and most controversial selection ever.

The teams were chosen in the main following the results of the National Cross-Country Championships.  The Scottish squad was usually selected after the race with the names of those chosen in the Press on Monday morning.   There were exceptions – on occasion a top runner was injured or had some minor ailment such as the ‘flu or a cold, and was counted in the team on the basis of form throughout the year.   Grumbles were commonplace, scandals were rare.   

The National at the Jack Kane Sports Centre in Edinburgh on 23rd February, 1985, was a good exciting race over a mixed course including farmland and good grass running.   It was won for the sixth time by Nat Muir of Shettleston from John Robson of Edinburgh Southern Harriers.   The first nine men home, in order, were Muir, Robson, Ross Copestake (Dundee), George Braidwood (Bellahouston), Jim Dingwall (Falkirk Victoria), Charlie Haskett (Dundee), Eddie Stewart (Cambuslang), Colin Hume (ESH) and Neil Tennant (ESH).    So far so good.   The team selected  for the International in Lisbon on 24th March consisted of Muir, Robson, Copestake, Braidwood, Dingwall, Haskett, Hume and Tennant plus Robert Quinn, winner of the Junior race.     Stewart had been left out.  Those selected had finished in the National in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th and 9th positions.   It looked like a clear case of favouritism.

Worse was to come but first, a word of explanation.   Because the Scottish age group dates were different from the international age group birth dates, there were always some highly placed Scots who could not be selected because of this discrepancy.   The Junior team selected was Begen (Springburn), Carey (Annan), Hanlon (ESH), Russell (Law), Scally (Shettleston) and Smith (Winsford).   Those who were at the race, and those who were not there but perused the results with any care, noticed that one athlete was omitted who would, on previous years’ criteria, have been selected was Pat Morris of Cambuslang.   Pat had been sixth in the Junior race, fourth in the international age group runners, and was left out.

Two Cambuslang Harriers omitted from the Scottish teams for the major event of their winter season after ostensibly qualifying for the race.   The local paper led with this article:

The runners concerned were both liked and respected in equal measure by their peers.   Nobody in Scottish athletics had a bad word to say for Eddie who was one of the quietest men in the sport, never boasting about his achievements although he had quite a lot to boast about.   Pat was a cheery, friendly young man who always seemed to be laughing or having a good time.   They were both hard runners who never gave anybody an easy race and both had plenty of talent.   There seemed no obvious reason for their exclusion from the teams.

Cambuslang Harriers were not happy with this turn of events and Des Yuill. one of Scottish road and cross-country’s longest and hardest working officials, was their spokesman.   In the Glasgow Herald on Friday, 28th February, Stewart McIntosh wrote as follows:  

“Cambuslang Harriers are pressing for a motion of no confidence in the SCCU’s selection committee after two Cambuslang runners were passed over for the Scottish Junior and Senior teams at the world cross-country championships.   The teams were selected after last Saturday’s Scottish National Cross-Country Championships in Edinburgh.   Cambuslang’s Eddie Stewart was not among the nine selected for the senior team despite finishing seventh on Saturday.   The first six men home were selected, however, Stewart, who finished only three seconds behind Haskett, was ignored while Colin Hume and Neil Tennant, both of Edinburgh Southern, were selected although they finished in eighth and ninth positions, 20 seconds behind Stewart.   The winner of the Junior race, Robert Quinn of Kilbarchan, was also selected.   

In naming  the six man junior team the selectors similarly by-passed Cambuslang’s Pat Morris who finished sixth in the junior championship race.   Because of a age disqualification, the first three finishers were too old to run internationally as juniors.   The selectors picked the fourth and fifth finishers, but ignored Morris, who was only three seconds behind.   Again they reached back into the field for the eighth and eleventh finishers in the Youths race.   It is usual to give a position to the first youth only, and the beneficiary of this unusual move is Tom Hanlon of Edinburgh Southern, who was second youth.

Cambuslang officials are incensed at what they see as a lack of reward for good performances in the “national”  and they feel particularly aggrieved that three Edinburgh Southern men have been selected in the face of better performances by Cambuslang runners.   “We are not doing this to force a re-selection,” says Des Yuill of Cambuslang Harriers, “But we want to ensure that a proper and fair selection procedure is set up for future years.”   

The motion of no confidence needs the support of six other clubs, and Yuill is confident that he will have these by the weekend.   The Scottish Cross-Country Union will then have to hold a special meeting to discuss the matter within 14 to 21 days and that would force the issue before the Scottish squad travels to Lisbon.” 

Des Yuill and Jim Scarbrough of Cambuslang had been involved in athletics for decades – they had both been runners and raced for their clubs in all the main races – McAndrew Relays, Nigel Barge Road Race, county and district relays and so on – but their real worth to Scottish athletics was as officials and administrators.   They had held positions in club, District and National committees of the SAAA and SCCU.   They knew the rules and had known the administrators that they were dealing with for some time.   They knew what to do.   Once they had decided to ask for a General Meeting to discuss the matter, they wrote to the other clubs.   The first letter below was asking for support.

The support was quickly obtained with the clubs in support being Bellahouston, Clyde Valley, East Kilbride, Garscube, Kilmarnock, Kirkintilloch, Larkhall, Law, Livingston, Maryhill, Springburn and Strathclyde University.    At this point with feelings running quite high, and athletes and officials across the country taking sides, mainly in support of the Cambuslang Two, the wise old heads of the Cambuslang Harriers committee decided to withdraw the request for a Special General Meeting in return for a slot at the Annual General Meeting of the SCCU.   The following letter was sent by Des Yuill to all club secretaries.

The line to be taken by the two club representatives at the annual general meeting at the start of May, 1985, was to ask for a definite selection policy to be set out by the SCCU for the guidance of runners and clubs in future.    Reasons for that were set out in the letter above.   Pat Morris did travel to Lisbon and run for the team after all when one of the others withdrew through injury  but Eddie had still missed out.   Came the day and Des’s speech was a model of its kind.   The club’s points were made, the withdrawal of the vote of no confidence repeated and the request for a definite selection policy for future teams made.   The speech is worth reading again and is reproduced below;

The comments from the club as expressed above are clear, well set out and cover all the bases.   The club emerged from the situation with credit.  The discussion was carried on in a civilised fashion, the Union agreed to look positively at the selection procedures and all parties were satisfied – or as near satisfied as was possible in the circumstances.

In the photo above, Ian Stewart leads Ian McCafferty over the finish line in the final of the Men’s 5000 metres.   Kip Keino was third.   After Lachie won the 10,000 m earlier in the week, and the marathon men did their bit midweek, and temporary Scotsman Peter Stewart picked up a medal in the 1500m, the Rosemary Stirling won the women’s 800m on the last day, this really made the week for Scottish distance runners.   The day itself was a really good one for the Scots and after the marvellous closing ceremony where the protocol really did break down spontaneously (it’s been too staged at events since then, it was the end of a wonderful part which had happened to include a Games of very high standards athletically indeed.

Then there was the closing ceremony: the details were contained in the programme – see this page after the last race – and it was a formal affair as was the custom then.   The teams marched in and lined up on the infield, the flag was lowered, folded and given to the representative from New Zealand, a speech or two and then the athletes were supposed to march out in formation.   Well, they started to leave in that fashion and then they just broke ranks and the various countries just mixed with each other, they danced, they generally had a good time on their way from the stadium.   Everyone, including the Royal family was delighted – this breaking of ranks and expression of joy and happiness and friendship was to a large extent what gave the Games the title of The Friendly Games.   It was a moment that could never ever be replicated.   To an extent it was following the formalities that went before but it was a marvellous experience for all who were there on the day.   

The pages dealing with the formalities are included on this page after the race details.

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The penultimate day was short in time – only 4 events taking place – but very high indeed in terms of quality.   For instance the men’s 800m included Ralph Doubell of Australia – coached by Franz Stampfl, he had won the Olympic 800m in Mexico in 1968.   He won his Heat.   The women’s 800m was equally interesting with Sheila Carey, Noreen Braithwaite and Pat Lowe of England lining up with Rosemary Stirling, Georgena Craig and Margaret Speedman of Scotland with others such as Potts of NZ in there as well.

The events of 23rd July will stay with many of us for a long time to come.   The picture above is of the first three in the marathon – It was fast from the start with 10 miles comfortably or not – sub-50 minutes.   All three Scots did well with Jim Alder, the reigning Games champion at the distance finishing second to an inspired Ron Hill.   The photo above shows Alder, Hill and Don Faircloth (third).   The race was basically organised by the Scottish Marathon Club.   Headed by David Bowman, the club provided stewards, virtually all the officials out on the course as well as most time-keepers and judges.   The list of events below indicates that the heats of the 5000m with Ian Stewart, Ian McCafferty and Lachie Stewart all lining up against such as Kip Keino and Joseph Ngeno (Kenya, Dick Quax and Richard Tayler (New Zealand), Allan Rushmer and Dick Taylor (England), Ron Clarke (Australia) and others.   The final of the women’s 1500m was also on the cards and a great afternoon was eagerly anticipated.

This was one of the very best days of the Games.   Look at the names – Don Quarrie and ‘the great Charles Asati’ as both Glasgow Herald and Scotsman referred to him, Raelene Boyle Alice Annum Margaret Critchley, Kip Keino, Brendan Foster, Ben Jipcho  and they were all racing against the runners we saw and ran with most weeks of the year – Helen Golden, Moira McLeish, Liz Sutherland and the rest.   Then there was Ian McCafferty in the final of the 1500m   – when the runners came out of the tunnel those who knew Ian’s running just groaned.   He walked out of the tunnel and sat down.  Everybody else emerged into the daylight and started doing wind sprints or were jogging around and looking purposeful.   Ian just looked listless.   He could only finish sixth in 3:42.2 while runners who should have been well behind him were winning medals.   Mind you, he did have a chance to redeem himself when it came to the 5000m final and his run in that race was wonderful.    Now for thr programme.

The Commonwealth Games held in Edinburgh in 1970 were more than just the first major Games to be held in Scotland, they were the high spot of many sports people’s lives.   The best distance runners from Africa, sprinters from the Caribbean were here in Scotland – and our own runners like Lachie, Ian McCafferty, Les Piggott, Dick Wedlock and others were competing against them.   And these men and women that we rubbed shoulders with at Gourock games, at Babcock’s Sports and in the District Championships did not let us down.   Letters were sent out to all the athletic clubs in the land well before the event with seating plans and ticker prices and order forms.   The people who kept the sport going twelve months of the year were getting first choice of the tickets for their preferred events.  This was before thy went on sale to the general public.   To me a much better way to sell them.   School staff were given a free seat when they brought a specified number of pupils.   They really were special in a way that neither Edinburgh 1986 or Glasgow 2014 could be, although they each had their own charms.   

What these pages attempt to do is follow the running events at the Games as they were printed in the programme  day by day and follow them with the results as published in the official Games Report Book.   Links to the separate days are at the foot of the page.   But first: the calendar of events.

17th July: Athletics Opening Day     18th July   21st July   22nd July    23rd July  .24th July   25th July

The programme for the last day has details of the closing ceremony which went to plan – until the athletes decided not to exit exactly as detailed: they started in orderly ranks and then broke loose, dancing, mixing with athletes from other lands and generally celebrating the end of a wonderful Games.   I would suggest that neither 1986 nor 2014 could match that moment.   Despite the Proclaimers in 2014!

Helen Golden – in an unusual strip!

19th July was a Sunday and there were no Games sports of any description held on that day and Monday 20th was a rest day for athletics so the next day to see any action was 21st July.   Lachie’s win was quite unexpected although all who knew him were confident that he would do well  and after he defeated Ron Clarke and the rest we were delirious.  We needed the two days to recover!   

.Start of Men’s 10000 metres.

Since we already have the pages dealing with officials, administrators and top brass, as well as conversion tables, we will not duplicate these pages.   We have all the pages dealing with the events held on this, the second day of the Games, and results filled in by Alistair Lawson.   This was the day when Lachie Stewart became a world famous runner: I was there and could not have told anyone what the events after that men’s 10000m was – or indeed if there were any! Results below, but first the cover:

Athletics at the Games started on 17th July.   Because it was the first day, the entire programme is included here.   It won’t be the case for the other days since there is a lot of duplication – officials listed, conversion tables, etc.   This, and the other programmes, was supplied by Alistair Lawson of Dumbarton AAC and where they are completed, I’ll let the programmes speak for themselves.   He has done a marvellous job of noting the results – every detail noted and with beautiful penmanship too!   I’ve seldom, if ever, seen a programme completely filled and done so neatly to boot!   Thanks Alistair.

Frank Horwill

The British Milers Club was established in 1963 when the fortunes of British miling were decidedly poor.   The origins of the club, as set out by Frank Horwill who sent the following letter to Athletics Weekly of June 29th, 1963

were as follows:

Back in 1963 there was a lot of criticism of British milers after they had been relegated to 5th place in the European rankings. Frank Horwill had a letter published in AW outlining plans for the formation of a specialist club to stop the miling decline and received 35 letters of support. Soon after, Alf Wilkins, a senior AAA coach and member of NUTS, asked Frank at an athletics meeting, “How many members do you have?” The reply was “You’re the first!”

Wilkins suggested having the first meeting in his accountancy office in London. Out of this the first members included John thresher (Later to become the Executive Director of Athletics Canada), Brian Boulton (Then Kent Mile champion), Wilf Paish (Later to become AAA’s national coach), Maureen Smith (Former WAAA Mile Champion and later SEAA President), Martin Wales (Later to become the police mile champion), Tony Elder, Alf Wilkins and Frank Horwill.

A steering committee was formed and the BMC’s constitution drawn up on one based on one that NUTS were already using. The early decisions made were :
1) The club would be known as the British Milers Club.
2) Entry to the club would be by qualification. The standards of entry were set at

Qualified AAA’s coaches and associates would also be admitted.

3) The object of the club would was to raise British Miling to world supremacy and to assist all those interested in this aim.
4) The clubs aims would be executed by appointing regional secretaries who would have to be senior AAA’s coaches. The regions followed the old AAA areas of South West Counties, Southern Counties, Eastern Counties, etc. Each regional secretary would be responsible for

1. Giving coaching advice to members if requested.
2. Organising fast, paced mile races.
3. Organizing quarterly all-club training days

5) A club magazine would be published twice a year.

6) A residential training weekend would be staged twice a year.”

Frank’s entire article can be found at    http://www.britishmilersclub.com/aboutbmc/history.asp

Frank Horwill

It was not so much a club as a grouping of athletes from all sorts of clubs who had a common interest in bettering their performance without leaving their first claim club.   There would be no BMC team in any league at any time: the sole purpose of membership was to raise the standard of individual runners and so raise the standard of national and international miling.   

Runners and coaches are always keen on anything that improves their running – competitively as well as time-wise.   The applications came in and the honour of being British Milers Club member number one went to Scots Miler Hugh Barrow.   Hugh and Frank got on very well together, partly because of Hugh’s attitude that you often had to take the race by the scruff of the neck and force the pace along.   Runners and coaches generally got on well with Frank – it was the administrators, selectors and sometimes race officials who were often in dispute with him and with the club.   The club had several Scottish members who helped build the club right from the beginning: in addition to Hugh, Ian Young and Alistair Blamire who were founder members, most of the top Scots such as Ken Ballantyne and Graham Stark were members and the tradition continued with Mike McLean, Dick Hodelet, Alistair Currie, Adrian Callan and many more.    

The club flourished and more activities were added to the races with the same focus – raising the standard of miling in the country.   The BMC News magazine first appeared in January 1964 as a double sheet of A4, folded to give eight pages of information useful to the runners and coaches.   Publication at first was erratic with May 1965 being the second, May 1966 the third before in 1967 it settled into the current format of two issues per year, one in Spring and one in Autumn.   The nature of the magazine has changed over the news with the current issues being approximately 50 pages in length, printed in full colour, lots of photographs and plenty of information on training, reports on major Games and awards made by the club.      There is the annual two-day AGM and conference which incorporates a training function giving runners more ideas that they can maybe incorporate into their training.   Then there is the Academy for young athletes who have qualified for BMC membership with its own training days/weekends.   It now has a salaried secretary in the form of Pat Fitzgerald, long time member, secretary and coach seriously involved in the club and its welfare.   Another step forward.   It was a blow for the club when Frank died – at one point at an AGM there was a definite proposal to wind it up but Frank stood, almost alone to keep the club in existence and his was the driving personality for many years.   However the structures that had been put in place were such that the club has not only continued, but continued to develop new initiatives and the Scots are still playing their part in it.

BMC News 1 – 11   BMC News  12 – 29   BMC News 30 – 42  BMC News 1990 – 1999   BMC News 2000 – 2009   BMC News 2010 – 2020  .

BMC: A Bit of Context   British Milers Club in Scotland   .     Hugh Barrow answers the BMC Questionnaire   Hugh Gets the Frank Horwill Award