Category: Uncategorized

See also:  The Baths Were The Winter HQ     What Was A Steamie?     Some Memories Of The Baths       Calder Street Baths

The Wash House Harriers: Dennistoun Public Baths (c1890)

The importance of Burgh Swimming Baths to Scottish cross-country running and endurance running generally cannot be stressed too much.   Many clubs used the local Baths for their headquarters and trained from them on club nights (usually Tuesday and Thursday) all through the winter and often enough on Saturdays during the summer.  The attractions were many and obvious.   For instance the clubs did not have to buy the premises, nor did they have to rent them: they were run by the local authority and it was usually possible to simply book them at the start of the season with members paying their own entry fee when they came to train there.   They were also warm – lovely and warm during the winter months with hot pipes that ran around just below the ceiling from which the runners could hang their towels when they were out training and were warm for use after the showers.   That’s another thing – the Baths usually had communal showers where stories could be told, songs sung, banter engaged in and generally were quite a social occasion.  Towels could be hired too and left for washing afterwards.  There was often also a room, or rooms, where committee meetings could be held and the relationship between Baths staff and Harriers was always of the best.   For a few coppers more of course the swimming pool could be an added attraction after the run.      It could be confusing too at times when an area had several Baths, for instance Barrhead was reputed to have five public swimming baths which caused some confusion to visiting runners who became separated from the pack.   

Western Baths Club

They were used right from the start by the various sections of Clydesdale Harriers.  The principal runs were held from the Victoria Baths and the Western Baths, the former being the grand opening run with all sections represented and the latter being the closing run with all sections present.  In 1989/90 runs were held from the above venues plus Dennistoun Baths from which the opening run had been held in 1887/88.  In 1888/89 the club handbook commented that the most popular runs were those held from the various Private Baths and Barracks.

Victoria Baths

The use of The Baths for training purposes was largely a West Coast phenomenon but it was not exclusively so.   Ian McKenzie says: “My recollections in Edinburgh go back to the early 1950’s when there was a combined clubs pack run from Portobello Baths before the start of the cross country season, always graded and with  “pace and whip” woe betide if you got in front of the pace you immediately got told by the whip to get back.    The first East District c/c league race was always organized by Teviotdale and changing was in the public baths, after showering you would jump into the pool to have a swim. Many East District races were also run from the Newcraighall Pit which meant there was an abundance of hot showers and baths to enjoy.”

And note the Fixtures from the Edinburgh Northern Harriers handbook of 1935-36, below,  which has a reference to what was probably the inter-club run Ian mentions above.

There is not much information about the Perth/Dundee areas as far as the swimming baths are concerned.   In the late 1920’s there were inter-club runs from the Perth Public Baths in the Dunkeld Road, led by Falkirk Victoria  Harriers and including Dundee Thistle Harriers but with eight clubs involved in 1927.   

In Ayrshire, we know that the Garnock Baths were used on occasion as changing for the AHCA Relays in the 1950’s.   

Much more recently, the newly formed Dundee Road Runners club used Lochee Baths in Dundee every Tuesday and Thursday and sometimes a Sunday from 1984 until around 1998 when they moved to Fitness First Gym in the Hilltown.

Edinburgh Northern Harriers Fixture list for 1935/36

They could also be hired for local road races – for instance, 

• The Bruce Street Baths at Clydebank were stripping accommodation before the 16 miles Clydebank to Helensburgh race and at the finish of the Balloch to Clydebank road race;
•   Whiteinch Baths were used for the McAndrew Relay Race;
•   Maryhill Baths at Gairbraid Street were the headquarters of the Nigel Barge Race;
•   Brock Baths in Dumbarton were used for the Dunbartonshire County championships and for the relays too when it was Dumbarton AAC’s turn to host      them

There are other examples of the use of the Baths for race HQ’s in the East District..    Alex Jackson points out that the East District League from 1924, started as four meetings in Edinburgh, two from Portobello Baths and two from Glenogle Baths which were near open country at that time.   

Douglas MacDonald tells us of the story after the Nigel Barge Road Race from Maryhill Baths:-

“I spent time in the side room compiling the results by hand, as each sheet was completed by the recorders at the finish, I would run up to the baths with it (50 names at a time I think?). It was a team race so we had to get the first 3 from each club and add up the points as well as match the numbers to times to names and post them on the wall before people were ready to leave. As an aside, there were also spot prizes at the Nigel Barge. The way it was worked was a runner who turned up every week but never got a prize was selected and it was 10 places up, and so on, until the spot prizes were finished.”

There were also occasions when the Baths were the fall-back option for a race.   Ian McKenzie talks of the East District League matches hosted by Teviotdale Harriers where the clubhouse was near to the Baths but not capacious enough to deal with the numbers so the Baths were used for the League matches.   

There is a belief, ‘myth’ would be too strong a word for it, that Shettleston Harriers used the public baths at Dennistoun, but Shettleston Harriers historian John MacKay said when asked about it – 

“Shettleston Harriers never used the Dennistoun Baths (Now a Snooker Hall) -There was a club which ran out of them – Dennistoun Harriers -one of the first clubs in Scotland . From my research they seemed very posh baths – Steam rooms ,Turkish baths and a gym for doing gymnastics etc. The short-lived ladies section of Shettleston h (1930’s) used Shettleston Baths but that was after the men would not allow them to use the clubhouse. The men’s club used an old fruit shop at first , then a school until they built the clubhouse in Gartocher Rd”.   And went on to say – “I know a lot of Harriers clubs in the early days used the Green Head Baths on Glasgow Green and I have seen lots of references to runs from there – Greenhead Harriers /Celtic Harriers /Plebeian H all used it at some time” 

Greenhead Baths and Wash House

However despite almost all being individually architect designed, despite almost every one being a listed building, many were destroyed or transformed beyond recognition.   For instance, the Gartsherrie Baths in Coatbridge, home to Coatbridge Junior Harriers and to the Monkland Harriers prior to the construction of the Inveresk Pavilion were part of the Gartsherrie Institute & Baths  and was eventually demolished.   The photograph below, from Joe Small, is of the Institute immediately prior to being demolished.

The Whiteinch Steamie

The Steamie was a public wash house and often contained baths (slipper baths and ordinary baths) as well as a swimming bath.   The following definition comes from the Sunday Post of 7th September, 2018.   

“Wash houses and baths came into being after a working class outcry for sanitation reform in the country in the Victorian age as a direct response to a perceived threat from infectious epidemic diseases like cholera and tuberculosis.

As industrialisation advanced from the late eighteenth century onward more and more people lived in towns and worked in factories, and as this new way of life spread, health conditions deteriorated, leaving far behind any voluntary, half-hearted efforts to cope with the problem.

The first official wash house in Glasgow was opened in 1876 on London Road after new legislation was passed in 1866 to introduce a fleet of wash houses across Scotland.   Throughout the years that followed, over 20 baths and wash houses were opened across the city of Glasgow, with many more springing up across the country.   By 1915, public baths and wash houses were to be found in nearly every British town and city.”

The ‘lockers’ at the front left are referred to by Hugh Barrow on the next page when he talks about their kit being ‘baked’

A picture of the Partick Steamie, which was fairly typical.   One runne says:  says” This is how I recall Whiteinch layout.   You could really get a soak in these tubs after the flog round Knightswood Tues Thurs”

This page shows some of the Baths used by harriers and goes into some detail about the design and manufacture of the buildings as an illustration of the quality of design and building in which the sport was nurtured.   

They were not poor buildings for poor people, they were quality buildings for human beings.   

Maybe the first with a  connection to a harriers club was the Greenhead Baths at the east end of Glasgow which was used for varying short spells by a variety of short lived clubs.   Opened in 1878, this facility replaced the old public wash-house, which was knocked down in 1876. Hamish Telfer mentions some of the older clubs linked with the harrier clubs, many long defunct, as follows:

See also:    The Baths Themselves     What was a ‘Steamie’?    ‘What harriers said and thought about the Baths‘  The Calder Street Baths

Kay Street Baths, the original Soringburn Harriers HQ

This detail is from the Hidden Glasgow website:  Kay Street Swimming Baths and Public wash-house: 
Opened in the early 1890s. As well as a swimming pool, Kay Street provided bathing facilities for Springburn’s tenement dwellers whose houses often had no separate bathroom and for whom a bath at home meant a zinc tub in front of the fire, the water often being used in succession by several members of the family.   Women who had inadequate laundry facilities at home, or who had missed their turn in the communal wash-house in the back court, or who simply preferred the social contact of the ‘steamie’, would bring their washing to Kay Street where they could hire tubs, washboards, wringers and drying machines.   However, the building fell into dilapidation and was demolished at the time of the construction of the new bypass, which runs right behind the site of the old baths. A new sports and leisure centre was opened in 1995 .

Clydesdale Harriers outside Whiteinch Baths, 1913

Although this photograph is of Clydesdale Harriers in 1913, it was known as the winter quarters of Victora Park AAC from their inception in 1930 until the motorway was built over the roads that were used for training purposes n the 1960’s.  Many of the very best runners that Scotland produced trained from there – Ian Binnie, Andy Forbes, Hugh Barrow and many more graced the premises.   Like Kay Street, it was also a Baths and Steamie.   The following notes are from ‘The Glasgow Story’

‘The Whiteinch Public Baths and Wash-house were built next to the public halls and the building contained a large swimming pond 75 feet by 35 feet 6 inches; a small pond of 40 feet by 20 feet; sixteen slipper baths for ladies and thirty-one for men; forty-three wash stalls; sixteen washing machines and (from 1926) a Turkish bath with room for twenty people. Sun lamps were installed in the 1930s.’

The illustration below shows the big lockers at the side.  I don’t know what the purpose was during the day,  but it was where the runners of Victoria Park hung their kit which came out baked stiff but dry.

Many Victoria Park club championships were run from there but the main event for decades was the McAndrew Relay, the start of the cross-country and road season, held on the first Saturday of October every year.   

Hall Street Baths, Clydebank, were part of a block including some tenement homes and the Fire Station, and the original finish for the runners in the Balloch to Clydebank race..

The big window at Bruce Street Baths in Clydebank.   Described officially as :  The Bruce Street Baths was designed to replace the nearby Hall Street Baths (now demolished) which were becoming too small. The plans were approved by the Council in 1929 and the baths were opened in 1932. It originally had a variety of facilities, including Turkish Baths, Russian Vapour Baths, a laundry and a massage room. (Historic Scotland)   The men were quartered in the two big basement rooms with communal showers, the Ladies were upstairs with individual baths (there were 22 ‘slipper baths’.    Like many, it was a superb bulding in its own right made to the highest standards and a real asset to the town.   The Harriers used it for training (Tuesday, Thursday and often Saturday and races were organised therefrom – club and County championships as well as the two open road races mentioned above.   Only the facade remains today of the Bruce Street Baths, the rest having been destroyed.

Brock Baths, Dumbarton

From The Lennox Herald:   The Baths were named after the man who was the leading partner of  William Denny and Brothers from 1895 to 1907.   He left £10,000 in his will for such a purpose and work began on the building in 1912.   The architect was Alexander C Denny, a grandson of John Denny, the former town clerk of Dumbarton.   The swimming pool was 75 feet long and 30 feet broad and there was a gallery to accommodate about 100 spectators.   The official opening of the baths took place on June 13th, 1914, and was performedd by the son and daughter of Walter Brock, who gave an endowment of £4000 to help maintain the baths.   During the first few days of opening, the baths could not cope with the numbers of people wishing to use the facility.   The cost of an adult swim in 1914 was 2d and a swimming costume could be hired for 1d ( a penny).

Dennistoun Baths Harriers, (c1900)  ‘The Glasgow Story has this to say:

Dennistoun Baths Harriers before setting off for a “hare and hounds” race c 1900. John Wilson is on the end of the third row on the right hand side.   Dennistoun Baths opened in Craigpark in 1884 and was privately run for members only until it closed in 1993. Apart from access to a swimming pool and Turkish Baths, members could also join various clubs which were affiliated to the baths, such as the harriers club (for cross-country running)

Maryhill Baths  &  Maryhill Harriers

Maryhill Swimming Baths: Entry for the Harriers was from Gairbraid Avenue but generally from Bunhouse Road.   Another superb building, builtwith the style and quality that Glaswegians were brought up to expect.   Infinitely preferable to the functional boxes that passed for architecture in the 70’s and 80’s.    It was the venue for the Nigel Barge Road Race – run over approximately 5 miles on the first Saturday of the New Year.    Opened on 30th May 1898.

Glasgow Office of Public Works, A B McDonald, City Surveyor 1896-1898. 1- and 2-storey originally roughly square plan Baroque former baths and washhouses. Polished red ashlar sandstone. Side elevations now rendered. Steeply sloping corner site .    

BURNHOUSE STREET ELEVATION: single storey, 10-bay with gables over central bays and bay to right. Roll moulded and keystoned openings. Central segmental arched window with gable above with Glasgow coat of arms, flanked by square headed doorways with two-leaf timber doors and fanlights and with inscriptions above, WASHHOUSE to left and PUBLIC BATHS to right. Wider segmental arched doorway to far left. Large round-arched window with Gibbs surround at far right (matching window on adjoining elevation) to former committee room (later manager’s office).

GAIRBRAID STREET ELEVATION: 2-storey 10-bay with blind openings to ground floor. Large round-arched window in bay to left; Ionic colonettes dividing windows at first floor.

Pollokshaws Baths & Bellahouston Harriers

As used by Bellahouston Harriers.   The Glasgow Story says – “The red brick building was designed and constructed as a baths and wash-house around 1920 by the Corporation’s Office of Public Works. It was converted into Pollokshaws Sports Centre in the 1980s. A proposal by Glasgow City Council to close the centre in 1999 was resisted successfully.

Calder Street Public Baths & Washhouse

West of Scotland used these – the Govanhill Baths – for many years having also used the Maryhill Baths.   The Glasgow City Archive tells us that “The baths were designed by A B McDonald and opened in 1917 after the architect’s death. They contained hot baths in the upper storey and three swimming pools on the ground floor. There was a seating gallery around one of the pools for spectators attending events such as galas. There was also a wash-house or “steamie” at the rear of the building”    It was described in 2022 as a listed building, category B and Glasgow’s last Edwardian public bath house by the Historic Pools of Britain group.   It is one of only two Scottish pools listed, the other being the Western Club in Glasgow.   Like all the pools on this page, the building was architect designed and made to very high standards.

Renfrew Victory Baths & Renfrew YMCA

(Photograph from a Visit Scotland brochure)   The Baths were used by Renfrew YMCA Harriers after the Second World War.   The Paisley.org site says:    Renfrew (Victory) baths is an Edwardian building with a 25 yard pool and 1920s layout of cubicles around it, arched doorways and a viewing gallery. In the entrance there is a huge war memorial listing at least 1,000 names of Renfrew men lost in the 1914-18 War.   The whole story of how the Baths came to be, how they were donated to the Burgh (complete with the text of the letter making the offer), the condition that it would house the names of the war dead is on an interesting video at    Renfrew Victory Baths is 100 – YouTube

The ad below is from the ‘Scots Athlete’ Magazine of September 1947.

Portobello Public Baths  &  Edinburgh Southern Harriers

Portobello baths were opened in 1901 and described as ‘one of the jewels of Victorian architecture in Scotland’.  An open air heated swimming pool was later added: among those who served as lifeguards was a young Sean Connery.

Robin in the Edinburgh University 10

Robin Thomas was a talented runner who went on to be President of the SCCU and a national figure in the sport.   However that is rarely mentioned when his name comes up in conversation and he is possibly better known as the spirit behind the Hunters Bog Trotters team.   Such is their respect for him that in the 2011 Run and Become Open 2 Mile Race there were runners called Steve Robin Thomas Cairns, Robin Simon Thomas, Robin Ellis Thomas McKechnie, Robin Ivor Thomas Normand,Robin Eilidh Thomas Wardlaw, Robin Andrew Thomas McKechnie,  Robin Deborah Thomas MacDonald, Michelle Robin Thomas Jeffrey and many others.   Is it a new twist on “I’m Spartacus” or an Edinburgh version of “We’re a’ Jock Tamson’s bairns”?   His friend Colin Youngson wrote this profile of the man and his career with considerable assistance from Robin himself.

Robin’s wide circle of friends and less-impressed acquaintances may consider him an endearing oddball or indeed quite outrageous but he himself claims “Not unpredictably, I would suggest that I am a “character” rather than an eccentric. Assessment of eccentricity depends upon how broad a spectrum of personalities one has met in life and to what extent one is a prisoner of conventional, unadventurous, unimaginative thinking…… i.e. Tory (metaphorically, if not literally) thinking!” In the phrasing of that suggestion, the co-founder and mainstay of Hunter’s Bogtrotters (undoubtedly the most zany and unusual Scottish running club) reveals humour, originality and a concern for longwinded verbal precision. Much of the following profile will be in his own idiosyncratic and entertaining words, since he has had the impudence, nay the temerity to criticise mine as lacking accuracy!

Robin H. C. Thomas states the following. “I was born and bred in Swansea, living there between April 1955 and August ’66. Then I became a White Settler in Edinburgh, where I lived until September 1969, before moving to Penicuik for six years. Home was a mile and a half away from (and three hundred feet lower than) Howgate. I have nostalgic memories of various Penicuik 10ks in the 1990s, seeing brown-vested runners each in turn veering out of the race and pulling across the road for a Panic Pint in the Howgate Inn (those were the days when one’s legs were still frisky enough to catch (some) people again afterwards!)

Primary education was at various schools in Swansea; with Secondary Education at George Heriot’s in Edinburgh. I started running for school cross country and athletic clubs in 1968 (eventually becoming Captain and Vice-Captain thereof respectively).

In January 1972 I suffered a mountaineering accident, in Glendoll. I was unconscious for ten days, but lived to tell the tale after spending three months in hospital. Said accident left me totally deaf in my right ear.

I matriculated as a Fresher at Edinburgh University in 1972, being instantly given the nickname of “YP” by the then EUH&H Secretary Jim Dingwall (later an outstanding Scottish and British International) when I turned up for my first Wednesday afternoon’s fartlek. At the time I was still 17 years of age and living in Penicuik and Jim cried, “Ah, you’ll have to be YP!” (YP being a group of adolescent residents of Peni, prone to killing evenings together on the streets, occasionally with a canister of aerosol paint for graffiti).”   Sunday runs, unsurprisingly, were important in improving the stamina of nearly all Edinburgh distance athletes. Robin says “the Sunday training group from the Bruntisfield flat of Martin Craven (“The Crab”) went into the Pentlands, past four reservoirs (Torduff, Clubbiedean, Harlaw and Threipmuir) or sometimes seven reservoirs [aforementioned four plus Loganlea, Glencorse and Bonaly]. It was run at an amicable pace for all – often with fast runners looping back for wreckage. It was only in the mid to late 70s when Colin Youngson and Sandy Keith lived in Edinburgh that it became a burn-up along the Water of Leith valley to Balerno and back, using the formerly railway trackbed now Water of Leith walkway!” (In retrospect, I must admit partial culpability, although after Balerno, as real marathon preparation, we did occasionally come back through the reservoirs and finish with yet another lap of the Meadows to make the distance up to 25 gruelling miles.)

Robin made an impact in the November 1974 Edinburgh to Glasgow Road Relay when he was tenth fastest on Stage Two, only 14 seconds slower than Willie Sheridan, the future founder of Westerlands AC. Robin insist there is no such person – only ‘Bill Sheridan’ – but during 1971-73 I used to be in Victoria Park AC with young Willie and that is how they referred to him in Glasgow, so there, pedant!   Robin represented EU in the E to G in six successive races from 1974 to 1979. One highlight was in 1977 when he was sixth fastest on the prestigious Stage Six. The following year EU finished eleventh, after Robin had gained two places on Six. Then in 1979 he tackled Stage Seven, gained three places and was second-fastest by one second to future marathon star Lindsay Robertson of EAC.

At this juncture, Robin interjected the following. “Your version tends to concentrate on racing, rather than simply on running! For me, running is an end in itself and also a means to an end (weekly racing)”.

When I was in my 20s and 30s, I tended to do Long Slow Distance and little or no speedwork. I am wary of the “no gain without pain” philosophy – in longer term it can lead to injury, disenchantment, disillusionment, becoming burnt out and retiring from the sport. How many runners, coached in their younger years, continue racing in older years. PNFA!

Runners, whatever their ability, should apply themselves wholeheartedly to the sport. Massive improvement is achievable by all, by consistent and prudent (maybe hard – which includes mere mileage – but not manic) training.

Other thoughts. 1) Racing: I have scorn for those who only race when fit; 2) Attitude: my philosophy is what can one contribute to the sport, rather what one can get out of it.”

In the 1975 Junior National CC, Robin finished 33^rd but was part of the EU team that secured bronze medals. In 1976 he improved to 12^th, only one second behind Graham Laing, another future marathon star.

In the 1978 Senior National CC, Robin finished a respectable 63^rd which he dismisses as “dross”, mentioning that his “training was inconsistent in the later 70s and early 80s, due to having to work to support myself – night shift a speciality – while also being a (part-time) student.)” He represented EU three times in the Scottish CC Relay, and his team achieved 5^th place in 1975 and 6^th in 1978.

On the track, Robin recorded 32.47.4 in the 1976 East District 10,000m but must have reached half way in 15 minutes, since the eventual winner Colin Youngson remembers having to try very hard to drop him! In 1977 Robin improved to 31.30.4, which ranked 20^th in Scotland. That year he was second to Ian Orton in the Scottish Universities 5000m; and third in the British Universities 10,000m at Belfast. Robin’s 5000m personal best was 14.47. (The Scotstats profile refers to him only as “Rod/Ron? Thomas”, such is Robin’s modesty and generally low profile ……..) He says “I did increasingly little track running in my later years at Uni, partly because I found long distance track running less than hedonistic. Track 10k is utterly dire compared with the 10k cross country (especially ‘real’ cross country!), road and hill-running. Also the speed work involved for track grew increasingly unpalatable as I grew older – preferring addiction to the narcotic of mileage.”

He showed considerable promise in road running. “In 1983 I did 2.25 in the Belfast City Marathon (having led most of the way, before being destroyed by the Big Guns who had been loitering not far behind, waiting to pounce in their own shoot-out/burn-up). This was my first actual marathon. I also ran 2.25 winning the International Silk Marathon in Cheshire – which I mistakenly thought would be flat, like the Sandbach event. The Silk race proved to be from Macclesfield and was anything but flat!” Robin also won the Edinburgh to North Berwick 21.8 miler twice, in 1984 and 1985, the latter in the good time of 1.57.24.

His LSD training background helped in longer races. In the 1977 Two Bridges 36 miles he finished 9^th in 3.40.04 (recording his very first marathon time of 2.37.18 en route) and the race report states that he “won the handicap with a great run in his debut at the distance against a classy field”. Robin says “I was pleased to reach 30 miles inside three hours but then blew it! I had been catching a Royal Navy runner (name known but withheld) who’d been getting all manner of assistance from his mate in an M.G. Midget (which I thought a trifle unsporting). You’ll know how it is in ultras – patience! It can take about an hour to gain a quarter of a mile. But I caught the guy at 30 miles and was feeling okay – so I put in a burst going over the Forth Road Bridge (the Forth Bridge being for trains only) and stormed past him. Only to discover that it was a Pyrrhic victory – my legs were now wrecked, I slumped to 7 minute miles and he plodded past and away.”

Then in 1984 he was seventh in the gruelling Edinburgh to Glasgow 50 mile race, recording 5.51.53, having lost momentum after a pit-stop in Airdrie Fire Station. “I was also ‘bonking’ (i.e. low blood sugar) for 35 miles! There was no energy drink available but I did manage to grab a packet of Dextrosol – which made me feel great for all of two miles! Would have liked to have beaten 5.50. Ye Gods! My appetite and post-race thirst were utterly insatiable!”

“Lairig Ghru 28. I’m no hill-runner (shockingly bad at racing downhill) but did this event in the mid-80s, doing okay until the boulder field (wet from light rain) where I was simply unable to remain on my feet, falling umpteen times, while nimble chancers danced through without a slip.

Loch Tay 35. A late 1970s undulating training run from Firbush, looping right round Loch Tay. The ‘roadie’ who accompanied me on a pushbike (a certain Ian Orton) ended up with legs/quads more knackered than me due to the switchback trail.

My running and racing in recent decades has been plagued by recurrent injury to upper and lower parts of Achilles tendons (mainly lower calf/soleus). Occasional escapes from jail allow limited training (at funereal pace) before yet another relapse….. The sole important thing these days is being able to continue “running” – nine minute miles a price worth paying if it keeps the legs uncrocked! Appetite (greed!) and thirst, however, remain undiminished!”

Having been on school cross country and athletics committees from 1970 and EUH&H committees from 1973 onwards, Robin Thomas certainly had skills as an organiser. He was in charge of the Edinburgh University 10 miler, which involved two severely undulating laps of King’s Buildings and Braid Hills Drive. “Utilitarian prizes” were preferred to the usual unwanted coffee sets – members of the third team to finish that year each won sixteen Mars Bars!

Robin (the Race Secretary/Organiser) now denies that he ever produced a proper programme for this event. “Gestetner/Banda sheets and notices – yes! Hand-written/printed notices and comments in the Hare & Hounds logbook – certainly!” However I possess a yellowing copy of the typed up and stapled 1980 programme for the EU 10 (which cost me five new pence) and intend to quote from this. It proclaimed “the Edinburgh University Hare & Hounds 10-mile road race (8.87 Scots miles, since a Scots mile is approximately a furlong further than an English mile) has grown to become the SCCU’s biggest and most prestigious 10-mile road race. It now attracts Olympic and Commonwealth Games stars, British Internationalists, Scottish Internationalists, English Internationalists, SUSF and BUSF representatives and droves of runners of lesser ability.” (On reflection, if Don Macgregor and Fergus Murray had turned up, along with a good runner from Newcastle and a jogger or two, all of the above categories would be covered.)

Robin’s comments continued “Slugs (i.e. people who are not members of EUH&H) are invited to take part. Top prizes will be awarded to first Slug and to the first team of Slugs. As indicated above, all members of the Hare and Hounds, not being slugs, do not qualify for these prizes (we also reserve the right to disqualify EU Athletic Club and Orienteering Club runners, so that genuine fat slugs can take part and win). So, stub out your Capstan Full Strength, drain your pint of Export, and look out a pair of training shoes. You could win our Star Prizes – a keg of Export and half an ounce. Spectators will also enjoy the pie-eating contest and a refreshment session after the race.” (In 1980 I was one of the first team home (ESH). Prizes awarded to various finishers included Martini, four cans of beer, a homebrew kit and a jockstrap!)

Proof of the success of Robin’s eccentric marketing strategy came in 1981, when the fastest two runners in Scotland travelled over from the West to battle their way to a new record. Nat Muir (48.37) narrowly defeated Jim Brown (48.48) and secured the winner’s bottle of ten-year old malt whisky! However Robin comments as follows. “I would suggest that my marketing strategy was more unusual, novel, thoughtful, pragmatic, utilitarian, imaginative (and other such adjectives) as opposed to eccentric. Eccentricity depends on the proportion of boring grey conventionalists one has had the misfortune to meet in life. Bear in mind, too, that student clubs don’t have the financial means for spending much on prizes but can make prizes memorable/valued by using other parameters. As for the bottle of malt – the Hare & Hounds are a student club. They’re too young to have discovered the joys of malt! And student club funds are obviously very limited” etc ad nauseam. What a tease the man is! I know for certain that Nat and Jim turned up to joust for such a thoroughly acceptable prize, rather than the tin medals and reject tea-sets they were likely to ‘win’ in ‘normal’ events  during that era.

Other major athletic endeavours for Robin Thomas included walking the Pennine Way in1976 and vast beer tours of the best pubs in Europe, USA and Peru. A real test of determination was ‘The Triple Hundred’ when he managed to run 100 miles and drink 100 pints in 100 hours. This took place on the Isle of Man in 1978. No less an athlete/drinker than World CC Champion Dave Bedford (who trained about 30 miles per day in his pomp but could only drink a wimpish 10 pints daily) was keen to offer his congratulations. Nowadays, Robin is aware that this was a dangerous venture and does “not want some youngster getting injured/knocked down trying to emulate me. Rules were: 100 consecutive hours; no runs of less than 3 miles; no lager – must be real ale – no soft drinks or shandy. And no honking!

Among less notorious events in which I have had the pleasure of taking part are the Trinity College “Gallon Ten” and the Phoenix 14.

The former was 10 x 1 mile (each two laps of the central Dublin campus) with 9×1 pint (an “Irish Gallon”) of Guinness in between in the cricket pavilion. The event eventually became something of a distraction to the cricket players in the simultaneous Dublin Uni v NUU match! I finished second in the Gallon Ten, behind Glasgow Uni’s Alistair Hunter (aka Bunter).

The latter involved the Northumberland Coastal Run (at one time, through sponsorship, known as the Phoenix 14) – a superb point-to-point beween Beadnell and Alnmouth. One year – many, many years ago – a group of Trotters were joined by a similarly-minded group of Westerlands runners in doing the race, but stopping for a pint in each of the half dozen (or so) splendid hostelries in or near villages en route.”

“I graduated in 1976 after a four-year M.A. Honours course. Student years continued thereafter mainly on a part-time basis (financed by night shift work). My reasoning was that not only would this add assorted academic courses to my CV, but I could continue running for “The Hairies” and the financial support then available from the Sports Union (for entries, travel, accommodation etc) was greater than fees for a course. Then there was the prolongation of the craic! I left EU in 1981 and spent my student swansong doing teacher-training at Queens University, Belfast. A very enjoyable year – also a reminder from my Swansea days of the cancer of a west coast climate (prolonged hours/days of light rainfall).”

In August 1980, along with Bill Blair, Ian Orton and Conrad White, formed a new club – Hunters’ Bog Trotters, which started out with ex-EU runners, but expanded to a wide range of like-minded individuals. An article he wrote in Scotland’s Runner magazine in February 1992 states “Our declared aim was combating elitism. HBT realised that a tasteful shade of bog brown was the obvious choice of club colour. A fine non-elitist colour, it was felt. Hunters’ Bog is a large area of (former) bog lying between Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags in Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park, where many training runs were – and remain – centred. The word Trotters was chosen partly due to the terrain in Hunters’ Bog, partly because in Victorian times there had been a local running club (Edinburgh Harriers) known as the Bogtrotters, and partly because (to quote a founder member) “We do no athletics and harry no one, so calling ourselves athletic club or harriers would be both incorrect and pointless.”

“From the outset the HBT viewpoint has been that all Trotters are equal and the wellbeing of the D team no less important than the A team Both the elite and AND the also-rans/the hacks/the wreckage/the debris/the real runners are equally important to the wellbeing of a club. It’s all too easy to pay little attention to the running proletariat of the club (which is where potential for mass improvement lies) and ask after/focus on the A team and the good runners.

That emphasis on morale and club spirit is felt to be very important in this running club as it is believed an individual’s commitment to the sport will be stronger as a consequence. Also, it is felt that getting a lot of enjoyment and laughs out of life (and running), and placing major emphasis on the social life of the club (generally involving a great deal of real ale), is in no way inconsistent with being a dedicated runner.”

Robin comments further on the above: “The original newspaper article was published in the Edinburgh Evening News at the formation of the club. It was written by Sandy Sutherland and was headlined “New Edinburgh club – but not for the elite!” Three founding principles of HBT – apart from anti-elitism (metamorphosed over the years into non-elitism!) – NO God-Squad; NO Tories; and NO lager drinkers! This is to demonstrate from the outset that humour, morale, irreverence and banter are all-important to HBT. “

Nicknames abound amongst the Trotters: for example Stumpy, JamBo, Egg, Pieman, Nixon, Wah-Wah, Zoot, Phat Phil, Big D, Gash, Twiggy, McPosh, Daft Bob and Wallachie. “Wallachie is pronounce Vallachie – the Polish guys who arrested and detained us near their border in Bohemia couldn’t pronounce the “W” let alone “Wallace”.

Over the last 34 years, Robin has soldiered on valiantly as legendary club secretary/organiser and there is plenty of evidence that HBT remain true to the original ethos.

Almost incidentally the Trotters became Senior National CC team champions three times.  In addition many classy runners have chosen to compete for the club and also represent Scotland and GB, especially in hill-running. Robin emphasises that HBT women, like the men, have become one of the numerically biggest and strongest cross country etc clubs in Scotland, having been National CC Champions in 2010 and medallists on many occasions. In addition they have won the National Trail Running Championships and the UK Hill/Fell Running Championships. “Whether races are held in Scotland, England or Wales, they keep winning! But we have plenty of other women Trotters supporting the great brown movement. Traditional Trotter women who, like Traditional Trotter men, enjoy the course for longer than the elitists. HBT women (likewise men) have consistently had the most finishers in Senior National CC in recent years.”

HBT continue to organise the Hunters Bog Trot, the Black Rock Race and the Grudge Match (a bi-annual mismatch against the ‘hated’ Westerlands club). “The Great Trotter Relay is held every year, since it is a massively popular event. Starts in Hunters Bog on the Thursday evening and finishes at some distant spot (Derby? Inverness?) around Sunday teatime (with major support throughout for and by a traditional domestic industry with high economic multiplier).” (Could this be some form of healthy energising beverage? Ed.) “Basically, when there are forty or fifty Trotters participating, there simply aren’t enough stages in the day – there has to be doubling up, quadrupling up, sextupling up (or whatever).

The “Golden Trotter” award (shield and vest) is awarded to the Trotter (preferably not an impressively talented leading light), whose contribution to the club over the last year – racing or otherwise – is seen to be the worthiest Trotter.”

 Robin continues to work hard as an official. From rebel ‘poacher’ to gamekeeper! He started as a representative for EU and later HBT in the East District Committee, graduated to the SCCU committee and became the very last SCCU President in season 1992-1993. “I work as a club committee member in particular, but also on SARR&CCC East District Committee, Ed to NB Road Race and assorted other committees. Until recently I have been President of Vice on SARR&CCC.

“Rebel ‘poacher’? Neither I nor HBT have poached anybody? Very many Trotters are ex-students. Many others only started club competition after joining HBT. Those people who have defected from other clubs have done so because they wanted to.”

Robin Thomas’s running and organising career continues. He is an extremely effective and universally well-liked ‘character’ – a PFGM. “I’m now a dilapidated, post-middle-aged wreck but have been able to swallow any remaining vanity and resign myself to a race pace once seen as slow training pace (7.30s). All that matters at the end of the day is just being able to get out for a few miles!” (At long last, I find myself in total agreement. Ed.)

Several of YP’s associates have contributed anecdotes, accurate or otherwise.

Dave Wahwah Taylor remembers that “when Robin won the International Silk Marathon at Macclesfield, it was during the impecunious days of HBT (before all the plutocrats joined the club). Prizes won by members became the property of the club, and YP as a little disappointed with the suitability of his winnings for the forthcoming Xmas Raffle (especially after 42+km of endeavour) and penned the lines of that well-kent blues number ‘The Macclesfield Silk Tie Blues’!”

Ron Morrison adds “I recall Robin’s tradition of having a pint on the way out of Haddington in the 5 miler and doing the same on the way back. One year in the early 1980s, he and Bill Sheridan ran 8 alternate legs (4 each) of the Laggan Valley relay to finish 5^th team. Robin was President of the SCCU for one week only. He was elected at the AGM in 1992 with a remit of voting for the establishment of the SAF one week later (when the SCCU disbanded). Quite fitting really that it should be Robin. I also remember him eating a fish supper just before the start of the Cupar 5. Indeed he let the start go until he finished the fish supper.”

Ron sent a second email on the topic. “What did ‘YP’ mean? ‘Young Pretender’ was one interpretation I heard! When I was trying to write a definition of a Club in order to set up the new SAF in the early 90s, I floated the idea that a Club was one that had a Constitution and its members paid fees to the Club. Robin told me that this would not do as HBT had tried that and given it up as the treasurer had gone to the pub with the subs and drunk the lot with the members who were present.”

Ian Kiltie emailed many tales. “Robin’s trip with the Guv’nor to see the 1974 European Championships in Rome. Robin went AWOL at Heathrow and missed the flight, which gave Jim a couple of solo days visiting Rome’s churches while Robin renegotiated the flights. The Boston Marathon with Iain Wallace: Robin ended up running the last (first) five miles to the start, against the flow of runners who had already started – ever the purist, he never thought of just joining in.”

“The night Robin met Daley Thompson. Robin had to head off to his holiday toilet cleaning job, but Ian Orton and I were treated to hearing the young Daley (this was ’78) singing “She stood on the bridge at midnight ….” Since Robin had introduced the future Olympic gold medallist to his (Robin’s) infamous songbook.”

“The time that Frank Dick read Robin’s training diary. “What is THAT word? Look, there it is again!”

“The time the fire brigade had to axe their way into his Dreghorn flat because he had left tinned haggis cooking and the neighbours spotted the smoke.”

“Belfast stories. On one of his first nights at Queens, Robin fell in with some types who (naturally for that part of the world) asked which team he supported. Robin, aware of the subtext, replied ‘Meadowbank Thistle’. “No, What TEAM do you support?” Robin had to rely on his knowledge of Irish accents to save the day.”

“Also from the Belfast Days, the Red Bill story. Robin had gone to some left-wing political meetings in Belfast and had been asking probing questions on the state of the plans for the revolution. The Belfast Socialists had become suspicious and desired finding out more about this peculiar Welshman from Edinburgh before kneecapping him as a suspected special branch agent. So they put a call into the Scottish HQ of the Workers Party. It just so happened that Bill Gray was there when the revolutionary speaking from Belfast on the phone asked around “Does anyone know a Robin Thomas?” Bill replied “The Robin Thomas I know is just a daft runner from Edinburgh.” Once again, he lived to see another day.”

“We were also in Belfast the day Virginia Wade won Wimbledon in 1977. Robin spent the afternoon watching the tennis and getting through a case of Guinness. However he had the BUSF 10,000m in the evening and some were taken aback by his preparations. It was very humid and the Guinness must have helped with his hydration because with 9900m gone he was placed 3^rd. Then, with just the straight to go, he stopped – he may have had a digestive malfunction, but the momentum was gone and he was overtaken, as he jogged in over the last 100m.”

“The time on his travels (can’t remember whether it was Oz, NZ or USA) when he entered some big mass participation race and discovered in the newspaper next day that he had been given the prize for the first woman (the organisers had him down as Robyn Thomas)!”

“Robin’s provisional driving licence (luckily the world didn’t see anything come of that) where on the Mr/Miss/Mrs/Dr/Other box on the application form, Robin had written Professor – so there was a 17-year-old with a provisional driving licence for Prof. Robin Thomas.”

I can add one more. In the Spring of 1978, before some championship race or other, I was in the dressing room when I was pleased to see my good friend Robin enter. His was a double mission: a) to sell ‘red men’ (i.e. cans of McEwan’s Export) to thirsty athletes; and b) to raise money for charity. He explained, in his verbose, apparently sincere and idiosyncratic manner that he was committed very soon to a sponsored event which would entail running many miles in a brief number of days and also imbibing a great deal of real ale. I was in a quandary. Part of me wished to help YP avoid bankruptcy but part of me did not wish him to endanger his health. Decision time: I agreed to sponsor him for a certain amount. “Good man,” he replied, gratefully, “If you can pay up right now, I would appreciate your generosity, because I actually succeeded in this task three weeks ago.” That Charitable Challenge was, of course, The Triple Hundred!

Ian Kiltie supplies the final anecdote. “I only saw the late, great International athlete/beer drinker Andy Holden (of Tipton Harriers) come second-best at drinking once…. At my fortieth birthday (2 decades ago!) I held a 4×1 mile relay with a pint to be downed after each leg. We ended up with two of running’s greatest beer drinkers coming in side-by-side on the last leg – Andy Holden and Robin Thomas! Andy was so confident of beating Robin on the pint that his tactic was going to be to wait until Robin had to gasp for air and then neck it in one, so he paused – bad mistake! Robin tells me that he had spent the last couple of hundred metres of his run trying to hyperventilate, so he wouldn’t need to take any gulps of air, and promptly downed his pint in one, very fast. Andy was impressed. That was one of the few occasions he was beaten on a pint.”

And there this saga has to end. We seem to have finished on humorous boozy tales but make no mistake, Robin “YP” Thomas has given an incredible amount to his chosen sport of running (indeed to Scottish Athletics) as well as entertaining (for several decades) so many of his fortunate friends.

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