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

Before the Start of the Glasgow Marathon, 1985

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

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

The 1984 Championships

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

From 1985, we have the women’s 1500m 

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

Steve Cram

Ann Purvis

Sandra Whittaker

Start of the women’s 4 x 100m relay

Daley Thomson in the Decathlon 1500m

Men’s 100m start

Jamie Henderson in the 4 x 100m relay

John Robson

Yvonne Murray

Yvonne in the women’s 3000m

Later in the race

Allister Hutton, 10,000m

Liz Lynch, 10,000m champion

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

Starter Joe Cameron

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

Netta Sinclair dictating confirmed result to Carole Shaw

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

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

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

Bob Dalgleish, centre, before the Glasgow Marathon

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

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

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

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

And for 1976

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Glasgow International Marathon was run in 1979,  1980 and  1981

Glasgow City Chambers: Starting place of the original Glasgow Marathon

Everybody remembers the Glasgow Marathon in the 1980’s with tens of thousands of participants making their way through the city, from the city centre to the west end to the south side to the east side and finally back to the finish at George Square.   But there had been a marathon in Glasgow before that, one that Leslie Watson referred to as ‘the best kept secret in Scottish athletics.   The numbers were small because the runners were all trained athletes, there was often an international dimension to it, there were four laps not one.   The original Glasgow marathon started in 1979 – four years before the mass participation version.    The route in 1979 started in George Square and did not cross the river at any point:-

It was a neat, compact course and, from the point of view of a runner shouting on a team mate who was competing, it was a great course.   Lots of room in the empty Glasgow streets on a Sunday morning made darting around the city, taking short cuts here and there, intercepting your chosen runner over four laps and still getting to the finish in time to see him crossing the line!    The first race had 63 starters, 58 still running after three laps and which was also the finishing number.   Result below:

See the remainder of the stats above – 58 finishers, 11 inside 2:30, 9 outside 3 hours and a final runner clocked in at 3:15:21.  And only one woman – Glasgow’s own Leslie Watson – who had a wee report of her own which managed to get her finishing position wrong.   

Race splits and detailed results  at  this  link.  

The first Glasgow Marathon had been held in October in 1979 and this was maybe felt to be too late in the year for such a race – or maybe representations had been made that it was right at the start of the cross-country season’s short relays.   Whatever the reason, it was moved back to September in 1980.   Alastair Macfarlane had a copy of the programme (cover above) and we reproduce it here with the complete list of officials and entrants.

Inside the front cover and was a very impressive list of members of the Glasgow Sports Promotion Council with SAAA Officials at the foot of the page.  On the facing page was the obligatory message from the Chairman of the Council to the participants.

The list of officials was comprehensive a.nd the race had not only the appropriate number of officials but all the officials were experienced and very good at their job.   Many of them had already officiated at the Commonwealth Games held in Edinburgh earlier in the year.  Lots of notables – Walter Ross, founder of the Scottish Veteran Harriers movement, John Hamilton, Scottish Cross-Country team manager, David Bowman who had been in charge of the Commonwealth Games marathon, a host of former champions-turned-officials.   

Then came the runners on two pages – almost exactly the same as in the previous year but every one a good athlete wiwth the international representatives heading the list and Leslie Watson again the only woman in the field.

Then came the race.   Report and results   at this link .

In keeping with the ‘best kept secret’ nature of the event, there was very little pre-publicity for the international event with all four home countries sending strong teams.   The only picture of the race in the ‘Glasgow Herald’ report on the race was of Leslie Watson (below).   The actual report was down the page on page 19, the middle page of three sports pages, immediately above the “Sport In Brief”    section and not much bigger than the coverage of items there.  

Only six runners mentioned, not any results despite the fact that it was an international fixture.   There was not even a note of the first three with countries and times, no team order either and, in short, the lack of coverage was a poor reflection on the Sports section of the paper.  Joe Small came up with the complete results though and we print them below.

51 finishers, 3 outside 3 hours, 15 inside 2:30, 4 on 2:20 or faster, 1 woman on 2:47:07.

Before we go on to the results, let’s look at the Programme, provided by Alastair Macfarlane.   

The results of Scottish athletics ‘best kept secret’ were sent to us by Joe Small (Monkland and Clyde Valley) and we reproduce them below.  Produced by Roneo or Gestetner duplicators they give all the splits for all the runners at 5, 10, 20, 25 miles and the final result.   All were at the very least good club endurance runners  and at best there were international representatives – and several of the ‘club’ runners not selected for the race were also international athletes in their own right.   There was only one woman in the race – the redoubtable Leslie Watson (Glasgow Herald photograph above) who was 45th in 2:53:22.   Some who were well known for other events include Bobby Shields who was an international hill runner with a Ben Nevis victory to his credit, Hugh Barrow, GB and Scotland miler and world age group record holder for that distance, Willie Russell who became a good ultra marathon runner. And then there is Gordon McGregor of Bellahouston who went on to be a pole vault coach and Tommy Lucas who became a sports psychologist and worked with football players, boxers and competitiors from other sports.