Category: Uncategorized

ABERDEEN AMATEUR ATHLETIC CLUB: THE FIRST TWENTY YEARS – 1952 to 1972

(The main sources for this profile include the following. “We Have To Catch The Ferry”, a book of personal reminiscences by Steve Taylor – the Ferry referred to was the one across the Forth to Edinburgh.  An article about AAAC by W. Hunter Watson, which was published in ‘The Evening Express’ on the 28^th of March 1987; and another one which he wrote in 2015.  The archives of the Scottish Association of Track Statisticians and the Scottish Road Running and Cross Country Commission. The Centenary History of the SCCU by Colin Shields.)

Hunter Watson was a distinguished Edinburgh University athlete who became for many years the respected General Secretary of AAAC. He was a sports historian and a medallist in the Scottish Championships: second in the 1956 One Mile and third in the 1960 880 yards.   Follow the link to find out more about Hunter’s career.

Here is the start of his article, which was entitled ‘Club with a rich tradition’. “Although officially founded in 1952, Aberdeen Amateur Athletic Club has its origins in the mists of time. Many of the trophies, notably the Angus Cup and the King Trophy, either belonged to Aberdeen’s first club, the Aberdeenshire Harriers, or were presented by former members of that club.

Founded in 1888, only three years after Clydesdale Harriers became the first of Scotland’s harrier clubs, the ‘Shire Harriers stamped their memory on North-East sport through minutes of meetings which make interesting reading. On Tuesday January 21^st, 1930, for instance, it was noted: “The chairman closed the meeting owing to rowdyism.” It transpires that the treasurer had refused to make money available for the purchase of an oil stove for the clubhouse at Wellington Bridge.

Aberdeen AAC’s early years were also linked with another of the city’s early clubs, the YMCA Harriers. And it was probably one of the YMCA members, former Scottish high jump international Jimmy Adams, who did more than anyone to establish Aberdeen AAC.” (Between 1921 and 1923, he won one bronze and two silver medals in the Scottish championships. Jimmy claimed that in the course of over 100 competitions within the UK, including two internationals, he never failed to make the top three.)

“Prior to World War Two, there were six open clubs in the city – the Shire, YMCA Harriers (founded 1912), Shamrock and Thistle for men, the Bon-Accord and Aberdeen Ladies for women. Only the Shire survived the war years.

That, in turn, led to Jimmy Adams contributing an article to the ‘Green Final’ of October 11^th, 1947, in which he suggested “A way out of the slump in athletics in the North-East.” The same article came up with the idea that Linksfield Stadium should be utilised for more than football. The Shire Harriers had tried and failed to gain access to Linksfield on several occasions.

A public meeting was held in 1952 with a view to forming a new club. There were reportedly eight former members of Aberdeen YMCA Harriers present. There are grounds for arguing that Aberdeen AAC is actually a successor to the Aberdeen YM Harriers Club: the first president of Aberdeen AAC, Jimmy Adams, had been a Vice President of the Aberdeen YM Harriers club; the first secretary of Aberdeen AAC, Robert Miles, had also been member of the Aberdeen YM Harriers club; the first constitution of Aberdeen AAC made reference to the “Y.M.C.A. Section”; Annual General Meetings of Aberdeen AAC were held in YMCA premises until at least 1966. (Colin Youngson adds: before WW2 on Saturday 16^th February 1935 my father, James Alexander Youngson, representing Aberdeen YMCA Harriers, won a North Eastern Harriers Junior 3 Miles race at Torry, Aberdeen and also led his team to victory in the contest for the Caledonian Cup. In 1980, aged 67, a member of AAAC, he ran the World Veterans Marathon in Glasgow and was second counter in the Scottish M65 Marathon team which won gold medals.)

Aberdeen AAC, with Jimmy Adams as its first president, obtained a permit to use Linksfield, especially the loose cinder track, and it became the club base. It has been ever since.” (In recent years it has become thoroughly modernised as Aberdeen Sports Village.)

The newly formed club managed to arrange at least one match in the summer of 1952, against RAF Dyce. (The team representing RAF Dyce consisted of young men who were based at the Dyce aerodrome while doing their National Service.) Aberdeen AAC won the match. The new club generated sufficient publicity to make people in and around Aberdeen aware of Aberdeen AAC, something that increased the probability that it would attract new members.

A very important fixture was the annual Athletic Sports Meeting at Pittodrie Park, as Aberdeen FC’s ground was then called. Aberdeen Corporation began to put on a major sports meeting each summer. Athletics Weekly printed the results of the meeting held in 1954. Hunter Watson wrote that his expenses were paid when he travelled from Edinburgh to compete in the meeting held in 1956.

Jimmy Adams had been actively involved in athletics in Aberdeen for over 30 years as an athlete and an administrator. He seems to have been an enthusiast and to have been highly regarded by the young people who had been attracted into athletics by the formation of the new club. One of those young people was Steve Taylor.

In the Introduction to his book, Steve Taylor paid a tribute to an unsung hero. Henry Mackinnon was the groundsman at Linksfield for many years, and gave unstinting co-operation and support, allowing athletes access to training facilities (and hot showers) outwith normal opening hours. Then Steve wrote the following. “By the late 1950s, the fledgling Aberdeen AAC had become established on the Scottish athletics scene. This, in no small way, was down to the selfless dedication of a nucleus of officials, most notably Jimmy Adams, who had been a high jumper of international standing in the 1920s. In 1923 he had been a member of the Scottish team competing in a triangular contest against England and Ireland in Stoke-on-Trent, which witnessed the great Eric Liddell create history, completing a unique treble in winning both sprints and the 440 yards in one afternoon. (That performance was perhaps more remarkable than is generally realised: according to Jimmy Adams, Eric Liddell ran those races in an outsize pair of borrowed spikes with cotton wool stuffed in the toes, since he had left his own spikes at the White City where he had been competing prior to the International at Stoke.)

Bill Angus, also a founder member of the Club, had been a highly rated middle distance runner while staying in America. He and Jimmy Adams worked along with the remarkable Donald brothers, (Colin, Roy and Kenny), who were fine athletes in their own right and found time, in addition to a busy farming life, to provide the backbone of the club for many years, in administrative tasks and as drivers of the Club’s only form of independent transport. Many of us fondly remember the green Ford Consul which ferried us to and from races for a number of years. On these long journeys home, the choice of entertainment was either Scottish Dance Music on the old Scottish Home Service, or a rendering of the latest Adam Faith song performed badly by Roy, the youngest member of the Donald family!

Around this time the male section of the Club was strengthened by the arrival of two Englishmen. Dennis Whiting was an outstanding club athlete from Maidstone AC, who went on to narrowly miss International recognition at cross country; and Peter Duffy from Ruislip-Northwood AAC, a Customs Officer with a great sense of humour, and a tough and successful club athlete. He was later to make his name as a hill runner, an activity which he continued into his seventies. His arrival resulted in a 100% increase in Club transport, in the form of a Mini Traveller, which at times was a tight squeeze, and which sometimes made the warm-up at the end of a long journey a relatively arduous and painful process! Additional local talent came along in Bobby Duncan, a recruit from school who already had an athletics pedigree. What he lacked in stature was more than compensated for in commitment and sheer application; one of the toughest athletes to wear the Aberdeen colours. Bobby was to become a key member of the team, both at cross country and on the track and a regular competitor in representative events for East District teams in the days of the Inter-District fixtures against the West and the South-West of Scotland.”

For Aberdeen AAC, it was the women who made an early impact in Scottish athletics. SWAAA Senior Champions (who also broke Scottish National records) included the following.

Pat Bellamy won the High Jump in 1955 and 1956.

Alice Robertson, after securing a bronze medal in the 1955 100 yards, ‘did the double’ by winning the 100 yards and 220 yards in 1956.

Gwen Summers won the Javelin in 1959 and 1960. In 1962 – as Gwen Watt – she regained this title, after missing 1961 since she had been giving birth on the very day of the championships! In 1964 she was second in this event. She also won the East District Javelin titles in 1959 and 1962. (Gwen’s versatility was evident in 1959 when she finished sixth in the Senior National cross country championships!)

Her club-mate Agnes Paterson became SWCCU Senior Champion in that 1959 Cross Country. A newspaper report emphasises what a surprise this was, since Agnes was only 17 years old at the time. Nevertheless her bold front –running tactics led to a 60-yard victory over Scottish internationals Barbara Tait and Dale Greig, who won the title in 1960 (and in 1964 set the first officially recognised World Best time for Women in the Marathon).

Sheena Crockett finished second in the 1960 Scottish One Mile Championship and won the 1961 East District 880 yards and One Mile titles.

In the East of Scotland Youth Cross Country Championship, Edinburgh University’s Hunter Watson won the title in 1954 and Aberdeen AAC runners did so in the next two years: George Wilson in 1955 and John Gray in 1956. Steve Taylor wrote: “The performance of George Wilson was all the more remarkable in that it was the first occasion in which the Club had competed at this level. John Gray was a huge talent who sadly left the athletics scene prematurely to become an enthusiastic golfer. In 1960 (and not, as the newspaper photo below insists, 1959) Aberdeen AAC won its first major team title, winning the East of Scotland Cross Country Relay Championship by the narrowest of margins, and inflicting the first home defeat for two years on the title holders, Edinburgh Southern Harriers. The team on that day, in the order of running was John Gray, Dennis Whiting, Bobby Duncan and Steve Taylor.”

In Track and Field, Steve Taylor finished third in the 1959 Scottish Mile Championship. He won the East District One Mile in 1960 and then improved to a silver medal in the Scottish Championship Mile. Steve also won the Inter-District Mile Championship. In 1961 he retained the East Mile and also won the 3 Miles before going on to victory in the Scottish Championship 3 Miles, outsprinting his soon-to-be club-mate Alastair Wood, who joined AAAC in January 1962. In 1962 Steve was first in not only the East 3 Miles but also the Scottish 3 Miles. In 1965 he was second in the Scottish 3 Miles, behind Lachie Stewart; and in 1966 secured silver again, setting a fast time of 13.47.8, not far behind Fergus Murray. Steve Taylor also won the Scottish Ten Miles Track title in 1970 and, almost as an afterthought, was a 2.19 Marathon runner.

John Waters finished third in the 1960 Scottish Championship Javelin and then went on to win the title in 1961. He was East champion in 1960 and 1961.

Several other AAAC men produced very good track performances. Alastair Wood, running for Aberdeen University, had won a bronze medal in the 1955 Scottish Mile. As a 3 Miler (running for Shettleston Harriers) he won the Scottish title in 1957 and 1959; and also became 6 Miles Champion four times in succession, from 1958 to 1961. Alastair set Scottish Native Records for 3 Miles (13 minutes 39.8 seconds in 1960) and 6 Miles (29m 10.2s in 1958 and 28m 42.8s in 1959).

Alastair Wood joined Aberdeen AAC in Summer 1961 and, together with Steve Taylor, went on to inspire the next generation of Aberdeen athletes. Wood won Scottish Marathon titles in 1962, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968 and 1972. In the 1962 AAA Marathon he was a close second to that year’s European and Empire champion Brian Kilby. Subsequently, running for Great Britain, Alastair Wood was a valiant fourth in the European Marathon in Belgrade. Then he represented Scotland in the 1962 Empire Games Marathon in Perth, Australia. In 1966 he set a new European record of 2.13.45 in the Forres marathon. For some obscure reason, the latter time has never been accepted by the SAAA, but was ratified by the AAA in 1967, and is now recognised by the Association of Road Running Statisticians (www.arrs.net) as the world’s fastest time in 1966.

In 1967 Alastair was second in the AAA Marathon, clocking 2.16.21, only 13 seconds behind fellow Scot Jim Alder.

On a bitterly cold December day in 1969 at Pitreavie, Alastair Wood was paced for most of 30 miles by his friend Steve Taylor. Then Alastair went on to break the World Record for 40 Miles Track (3 hours 49 minutes 49 seconds). Steve had the satisfaction of sharing with Alastair Scottish Native and All Comers Records for 30 kilometres, 20 miles and Two Hours.

In 1972 Alastair Wood broke the record by over ten minutes in the prestigious London to Brighton race (52 and three-quarter miles in 5 hours 11 minutes two seconds). In Paris 1974, aged 41, Alastair became World Veteran Marathon Champion. He was a versatile athlete and a truly world-class marathon and ultra-marathon runner.

AN ABERDEEN ‘GREEN FINAL’ CARTOON OF THE OUTSPOKEN ALASTAIR WOOD

Mel Edwards was born in Aberdeen and went to the Grammar School and Aberdeen University. He was a talented athlete and trained extremely hard. 1964 was a marvellous year for him, since he won the Scottish Junior Cross-Country title, in front of (the soon to be famous) Ian McCafferty; ran for Scotland’s Senior team in the International Cross Country Championships; won the East District Track 3 Miles; and was third in the Scottish 3 Miles. In 1967 he won the East District Cross Country Championship, leading Aberdeen AAC to the team title; secured a silver medal in the Scottish Six Miles (28.27.0); and then won the Harlow (Essex) Marathon in a fine 2.18.25. Mel went on to be a very good hill runner (winning titles and breaking distance records), a tremendously motivating coach and a successful veteran athlete, winning the 1988 M45 Scottish Veterans XC title, when AAAC (Colin Youngson, Graham Milne, Mel Edwards and Roddy MacFarquhar) won the team award. (Mel’s son Myles Edwards, who also ran for AAAC) was the 2015 Scottish 1500m track champion, both indoors and outdoors.)

Bill Ewing was educated at Aberdeen University and showed great athletic promise by finishing third in the 1963 Scottish Championship One Mile. In 1966 he won the East District Steeplechase, a title he retained in 1967, when he also sprinted to victory in the Scottish Championships Steeplechase at Grangemouth. The runner-up that day was Gareth Bryan-Jones, a future Olympian. In total, Bill won 5 Scottish medals in the Steeplechase (gold, silver and three bronze). His personal best (faster than the Scottish Native Record) was 8.47.8, run in 1968. In 2017 this is still the AAAC club record! Bill represented Scotland in the 1965 International Cross and secured the 1966 East District cross country title. He went on to become a successful veteran runner.

In Cross Country, Aberdeen AAC had success during the 1960s. Steve Taylor, having finished 7^th in the 1960 Scottish National XC, during his first season as a senior, became the first AAC male athlete to gain International Cross Country selection. Steve was 4^th in the 1961 National and chosen for Scotland again.

Bob Duncan was third in the 1960 Scottish Junior XC.

Before he joined AAAC in Summer 1961, Alastair Wood had won the Scottish XC title in 1959, leading Shettleston to the first team award. Alastair had run for Scotland in the International in 1959, 1960 and 1961 (when he finished an outstanding 7^th). Wood and Taylor both made the Scottish team for the International in 1962. Alastair Wood gained further Scottish vests in 1963 and 1964.

Aberdeen AAC came close to winning the Scottish National XC team title on several occasions: finishing second in 1964 and 1965 and third in 1972. However the narrowest and most frustrating defeat was in 1968 at Hamilton Racecourse. Before the race, officials decided to disqualify one of Aberdeen AAC’s fastest runners, Ian Mackenzie, on the unconvincing grounds that he was mainly a Forres Harrier. This became a major reason why the club missed out on gold – by a single heart-breaking point.

Steve Taylor wrote: “the club had included the outstanding Birchfield Harrier, Peter Stewart (whose connection with the Club, it had to be said, was tenuous). Going into the later stages of the senior race, it appeared that Edinburgh University Hare & Hounds (a team which had won the two previous years), brilliantly led by Alistair Blamire in 2^nd place, would be comfortable winners, but a tremendous fight back by the Aberdeen runners saw the Championship go ‘right to the wire’. It was finally decided by Edinburgh’s Ian Hathorn overtaking Joe Clare virtually on the line. It is worth noting the placings of both teams in what was a classic encounter. EU – Alistair Blamire 2^nd, Gareth Bryan-Jones 10^th, Dave Logue 13^th, Ian Hathorn 19^th, Alex Wight 24^th, Jim Wight 25^th – 93 points. AAAC – Mel Edwards 9^th, Bill Ewing 14^th, Peter Stewart 16^th, Alastair Wood 17^th, Steve Taylor 18^th, Joe Clare 20^th – 94 points.”

(Aberdeen AAC was never to win the Senior National, although the Junior National Team title was won in 1976 by Fraser Clyne (6^th), Graham Laing (11^th), Danny Buchan 15^th and Steve Cassells (41^st). In the 1980s AAAC performed respectably to secure four team bronze medals in the Senior National, plus two individual third places for Fraser Clyne in 1983 and 1984.)

The North-East Cross Country League, featuring teams from Aberdeen and St Andrew Universities, Dundee and Perth, as well as AAAC, provided excellent race training for younger athletes as well as allowing established stars to show their class and challenge others to improve. AAAC usually won the team titles. Donald Ritchie and Colin Youngson were only two Aberdeen University runners who, in the late 1960s, eventually secured victories in League races. Both became valuable team members for AAAC.

There was an annual cross country fixture for the Carry Trophy (donated by the jewellers of that name). This was between teams (of nine runners) from Dundee and Aberdeen. In 1960, the first nine home were all either AAAC or AU athletes!

Steve Taylor mentions one unusual contest which added fitness and enjoyment to the sport. “Athletics Weekly” (AW) was the weekly magazine for Britain’s competitors. It sponsored a two man 10 mile track relay (which entailed each runner completing 40×220 yards with a minimum of rest. John Gray and Steve Taylor brought international recognition to AAAC by finishing 2^nd in the 1959 British rankings of this popular event at the time, beaten by only 15 seconds by the Portsmouth AC duo of Bruce Tulloh and Martin Hyman, both of whom became major players in British athletics. In later years, Steve paired with Bob Duncan or Alastair Wood to run even faster and maintain a high place in the British list.

Track and Field Club Championships have always been keenly contested. AAAC has an amazingly detailed list of best performances. This is updated in an impressive Yearbook. All Time Top 20s in Senior events include highly-ranked adjusted pre-metrication marks (i.e. before 1969) by Bill Ewing, Steve Taylor, Mel Edwards and Alastair Wood.

Track and Field leagues have always featured in the story of Aberdeen AAC. In the 1960s there was a North East Track and Field League, which the club usually won. In the 1970s the Scottish Men’s League was started in 1972, followed by the Scottish Young Athletes’ League (1975) and the Scottish Women’s League (1976). These, and their modern equivalents, have resulted in many individual and team successes for AAAC athletes. The club has frequently found a place as one of Scotland’s very best Track and Field teams.

Road Running was very important for Aberdeen athletes, especially in the 1960s and 1980s. A glance at the results of top Scottish events like the Tom Scott Memorial Ten Miles and the Two Bridges 36 Miles will prove that Aberdeen men won these races or were placed in the top three. Team wins were also recorded.

Alastair Wood’s Scottish Marathon wins have been mentioned. Donald Ritchie, later known as Don, was second to his mentor in the 1967 and 1968 Championships and in the 1970s and 1980s developed into the greatest ultra-distance runner of the 20^th Century. He won many of the most famous ultra events in Britain, Europe and America and set an amazing number of world records. His fascinating, detailed autobiography ‘The Stubborn Scotsman’ was published in 2017.

Both Don Ritchie and Mel Edwards became Members of the British Empire (MBE) for services to Athletics and Charity. This was especially appropriate for Meldrum Barclay Edwards, who referred to himself for some time thereafter as MBE squared!

The main event of the pre-Christmas Winter season was for many decades the Edinburgh to Glasgow Road Relay. (There was for a while the women’s equivalent, which AAAC won in 1985. Two members of that team, Lynda Bain and Janine Robertson, won Scottish Marathon titles, with Lynda representing Great Britain in Czechoslovakia in 1984 and breaking the Scottish marathon record in 1985, with a very good time of 2.33.38.)

In the traditional E to G, an Aberdeen AAC team first took part in 1960. ”Proof of the growing reputation of the Club in national terms was an invitation to compete in this prestigious event. Aberdeen AAC became the first team north of the Tay to be invited”…. Bobby Duncan had a solid run (10^th from the 20 teams) on the First Stage. Aberdeen slipped to 17^th but then Dennis Whiting and Peter Duffy moved the North-East club up to 12^th at the start of the crucial Sixth and longest leg of the race. By the handover at the start of Stage Seven, “Aberdeen had moved up to 6^th place, thanks to club captain Steve Taylor, who recorded one of the fastest times ever on the stage (and best of the day), only 24 seconds outside the record held by Scottish distance running legend Ian Binnie. Maintaining this position on the closing two stages, AAAC was awarded the medals for the most meritorious performance by newcomers and this ensured an invitation for the following year’s race.”

AAC finished 10^th in 1961; 9^th in 1962; and improved to 3^rd in 1963, strengthened by Alastair Wood and Mel Edwards, with Bobby Duncan setting the fastest time on the 8^th and final stage. “The team that performed so valiantly that day, in order of running, included Roy Donald, Mel Edwards, Peter Duffy, Steve Taylor, Dennis Whiting, Alastair Wood, Al Howie and Bobby Duncan. Their collective time for the 44 mile course was six minutes faster than the club’s previous best.”

In 1964 Aberdeen finished fourth, with Ian Mackenzie, who was often North District champion, making his debut with the fastest time on Stage Three. The 1965 E to G produced a sixth place, with Donald Ritchie running Stage Three. Then it was fourth in 1966, with Mel Edwards running the fastest on Stage Six. Amazingly, second-equal was the 1967 result, with Mel fastest (and handing over first) on Stage Two and new recruit Terry Baker fighting out an incredibly close duel with Shettleston’s Henry Summerhill, and setting the fastest time on Stage 8.

In 1968, strengthened by International athletes Peter Stewart and his brother Ian, Aberdeen finished second to the dominant Shettleston Harriers, despite Alastair Wood breaking the Second Stage record (and handing over first) and Bill Ewing setting the fastest time on the 8^th Stage. The AAAC running order was Ian Mackenzie, Alastair Wood, Peter Stewart, Joe Clare, Steve Taylor, Ian Stewart, Donald Ritchie and Bill Ewing.

That was the peak for the Aberdeen team of the 1960s, although they regained second place in 1972 (again behind Shettleston Harriers, in their final supreme season) and the race featured an incredible Second Stage record (which was never broken) by Ian Stewart. That team was: Graham Milne, Ian Stewart, Ian Mackenzie, Donald Ritchie, Steve Taylor, Alastair Wood, Rab Heron and Peter Duffy.

Participation went on, including 3^rd in 1973. After inevitable decline the 1979 team won most improved medals for 8^th place, with Denis Shepherd moving up two places while setting the fastest time on the last leg. In 1981 it was third again, the team strengthened mainly by improving young AAC athletes. Another third place was achieved in 1982.

Then, at long last, came the breakthrough! Aberdeen AAC finally won the E to G in 1983, after a close battle with Bellahouston Harriers. The team included Graham Milne, Graham Laing, Ian Mathieson, Craig Ross, Peter Wilson, Fraser Clyne, Mike Murray and Colin Youngson. Milne, Ross, Wilson and Youngson were Scottish International marathon men; Laing had finished seventh in the 1982 Commonwealth marathon; Mathieson was a hill-running International; Murray a talented middle distance athlete; and Clyne often a GB marathon International who ran for Scotland, finishing tenth, in the 1986 Commonwealth event . Their winning time that day (3 hours 35 minutes 30 seconds) was the second-fastest in the long history of the Edinburgh to Glasgow Road Relay.

In 1986 and 1988 Aberdeen won again, with other good athletes featuring: Chris Hall, Simon Axon, Jim Doig and Ray Cresswell in 1986; and Dave Duguid in 1988. So many of those runners had been influenced by Alastair Wood and Steve Taylor. In his History of the SCCU, Colin Shields rated Aberdeen AAC the most successful E to G team of the 1980s, with three wins and four third places during the decade.

This article was meant to be about only the first twenty years of AAAC. However the events which showed most clearly how strong the club had become (certainly the distance men) were attempts on the record for the John o’ Groats to Land’s End Ten Man Relay. These took place in 1972, 1973 and 1982.

In 1972, due to lack of experience of this most testing of challenges, there were doubts about the best route and best tactics. Eventually the record was missed by only half an hour, despite the team being very good, including Alastair Wood, Graham Milne, Steve Taylor, Sandy Keith (a future GB marathon international), Donald Ritchie, Colin Youngson, Peter Duffy, Rab (or Rob) Heron (a future 2.17 marathon man and successful ultra runner), Martin Walsh (a tough, cheerful Welsh former middle distance runner with a weaker leg due to a motor bike accident) and Alastair Neaves, a talented young runner.

Lessons were learned and with a slightly less impressive team, the record was broken by half an hour in 1973. Duffy, Neaves, Walsh, Wood, Heron, Taylor and Youngson took part again, as well as Innis Mitchell (an Aberdonian who had once won the Scottish Schools XC and won ‘Full Blues’ for both Strathclyde and Glasgow Universities), Joe Clare (a very strong runner who was a 2.18 marathoner) and young Derek Bisset (a promising middle distance athlete).

Then the young stars made a huge difference in 1982. The incredible Alastair Wood (aged 49) battled through once more, along with Milne, Youngson, Ritchie, Clyne, Laing, Mike Murray, John Robertson (a durable young runner), Peter Wilson and George Reynolds (who were both to become Scottish marathon champions). The record was slashed by one and three quarter hours. 850 miles were covered in 77 hours 26 minutes and 18 seconds. There was absolutely no doubt that Aberdeen AAC was among the very finest clubs in Britain.

1981. Back: Steve Cassells, Steve Williams, Steve Taylor, Colin Youngson, Dave Lang, Graham Laing , Donald Ritchie.

Front: Mike Murray, Alastair Neaves, Fraser Clyne, Peter Wilson, Graham Milne.

Important Training? Endless track repetitions (often masterminded by Hunter Watson) at Linksfield; Mel, Ally and a few hopefuls attempting 20, 30, 40 or even 60 times 220 yards on the firm grass of King’s College field; the Sunday runs (at least 15 miles) from Ally’s house, up steep King’s Gate, through Hazlehead, onto the Pony Track, right to Countesswells Forest then left down to the Cults Road and Fartlek back into Aberdeen again, knackered; in the 80s a vicious, devil-take-the-hindmost Wednesday night ‘10 miler’, often in the dark, along King Street, down to the Prom, Bridge of Don, up steep hills to Balgownie, through a housing estate, over the Don bridge at Mugiemoss, up another testing hill, then left and back along the pavement, down St Machar Drive and collapse at Linksfield. Clyne and Laing’s record eventually proved the distance was nine and a half!

Since then, Aberdeen Amateur Athletic Club (one of the largest clubs in Scotland) has nurtured male and female Scottish International and Champion cross country, hill and road runners as well as Track or Field athletes in all age groups. Several have run for Britain or taken part in Major Games. Team victories have been too numerous to mention. In 2015 AAAC was named Scottish Athletics Club of the Year.

The continued success of Aberdeen AAC owes a huge amount to a succession of dedicated officials, coaches and the parents of young athletes. Hunter concluded his 1987 article thoughtfully. “”The fact that Aberdeen AAC is one of Scotland’s top clubs should not, however, be seen as anything other than a step in the right direction.

Aberdeen will have to work hard to maintain that position in a day and age of ambitious clubs and talented athletes. The challenge must be seen as one of the attractions of the future – to coaches and officials as well as athletes.

But Aberdeen AAC should never be judged only in terms of success. We do not exist only to beat other clubs. Our main aim must be to provide training facilities and competition for those interested in local athletics. It would be a sad day if we were to lose sight of that primary aim.”

Scotstoun and Victoria Park AAC were synonymous from the word “Go!”

NEW GLASGOW CLUB FORMED

At a meeting in the Unionist Rooms, Partick, a new club was formed under the title Victoria Park AAC.   A constitution and rules were adopted, and the following office-bearers appointed:-   Hon President  Jas K Crawford;   President: Peter Morrison;   Vice-president; R Johnstone;   Treasurer:  Jas Totten;   Secretary: D McKenzie;   Captain: DK Thomson;   Vice-captain: KA Smith;   Application is to be made to the SAAA for membership.

Glasgow Herald, 7th April, 1930

And so Victoria Park AAC was established on 4th April, 1930, in the Unionist Rooms, Clydeview, Glasgow, W1.    Their headquarters were to be at Scotstoun Show Ground with its excellent cinder track and good changing accommodation.   Reports say that the track and stand were in place by 1915.   I don’t know about the stand but Clydesdale Harriers ran one of the highlights of the cross-country season – their team and individual handicap races over seven and a half miles – from Scotstoun Show Grounds from the late 19th century and from the start of the 20th century they were organising 100 yards races to entertain the spectators while the runners were out in the country.   So there were 100 yards races with multiple heats being run on a track at the venue since then.   The track was a great boost to the club right from the start.   Other clubs had been organised in the area but they were entirely Harriers clubs with packs meeting at well-lit street corners or, very often, at public swimming baths.   The biggest club nearby was the Clydesdale Harriers which met at the Hall Street swimming baths in winter and, most summers, at the ground of Dalmuir United FC.   This could not compete with Scotstoun as a venue and at one point there was at least one resignation a month from Clydesdale with the runners moving to Victoria Park, many citing the attractions of training on a cinder track.    There is a profile of Scotstoun as a venue at this link

What follows is an outline of the club’s remarkable progress over its first few years up to the War in 1939 with a look at the years up to 1960.   It is not a history but by using results from the two big meetings of the 1930’s – the SAAA Championships and the Rangers Sports – to indicate the club’s progress.

SS Beattie:

The club’s first SAAA Champion and record holder

During their first season their runners were a bit cautious of racing on the track and were not present at the national championships.   However at the Rangers Sports in August 1930, the Youths 100 yards featured a runner called SS Beattie who finished second off a mark of 5 yards.   This same Sam Beattie would become  Victoria Park’s most successful track athlete of the 1930’s winning his first track title, the 100 yards, in 1939.   He also won the club’s first field events titles too with gold in the long jump in 1936, ’37 and ’38, and also in the Triple Jump in 1937  and ’38.   There were also silvers in the 100 yards, Broad Jump and Triple Jump.   He also seemed to like Ibrox being again second in the Rangers Sports Youths 100 yards but the handicappers were learning too and his handicap this time was only three and a half yards.   The first senior man to be noted in the results of the SAAA championships was Jack Gifford who, although unplaced, gained a standard award for the one mile in 1932.   He followed this with a third place in the invitation 1000 yards handicap at the Rangers Sports in August behind Watty Calderwood (Maryhill) and R Clarke of Plebeian.  1933 was the year when the first senior medal was won for the club, Jack Gifford being third in the mile.   That year, in the Youths 100 yards, A Dixon ran, G Breckenridge ran in the Youths half mile, Gifford won another standard medal in the mile when he finished third.    The Victoria Park sprinters were in successful action again at the Rangers Sports on 5th August.   TD Naismith was second in the 100 yards handicap and H McBride won the Youths 100 yards.

There were no members among the results of the SAAA championships of 1934, but several club members ran in the Dalmuir United FC Sports in Clydebank.   AJF Cromarty was second in the Youths 100 yards and RK Thomson was second in the one mile in what was actually a fairly good class meeting thickly populated by members of Shettleston Bellahouston and Clydesdale Harriers.   Into 1935 and JK Oswald ran in the half mile but failed to make the final, J Whyte ran in the Youths 100 yards and JA Robertson was second in the Youths half-mile in which his club mate R Scott also ran.   They were now competing in numbers and at Ibrox the successes were beginning to mount up for the five-year old club.   J Maitland won the 100 yards from a mark of four and a half yards beating runners from nine and a half and eleven yards.   Another half miler in the shape of GR Walker was second in the half mile, and Maitland was third in the invitation 120 yards sprint.

Came 1936 and not pone but two gold medals came the way of the club from Scotstoun to go with Gifford’s bronze of several years earlier.   Gifford himself won the three miles described by the reports as follows:  “A fine spectacular race was the three miles won by J Gifford (Victoria Park).   It was veteran Donald MacLean (Maryhill) who made it a great race by compelling the favourite from Victoria Park to pull out all he knew to head the big smiling Greenock policeman in the good time of 14 min 54 sec.  ”    Emmet Farrell (Maryhill) was third.   Sam S Beattie won the first of his senior collection when he won the Broad Jump with 21′ 9 1/2″ and although unplaced in the 220 yards he won a standard medal.   There were no club men in the results at the Rangers Sports in August but the standard was very high with many English and Irish runners and they may well have been ‘handicapped out of it’ in the open events.

“The judges who were set the task of deciding the destiny of the Crabbie Cup sat in consultation much longer than is usual.   Eventually they agreed that SS Beattie (Victoria Park AAC) was the outstanding figure at the meeting and few can grumble at that finding for Beattie won both Broad Jump and Hop, Step and Leap and reached the final of the 100 yards.   His winning effort in the first event of 22′ 2 1/2″ equalled WL Hunter’s 1914 performance which is the best ever reached at the meeting.” read the report on the SAAA Championhips of 1937 in the ‘Glasgow Herald.   The Crabbie Cup is awarded annually to the outstanding performance of the meeting at the national championships and it was quite an honour for Beattie – and for the club it must be said.   In the Youths events JCE Duncan was third in the Broad Jump and second in the Javelin.   At Ibrox on 7th August the sprinters led the way again with RT Graham second in the final of the 100 yards and WH Collins second in the final of the 220 yards.   JB Richmond won the half mile to complete the club’s haul for the afternoon.

On 25th June 1938 it was another good day for Sam Beattie at the national track and field championships.  In the 100 yards, he finished second to Robin Murdoch of Atalanta and Bellahouston Harriers, then retained both Broad Jump and Hop, Step and Jump titles.   There was a J Gifford running for Bellahouston who was second in the Mile – I don’t know if it was the same runner as ran fro VPAAC before that – with HM Hayman of Victoria Park in third.   Four medals in the championships was a good day.   At Ibrox before a crowd estimated to be 70,000, in the Youths 100 yards, A Maitland was second to A Watt of Shettleston and in the 880 yards N Nelson was also second.

1939 was to be the last year before the war, and Downie was in action again and at the SAAA championships the 100 yards was a talking point with the first two from 1938 – Murdoch and Beattie – facing the starter again.   The Glasgow Herald said: “In the 100 yards it was SS Beattie who defeated the holder, thus realising his ambition only a few days before he leaves Scotland for South Africa.   Smarter away than Murdoch, the Victoria Park man was 1 1/2 yards ahead at half-distance, but just managed to hold his position in a rousing finish.   The time was 10.3 seconds.”    Beattie then lost both Broad Jump and Hop, Step and Leap events losing the Broad Jump by only one quarter of an inch.   Maitland was second in the Youths 100 yards – again to A Watt.     At Ibrox in August, Maitland won the open 100 yards handicap and Andy Forbes was second in the one mile, first race.   There were two mile races because the entry was so large with the first being generally the quickest men.   Forbes was the first Victoria Park runner to break a Scottish track record after the war when he ran 14:32,2 for the Three Miles on 5th July 1947 and was one of Scotland’s best ever endurance athletes.

The club continued in great shape after the War and their endurance runners exploits are recorded here .    Not only did they virtually monopolise the road running scene and battle it out with Shettleston for country honours but their sprinters were magnificent, particularly over the 100 yards – see the list below – and in the high jump the club’s jumpers held the title in 16 years out of 20.   But let’s go back to the endurance men and look at the exploits of the cross-country runners in the championships of the 1930’s.

 .

Andy Forbes, the club’s first post-war SAAA record breaker

Over the country the club was an immediate success in terms of turning out complete teams, racing competitively and developing runners.   Their ambition was apparent – the club was eighth of 26 teams in the four man District Relay Championship and then a good seventh place (of 18 entered) in the District Championships.   They then entered a complete team in the Scottish Cross Country Championships of season 1930/31 at Hamilton, and it finished 15th with the scoring runners being DE Thomson, 31st, J McClare 51st, K Smith 62nd, I Brown 103rd, R Johnstone 110th and J Cascarina 130th.   The clubs immediately behind them were Eglinton Harriers, Edinburgh Harriers and Olympic Harriers.   Encouraged by this success, the new club entered a team for the second ever Edinburgh to Glasgow Eight Man Relay on 25th April 1931 and finished fourteenth of the 20 teams contesting the event.   Runners here were K Smith, R Brown, J Jackson, JS Oswald, J Trotter, DK Thomson, J Clark and J Cascarina.

Next year’s Midland District relay saw the club enter two teams which were 23rd and 25th out of 25 club entered but in the District championships themselves they were ninth out of 21 teams and a new face appeared that was to be one of the best – ‘J Gifford’ finished 14th to be second club man behind K Thomson in 13th.   Smith, Oswald, Brown and Johnstone completed the team.   In the National, there were no club members running either as individuals or as part of a team.   There was no Edinburgh to Glasgow relay that year and the cross-country men had to wait until the start of the 1932/33 season to show what they could do.   At the start of the 1932 season, the club was only two and a bit years old and had only two years experience.   The team entered for the relays started off with Jack Gifford who ran the eighth fastest time of the day and at one point was leading the field before dropping back a bit with the others in the team, Horn, Oswald and Smith, doing well to finish in front of thirteen other clubs including such as West of Scotland, Hamilton and other established sides.   In the Midland championships, they were eighth out of 24 clubs with Gifford second, almost a minute behind Flockhart of Shettleston Harriers.   Minus Gifford, Horn and Oswald the team was 17th of 20  in the National and did not compete in the Edinburgh to Glasgow in April.

The first of the cross-country championships of 1933/34 was the District relays.   This time round Victoria Park was eighth and the runners times were more closely bunched – 14:14, 14:22, 14:58 and 14:29 – and they had a second team that finished nineteenth.   The Einburgh to Glasgow was run on 16th January in 1934 and despite Jack Gifford being first on the first stage, the team finished eleventh of fifteen.  The District championships were held in February 1934 and the club was eighth of the twenty clubs taking part.   Fourteenth in the National in March, there was a Youths team representing the club and W Oswald 5th, W Hutcheson 8th, J Cromarty 43rd  and A McKay 55th managed fifth place out of 19.

District relays in 1934/35 season were again held at Hamilton and the team was thirteenth of twenty two competing but it was not an unlucky number for Victoria Park’s cross-country runners.  At the District championships, on 2nd February 1935, the result must have been a surprise to all concerned – the club finished second to Garscube and nineteen points ahead of Maryhill in third.   The runners were DE Thomson 7, J Gifford 10, J Oswald 19, R Rogerson 20, WD Oswald 42 and W Stevenson 58.   Seventeen clubs took part in the event at Hamilton racecourse.   These were the first team medals in any of the major championships to come the way of Victoria Park.    There was no senior men’s team out in the national but the Youths team was third to take the first national team medals of any club team.   Five years old, and they had won bronze in a national championship.   The youngsters were H Hayman 4th, D Harvey 18th, J Keith 21st and W Smith 26th.   The Edinburgh had been held at the start of the year again – 12th January – and the club had been seventh of seventeen teams running.

Fifteenth in the District relays at the end of 1935, the club was sixth in the District championships and , although Bellahouston had a team finishing behind Victoria Park in seventh, Jack Gifford ran as an individual finishing fifth.    Eighth in the National was a good run for the team which finished in front of Garscube Harriers and Edinburgh Northern Harriers.   On 4th April they were ninth in Edinburgh to Glasgow relay.   Andy Forbes turned out on the first stage of the Midland relays at the start of 1936/37 running the club’s fastest time of the day by 20 seconds.   The team was tenth of twenty one.   Forbes led the team home in the District championships when he finished in 23rd, juts two places ahead of R Rogerson in 25th to help the club to ninth place out of eighteen.   In the National when the team was eleventh of twenty six clubs, Thomson was the club’s lead runner in 38th, with Andy only fourth club counter in 88th place.   The Edinburgh to Glasgow was in April again and the team was ninth of the sixteen who started the race.

Season 1937/38 started with their best ever place in the relay when they finished fourth with J Linacre equal fifth fastest time.   Things continued to get better when they finished second in the District championships at Hamilton, only 12 points behind Bellahouston.    The runners were Rogerson 7th, Thomson 11th, Linacre 13th, Dobbie 16th, Oswald 18th and Blackstock 40th.   The season continued with fifth in the National (Dobbie 11th, Linacre 20th, Thomson 37th, R Rogerson 50th, G Lindsay 60th and JS Oswald 70th.   They were immediately in front of Dundee Hawkhill , Springburn, Plebeian and Edinburgh Southern Harriers in a field of 19 teams.   In addition the team was fourth in the Youths race with J Thomson fourth finisher but scoring third for the team placing.   In April they were seventh of the sixteen clubs in the Edinburgh to Glasgow – the event they were to dominate through the fifties.

In the last pre-war season of 1938/39, they started with three teams out in the District relay finishing seventh, sixteenth and twenty first showing a greatly improved strenth in depth for the not-yet-ten years old club.    Better still was to come – in the last District championship before the war, Victoria Park won the title with their six scoring runners being in the top twenty finishers.   In the National the team finished a very creditable fourth – although well behind three other Glasgow clubs – Bellahouston, Maryhill and Shettleston, it was no small thing to beat every team from every other city, town, village and hamlet in the country.

The war disrupted athletics totally and very few clubs could turn out a full team of their best runners due to the exigencies of the situation.   There was some athletics carrie on but the story of Victoria Park would continue successfully after 1949.    The activities of the great teams of the 50’s and 60’s are detailed  here

Willie Jack, the club’s first post-war SAAA sprint champion

The club’s first SAAA 100 yards medal came in 1938 and their first title a year later – both down to Sam Downie.   That was when the club’s production line of great 100 yards runners started.     Beattie was without doubt the top track athlete produced by the club over the 1930 – ’39 period.   His full name was Samuel Sinclair Beattie and he was a native of Glasgow having been born there on 6th December 1914.    By occupation a Physical Training Instructor his best ever long jump was in 1937 when he leapt out to 23′ 7″ at the AAA Championships when competing against Lutz Long the 1936 OIlympic silver medallist.  mentioned in the newspaper report above, he emigrated to South Africa in 1939 and joined the Air Force when theWar started.   Beattie didn’t survive the war and was kiled in an air crash on the Gold Coast in 1943.

The War interrupted the club’s progress, of course, but the list of 100 yards medallists is below, deliberately set out one below the other to show what a procession it was between ’38 and ’60.

 year, name, place, time

   1938, Sam Beattie, 2nd, –

 1939, Sam Beattie, 1st, 10.3

 1946,  G McDonald, 2nd, –

1947, G McDonald, 2nd, –

1950,  W Jack, 2nd, –

1951, W Jack, 1st, 10.1

1952, W Jack, 1st, 10.0

1953, W Jack, 1st, 10.0

1953, R Whitelock, 2nd, –

1953, A Dunbar, 3rd, –

1954, A Dunbar, 2nd, –

1955, A Dunbar, 1st, 10.3

1956, A Dunbar, 1st, 10.1

1956, R Whitelock, 2nd, –

1957, R Witelock, 1st, 9.8w

1959, A Dunbar, 2nd, –

1960, M Hildrey, 1st, 9.8

1960, R Whitelock, 9.9

The success continued of course with Hildrey winning again in 1961 and the list of international honours won by the men above encompassed Scottish and British appearances at domestic internationals, Commonwealth and Olympic Games.   There is a very good and detailed profile of Willie Jack in the ‘Scots Athlete’ magazine for June 1955 at

 http://salroadrunningandcrosscountrymedalists.co.uk/Archive/The%20Scots%20Athlete%20Volumes/Volume%209/SA%20Vol%209,10-11.pdf

The sprinters were coached by ex-pro sprinter of note Willie McFarlane and his story can be found   here   and   here. 

 It was a marvellous start for a club which began in the Unionist Rooms in Partick.   This is a quick scamper through the beginnings of the club, a proper history would be a wonderful thing and, given the information available on the internet now, a detailed statistical record could be done without too much difficulty.

It is not generally known but Hamilton Harriers is one of Scotland’s oldest athletic clubs, having been founded in 1896.    A successful club for many years it could be again given the number of good athletes it produces.   We can begin this profile by reproducing an article from the ‘Scots Athlete’ of June 1947.

HAMILTON HARRIERS: 1896 – 1947

by John McCallum

Last October Hamilton Harriers held a Dinner at the Clydesdale Restaurant, Hamilton, at which there were over 100 guests present.    The purpose of the occasion was to celebrate the Jubilee of the club which had been functioning successfully for 50 years.   Though there had been a Hares & Hounds club in the district around 1887, the club was actually formed on 6th September, 1896 at the County Hotel, the founder being a Motherwell Harrier, Mr Miller.   At the inaugural meeting, the present club colours  of white with red facings was chosen and, at a later date, the crest bearing the head of the White Cattle Bull and the letters HHC were introduced to be worn on the club singlet.   (The White Cattle is a rare, almost extinct, breed which roam Cadzow Estate, Hamilton, and are owned by the Duke of Hamilton.)

In the early days, Hamilton Harriers had many enjoyable outings with well-known County clubs which are now mostly non-existent such as the Malsely Club and the Carluke Beagles.   These clubs should be remembered by older cross-country enthusiasts.

First Club Champion

Present at the Jubilee celebrations was the first club champion, J Simpson, who held the honour for two years in succession.   His well-known son was the Club Champion of Motherwell YMCA Harriers a few years ago.   The year 1899 was a fortunate one for the club, three business men of the town: Mr Wilson, hatter and hosier; Mre Hastie of the Black Bull Hotel; and Mr Wilson, jeweller, donated trophies for which there is still annual competition.

Olympic Champion a Member

The year 1906 was a historic one for the club.   In this season they won the Western District Championship.   Incidentally, T McAfferty, the winner of this race, resided in the Burgh of Hamilton but ran for Burnbank St Cuthbert’s.   Also in this year, Dan Cather won the Junior Championship.  This was not all, for though it is not well known, the famous Scottish athlete and Olympic 400 metres (Stamford Bridge, 1908) champion Lieutenant W Halswell joined the club this year, while stationed at Hamilton Barracks and, at the SAAA Championships, held at Powderhall the same year, he accomplished the astonishing feat of winning the 100 yards, 220 yards, 440 yards and half mile titles.   One of Hamilton Harriers greatest treasures is the photo of the 1908 Olympic champion, presented to the club by Lieutenant Halswell.

An Uncrowned King

Hamilton had other personalities, notably Gibbie Marshall who was the uncrowned king of obstacle racing in Scotland from 1900 – 1910.   WC Bell, whilst a Youth, made a great name for himself in the country as a sprinter around 1908-1912.   William Roxburgh represented Scotland in the 1920 international, and, following R Devine, had the distinction of winning the club championship three years in succession from 1924.

But, in 1932, the most consistent club champion of them all – James Freeland took the title, which he held continuously until 1940.   James Freeland, who lost his life whilst in the RAF, had been Junior champion in 1935 and had gained international honours.   News of his death came as a great blow to Hamilton Harriers and Scottish cross-country circles.

63 – And Still Going Strong

Another personality is Alex Cullen – still running at 63 years of age.   “Sanny”, as he is called by his club-mates, started his running activities through having an accident in a coal mine.   He joined Burnbank Harriers in 1905, and was four times champion of that club.    He joined Hamilton Harriers at the cessation of World War 1, and annexed the five miles handicap cup three times, the seven miles handicap four times, and the ten miles handicap ten times – a fine record.   “Sanny” does not seem intent on hanging up his shoes – and so asserts the old adage “it is not how old you are, but how old you feel”.

Two men have held the Presidency of the club, between them, for 40 years, namely J Smith and evergreen  JC Scott who still retains office, and to whom I am indebted for most of the details of this short chronicle.

Hamilton Harriers look forward to the future.   AC Gibson, the presnt club champion, is only 21, and has distinct prospects.   Under the watchful eye of the able Bobby Stewart, a former well-known professional athlete, there is a fine turn-out of local lads  on Monday and Wednesday evenings at Douglas Park.   Such coaching and training will reap its reward and Hamilton Harriers are set to be in the fore of post-war athletics.

That’s where John’s account of the club ends but if you want to read more, the Hamilton Harriers website has a potted history of the club from 1949 including information on such athletes as Stevie Wylie, Alex Robertson and Robert Gilroy – the makings of a good relay team there, had they all stayed!  It is to be found at

 http://www.hamiltonharriers.co.uk/about-us/history/

The brief history above tells us a lot about the sport when they came on the scene: for instance I had never heard of the Carluke Beagles, yet they were a respectable club who had finished sixth in the District championships and took part in all of the competitions for which they were eligible.   In 1906 there were two Hamilton Harriers in the Scottish team for the international (Cather and Muirden).   Sanny Cullen is another early example of a man who pre-dated the official Veteran Harriers movement by at least 30 years.

The first Hamilton Harrier I came across was AC Gibson who was a  Scottish international cross-country runner after the war.   Lining up for a road race, he was pointed out to me as a very good runner.   Indeed he was – have a look at his record.   In the 1948 District Championship he was ninth and Hamilton eleventh but in the National he finished sixth and Hamilton Harriers was eleventh in the team race.     Not selected for the International, he turned out in the SAAA 10 miles track championship at Helenvale in Glasgow on 24th April and finished third.  In 1958/59 he missed the District Relay, the McAndrew Relay and Championships and in the National he finished 34th.   The next year, 1950, Gibson was tenth in the race, the same position as he had own in the District race.   His first international vest came after the 1951 National where he was seventh – it had been a good year for the man who had been fourth in the District race at Millerston.   In his international debut Gibson was Scotland’s first counter, finishing 42nd and between Andy Forbes (38) and Emmet Farrell (44) .   And in front of Charlie Robertson (51) and Eddie Bannon (49).   He won his second vest a year later after finishing eighth and in the race, held at home on the same Hamilton racecourse he was fifty second.   Two internationals – one in Wales, one In Hamilton for the man from Hamilton!   He was sixth again the following year, just behind Emmet Farrell, to travel to Paris for the international.   Again a counting runner he was 31st – ahead of Clark Wallace, Alex Breckenridge, Frank Sinclair and Emmet Farrell.   Ninth in 1954, he was selected for his fourth and last international where he was 37th to be a scoring runner for his country yet again.  In 1955 he was tenth and only just outwith the team picked. in 1956 fourteenth, in 1957 twenty first and in 1958 he was back up again at sixteenth.   But he had run his last international.   He was a great club man – when he started running the club was turning out teams in the national every year but for several years from the mid-fifties there was no Hamilton team at the national, merely a few runners, but he kept turning out despite offers from other clubs.   He also ran in road races such as the Edinburgh to Glasgow for the club – always on the sixth difficult stage and always acquitted himself well.   He was only one of four Hamilton Harriers men who represented Scotland.

The others were

• David Cather in 1906 – who had been first Junior in the National championships that year and was 13th in the international
• James Freeland in 1935 (28th in the international) and 1938 (44th)
• W Muirden in 1906 (32nd)

 AC Gibson, fifth left in back row, between Eddie Bannon and Ronnie Kane on the left, and Joe McGhee and Tom Stevenson on the right.

In addition to Gibson there were other very good Hamilton Harriers after the war including

• J Finlayson who won the National Youths title in 1950 and 1951, was second in the U20 National in 1952/3;
• G Sorbie of Hmilton Harriers won the 1952 SAAA 800m and H Dove, also Hamilton Harriers, was second, in times only 0.3 sec apart
• Hugh Gibson of course won the National Veterans Over 55 Cross-Country Championships in 1989 ( a modern Sanny?)
• and in addition the three members mentioned above – Messrs Wylie (late 80’s), Robertson and Gilroy (late 90’s) all came from the club .

Hamilton Harriers has a proud history and is still providing the sport with good athletes although unfortunately they all seem to move on these days.  But these things go in cycles and Hamilton’s turn will come again.

AR DOWNER

The most famous Pelican of them all.

Of all the clubs affiliated to the SAAA over the decades, surely none had a more exotic name than the Scottish Pelicans?   Formed in 1894, the name alone tells us a lot about the attitude to the sport at the time.   Light hearted but almost certainly with a meaning for those who formed the club, they won 8 SAAA Championships between 1894 and 1896 inclusive.

The club was based in the Scottish Borders, based in Innerleithen, and seemed to specialise in the sprints – I can find no record of their members winning, or indeed competing, in any of the events upwards of 880 yards or in the field events.   The latter is maybe more surprising, given that sprinters of the time took part in the jumps almost automatically.    The championship medals won by members of the club were as follows:

Downer was by far the most famous – he ran the ‘triple triple’ ie the 100 yards, 220 yards and 440 yards in three consecutive years.   He ran initially, in 1893, for Edinburgh Harriers and then when the new club appeared on the scene, he turned out for them before he moved to Clydesdale Harriers and various other clubs.   He eventually turned professional after receiving excessive expenses.

Among the other founder members was Tom Scott of Langholm.   His father, William, was the club’s first captaimn and Tom was their first inernational rugby cap.   Langholm incidentally once won 28 cups in the one afternoon – at the Hawick Sevens they won and each team member received four eg-cups on a stand!

JK Ballantyne and W Lindsay Walker were also founder members .   Edinburgh Harriers had an annual sports meeting at Powderhall and on 8th June, 1895, there were several athletes running under the Pelicans banner.   In the 100 yards open flat handicap, there were 11 heats and A Bruce, W Pollock an1 JR Ballantyne all got through the first round but only Ballantyne, who was second in the second heat, made it through to the final where he was unplaced.   There were only two entries in the 100 yards for the Muir Cup – JG Dunbar and RA Bruce with Dunbar winning.   The 440 yards handicap open handicap featured Pollock again and this time he was second in the heat and third in the final.   Two years later there were no Pelicans to be seen in the sports.

And that’s about all I can find about the Scottish Pelicans.    There will be more when I get it, but that’s not saying it will be soon.

MOTHERWELL YMCA HARRIERS: THE RISE AND FALL

John Linaker to Bert McKay, Edinburgh to Glasgow, 1962

(**Several Motherwell YMCA Harriers have been profiled more fully on this website: Andy Brown, Alec Brown, John Linaker, Dick Wedlock and Ian McCafferty, as well as Willie Marshall in the Veterans section. Many thanks to Colin Shields for the many quotes below from his excellent SCCU Centenary book.)

Team performances in the Edinburgh to Glasgow Road Relay are sure indications of club strength. Motherwell YMCA Harriers demonstrated this between 1949 and 1968.

In November 1949, two men named Willie Marshall ran – on Stages One and Seven. However they were not father and son. On the Third leg, A. Brown took part for Motherwell – Andy’s father?   However the team finished 20^th out of 22.   In 1950 they could only field four men and so were 20^th and last, with A. Brown on the Third leg again.  However they had been given a good start, with 6^th place on the First Stage, by A. Brown Junior! Andy was not quite 18 years old when he and his father were team-mates in the E to G. In 1951 they improved to 14^th, with Andy Jnr second on Stage One and promising young David Nelson on Six. However they trailed in 20^th and last in 1952. They were 18^th in 1953, with Andy Brown on Two and former Scottish International Willie Sommerville on Six.

Their next appearance in the Blue Riband of the winter season was in 1956, when they finished 12^th of the 20 invited teams. Notable athletes included Tom Scott, John Poulton, Willie Marshall and Andy Brown, who were all be in winning Motherwell YM teams several years later. In 1957 the same four were present, as well as Bert McKay (who was to be a real mainstay for the club). Tenth place showed slight improvement. Those five also featured in 1958, when sixth place was secured. 1959 produced fifth place and the first fastest stage times for Motherwell – W. McKnight on 3, Andy Brown on 6 and Tom Scott on 8. (Tragically, Tom Scott died in a traffic accident in March 1961 and, at the end of this Edinburgh to Glasgow section, there are details about the famous Tom Scott Memorial 10 miles race, which continues to be contested 55 years later.) It was fifth again in 1960, when Davie Simpson made his first appearance. Then in 1961 the club won their first medals with third place; their new recruit John Linaker making an immediate impact by breaking the record on classy Stage Two, recording 28.54.

Motherwell YMCA dominated the great race during 1962 to 1964. Colin Shields described this very well in “Runs Will Take Place Whatever The Weather” his Centenary History of the Scottish Cross Country Union 1890-1990. It seems appropriate to quote from that invaluable book.

“The drawbacks of a November race were fully illustrated in 1962, when polar conditions of thick snowdrifts stopped the bus carrying runners from Glasgow getting through to the start at Inverleith Park in Edinburgh. The pre-race favourites Motherwell YMCA Harriers could not get their designated runner to the start line and reserve Brian Hodgson stepped in to save the day. Running over a new first stage necessitated by new traffic arrangements, Graham Everett (Shettleston) set a new record of 27 minutes 28 seconds with Hodgson finishing 10^th a further 55 seconds behind the leader. Running in bitterly cold conditions, Motherwell improved from then on. Moving up to sixth on stage three they were behind Teviotdale Harriers for whom John M. Hamilton (future SAAA and SCCU President and Scottish International team manager) recorded the third fastest stage time of 21 min 57 sec. Andy Brown improved by 23 seconds on the 1957 fourth stage record to finish third, and his young brother Alec and John Linaker gained further places, to bring Motherwell into a 40 second lead by the end of the sixth stage. Bert McKay equalled the seventh stage record to open a gap of more than 2 minutes over Edinburgh Southern Harriers and it was left to John Poulton to bring Motherwell home to their first ever victory in 3 hours 44 minutes 25 seconds.

Motherwell won for the next two years but continued to do it the hard way. The following year it was again as late as the sixth stage when John Linaker went into the lead from Aberdeen AAC, for whom Alastair Wood was now running after his sojourn with Shettleston. Bert McKay, having equalled the seventh stage record the previous year, bettered it by 24 seconds to establish a two minute lead and George Henderson brought them home 41 seconds slower than the previous year. Aberdeen AAC won their first ever medals in third place and Edinburgh University, in fifth place, received the special set of ‘most improved’ medals. In a reversal of roles, East District clubs filled six of the first ten places in the race, confirming a vast improvement of standards in that area.

Motherwell’s final victory in 1964 was achieved with the addition of Ian McCafferty and Dick Wedlock to their already strong team. They helped Alex and Andy Brown, Bert McKay, Willie Marshall, Davie Simpson and John Poulton to victory in their slowest winning time of 3 hours 46 minutes 1 second. Edinburgh University, with the basis of their remarkable team now in place, but still lacking the final competitive polish they were soon to acquire, finished runners up.”

Alex Brown receiving the baton from Ron Bacchus of the News of the World

An in-depth look at the full results for Motherwell’s three victorious E to Gs indicates other details worth mentioning. Alec Brown, Davie Simpson, Willie Marshall, Andy Brown and Bert McKay were ever-present. Many fastest stage times were set. In 1962, Andy Brown on 4 (record), Alec Brown on 5, John Linaker on 6 and Bert McKay on 7 (equal record). In 1963, Andy Brown on 4, Davie Simpson on 5, John Linaker on 6 and Bert McKay on 7 (record). In 1964, Alec Brown on 1, Andy Brown on 4, Davie Simpson on 5, Ian McCafferty on 6 and Dick Wedlock on 7. Members of winning teams, in stage order, were as follows. 1962: Brian Hodgson, Simpson, Marshall, Andy Brown, Alec Brown, Linaker, McKay and Poulton. 1963: Alec Brown, McCafferty, Marshall, Andy Brown, Simpson, Linaker, McKay and George Henderson. 1964: Alec Brown, McKay, Marshall, Andy Brown, Simpson, McCafferty, Wedlock and Poulton.

For the 1965 relay, Colin Shields tells a dramatic tale. “Edinburgh University, facing the fact that never, since the first race in 1930, had a University team won the event, were still quietly confident. They had good reason, for a month earlier they had filled the first two places in the East District Cross Country Relay Championships, with Fergus Murray being fastest at 13.03 and the slowest runner in their ‘B’ team recording 13.52. This gave them the incentive for success in the event, where a full complement of eight top runners is needed with no weaknesses. The 1965 race was a remarkable one, with stage records set in seven of the eight stages, and an incredible course record of 3 hours 36 minutes 32 seconds for the University team. The improvement of 7 min 15 sec on the previous time was the largest reduction of the course records in the history of the race. The University runners recorded three of the stage records, with Alistair Blamire setting a new time of 27 min 01 sec on the opening stage; Olympic 10,000 metres runner Fergus Murray running an outstanding sixth stage in 31.07, taking 1 min 18 sec off the previous record and covering the 7 mile stage at an average speed of 13.4 mph; and Jim Wight took 39 seconds off the seventh stage record with his time of 27.30. The standard of the race was tremendous, with Motherwell YMCA second in 3.37.52 and Victoria Park AC 3.38.02 also bettering the 3 hours 40 minutes barrier and the next five teams being under 3.50.”

Without doubt, conditions were favourable in 1965, with a following wind. Certainly EUH&HC were a formidable young outfit but Motherwell fought bravely, never lower than third, and with Alec Brown moving them into first on stage two and Andy Brown smashing his own stage four record with a fantastic time of 27.37, which regained first place. This record remained unbroken until new records were required for Stages 3 and 4 in 1980 (for some reason 3 was lengthened and 4 consequently shortened).

In 1966, Motherwell finished a valiant third behind EU and Victoria Park. The faithful five, Andy, Willie, Alec, Davie and Bert were still in the team, plus Peter Duffy and John Poulton. Ian McCafferty featured too but not John Linaker or Dick Wedlock. Sadly, in 1967 Motherwell slumped to 16^th, with only Bert and Willie of the old guard persisting. 1968 was the last appearance of Motherwell YMCA Harriers in the E to G. 19^th place must have been a disappointment for stalwarts Willie and Bert, but the superbly talented Ian McCafferty had opted for the new Law and District A.C., Dick Wedlock was starring for Shettleston Harriers (the club he had run for before joining Motherwell) and John Linaker had reverted to Pitreavie and was past his formidable peak, although he was to be an excellent veteran athlete in decades to come. (N.B. After he rejoined Shettleston Harriers, Dick Wedlock ran for Scotland in the International XC Championships four times and also won the Senior National in 1969. He went on to represent his country in the 1970 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games 10,000m.)

William Marshall (Willie, born 12/12/1927) was a real club stalwart, definitely talented but lightly trained. This cautious approach was more than justified when, after the age of 50, he won many road and track age group titles in Masters events – not only Scottish but British, European and World championships. Undoubtedly, he was a World Class Masters runner at distances from 800m to 25km. Further details are in his profile in the ‘Veterans’ section of the website.

The first mention I can find of William Marshall in the records is in November 1949, when he ran the First Stage of the Edinburgh to Glasgow Road Relay. He wore the vest of Motherwell YMCA Harriers, and it is fair to say that the club struggled at that time. In the 1956 Relay, Willie ran (his favourite) Stage Five, and Motherwell improved to 12^th. Marshall ran Five again, every year from 1957 to 1962 – and his club recorded the following placings: 10^th, 6^th, 5^th, 3^rd and 1^st! YMCA stars included Andy Brown and his brother Alec, Bert McKay, Tom Scott, Davie Simpson and, later on, John Linaker, Ian McCafferty and Dick Wedlock. No wonder they became the top club in Scotland. During their first victory in 1962, Willie Marshall ran Stage Three and gained five places. Motherwell YMCA won again in 1963 and 1964 (with Willie running 3); and in 1965, when Willie ran Five, ended up second to the superb Edinburgh University Hare and Hounds team, led by Fergus Murray. YMCA were third in 1966 (Willie on Three). However by 1967 the bubble had burst, and they finished 16^th (with Willie on Four); and in 1968 could only manage 19^th, when he ran the First Stage at the age of 40. Nevertheless, William Marshall must have been very proud to have played a stalwart part in the rise and fall of such a splendid club; and to have won three gold, one silver and two bronze medals in the wonderful E to G.

Willie Marshall went on to run the E to G for Clyde Valley AC in 1977 and 1978. Then in 1982 both Willie (aged 54) and his son David (a good road runner too, unsurprisingly) were selected for the CV team! Having both parent and ‘child’ taking part in this classic event was very unusual indeed but may have been a Motherwell YM tradition e.g. Andy Brown and father in 1950!

There follows information from the Tom Scott 10 mile race website.

“This race is run to perpetuate the memory of Tom Scott, a young man, whose life was tragically cut short when he was fatally injured in a motor traffic accident on Friday 31st March 1961. He had been travelling south with the intention of competing in the Doncaster to Sheffield Marathon which was due to take place on Easter Monday of that weekend. Unfortunately, the car in which he was a passenger collided with a HGV on the A74 at Beattock Summit.

 Tom, who was 29 years of age at his death, was a very fine long distance runner from Law Village. He was a member of Motherwell YMCA Harriers Club and from 1953 to 1955 he was their club champion. Tom often competed for the YMCA in numerous events and was a member of three winning teams in the Scottish YMCA Championships. Being an enthusiastic and keen competitor Tom often competed in major events throughout Great Britain and was frequently chosen to represent Scotland in British Title Races.

Being a dedicated member of the Harriers fraternity Tom’s ambition was to represent his country in the marathon at the Olympic Games and towards this end he was in training and competing. In order to increase his weekly mileage Tom ran to and from his workplace in Motherwell. He was therefore a familiar figure in the streets of Motherwell & Wishaw as he made his way – in fair weather or foul – either to his home in Law or to the factory in Motherwell.

At the time of his death Tom was an employee of AEI-Motherwell and it was suggested by some of his colleagues, especially those with an interest in athletics, that it would be fitting that some sort of race be established and to be run annually in his honour. As a result of a collection among his workmates a committee was formed with the objective to establish this race as one of the leading Road Races in Scotland.

The first Tom Scott Memorial Race was held in 1962 and ironically it was won by one of Tom’s team mates and fellow worker at A.E.I. – A. H. Brown. Andy, who also came from Law Village, won the event in a time of 50:33.

Since that inaugural race in 1962 – as can be seen from the results – many fine runners have graced this event (it’s a who’s who of Scottish middle & long distance runners). 

Surely the aims and objectives of the original committee have therefore been realised with Scottish Olympians, European Contenders & Commonwealth Gold & Silver Medallists not only taking part, but winning this event – a fitting tribute to one who gave so much time and energy to his sport.”

Cross Country running is at the heart of distance running in the winter season and the District and National Championships the main events.

After the Second World War, several distinguished Motherwell YMCA Harriers ran for their country.

W.S. Sommerville (Willie) ran for Scotland in the 1946 International at Ayr Racecourse, where he was a counter in 33^rd place; and also in 1947, after finishing 5^th in the Scottish National.

James Fleming (the 1948 Scottish One Mile champion) ran brilliantly in the 1949. Colin Shields tells the tale very well. “The National was held at Ayr Racecourse, with heavy rain in the 24 hours before the event contributing to the gruelling nature of course conditions which were judged to be the worst for 30 years. Uncovered barbed wire fences resulted in numerous competitors finishing bleeding profusely, and a stream out in the country beyond the Racecourse, which had to be crossed three times, was rendered hazardous because it was swollen and in spate. With both banks a sea of mud, from which no correct take-off could be achieved, this dangerous obstacle meant icy immersion each time and had an adverse effect on many competitors.

On this most trying and difficult course, James Fleming (Motherwell YMCA Harriers), the Scottish One Mile champion, displayed tenacity and strength as well as speed, and fought an exciting battle over the final mile with James Reid (West Kilbride AAC). The lead changed hands many times, with each runner passing the other along the finishing straight, before Fleming brought out reserves of strength Reid could not match to win by 25 yards, with John Emmet Farrell (Maryhill H) maintaining his remarkable record of finishing in the first three on every occasion since 1937.” James Fleming went on to run for Scotland in the 1949 ICCU Cross Country Championships, where he was a counter in 37^th place.

Jim Fleming (134)

David Nelson ran for Scotland in the 1952 International at Hamilton Park Racecourse. He had been selected because he had been a runaway winner of the Junior National, finishing 300 yards in front of Donald Henson (VPAAC) and future cross country great Andrew Brown (also Motherwell YM). The International was held at Hamilton Park Racecourse. David Nelson ran well to finish 29^th and fifth counter for the Scottish team, which finished fourth – a good performance.

Davie Simpson was ninth in the 1962 Scottish National and subsequently ran for Scotland in the International at Graves Park, Sheffield, where he finished 66th.

Bert McKay was fourth in the 1963 Scottish National and went on to represent his country in the 1963 International in San Sebastian, Spain, where he was a counter in 68^th place.

John Linaker ran for Scotland in three Internationals: 1963; 1966 in Rabat, Morocco; and 1968 in Tunis. He was a counter in 1963 (36^th) and 1966 (34^th).

Colin Shields wrote: “The record number of appearances for Scotland in the International Cross Country Union Championships in the period 1903 to 1972 is held by Andrew Brown of Motherwell YMCA Harriers. He competed on 12 occasions (1955 – 56 – 58 – 60 – 61 – 62 – 63 – 64 – 65 – 66 – 67 – 68) between 1955 and 1968, missing only 1957 and 1959. He was a counter in the Scottish team on 10 of the 12 occasions and was the leading Scot to finish on 3 occasions in 1962, 1963 and 1964.” Perhaps Andy’s finest International Championship performance was in 1962 at Graves Park, Sheffield. “After a bad patch during the middle of the race, Brown was back in 24^th position at the start of the final one and a half mile lap of the race. With a strong finishing surge he tore his way through the field, gaining fifteen places to finish 9^th, just 29 seconds behind the winner, Gaston Roelants (Belgium)” (a great cross country runner who was to win the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Steeplechase gold medal.)

Alec Brown ran for Scotland in two Junior Internationals (1963 – 11^th) and 1964 – 7^th) and three Senior Internationals: 1965, 1967 and 1968. He was a counter in 1965 (78^th) and 1967 (60^th). Alec’s two Junior Internationals led to outstanding success for the Scottish team, which won bronze medals in 1963 and silver medals in 1964, just one point behind the winners, the Auld Enemy, England.

Ian McCafferty ran for Scotland in seven Senior Internationals: 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968 (10^th and first Scot), 1969 (3^rd and first Scot), 1970 and 1972. In addition he ran the Junior International in 1964 and easily won the title!

Andy Brown’s cross country exploits are well described by Colin Shields in the SCCU Centenary book. In the Midland District Championships, he won the Senior race in 1962 and 1963 (when Ian McCafferty won the Youths race) and led Motherwell YMCA Harriers to the team titles.

In 1964 and 1965 Midland District Championships, the precocious Ian McCafferty not only won the Senior titles but also the Junior ones, leading Motherwell to their third and fourth team win in succession. Between 1961 and 1967, the club also showed complete dominance in the Midland District Four Man Cross Country Relay by winning it seven times in a row.

In the Senior National Championships, Andy Brown became champion in 1958 at Hamilton Racecourse. Colin Shields again. It was “a tough test of strength and stamina in which the course was extended to include the rough countryside between the racecourse and the River Clyde. Brown finished fifteen seconds in front of Scotland’s top miler Graham Everett, with newcomer Alastair Wood finishing in fourth position behind John Russell (Victoria Park) who led his club to a narrow team victory over Bellahouston Harriers.”

John Linaker (who had previously finished first, running for Pitreavie AAC, in the 1960 Scottish Junior) won the Senior title in 1963, when Motherwell YM also secured the team title. “The Motherwell pair, Brown and Linaker, together with Alastair Wood (Aberdeen) went into an early lead, drawing well clear of the field. Running together as a group they were out on their own with just a mile to the finish when Brown, hoping to regain his title, broke clear with a strong burst. But his rivals were faster finishers than him, Linaker being SAAA Steeplechase champion and Wood the 3 Mile champion, and they overtook him with half a mile to go. Linaker timed his finishing burst to perfection, winning by ten yards from Wood, with Brown third a further ten yards behind. With the great start of having three runners in the first four (Bert McKay was fourth), Motherwell won the team championship for the first time since 1908. But it was no walkover, since Motherwell had to wait anxiously for their final counter, John Poulton, to finish in forty-fourth position. Southern’s Kenny Ballantyne had been their sixth counter. However Motherwell’s top three decided the issue and they totalled 108 points to win by just eight from ESH.” Motherwell’s fourth and fifth counters were Davie Simpson 18^th and Brian Hodgson 38^th.

Ian McCafferty won the Senior National at Currie in 1972…….. The favourite was Jim Alder, who was out for his third successive title. McCafferty made a determined effort from the start, and built up a 50 yard lead by half distance. Over the next 3 miles, Alder made up the gap and, with a mile to go, had established a 40 yard lead. A big ploughed field had to be crossed just half a mile from the finish and here, contrary to all expectations, McCafferty proved the stronger. He closed the gap on a tiring Alder, and opened up on the flat, grassy surface of the finishing straight to sprint home to a 6 second victory over the defending champion in one of the best and most exciting finishes seen in the National for many years.”

Ian had previously become Youth National champion in 1963, succeeding his team-mate Alec Brown, who had been victorious in 1962. In fact it was Alec who had convinced his friend Ian to join Motherwell in 1963, so that the club could field a complete Youth team! Colin Shields wrote: “Such was the rough and ready entry of McCafferty to athletics. He was later to become one of the greatest talents in Scottish, British, European, Commonwealth and World middle distance running. In his first season, he ran brilliantly and the rapid flowering of a unique talent was underway.”

Ian McCafferty won the Junior National in 1964 and 1965. His finest performance in that age category was in 1964 at the Junior International Championship at Leopardstown Racecourse, Dublin. Colin Shields reported as follows. “McCafferty displayed his sharpness by winning the Junior title. He went into the lead from the start and dictated the pace throughout to win by 25 seconds – the largest victory margin in the history of the race –  and became the first Scot to win this title. Backed by club-mate Alec Brown 7^th and Joe Reilly 9^th, McCafferty led Scotland (17 points) to second team medals, just one point behind England in what was to be our best ever attempt to win the International Junior team championships.” (Five years later, as a member of Law & District AC, running for the Scottish team in the 1969 Senior International Championship at Clydebank, Ian McCafferty produced another great run on a testing, hilly course to finish third against world class opponents. This was the best individual performance by a Scot since James Flockhart’s 1937 victory in Brussels.)

Ian McCafferty

Although Willie Marshall was in no doubt that road was his favourite surface; followed by track; and only then country (especially mud), he did finish 58^th in the 1964 Senior National, which made him Motherwell’s fifth counter and helped to secure team bronze.

In the 1978 Scottish Veterans Cross-Country Championships, William Marshall (running for Clyde Valley AC) won his first title at M50. The following year he lost a close battle with Hugh Mitchell of Shettleston. However Willie returned to the gold standard in 1980 and was champion again in 1981.

When he turned 60, for four years he had no close rival, and (representing Motherwell YMCA once more) won four successive Scottish Veterans XC championships (1988-1991). Between 1993 and 1996 (running for Cambuslang) Willie reigned supreme and won another four titles, in the M65 age group. In total, he had collected an amazing 11 individual gold medals in this prestigious annual fixture!

An unusual race participation for William Marshall took place in November 1993 at Lord Trehearne’s Estate outside Cardiff, when he ran for Scottish Veterans in the annual Five Nations International Cross-Country. The Scottish M60 team: Hugh Gibson, Willie Marshall and Pat Keenan (who packed well in 5^th, 6^th and 8^th) won silver medals.

Andy Brown made a comeback as an M40 Veteran in the 1981 Scottish Veteran XC championships and finished second to Martin Craven (ESH) and with Bert McKay and Willie Marshall making up the Clyde Valley team they won the team race.

He returned the following year, 1982, and turned the tables on Martin when he became Scottish Veterans XC M40 champion and Martin Craven finished second.

Not only that, when the Clyde Valley team finished second in the Senior National in 1982, the six counters were Ron McDonald, Jim Brown, Brian Gardener, Peter Fox, Joe Small and Andy Brown.   Doing the sums we arrive at an age of 49 for Andy in that team.   One of his team mates that day describes him as ‘the hardest of hard men.’

Then in 1993 and 1994 Andy Brown won the M60 title in the Scottish Veterans XC.

On the Track, Motherwell had many successes after the Second World War, although from 1966 several of their athletes went on to star for other clubs, especially Dick Wedlock and Ian McCafferty.

In 1948 James Fleming (Senior National XC winner a year later) won the SAAA One Mile championship while representing Motherwell YMCA Harriers.

A.H. Brown (universally called Andy, born 11/12/1932) was 22 years old when he first won a SAAA silver medal in the 1955 3 Miles championship. The legendary Ian Binnie (Victoria Park AC) won the race. In 1956 Andy was second again, this time beaten by Adrian Jackson (Edinburgh University). Andy went on to obtain a bronze medal at this distance in 1959, and silver again in 1963. However his success was greater at 6 Miles. Although he was second to Binnie in 1955 he won the 1956 and 1957 Scottish championships. Alastair Wood (Aberdeen AAC) ensured that Andy was runner-up in 1959 and 1961. The redoubtable Andy Brown regained first place in the 1963 6 Miles, well in front of his new club-mate John Linaker; and was second to Fergus Murray (Edinburgh University) in 1965.

After a very long and successful career, Andy Brown’s record as a track athlete came to a surprising but very impressive conclusion. As an M60 runner, in 1993 he set a tremendous Scottish Masters M60 indoor record for the 3000 metres of 9:54.02 and in 1994 an equally fine outdoors record for 5000 metres of 16:48.44. These were world leading times but Andy Brown remained as modest and inspirational as ever.

Robert W. McKay (Bert, born 13/12/1935) was a very influential club member – universally liked and respected. He gave freely advice and motivation. On the track he ran well between 1961 and 1972, with personal best including 4.08.7 for One Mile, 8.57 for Two Miles, 13.58 for Three Miles, and 14.24.4 for 5000m. Bert won four bronze medals in Scottish championships, for the Mile in 1962 and 1963, 5000m in 1969 and the Track Ten Miles the same year. His contributions to E to G success have been noted already.

John H. Linaker (born 16/11/1939), who was originally from Lancashire in England. However his parents came to Rosyth in Fife when John was a baby. From 1956 he ran for Pitreavie AAC in Fife. This club was only registered for Track and Field; and from 1958 Cross Country as well. When he represented Motherwell, he was living and working in that area. John Linaker became a vital force in Motherwell YM’s great success between 1961 and 1964.  He first appeared in the annual Scottish Track ranking lists in 1959 with promising performances in the Mile, Two Miles, Three Miles and Steeplechase. It soon became clear that the Steeplechase was his best event. Indeed he won the Scottish championship six times, more than anyone else in the history of the event: in 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1965 and 1966. In the 1966 Empire and Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica, he finished a meritorious seventh in the final. His excellent personal best 8.41.61 was set that day – three seconds faster than the Scottish National record held by Lachie Stewart. In addition he won a silver medal in the 1968 Six Miles (recording 28.17.2), and two more Steeplechase medals – silver in 1959 and bronze in 1967. Then in 1968 he ran the marathon in 2.21.19.5. Other bests included 4.09.5 for One Mile, 8.59 for Two Miles and 13.40.6 for Three Miles.

From 1986 onwards, in the M45, M50 and M55 age groups, John Linaker made a comeback to Veteran athletics, setting an impressive range of Pitreavie AAC records for 800m, 1500m, 3000m, 5000, and 10000m and the London Marathon in 1997 in a fantastic M55 time of 2:40:46.   In 1990 he won the M50 title in the Scottish Veterans Cross-Country Championships.   He won three M55 Scottish Veterans titles in succession from 1995 – 1997.   In addition in 1992 he won the M50 800m and 1500m in the Scottish Veterans Indoor Championships.   He coached his daughter Isobel who broke the Scottish Under 15 records for 800m and 1500m in the early 90’s and was selected for the European and World Schools Championships. [John’s wife and Isobel’s mother was Esther Linaker (nee Watt) who won the SWAAA 100 yards in 1960 and 1961, and 220 yards in 1960 and 1962. She also held the 100 yards Scottish record (11.2)]. No wonder Isobel was a talented athlete!

A.P. Brown (Alec, born 9/9/1944)) was Andy’s brother but almost 12 years younger. On the track he showed early promise and ran a decent 2 mile time in 1962 at 17 years of age. Perhaps his best track race took place in 1967 when he finished third in the Scottish Six Miles championship, behind Lachie Stewart (Shettleston) and Mel Edwards (Aberdeen AAC).

David Marshall, Willie Marshall’s son wrote about his Dad’s Veteran career on Track and Road. Willie’s major achievements were as follows. 1989: he broke M60 World Indoor records for 1500m (4.49.5) and 3000m (10.18.6), while winning British Indoor titles. In the same year he won the 1989 European M60 10k on the road. 1993: he set another World record (M65) in winning the Scottish Vets 3000 Indoor in 10.32.28. He also won the British 5000m, setting a British record. Then he was first in the M65 European 10k Road championship in the Czech Republic; as well as winning the Half Marathon the following day! 1994: he won the World Vets M65 10k and 25k titles in Canada. 1995: he was first in the M65 European 10k in Spain (37.14); and also victorious in the Half Marathon (1.23.37), again on the following day. 1998: he won the World M70 10k road in Japan; and broke the World record in the British indoor 3000m. 2000: he won the M70 World 10k road title in Spain (39.57).

Bert McKay, who was a very important influence on the success of Motherwell YMCA, said: “Willie seemed to be a very light trainer but took part regularly in fast pack runs at the club on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He was a nice man, quiet and apparently frail but obviously much tougher than he looked. I remember one particular 5 mile road run I had with Willie just a week before one E to G. I was in good form but could not drop Willie at any time during the run! He was a lot better than he showed when he was younger.”

Peter Duffy (who was a really good hill-runner and also won a medal in the Scottish Marathon Championship) said: “I was a team-mate of Willie’s at Motherwell YMCA. On the road he was too fast for me and had a beautifully smooth, flowing style. When I was a club member (from the 1966 E to G), he only trained on his own and did not run at all on Sundays, due to strong Christian beliefs. He was respected for this and his fine running in the E to G.”

Ian J. McCafferty (born 24/11/1944) was one of the finest Scottish middle distance athletes of all time. Immensely talented, on his day he ran brilliantly on track, in the country and on the road. His Track progress makes fascinating reading. He won the SAAA One mile three times – in 1964, 1965 and in June 1967 (racing at Pitreavie, while still representing Motherwell YMCA Harriers before he switched to Law and District AC), he set a Native record of 4.02.3). Then in 1969, down south in Reading, he won a titanic struggle with fellow Scots Ian and Peter Stewart (Birchfield Harriers). McCafferty won in 3.56.8 to become Scotland’s first sub-4 minute miler and set a Scottish National record. In 1970 in Edinburgh he set a 1500m National record of 3.44.1.

Unsurprisingly Ian McCafferty won the 1970 Scottish 5000m title and also achieved Scottish records at 2 Miles (a Native record of 8.42.2 in Glasgow 1965; and a National record of 8.33.2 in London 1967 – this was also a European and British record.); 3 miles (13.12.2 in Kingston, Jamaica 1966 and 13.06.4 in Dublin 1967, setting a British record behind the great Ron Clarke of Australia); and Native and National records for 5000m (13.29.6; and later 13.23.4 in Edinburgh 1970, which at the time was the fourth fastest 5000m time ever run.). He also set a Scottish Native record for 3000m of 8.02.4 in Edinburgh 1970. He won three AAA Indoor titles: at 2 miles in 1967; and 3000m in 1968 and 1969. In February 1967 Ian opted to miss the Scottish National XC so that he could run for Great Britain against France in an Indoor meeting in Lyon, where he won the 3000m in a British record time of 7.56.6.

Ian represented Great Britain in the 1972 Olympics (5000m finalist) and the 1967 European Indoors (5^th in the 3000m). He ran for Scotland in the 1966 (5^th in the 3 miles) and 1970 Commonwealth Games (6^th in the 1500m and second in the 5000m). His finest moment was the Commonwealth silver medal in Edinburgh 1970, when so many of us remember his tremendous battle down the finishing straight against his Scotland team-mate Ian Stewart, with Olympic legend Kip Keino of Kenya left trailing behind. A truly famous moment in Scottish Athletics history!

In conclusion. How did Motherwell YMCA Harriers achieve so much, especially between 1961 and 1966?

Bert Mackay recalled. “Our club was very small, with no more than twelve senior (serious runners). But luckily most of the twelve were good quality athletes. We all worked five days per week and sometimes did not meet until the race on the Saturday. When we did meet on a club night we always ran very hard over seven to ten miles on the road in the winter; and in the parks in the summer as we had no running track. Routes were nearly always hilly trails, for Motherwell is on the side of the Clyde Valley.”

Very good quality, Scottish International athletes: Andy and Alec Brown, McKay, Simpson, Linaker, Wedlock and McCafferty. Marshall and the other E to G and National cross country medal-winners were quite a support act too!

Willie Marshall remembered that, when he started running, his clubmates were very welcoming and encouraging.

Peter Duffy ran well to finish sixth on the First Stage for Motherwell in the 1966 E to G, when they secured team bronze medals. He was living in Wishaw at the time, so most of his training was to and from work. However on Tuesdays and Thursdays he drove to Bert McKay’s house for a training session, usually with four other guys. In the lighter nights ran to a small park and often did ferocious 200 yard repetition sessions! On Sundays, Peter, Bert and others (including the future Scottish marathon record-holder, young John Graham, who Bert was mentoring) might run for two and a half hours.

Peter remembers how Bert was a genuinely friendly, helpful person and it was a pleasure to train with him (apart from the repetitions).  Peter also liked Andy Brown, who was kind enough not to race away from him in training and who was very well respected because of his tremendously successful racing. When he was on form, Andy had a beautiful style with, it seemed, a ten-foot long stride! Peter also liked his young club-mate, the sensitive but immensely talented Ian McCafferty.

In Autumn 1966, Dick Wedlock rejoined Shettleston and John Linaker rejoined Pitreavie. Then someone in Law village started up a running club (Law and District AC) and since Andy and his brother Alec had been born there, and Ian lived there, they changed allegiance in Autumn 1967. Several other Motherwell Harriers joined Law and District AC, along with many youngsters from the village. Unfortunately, this led before long to the demise of MYMCAH.

Nevertheless, as this article should have made clear, Motherwell YMCA Harriers enjoyed several years of Scottish supremacy and the club played an important part in the development of a number of top class Scottish athletes.

 Bert McKay

The Brandon Street YMCA Building in Motherwell which was the club’s 

headquarters for many decades

The first Scottish open clubs were Clydesdale Harriers and Edinburgh Harriers in 1885.   Motherwell appeared soon after and a team ran in the national championships in March 1890.   They were good enough to finish fourth that year but missed the next few years.   Colin Shields explains: “In the final decade of the nineteenth century there was a clear divide between the ‘Senior’ and ‘Junior’ clubs in Scotland.   The ‘Senior’ clubs consisted pf Clydesdale Harriers and Edinburgh Harriers, who were the constant entrants and winners in the Scottish Senior Championships, together with West of Scotland Harriers, Edinburgh Northern Harriers, Watsonians CCC and Motherwell YMCA Harriers who entered the Senior Championships on occasions when they were strong enough to offer a challenge to the top teams.   The remaining 40 or so clubs in Scotland were titled ‘Junior’ clubs and their members took no part in the Senior Championships on any occasion.”    

For this profile of the club’s progress I will be using initially the yardstick of their progress as a club and individually in the two major championships of a short fixture list, the District and the National championships plus the chievements of some of their best runners.   The Edinburgh to Glasgow relay will also be an important part of their progress from 1930 to 1939.   For the second part of the club’s ‘history’ (1945 – 1967) follow this link.

 The championships on 14th March, 1890, were held at Cathkin Park in Glasgow and Motherwell YMCA joined the ever presents of Clydesdale, Edinburgh and West of Scotland in the team contest.   The Scottish Sport paper said that there were over 50 cross-country clubs equally capable of entering experienced teams but they did no do so.   They went on to ask why they did not do so.   The reality is that four teams and a total of 46 runners turned out and Motherwell was fourth.   In 1891 they improved to third place behind Clydesdale and Edinburgh Harriers.   There was no team from the club for several years but the ‘Glasgow Herald’ printed the entire field for the National Championships of 1895 and there was one runner from the club entered as an individual – J Mills – and he was not in the first 17 finishers.   In 1898 there was another third place for the club with two runners in the first ten – Yuill and Pitt – and six of the seven men who started that afternoon in Musselburgh completed the course.   Positions of their runners – 5, 10, 14, 20, 22, 31.   Clydesdale won the title with Watsonians second.   Edinburgh and Edinburgh Northern were fourth and fifth.

The pattern of not entering teams in the National was maintained and the next time the club was mentioned in connection with the event was on 9th March 1901 at Lochburn Road Maryhill where the trail was laid by Maryhill and Monkland Harriers.   Three clubs entered – CH, EH and Coatbridge with one from MYMCA  (Arthur Pitt) not in first three although well up at halfway.   There were no Motherwell YMCA teams in any of the three main races in 1901/02 – the Clydesdale Harriers individual team and handicap races in November, the Junior Championship in Februaru (later to be the district championship) nor in the national championship at Myreside in March 1902.   Seson 1902/03 told a similar tale although to be fair they were not the only club missing all the major races – the Western District event in February 1903 only had four teams entered who finished, in order Larkhall YMCA  Clydesdale Harriers Garscube Harriers and Wellpark Harriers.   This would change with 1904.

Into season 1903/04 and the club’s first cross-country international runner was selected – and he was not the only top class man representing the club.   On February 13th 1904 the Western District Championships were held at Hamilton Park Race course and Motherwell’s W McFarlane finished second to Kennedy of Garscube Harriers with Cochrane of Olympic Harriers third and T Young of Motherwell fourth.   In the team race they were second to Garscube by ten points with Clydesdale Harriers third 60 points back and then Paisley Harriers fourth and Motherwell B team fifth.   Neither the team nor any of the runners were placed in the National championship but  J Barrie was selected the following Wednesday evening for the team to represent Scotland.   Hi running in the national was not a fluke – he had run consistently well all summer and had been third in the SAAA Four Miles championship.   He finished 13th in the international.

One of the biggest events of the cross-country season was the long established and well supported Clydesdale Harriers seven and a half miles open and team race held annually at Scotstoun Showgrounds.   It was held on November 21st in 1904 and all the top clubs entered.   Seventeen teams of six were on the starting line as well as 71 individuals.   To keep the crowds entertained, there was a 100 yards race with 31 entrants held while the runners were out in the country.   T Sommerville of Motherwell YMCA was seventh, while J Sommerville of the same club was fourth in the handicap race incorporated into the event.   The club team was ninth of the seventeen.

The next big race was the West District Championships where the club performed nobly.    The report in the ‘Glasgow Herald’ of 6th February 1905 read as follows:

“The Western District Championship of seven miles, which now takes the place of the discontinued junior championship, was run on Saturday afternoon from the showyard of the Glasgow Agricultural Society at Scotstoun, Whiteinch, on the western outskirts of Glasgow.   Nineteen clubs of twelve men each had entered for the team and individual races and they ran twice round the track of the show grounds and out into the open country, up hill, across ploughed fields, grass, road and water jumps.   The course was a trying one as the ground was soft and slippery and rendered the going very heavy.   Several clubs ran short of the full entry but no fewer than thirteen teams finished the full competition number, and 132 individuals completed the full distance and counted in the aggregates of six men each.   The results were as follows:  

1.   T Young (Motherwell YMCA);   2,   P Russell (Bellahouston H);   3.   W McFarlane (Motherwell YMCA);    4.  WJ Martin (Clydesdale);   5.   GS Campbell (Clydesdale);   6.  J Sommerville (Motherwell YMCA); 7.  W Muirden (Motherwell YMCA);   8.  WH Currie (Wellpark H);   9.  J Whyte (Paisley YMCA);  10.  J McCulloch (Motherwell YMCA).

Teams:  1.   Motherwell YMCA ;  2.   Clydesdale Harriers;  3.  Bellahouston Harriers.”

However when the National took place at Scotstoun on 4th March, the team was not in the first eight and there was no individual in the first three, although they did have two in the international team.   In the race itself at Baldoyle Racecourse at Dublin, TS Young finished 37th but unfortunately JA Sommerville failed to finish.

We are concentrating here on cross-country championships but members were active on the track over distances from the 100 yards up.   For instance on 27th May in the Clydesdale Harriers Sports at Ibrox R Patterson won the three miles race quite comfortably.    And at the Rangers Sports on 3rd August JA Sommerville won the Four Miles handicap off 335 yards from Arthur Duncan on Scratch.

The club’s excellent run in the Western District Championships was followed two years later with a victory in the 1907 Western District Championship  that was reported as follows in the ‘Glasgow Herald’.  “Motherwell was gay and sad by turns on Saturday night, gay because of the success of the Harriers in the Western District cross-country championship, and sad because of what happened at Galston in the Scottish Cup ties.   But such is life, and yet the Harriers’ gaiety was not so complete as many would have liked, for although they won the team championship, they lost the individual distinction which they looked upon as a certainty for H Young, who for the second time just failed to snatch victory.   It was McPhee of Paisley Harriers who defeated him.   Both were together entering the final stretch but towards the finish McPhee drew away and won a very exciting race.”    In the national that year the club produced their best run in the event ever up to that point when they finished third (102 points), behind Clydesdale and West of Scotland.

The club was first in the Western District in 1908 too and the report was headed “Muscular Christians.”   It read

“Progress is both genuine and general in the realm of cross-country sport.   No fewer than twenty five teams took part in the Western Distrct Championships at Scotstoun on Saturday.   The conditions were all that the most fastidious could desire, the going, if a little sluggish in some places, being, on the whole, better than is usually associated with this event.   On that account racing was all the keener, and, if the winner of the individual championship had an easy journey, the team contest could hardly have been closer with such a large entry.   The winners were the Motherwell Young Men’s Christian Association with 135 points, Glasgow Young Men’s Christian Association being second with 155.   Since the instittion of the championship in 1903, Motherwell’s ‘muscular Christians’ have won three times, which is highly creditable, showing as it does that, among other things, they are keen on cross-country sport and always replenishing their ranks with promising runners.”   The individual winner was G Culbert of Monkland Harriers.   This victory encouraged Motherwell to enter their best team possible in the national championships and the result was a victory – their first win the the premier cross-country event.   They had no one in the first five home but won with 79 points to Clydesdale’s 82 with West of Scotland third.   The club was gaining quite a reputation – I quote from the race report in the ‘Herald’:

“Clydesdale were the popular fancy but to the surprise of all the muscular Christians of Motherwell captured first place.  A few weeks ago they won the Western District Championships, and they are the only team in Scotland to have placed themselves with one bound  in the honourable position of National Champions.   The Motherwell YMCA Harriers have had quite a wonderful career.   They took part in the Western District Championships five times and were first three times and second twice, and now they crown these distinctions by taking the national crown at the first time of asking.”   Their first man across the line at the end was J Miller in sixth place and as a result he was selected for the International at Stade Colombes in France where he was 28th.

On 6th February, 1909, Motherwell YMCA along with 24 other clubs entered the Western District Championships at Scotstoun.   Having won it for two consecutive years, they were unplaced, and the ir first counter (D Peat) in the field of 239 finishers was sixth.   Just out of the medals in the national, their fourth place in the team race was nevertheless a creditable performance.   The following year they had no one in the top twenty indiviuals and the club was unplaced in the team race.   After two fallow years, the club’s name would appear in the results lists again in 1910/11.

D Peat was the first of the Motherwell YMCA men to feature when he won the Western District title in February, 1911.   The race was held at Carntyne with 27 teams of twelve runners (6 to count) each entered.   Peat won from Mason of Paisley Junior Harriers, leading the Motherwell YMCA team to second place, the other runners being P Divers 11, RF McMurdo 21, J Brown 29, D Clarkson 34 and A Rae 42.    The national that year was held at Polloshaws in Glasgow and it was an unfortunate one for the club.    A Kerr of Motherwell was third individual and D Peat was seventh but the club did not finish six runners so could not count in the team race.   Individually, Kerr was selected for the International match at Newport and Peat was one of five reserves.    Kerr was twenty second in the match.

In the West District Championships in February, 1912, Motherwell YMCA was one of 27 teams of twelve men but were unplaced in the race, either  as individuals or as a team.   Came the national on 2nd March, and Angus Kerr confirmed his place as one of Scotlnd’s top runners when he finished second to Tom Jack.   The team was not in the first four however but Kerr won his second international vest for the race.   28th this time he would win two more – one when running in the colours of Bellahouston Harriers the following year, and another as a returned member of Motherwell in 1920.

The district championships on 1st February 1913 were called off for the first time.   Given that the Clydesdale Harriers fixture lists typified the attitude of the day when it said in bold italic print that “Runs will take place, whatever the weather” it must have been bad.   The ‘Glasgow Herald reported: “For the first time within memory the Western district cross-country championships, arranged for Saturday last had to be called off owing to extremes of weather.   The race started off from the showgrounds of the Agricultural Society at Scotstoun and at three o’clock on Saturday afternoon the weather was fine, but there had been a heavy snowfall and the higher grounds were white.   The hares were provided with an amount of coloured paper, but as it turned out the had not sufficient to completely cover the trail over the snow covered patches with the result that so many runners missed the course that at the finish the judges and committee were obliged to declare the race null; and void. ”   The race was re-run on 13th February but although Motherwell was among the teams entered they were not placed at the finish.    It was a similar story in the national – they were entered but there was not mention of the team or its athletes beyond that.   Angus Kerr however was running for Bellahouston who led home by Baldy Craig, finished first.”

A year later the the first war started in 1914 and the country not just running went through a tremendous upheaval.   Almost all cross-country running ceased for the duration although some track events carried on.   These had restricted programmes and contained events restrictedto members of the armed forces.   The cross-country season got under way again on 2nd February 1920 with the Western District Championships at Rouken Glen with 20 teams entered including Motherwell YMCA.   The team was not placed this time round but they had a race before the national.  The first post-war national championship was held in 1919.  On 6th March, also in Rouken Glen Park on the south side of Glasgow, Motherwell YMCA finished second to Shettleston Harriers.   Their team was led home by Angus Kerr in eighth and consisted of Kerr, James Humphries 13th Williamson 15th, John Humphries 17th, Lawson 23rd and Burt 48th.   Kerr was selected for  his fourth international third as a member of Motherwell, and finished as a scoring member of the team when he was eleventh.

By the start of the 1920’s the club was well-established as one of the oldest clubs in the land, a club that had been successful at District and National level, and one that had produced many top class athletes.

*

The Twenties were marked by economic depression, men travelling the land in search of work, teams reduced in number because of that and also because many jobs involved Saturday working as a condition of employment.   Nevertheless the sport continued to develop and Motherwell YMCA produced several very good athletes, including one of their best ever in JNH Gardiner, international cross-country runner in three successive years and were involved in the beginnings of the prestigious Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay in 1930.

In the National of 1921/22 they were sixth team of 16, 1025.26 fourth of 21 teams entered, 1926/27 fifth in the national after tie-ing with Plebeian for first place in the West Districts.

It was in 1927/28  that their next internationalist first showed his talents.   On 4th February in the Western District championships at Hamilton JNH Gardiner was second to R Henderson of Glasgow Harriers but the club was well down in sixteenth place of the twenty seven clubs that started.   Into March and at the National Championship, the club was fifth out of 19 with the counting runners being Gardiner (6), McEwan (31), Kerr (61), Shaw (74), Archibald (79) and Simpson 87.   Gardiner was also second Junior.   The ‘Herald’ commented “J Gardiner, Motherwell, is another improving young runner whose performance of sixth and first man home for his club, proves that his recent “Western” racing when he chased R Henderson, Glasgow, home was no flash in the pan.”   It would be another year before he won the first of his three Scottish vests.   On 2nd February, 1929, JNH Gardiner was again second in the Western District Championships with WH Gardiner sixth and the club up in fifth position.   In the National a month later Gardiner was seventh, ten seconds behind Dunky Wright, and selected for the International at Hippodromede Vincennes and was in the team but could do no better than 74th in the big race.

The District sturcture was altered in February 1930 with a new South West District and most frmer members of the old Western District being in the new Midland District.   In this inaugural championship on 8th February 1930, WH Gardiner (JNH’s brother) finished second to J Campbell of Bellahouston.   His brother did not run and the club finished seventh.   In the National on 1st March, they were 10th team, while  JNH Gardiner was eighth.   The other runners were  Maitland, Shaw, Archibald, Simpson, McEwan.   Selected for the international at Royal Leamington Spa JNH Gardiner finished 52nd.

1930 was a significant year for Scottish distance running – first the new districts structure then on 26th April the very first Edinburghto Glasgow Relay was run.   Won by Plebeian Harriers from Dundee Thistle Harriers, Motherwell Harriers was fifth.   Their team consisted of R Graham, R Maitland, R Simpson, WJ McEwan, J Archibald, JNH Gardiner, D Shaw and WH Gardiner.

In February 1931, R Simpson was first finisher for Motherwell when he was sixth but the ‘Herald’ correespondent wasdisappointed n the running of WH Gardiner who had been a favourite for the individual honour.   Well up early on he took a stitch, dropped back, picked up ten places and finished eleventh.   Their next runner was back in 54th and the team finished eighth.    JNH was back for the national and finished sixth, while WH was second scoring runner for the club in twentieth place.   With J Archibald the third man home back in the 90;s, the team was twelfth.   Gardiner was picked again for the Scottish squad and ran in the international at Baldoyle in Ireland where he finished 48th.   Domestically, the second Edinburgh to Glasgow was held on 25th April and Motherwell, minue WH Gardiner, who had been second fastest on his stage the year before, and Maitland, who had held fourth on the second stage, could do no better than twelfth.

The races we have been looking at all required six- or eight-man teams but there were also four man relays being held as district championships.   If we look at the Motherwell YMCA teams performances in the new Midland District relays of the 1930’s we see a table like this.

Not a bad record at all.   The table only shows the bare bones of the results though – eg in 1930/31 Graham was third fastest, WH Gardiner fourth fastest and JNH Gardiner10th fastest.   For all JNH Gardiner’s last international vest was in 1931, he was still running in relays in 1934/35.   In the Midland Championships proper between 1930 and 1938 they were placed 8th, 4th, 4th. no team in either 1933 or 1934, 8th and 8th.   R Simpson might well have ben the unluckiest runner the club has ever had.   Twice – in ’34/’35 and ’35/’36 – when he was favourite towin the District Championships, he was third, in the relays he ran consistently well being being in the top five times in four relays including fastest time of the day in ’36/’37, and yet he never made the international team or won a major championship.

In the National through the 1930’s the club was – like many a club at that very time –  in the doldrums a bit with successve polacings of  13th, 22nd (out of 22), 9th, 15th, 16th, 13th and 16th.   The important thing was that – unlike some others – it kept going and turning out teams.   Some of the olderclub servants like JNH Gardiner were still turning out iun club runs, although not racing.   There were also many good clubmen and organisers who had done their running, men like Roddy Devon, Alex Nangle and Bobby Craigen (all names familiar to post-war athletes of whatever club for a couple of decades!) who were to help it turn the corner.   Read about their post 1945 teams and glory days here .   This second half of the tale is told by Colin Youngson.

Edinburgh Southern Harriers was one of Scotland’s top clubs and in the 70’s and 80’s in particular was one of the very best in the UK with top class athletes in almost every track and field event in the calendar and teams that won everythingfrom track relays to the eight stage Edinburgh to Glasgow on the road.   The club is no more – it merged with Edinburgh AC in the 1996 to form City of Edinburgh AC, and then when that club in its turn linked with Edinburgh Woollen Mills AC, the resultant club became Edinburgh AC.    The club’s tale is told in two parts, the first goes up to 1947, and the second goes right up to 1996 and can be reached   here

There was a very good historical survey in the ‘Scots Athlete’ magazine for October/November 1947 (Vol2, Nos 7 and 8) by the then club president DA Jamieson.   It is reproduced here.

Edinburgh Southern Harriers    1897 – 1947

Fifty years ago!   Such a short span seems this period in historical retrospect, et what a stretch of endless vista it presents when viewed through youthful eyes.   Many notable happenings, alike of historical, social and sporting interest could be chronicled of the year 1897.   In that year Queen Victoria celebrated the Diamond Jubilee of her lengthy reign; Joe Chamberlain as Colonial Sectretary of a Salisbury administration occupied an up-stage centre position of the then political scene;   Dan Leno, the famous music hall comedian, was still rocking his audiences to hysterical laughter with his quips and drolleries.    In the world of sport, Bob Fitzsimons, the red-polled Cornishman, was sitting on the Heavy-Weight Boxing World’s champion throne; Alfred R Downer was the acknowledged Professional World’s Sprint Champion; and in the sphere of amateur athletics, Scotland was once again a united nation after being rent in twain by a domestic quarrel which had lasted for two years.

Yet a further item – albeit of minor interest – must be recorded, for into the hosehold of the Scottish Amateur Athletic Association in this year of grace, was born another lusty infant – the Edinburgh Southern Harriers.   So much then by way of prologue.

Curiously, this youngster was not christened with the name it now bears, since the original title given to it by its young parents – of whom the writer is one, and still retaining moreover the first proud flush of parenthood – was the Edinburgh Southern Athletic Club.   This designation was adopted at the outset because the objects of the club were much more diverse in nature – embracing physical culture, boxing and gymnastics, in addition to cross-country running.   It was not until the autumn of 1898 that the Club’s present title was adopted as being in closer conformity with Rule 9 of its new Constitution which read: “The Club shall be devoted to the promotion of athletics in general, and cross-country running in particular.”   Now definitely purposed as a Harrier Cluvb, and the membership being largely composed of lads domiciled in the southern area of Edinburgh, the obvious step was to add yet another distinction to the City’s geographical points by adopting the title “Edinburgh Southern Harriers.”

To digress for a moment it is interesting to observe in this decision the pursuance in the practice of nomenclature by the Harrier Clubs of Edinburgh.   Thus the parent club: “Edinburgh Harriers” 1886;  “Edinburgh Northern Harriers” 1889; “Edinburgh Southern Harriers” 1897; and “Edinburgh Eastern Harriers” 1934 – originally “The Canon Athletic Club” 1922.

Flourishing in the south-east area of the city during the 1890’s and exercising a beneficent influence upon the youth of its membership was a Bible-Class conducted by a well-known businessman in the city – Mr Alexander Tod.   Here tribute must be paid to the memory of a truly noble-minded and public-spirited gentleman, to whose teaching and guidance many of his scholars owed so much.   It was under such favourable circumstances, then, that the Edinburgh Southern Harriers found its genesis;and it was to a suggestion from the elder lads of his class to found a recreation club that Mr Tod lent a sympathetic ear and generous hand.   On the walls of the club rooms at the present day a portrait of the late Alexander Tod occupies a well-deserved place of honour.   The early years  of the club were uneventful and marked a period of ideal co-operation among its members.   This excellent spirit still prevails, and the Club’s original motto of “Each for All, and All for Each”  has borne much fruit in its practical application.   Memories of these early days, and of many exhilarating cross-country runs over the open country then fringing the City – now covered overwith a multitude of dwellings – crowd in upon one.   

AA Bowman

The season’s activities began with an Opening Run of the combined Harrier clubs of Edinburgh – in which some 200 runners took part – at the Portobello Baths.   Then followed Saturday afternoon rendezvous at such places as the Sheep-Heid Inn, Duddingston; Fair-a-Far, Davidson’s Mains, where Mother Rankine used to provide such wholesome fare with generous helpings of home-baked scones thickly spread with real butter, and oatcakes of most satisfying substance; McLaren’s Cafe, abutting upon the Musselburgh Race Course, the scene of many a hard-won victory in Club cross-country races and also in National events; and the Barnton Hotel, Barnton, which reference induces  nostalgic reflections of the gargantuan ‘ham-and-egg’  teas which always awaited the hungry harrier after his energetic exercise through the neighbouring fields and country roads.

It was not until 1907, however, that the ESH began to develop its athletic strength.   Minor successes had been gained in local events, and also a winning bracket in the Clydesdale Harriers Open Team Race (1904), in which competition the Club also figured as runners-up (1903 and 1906).   The advent of Tom Jack and WAM Watson in 1901 inaugurated a new era in the Club’s history, and an initial success was scored in the Eastern District Cross-Country Championship in 1907.   In this race the Club has been successful on five occasions (1907, 1920, 1927, 1930, 1936), whilst they had the honour of supplying the individual champion in 1938 in the person of Alex Archer.   Other successes have been gained in the Eastern District Cross-Country Relay Championshipas winners in 1914, 1920, 1923 and 1924, whilst they were leaders in the seasons 1929-30 and 1937-38 in the Eastern District Cross-Country League.  

Although never attaining collectively to the heights of athletic greatness, the Club has, nevertheless produced many sterling athletes during its existence.   To the present membership a long list of names would be meaningless, but there springs readily to one’s memory such athletes as   Tom Jack, 10 Miles Flat champion in 1904, 1906-1910, 1912; 4 miles champion in 1908 and 1912;National Cross-Country title in 1907 and 1912; and the Olympic Games of 1908 in which he represented Great Britain in the Marathon race; WAM Watson, internationalist in 1903 in the Scotland v Ireland international; Sandy Thomson, George Pert, RJ Alexander ( a quarter-miler of championship class); George Lindsay, who represented Scotland in the old Scoto-Irish contests in  1911, 1912 and 1914 in the Putt and Hammer events;   and the brothers Ramsay (GH and WA), distance runnerswell above the average.    Again, in succeeding years came WD Patterson, an internationalist again in 1923 against Ireland, George Malcolm, who was ever the handicapper’s headache;  AA Bowman, JA Henderson, R Paterson, GP Janieson and J Wilson(6 Miles SAAA title holder in 1934 and cross-country internationalist) who with others helped to maintain the prestige of the club in cross-cpountry and on the track.

Of the present generation of ESH representatives, much could be written in praise of their merit.   Sufficient to say that the Club banner has been gallantly borne J Smart, W Ferguson, JA Eddison, CJ Hall, W Fraser and others of promise, whilst the welcome addition of EQA Cofie to the membership of the Club has given to this speedy athlete many opportunities to form ties of friendship in a more congenial milieu.   Pride of achievement may also be claimed by ESH members in other spheres of athletic activity.   In Rugby Carl Ogilvie was capped for Scotland against England (1912) and Ireland 1911, 1912); Jimmy Gilbert has claimed similar distinction in the Association code as an Amateur against Ireland (1929, 1931), Wales (1931) and England (1931); whilst J Campbell held the Scottish ABA Light-weight championship in 1914.   

It is perhaps, however, on the administrative side that the Club has held a distinctive place in Scottish athletiuc history.   In its own domestic affairs it has been well served by succeeding relays of whole-hearted and enthusiastic officials .   Among past presidents figure the names of Jimmy Ross, whose histrionic powers on social occasions used to hold his audiences in thrall with renderings of narrative verse  delivered with all the verve and action of the dramatic art; Matthew Dewar, one of the staunchest of club men, who had a deep-rooted contempt for the pot-hunter and the multiple-club athlete, and who would willingly have suffered the ordeal of the cruxifixion in maintenance of the first-claim rule.   Matt in the course of his life long serviuces to amateur athletics, also occupied the Presidential Chair of the National Cross-Country Union ( 1914-1920); Dan Holland, ever zealous in the Club’s interests and still active in the administration of its affairs; Jimmy Gilbert, now bearing much heavier responsibilities as Hon. General Secretary of the SAAA in addition to representing his country on the British Amateur Athletic Board; and the ubiquitous Jimmy Henderson , a whole hearted worker and as keen as the Club’s youngest member.   It has also been the writer’s privilege to serve as President and Secretary throughout his association with the Club.   

The office of President is held at present by Ian Ross who has served the ESH so well in cross-country and track racing, and is now exercising his Presidential duties for a second term of office with great acceptance.   With him as his Vice-President is Alec Fraser, who is probably the greatestr ‘talent-spotter’ of all his contemporaries.   It is interesting also to record that throughout the years of its existence three of the Club’s members have been elected to the Presidency of the SAAA.   Namely, T Jack (1912-1913), J Gilbert 1932-1933) and DA Jamieson (1934-35).   In the wider sphere of municipal administration, members of the ESH have also played a prominent part.     Four of its number have served on the Town Council of the City of Edinburgh, all in their turn attaining to the dignity of the Magistracy.   Moreover, the Club may claim to be pioneers of the present practice of enlisting the support of the Municipality in providing athletic entertainment for the citizens.   It is largely due to the ESH activities that a public park in the City – the Meadows – was made available not only for sports meetings but for athletes to practise there.   Meadowbank Park is also a present testimony to the public-spirited efforts of the ESH executive in securing the co-operation of prominent citizens and other sports organisations as long ago as 1923 in presenting a scheme for the conservation of what was then derelict ground into the present athletic stadium.

In its Secretariat the Club has always enjoyed the benefit of competent officials , whose first principles in the discharge of their duties have always been loyalty and service either in times of adversity or success.   In the exercise of these virtueshonouyrable mention must be made of Alec Bowman, who for over 20 years has has given faithful service as Club Secretary.   “Steve” – as he is affectionately styled by club mates – has been one of the Club’s gilt-edged securities , and its firmly established position in present-day Scottish athletics is largely due to his sagacious management.

At the outset of its existence, the Club occupied an excellent clubhouse nearby to the Meadows – already referred to – and here they were housed for nearly seventeen years.   Circumstances, however, compelled removal to other quarters situated, fortunately, in the same vicinity.   The close of the 1939-45 War found the members faced again with the problem of securing new premises.   The acquisition of a new club house has been one of the Committee’s prime post-war achievements, and today the members enjoy the possession of a comfortable and convenient home in which to house and equip an ever growing membership.   From the walls of this club room the images of its progenitors look down upon the scene with looks of mingled pleasure and pride.   Yesm truly, they builded better than they knew.

Edinburgh Southern Harriers, 1929

That’s where the article ends – maybe a bit long for the twenty first century but we need to at least try to understand those who did so much for the sport – and that includes understanding their manners and thought processes as well as looking at the content.   The pride in the Club (always given a capital), its place in the community, its office bearers and the athletes shines through every word.   It was more than a wee hobby.

So far, so good   Doug Gillon continued the story in the ‘Scotland’s Runner’ magazine of June 1988.   Follow it   here

Allister Hutton in the Newcastle 5K

When ‘Scotlands Runner’ updated the club story in 1988, a lot had changed – ESH had come from being an east of Scotland club with growing potential to be possibly  the strongest club in the country and one of the top clubs in Britain.   Thiswas not only on the road and over the country, but the numbers that the club was con tributng to international track and field teams were immense.

Doug Gillon continues the story of Edinburgh Southern Harriers in the July 1988 issue of “Scotland’s Runner” .

“For Southern’s 90th anniversary last year, Duncan McKechnie literally filled a small book with their avhievements   For example: cross-country relay champions seven times since the event was launched in 1974; road relay champions since that title was put up for grabs in 1979; winners of the Edinburgh-Glasgow road relay race eight times since 1973.   And since 1960 they have won the national cross-country team crown twelve times, filling the silver medal spot eight times   Had Cambusland not beaten the capital club this year at Irvine, Southern would have extended their national run to a unique seven consecutive years   Currently they share the record honours with Maryhill (1927-32)   

On the track they have been Scotland’s most consistent performers, taking the Scottish League title sixteen times sice it was established in 1960, and featuring more prominently in the UK League and Pye GRE Cup than any of their rivals from north of the border   They won the cup in 1975, the only Scottish club to do so   Individually they have the nation’s onlyliving Olympic champion in Allan Wells, who also boasts four Commonwealth gold and a mintful of minor medals.   Elliot Bunney and Jamie Henderson clocked up successive European junior sprint  victories in 1985 and 1987, the latter sharing in a World junior relay gold in which Britain beat the USA.   

Hammer thrower Chris Black, seventh at Montreal, defied the Scottish tradition that  perceives Olympic success in the throws as an unattainable dream.   The club’sthirtieth SAAA title arrived courtesy of pole vaulter David Stevenson (with a record breaking 437 metres in 1964), who that year went to the Olympics in Tokyo, and is now chairman of ewomen’s sponsors, Edinburgh Woollen Mill  BY 1969 the total n umber of national titles won had risen to 56, but the dramatic impact on the fortunes of the club that the 1970 Commonwealth Games triggered , by bringin g all-weather tartan to Meaowbank is revealed by the fact that at the start 0f this year’s track season the Southern vest had been carried to victory in the SAAA senior men’s championship a total of 165 times including relays.   

Ken Ballantyne won the very first of the club’s 65 national junior track titles back in 1957.   And 21 athletes have won 34 Scottish youth championship golds   The UK colours have been worn by 26 different male athletes, and when Southern finally produce a discus thrower worthy of a British vest they will have completed the set.   For that is the only track or field event in which they have not so far been represented.”

Doug’s article continues with many more facts and general information about the club but the bare facts contained in the extract above are impressive enough.    The club had won their last national championship however, and indeed their last major race.   It had left the Scottish stage less than ten years later.   Second in the national in 1989, the club’s positions were seventh, sixth, thirteenth, twenty second and twenty second; in the Edinburgh to Glasgow, with only twenty clubs invited to take part they were placed in consecutive years sixth, third, twelfth, sixteenth, sixteenth, eleventh and twentieth.   It was a great comedown but, given that success tends to come in cycles, the position might have been retrievable but without all the facts, those outside the club don’t know what the situation was.

Why the sudden decline in fortunes in the distance events, cross-country team races and relays?   Edinburgh AC’s top flight endurance teams also suffered a decline in their fortunes at the same time.     How did that come about?

A major factor here was the established of Edinburgh Racing Club.   Set up by a group of established top athletes such as the Robson brothers, Tom Hanlon and several others from Southern, plus some athletes from EAC such as Brian Kirkwood and Scott Cohen, this outfit had a double effect on the other Edinburgh clubs endurance sections – first of all any ‘club of champions’ whatever its motives will obviously have a big effect on existing clubs, and second many of its runners came from the club.   For instance, Racing Club of Edinburgh arrived on the scene in winter 1991/2.  In the Edinburgh to Glasgow Racing won in their first attempt with a team that started with Cohen and Kirkwood and included David Ross, Alan Robson, Tom Hanlon and John  Robson.   Racing Club was very good indeed at what it did – but ESH and EAC suffered.

But why did ESH merged with rivals Edinburgh AC only 8 years after the real high written of by Doug in 1988?   In 1996 it ceased to exist as a club in itsown right.    It might be of course that the club just became a victim of its own success.  To sustain its activities on a UK level. the commitments and overheads were huge and not getting any smaller.  ESH had the continuing commitments of a British Track and Field club – eg in the British League, they had to pay almost £2500  to get a full team to BAL matches in London.   It was reported that at one time a member discovered that if you collected ten tokens from a Sunday newspaper, you could get a buy-one-get-one-free on air fares to London.   The reslt was club members frantically collecting tokens for week after week while the offer lasted to help get the team to the fixture!  There were also age group teams to organise, and normal club activities also cost money, time and dedicated people.

The manpower required to sustain membership of the various leagues and run meetings was also considerable.   When the committee looked across the city and saw Edinburgh AC also putting a team out in the Scottish and British Leagues, duplicating the commitments and expense, it maybe just made sense to link both clubs.   After all, EAC was no less ambitious than ESH and they could bring a lot to the party.  The view from their point of view must have coincided with that of Southern. However it may be, 1995/96 saw the last of Edinburgh Southern Harriers as a club in its own right.

Colin Youngson leading Evan Cameron

Colin Youngson, who ran for the club in the 1970’s, has written a piece for ‘The Fast Pack’ section of the website and yo u can see it here.       He added the following.

In late Autumn 1997, well after the April 1996 club merger to create the City of Edinburgh Athletic club, the ‘Edinburgh Southern Harriers 1897-1996 History Dinner’ was held. I was there along with a host of ESH athletes and officials – plus quite a lot of former EAC members. Since there had been a great rivalry between the two clubs, this felt rather unnatural! ESH representatives included Alistair Blamire, Fergus Murray, Donald Macgregor, Gareth Bryan-Jones, Martin Craven, Craig Douglas, Ken Ballantyne, Graham Stark, George Brown, Bert McFall, Allister Hutton, Sandy Robertson, Chris Black, Lawrie Nisbet, Jamie Henderson, Elliot Bunney, Cameron Sharp and David Stevenson; and EAC athletes included Adrian Weatherhead and Ray Weatherburn plus Coach Bill Walker. There were many officials and ex-athletes, and the age range represented was extensive. The top table featured Jim Smart, Craigie Veitch, Michael McGregor, Donald Gorrie, Ian Clifton, Councillor Margaret McGregor, Ron Morrison and Astrid Gorrie.

Before this dinner, which was very successful, a paperback had been published: ‘ESH – The History of Edinburgh Southern Harriers – Founded 1897’. This Centenary book had been compiled by Edinburgh journalist Ken Smart, assisted by contributions from Ken Ballantyne, Ian Clifton, Hamish Robertson, Ian McKenzie and Jim Smart.

This glossy production featured many black and white photos. There was considerable historical detail, with particular attention on recent stars like Allan Wells, Chris Black, John Robson, Allister Hutton and Elliot Bunney.

The merger was explained in these words. “As the Southern headed for its centenary, the club had to go through a double change of name. First, to attract sponsorship, it became Caledon Park Harriers in 1991, when considerable assistance was given to the club by Edinburgh businessman and property developer Hamish Henderson, whose son Jamie won the European Junior 100 metres championship in 1987. The club was renamed after this property company.

After reverting to the original club name two years later, negotiations opened with Edinburgh Athletic Club for a merger. Both clubs had done well in the British League competitions but over the years it had become apparent, with growing financial pressures from travelling and other expenses, that to maintain standards and to aspire to success in the leagues, a merger of the clubs was inevitable.

The City of Edinburgh Athletic Club is already featuring in the record books. Next season City of Edinburgh AC will be promoted to Division Two of the British Athletics League, having won this year’s Division Three championship.”

Duncan McKechnie had compiled a fantastic list of ESH record, championship winners, International representatives etc. This great club had achieved impressive successes for so long. Although awed by the names of vastly superior athletes at the dinner and in the book, I was proud to have contributed to several team wins in cross-country and road events, and to be bracketed with Olympian Donald Macgregor as a Scottish marathon ‘war-horse’!

Two photographs from the book are posted below. The first is one taken at the Fernieside club track in the early 1970s. Many important athletes and club servants are present (including youngsters like Allan Wells, Chris Black, John Robson and Ian Elliot; experienced men like Martin Craven, George Brown and Graham Stark; plus stalwart officials like Ken Ballantyne, Jim Logan. Ian McKenzie, Hamish Robertson, Ian Clifton, Ian Ross and Bob Steel).

Then there is a photo of ESH Track and Field records. I would bet that no current Scottish club can better those!

From “I Was Or Am A Runner”

IBBO – ‘THE FOUR MINUTE SMILER’
MILE WORLD RECORD 60 YEARS AGO

‘Surely Ibbotson’s run is the greatest mile of all time.’ 1957 commentary.

It was around 1960 that Ibbo gave me my first athletics memory. His career was in limbo with injuries. He visited Northumberland Park in North Shields. I was probably 6 years old and I remember him wearing a white shirt. My father recalls that he ran away from the autograph hunters and drove off in his black car!

Whether I inspired him, I’ll never know – but he came back on the track with a vengeance!

So Sebastian Coe wasn’t the first Yorkshireman to set a World Mile record. 22 years before him, Derek Ibbotson set the track alight.

Yorkshire grit? Yes, that’s Derek Ibbotson. Wry sense of humour? Yes, that’s Derek Ibbotson. Born in Huddersfield in 1932, his most famous race was his world record of 3:57.2 in what was billed as the ‘Mile of the Century’ in 1957.

In true Alf Tupper style, Ibbo would ‘eat a big fillet steak with all the trimmings before a race. Pasta wasn’t on the menu back then and we didn’t have any coaches ‘up north’. We just ran for the love of it. We’d run in two inches of water on a cinder track with fixed spikes and end up covered in black residue. It was fabulous!’

Ibbotson trained hard and raced hard. Years of cross country running helped give him his super-powers. Track training with Alan Simpson in Yorkshire and at Tooting Bec track with Gordon Pirie. His philosophy was that racing helped fitness and he ran 70 races in 1957 before setting his world record.

• Early Days and Early Championship Wins

A member of the famous Longwood Harriers and with not much training, he won a Youths mile race in 4:30.5. Showing further early promise, he won the Yorkshire Junior mile championship in 1949, 1950 and 1951. He went one stride further, winning the AAA Junior title in 1951.

The following year, Ibbo won the Yorkshire Three Miles title, gaining selection for the Inter-Counties, where a personal best of 14:06.8 gave him 5th place. That was a significant race as Gordon Pirie made sure that the Sydney Wooderson days were over, beating the great Man in Black’s British record by 9 seconds.

Injury curtailed his 1953 season, however the coaching, a winter’s cross country and interval training during national service in the RAF helped him to 3rd in the Yorkshire, 4th in the RAF and 8th in the Northern cross country championships.

Derek suddenly exploded back onto the scene with a win in the 1955 Inter-counties 3 miles in 13:34.6 followed by 2nd place to Chris Chataway in the AAA race. He beat Chataway the next year to earn him selection for the Olympic 5000m.

• Olympic Bronze

On Melbourne’s big stage, USSR’s Vladimir Kuts was out to defend his title… which he did in an Olympic record of 13:39.6. With Kuts in the lead at half way, Ibbotson, Pirie and Chataway were well ahead of the other runners. The silver medal was fought out between two Brits, Gordon Pirie and Derek Ibbotson. They finished in that order in 13:50.6 and 13:54.4.

• The Big Build Up

An Inter-Counties 3 Miles win in 13:34.6 and a 28:52 six-miler were followed by third place in the National.

Fitter, faster and stronger, Ibbo faced Chris Chataway in the AAA 3 miles on the White City’s rain-sodden cinders. With a fierce battle over the last half lap, Ibbo edged his way to breast the tape in 13:32.6 (4:32.8, 4:32 and 4:27.8). He ran faster in an international against Czechoslovakia for a personal best of 13:28.2. He followed this to show his speed training had paid off when beating Herne Hill Harrier Ian Boyd in the Emsley Carr Mile in 3:59.4 – an improvement by over 7 seconds.

He had a 5000m race in Budapest, finishing second to Chataway (13:59.6) but ahead of Sandor Iharos, world record holder earlier that year before Pirie

Returning to the UK, Ibbo took a job in London and joined South London Harriers. With Gordon Pirie as its figurehead, the club was one of the most outstanding in the country at cross country and road. He was 6th in the 1957 National (and first team with SLH). He retained his AAA 3 miles title in a British record of 13:20.8. He also ran some fast early season 1500m/mile times. These included a mile race in 80F at Ibrox in Glasgow, the cheers of thousands of Scots pushing him to a European record of 3:58.4, just 0.4 outside Landy’s World Record!

• ‘The Race of the Century’

On the evening of Friday 19 July, Ibbotson lined up with a top class field for an Invitation Mile at the London v New York fixture at the White City, including Olympic 1500m champion Ron Delaney of Ireland. His first wife Madeline was in the crowds with their 5 week old daughter, born while he was competing in Glasgow. ‘I knew I could do it. The pacemaker was Mike Blagrove, who was just back from his honeymoon, but that did not stop him going through the half in a very quick 1:56. I knew then I could take the sting out of Ronnie Delany’s sprint finish.’ With laps of 55.3, 60.5 and 64.2, Ibbo was third at the bell, reached in exactly 3 minutes. He made his move on the back straight and kept on going to set a World Record of 3:57.2. He set a British record of 3:41.9 for 1500m en route.

Just 2 weeks before, he had run an easy 4:10 to win the Yorkshire title at Bingley!

• ‘A mistake. A major mistake’

Ibbo ran 48 track races in 1957, winning 37 and finishing in the first three in 47. These included a British 3 miles record of 13:20.8. However, his training and cross country races did not go well over winter. His track performances in 1958 weren’t encouraging either – 4:05.4/8:47.6/13:46 for 1, 2 and 3 miles and a disappointing mile in the Commonwealth Games in Cardiff… but he did manage to set a world record for 4x mile relay in an England team against Finland at the White City on 27 September 27. Mike Blagrove, Peter Clark, Derek Ibbotson (4:08.6) and Brian Hewson combined to win in 16:30.6.

He won the Emsley Carr Mile in 4:03.6 and manage 2 miles in 8:43.2 but such wins were rarities in 1959. In 1959 he was 7th in the AAA 3 miles, ran for Britain against Poland and Finland, and had bests of 3:42.9 for 1500 metres, 4:03.1 for the mile, 8:00.0 for 3000 metres and 13:32.8 for 3 miles. His times were slower in 1960 due to injury but he still managed 4th in the AAA 3 miles in 1961.

He moved indoors where he won British titles and set World Indoor bests for 2 miles with 8:47.8 and 3 miles (13:44.8).

‘Geoff Dyson, the leading coach, and other people told me to have a rest, take two or three months off, to recover from the hectic season I had. They said it would recharge my batteries. And for the first time ever I listened to other people and did what they said. It was a mistake, a major mistake, and a very costly one because when I started training I got a carbuncle on my neck because my system reneged, and so I missed three months’ more training. By taking the time off and living the high rich life with parties and dinners and do’s, I let myself down. I did not train, and I should have done because I loved running and racing. If you don’t do the training through the winter you don’t have the basis for the summer. By the time I made it back again about a year and a half had gone and I got down to quite good times.’

• A Comeback in his Thirties

He won the 1962 European Indoor 2 miles championship in 8:47.8 followed in the summer by third places in the 3 miles races at the British Games and the AAA Championships. He also finished 8th in the Commonwealth 3 miles in Perth. He kept going courageously, running 3:44.4 for 1500m and 4:01.6 for the mile. Aged 30, he finished 3rd in the AAA 3 miles championships and had a season best of 13:21.6, plus 8:41.4 for 2 miles and 4:03.6 for the mile. ‘Not bad for a “has been”.’

‘When people write me off and say I am finished I have tremendous determination ‘I’ll show the beggars!’ This is why I succeed to get back when people think I am more or less finished.’

He also won the UK indoor two miles in 1965, representing his country and had bests of 8:42.6 and 13:51. He finished 8th in the Commonwealth Games 3 miles in 1966. In 1967, aged 35, he ran 2 miles in 9:01.8.

He started to play squash, becoming Yorkshire veterans’ champion – twice. After retirement from his role as promotions executive for Puma Sports, he continued to enjoy golf… and jogging!

• Inspiration and Advice

Top athletics journalist Alistair Aitken asked Ibbo who inspired him. ‘Nobody really, I have inspiration from thoughts of breaking World records. I always wanted to become a World record holder, a lot of drive inside me. I have never had a coach. I have admired lots of runners but have never been inspired by them. I have always wanted to become the best in the World.’

Alistair also asked what advice he would give to an aspiring, young runner. ‘The main thing when you are young is not to be worried by reputations and size because World Champions come in all shapes and sizes. When you are young you think a big lad is bound to beat you. This may be true when you are 16,17 or 18 but when you get older there are lots of things that come into it. It’s what you have in the heart and in the mind that counts because mind can plan a race well, to make up for the little lack of physique.’

‘I wouldn’t have missed a day of it’

• Career History

1956
International Cross Country (46th)
AAA 3 Miles (1st)
Olympic 5000m (3rd)

1957
AAA 3 Miles (1st)

1958
Commonwealth Games 3 Miles (10th)

1962
UK Indoor 2 Miles (1st)
Commonwealth Games 3 Miles (8th)

1965
UK Indoor 2 Miles (1st)

UK Internationals
18 (1955-65)

• Personal bests

880 yards 1:52.2 (1958)
1500m 3:41.9 (1957)
1 mile 3:57.2 (1957)
2000m 5:12.8 (1955)
3000m 8:00.0 (1959)
2 miles 8:41.2 (1957)
2 miles indoors 8:42.6 (1965)
3 miles 13:20.8 (1957)
5000m 13:54.4 (1956)
6 miles 28:52.0 (1955)

• George Derek Ibbotson: Factfile

Born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire on 17 June 1932. Height 5’9½” (1.76m ) and weight 10st6lb (66kg).

His Olympic 5000m bronze is only 1 of 6 won by Brits at the event. In fact, no British athlete had bettered bronze until Mo Farah’s first gold medal in 2012.

Derek’s Longwood Club Record, a World Record at the time has been broken subsequently by an even grittier Yorkshireman, Walter Wilkinson, with 3:56.60.

Ibbo finished 4th in a mile race won by Australian Herb Elliott in 3:55.4 at the White City on 3 September 1958. Nothing remarkable in that – except that he became the first man to run a mile in a time of exactly 4 minutes. There’s one for any quiz compilers!

He was awarded an MBE for services to athletics in 2008.

In 2011, he was inducted into the England Athletics Hall of Fame.

The YouTube video of his World Record Mile is linked in the first comment.

C Paul Fitton

Tom Jack, Edinburgh Harriers

In season 1961/62, several Edinburgh harrier and athletic clubs came together to form one club which was to be called Edinburgh AC.    In order of appearance on the scene, the first Edinburgh Harriers club was called Edinburgh Harriers and they were Scotland’s second oldest club.   Founded on 30th September, 1885, after Clydesdale Harriers on 4th May of that year, they actually held their first cross-country run from’ The Harp’ in Corstorphine.   You can probably guess from that (the Corstorphine venue) that they were mainly a west of Edinburgh club.   Edinburgh Northern Harriers came along next – in 1889 – and were remarkably successful.   They won many championships, produced a lot of good athletes and promoted many successful meetings.   Edinburgh Southern Harriers was established in 1897.   Much later Cannon AC was formed and that became Edinburgh Eastern Harriers.   The city was pretty well quartered by the clubs.   Braidburn AC, the fourth club that went to make up EAC, had started out in life as the Rover Scouts but the name was changed in the 50’s.

It is interesting to look at the various constituent clubs that went to make up the Edinburgh AC in 1961/62 plus the Braidburn club which joined after the club had been going for a year – in the 1961 Edinburgh to Glasgow relay the EAC team finished eleventh (most of its runners that year were from Edinburgh Northern) and Braidburn was 20th.    We can look at the clubs separately and in chronological order.   Two points first:

1. There is so much history attached to each of the clubs involved that  each would require a book-length rview of their history to do them justice.   We can only make a brief survey of the constituent clubs here leading in to the amalgamation into Edinburgh AC.
2. The emphasis throughout will be on the endurance running activities of the clubs involved – much more detail on the track and field actrivities can be found at Arnold Black’s statistical website  www.scotstats.net.

Now for the tale.

EDINBURGH HARRIERS

Edinburgh Harriers winning team in the inaugural Scottish Cross-Country Championship of 1886: 1 Tom Fraser, 2 David Colville Macmichael, 3 David Scott Duncan, 4 William Mabson Gabriel, 5 John William Lodowick Beck, 6 Peter Addison, 7 Robert Cochrane Buist, 8 John M. Bow

Photo from Alex Wilson

Established as we said in 1885, the club won the first two Scottish cross-country team races ever held – in 1886 and 1887 – and went on to be first in seven races in all – 1886, 1887, 1891, 1895, 1903, 1904 and 1911.  They were second seven times and third six times withe last national medals being won in 1912.

Their first national individual champion was RA Hay in 1895 and he was to be the only Edinburgh Harrier to hold that distinction.   When the International Cross-Country Championship started, the club produced several runers for the Scottish team: A Kinnaird in 1903, TC Hughes in 1903, RE Hughes in 1906, JD Hughes in 1911 and 1912,  and T Robertson in 1905, ’06, ’07, ’08.   In the District Championships, they won the title in 1899, 1902, and 1909, providing winners in the form of Kinnaird (1902), and Robertson (1905).

The club organised many an open meeting, at times in conjunction with the Heart of Midlothian Football Club and later some of these meetings were three way affairs with Edinburgh Northern Harriers adding their expertise and manpower – an example of this is the meeting at Tynecastle on 30th June, 1915.   They were still a functioning athletic club in the 1950’s but operating at a much lower level.

EDINBURGH NORTHERN HARRIERS

Edinburgh Northern Harriers was founded in 1889 – only four years after the Harriers appeared on the scene and just when the sport was starting to take off among the general population.    Edinburgh Harriers glory days were largely behind them and the baton of Edinburgh’s athletics was passed to Northern.   Although they had to wait until 1935 for their first victory in the National Championships, they had four seconds (1893, ’94, ’97, 1927) and two thirds (1914, ’34).   They won the Eastern District Championships in 1908, ’10, 14, 24, ’26, ’31   and the relay in 1926, ’27, 30, 31, ’33, ’34, ’35, ’37, ’38.   In the Edinburgh to Glasgow relay (which only started up in 1930 when, arguably, the club’s best days were behind them) they won in 1935 after being second in 1934.   Looking at the above, 1934/35 was clearly their best spell when they won the E-G, the National and the East relays in 1935, with second in the E-G, third in the National and winners in the East relays in 1934.    The quality of their runners at that time was not too poor either with international vests being won by members: 

T Glancy in 1924 (47th in the international race), W Hinde 1933 (29th), 1934 (26th), 1935 (30th) and 1937 (32nd), and JP Laidlaw 1934 (27th).

And on the track, one of the club’s runners – Gerry Mortimer – finished runner-up in the East District AAA’s Three Miles championship three times in consecutive years – 1950, ’51 and ’52 – and in recognition of this feat achieved when the standard was relatively high, he was presented with a silver trophy which is pictured below.

Suttie Smith (left) wearing the Canon vest

EDINBURGH EASTERN HARRIERS

Canon Athletic Club was formed in 1922 and changed their name to Edinburgh Eastern Harriers in 1934.   The club was never placed in the national or Edinburgh to Glasgow but in the 1950’s a good group was coming together and in 1956 theyy actually finished sixth in the eight stage relay and were awarded the medals for the most meritorious unplaced performance.     In fact they finished first Edinburgh club in the race twice in the six years leading to the merger in ’61/62.

BRAIDBURN AAC

The Braidburn club had red, yellow and green hoops and had possibly the best all roung team of the four.   They had evolved from the Edinburgh Rover Scouts AC who had been in existence since before the 1939/45 war.   In the last national championship before the war, they had one senior man running, G Strachan was second in the Youth Championships and a check of their involvement in the National back as far as 1930 found individual runners entered under the club’s name back to 1931 when J Mitchell ran; the only senior team in that period was in 1936/37 when they were 14th.   After the war, they ran a Youths’ team in the second national (1947/48) which finished third behind Kirkcaldy YMCA and St Modan’s but well ahead of the other Edinburgh clubs – Edinburgh Southern was tenth, 61 points adrift.   The runners were CR Jones 5th, R Pearson 10th, W Henderson 35th and E Gray 52nd.   Other team men who finished the course were D Hall 68th and I Milton 89th.

They were a solid middle distance club with good quality runners but they also had some good field events athletes.   One of their best runners – ranked in the national top ten over 880 yards, medallist at the SAAA championships and a frequent prize winner at the highland games circuit, Neil Donnachie says:

“The Edinburgh Rover Scout Club came into existence just before the 1939/45 war and it evolved around this time from the scout movement to be well established by the time I joined in 1948.   We were not particularly competitively successful at the time but even I, as an also ran, quickly saw the potential for a good cross-country team as we had a group of youngsters; a little older than me, and they were very enthusiastic.
There were several older athletes in the Club and although very few were capable of finishing in the first twenty in the “East League” races there were enough to be noticed. All age groups ran together in the “League” and I did my best to avoid being last.   Claude Jones, a Scottish Champion boxer, who you may remember as a coach, was the first one to show any prowess but that was a little before my time.   Everyone came from a Scout background before I arrived at the Club and then some BB boys joined with others who were not from any particular group although several had Rugby as an alternative sport .

The Rover Scouts were a winter club at this time but I suppose with the aid and encouragement of the rugby set, and the connection and availability of their training grounds for use in the summer, we started to develop a Track team.   The fee paying schools in Edinburgh had F P athletic teams and those who did not play rugby in the winter joined the Rover Scouts Club for cross-country and we evolved even further. “Would be” runners like Bill Linton, who, like me, came from West Calder, joined the Rover Scouts Club and we quickly became a force to be reckoned with as Bill proved to be a fine sprinter in addition to developing his significant middle distance prowess.   Our Rugby players generally strengthened the team including in the “Field” events while some athletes were very versatile.

Our success annoyed at least one member of the long established clubs  of that time, the early fifties, and he raised the fact that we were not all Rover Scouts with the East Committee.   As a result, the committee required us to change to a less misleading name.   You will appreciate that I was very unaware of athletic politics of the time.   At the Club’s AGM, a school boy from George Watson’s called David Laing suggested that as we did runs through an area where the Braid burn flowed in addition to our using Braidburn House for changing purposes we should call ourselves Braidburn and this was accepted.

Braidburn continued to improve as a club over the next few years until we were probably the most consistent Track team in the area whlle some of the other older clubs had began to struggle.   We won most of our inter-club contests against the “FP clubs” and the “Harrier” clubs. We had several fine sprinters and an extremely strong pack of middle distance runners who contributed to a successful road/cross-country team.   I know that I preferred the short relay races on the road but I also improved as a middle distance runner.

Most ‘Track’ athletes competed in the many handicap races at Games of that time and as everyone thought that they had a chance of a win, these were extremely popular and often we had two buses to take athletes to the Highland Games at Aberfeldy or the Galashiels Gathering or elsewhere.”

The rules said that clubs had a 14 month period of grace before joining a completely new club and Braidburn, having an invitation to the Edinburgh to Glasgow, took advantage of this and had a winter as an independent club before joining up with Edinburgh AC.   Their last year as Rover Scouts AC had been 1951/52.   Braidburn then competed well in 1952/53 – first in the Youths age group in the Eatsern District Championships, seventh and tenth in the District relays, and their Juniors had been second in the national championships.   On the track it was a fairly successful club with good coaches and officials such as Tom Drever, mainly but not at all exclusively a high jump coach, and JT Mitchell who was president of the SCCU in 1953.   As Neil says, their athletes competed everywhere and at a higher level than he suggests.    Of his own racing, Neil is maybe a bit too modest as well.   He was a hard fighter at the end of any race as his third place in the half mile in the SAAA’s of 1955  showed – he and the fourth man were given the same time exactly but Neil got the verdict.

RESULTS FROM 1955 – 60

One member of Edinburgh AC that I spoke to said:  “I always understood it to have come about from a meeting of the clubs Northern, Eastern, Edinburgh Harriers and Braidwood in the face of putting a club together to compete with Southern.”   We can look at the results of the relative Edinburgh clubs in the late 50’s – ie from 1955 to 1960 to see if there was indeed a gap between the south-siders and the others.   Let’s take the National cross-country championships first, and look at the Senior team results, and excluding the University team which was quite strong at this point.

1955:   Edinburgh Southern Harriers 7th; no other club had a team running.   There were individuals from some of them.

1956:   ESH 5th; Braidburn and Edinburgh Eastern had incomplete teams.

1957:   ESH 3rd; No other club had a team finishing.

1958:   ESH 4th; Braidburn had an incomplete team.

1959:   ESH 4th; Braidburn and Eastern had incomplete teams.

1960:   ESH 5th; Braidburn 9th; no other club had a team out.

The picture was less clear in the Edinburgh to Glasgow Road Relay that required eight runners per team.

1955:  ESH 10th, Braidburn 15th

1956:   EEH 6th (they gained the most meritorious unplaced team medals), ESH 9th, Braidburn 13th

1957:   ESH 4th; EEH 9th; Braidburn 17th

1958:   ESH 4th; EEH 10th; Braidburn 19th

1959:   ESH 4th;   EEH 19th.

1960:   EEH 14th,  ESH 20th

In four years out of six they were the top team; Eastern headed them twice and Braidburn was a solid enough team too.   The gap however was

1955:   ESH 2nd;   Braidburn 4th; no other complete senior team from Edinburgh.

1956:   ESH 2nd; Braidburn incomplete; not other team from Edinburgh.

1957:   ESH 1st; EEH 2nd; Braidburn 4th; Edinburgh Northern Harriers 7th.

1958:   ESH 1st; EEH 4th; no other complete team

1959:   ESH 1st; no other complete team.

1960:   ESH 1st; Braidburn 3rd; EEH 7th

Edinburgh Southern was clearly the team to beat.   Edinburgh Harriers, pre-1912, had been one of the top two or three teams in the country, Northern had had their real purple patch in the 20’s and 30’s, Eastern was just coming on to its game.   They won the most meritorious medals in the Edinburgh to Glasgow in 1956.  Unfortunately however they were not turning teams out in most of the major championships.

Southern, on the other hand, turned out teams in everything – in the District Relays there were often four or more teams running, at times there were more from Southern than from the other four put together.   The other clubs looked at the example of Eastern in the E-G of 1956 and 1960 which seemed to show that if the others got their runners out, Southern could be beaten.   They certainly had the talent.   They had good runners with a very good supporting cast.   Why shouldn’t they join forces?

Barry Craighead with Claude Jones, 1983

THE COMING TOGETHER

It may be of course that they were not targeting Edinburgh Southern Harriers, but at least the results from that direction pointed out and emphasised the failings in the other clubs in the city.   Neil Donnachie says:

“In late 1960 I was approached by a near neighbour, Willie Carmichael of Edinburgh Eastern Harriers, (a born organiser who also organised the 1970 C.G.) who suggested to me that several of the Harrier clubs were willing to amalgamate and would Braidburn like to come in on it the formation.   I said that I would put it to the club and with very little opposition the four clubs met in 1961 to inaugurate Edinburgh Athletic Club

We ageed to use the Edinburgh Eastern strip but changed the diagonals from Eastern’s maroon to black as black (with white) were the Edinburgh City colours. The change over proved seamless and we immediately had a very high quality committee. The original four founding teams were Edin. Harriers, Edin. Northern, Edin.Eastern and Braidburn. Initially the new Club used the Edinburgh Harriers Club Room at Fords Road in Edinburgh for all Meetings and Northern sold their Clubrooms at Greenfield Place in Leith Street to the Council, which gave us a solid financial basis.”

You need more than runners and money to run a successfukl athletic club, you need capable officials.    If we look at those available to the new club, we realise that it was well endowed in this department too.   Willie Carmichael  has already been mentioned.   A very capable administrator who had been involved with many athleticxs meetings in Edinburgh including the Highland Games, he was recognised as having played a major role in bringing the Commonwealth Games to Edinburgh in 1970.   For morer detailed information on his part in the Games, see the following article:

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/more-in-sport/glasgow-2014-we-will-never-forget-1970-games-1-3369991

Claude Jones has already been mentioned: a larger than life character, always in a good mood, he spent countless hours involved in the sport on behalf of the club and is well known as an effective team manager in the 80’s and 90’s.   He was President of trhe SCCU in 1983/84   Coincidentally another Edinburgh  AC committee member was President of the SAAA at the same time – Barry Craighead is well known as one of the best starters in the UK but he is also an effective administrator.   Bob Greenoak, mentioned here  as a runner, also served as President of the SAAA (in 1987) but the first member of the club to fill that office was JC Bannatyne in 1962.   In due course others from the club like Neil Donachie, a runner when the club was formed, would become top flight officials and administrators in their own right.   W Hunter Watson, a long time member of Aberdeen AAC started out in Edinburgh as a member of the University club and then Edinburgh Eastern Harriers.   His take on the beginnings of EAC can be accessed  here

They also had excellent coaches – Bill Walker and Tom Drever who came from Braidburn were quite superb coaches and were joined by others covering pretty well all athletic events.

The club had all it needed to make at least a genuine attempt to be one of the very top clubs in Scotland – officials, administrators, athletes and a sound financial base.   Nevertheless starting from scratch against clubs that were already motoring along is always a notably difficult task.

Lindsay Robertson

THE FIRST FIVE YEARS: 1961/2  –  1965/66

If we look at the diustance running side of the club, the first big race of their first season saw Edinburgh AC finish eleventh in the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay Race.   The team was made up of R Prior (from Edinburgh Harriers), J Foster (Edinburgh Southern), R Greenoak (Edinburgh Northern), T Chalmers (Edinburgh Eastern), F Neillings (ENH), W Ramage (EEH), H Watson (EEH), and NJ Weir (ENH).   They ran well in their first outing but Edinburgh Southern Harriers was second team.   In the National championship their first finisher was F Neillings in 35th place, with A Carse in 36th, D Hamilton 72nd, WH Watson 79th, T Harrison 90th and N Donachie 102nd.   They also had C Clarke 109th, R Greenoak 112th, A King 125th, W Henderson 182nd, and C Jones 185th.   After several years with hardly a complete team finishing, they had eleven runners in the race.   Out of the medals, butit was a first attempt.   In addition their Junior team was ninth and there were competitors in both Youths and Boys races.   Things could only get better.

One year later and the team of Prior/Foster/Walker/Watson/Carse/Henderson/Donachie and Weir finished seventh – Southern was second.   In the national, the club was sixth with Ramage (28th), Henderson (47th), Watson (52nd), Prior (55th), Donachie (60th) and (Foster 74th).    Other finishers included Harrison (92nd),  A King (127th), M Innes (143rd) and C Jones (146th)   200 finished that year   In 1963/64 they were ninth n the E-G and in the national, but in the national. they started to make their presence felt   Anglo Jim Alder finished second to Fergus Murray and he was followed home by RG Clark (46th), Harrison (52nd), Carse (54th), Carcas (55th), and Watson 66th.   This counting six was followed by Henderson (75th), Donachie (91st), J Convery (117th)

Eighth in the E-G in 1964/65, they were again seventh n the national.   Alder again led the team home in second, Carse had come from 54th the previous year to twelfth this time,  Ramage was 58th and the team was completed by the runners who had served the club so well in the past few years. Then on 21st November, 1965, the team was up with the leaders in the E-G when they finished fifth – one place behind Southern.   Carse had fastest time of the day on the difficult second stage and the team was made up of Fairgrieve, Carse, Convery, Carcas, Steele, Alder, Gillon and Donachie.   They won the medals for the most meritorious unplaced performance.   In 1965/66 they were sixth in the national   Led home by Jim Alder in third, he was followed by A Leitch in fifteenth.   After only five years, they were getting closer to the medals.

Weatherhead to Charleston, Edinburgh to Glasgow, 1983

The club went on from there to many successes at Scottish, British and international national level      The very peak was in 1974 when they broke the world record for the world record for the 24 hour 10  x  1 mile relay.   They won League matches, cross country and road championships, and provided Scotland and Britain with international athletes across the spectrum.   However, since this is a Scottish distance running site, we should maybe get back to the domestic scene

Within Scotland in the E-G relay they were second 7 times, fourth 6 times,fifth 5 times, sixth 3 times,  The lowest places (12th and 13th) were in the early 90’s after the formation of Racing Club and just before the City of Edinburgh AC  was formed.   Whereas they never actually won the road relay, the teams were more successful in the national cross country championships – 5 victories, 4 seconds, 2 thirds, 4 fourth  2 fifth and 3  sixth places.   The really outstanding team performance was in the national of 1975  when Jim Dingwall in thirteenth place was not even a scoring runner for the club   The winning team was made up of Alistair McKean 1st, Adrian Weatrherhead 2nd, Jim Alder fifth, Alex Wight 8th, Doug Gunstone 10th, and Jim Wight 11th   22 runners represented the club that afternoon with eight men home before second placed Southern’s sixth man, and thirteen before third placed Shettleston’s sixth and last counting runner.   They also won gold, silver and bronze in the six stage road relay and the four stage cross-country race

Given that the club had a short life span of thirty years (until the City of Edinburgh club was formed in 1996/97), the record was remarkably good indeed

The track and field team was also very good, competing successfully at all age levels in the British Men’s Athletics League and in the Scottish Men’s League.   They were the first and only club to have two teams in the Scottish five division league and that required changes to the rules and regulations of whole structure.   They won the First Division in seasons 1976, ’77, ’78, ’79, ’80, ’81, ’85, ’86, ’97, ’88, ’89, ’90, ’91 and ’93.   In the British Athletic League, their record was excellent.   Look at the table below

 Many of their athletes are still highly ranked in the national all-time lists from Drew McMaster and Drew Harley in the sprints through to Jim Dingwall, Jim Alder and Lindsay Robertson – marathon runners of quality.   There were several prodigious young talents unearthed too – just look up the careers of Ross Hepburn in the High Jump and Peter Little in the sprints as well as the slightly more seasoned middle distance runners  Paul Forbes is fourth and Peter Hoffman is eighth (Hoffman is also in the 400m at tenth.

WHY DID THE TWO CLUBS MERGE?

Edinburgh AC merged with Edinburgh Southern Harriers in 1996.   Doug Gillon of ‘The Herald’ gave the main reasons at the time as  “A steady haemorrhage of talent to England, precipitated by the athletics clubs’ decline through the UK leagues, means that only united can they stand any chance of preventing further fall.”    The clubs had indeed competed in the British Athletic League and a strong rivalry had built up there as EAC worked their way up through the Divisions to join ESH who had been at the top tier of UK track athletics well before them.   Doug’s article can be read in full at

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12043763.Merger_ends_an_era_in_athletics/

The one thing that is not mentioned in the article as a reason for the ‘decline’ of the two clubs is the arrival on the Scottish scene of Racing Club – at various times Edinburgh RC, Reebok RC, Leslie Deans RC and Mizuno RC – in the 1990-91 season.   The club was composed mainly, at this point of former members of ESH and EAC.   Tom Hanlon, John Robson and others from Southern and Brian Kirkwood and some others from EAC.   It was not a popular club – clubs of champions seldom are whenever they appear – Dunky Wright’s Caledonia AC in the 1920’s only lasted one season.   But popular or not, it attracted some outstanding runners from both clubs.    It later spread its wings and Peter Fleming from Bellahouston, Frank McGowan from Shettleston and others jpoined from the West.   One of its effects was to weaken both clubs, poissibly ESH more than AC.

It was not universally popular within the two clubs concerned either but iut went ahead anyway and so far – March 2017 –   it seems to be doing well.

Nigel Jones to Brian Kirkwood, 1983  6-stage road relay