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I’d love to have a look through Hugh Barrow’s archive photographs and documents collections.   It must be vast – it’s certainly comprehensive so far as athletics and allied subjects are concerned.  eg the photograph, which he credits to Peter Hoffmann) above of husband and wife Alix (Jamieson) and David Stevenson at the 1970 Empire & Commonwealth Games contrasts with the twenty first photograph of former Scottish record holder, Victoria Park AAC star and American Olympian Alex Breckenridge taken in 2014 below.

We have recently discovered the benefits accruing to primary school pupils from the ‘mile a day’ programme.   Secondary schools have always had a summer term block of athletics with an athletics lesson once a week or so.   Hugh has this extract from Rugby school’s archives which indicate a realisation of the benefits of running well over a century ago – and they were not alone among the fee-paying schools.   Look at this double page:

Very detailed description indeed of the route, more detailed than many a cross-country run in the 21st century – if the 21st century had any cross-country run that involved such as crossing a brook and a stile.   These schools have a long record in promoting running and athletic sports.   Hugh as sent this one from Glasgow Academy one of the very first to have its own sports day which is one of the longest running in scottish athletics history.

Above we see an advertisement for H&P McNeil’s shop in Glasgow.   Peter McNeil was a founder member of both Rangers FC and Clydesdale Harriers and supported both clubs as well as sport in general.   His name is to be found as one who purchased adverts inside the programmes for sports meetings held by both clubs.   

Rangers Sports were a major feature in Scottish athletics from 1872 until their unfortunate demise in 1962.   Hugh has the above in his collection of athletics memorabilia.   There were also the Clydesdale Harriers Sports also usually but not invariably held at Ibrox –

Hugh ran in several Rangers Sports meetings which didn’t of course deny interest in the other sports meetings but the Celtic Sports died out before his time.  He did unearth this item though, which prompts the question, why don’t the sports pages employ cartoonists when covering major events?   A cartoon can often convey more than a photograph.   Note the drawing of Fred Bacon.   He was an amateur in 1893 and won many AAA titles and set records including the world one hour time.   He became a professional athlete and when he decided to regain his hour record, he chose to do it in Scotland.   Powderhall was the venue, 1903 was the year and he had three pacemakers – one of whom was Bill Struth who went on to become a legendary Rangers manager, and one of the most successful managers the world has seen.

Then there were the events of 1897 when there were professional championships held at Celtic Park.

We all like the quirky things from the sport’s history, the things that make us smile a wee bit.   How about this one that he found on Twitter.

Note too that the Rangers FC granted the use of the stadium to the teams for the match.   This of course made sure that the match would almost certainly make a profit which it is clearly stated would go to the unemployed of the city and of Govan.   The club frequently made such gestures.  While talking about Ibrox, a recap on the time Alfred Shrubb broke the world hour record

There are more historical items in the collection and we will extend this selection shortly.

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The traditions of the various university blues and colours awards across Scotland varied from one to the other with procedures as documented on the University Blues  and University Colours pages which can be accessed via the links.   Graham has kept much of the correspondence dealing with his awards and adds to his comments on the Blues page:

Notice of Award of Full Blue for Cross Country in 1979 and for Track in 1981

Invitation to the Ball in 1980

Citation to be read at the presentation in 1980

The actual Presentation by Mrs Frank Clement

Into 1981 –

Formal invitation in 1981

Graduation photo to display the Colours tie.

The scarf showing the years on one side and his initials on the other

In which we see the scarf (large, nay huge square) in all its glory.

The World Cross-Country Championships had been held in Clydebank in 1969 and the Empire & Commonewalth Games in Edinburgh in 1970 had set a high standard.   The SCCU though did just that when the World Cross-Country Championships .were held in Bellahouston Park in Glasgow in 1978.   How big was it?   The programme below, courtesy Denis Bell, show us.

The event, the promises made beforehand, the decisions taken at the time and the controversies that they gave rise to are detailed in Tommy Callaghan’s well-written article which you can read     at this link .

Chris Robison (Spango Valley and Alex Gilmour (Cambuslang)

The Renfrewshire 10 miles road race was indeed a popular event on the calendar – that is easily seen by scanning the names of the winners, the range of clubs represented on the programme and the fact that it was as well supported by athletes from the county as strongly as by athletes from areas as far apart as Aberdeen and Edinburgh.   Unfortunately it was not always reported as well as it might have been in the Press and occasionally not well covered by Athletics Weekly.   1986 was one such year.   The entire AW report was this –

It was a hard, hard race between two hard runners, even if you didn’t know them, the fact that Tommy Murray was relegated to third would tell you all you needed to know.   

The cross-country relays were on 11th October and the report from new magazine “Scotland’s Runner’ from December ’86  reads as follows:   

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The Spango Valley Relay team of 1986: Robison, Spence, Connaghan and Connaghan

 Fast forward to the County Championships on 29th November, 1986, and the coverage of the County Cross-Country championships was covered in much more detail.   This from “Athletics Weekly” includes the West District Championships result as a bonus (!) and for comparison, the Herald report is also reproduced.

Just looking over the first 10 or 12 places, it is clear that the race was of a very high calibre with eight of the top ten being Scottish internationalists and previous winner Cammie Spence in 7th position.   Into the new year of 1987 and the Renfrewshire County Five Miles Road Race, an open race for many years, was won by a Renfrewshire runner when Peter Fleming of Bellahouston defeated team mate Billy Robertson by 26 seconds and his team to a victory over Spango Valley by a massive 64 points.   The County Association continued its policy of encouraging the younger age groups with races for Youths, Senior Boys and Junior Boys.   The name of John McFadyen of Greenock Glenpark, winner of the Senior Boys title, would become well known as a quality middle distance runner over the country but especially as an 800m runner on the track where he would win Scottish and British international vests as well as being a multi-medal winner at Championships.   

There was also a Renfrewshire Women’s Road Race held on 22nd March, 1987 which was won by Eileen Masson of Kilbarchan.    Unlike the men’s open race, this was an entirely women’s event.    “Scotland’s Runner” report –

The men’s 10 miles championship was held on 11th April at Greenock with the victory going to Chris Robison of Spango Valley AAC from Hammy Cox of Greenock Glenpark Harriers.   The report from “Scotland’s Runner” reads as follows –

On to the gentler surfaces of the countryside and the first of the Renfrewshire county events was the relay championship on 11th October. and now, forget Spango Valley and Greenock Glenpark, Bellahouston was back with their team of Daly, McAngus, Thonson and Robertson winning the title from Spango Valley by 14 seconds.   The Spango team was minus Chris Robison but with three international runners they were still a strong outfit.   Kilbarchan was third 3 seconds later.   A good race.   Full details in the “Scotland’s Runner” extract below.

The individual and team championships were held on 28th November at Greenock and Tommy Murray won from Peter Connaghan of Spango Valley with only 16 seconds separating them.   Note that John McFadyen continued to progress, winning the Senior Boys race by 49 seconds.  Result:- 

Tommy Murray

The 10 Miles Road Race was held on 2nd April in 1988 and was won by Alistair Douglas, the Victoria Park runner, with four Renfrew men in hot pursuit.   The standard was as high as it ever had been with all of the first six being international representatives with Allan Adams who won the veterans race also being an international senior as well as international veteran.   Hill runner Suzanne Niedrum was also of that standard.   Spango Valley won the team race with Bellahouston 17 points behind and Dumbarton 9 points away in third.   Results:-

The track championships were held on 20th April at Crown Point track in Glasgow and the brief report in “Scotland’s Runner” tells us something about it.

And that was the extent of it.   It was not long however until the start of the winter season and after the normal start in the first week of Octiber with the McAndrew relay at Scotstoun,  the counties cross-country relays were as ever on the second Saturday of October, the 8th.   The RAAA event was at Paisley with Greenock Glenpark winning from Kilbarchan with the B team from Glenpark filling third place.   The Renfrewshire domestic championships, whether on road or country, were of a very high standard – perhaps the highest of all the county races at this point – and a testament to the unfailing work at club and county official, coach and administrator levels as well as the work pout in by the runners.   Four Scottish internationals in the winning team, with fastest three times going to members of that same team.   The results as published by “Scotland’s Runner”: –  

The individual championships were held on 26th November at Linwood, home of Kilbarchan AAC where it was fitting that the winner was Bobby Quinn of that club from Hammy Cox of  Glenpark and Tommy Hearle of Kilbarchan.   Spango Valley won the team race from Glenpark with Kilbarchan third.   Details below

Bobby Quinn running in the Edinburgh to Glasgow in 1985

The county 5 miles road race at Greenock was won by Glenpark’s Tommy Murray from Robert Fitzsimmons of Bellahouston and Tommy Hearle of Kilbarchan.  The team race went in the reverse order – Kilbarchan AAC, Bellahouston and Greenock Glenpark.  Complete results below:-

The 10 mile road race championship was held on 8th April.  Tommy Murray won from Chris Robison with Kilbarchan’s Gerry Fairley in third while the team race order was Spango, Kilbarchan and Glenpark.    Runners again came from furth of Renfrewshire – Glasgow, Falkirk, Giffnock and Dumbarton were all represented on the medal winners lists.   

We have to go to the “Glasgow Herald” for the report and result of the cross-country relay championships on 16th October, 1989.   Bobby Quinn led his club to victory in the team race.

1st December, 1989, saw the Renfrewshire individual and club championships and there was a new name on the Trophy – Gerry Gaffney from Greenock Wellpark Harriers was the man and he had his club’s name on the list of winners for the first time in a long time.  He won by 25 seconds from Chris Leck of Spango Valley and Billy Robertson of Bellahouston.   Complete results from “Scotland’s Runner” below.

The 5 mile road championship took place on 3rd February, 1990, at Greenock and there was a well deserved victory for Tommy Hearle of Kilbarchan.   A Scottish Schools international, a Scottish Junior international and a very talented runner he had had to face up to Bobby Quinn, Tommy Murray, Hammy Cox and several other top talents over the previous few years.   He won over previous winner Cammie Spence, and tough competitor Duncan McFadyen.   Result :-  

The 10 mile race, a popular open event, took place on 14th April, 1990, and held as ever at Greenock.   The open nature of the race was shown this year with hill running international Ian Murphy of Clydesdale Harriers winning the race by 40 seconds from Cammie Spence of Spango Valley and Gerry Gaffney of Wellpark.   Murphy’s team mate, John Hanratty was sixth, Pat O’Kane of Hunter’s Bog Trotters was seventh and Thomson of Irvine eighth.   

Ian Murphy, Tommy Murray and Graeme Croll of Cambuslang after the Bellahouston Park race in December.

13th October 1990 saw the relays return to Linwood and the home team, Kilbarchan, win the title and win the trophy again.   Their top man this time was Tommy Hearle who was not only fastest in his team but third fastest overall, only Tommy Murray and Peter Fleming being faster.   John McFadyen of Glenpark had been working his way through the age groups and was now a Junior Man and had the fastest Junior time. 

By 1st December, 1990, the clubs were all ready for the county championships.   These were held at Houston – another Kilbarchan venue but this time round Tommy Hearle had to give best to Hammy Cox of Glenpark Harriers.   His team was second though compared to Cox’s Glenpark’s third place – Spango Valley won.   

That marked the end of the Renfrew Amateur Athletic Association’s ventures for 1990 and the end of our coverage of the Renfrewshire Association’s promotions.   The clubs had grown in size with  Bellahouston Harriers, Greenock Glenpark Harriers, Greenock  Wellpark Harriers, Kilbarchan AAC, Linwood Pentastar AC among the best in the country, it was now promoting more age group events with U17 (Youths), U15 (Senior Boys) and U13 (Junior Boys all competing appropriately at local and national events, there were country, road and track & field championships all available for athletes and budding athletes to train for and there were coaches to do the training.   It was a very successful association.

Ian Leggett who had fastest time in the October 1969 relays

The 1970’s was a period when talent in Scottish endurance running was arguably at its zenith and the quality of the runners in the Dunbartonshire AAA events was also high.  It was enhanced even further when the City of Glasgow Association folded in 1972 and clubs like Victoria Park and Maryhill were added to the existing mix.   Look at the names of some of the runners – Paul Bannon, Hugh Barrow, Phil Dolan, Allan Faulds, Doug Gemmell, Alistair Johnston,  Ian Leggett, Pat Maclagan, Colin Martin, Bill Yate, Colin Youngson.   It was clear from that list that there would be many tough competitive championship races coming up. 

As usual the first fixture of the 1969/70 winter season was the cross-country relay meeting.   Held on 11th October in Clydebank, Clydesdale Harriers won all four age group relays.

Leggett had beaten Dumbarton’s Colin Martin’s time by 3 seconds in the Relays over his home trail but the tables were turned on 6th December in the individual and team championships when Martin won from Hugh Elder with Leggett third.   Not only that, but the same quartet that finished second for Dumbarton in the October meeting, won the club title from Clydesdale in December.   Brief Herald report below.

In April 1970, the Clydebank to Helensburgh 16 mile road race was won by Donald Macgregor with all of the first four being Scottish international distance runners.   Local club Clydesdale Harriers was second behind Edinburgh AC, beaten by 3 points with the other Edinburgh club, Southern, third 11 points behind.

The county Championships were held at Blairdardie on Saturday 9th June but unfortunately the only results we have are for the 1500m and 5000m.   The events are significant in that this was Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh year and the new race distances were to become easily recognisable in Scotland as were the new all-weather tracks.   Blairdardie was not one such, having a red blaes surface.   The results available are:

1500m:    1st  Colin Martin (DAAC)                         5000m   1st   Colin Martin

                  2nd   S Polwarth (Garscube)                                   2nd   Allan Faulds (Clydesdale)

                 3rd    B McAusland (Clydesdale)                             3rd   D Gemmell (Clydesdale)

                 4th   H Elder   (DAAC)                                              4th    A Lawson (DAAC)   

The Dumbarton AAC team that ran from Glasgow to Fort William – Colin Martin on the extreme right, then Billy Cairns, Ian McWatt, Mike Lidwell, Harry Martin, – , Ron Paton, Allan Adams and Alistair Lawson

At the start of the county winter season, the relays were held on 10th October, 1970 at Clydebank where the hosts were victorious with their last leg runner, Allan Faulds, taking fastest time.   They also produced the third team in the senior race and winning squads in the Youths and Junior Boys age groups.   Garscube Harriers won the Senior Boys race and had the fastest individual time from Ian Murray.   The third team in the senior race was Bobby Shields 16:19, Brian McAusland  17:26, Sandy McNeil 17:11, Phil Dolan  16:12

Faulds was an absentee in the County Championships on 5th December at Strathleven when his team lost the title by one point to Dumbarton AAC.    The short Glasgow Herald report the following Monday read as follows under the title  Favourites Lose: 

“Colin Martin (Dumbarton) won the Dunbartonshire six-mile title when he beat Ian Leggett (Clydesdale Harriers) by 120 yards in 33 min 26 sec.   Ian Donald (Clydesdale) was third in 33 min 55 sec.   Clydesdale, favourites for the team title, lost by one point to Dumbarton.   Garscube were third.    Other results:-   

Youths three miles – J Armstrong (Dumbarton) 18:48.   Team Race – 1. Clydesdale; 2.  Garscube.   Junior Boys two miles – R McKelvie (Garscube)  10:11.   Team title – 1.  Vale of Leven 13 points; 2.  Clydesdale  14;  3.  Garscube 20.”

Senior results:  1.   C Martin; 2.   I Leggett;   3.   I Donald;   4.   H Elder (DAAC);   5.   D Gemmell (Clydesdale);   6.   G Grant (DAAC):   7.   T Wiseman (Garscube);   8.   W Cairns (DAAC);   9.   A Lawson (DAAC);   10.   S McNeil   (Clydesdale);   1.   P Dolan (Clydesdale).

Into 1971 and the Balloch to Clydebank, no longer a confined race, was won by Mike Bradley of Springburn Harriers, better known as a track runner of considerable ability, in a new record time from Norman Morrison of Shettleston, another track runner with Dumbarton’s multi-title winner Colin Martin third.   The Glasgow Herald report is below.

The Clydebank to Helensburgh was held on 24th April and was won by Alex Wight from brother Jim Wight (both Edinburgh SC) with a third runner from Edinburgh, Southern’s Martin Craven, third.   The Wight brothers had a really intense rivalry that summer with many close finishes – eg in the Edinburgh to North Berwick marathon, Alex again beat Jim, this time by 20 seconds after 26 miles + on the roads.   The next three finishers – 4th Doug Gunstone (Dundee HH), 5th Willie Day (FVH) and Hugh Elder (DAAC) 

From the hard surfaces of road racing the endurance runners went to the variable, but more generally softer grass and mud of the country with the first DAAA promotion being the County Relays on 9th October, 1971, in Clydebank.   Clydesdale Harriers won from Dumbarton and Garscube  in 50:46.   The winning team was Ian Leggett, Phil Dolan, Doug Gemmell and Allan Faulds who immediately after finishing first tore back down the trail shouting on members of the remaining three Clydesdale teams.   Clydesdale also won the Youths 3  x  2  miles event while Vale of Leven won the Senior Boys race.   

Allan Faulds

The Cross-Country Championships were held on 4th December and Clydesdale Harriers with seven of the first nine runners home (and eight of the first eleven) won the team race.   

The first nine in the senior race were 1.   A Faulds;  2.   C Martin (DAAC);   3.   I Leggett;   4.  D Gemmell;   5.   I Donald;   6.   P Dolan;   7.  R Shields;   8.   H Martin (DAAC);   9.   R Paton.

Willie Day in the Clydebank to Helensburgh 1972

The 16 miles road race from Clydebank all the way to Helensburgh was held on 29th April in 1972 and the triumph went to Willie Day of Falkirk Victoria who won from international marathon runner Pat Maclagan of Victoria Park who was only 14 seconds behind him.   Results below.

The 1972/73 winter marked the accession of several new clubs to the Dunbartonshire Amateur Athletic Association.   The Glasgow City Organisation and folded and their clubs joined the local association nearest them with the result that Glasgow University, Maryhill Harriers, Victoria Park AAC and Westerlands became member clubs.   The cross-country relays held on 14th October at Blairdardie featured three of them.   The team result was:   

1.   Victoria Park;  2.  Clydesdale Harriers;  3.  Dumbarton AAC;  4.  Glasgow University;   5.  Clydesdale Harriers B;  6.  Glasgow University  B.

With no official results available, not covered by the Glasgow Herald, we can only cover the event briefly.  The winning quartet for Victoria Park was Colin Youngson, Innis Mitchell, Dave McMeekin and Hugh Barrow;  the second placed Clydesdale Harriers team consisted of A Faulds  13:14;  A Marshall 13:02;  D Gemmell  13:10;  P Dolan  13:16, and their B Team of R Shields  13:48, I Donald  13:33, B McAusland  14:30 and R Paton 13:47.   The shield below is Colin Youngson’s who led off for the winning team

The Midland District Relay Championships were held in Glasgow and were won by Victoria Park from the Dunbartonshire Champions, Clydesdale Harriers.  The winning team was Dave McMeekin, Hugh Barrow, Pat Maclagan, and Colin Youngson from the Clydesdale team of Alan Marshall, Ian Donald, Phil Dolan and Doug Gemmell.   The results of the Midland District Relay a week or so later show that Victoria Park won that one, Clydesdale was second and Dumbarton AAC fourth showing the real strength of the standards within the county.   There were also three county men in the first six fastest time and at least another three within ten seconds of the sixth fastest.   

The actual individual and team championship in December were held at Strathleven and the Winning team came from Clydesdale Harriers.   Note that Paul Bannon of Glasgow University and Shettleston Harriers would go on to be an Olympic marathon runner for Canada and there were many Scottish Internationalists in there too – Martin, Dolan, Maclagan, Faulds, Youngson and Logue who ran for Ireland in the 1970 Commonwealth Games.   Clydesdale had runners in 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th and with only four to count they won comfortably from Glasgow who had 1st, 11th, 12th and 13th and Dumbarton with 2nd, 6th,  15th and 18th. 

Into 1973 and the Balloch to Clydebank was held on 10th March with changing in the excellent listed building (but since demolished) of Bruce Street Baths in Clydebank before the runners were bussed to the start at Balloch.   With 47 finishers and 8 teams competing, the race was won by Jim Dingwall in 60:52 from Colin Youngson in 60:57 – another victim of Jim’s devastating sprint finish.     

The first ten runners were:  1.   J Dingwall (Edinburgh University); 2.   Colin Youngson (Victoria Park);   3.   Colin Martin (Dumbarton)  61:25;   4.   Phil Dolan (Clydesdale)  61:59;  5.   Doug Gemmell (Clydesdale)  62:19;  6.  R O’Brien (Edinburgh University)  65:26;   7.   Ian Leggett (Clydesdale)  63:41;   8.  Billy Cairns (Dumbarton)  64:46;  9.  Bobby Shields (Clydesdale)  65:43;   10.  John Gunstone (Glasgow University)  65:45.    The team race result was:  1.   Clydesdale – 16 pts;   2.  Dumbarton  33 pts;  3.  Victoria Park  34 pts;  4.  EUAC H&H 37 pts;  5.  Cambuslang 67 pts;  6.  Livingston 82 pts;  7.  Garscube  90;  8.  Maryhill  95 pts.   Handicap Prizes:   1.  D Gemmell;  2.  Bill Ramage (Springburn);  3.  Dave Cooney (Cambuslang).

The Clydesdale to Helensburgh was run on 28th April and it was a day when the weather was fine for the runners – except for the last 8 or 9 miles when there was a headwind all the way to the finish.  Nevertheless, it was the closest finish ever with the first six runners inside 32 seconds. The race was won by Lachie Stewart 1:23:04,  from Colin Martin 1:23:05, Jim Wight 1:23:06, Willie Day 1:23:11,  Don McGregor 1:23:31 and Alex Wight 1:23:36.      The team race went to Edinburgh Southern (5, 8, 9) 22 pts from Clydesdale Harriers on 32 pts whose counting runners were D Gemmell 1:30:26, R Paton 1:30:20 and P Dolan 1:30:?   First handicap prize went to Bobby Blair of Victoria Park.   

The summer county championships were held on Wednesday 16th May,  a warm day which suited the runners.   The 1500m was won by Billy Cairns of Dumbarton in 4:10 from Willie Reid (Clydesdale) 4:11.6, Alistair Lawson (DAAC) 4:20, Brian McAusland (CH) 4:24, Davie Kerr (Garscube), Ian Whyte (VPAAC).   That is the only result available.   

Jim Dingwall (5) demonstrating the sprint finish that won him many races on road and track

It can be seen from the two now open races on the roads above that the county association was again fulfilling its mission of developing the sport – the quality of the runners, the number of competitors from within the county as well as the large amount of those from clubs across Scotland continued to rise.   The race was jointly organised in the organisation and provision of officials on the day by the Scottish Marathon Club and the DAAA; but there was an overlap of officials who were members of both clubs and they should be noted.   In 1973 for example in the Helensburgh race, Tom Dailly of Garscube was one of two referees, David Bowman of Clydesdale and George Barber of Maryhill were the two judges, David Brooke of Garscube was one of three timekeepers, Jack Picken of Clydesdale, was a recorder, Alex Kidd and Bob Donald of Garscube joined Emmet Farrell of Maryhill as stewards and Jack Brown of Dumbarton was the handicapper for the occasion.

Phil Dolan leading Allan Adams at the end of the Balloch to Clydebank

The County relays, like those from other counties were held on 13th October 1973 but the only one reported on were the Lanarkshire AAA event.   We do know that the senior men’s race was won by Clydesdale Harriers over their own trail at Braidfield Farm from Victoria Park with a team of Ian Donald, Ian Leggett, Phil Dolan who puled the team from third to first and Doug Gemmell who held the place.

The individual and team championships were held in 1973 at Strathleven Industrial Estate in the Renton on 1st December and were won by Colin Martin (DAAC) from Clydesdale’s Phil Dolan and Doug Gemmell with Bob Chapman (DAAC) fourth, Ian Leggett (Clydesdale) 5th.   Clydesdale won the team race with a team of Dolan, Gemmell, Leggett and Ian Donald in 10th place.   Dumbarton was second  and  Garscube Harriers third.   The comments on the numbers competing from the clubs that joined from Glasgow are interesting.

The 1974 Balloch to Clydebank took place on 9th March on a dry but very cold day with a good turn out of local and other runners.   It was a return victory for Jim Dingwall who won from Colin Martin, Phil Dolan, Bill Yate (Maryhill) and Doug Gemmell.   Unfortunately it was another unreported race although there were a couple of interesting features – in 8th place was Alastair Macfarlane of Springburn who would become a Scottish marathon champion in 1979 with a time inside 2:20, and Ron Paton, 9th, who had been racing for Clydesdale since graduation from Strathclyde University had moved to Balloch and joined Dumbarton AAC.   

Alastair Macfarlane, Colin Youngson and Don Macgregor:  three runners well known from the Balloch and Helensburgh races

The Helensburgh race was on 27th April and won by Willie Day – another internationalist who came back to the race year after year.  Results:- 1.   W Day 1:24:13;  2.  Alastair Macfarlane (1:24:57); 3.  Phil Dolan (1:26:41) 4.   Gordon Eadie (1:27:09); 5.   Doug Gemmell (1:28:09)  6.  David Wyper (West of Scotland  1:28:197.  I Leggett (1:29:48);  8.  Brian McAusland (1:30:08) – who won the handicap prize – 9  R Inglis (Cambuslang 1:30:25);  10.  RD Marshall (Bellahouston 1:30:55) and 11 Dave Cooney (Cambuslang 1:31:15).   All 11 were inside the SMC First Class time for the race with 14 men inside the second class time.   Team race:  1. Clydesdale:  Dolan, Gemmell and Leggett 15 points and also won the Dunbartonshire Trophy;  2.  Cambuslang:    Eadie, Inglis, Cooney (24 pts);   3.   Springburn:  McFarlane, Ramage 16, Sinclair 21.   Six teams finished the race.    Handicap prizes to  R D Marshall 1st, B McAusland 2nd, G Eadie 3rd. 

The cross-country season came along in October and the Dunbartonshire relay championships were held as usual the week after the McAndrew relay at Scotstoun.   12th October was the date and Strathleven Estate was the venue.   With no Glasgow Herald for the date, the results are not known.   We do know that the Clydesdale team was second, Gemmell, Leggett, Donald and Dolan were the runners.   The Championships were held on 11th November at Milngavie on the Victoria Park home course and the report in its entirety is below.   Glasgow University won the team race from Clydesdale with Victoria Park’s Frank Brown runner up 25 seconds behind winner Phil Dolan of Clydesdale Harriers.   The Youths race was won by Pat McErlean of the Vale of Leven, Senior Boys by M McCluskey of Victoria Park and the Junior Boys’ race was won by Gary Millar

The 1975 Balloch to Clydebank was held on 8th March and was won by Edinburgh AC’s Doug Gunstone in a course record of 60:31 from Clydesdale’ Phil Dolan (60:46) and Springburn’s Eddie Knox (61:06).   These three top class athletes were followed by three of the country’s best marathon runners – Don McGregor, Sandy Keith and Alastair Macfarlane.  There was also a British internationalist half-miler in Dave McMeekin of VPAAC in 9th place.   Results: 

The Helensburgh 16 was on Saturday 26th April, there were 48 runners entered and five teams.   The result was a victory for Phil Dolan from Willie Sharp and Willie Day of Falkirk Victoria Harriers.   This a bit of a reversal for the two Falkirk runners – they travelled to races together, trained together, they were good friends – but Day was usually the victor in their personal battles as well as in the the race at the sharp end of the field.   Tables turned.   By how much?   The result is below.

We know that the Track and Field championships took place place on Saturday 10th May because there was a report in the Glasgow Herald –

.  .  .  .  and that’s it.   The reporter clearly had the results at hand and space on a Monday’s sport pages is at a premium but surely a bit less on the big article and another six or seven lines of results on the championships would have been possible?   It was a good time – an excellent time in the conditions but for a county championships, more results would have been helpful.

Bill McLellan was a top class athlete at a time when there was a chasm dividing professional and amateur athletics in Scotland, indeed it was so the length and breadth of Britain.   With international athletics being the preserve of the amateur code, he never competed for Scotland or Britain in any of the major games or internationals of any sort.   Given that the professionals competed at different distances on tracks of different lap dimensions and all sorts of surfaces, it was, barring the occasional cinder or all-weather track, not possible to have an accurate estimate of how fast he was or how good his field performances were.   He was however, given his competitive performances and times on inferior surfaces undoubtedly a  quality athlete.   His obituary as written by Jack Davidson is below.

Bill McLellan, top-class athlete, teacher and businessman

                                 Bill McLellan, athlete.  Born: 14 March, 1943 in East Wemyss, Fife.   Died: 16 August 2022 in Windygates, Fife, aged 79.

Clearly a superb athlete, Bill enjoyed a superb career in the sport of athletics and brought pleasure to thousands of people in the course of his career.   The Scottish international team would have undoubtedly been the better had he been eligible to compete for his country.

John sent me some details of his competitive career as a professional athlete.   It is just four sheets with lists of Games at which he has competed and events in which he took part.   Even without accompanying notes they are very interesting to look through and see how good he was.   The first sheet deals with meetings in 1961, ’62, ’63 and ’64.   Note that the first one – Blackford in 1962 should be further down among the other competitions for that year.   The list only deals with the ‘light athletics’. 

The sheet above indicates that he liked the high jump – remember he won the Scottish Schools High Jump as a pupil at Kilsyth Academy.   This next list covers 1965, ’66 and ’67, noting that he won the PGA Championship for his specialist group in 1966.   in ’65 he cmpeted in 13 meetings from Thornton in Fife to Braemar to Oban to Strathpeffer.   In ’66, his championship year, there were 11 Gatherings with Mallaig and Grasmere added to the list.   Note the name of Ian Ward who won at Aboyne – Ward was an English athlete who specialised in the Pole Vault and was one of those responsible for introducing the fibre glass pole to Britain.   He held workshops all over the country including Scotland before producing the BAAB Coaching booklet shown below.   John and the other Scottish vaulters at this time used the metal pole.

The third sheet had competitions for 1968 and ’69 plus one each from ’78 and ’79.   In ’68 he took part at eight venues in a total of 30 events.   These are only the light athletics events, he also did heavy events in some events – notably the caber (was it not included in his email address as jf_caber@) and even running on the track.   W McLellan, pictured below, was another superb athlete and very hard to beat although John did on occasion get the better of him, but he was an athlete who would have shone in any company.

The years are down the right and go from 1971 to a single meeting in 1980.   The last two meetings from above are for running events, but here he is competing only in heavy events – with a good record too.   There are six columns but in some cases he competed in seven throws – the caber has had to be added in the end column.     

Before we start, thanks go to Graham Getty  , pictured above, who looked out all the results from his personal collection of Athletics Weekly magazines for the period.   All of the AW cuttings are from the same source and we have often reproduced the whole page because there are other results that will undoubtedly provoke your interest.   eg All county cross-country championships are on the same day and a comparison can be made.   This is not always the case with newspaper reports where some are judged to be more newsworthy than others so that, on a day of four county championships, one is reported in detail, two might be results only and the other left out because of lack of space.   AW treats all results as equal.   Thanks Graham.

Just looking at this one page of results, below, we can see how busy the racing scene was in 1980, and one of the consequences was the abbreviated coverage of the Renfrewshire Road Championships (8 lines including headline) – and note that there were some non-Renfrewshire guests running, Peter McGregor (VPAAC) and Dave Cooney (Cambuslang).   This had not been usual for most counties – races tended to be confined or completely open with no guests allowed in the confined events.   

The relay in October, 1980, was covered a bit better – see the two pages below – along with those of Lanarkshire and Dunbartonshire.   The result in Renfrewshire was a win for Bellahouston Harriers with fastest time also by a club member, George Braidwood,  by 11 seconds from Cammie Spence.  

Three more County Championships – DAAA, LAAA as well as RAAA – which were all held in December, 1980, are shown below.   The fact that three, four if you count Ayrshire which is not on this page, held their championships on the same date, organised independently, indicates that there was a genuine need and place for them in the calendar.   Note the number of clubs mentioned in there: Greenock Wellpark, Greenock Glenpark, Spango Valley, Bellahouston, Kilbarchan, Strathclyde Police, Pentastar, Paisley, Strathclyde Police Cadets.   The days when one club could dominate for several years and then be replaced by another for several more years have gone with every race being hard fought.

1981

The County Relays took place on the second Saturday in October but the race was not reported on – Lanarkshire, Dunbartonshire and Ayrshire results all appeared in the dailies that usually covered the event but either someone had failed to get the results in or the paper sports editor did not have space for them.   The individual and club championships went on in December and the A.W. report is below.

The 1981 championships indicated that the Bellahouston young team (Braidwood, Daly, Getty) was starting to get results and it would not be long before they were leading the field.   As it was, Spango Valley won with 66 points, Wellpark was second with 76 and Bellahouston was third with Bellahouston third with 107 points.   Note presence of Alan Puckrin for Kilbarchan – a man who would become on of the country’s top distance runners.

The championships were held on 30th November 1981 and were poorly covered, barely covered might be a better description, by the ‘Glasgow Herald’ but did et us know that Cammie Spence won and his club took the team title.

1982

The Road Race Championships went ahead on 20th February 1982.   This time there was no doubt – Braidwood defeated Spence by 19 seconds over 10,000m with Andy Daly third and Bellahouston won the team race.

The longer, open 10 miles race was held on April 10th, and the winner was Evan Cameron from Edinburgh Southern Harriers.   Bellahouston’s young team of Fleming, Daly and Getty in four, five and six easily won the team race.

The RAAA Relays 1982 were held on October 9th at Greenock and resulted in a win for Spango Valley with Bellahouston Harriers second.

All of the County Championships took place on the same date (November 27th) with the Renfrewshires at Bellahouston Park resulting in a victory for Spango Valley whose team was led by Lawrie Spence (1st) and his brother Cammie (2nd).

1983

The County Road Race Championship was held at Greenock in 1983 with George Braidwood winning, Andy Daly third, Peter Fleming sixth and Graham Getty seventh to show that the Bellahouston Young Team had really arrived.   Bobby Quinn of Kilbarchan won the Youths race.

The County Open 10 miles road race was held on  and was led home by two Spence brothers, with previous winner Evan Cameron of Edinburgh Southern Harriers in third place.   The popularity of the race was shown by the number of runners from other clubs outwith the Renfrewshire orbit.

The Renfrewshire Cross Country Relays in October 1983 were held at Bellahouston Park and Bellahouston really relished running on one of their home trails with the first three home coming from the club with such as Puckrin, Quinn and Hammy Cox trailing in their wake.   The youths field was led by Tommy Hearle and Steven Connaghan – two runners of immense promise who would represent Scotland before much longer.   But the first three of Daly, Getty and McAngus would go on to even better running.  

1984

The Renfrewshire Road Championships for 1984 were held at Houston and Lawrie Spence won from George Braidwood, Peter Fleming, Andy Daly and Graham Getty in2nd, 3rd, 4tf and 6th.   Alistair McAngus was 10th ensuring a comfortable team victory for Bellahouston with 39 points to Spango Valley’s 62 and Wellpark’s 151.    It is to the credit of the County Association that the road championships which had started out as a men’s race now embraced women, Youths (U17), Senior Boys (U15) and Junior Boys (U13).   If part of the constitution was the fostering of athletics within the county, they were certainly doing that with two road races, a track and field championship and the cross country relays and championships.

The Cross-Country Relays were held on 13th October at Bellahouston and fittingly Bellahouston Harriers won the championship.   Kilbarchan with  Alan Puckrin, plusBobby Quinn now operating with the Senior team and Tommy Hearle coming through the ranks were indicating that they were a team to watch in the not too distant future – two teams in the first eight, winners of the Youths and Junior Boys team races as well as the bronze in the Senior race all went to the club.

The championships were held at Linwood this time and Kilbarchan had first and second seniors, first and second in the Youths race and first and third in the Junior Boys event.   Teams?   Seniors were second, and although they were not given in the AW report, Youths and Junior Boys were probably winners.   

1985

The Renfrewshire 10 in 1985 was held on April 6th and was another Spence benefit affair.   Lawrie won from Cammie with Chris Leck also of Spango Valley in third and the women’s race was won by Elaine Masson of Kilbarchan.The relays in October saw a  series of results that caused a stushie the like of which has seldom if ever been seen in cross-country racing in Scotland: all results resulted in protests being lodged.   Doyg Gillon describes the day in the Glasgow Herald:

The Championships took place on 31st November, 1985, and resulted in a first county senior title for Bobby Quinn.   Details below.

Club members enjoy many privileges of membership – the right to train with the club, to use club facilities, to wear club uniform in races and compete in club championships, the right to represent the club in championship races and in many cases the right to club discounts in various shops and so on.   To prove their right to these – and most importantly perhaps – the payment of this year’s subscription, they were issued with a membership card, often enough this was a small handbook, with the current year’s date, signed by the club Secretary or President.   The variety of such cards is manifold and some will be looked at here.   Why bother showing something as commonplace as a card?   Because now most of these transactions are recorded on line and many will never have seen them.   All clubs had membership cards, Denis’s are here because HELP was typical.

Clydesdale Harriers was the first open athletic club in the country and members were issued with cards as illustrated above (outside) and below (inside)

This contained only the date, member’s name and address and a note of club patrons.   Patrons have long gone out of fashion for most clubs with benefactors (when there are any) listed as  ‘sponsors’.   The card  developed into a member’s handbook of anything up to 42 pages, most often somewhere in the 20’s with details of committee members, fixtures, club meeting places for travel to these fixtures, comprehensive lists of members with their addresses, club rules and regulations and a summary of the previous year’s championships.   This was standard for the initial clubs but gradually diminished in size, probably because of the expense of production relative to the membership fee combined with smaller numbers.

For the period we are dealing with they had been reduced to small booklet size, about 8 pages, and then to a single card.   

The cards which became almost standard started off as pretty basic productions and then grew to to be professionally designed and produced.   Some of Denis Bell’s membership cards as a member of Haddington East Lothian Pacemakers are reproduced.   Four cover shots – 1991/92 and 1992/93 – to start with

and a change of design (not an uncommon practice) for 1996/97 and 1998/99

Then there were the inserts – tri-fold in this case – 

The Clydesdale Harriers issued a membership booklet immediately after the war which was a reduced version of the original pre- WW1 handbook.    The 1945/46 one is below.    They were relatively expensive with their cloth covered cover and many pages so it became the practice to give one to the athlete on joining and subsequently a paper insert was given in return for the subscription.

Inserts issued for the two years after the war:

Eventually even this was seen to be inappropriate and David Bowman devised a compendium of rules and results on a single sheet of foolscap folded into eight pages – 

Multi-club clubs

There were, and still are, specialist clubs in existence such as the British Milers Club, the Fell Runners Association, the Scottish Hill Racers Association and so on.   For the multi-club clubs the identity of the athlete was not always clear to race organisers – a Scottish BMC member could find himself running in club Grand Prix races in Manchester, Birmingham or Kent in the course of the year – or discount-offering businesses without a distinctive form of identification.   For instance the British Milers Club with members all over the United Kingdom a card like the one below was produced in 2010, which had a plain white back, followed by the 2012 model –

Both of the above were for the same 2012 membership card, obverse and reverse.

The Fell Runners cards, like the BMC cards, were the basic, slip-it-in-your-shirt-pocket or in your wee trifold wallet kind of thing that could be shown to race organisers.

The County Championships, like everything done by the DAAA, was organised by the book and even included a programme which not all counties did.   The officials were all from Dunbartonshire clubs and many of those named below had officiated at the Empire & Commonwealth Games at Meadowbank in 1970.   Before 1970 the Games had all been called the Empire Games, 1970 had added  “& Commonwealth” and by 1974 they had dropped the “Empire” part.   The entire programme is below and followed by the report on the meeting printed in the “Clydebank Press” the following Friday.

The officials, see below, had almost all been athletes themselves.   Some had been really high class performers and internationalists – George Dallas, Donnie McDonald, Fraser Riach, Bobby Mills are just a few of those.   Possibly the President – Charlie Middler – had been in the sport the longest having joined Clydesdale Harriers in 1919.   

As we go through the programmes we see that the four traditional Dunbartonshire clubs have been joined by Victoria Park AAC, Glasgow University and Maryhill, clubs that had joined the DAAA when the Glasgow Association folded.   The four had become seven.

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