The following report on a one-off National event was provided for us by Joe Small friend and team mate of Eddie Devlin.
S.A.A.A. Centenary Relay 1983
Following the recent death of Eddie Devlin, Ronnie MacDonald and I were looking through some of the trophies, medals etc. he had accumulated over the years with Eddie’s wife Frances.
Among the items was a tracksuit badge which stated “Round Scotland Relay, 1883 SAAA 1983, participant.”
This triggered a vague memory I had of taking part in some sort of ceremonial relay run. After a bit of digging I’ve come up with the following:
In April 1983, to commemorate the centenary of the Scottish Amateur Athletic Association, it was decided to organise a relay around Scotland. This took place over eight days starting and finishing in Glasgow, passing through Edinburgh, Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen, Inverness, Fort William, Dumbarton, Dumfries & Hawick.
In total, 550 runners took part, representing 40 clubs. Every participant received one of the cloth tracksuit badges illustrated below.
The eight stages, in detail, as follows:
Sunday 4th April:
Starting from George Square in Glasgow, members of Shettleston Harriers, including Bill Scally, completed the first eight mile leg, before handing the baton over to runners from Clyde Valley AAC. After checking an old training diary, my entry for that day says “relay leg from Bargeddie to Forrestfield with Eddie Devlin & Willie McBrinn.” So that’s what the vague memory refers to – 10 miles and all uphill, also where Eddie got the tracksuit badge, although I don’t seem to have one! The route then proceeded through Livingston, Edinburgh, Forth Road Bridge, through Fife to the first overnight stop in Perth.
Monday 5th April:
Perth Strathtay Harriers carried the baton the 22 miles to Dundee before handing over to Dundee Hawkhill Harriers, Richie Barrie and Colin Dick doing the first leg. Hawkhill handed over to Aberdeen A.A.C. led by Fraser Clyne along with Peter Wilson & James Youngson, who completed the stage to Aberdeen.
Tuesday 6th April:
Aberdeen A.A.C. continued from where they left off the previous day before handing over to Elgin Harriers, followed by Forres Harriers & Nairn & District Harriers, taking the baton to the next overnight stop in Inverness. Longest stage of the day was done by Don Ritchie, a short 20 mile stint for him!
Wednesday 7th April:
Today’s stage travelled from Inverness to Fort William, at 80 miles, the shortest day of the relay. 2 runners from Edinburgh A.C., Stuart Lamb & Colin Dick, who were going all the way round the country with the relay, ran the 16 mile leg from Drumnadrochit to Fort Augustus. Lochaber A.C. members then carried the baton to Fort William.
Thursday 8th April:
Lochaber started off again today before handing over to runners from Dumbarton A.A.C at Crianlarich, they carried the baton via Loch Lomondside to the overnight stop in Dumbarton.
Friday 9th April:
Today’s stage was the longest of the whole relay. 100 miles with over a 100 runners from 8 clubs taking part. Dumbarton A.C. handed over to Spango Valley on the Erskine Bridge, Cameron Spence then handing over to brother Laurie who carried on to Greenock. Runners from Ayrshire & Galloway clubs then completed the stage to Dumfries.
Saturday 10th April:
Today’s relatively short stage to the relay from Dumfries to Hawick, I couldn’t find any other information on this stage.
Sunday 11th April:
The final stage! Starting from Hawick, the route passed through Peebles and Carnwath on the way to the finish in Glasgow.
The 2 Edinburgh A.C. runners mentioned previously, Colin Dick and Stuart Lamb, ran the last leg with Clyde Valley’s Ronnie MacDonald and Eddie Devlin (again!) , quote from the Glasgow Herald report “the Centenary baton arrive back yesterday carried by Ronnie MacDonald the Scottish sub 4 minute miler and internationalist from Clyde Valley. He was flanked by team mate Eddie Devlin, who treated the run as a relaxing jog after after a good run in Saturday’s prestige Tom Scott 10 mile road race.” Earlier reports stated that Nat Muir of Shettleston was supposed to finish off the relay, but this didn’t happen for some reason.
The above was put together from reports appearing in the Glasgow Herald. Being the event’s main sponsor they provided excellent coverage, with daily pieces on each stage.
There was also a feature article during the week which stated as follows: “Runners from a public school in Fort Augustus were not available and the baton was kept going by a magnificent marathon veteran and two plucky teenagers from Locahaber A.C. The veteran was Mr Roddy Devon, a 75 year old former president of the S.C.C.U. ……..who took over for a three mile stretch between Fort Augustus and Fort William.” An unlikely saviour & possibly some journalistic license?
Thanks very much for the report, Joe, which we followed up and found that the cities, towns and villages that it passed through all reported on it – some like the Aberdeen Press & Journal noted on the Friday that it would come in on the following Monday, welcomed it on the Monday and then reported on where exactly it went and looked ahead to where it would go. The picture below is from the Arbroath Herald.
