Author: The Author

Jim Alder leading Don McGregor on the final lap in the 1970 Marathon Championship and Games Trial Race

I remember the Scottish Marathon Club in two distinct phases with a blank in between – the gap was probably due to the 70’s being mainly taken up with (a) running 3000 miles plus every year; (b) family duties with two children arriving on the scene, and (c) working for money becoming fairly important in my life.   The Jimmy Scott phase was a key factor in my development as a runner and there was a social aspect to it as well.    The same guys came to most races, you knew pretty well everybody you saw running down the street and met friends from all over Scotland at the races.   The Marathon Club Presentation every year was attended by a Clydesdale group of David and Evelyn Bowman, John and Janice Wright, Ian and Cathie Leggett and Ian and Helen Donald as well as by many good friends from other clubs.

Suddenly the scene had changed and there were hundreds – at times thousands running in road races – by the end of the 70’s instead of the dozens that I had grown up with.   The cost of race entries had gone up as well from a shilling (5 new pence) to upwards of £5 but you got a free medal or T shirt at the end of the race.   Not much of an inducement for an increase of £4:19:00 in entry fee.   The medal meant less than  nothing – if a couple of thousand people got one it signified little, if the same medal went to all finishers regardless of whether they ran 2:40, 3:40 or 4:40 it signified little (different medals for those inside particular times might have been an inducement to fork out and increased entry fee that was 100 times what we were used to paying.   The T shirts were almost always cheap and not long lasting with usually an execrable design on the front and if you were unlucky on the back as well.   The running boom had a lot of good points – look how the sandards of marathon running shot up with the increased number of runners and the increased number of marathon races in Scotland – but the introduction of hugely inflated prices in return for cheap merchandise were not among them!   Another grouse of mine was that where beforehand runners passing in the street would greet each other, that was not now the case.   You would pass a young man or woman jogging along, say hello and be completely blanked in return.    Having got that off my chest……………

The SMC was just as good and came under new management in the 1970’s.    John Softley of the West of Scotland Harriers who had become a top class ultra distance runner,  became Secretary and Alistair McFarlane was elected Club Captain.    There was a fine mix of the old and the new which ensured that the flame of the SMC was kept alight, its traditions were respected and at the same time there was a freshening of new ideas to meet the needs of the new era in athletics.    One of these was the introduction of the SMC Magazine in the 80’s with a wide range of contributors from all over the country edited by Alistair with his wife Hazel doing a lot of the typing.    I asked Alistair about his involvement in the club and his reply was as follows: “I joined the SMC in the mid 70’s at the instigation of Bill Ramage and before I knew it I was on the Committee.   When I think about it I’ve always been involved in administration, I was on the committee at St Modan’s as a youngster, then held all sorts of positions at Springburn.   I was athletics convener/organiser for BT in Scotland and was chairman of the Scottish Civil Service Athletics Association and now I’m involved with the vets.  

Anyway, when I joined the SMC, Jimmy Geddes was the President and members of the Committee included Gordon Porteous, George Pickering, Willie Drysdale, Bob Donald, Roddy Devon, Joe Bruce, David Bowman and Jack Mclean.   I became club captain a year or two later   and Doug Gunstone joined the Committee and became Treasurer.   Other Committee members through the 80’s included Hugh Barrow, Alex Johnstone, Evan Cameron, Rod Stone, Campbell Joss and Adrian Stott.   At some point Gavin McKirdy became Secretary.    I started the magazine in 1982 and it was great fun.   I remember you doing many articles and you were in good company!   Donald McGregor, Jim Dingwall, Don Ritchie, Rod Stone  – and Rod Stone’s wife Janice also wrote one on the trials of being a runner’s wife.   Not too many people contributed articles voluntarily but I don’t recall anyone refusing to do something for me.    I remember Donald McGregor always responded well to my requests for material but always requested a subject on which to write.    One of my favourites was the Profile section where I would ask people to complete a questionnaire on their training, achievements, disappointments, etc – not just the stars but the ordinary club runners also.   In 1978 we held a Buffet/Social Gathering at Huntershill after the Springburn 12 where Donald and Jim Dingwall gave interesting and amusing talks about their careers and Jim had just returned from the Commonwealth Games marathon.

When the running boom got under way Hugh Barrow, who was Leisure and Recreation Officer for Strathkelvin District Council, managed to get the Council involved  in supporting a mass participation event locally.   I remember us meeting locally with Jimmy Hotchkiss who was the Leisure and Recreation Convener on the Strathkelvin Council in the Gallery pub in Lenzie to lay plans for the event.   What was originally the Springburn 12 became the Luddon Half Marathon, one of the most popular races around at the time, attracting several thousand runners including some of the top distance running talent in Scotland.”  

It was clearly doing well as a club and seemed to be filling a genuine need.   However there were a lot of marathons held in Scotland – maybe too many – but they were all well supported.   In 1983 there were fourteen marathons held in Scotland:   Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, SAAA Championships, Inverclyde, Lochaber, Black Isle, Caithness, Moray, Loch Rannoch, Scottish Veterans (in Glasgow), Galloway and Motherwell.   Four were north of the Great Glen, three were just to the south of the Caledonian Canal, six in the Central Belt and only one in the Borders (but then they had easy access to the North of England.   So what happened to the SMC?   If we go back to Alistair he says in reply to this question: “The SMC was formed ‘to foster marathon running’ and I suppose that it died because there was no longer such a  need for it given that in the 80’s everyone was running marathons.   However now it’s a different story and I suppose that you could argue that there is again a need for such an organisation.”   Typical understatement from Alistair when he says ‘I suppose you could argue that there is again a need for such an organisation.’   No Scotsman ran inside 2:30 for the distance inside Scotland last year, only one did so the year before! 

David Bowman, former President of the SMC, with Jim Alder after the 1970 Games Marathon

The motto – or ‘mission statement’ if you like! – of the SMC was simply ‘to foster marathon running in Scotland’.    And right well it did it.    So what happened to it?    Alistair thinks that with all the marathons in the 80’s, there was no apparent need for it and it just withered away.    It would be interesting to speak to one of the members of the last ever SMC Committee to find out exactly what happened.   If there is one lesson to be learned from history it is that no situation lasts for ever.   Ozymandias of Egypt, anyone?   Things tend to go in cycles.   What is fashionable today will  be out of fashion tomorrow and back into fashion the day after that.

What is the situation today?   As far as the marathon in Scotland is concerned, it is dire.   Extremely dire – the huge promise shown by Andrew Lemoncello disguises a situation that the hierarchy at scottishathetics does not wish to acknowledge.   I should qualify that as we have a new hierarchy and there will probably be changes made which I hope, but I’m not holding my breath, will include the marathon.     If we go back to the 1980’s what is the picture?    It is maybe necessary to ask ourselves whether it is fair to compare ourselves to the best period ever in Scottish Marathon running history – and my response is to say, if we want to be the best we can be, then we must compare ourselves to the best that we have been.    Would it be fairer to compare the current standards with those prevailing in 1946 immediately after the War with rationing still in force, athletics clothing in short supply and few races on the calendar?   Of course not.   If we want to be the best we can be then we compare ourselves with the best that we have been!   In 1982 there were 81 runners inside Scotland running 2:30 or faster and most were done in Scotland with 22 performances inside 2:20.   In 1983 there were 122 Scots inside 2:39 for the event and 29 performances inside 2:21.  Fraser Clyne ran 22 marathons inside 2:20, the Don ran 24 (and that includes after his 45th birthday!) and Colin Youngson with many sub 2:20’s to his credit says that it was a constant quest in marathons to get under that time.   And now there are none!   If these men were gold dust in the 80’s …………. is there such a thing as platinum dust to evaluate their worth in the twenty first century?      Even if we accept the argument that these figures are too high to use as a target, the let’s go back to the 60’s.   In 1966 there were six men inside 2:30, in 1967 there were five inside 2:20 and a further six on 2:30 or quicker and in 1968 there were three inside 2:20 and and another three on 2:22 or quicker.    Last year (ie 2008) there was a Scotsman from Tipton who ran 2:19 in Florence and he was the only Scot inside 2:20!    There were 6 (SIX) inside 2:30 if we count him in.   The fastest time run by a Scot in Scotland last year was 2:29:57!   There were only 19 inside 2:40 anywhere in the world.   And that was not an atypical year = the previous year NO  Scot ran inside 2:30 inside Scotland and the year before that only one did.   All the spin from the Gyle doesn’t alter that fact.   A few years ago Peter McGregor asked at a Conference whether any Scot would make the Commonwealth Games qualifying standard and was met first of all with a patronising silence and a dirty look, then he was told that six Scots including Glen Stewart, Allan Adams, Simon Pride and others would get the time.    Well, none of them did.    And even if any of them had, it would indicate only that one or two men had run a quickish time not that the event was well in Scotland or that there was any one who could lace the running shoes for Allister Hutton, Fergus Murray, Donald McGregor, John Graham, Jim Alder or any of their contemporaries.  The event is sick in Scotland just now and the Gyle doesn’t seem to have a plan to resurrect the corp.   There is a need for a clear plan for the event and the old SMC would have filled the bill very nicely!

What could a new marathon club – or scottishathletics marathon sub-committee – do?    Well in the first place they would be responsible for the one event, responsible only to themselves and would all be enthusiasts.   I sympathise with the current endurance coach who is responsible for all events from 800 to marathon, both men and women plus race walking and steeplechase plus marathon plus adherence to guidelines and an unsympathetic hierarchy whose aim is medals rather than the event – they would rather have a medal in the Commonwealth Games than 20 men inside 2:20!   They would start from the old motto of fostering marathon running in Scotland but adapting the means to that end to the twenty first century.   .On the first page of their book “A Hardy Breed”, Fraser Clyne and Colin Youngson make the point that it was only through the work of the SMC that the Scottish Marathon Championship was started at all and further that it was through their efforts that it was included in the SAAA Championships.   Both were significant – by having a championship, they gave the runners a target and gave them status equal to other athletic events.   By having it held in the national championship meeting they gave it a place on the national stage – parity of esteem with other events.   Contrast that with today’s situation where the event is hired out to whatever marathon makes the highest bid, on a course not necessarily geared to fast running and in a field that makes the national championship of Scotland a sideshow!   Nice warm words but what would the targets be?

1.   More people running, or preferably racing, the distance.    I do not mean jogging for charity and I would not include any male who runs outside three hours five minutes as a marathon runner.   If 3:05 was the second class standard in the 50’s and 60’s marathon club then that’s a good enough place to start since we are in about the pre-war situation for the event.    Count the times and not the bodies to decide whether it is a good race.   Accept too that there might well be no automatic need to close a road for a marathon race!   {the mass marathon movement could take care of itself and should be encouraged but although some runners might make the transition to real marathons, they would not be regarded as athletics events.}

2.   The entry fee for a marathon race should be kept as low as possible to enable people to run.

3.   Make the Scottish Marathon Championship as fast a race as possible, not by limiting the field but by selecting a course that is flat enough and sheltered enough to make such times likely.    And make it clear on the entry form that the officials will knock off after three and a half hours!

4.   The SMC fought long and hard to get the championship included in the national championships and succeeded.    It would be appropriate for those charged with resurrecting the event in Scotland to do their damnedest to get it restored.    That would give it prestige and a focal point.    The attitude just now is that if we have to have a marathon championship let’s just do it somewhere that gets us money and never mind the welfare of the event.   After all Track Meetings these days have to be fast and slick with noisy muzak and uninformed commentary with the National Championship having, just having, to be the slickest, jazziest, noisiest and most swingin’ of them all!   Slow moving marathon runners coming in at intervals and slogging round the track would take away from the championships as a showpiece!    Were the new committee to be indeed a scottishathletics committee then they might know the right people to get it done

5.   Reward good performances with invitations to other races in other parts of the country or even in Europe.

6.   Make it easier for folk to step up a distance by really trying to get races at all the intermediate distances that seem to have fallen by the board.

Any other suggestions for improvement???   I’ve a very open mind.

I spent some time trying to find out why the SMC was disbanded and Alistair McFarlane suggested that the need for it had gone with the numbers competing and even just running on the roads in the 80’s but he wasn’t completely sure about it.   I contacted John Softley who was the SMC Secretary after the death of Jimmy Scott in 1977 and I quote his reply exactly.   He does not have much in the way of papers, etc but the following is his recollection of events.

“I think it was basically the sharp decline in membership in the late 80’s when there wasn’t the same interest in marathon running (except for the LONDON as there had previously been in the early/mid 80’s.   By 1990 we no longer organised the Scottish Marathon Championships – one of our aims in forming the club.   In fact we were only organising the Jimmy Scott road race.   The police had advised us against holding the race from the traditional Clydebank-Helensburgh route.   We thus held race at Strathclyde Park (15 miles) and from Lochinch round Pollok Park (Half Marathon) but latter race only attracted 12 – 14 starters!    Our races were basic ‘club’ events and didn’t supply medals, goody bags, T shirts, etcwhich probably explains why we were not better supported.   We therefore took the sad step of winding up the club.   Interest was fading and membership was down.   I agree that marathon running is in a poor way in Scotland with only 100 – 120 running sub 3 hours now.

“Whether there would be interest in restarting the SMC?   I don’t know.   Next time I see former committee members Alistair, Bob Donald, Campbell Joss, etc, I will mention it to them.”

Comments on the possibility of restarting the club or the need for a new SMC equivalent organisation are elsewhere on the site but my first comment is that if there wasn’t the same interest in marathon running in the late 80’s and if fields in club races were small, wasn’t that enough reason to keep going?

“Undoubtedly, the SAAA Marathon was started because of pressure from the Scottish Marathon Club.”

‘A Hardy Race’ by Clyne and Youngson

Result:   1.   D McNab Robertson   2:45:39; 2.   D Wright   2:46:00; 3.   A Burnside   2:54:15.

There are separate articles about the careers of Robertson and Wright in the ‘Marathon Stars’ section of the website.

The article below appeared in the June 1985 edition of the SMC magazine and is another example of how the club capitalised on events to have its name and Scottish Marathon running generally to gain valuable publicity and, incidentally, to strengthen the bonds of friendship within the club.    The article was written by Bob Donald of Garscube Harriers who also provided the illustrations.  Incidentally Bob told me that to start with the crosses would not light at the top, so they ended up turning them up the other way and lighting the ‘wrong’ end.   Hence the positions in the photograph below!

Leaving Edinburgh Castle

Bob had a letter in the next SMC Magazine as follows:

Dear Alistair, Further to my article in the June 1985 edition of the magazine on the Fiery Cross Relay, I have come across a copy of the ‘Scots Athlete’ dated Oct/Nov 1947 in which there was an article on the same subject by team manager W Carmichael.   This article ended by listing the distances covered by each runner and gave each runner’s club so I am now able to complete the blanks in my article:

Yours sincerely

R Donald

The Arrival in London – Led by Duncan McLeod Wright!

(and the crosses are the right way up!)

The April 1984 issue of the Magazine contained an article with the above title by Alistair McFarlane and the story is indeed a fascinating one.   Although the two main figures in the club were Dunky Wright and Jimmy Scott there were others as will become apparent.   Now, on to Alistair’s story.

“This year sees the fortieth anniversary of the founding of the Scottish Marathon Club so it is perhaps an opportune time to recount the story of the birth of the club.   The SMC has grown numerically from a handful of enthusiasts in 1944 to around 500 members at the present time and I am sure that many newcomers will be interested to hear of the environment in which the club was conceived and the problems of being a distance runner during the War. This article has been based on one written by John Softley in 1978 and on more recent material supplied by founder member Alex McDonald.

But first let’s hear how the late Joe Walker remembered the early days as he wrote in 1978 – ‘the first meeting of the Scottish Marathon Club was held on 14th February 1944 in the Central Halls, Bath Street, Glasgow.   My recollection of the important occasion was that I travelled by train from Stirling to Glasgow and because of the war, the black out restrictions and the dim light in the railway carriage it was impossible to read.   Travelling in the evening from places outside Glasgow was difficult and this affected the attendance.   There was no difficulty in deciding to form a club but there was considerable discussion of the conditions of membership.   It was finally agreed that all applications for membership must be first claim members of other clubs and must have experience of running in road races over 10 miles. The objective of the club was very quickly decided – to foster marathon running throughout Scotland – thus the name of the club followed logically – the Scottish Marathon Club as against the Scottish Road Runners Club.   As a consequence of the club’s objective it followed that the club would bring pressure to bear on the SAAA to organise a Scottish Championship Marathon Race.   This was done when the first of the annual championship races was held in 1946 from Falkirk to Old Meadowbank, Edinburgh.   The race was won by Donald MacNab Robertson (Maryhill Harriers) with a time of 2: 46:02.   At the first meeting of the Marathon Club Duncan McLeod Wright, Maryhill Harriers was appointed Chairman and Roddy Devon,  Motherwell YMCA, Secretary and all others present were members of the Committee.   Unfortunately the Minutes of the very early meetings of the club no longer exist nevertheless they would not tell of the background to the club’s formation, something which I hope will interest younger members.   Duncan McLeod Wright, one of Britain’s outstanding marathon runners, competitor at the 1924, 1928 and 1932 Olympic Games (finishing fourth at the latter Games), winner of the first Empire Games Marathon in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, in 1930, won one of the qualifying marathon races  to be used for selection for the 1936 Olympic Games and was advised that it would not be necessary to compete in any of the other selection races to gain his place in the British team.   Because of his age he decided to retire from competitive athletics.

When the Second World War began in 1939 he was appointed Sports Officer to a Home Guard Battalion and as a consequence became interested in keeping himself fit.   One of the ways of doing this was to gather together persons who were interested in cross country running in the winter and road running in the summer.   The enthusiasts for road running came from all over the West of Scotland and muster runs were held in Glasgow, Stirling, Greenock, West Kilbride, etc.   From his business contacts he knew many persons responsible for campaigns to collect savings for the war effort in different parts of the country and he was able to coax the organisers of these campaigns to have a road race incorporated into their publicity arrangements.   eg Stirling, Hamilton, Bridge of Allan or encourage sports promoters to incorporate a road race in their Sports Programme.   eg Shotts, Lennoxtown, Kilbarchan, Milngavie and Port Glasgow  or help to have road races such as Perth to Dundee revived.

The heavy programme of muster runs  and races each year soon wore out the soles of our sandshoes (gym shoes) which were the athlete’s normal footwear.   The replacement of these shoes required the purchase of new ones but the biggest problem was that one was required to surrended in addition clothing coupons.   Each person’s annual supply of clothing coupons was very limited and it was difficult to spread them over the normal clothing requirements without having to allocate some for additional needs.   As the War wore on it became more and more difficult for each athlete to allocate coupons for sandshoes and thus road running would soon have ceased for the duration of the War.   However Duncan managed to obtain for us replacements for our worn out sandshoes – the standard issue having brown canvas uppers with a very thin rubber or composite sole and heel.   To protect the heel Jimmy McNamara who was the oldest member of the group and a full time member of the A.R.P. obtained a supply of the pads used to reinforce the worn by Fire Brigade personnel.   The pads had to be amply smeared with vaseline otherwise the friction between the heel and the pad generated so much heat that the heel became badly blistered and if the blister burst the material of the pad adhered to the skin with very painful results.

From the foregoing it can be readily appreciated that the friendship which existed amongst the group of road running enthusiasts during the War years had naturally a desire to form a club which would enable road runners of the future to have the same kind of friendship.   As you will have gathered the late Dunky Wright was a man much admired by all and Alex McDonald takes up the story in the same vein….”there is no doubt that the resuscitation of athletics in Scotland in the middle war years was due to the dynamic enthusiasm and drive of the one and only Dunky Wright.   In 1943 he chaired a meeting to be called in Glasgow for representatives from all clubs which were still operative in the Midland and South Western Districts and, as a result, the ‘temporary’ Scottish Cross Country Association was ‘constitutionally’ formed.   ‘Temporary’ because it had pledged itself to disband as soon as the SAAA and NCCU resumed command and ‘constitutionally’ because its chief constitutional aim was to present Scottish Athletics in a healthy a state as possible to the post war era.   Perhaps the most positive indication of its success lies in the fact that in 1946 Scotland was in a position to host the first post war international cross country championships at Ayr Racecourse.

Let me make it clear that the SCCA did not of itself give birth to the Scottish Marathon Club but it was the members of that Association – again with Duncan Wright in the driving seat – who created the SMC on February 14th, 1944.   The first muster run was held from Pollokshaws Baths on 7th April 1944 and the second from Auchmountain Harriers’ (my club) pavilion in Greenock on 28th April 1944.

When I joined Auchmountain Harriers aged 17 in the 1929/1930 cross country season the ‘old timers’ of the club declared that if a runner trained oftener than three times a week he was in grave danger of going ‘stale’.    This theory had of course been exploded in the outer world and Dunky Wright was I think the first Scottish disciple of Paavo Nurmi who pioneered fast even paced running and more – much more – concentrated training but only the great ambitious enthusiasts imbibed in that practice at that time.

During the War most of us were fortunate if we could indulge in three training sessions a week and many were too tired by overtime working to attempt it.   After the War of course the Zatopek standards of dedicated perpetual slogging, the individual study of body building for the job in hand and of artificial film loops with sensible diets, etc, etc became musts for the ambitious athlete whose twice a day, six days a week training became commonplace.

One wonders what one missed?   In ’33 aged 20 I ran 10 miles at Hampden under 55 minutes, took half a minute off that in ’38 and was only 20 seconds slower in ’46.   What might I have done with today’s training and knowledge?

But I thoroughly enjoyed it all the way and met a host of great guys like Duncan Wright, Jim Morton, Joe Walker, Roddy Devon, Jimmy Scott, George Pickering, Jimmy McNamara, Andy Blair to name but a few.   Friendships such as these are far richer prizes than things that glitter.   It would have been nice to have climbed some higher mountains but the Scottish Marathon Club was – and I know still is – as great a friendship club as it is an athletic club and long may it continue that way!

Jimmy as we remember him:   the second official from the left with the clipboard in charge of the race

Jackie Foster as quoted on the front page wasn’t sure whether Jimmy had been a runner or not – well he had been!   As a member of the Glasgow YMCA club (vest: white with a red triangle front and back) and ran for them in many races including the Edinburgh to Glasgow where he ran the last leg in 1938, 1939, 1949, 1951 and 1952.    He was basically a club runner – not a star and not one who would have qualified for the rhinoceros or superman or school girls costumes favoured by many in the London marathon nowadays.   The last race that I have any information for him running was the Goat Fell on Arran in 1955.   He was a prolific racer – eg at the end of 1953 he raced on 25th July in the Ben Nevis race, on the 8th August it was the Carluke 12, 15th August saw him in the Milngavie 10, 22nd August and he was in action in the Bute HG 11 miles, 29th August and it was the Perth to Dundee 22 miles and on the 5th September he raced in the Shotts 15 miler.   Although he is best remembered as an official, he knew what runners went through and understood their needs.

He was a member of the Glasgow YMCA club – there were many YMCA clubs around at the time and some like Irvine YMCA, Motherwell YMCA, Kirkcaldy YMCA and Glasgow YMCA – operated at a fairly high level.   When he became secretary of the SMC there was a bit of friction with the YMCA that he was spending too much time on the SMC business and not enough on theirs.   They were short of members, particularly senior members, and eventually went defunct in 1955.   This solved the problem for him and eventually when he had to join a club he chose Lochaber AC.

Having been in the Army during the War he worked for the BICC in Glasgow (British Insulation Calendar Cables) and then moved to the East of Scotland for a spell before returning to the West and settling in Dalry.   He encouraged many runners such as Bob Donald to take up road running.

We know he was Secretary Treasurer of the club in 1950 because that is as far back as the extant Minute Books go and he held the post until his death in 1977.   He always had room in his car for runners and when he bought the minibus he took many more SMC members to races.   From my own point of view he took me to the Mamore Hill Race in Kinlochleven, to the Edinburgh to North Berwick, to the Dundee ASA 12 Miles and to the Brechin Right of Way race among others.   Always thinking of runners – he never battered straight through to the venue – he knew when the runners needed to eat before the race and stopped for lunch or whatever accordingly.   He had his favourite stopping places as well – the Croit Anna outside Fort William, the Four Ways at Dunblane the Green Kettle at Bridge of Orchy that I knew of.

He filled many positions at races – at some he was the race organiser from the ground up, at others he was marksman and timekeeper, at others he was the feeding stations on the route and the picture below shows him in his kilt administering first aid at the Ben Nevis Race (in which he had competed himself).

He was at the SMC Committee Meeting on 6th September 1976 and contributed as usual to proceedings with reports on races and he even agreed to be on the sub committee to advise on the McNab Robertson Trophy.   Then at the next meeting on 30th March 1977 appears the following announcement   :”Mr J Geddes opened the meeting by speaking of the great loss to the club on the 1st March when our long serving secretary and treasurer Jimmy Scott died.   J Geddes called for a period of silence before proceeding with the business.”   It was strange that his friend and the other main influence on the SMC, Dunky Wright had also died less than nine months before on 21st August 1976.   Duncan had the contacts and the charisma but Jimmy did all the real day to day work that made the club tick and it was a real blow when he died.    It was a month or two before a replacement was found and even then the job had to be split up.   The picture is of Jimmy at the start of the Perth to Dundee in 1951 – he is the one wearing number 11.

(Also in the picture are Joe McGhee (27), Charlie Robertson (3), Harry Howard (21), Gordon Porteous (7), Alex Kidd (6), Duncan McFarlane (10), Bob Donald (9) and Harry Haughie (23) among others.   The Monkland runner in the foreground in Andy Arbuckle.

 

Start of the 1988 race: Picture and article can be seen and read at www.morpethherald.co.uk .    There is also five film clips of the race, four of them of Dunky Wright winning, at http://www.britishpathe.com/workspaces/johnrosling/u6zeQAPF 

One classic road race beloved of Scottish distance runners was in England! (No, not just the London Marathon, which only started in 1981.) This was the Morpeth to Newcastle Road Race, which always took place on 1^st of January, New Year’s Day. This caused a logistical problem for the drouthier runners – how could they endure a temperate Hogmanay? Some restricted themselves to a couple of drams but some carried on as ‘normal’ and used the event as a hangover cure. However many simply deferred the pagan celebrations until after the race. The best arrangement was to drive down the day before and spend two nights in Newcastle……..

The Morpeth was the oldest road running event in the UK. It began in 1904 and attracted serious competition from all over the country. Originally the distance covered was 13.6 miles but this was later changed to 14.1 miles in 1983. Only as late as 2002 was it standardised as a half-marathon. Sadly, finance for safety precautions (i.e. the cost of policing) became a serious issue for the host club Morpeth Harriers. Tragically, the last Morpeth was run in its centenary year of 2004. There had been 90 runnings. Scots had a lot of success in the event. The most victories (seven) were recorded by Dunky Wright. Local hero Jim Alder won five times. Other notable Scottish winners were Donald Robertson, Fergus Murray, Jim Wight, Allister Hutton (the record-holder for the 14.1 mile course in 1.05.38) and Fraser Clyne.

I first competed in this famous race in 1972, running for Victoria Park AAC. We travelled down by train. I remember reading the big build-up for the favourite Jim Alder, the Geordie Scot, in the local newspaper ‘The Journal’. There was an enormous field (for that era) of 209 runners, who had to be entered by 9^th December. Most of us took the free bus from Central Station, Newcastle, out to the start, and then we left our kitbags in a van which departed for the finish, leaving us ‘warming up’ in the rain. The race started at 1.45 p.m. Once the fast men shot off, the rest of us struggled along as well as possible. My training diary noted: “Raining throughout and quite cold. Not 100% effort but legs and feet sore. Tried fairly hard. A reasonable run, considering my fitness.” Jim Wight from EAC outsprinted Jim Alder by seven seconds to win in 1.05.47. My team-mate Alastair Johnston was an excellent third in 1.05.56. I ended up 16^th (1.09.11) and Willie MacDonald was 45^th (1.13.23), well under the standard medal time of 1.14.30. Vicky Park finished third team and each of us won a frying pan worth £1! What I remember most is that the great Jim Alder, Commonwealth Marathon gold and silver medallist, modest, tough, honest and generous, actually walked his fellow Scots more than a mile to the train station, chatting away in his inimitable relentless fashion.

My next participation was in 1988. I had just become a veteran and fancied having a go at making some sort of a mark on the famous race. Aberdeen AAC sent down a decent team of Fraser Clyne, Graham Milne and myself. The start was at 1 p.m. and the route went from Castle Square, uphill along Clifton Bank, through Stanington, up the notoriously long hill of Blagdon Bank, through Gosforth and down to Town Moor, before turning in to the Civic Centre. There were 1400 starters. The leading pack soon receded into the distance, leaving me hanging on to the second group. A real problem was trying to work out if there were any other veterans in the vicinity! I spent many miles trying to spot potential rivals and eventually thought that one guy in a Derby and County vest had significant wrinkles at the back of his neck. When speeding up during the last mile, I made sure that he was behind me. Right enough, he turned out to be Anglo-Scot Alasdair Kean, a former 2.16.51 marathon runner with a PB one second slower than mine! I was delighted to finish first veteran in 19^th place (1.14.40) with Alasdair second vet, one place and ten seconds back. The Road Runners Club 1^st Class Standard was 1 hour 16 minutes, so we both won gold medals. The winner in 1.08.33 was Paul Davies-Hale from Cannock Chase, a 25 year-old Olympic steeplechaser. Fraser Clyne was tenth in 1.10.39 and Graham Milne 40^th in 1.17.42 (fifth vet). Aberdeen AAAC was pipped by four points for the team title by Bridgend Harriers. On this occasion the value of the prizes (for both 1^st Vet and 2^nd team) had gone up, compared to 1972, to £35!

Unsurprisingly, since I love Hogmanay, I did not return to the Morpeth until 1993, having entered the M45 category. I stayed in Newcastle the night before with Jimmy Bell, a friendly M45 rival from Elswick Harriers. 1071 took part. We made a cautious start into a cold headwind and attached ourselves to the third group. Dave Hill, the M40 25k World Vets 25k champion, was well ahead, and Jimmy and I assumed that we would not see him again until Newcastle. However unknown to us he had stayed up drinking until 5 a.m., got a ‘stitch’ and we passed him on the big hill at seven miles! After 13 miles I tried to surge but could not drop Jimmy. The pace increased during the last three-quarters of a mile, I got a few yards on him, made two left turns and gasped over the finish line, three seconds up. Not only 1^st M45 but 1^st veteran again! My place was 16^th, in a gold medal time of 1.15.25. Mark Hudspith of Morpeth Harriers had won the race in 1.10.24. Afterwards I enjoyed a great real ale crawl in Byker at the Ship Inn and the Cumberland Arms, with Archie Jenkins, Gordon Bell, Robin Thomas and Steve Beattie.

In 1995 I was less successful, finishing outside the first class standard in 1.16.50, fourth veteran and only second M45. However the Byker pubs allowed me to drown any fleeting regret in excellent beer.

My last Morpeth to Newcastle was in 1998. The day before I had driven down from Kemnay, near Aberdeen and had a couple of pints at The Keelman and The Bodega with my host Jimmy Bell. On race day I had a good chat with Jim Alder and then took the bus to Morpeth. 750 took part. It was important to start fast up the hill, since there was a very strong headwind in our faces the whole way. In a press photo, my Metro Aberdeen RC vest can be seen, straining to keep up with the fast men! We turned into the gale at one mile and I rested in the shelter of the second pack. Our pace was pretty slow for six miles, although it seemed tough to hang on at roundabouts and on Blagdon Bank. Only two from the group managed to escape. The final mile turned into a big tactical sprint-out, as we took turns to ‘play at Kenyans’. I finished two seconds behind Archie Jenkins (1^st M45) in 15^th place (1.21.23), but only seven seconds behind tenth place, so I was very pleased despite the slow time. 1^st M50 and fourth veteran overall. The winner was Brian Rushworth of Sunderland in 1.15.30. At the presentation, the great Jim Alder called me ‘his old mate’ before handing over my prize! Afterwards, predictably, it was off with Archie and the usual crew to Byker – The Ship, The Free Trade and the Cumberland Arms. The lasting joys of distance running!