Author: The Author

Winning the SAAA 880 yards in 1955

“Donald Cameron Easterbrook Gorrie was born in India on April 2 1933, the son of Robert Gorrie, a forestry officer, and the former Sydney Easterbrook.  The family moved back to Scotland when he was six, and he was educated at Oundle and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he read Classical Mods and Modern History.

Gorrie first found fame as a middle-distance runner. He broke the Scottish native 880 yards record in 1955, won an Oxford Blue three years running and in 1957 was president of the University Athletic Club. He won championships in the United States and Canada and races in Norway and Czechoslovakia, and competed in the World Student Games. He qualified as a coach, and would in later life be president of the City of Edinburgh Athletic Club and Corstorphine Athletic Club, valued both for his commitment to the sport and for his after-dinner speeches.”

The above brief introduction to Donald Gorrie comes from the Daily Telegraph and tells us a bit about the man, but we are mainly interested in his career as an athlete which was considerably good.   SAAA native record holder (1955). While at Corpus Christi College he was an Oxford Blue three years in succession, President of the University Athletic Club in 1957, competed in the world student games, won races in USA, Canada, Norway and Czechoslovakia.   He was also a member of the Achilles Club and was a vice-president from 2006 until his death in 2012. He was an active committee member and even a cursory glance at the Club annual reports shows that.   Even in 1988 he was the member in charge of US matches.   It is unfortunate that his time at Oxford coincided with that of Bannister, Chataway, Brasher and company and his career possibly suffered a it from lack of recognition because of that.   He only ever competed for two clubs – OUAC and Achilles.  But it is certainly a career worth investigating further.

He was running well enough in 1953 to win his first (of three) British Universities 880 yards titles with a time of 1:54.4, but did not draw himself to the attention of the Scottish athletics public until 1954.  Donald Gorrie was to run very successfully in the matches between the Achilles Club and the various American Universities.  The club had  two series of such contests: against Yale and Harvard, and against Cornell and Pennsylvania Universities.   It is not clear whether he was running in the fixture against the latter two on 12 June 1954, but Derek Johnston won the 880 in 1:53.1 and the 440 in 48.8.   The SAAA Championships were held on 25th and 26th June and Gorrie was entered in the half-mile.   He qualified for the final but finished outside the first six in a nine man field.   The race was won by R Stoddart (Bellahouston) in 1:58.6.

In terms of titles, records and general all round successful athletics, 1955 was possibly his best year.  Staring the year with a 50.1 seconds for 440 yards at Oxford on 12th May, he won his second British Universities half-mile title in the good time of 1:52.8.   These two marks placed him second and first in the Scottish rankings at the end of May.  Then on 11th June at White City in a match for Achilles against Yale and West Point, he won the 880 yards in 1:52.3.   The Achilles team was very strong and won all the running events – Derek Johnston won the 440 and Alan Gordon won the Mile.   Two weeks later at Meadowbank he won the SAAA 880 yards title in 1:54.2 and then just a week later, at Pitreavie on 30th June, in a contest between the SAAA and Atalanta, he not only won the 880 yards but set a new Scottish native record of 1:52.9.  John Emmet Farrell’s comment in the ‘Scots Athlete’ of August 1955 read: “Donald Gorrie was just too classy for that magnificent trier Ian Stuart in the half-mile.”   Further through the magazine there was a report on the championships.   “Heats on Friday.   Again qualifiers went to form.   Last year’s runner-up, Bill Linton, through lack of training possibly, failed to qualify.   Stewart Petty, a previous winner of this event, qualified only as fastest loser.   Main interest in the final centred round the Oxford man DCE Gorrie and speculations as to whether he could beat JC Stothard’s record time of 1 min 53.6 sec sere rife.   At the gun Petty shot away and for the first lap led at a cracking pace.   Gorrie then took over, and piling on the pressure, strode away gamely followed by Stuart (GUAC).   Gorrie was a sound winner, Stuart second and Donachie beat Hume in the run in for third place.   Holder Bob Stoddart was never in the race.   The winner’s time 1 min 54.2 sec was just over half a second outside the Scottish record, but nevertheless a grand performance under the prevailing conditions.”  

Gorrie answered the question of whether he could get the record the following Friday. In an invitation half-mile at Pitreavie he was paced through half distance by JV Paterson and went on to run 1:52.7.    Of the record at Pitreavie, Farrell commented: “Stothard’s 20 year record goes!   Shortly after winning the SAAA half-mile title Anglo-Scot Donald Gorrie set up a new Scottish native record for that distance with a magnificent run of 1:52.7 which, subject to ratification, will erase JC Stothard’s figures of 20 years standing of 1:53.6.”   The ‘Glasgow Herald’ had a full description of the event.   “NEW SCOTTISH RECORD.   Half Mile Feat. DCM Gorrie  (Oxford University) took 0.9 seconds off the 20 year old Scottish native half-mile record at the SAAA v Atalanta athletics match last night at Dunfermline.   Conditions were perfect on the new running track at Pitreavie and Gorrie, along with JB Paterson, planned to attack the record which has been held by KC Stothard since 1935.   It was Paterson’s job to run a 55 second first lap and hold his pace until the beginning of the back straight.   That he did and Gorrie took the lead 300 yards from the finish and won in 1 min 52.7 sec.   Paterson was rewarded for his effort by winning the quarter mile in the fast time of 49.6 sec.”   There were two other runners in the race – both home Scots – and Neil Donachie says:

“I remember the race in which Donald set a new Scottish record on 30th June, 1955, as I was one of the four runners who took part.   It was my first representative race, SAAA  v  Atalanta.   Invitations came by post in these days – I lived in the country and I only had 48 hours notice.   When I arrived at Pitreavie I was advised that Donald, whom I did not know, was to attempt the Scottish record and that JV Paterson would make the pace.   The other two, Stewart of Glasgow University and myself, were ‘invited’ not to interfere with the attempt.   In other words, run as well as you can but keep out of the way.   Donald duly ran 1:52.7 and the only person that I beat was JV who had done all the pacing.   I do not recall what time I ran but I was not particularly quick.    Two months later at the Rangers Sports at Ibrox on the first Saturday in August JV, as he was known to all, thinking that he could beat Donald’s new record tried to get someone to pace him but all declined.   He was annoyed at the lack of support  and in the event JV ran a 49 sec first lap but no one was foolish enough to go with him and he blew up on the last bend.   I heard about this from my training partner, another runner in the race, but I was approached by JV in the week following the race who repeated the story to me.   I was amused and I told him that he should not have shown his annoyance and then ru his race, upping the pace steadily and he might have achieved his aim of making everyone else blow up as well.”

 In the AAA’s championships at White City on 16th July, he was fourth in 1:52.0 in a very tight finish – the winner was Derek Johnston and his time was 1:51.4.   Four men within 0.6 seconds.   His running that season had been so good that he was selected for the World Student Games in August where he won a gold medal as part of the British team which was second in the Mile medley relay in which he ran the half-mile leg.   Another Scot, JGR Robertson from Glasgow University, ran one of the 200 metre legs.   Defeated by Germany, both teams ran 3:14.3 with Spain third in 3:16.0.

At the end of 1955, Emmet Farrell asked what Scots had made the greatest impact in athletics during the past season?   He answered his own question with (in no particular order of merit): Donald Gorrie, Ian Binnie, Joe McGhee, Bill Piper and Ewan Douglas.   It was exalted company for Gorrie to be in – but he was there on merit – Farrell didn’t play favourites!

*

His running in the United States for Achilles has already been discussed but it should be noted that these events were taken more seriously on the other side of the Atlantic than they seemed to be here.   I quote from the New York Herald Tribune of 24th April 1956.

“CONFIDENT OXFORD RUNNERS AFTER THREE TRACK PRIZES.   The four Oxford University middle distance racers comprising “possibly the greatest Oxford ever had, even including Roger Bannister” looked over the American field entered for the Penn Relays this week and decided to go for three relay titles instead of two.   They are solid favourites to win all three.   Of world relay caliber, based on their individual times in the 880 and mile, Ian Boyd, Alan Gordon, Donald Gorrie and Derek Johnston, the British Empire half-mile champion, will try for the two and a half mile distance medley Friday, the four mile and the two mile Saturday.   Boyd, the senior member of the dark blue quartet, and Arthur W Selwyn, an old-Oxonian who is managing the team, disclosed their plans and confidences to local coaches, officials and writers at the weekly luncheon at Leone’s.   Selwyn admitted Oxford will run the four mile as well as the two mile Saturday, because the opposition from Pitt, Michigan, Manhattan and NYU , all of whom have run between 7:35.2 and 7:40.6 this year, does not measure up to pressure competition for the Oxonians.   Fancy that!  

The four mile will be run at 3:10 Saturday, the two mile at 4:35 and the interval is more than adequate for the Britons they claim.   Whether Pitt, which has won 10 of 11 two mile relays this year on Arnie Sowell’s anchor legs of 1:48and up will send Sowell out against Oxford or shift to the spring medley is not definite.   No matter who lines up against Oxford, the British quartet will be favourite to win its three races.   Boyd has run the half in 1:51.9, the mile in 4:07.2, Gordon 1:53.4 and 4:00.7, Gorrie 1:51.5 and 5:15, and Johnston 1:48.1 and 4:10.2.   On their posted times, Oxford has a two mile relay potential of 7:24.9 compared to the world record of 7:27.3 set by Courtney-anchored Fordham in 1954.   It has a  four mile potential of 16 mins 38.6 sec compared to the world record of 16 min 41 sec set by a British national team of Chris Chataway, Bill Nankeville, Don Seaman and Bannister in 1953.   The Oxonians also believe they can beat the world distance medley record of 9:50.4 set by Wes Santee’s Kansas team of 1954.  

When Americans lifted their eyebrows, Boyd said “You don’t know how much we in England have improved since that Bannister team of three years ago.”   Though the British haven’t won an Olympic track title since 1936,   Boyd reported a tremendous national re-awakening of traditional British speed in the 880 and mile, highlighted by Bannister’s celebrated crashing of the four minute barrier.”

How did they do?   The ‘Glasgow Herald’ of 30th April reports:

“Oxford University won two events at the Penn Relays at Philadelphia on Saturday but failed in their bid to improve existing world records.   A sudden rise in the temperature to 83 degrees contributed to disappointing times in both events.   The Oxford team of DE Gorrie, DJN Johnston, A Gordon and I Boyd won by 70 yards in the 4 x 1mile event but their time was 17 min 35.3 sec, well outside the world record of 16 min 41 sec made by a British team in 1953.   Oxford’s winning time in the 4 x 880 yards was 7 min 40.6 sec – 13.3 sec outside the world record mark.   Johnston made up a 15 yard deficit on the last lap and won by 15 yards.”    

83 degrees might be hot for some but the Gettysburg Times reported that the race was run in perfect weather and said that Oxford and Villanova received the plaudits.   Villanova won the distance medley in 9:58.1 which was a new meet record but Arnie Sowell ran in three relays for his college (Pittsburg): in the distance medley he ran the third stage and clocked 2:58.7 for three quarters of a mile, in the sprint medley relay he ran a 1:54.7 half mile, and in the mile relay he ran a 46.9 quarter.   Maybe of more interest to a Scottish/British puiblic was the fact that Ron Delany anchored the Villanova team to victory.   I quote from Time magazine.

“Anchored by Irish Ron Delany, Villanova’s medley relay team ran the distance (2½ miles) in jig time (a meet-record of 9:58.1) at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia to beat Oxford’s English invaders by a long 20 yds. Next day when the Britons came back to run off with the four-mile and two-mile relays, Villanova and Delany retaliated by taking the sprint medley and setting another meet record (3:11.9) in the one-mile relay.”

It was a massive meet, but Oxford and Gorrie had two firsts out of three on a day of heat not usual this side of the Atlantic so it could be considered a success.

Back home, in the British Games at White City on Whit Monday (21st May), 1956, he ran in the  800m invitation where the invited field was JV Beesley (GB), DCE Gorrie (GB), BS Hewson (GB), LC Locke (GB),  K Richtzenhain (East Germany), I Roszavolgyi (Hungary), S Saric (Yugoslavia), DG Stewart (GB), JE Davis (Great Britain), R Moens (Belgium).    There was a lot of class in that field and two English based |Scots (Gorrie and Locke) were in among them.   Mike Rawson won by a yard from Brian Hewson in 1:51.6.  Gorrie raced in Scotland on on 9th June at the Police Sports, before a crowd of 20,000 people he ran in a high quality invitation 880 yards.   He was third behind Brian Hewson and Mike Rawson, all three representing the AAA’s.   The winning time was 1:52.2.   He did not defend his Scottish title at the SAAA Championships two weeks later.  where JV Paterson won in a time 06 seconds slower than Gorrie ran the previous year.   He did contest the AAA’s 880 yards championship on 14th July and qualified for the final where he ran 1:54.4 and was out of the medals.   Rival JV Paterson was fourth in 1:53.1 behind the winner, Mike Rawson in 1:51.3.     The season had been a bit quieter than 1955 but he still had targets, and still had  a lot to give to the sport.   His time of 1 min 52.1 was easily the best of the four.

Achilles team mate Derek Johnson

Always an early starter to the season, his life time best came on 11th March 1957 when he raced to 1:50.8 for the 880 yards.   On 6th April he ran in the Oxford v Cambridge match: “DCE Gorrie, Oxford’s captain, who is a former Scottish champion and and native record holder for the half-mile, won that event for Oxford in 1 min 52.4 sec, beating DI Smith, Oxford’s other runner, by 1.5 seconds.”    He also won his third British Universities championship on 19th May.   The report read:   “DCE Gorrie’s Success.   DCE Gorrie (Oxford) a former Scottish half mile champion, won that event in  the Universities’ championships at Reading in 1:54.2.   JV Paterson ran well and finished third n the 440 yards in 49.4 seconds … ”     Gorrie travelled with the Achilles club to America for the match against Harvard and Yale on June 22nd 1957.   He was victorious in the 880y in a new meeting record time of 1:52.0 – one of two records, the other being RH Dunkley (Cambridge) in the two miles with a time of 9:13.5.   The fact that this clashed with the SAAA Championships, was unfortunate.

His racing career was effectively over but his interest in athletics continued however and he remained on the Committee of Achilles for the rest of his life.   The programme for the Harvard/Yale  v  Oxford/Cambridge in  April, 2009 contained Roll Call of Champions and there it was – 880 yards, 1957, DCE Gorrie (Ox).   Nearer home, although he never represented a Scottish club and raced sparingly north of the border, he was President of Edinburgh AC and of Corstorphine AC .   He even obtained a coaching qualification.    When he died he was described in one newspaper as    “Rangy, stooping and crotchety, Gorrie was a long-standing and passionate advocate of devolution. He forsook Westminster for Holyrood – alienating constituency activists by making the switch and having to find a seat as an MSP for Central Scotland.    Gorrie was one of three Lib Dem MSPs who in 1999 refused to support the party’s Scottish leader, Jim Wallace, forming a coalition with Labour, distrusting that party as centralist and corrupt . He also disagreed frequently with Wallace’s successor, Nicol Stephen, but insisted he was not a one-man “awkward squad””    and went on to cover his career after leaving the sport.

He qualified as a coach, and would in later life be president of the City of Edinburgh Athletic Club and Corstorphine Athletic Club, valued both for his commitment to the sport and for his after-dinner speeches.   Gorrie taught at Gordonstoun, then in 1960 was appointed director of physical education at Marlborough College. Among his charges was Mark Phillips; when in 1973 Capt Phillips married Princess Anne in Westminster Abbey, the Gorries were among the guests.

In 1966 he returned to Scotland, as a researcher and adult education lecturer in Scottish history, and two years later he joined the Scottish Liberals as director of research. From 1971 he was the party’s director of administration; he became vice-chairman in 1974, but left the Scottish party machine in 1975 after challenging Russell Johnston unsuccessfully for the leadership. The next year he set up Edinburgh Translations, which remained his business.    When the city council was restored in 1995, Gorrie was elected Lib Dem group leader, serving until his election to Parliament.   He contested Edinburgh West in 1970 and March 1974 (finishing third), in October 1974 (coming fourth), then again in 1992, losing by just 792 votes to the popular Tory incumbent Lord James Douglas-Hamilton. Five years later, at an age when many contemporaries were heading for the potting shed, Gorrie captured the seat by 7,253 votes to become the first Liberal to represent an Edinburgh constituency since before the war.

As part of Paddy Ashdown’s sizeable new intake at Westminster, Gorrie proved an effective contributor, but he did not take to the life. Having helped vote through Labour’s devolution legislation, he put himself forward for Holyrood and decided not to stand again for Westminster; in 2001 the Lib Dems retained his seat.   At Holyrood, Gorrie had no chance of a ministerial job because of his views on the coalition with Labour. This left him free to embarrass Donald Dewar, the inaugural First Minister, over the soaring (from £40 million to £440 million) cost of the new Parliament building. Gorrie suspected Dewar of treating the modernistic pile as his personal legacy.    He was named Holyrood’s Backbencher of the Year in 1999, and Free Spirit of the Year for 2001.   Re-elected in 2003 at 70, Gorrie retired at the 2007 election.

Gorrie was at various times chairman of Edinburgh Youth Orchestra, and a committee member of the Edinburgh Festival, the Royal Lyceum Theatre, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Lothian Association of Youth Clubs, Castle Rock Housing Association and the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh. He was appointed OBE in 1984, and Deputy Lieutenant for the City of Edinburgh in 1996″.

Alan Duncan Gordon has been described by Doug Gillon as  ‘the Scot whose athletic feats were once airbrushed from history’ was born on 21st September, 1932 in Bolsover, Derbyshire and was one of the country’s best ever milers.   He appeared in the Scottish ranking lists every year from 195 to 1962.  Alan was one of the runners in Bannister’s first ever 4 minute mile in 1954, in 1955 he was sixth in Britain at 1500m (3:48.6) and 11th in the Mile (4:07.9), and in 1956 he ran 3:46.when he finished third in a floodit meeting crossing the line with Chris Chataway, and 4:06.2 for the Mile when setting a new record for the Oxford v Cambridge meeting.   These two performances would be recognised as Scottish records today but at that time, they were not recognised since they were run outside Scotland.   (A report on Helen Cherry’s ‘record’ run at the White City in 1962 going unrecognised said that for record ratification purposes, England was a foreign country.)    In 1959 he appeared in the lists for 1500m, Mile and Two Miles where he was ranked first, first and fourth with times of 3:47.8, 4:06 and 8:52.2.   In 1960 he was third in the Mile rankings with 4:06.4 and in 1961 he was third in the 1500m with 3:53.7 and in fourth in the Mile with 4:12.4.   Finally he was 25th in the Mile in 1962 with 4:21.0.   These figures do not tell even half of the Alan Gordon story – he had been at the top of British miling since the early 1950’s and took part in several of the most important races in the history of the sport: for instance when he took part in Derek Ibbotson’s world mile record setting race, he had taken part in more sub-four minute miles than anyone else on the planet but never broken the time himself. Along with Graham Everett and Mike Berisford he was one of the favourites to be the first Scot to beat 4 minutes for the mile.

He is perhaps best known for taking part in Roger Bannister’s first ever sub-4 mile.    The story of how Bannister was paced first by Brasher and then by Chataway before taking the race on himself with 220 to go and breaking the tape in 3:59.4.   The surge of the crowd forward after the first three were through is also familiar to us all.   Fourth was Alan Gordon, running for Oxford, then an American, George Dole and then Brasher in sixth.   There were several variations of the story of the finish and officially the times of the last three were not taken.   Brasher even said that neither Gordon nor Dole had finished but that was put right.  Doug Gillon’s excellent article in the box below  tells the real story.   It is an often told tale and there is a good description in Bruce McAvaney’s Melbourne speech which can be found at www.grcc.net.au/documents/interviews/Bruce_McAvaney_04.pdf , while Dole’s account of the race from a participants point of view is at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/2378077/My-part-in-Bannisters-mile.html

Gordon’s next big race was at the Whitsun Bank Holiday Games at White City in May 1955, where he paced Laszlo Tabori, one of the group of Hungarians coached by Mihaly Igloi who were taking the world of middle distance running by storm at the time, to a sub-4 clocking.   After Gordon took the field through in 59.9 and 2:00.8, Brian Hewson went into the lead at the bell, reached in 3:02.0.   Tabori won in 3:59.0, Chataway and Hewson were both timed at 3:59.8 and it was the first time that three men ran under four minutes for the distance in the same race in Britain.  Less than a year after Bannister’s mile, it was no longer the fastest in Britain.   There is video which shows this race with excellent shots of Gordon in action at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UytFl3NtTU           The Glasgow Herald report read: “Three runners, a Hungarian and two Britons, ran the mile in less than four minutes on Saturday at the British Games at the White City, London and so emulated J Landy (Australia) and RG Bannister (Britain) the only men who had performed this feat.   L Tabori, the Hungarian returned 3:59.0 and both CJ Chataway and BR Hewson, second and third respectively, were timed at 3:59.8.   … It was a race that  right from the gun promised a fast time, though the White City track was heavy after the deluge of Friday night.   AD Gordon (Oxford University) led the way at a spanking pace for the first two laps with Hewson, Chataway and Tabori behind him in that order.   The first lap was covered in 60 seconds.   After the second lap, reached in 2:00.8, Hewson took over the pace making task with Chataway on his heels and Tabori a strongly running third.   When the time at the bell was announced as 3:03.2 few among the large crowd felt that a four minute mile was possible but 220 yards from home Tabori made his first breath-taking challenge.   Amid vast excitement the red-vested Hungarian and his two white-vested British rivals sprinted at a killing pace down the back straight.   Then Tabori gave ground and it seemed that the home runners had won the day.   Coming round the last bend Chataway forced himself in front of Hewson for the first time, and then, to the amazement of everyone, Tabori running wide into the home straight, swept past his spent rivals and won by about four yards.”

 In 1956 Gordon ran at the Rangers Sports at Ibrox for the AAA team and won the Mile.   The Glasgow Herald commented: “The 1500m was to have been the outstanding event of the programme, which attracted fully 25,000 spectators, but only three of the seven selected runners appeared.   Notable absentees were R Delany (Ireland) and G Everett, the Scottish mile champion and record holder, who after an x-ray examination at a Glasgow hospital was told to rest an injured foot for at least a fortnight.   The race was therefore contested by three Englishmen and in the finishing straight AD Gordon produced a finish that P Driver could not resist.”   The “Englishman’s” time was 3:52.5.   Gordon raced in Budapest as part of a small British team on 18th August and finished eighth in the 1500m in 3:48.8 in a race won by I Roszavolgyi in 3:44.2.   His best for the season however was an excellent 3:46.4 at the White City Floodlit meeting for fourth place in the same time as Chris Chataway who was placed third.

On Friday, 19 July 1957, at the White City Ibbotson set a new British record of 3:57.2 for the mile in a race in which the first four runners were all under four minutes.  The Glasgow Herald report read:    “A mile record seemed in sight from the start of the race last night in which M Blagrve (London) set a fast pace.   The time for the first lap was 55.3 and for the half-mile 1:55.8.   On the back straight during the third lap Jungwirth, who had been lying second, moved into the lead and was followed by Ibbotson, Lewandowski, Delany and Gordon.   With three-quarters of a mile in 3 minutes, the pace had dropped slightly during the third quarter.   On the last lap Ibbotson decided to make his strike 300 yards from home.   Jungwirth closed up to him and Delany came from the middle of the field to challenge Ibbotson.   But they did not have any real hope of catching him and the race was all but over 20 yards from the finish.   Ibbotson said after the race that he had asked Blagrove to run a fast half-mile and his plan worked perfectly.   If the third lap had not been so slow he might have won the race in 3:55.”   The result was after Ibbotson’s 3:57.2, Delany 3:58.8, Jungwirth 3:59.1, Ken Wood 3:59.3, Lewandowski (Poland)  4:0.6 and Alan Gordon 4:03.4 which was to be his career best.  The only unfortunate incident of the day was when one of the officials refused to sign the authentication certificate for the record on the grounds that Ibbotson had been paced.   He was however over-ruled!  The following month, on the first Saturday in August he ran in the Mile in the Rangers Sports at Ibrox where he was second to Ken Wood – a race which did not meet with the approval of the athletics savvy Glasgow spectators!   The Glasgow Herald reports:   “K Wood (Sheffield) was the main attraction in the Mile, and he was subjected to slow handclapping for what was considered a slow quarter and half-mile.   Yet he finished in 4:03.9 – the second fastest time recorded for the distance in Scotland.   Wood gained a 15 yard lead at the 300 yard mark and was well inside 57 seconds for the last quarter.”   Wood  defeated Gordon again on 5th August at the White City in London, in the Emsley Carr Mile where he was third behind Wood (4:02.0) and Graham Everett (4:06.0) in 4:06.8.   Came the 17th August and Gordon was running in the Edinburgh Highland Games where he was behind Wood yet again: first Wood 4:09.4, second AD Gordon, third MA Berisford.     He finished off the season with a 3:45.4 for 1500 in his debut GB v Poland 4:10.77

In the AAA Championships on 12th July. 1958, the Herald report read: “It gave tremendous satisfaction to the Scottish contingent to see three Scots in the first five to finish in the mile – GE Everett (Shettleston) first in 4:06.4, M Berisford (Sale) third in 4:08.2 and AD Gordon (Achilles) fifth on 4:08.3.   Over the first quarter run in 62.6 GW Goddard (Melton Mowbrey) was closely followed by Gordon with Everett lying third, and Berisford last of the nine starters.   Goddard retained his position at the end of the second lap with M Halberg (New Zealand) in second place and Everett still holding third place.   In the back straight of the final lap Everett moved smoothly into the lead followed by Halberg who has been credited with a mile in 4:01.   Enthusiasm ran high when Everett accelerated down the home straight and won by close on seven yards from the New Zealander and Berisford, coming from the rear with a tremendous burst, finished third. ”   In the results places from third were Berisford in 4:08.0, Goddard 4:08.2, Gordon 4:08.3, Morrison (Dartmouth) 4:08.3.   Gordon had qualified for the final by running 4:07.4 in his Heat.   Selected for the Empire Games in Cardiff, he ran below par to be fourth in his Heat in 4:10.7 and failed to qualify for the final.   He had a very good run in the Emsley Carr mile on 2nd August at White City in the race won by Murray Halberg in 4:06.5 from Merv Lincoln (Australia) also in 4:06.5 and Derek Ibbotson in 4:07.7.   Gordon was fourth in 4:09.1 with Graham Everett fifth in 4:14.   There were also times of 5:13.2 for 2000 metres and 8:48.4 for Two Miles that year.

Topping the Scottish rankings in 1959 with 4:06.0 run at the White City on 16th May in a race at the British Games where Everett and Gordon were seventh and eighth. The race was won by Valentin from East Germany in 4:00.8.   The first British finisher was Ibbotson in sixth.   Two days later at the same meeting he ran in the Two Miles where he was recorded at 8:52.2 when finishing eighth and was reported by the Herald as never being within sight of victory.  The time was good enough nevertheless to rank him fourth Scot for the year behind Alastair Wood (8:46.4), Bruce Tulloh (8:50.0) and Graham Everett (8:50.3).    Earlier in the season he had run at the AAA Championships on 11th July where the three Scots in the Mile final were Everett (fourth), Berisford (Sixth) and Gordon (seventh) in a race which started very slowly.    The season ended for Gordon with two races in September: on 3rd September at White City in a Mile won by Herb Elliott in 3:55.4, and then on the eighth in a 1500m he was timed at 3:47.8 to be on of only two Scots ranked that year for the distance, the other being Graham Everett who was one second slower.

There is not much trace of Gordon in summer 1960 – he did not appear in either Scottish or English AAA’s championships, nor in the Whitsun meeting nor was he marked as a contender for an Olympic place – although he did record 4:06.4 .for the mile .   He surfaced again in 1961 with a 4:12.5 at Wimbledon on 9th May which ranked him fourth Scot at the end of the year behind Berisford (4:01.4), Everett (4:05.1) and Hugh Barrow (Victoria Park- 4:10.9).    He also ran a 3:53.7 1500m which ranked him third.  The old order was indeed giving way to the new and in the AAA’s championships the two Scots Berisford and Everett finished seventh and eighth.   Alan Gordon’s only ranking in 1962 was for the mile where he was down in 25th with a time of 4:21.    It had been a vey good career at the top of British athletics with several very fine races.    It was rather galling that the behaviour of the crowd at the end of the Mile in 1954 spoiled the finish for the remaining three runners – no times were taken officially apparently for the fourth, fifth and sixth finishers in an Oxford v AAA’s meeting.   Gordon’s comments below in the interview with Doug Gillon are revealing.

Alan Duncan Gordon’s Scottish records have been recognised, and his role in the most famous race in history is at last secure.  On Thursday he will will be one of the privileged group to join Sir Roger Bannister at a private dinner in Oxford to mark the 50th anniversary of arguably the most iconic sporting moment of the twentieth century, the breaking of the four-minute barrier for the mile. It ranked with the first ascent of Everest in pushing back perceived limits of human endeavour, yet Bannister merely opened the floodgates.  His record lasted just 46 days, and at the 40th anniversary 964 athletes from 60 countries had broken it 4756 times, according to statistician Stan Greenberg.  Now the number is heading for double that. The race is steeped in myth, misinformation, and mystery. And the record possibly should not even have been ratified. Even the world governing body’s official history carried incorrect data until corrected some years ago by The Herald. This has led to the 72-year-old Gordon (below), then a little-known Scottish undergraduate in the field on the Iffley Road cinders, being retrospectively credited with the Scottish record for both the mile and 1500 metres. It was reported, not least by pacemaker Chris Brasher who later became a journalist and founder of the London Marathon, that he had finished fourth, and that Gordon had not finished at all. The reverse is more likely. The undisputed facts always were that Bannister had won in 3:59.4, Chris Chataway followed in 4:07.2, with Bill Hulatt third in 4:16. ”Chris Brasher not timed, GF Dole (USA), and Alan Gordon did not finish,” read the official International Amateur Athletics Federation account which was amended after we spoke with historian Richard Hymans. Even Bannister’s newly-updated edition of The First Four Minutes still fails to mention the names of half of the six-strong field that day. Brasher, subsequently Olympic steeplechase champion, paced the first two laps in 1.58.2. He later wrote that Dole and Gordon had failed to finish, prevented by the crowd. ”This is a myth. Complete nonsense,” said Gordon. ”Brasher, who was spent after his pace-making, actually finished last, and I was fourth, just behind Hulatt. The American, Dole, also finished. In fact, my time, 4:18, was the fastest I’d ever run. I had not broken 4:20 before.” The IAAF account still does not give Gordon’s time, nor Brasher’s. ”Brasher did well with his pace-making, but just jogged after surrendering the lead, and everyone else overtook him, though that is not how he portrayed it. ”I had a very acrimonious correspondence with the Observer newspaper over Brasher’s reports. Chataway and I both took him to task over his account of the race, and he admitted he got it wrong. I was surprised that a fellow Achilles man would do this to a chap, and have made such an error. ”Eventually I got a hand-written, but unsigned note. It demanded to know why I had gone for him.” Some years ago I discovered a contemporary 1954 report quoting Hulatt, detailing his battle up the straight with Gordon. I quoted it to Brasher before his death, and asked whether all six men had completed the race, a crucial question. He said: ”I should think they probably did, but it was bedlam when the race finished.” So it was, but had Brasher failed to finish, Bannister’s record should have been nullified. Brasher admitted to me that he could not move on the track at the end. Did he cross the line? Who knows. ”I’ve got a very good memory,” says Gordon. ”We were 100 yards behind Roger, and my last view of Brasher that night was of him fighting his way through the crowd, towards the finish. When his articles came out, I wondered what the hell he was playing at.” Pace-making was frowned on. Bannister had run the third fastest mile ever, 4:02, in 1953. Brasher had jogged then for two laps, while Bannister completed nearly three, paced by Australian Olympian Don MacMillan. Brasher then took off, to avoid being lapped, shouting encouragement over his shoulder at Bannister. What would otherwise have been a UK record was never ratified. The British Amateur Athletics Board believed the method employed was not, ”in the best interests of athletics”. Gordon now lives with his wife Liz, who is from Pencaitland, near Edinburgh, in an old house, set in three acres with a swimming pool, on the banks of the Rhone, near Aix les Bains in eastern France. ”I ran most days until a few years ago, when my knees gave out. Now I use a couple of poles if I’m walking, but I prefer the bike.” Gordon founded a market research company in Geneva in 1970. He rarely returns to the UK. ”My father and grandfather were Aberdeen graduates. My father was a doctor and my grandfather was a dominie, teaching classics in Turriff. I’ve still got a nephew in Scotland, Richard Gordon. He’s managing director of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society.” Gordon was unfortunate not to break the four-minute barrier. His best 1000m time of 2:22.1 suggests a sub-four mile should have been a formality. ”Yes, I should have done it,” he said. ”Graham Everett [eight-times Scottish mile champion from 1955-63] took me through three laps in 3:00 in the AAA match v Oxford. I just wasn’t in form, and felt I’d let him down. I should also have beaten it at the Empire Games in Cardiff (1958), but made a mess of it. I’d to take unpaid leave for that. My company asked me when I was going to stop this running nonsense, and settle down. ”I was doing a full day’s work, and then taking the Tube to the White City. I remember falling asleep in the changing room before one international. ”I’m totally cynical. I watch the sport now and wonder who is not on drugs. ” The last time the world best for the mile was broken in Britain was by Derek Ibbotson, in 1957 (3:57.2) at the White City. Gordon finished sixth in 4:03.4. This surpassed the Scottish record of the day. Because it was recorded in the official IAAF history, Scottish statisticians retrospectively ratified it after The Herald brought it to their notice. His 1500m best of 3:45.4 (for Britain in Warsaw) has also now been recognised as a Scottish record. At one time Gordon had competed in more sub four-minute miles than any other athlete. He was also one of the first members of the International Athletes Club which revolted against officials. ”They took money as journalists while we didn’t get a centime. After that, the shoe company, adidas, gave us two pairs of spikes a year, but my training was always just 40 minutes, in my lunchtime.”

Support for his comments about the differing standards of support mentioned above is found in “3:59.4: The Quest For The Four-Minute Mile” by Bob Phillips on page 185 where he says: “Hewson was an elegant stylist who had run a 4:05 mile the previous year…. his everyday title was 22829748 Bombardier Hewson BS as he had extended his National Service in the army to three years.   For those who suffered the mixed blessing of two years’ enforced duty in uniform, this might have seemed like a peculiarly masochistic decision for Hewson to have made.   In the circumstances though it was hardly surprising, considering that he was based at Woolwich where the supportive commanding officer allowed him to live at home, less than half an hour’s car drive away.   Such patronage of outstanding sportsmen in the armed service and in business was not unusual in the 1950’s and is often overlooked when the amenities in Britain are unfavourably compared to those in the USA and Europe.   Hewson’s lifestyle, with every opportunity for training and competition, could have been little different to that of Iharos and his fellow-Hungarians.”

No further comment is required.

The picture above is of Graham Everett of Shettleston Harriers and Scotland winning the AAA’s Mile Championship in 1958 with Murray Halberg of New Zealand in second place at London’s White City.   It is one of Scottish athletics best known pictures – and rightly so.   Graham won the Scottish mile championship no fewer than eight times in all, seven of them consecutively.   He set Scottish records at the Mile and Two Miles.   He won the Scottish Senior Cross Country Championship in 1960 after an epic battle with Alastair Wood of Aberdeen who was running for Shettleston at the time and represented Scotland in four world cross country championships.   The statistics are summarised in the following tables.   First, his victories in the SAAA Mile Championship.

*The Crabbie Cup has been presented since 1944 to the athlete whose performance in the Senior Championships is considered by the General Committee to be the most meritorious.   The Coronation Cup is awarded annually to the athlete considered by the General Committee to be the outstanding Scottish athlete of the year.   In 1956 Everett shared both trophies with JV Paterson.

As a track athlete Graham Everett wanted to break the four minute mile.   The mile was his event and although he was good enough as an 880 yards runner to compete in the 1958 Commonwealth Games his range on the track was narrow stretching from 880 to 2 miles.   Born in Glasgow on 20th January 1934 appeared suddenly and dramatically on the scene in 1955 – you will look in vain for him in the Boys, Youths and Junior title winners: his only championships were at Senior level.   There were two serious contenders  from south of the border to be first Scot under four minutes: Alan Gordon and Mike Berisford.   Everett was top dog in Scotland with seven consecutive Mile titles to his name; just missing out in 1962 he regained his crown in 1963.   In Mile races north of the border he was seldom seriously challenged.   Having won the SAAA title in 1955, he raced against Stanislaw Jungwirth of Czecholsovakia at the Glasgow Police Sports at Ibrox before crowd estimated at 30,000.    Jungwirth won in 4:04.5 with Everett setting a new record of 4:07.5.  There was a note in the ‘Scots Athlete’ of June 1956 which read

GRAHAM EVERETT AND THE CZECHS

22 years old Graham Everett lowered the Scottish native record (4:11.2, AD Breckenridge) to 4:07.6 (actual time 4:07.5) when finishing third to the famous Czech S. Jungwirth and England’s Ian Boyd whose times were 4:4.5 and 4:4.9 respectively, in a great mile race at Glasgow Police Sports on 9th June.   In a most kindly and sporting gesture, greatly appreciated by the Shettleston miler, the Czech athletes and officials presented him with a beautiful plaque.   With the plaque was the greeting:- “With best wishes for future success in the future with your running at 1 mile and 1500 metres”

Two weeks later the SAAA Championships were held at New Meadowbank and James L Logan reported in the ‘Scots Athlete’:   “In the much-publicised mile the less fancied men must have been surprised to find themselves in the company of the giants at an advanced stage of the race.   With a very fast ‘half’ to his credit earlier this season, JR Cameron might have been expected to make a very strong challenge but Everett commanded affairs immediately the break was made at the second last bend  and, indeed, it was WH Watson who came on in determined fashion to take second place.   Happy days when we can sniff at the time of 4:16.1?”   1956 was of course also an Olympic year and John Emmet Farrell in the ‘Scots Athlete’ pointed out just how unfortunate Graham was in missing selection in a paragraph in the October 1956 issue of the ‘Scots Athlete’ when he pointed out that In the 1500m the selection is Ken Wood, Brian Hewson and IH Boyd.   When we find that in the AAA Mile Boyd and Everett were third and fourth respectively with respective times of 4:9.6 and 4:10.0 respectively, it is clearly seen how near our mile champion was to Olympic honours.”

 A year later at the same meeting, Derek Ibbotson was timed at 3:58.4 which was a British record and a best for a European.   Berisford was second in 4:06.0 with Everett third in 4:06.6.   In accordance with the rules in force, Berisford’s time was not recognised as a Scottish record because he was not born in Scotland and Everett’s time was recorded as the Scottish record.   A month later, Alan Gordon ran 4:03.4 behind Ibbotson’s world record breaking 3:57.2.   This was the fastest ever by a Scot but when they met in the Emsley Carr Mile at the White City in August, Everett was second in a personal best of 4:06.0 to Gordon’s 4:06.8.   Came the AAA’s Mile Championship three weeks later and, the race being won by Brian Hewson in 4:06.7, Everett and Berisford were both timed at 4:07.5.   Over the period 1956 – 61, Everett had a better record in the AAA’s than Berisford: a first, a third, two fourths and a fifth to Berisford’s of a second, a third, two sixths and an eighth but there was not much between them.  Derek Ibbotson came up to Glasgow quite frequently and Hugh Barrow (pb 4:01.0) remembers doing rep sessions with Graham and Ibbo at Westerlands track.   He reckons that Graham could and should have been the first Scot under four minutes – quite an admission from one who to many others should have had that honour.   Hugh remembers Graham as a fierce competitor and typical of that generation of Scottish endurance athletes.   At one point, Hugh remembers, he organised a string of betting shops and I remember an article in the ‘Daily Record’ with a picture of Graham in a bowler hat under the headline of ‘The Bookies’ Runner’.   The shop is now known as Interscot and Graham has no connection.   Hugh also tells me that when working in Glasgow Graham used to do reps up Great George Street, just off Byres Road..

In January 1957 James L Logan had a three page article about Graham and his progress in the ‘Scots Athlete’ he began by saying that not since the days of Alan Paterson has Scotland had such an exciting international prospect as Graham Everett.   Given that Logan was a member of Victoria Park AAC who had runners such as Ian Binnie gracing their squad, this was praise indeed.   There is a link to the article at the foot of this page but for now, it might be informative to look at the training that Everett was doing at this point.   His training is described thus:

Winter: September – November 1955.  

Monday:   Afternoon – 5 miles cross-country with 100 – 300 yard bursts.   Evening – 5 – 6 miles road work with bursts.   Tuesday: Afternoon:   Same as Monday.     Wednesday:   Afternoon – 6 – 7 miles cross country with fast spells; Evening – Rest (Cinema or Theatre).   Thursday:   Afternoon, Evening: Same as Monday.   Friday: Afternoon, if no race, on Saturday, 5 miles cross country.   Saturday:    If no race, cross-country and road, usually anything between 8 – 10 miles.   Sunday: 12 miles road and country.

November 1955 – April 1956

Similar to above but track was used on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

Summer: April – September 1956

Monday:   Afternoon – 5 miles running on grass with about 6 – 8 200 yard strides.   Evening: 2 miles warm-up, 10 x 440 yards at 60 seconds.     Tuesday:   Afternoon, Evening, same as Monday.

Wednesday:    Afternoon – 5 miles running on grass with fast spells.          Thursday: Afternoon -, same as Monday.   Evening – 2 miles warm-up 3 x half mile at 2 minutes, 6 x 100 yards sprints.    Friday;   Rest;   Saturday:   Race

Sunday:   12 x 200 yards at three quarters speed.

The entire article is well worth looking at but for now, nine sessions a week, rep sessions of 3 x 880 in 2 minutes and 10 x 440 in 60 are very like modern day sessions – eg Steve Cram says that his favourite session was 10 x 400 in 60 with a minute rest!

1958 was the big year: Empire and Commonwealth Games year with the event being held in Cardiff.   Always looking for races, Everett travelled to England a lot and his first real races of the season resulted in victories at the Sward Trophy Meeting (there were many of these Trophy Meetings in England at the time with competition usually of a high standard), the Northern British Games (4:06.3) and the SAAA Championships (4:07.0) in a championship best.   His really big moment came on the 12th of July at the White City Stadium in London where he won the AAA’s mile from Murray Halberg.     There were Heats on the Friday night and Halberg was the fastest qualifier with 4:06.7 although Everett, Berisford and Gordon all qualified easily.   The final on the Saturday suited Graham Everett to a T.   Laps of 62.6, 65.7 and 62.6 again set up a fast last lap.   Everett took the lead on the back straight and was never caught winning by a full seven or eight yards from Murray Halberg.   His last lap took just 55.0 seconds.   Berisford was third and Gordon fifth.   All three were selected for the Empire Games but things did not go well for Graham.   He had also been selected for the 880 yards where he was in the third Heat.   Unfortunately he was spiked and finished third in 1:55.0.    This may well have had an effect on the Mile where he just failed to qualify for the Final when he was fourth in the first Heat in 4:10.0.   This, plus a poor run in the Emsley Carr mile a fortnight later probably cost him a place in the GB team for the European Games.   In a late season race at the White City when four runners were under the four minutes, Everett set a personal best of 4:03.5.    A month earlier Berisford had set the identical time in a GB v the Commonwealth match.   After a quiet 1959 when did set a Scottish Two Miles record, he had what many consider to be his best year – 1960.

1960 was the year in which he really had a go at cracking the four minutes and at qualifying for the Rome Olympics.   In the SAAA Championships in July he front-ran a personal best of 4:02.8 which was fractionally outside the Olympic qualifying of 4:02.5!   At the British Games in August he he did a personal best of 3:45.7 for the 1500 metres – and at the same meeting Berisford ran in the mile 4:03.3 in the Emsley Carr Mile.   By the end of the season Graham had not achieved either of the targets but had only just missed out.   He kept competing for another four years at a fairly high level but his best times had all been set by the end of 1960.

*

No mention has yet been made of his cross country or road racing ability but with his ability he shone on all surfaces.   A lot of his career can be shown in some amazing statistics.   If we look at his record in cross country championships we get this list:

Club:   Junior Champion   1955; Senior Champion   1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960 (at a time when Shettleston was a very strong cross country club)

County:   1956, 1957, 1960, 1961

District:   1955: 14th;    1956: 14th;   1957: 3rd;   1958: 2nd; 1959: 1st , 1960: 1st,    1961: 1st; 1962: 4th.

National:   1955: 4th (Junior);   1958 2nd (Senior);   1959: 4th;   1960: 1st;   1961: 2nd;   1963: 29th;   1964:  10th.

In addition there were four appearances in the International Championships – in 1959 when he finished 31st; 1960 22nd, 1961 18th and 1962 71st.

Then there were all the team golds, silver and bronze that he helped his club to win – six golds in the County Relays plus two golds, two silvers and a bronze in the District relays plus two golds from the McAndrew Relay which was a major competition at that time.   With its many highlights it would be difficult to do justice to his career in detail.   Instead we can look at his victory in the National Cross Country race in 1960 which many insist is the best cross country race they ever saw.   In 1958 he was second to Andy Brown (Motherwell YMCA) winning his first senior championship.    A year later and he was fourth with Alastair Wood in first place and then in 1960 he won everything  including county and district championships before the National.   In the Districts at Renton, he won by over a hundred yards from Joe Connolly (Bellahouston Harriers) and Andy Brown.   Then came the National.   I quote from Colin Shields’ “Whatever the Weather”:  “Shettleston miler Graham Everett won the National Senior title, defeating the holder Alastair Wood.   Everett set a fast pace from the start with only Wood being able to stay with him, and at half distance, with the pair well clear of the pursuing field, Wood took up the running.   Everett then displayed his track speed, which he had carefully honed in the weeks before the race with victories in the 1000 yards (2:18.2) and 3000 metres (8:49.0) at Shettleston’s winter track meeting and drew away to win easily by 30 yards from Wood with Andrew Brown finishing a distant third 500 yards behind.”   Maybe winning by 30 yards after such a race looked easy to Colin but the reality is that it was a hard man-against-man race all the way with neither tough-minded individual prepared to yield easily.  I’m only sorry that it was run after the ‘Scots Athlete’ had the chance to report on it!

The 1950’s and early 60’s was a time when the standard of road running in the country was at one of its highest peaks ever.   Shettleston with Everett, McGhee and company were almost on a par with the VPAAC team with Binnie, McLaren, Calderwood while Bellahouston (Connolly, Dickson, Fenion) were not far away either.   Never ever being slower than fourth on a stage (and that was the very difficult second stage is a very creditable record..

For more fascinating detail of his running in this relay, look at the Edinburgh – Glasgow page on this website and see the story of all the races run at this time.   The picture below is of Graham winning the National in 1960 and taken from Colin Shields’ book – click on it for a bigger version.

Graham’s running career was short – he appeared as a Junior in 1955 and had run his last race before 1965 but he was still putting back into the sport fully 50 years later.   A qualified Senior Coach, later Level 4, he started coaching his daughter Andrea who was herself a Scottish International Middle and Long Distance runner, and went on to coach many, many more athletes.   It was common to see him on winter evenings at the trackside at Crown Point in Glasgow’s East End coaching athletes despite suffering from arthritis.   He also assisted with Scottish squads and was a regular for a while at Senior and Development Squad days.    He was a great athlete at a time when the standard was high.

After the above profile was written, I spoke to Graham about his career and I’ll just put the conversation into a Question and Answer format which is maybe more rigid than the conversation was but which has all the salient features.

What did you get from running?   “Enjoyment, a lot of enjoyment.   And there was the discipline that had to be followed if you were to succeed.   Discipline is always important”

What do you consider was your best race?   “The 1960 Cross Country Championship: it was the biggest effort and the most elation ever.   Every time we went off the racecourse into the woods we really battered it and in the last lap when we went up into the big button hook together and off the top I just sprinted and opened up a gap.   I heard Alastair kind of squeal and I just kept going to the finish.”   (For those who never ran at Hamilton Racecourse, it consisted of a long straight between typical white fences with a wee loop at one end and a huge loop (the ‘buttonhook’) at the other.    The stand was in the middle of the straight.   the heavy going was downhill from the stand to the buttonhook when it climbed and climbed up and round the top before it dropped again and the you had to climb back up to the finish of the lap.   For a number of years the trail left the racecourse just coming out of the wee loop and went down towards the Clyde which is where they ‘battered it’!)   “The following year I had two abscesses two weeks before the race.   They were removed but I was just knackered before the race but finished second.”

And your worst?   ” An invitation Mile at the White City where I led into the straight.   Herb Elliott and Merv Lincoln and others like that were running.   I was about fourth or fifth in the World at that time.   In front with 100 yards to go and the last 50 yards were terrible.”

Who was your toughest opponent?  “Alastair Wood was very tough on the country.   Ian Binnie was also very hard.”

What was the biggest disappointment?   “The 1956 Olympic trials were at the White City in London and I was sure to qualify from the Heat, I knew the others and was confident.   Then when I was warming up and just keeping warm, I heard a gun go off.   It was my Heat.”

Why did you stop running when you did?   “Achilles tendons.    Both of them.   They had been giving him a lot of trouble and he had seen all the top doctors and surgeons and they had all told him there was nothing there.   I came off the golf course and told them that I couldn’t walk after the ninth hole!    I spoke to Jimmy Graham, an orthopaedic surgeon at the Glasgow Western Infirmary.   Jimmy suggested I get my GP to refer me on to him but the GP was reluctant to do so.   But when I insisted, he did so and the result was a correct diagnosis: I had a bony heel spur that was actually growing in to the Achilles.   On both legs. “   (The correct diagnosis meant that something could be done to correct it but it was the end of Graham’s running career.)

His daughter Andrea is living in America and still running and still winning races as a Masters athlete.    Jimmy Graham was also the Scottish Rugby Union team doctor: now retired, he keeps himself fit at the Esporta Sports Centre in Bearsden.   Graham died in Glasgow Royal Infirmary on 20th January, 2017.

Alistair winning for GB against the GER Juniors in Birmingham in 1982.

I first saw Alistair in action when he ran for Dumbarton AAC  as a Youth (Under 17) in the Dunbartonshire County Cross Country Championships at Colquhoun Park in Drumchapel in 1981 or 1982.   Dumbarton had a very good group of Youths at the time – Alistair’s brother Alan (who went on to become a very good Senior athlete in his own right) and Scott Reid who won the Scottish Schools and Scottish Under 17’s 5000m track championships.    Scott wasn’t in the sport for very long and Alan’s medical studies took him off the athletics scene for a bit but Alistair was always a class act and was always highly respected on the Scottish and, later, British scene.  They won the West District Youths team championship twice – in 1982 and 1983.

How good was Alistair?    Well he is still, more than 25 years after the peak of his career in no fewer than three Scottish Ranking lists and has personal best times of .

Alistair, early in his career, started training with Alex Naylor, the respected coach who was well respected throughout Britain and had coached at National level all the endurance events and had held posts at GB level for several of the.   He was given the honour of the Master Coach  title and attended many major Games as Scottish or British official.   They worked well together through Alistair’s career.

Having joined Dumbarton AAC in 1976, Alistair and Allan won club championships all the way through the age groups.   Alan won the Junior Boys Championship in 1977 and Alistair won it in 1978 and 1979.   In 1980 and 1981 Alistair won the Senior Boys Championship and in 1983 he won the Youths Championship.   They shared first place in 1985 when they won the club Hill Race Championship.   In the Senior Cross-Country Championships, Alan won in 1986 and Alistair picked it up the following year.   They had been running in many races apart from the internal club events and Alistair had run in the Scottish Cross-Country Championship most years up to 1984.   In 1981 he was fourteenth senior boy, 1982, nineteenth Youth (Under 17) and in 1983 he was tenth with the Dumbarton team second and in 1984 he was ninth in the Junior age group.   Alistair only ran in one Edinburgh to Glasgow Road Relay when he was on the fourth stage, moving up from fourteenth to twelfth with a time of 26:40.   Also on the fourth stage, running for Edinburgh University was big brother Alan who move his team from fifteenth to thirteenth and his time was 26:36.   So although he held Alan off, he was four seconds slower than the pursuing Alan.   However, Alistair’s main athletics focus was on the track and that’s where we will focus too.

Alistair won his first Scottish track championship in 1980 when he took the Boys 800m title with a time of 1:59.1 which put him at Number One on the age-group All-Time list.    In 1981, however, he had superb year as a first year Youth.  He won the SAAA Youths 800m championship in 1:55.3 and in the other championship events he won both 800m and 1500m at the West District championships in 1:54.9 and 3:58.5, won the schools 1500m in 3:58.9 and won the Scottish 3000m in 8:46.6.   In the rankings for the year he was top in no fewer than three events – 800 with 1:54.9, 1500 with 3:55.2 (run at Brighton in August), and Mile with 4:09.6 (run at Billingham).   Oh, yes, and he was fourth in the 3000m with 8:44.6.   His times for the Mile and the 1500m put him at the top of the Scottish All-Time List for his age group.   (In the Mile, Hugh Barrow was second and Peter Stewart was third).    In 1982 he was again a double championship winner at the West District with a 1:58.8/3:57.4 800m/1500m double but overshadowed that with the same double in the SAAA Youths Championships in 1:58.4 and 4:03.8.    As far as the rankings went, he was top in both by some way – his best 800m was 1:53.9 and 3:50.50, both of which ranked him highly in the Senior ratings.   In the Youths All-Time list, he ended summer 1982 with second in the 800m with 1:53.9, he was also second on the 1500m with 3:50.50 and his time of the previous year (4:09.6) kept him head of the One Mile rankings.   All the time he was racing and learning his trade wherever there were the races he needed and selections for schools races, etc, had him all over the British mainland.

In 1983 he started to make his mark on the Scottish scene when he was a first year Junior.   In the 800m, he was top Junior and tenth Senior with 1:51.5,  second Junior and fifth Senior in the 1500m with 3:49.43 first Junior in the 3000m with 8:25.69 and won the SAAA Junior 1500m.    He started 1984 well with an  excellent run in the Scottish Junior Cross Country team for the International Cross-Country Championships to be held in New York.   This was to be his only cross-country international because of his growing specialisation on the track.   That year he was first Junior and fifth Senior in the 800m with a best of 1:50.2, again first Junior and fifth Senior in the 1500 where he ran 3:42.89, first Junior and fifth senior in the Mile  his 4:03.7 placed him again first Junior and fifth Senior and 8:10.09 in the 3000m placed him first Junior and sixth Senior.    Top man in the Junior ranks in four events is not bad.   In the SAAA Championships, he was him finish close up to the winner, John Robson, with his rival Adrian Callan third.   The year ended (8th December) with a time of 3:49.1 on the Cosford Track at the AAA’s Indoor Championships which still ranks as seventh of all time on the British Junior Rankings.

1985 must have been one of his best ever years.   In the course of the year he was fifth in the Peugeot/Talbot Mile, thirteenth in Oslo, fourth in the UK v France B International, third and first Brit in the AAA’s championships, second in the Eire v Scotland v Catalonia International, third in the Scotland v Ireland v Norway, first in the SAAA, seventh in the IAC, fifth in the Kodak and third in the AAA Indoor 1500m!   What a record of top level competition.   I can’t cover them all but we should look at some a bit more closely.   In June 1985 Alistair went to Dublin for the Eire v Catalonia v Scotland fixture.   Alistair was representing Scotland along with Adrian Callan and the race was reported in  ‘The Scottish Runner’ as follows:   “Ireland’s Frank O’Mara was the man to watch and he obliged by taking the pace from the start.   Heading for a 60 second lap the pace was neither too fast nor too slow.   Currie tucked in behind him.   A second lap of 61 seconds kept everything comfortable but over the next 300 the pace dropped drastically.   At the bell in 3 minutes 50 seconds Adrian Callan put in a burst and tried to take the lead   –

O’Mara and Currie found an easy answer however and they set off on a 54 second last lap.    Callan was found wanting for speed and was dropped.   Although Currie was pleased to find himself going with this pace, when he and O’Mara entered the home straight he had little left to go faster.   The Irishman on the other hand had everything under control and he kept an easy if unspectacular lead for his win in 3:44.18.    Currie finished 0.46 seconds later for his best to date (he has since done a 3:39.78 in Oslo on 27th June) having been found wanting in finishing speed at the end of a fast last lap.”  

I can’t help feeling that the reporter is being a wee bit hard here – having won the SAAA title less than a month before by outkicking John Robson, he now runs another personal best off a reasonably quick pace and finishes less than half a second behind O’Mara (one of several Irishmen at American Universities at the time) and is accused of being lacking in finishing speed.   he had started the last lap behind his opponent and as Seb Coe said to David Coleman on another occasion, “it is relatively easy to kick off 30 seconds for 200 pace, it is MUCH harder off 27 seconds for 200 pace.”

 In July he won his first Senior 1500m championships and this is illustrated and the story told in the caption of the picture (picture from Graham MacIndoe, official photographer).

 The race in Oslo mentioned in the report of the Irish race, was one of the Grand Prix races which were held all over Europe at the time and the 1500/Mile races were supported usually by Steve Scott (USA), Steve Ovett, Seb Coe, Thomas Wessinghage (Germany), Sydney Maree (the South African who had got US citizenship), John Walker (NZ) and a supporting cast which included several very good athletes such as Alistair who raced in many a Grand Prix, Steve Crabb (Enfield)  and others.    I watched the Oslo race on television and saw Alistair tracking Walker for almost all of the race and being so delighted with his performance that I phoned his Dad, Andy, to tell him to pass on my congratulations when he spoke to Alistair!    The picture below is of Alistair chasing Steve Scott in that race.

The highlight of the year however had to be his breaking of the four minute mile time which he accomplished at London on 2nd August when finishing seventh in the prestigious IAC meet..    The final tally of very good times is shown in the table below with his times and Scottish and British Rankings.

****

The reward for all of this running was selection for the Commonwealth Games to be held in Edinburgh in 1986.   The ‘Scotland’s Runner’ magazine, first printed in June 1986 in time for the Games, said that although Adrian Callan had not qualified for the Games, “John Robson and Alistair Currie, despite injuries and exams – the latter, in Currie’s case, on the day of the National Championships which prevented his racing Callan – both scraped in by fractions.   Robson indeed by a mere two hundredths of a second.”   Following his racing in the previous year his running in the Games was a disappointment when he was fifth in Heat One (five places ahead of Tom Hanlon) of the 1500m in 3:44.82 and failed to make the Final.   In 1986 and 1987 his name appeared in the results lists as representing Loughborough College instead of the more familiar Dumbarton AAC and the studies took precedence for the next two years.    Although he still raced and ran well, it was not as often or at the same level as 1985.

The Commonwealth Games in 1986:   Alistair in third between Steve Cram and John Gladwin

At the end of 1986 he ran in his club’s two-mile road race in Dumbarton and duly won it on 9:21.   Alistair was always a good club man and even took part in their Glasgow to Fort William Relay, an event that was run under some very arcane rules and pre-dated the West Highland Way by more than a decade.   His rankings at the end of 1986 were sixth in the 800m with a time of 1:50.60 and he stayed top of the 1500m list with 3:40.60.   On 5th May 1987 he ran in the HFC AAA’s Championships and failed to qualify for the Final with his time of 3:53.67 which only placed him as fourth Scot in the event.   Mind you, if you were studying hard, then May would be the worst possible month for a serious race!   By the end of the year he was fourth in the rankings with 1:51.4 (in the colours of Newham and Essex Beagles) and fifth in the 1500m with 3:45.98.

In the second half of 1987, Alistair started to show some signs of his form of two years earlier and finished the year fifth in the 800 (1:51.4), fifth in the 1500 (3:49.98), second in the Mile (4:01.1) and fifteenth in the 3000m with 8:26.6.   Not quite as good as ’85 but getting back and with a fairly wide range of distances.

In 1988, on the 3rd July, he ran in the Scotland  v  Ireland  v  Iceland at Grangemouth and finished fourth in 3:54.24 before tackling the Scottish Championships on 22nd July.   The race was reported in ‘Scotland’s Runner’ as follows.   “Seeing off challenges by Alistair Currie and Gateshead’s Geoff Turnbull in the final straight, Tom Hanlon shaded his 1987 time by 0.15 seconds to retain his title.   A slow first two laps (63.85, 64.10) ensured the field stayed together but with 250m left Hanlon made his move and with the last lap run in approximately 55 seconds neither Currie nor Turnbull had the extra acceleration to get past him – and Currie paid for his bid by losing third place to Adrian Callan.    Result:   1.   T Hanlon   3:47.43; 2.   G Turnbull   3:47.79;  3.   A Callan   3:47.88;   4.   A Currie   3:47.89.”     What a finish, the top four were separated by less than half a second with only one hundredth between Callan and Currie!   Later that year he turned out in another race with a very close finish – the BMC Invitation 800m at Crown Point, Glasgow, organised by Lachie Stewart.   The result was a win for Tom Ritchie with Alan Murray second in 1:52.6, Glen Stewart third in 1:52.6 and Alistair fourth in 1:52.8.   With a best time for the year of 3:44.31 for the 1500m  he was third ranked behind Hanlon (3:38.59) and Callan (3:41.12).   1989 started with a bang!

On the 15th January in Kelvin Hall Alistair took part in the 3000m championship and Doug Gillon’s report hailed his return.   “Of the 22 events contested, 11 were won with better performances than last year, notably by Alistair Currie.   The Dumbarton man, who in 1985 looked ready to claim the mantle being shed by Graham Williamson as the country’s leading 1500m runner, was thwarted by the pressure of studies, but his mature 3000m victory after stalking Gateshead’s Graham Walker signalled his return.   His time, 7:55.85, was nearly 10 seconds faster than the dead-heat victory last year by John Robson and Nick O’Brien.   Now a full-time runner, he insists however that his future lies at 1500m.”

The same issue of ‘Scotland’s Runner’ published the Scottish All-Time Ranking Lists and Alistair appeared in no fewer than four of them:   800m (19th with 1:49.01 which eh ran in 1985), 1500 (seventh in 3:49.43, again run in 1985), One Mile (fifteenth with 3:59.29 in 1985) and 3000m (7:55.85i in 1989).   The stage seemed set for a good summer season.    That 3000m run however was good enough to have him selected for the British team at the European Indoor Championships at The Hague in the Netherlands which was won by Dieter Baumann (FRG) in 7:50.3 with Abel Anton (Sp) second in 7:51.88 and Jackie Carlier (Fr) in 7:52.33 and Alistair out of the medals.

1990 also started well indoors when on 25th February in Kelvin Hall he ran in the 800 and 1500m as a guest in the Scottish District Select v Scottish Schools v Loughborough v Birmingham where he finished first in the 800m in 1:53.56 and second in the 1500m in 3:48.23.     In the rankings published early in the year he was second in the 800m, second in the 1500m with 3:45.26i and fourth in the 3000m with 8:01.10.   This was a period when there were several non- Scots living in the country or even some living outside Scotland but with recently discovered qualifications to represent the country.    Thus in the 1500m rankings, although he was ahead of Tom Hanlon, the list was topped by Ian Hamer of Wales, and two of the three in front of him in the 3000 were Hamer and Peter McColgan of Ireland.     However when the SAAA West District Indoor Championship took place, there was no Alistair Currie in any of his three events.   He did compete in the outdoor Scotrail National Championships on 27th July at Crown Point in Glasgow he was fifth in 3:49.18.   Again there was the usual quantity of non-, or even new, Scots leading the field.   The finishing order was 1.   T Hanlon  3:47.69;   2.   Larry Mangleshot (Woodford Green);   3.   Davie Wilson  (Ireland);   4.   F Weigan (Holland);   5.   A Currie   3:49.18;   6.   Steve Ovett   3:51.68;   6.     Adrian Callan   3:53.22.    Nevertheless, a fit and well Alistair Currie was well capable of beating the winning time and a run of almost 3:50 was nowhere near his best.   It is fair to assume that he had been injured between his excellent start to the year and the SAAA Championships.   His competitive appearances became fewer in number although in 1992 running in the colours of Newham and Essex Beagles he was ranked in the One Mile (4th with 4:09.4) and in 1993 in the 3000m (19th with 8:24.61).

I’d like to finish with a story about Alistair on a trip with a Scottish representative squad to Birmingham.   After the match, the coaches were sitting in the Hotel Bar prior to heading up to get washed and changed for dinner when Alistair and a friend came in.   he went up to the bar and asked the dragon behind it for “Two Citrus Springs, please.”    Citrus Spring was a fairly popular fruit juice.   The dragon poured them into a single glass and Alistair requested that it be put in two.   “You didn’t say you wanted separate glasses!”   And in his usual quiet fashion, he said, “If I asked for two pints of beer, you wouldn’t have put them in a single glass, would you?”   After muttering something like don’t get funny with me she put them in separate glasses.   Although one of the quietest and most private of athletes, this illustrates his nice droll sense of humour.

He had graduated from Loughborough College in 1988 with a degree in PE, Sports Science and Recreation Management.   He was also Sports Manager for two years for Mansfield District Council and then spent eight years working for Reebok as an athletics consultant.    After five years in the charity fundraising sector, he came back to work for Scottish Athletics in the important jogScotland Manager.   Having been in the sport since joining the local club in 1976 and having had a wonderful career during which he raced all over Europe against the best in the world at a time when his chosen events in Britain, Europe and the world were at an all time high, having run in the Commonwealth Games, the European Indoor Championships and won Scottish titles at all age levels, his career now came first.    As with his brother he bowed out of the spotlight when he realised that.

Leaders in the English women’s national in February, 1972

Margaret Beacham, Rita Ridley (winner), Betty Price, Margaret Coomber (second) and Christine Haskett (third)

Margaret Teresa McSherry was born in Dartford in Kent on 13th June 1950, did almost all of her racing in England and never joined a Scottish club but was nevertheless a loyal and long term member of Scottish teams on the track and over the country.   Her career was relatively long with Margaret appearing the Scottish ranking lists from 1966 right through to 1984.   Although probably more of a speedster (she had Scottish rankings as low as 200 metres and she did not appear at anything further than One Mile until the early 70’s) she ran in the world cross-country international championship from its inception in 1967 through without a break to 1980.   Representing Scotland in three Commonwealth Games, Margaret ran for Great Britain in 13 international fixtures and she was selected by the British selectors for the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972.   A wonderful career by any standards.   It is not intended to cover all her races in detail – to do so would require a biography rather than a profile – but to outline her career with some seasons looked at in detail.

She first drew attention to herself as far as most Scots were concerned when she appeared in the Scottish ranking lists in 1966 over the 440 and 880 yards distances.   In the 440 the 16-year-old clocked 58.94 and in the 880 yards 2:16.75.   A year later and she ran 2:16.32 for the half-mile and 5:05.91 for the Mile.

In 1968 she recorded best times for all three distances of 58.26 at Brighton in June to be 6th ranked Scottish senior, 2:14.23 at Erith in May to be ranked 4th and 5:08.01 at Portsmouth in August to be Scottish number one at the distance ahead of Sandra Kirk, Margaret Purdon and Georgena Craig.   The Scottish Athletics Yearbook noted, after noting that the top four 880 yards runners were all Anglo Scots, “Sandra Kirk and Margaret MacSherry both thriving on the higher class of competition in England …”    She had however not run in track championships yet bt she put this right in 1969 when she won the SWAAA 1500m championship in 4:43.9.   Not only that but she had nine of the top eleven times over the distance,

Margaret was also number three in the 800 metres with 2:08.1 and number six in the 400m where her best time was 57.6.   These times at the end of the 1969 season were very encouraging for a 19 year old – especially with the Commonwealth Games coming to Edinburgh the following year.  So how did she fare in 1970?

She started with a very good run indeed in the world cross-country championships at Fredricksburg in the USA on 21st March.   The ‘Herald’ did not play the run down: “Margaret MacSherry, the 19 year old who runs for Cambridge Harriers, gave one of the most impressive performances ever by a Scottish athlete at the women’s international cross-country.   She took sixth place, only 27 seconds behind Doris Brown, America’s world record holder and winner at Clydebank last year.”   On the track, she qualified for her first Commonwealth Games as did her long term rival Christine Haskett – now Christine Price – and they finished only two tenths of a second apart in seventh and eighth.   Margaret was in seven in 4:23.6 with the second runner in 4:19.0.   Not far away.   But how did the season go?   Her season’s bests were 58.6 for 400m,  2:09.4 for 800m, 4:22.4 for 1500m and 4:55.01 for the Mile.   Winning the SWAAA title for the second successive she beat Christine Price (who was to win in 1971 and 1972)  by half a second in 4:30.3 and on 22nd June Margaret (still MacSherry) lowered the Scottish 1500m to 4:22.4 when she finished eighth in the Final in the WAAA’s championships.  This was to be the first of three Commonwealth Games for her.  But the Games was undoubtedly the high spot.   The official report read: “For the first time a 1500 metres event for women was included in the Games programme.   Ten runners competed and produced an eventful race.   It started sedately with Joan Page, England, leading and doing the first lap in 70.5 seconds.   The second lap with Page still leading  was even slower – 74.4 seconds.   Rita Ridley, England, then dashed ahead into a ten metre lead, passing the bell at 3:11.5.   In the last lap, Ridley’s effort began to tell, and Joan Page and Sylvia Potts, New Zealand, caught up with her.   .   The three girls raced neck and neck, when Potts – a stride or two from victory – fell face down on the track.   The two English girls dashed past for Rita Ridley to take the gold and the Scottish all-comers record, and Joan Page the silver..   Thelma Fynn, Canada, drove through behind the two English girls to capture the bronze medal.   After the race, Sylvia Potts refused to make excuses for the mishap.   “I did not trip,’ she said, ‘my legs just couldn’t carry me any further.   I was just run out.’  

It was a time when Margaret was also racing well over the country.   She had first represented Scotland in the International event in 1967 when, like the 1500m in 1970, it was a new event on the women’s cross-country circuit.   In that year she finished ninth t be first Scot home in the international at Barry in Wales.    In 1968 she was thirteenth and in 1969 eighteenth to be again first Scot to finish.   In 1970 however she had what was possibly her best run in the event to be sixth.    Ahead of her were Doris Brown (USA), Rita Lincoln (who became Rita Ridley before the CG), Thelma Fynn (Canada), Barbara Banks (England) and Joan Page (England).   Christine Haskett was two places and four seconds behind her with the third Scot being Sheena Fitzmaurice being one minute and twenty places further back.

In 1971 she competed again in the cross-country championships as Margaret MacSherry (finishing 28th) but later in the year married Malcolm Coomber.   The next few years also saw her times for all distances between 400 metres and the mile come down: between 1971 and 1973 the 400 metres came from 56.55 to 55.6, for 800m from 2:06.13 to 2:02.01, the 1500m from 4:37.85 to 4:26.43 and her mile pb dropped to 4:48.9.   The big event in this period was of course the 1972 Olympic Games and 1972 was a good year in every sense for her.   She set her  best ever 400m of 55.3 that season and running in many high level meetings, including several GB internationals.   Missing the SWAAA Championships, Margaret competed in the  WAAA 800m where she finished third.   The results for that year were more than good enough to see her selected for the Munich Olympic Games.   Here she ran 2:03.0 to be sixth in her Heat and she failed to qualify but Rosemary Stirling, another Anglo-Scot did 2:03.6 to be third in her Heat and get through to the next round where she clocked 2:02.4, which in turn saw her into the Final where she ran 2:02.0.   Athletics can be quite cruel at times – the Heat draw did not help Margaret’s cause at all.     At the end of the 1972 season she was ranked number three in the 400m with her 55.3m, number two in the 800m with 2:03.0, number four in the 1500m with 4:31.5 and number three at the mile with 4:55.5 run indoors.

The Cambridge national cross-county winning team in 1968

In 1973 Margaret was ranked for the first time at 3000m – and ranked in second place.   Another very good year and it is maybe surprising that she had not been ranked at that distance before given her undoubted ability and strength over the country.   She started the year in the Scottish championships in Edinburgh on 10th February where she had to give best to Christine Haskett.    “The annual ding-dong battle for the Scottish women’s cross-country title maintained its pattern on Saturday in Edinburgh when Christine Haskett (Dundee Hawkhill) wrested the Mary Semple Trophy from Margaret Coomber.   These two have dominated the championship for the last four years.   After having been runner-up in 1969, Mrs Coomber, competing for Cambridge Harriers, won in 1970 and last year; the title in the intervening years went to Miss Haskett.   And on Saturday at Paties Road Playing Fields, Colinton, the Dundee girl justified the trip from Stretford where she is studying by routing the others for a 90 yard victory.   Miss Coomber and Ann Barrass, another Anglo from Aldershot, stayed with Miss Haskett for the first mile or so, but then were unable to contain the sustained surge of the Dundee runner who covered the 3.75 miles in  22:53.”   In the English national championships in Blackpool on 24th February, Margaret was tenth and a member of the winning Cambridge team while Christine had to drop out.  Selected for the international she was again first Scot with a nineteenth place in the 4000m race at the championships at Waregem in Belgium on 17th March with Christine Haskett in twenty seventh.   In the track season, Margaret made a rare appearance on a Scottish track when she finished first in the 800m at the British Games at Meadowbank on 18th June.   Running a time of 2:06.9 she was three tenths of a second ahead of Sheila Carey and four tenths in front of Pam Cropper to be one of only two Scots women to take gold, the other being Myra Nimmo in the long jump. Les Piggot (100) and Norman Morrison (two miles) were the only two Scots men to win at the meeting.   The following week at Drachten in Holland she won the 800m for Great Britain against the Netherlands and Czechoslovakia in 2:06.9 with Sheila Carey second only four tenths behind in second.   Although she did not appear in the WAAA medallists list, Margaret was regarded as a safe bet for the Commonwealth Games team for 1974 in New Zealand along with such as Myra Nimmo, Liz Sutherland, Meg Ritchie, Rosemary Payne and Helen Golden.    At the end of the season her bests for the various distances – ranking positions in brackets – were 55.6 seconds (6th), 2:02.0 (1st), 4:26.4 (3rd), 4:48.9 and 9:57.8 (2nd).   She was as expected picked in the team to go to the Games.   In the 800 metres she was fifth in the first Heat in 2:05.94 and failed to qualify for the next round and in the 4 x 400m relay, the team was fourth in the Final.   After the success of the 1970 Games (from a Scottish national perspective) 1974 was a big come-down.   It is possible to point out that it was a very difficult Games to time, given the European seasonal pattern for January in Christchurch.   The international cross-country had been held in mid-March and the domestic track season had been a long one.   Add in the fact that there were no permanent indoor athletics facilities at all in Britain and there are contributory factors for the relative failure of the team that year.

Returning to the domestic cross-country season, she was selected on past performances as well as her track form for the world cross-country championships in Monza in Italy.   In the race itself, she was 39th in he eighth successive running of the event.    The actual 1974 track season when it came was a good one and Margaret’s best track performances are noted in the table below

 The track statisticians’ athletic yearbook merely remarked that ‘Margaret Coomber never approached her superb 2:02.0 of ’73 but was consistently in the 2:06/2:08 range.’  

The following year, 1975, she finished third in the SWCCU Championships behind Christine Haskett and Ann Barrass to be selected for the international championships.   In Rabat, Morocco, Mary Stewart was first Scot in eighth place, Christine Price was next for the country in 23rd with Margaret third counting runner in 39th.   On the track her first biggish win was on 31st May at Crystal Palace when when won the 800m in 2:06, but the summer was spent as before with fast racing in England and high ranking positions in the Scottish Lists.   There was no fast 3000m this year, instead the range was from 200m to 1500m :   200m: 25.3 (13th),  400m: 55.87 (5th),   800m: 2:04.59 (2nd);  1500m: 4:50.10 (4th).

1976 was an Olympic year so Margaret had to be going for it and sure enough her times for 800m and 1500m were quicker than in 1974.   She started the year with the cross-country championships.   In the Scottish Championships on 7th February she finished third, behind Christine Haskett and Moira O’Boyle and, since the first five finishers were automatically selected, progressed to yet another International championship.    In the championship, she could do no better than 54th in a race that was growing in size every year with new countries entering teams.   Scotland’s runners were Mary Stewart 9th, Christine Haskett  23rd, Moira O’Boyle 42nd, Margaret Coomber 54th, Ann Parker 60th and Mary Chambers 61st.

Margaret’s best performances in summer 1976 were 200m:  26.1 w;   400m:  56.0 (1st in rankings);  600m:  1:30.5;   800m:  2:03.9 (3rd);  and  1500m: 4:19.23 (2nd).   Unfortunately none of these, good as they were, was good enough for a place in the Olympics team and her next opportunity to race at a major Games was to be the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada.   1977 was to be a staging post on the way there.   Ana a clear statement that Margaret Coomber was still in business it was too!   The top three Scottish times over 1500m, six of the top 15 and over 6 seconds clear of the next fastest (Judith Shepherd).   She was also fifth quickest over 800m, had a 2:43.0 1000m and was second fastest over 3000m with 9:50.2 where Judith Shepherd had nine of the top ten times including the top seven and a season’s best of 9:20.0.   She started the year as was usual for her with cross-country running and finished second in the Scottish championships to Christine Haskett and then headed for the International championships where she was first Scot but down in 52nd place in 19:02 with Christine Haskett back in 61st (19:17).    With Judith Shepherd in 65th and Gillian Hutcheson 86th, the team finished a lowly 16th.

On to the track season in 1977 and it was one in which Margaret reserved all her best performances for the second half of the season.   Championships first.   In the Scottish Championships at Meadowbank on 25th June, she won the 1500m in 4:27.2 from Judith Shepherd (Glasgow) in 4:31.2.   Shepherd also won the 3000m in 9:39.2 from Christine Haskett who ran 9:56.3.  She ran in the Sunsilk WAAA championships on 19th/20th August where she qualified for the final but was not among the medals.    Her performances for the summer are summarised in the following table, fastest times at 1500m first.

As the season was drawing to a close the international fixture between Scotland and Norway on was held on 3rd September where Margaret was third in the 1500m in 4:31.3.

1978 began with the cross-country season and Margaret was out in the Scottish championships again but the main rival was not Christine Haskett this time but Judith Shepherd.   The ‘Glasgow Herald’ report commented: Miss Shepherd, aged 18, had the satisfaction of winning the senior title at her first attempt.   Margaret Coomber and Kerry Robinson, another 18 year old, gave her close attention most of the way but Judith broke clear half a mile from the finish and eventually won by five seconds from Mrs Coomber, herself a former champion.”   And it was on to her twelfth consecutive world cross-country championships.   Held this time in Glasgow on 25th March on a miserable wet afternoon in Bellahouston Park and it was not a good time for Margaret Coomber.  who was second Scot to finish (Judith Shepherd was first in 22nd) in 69th place of 99 starters with the Scots team again 16th.   Fiona McQueen in 79th and Janet Higgins in 87th were the other counting runners.

Because of the Edmonton Games the SAAA/SWAAA Championships were held earlier than usual – on 3rd June – but as the ‘Glasgow Herald’ said on the following Monday, they posed some interesting problems for the selectors, one in the women’s 1500m.   “Margaret Coomber, a veteran of two Commonwealth Games, pushes Christine McMeekin into third place in the 1500 metres in a native record time of 4:20.4 after Christine’s heat time of  4:21.8 on Friday night.   Will both of them be selected?”   Well both of them were selected and both of them qualified for the final.   The final was held on 12th August with 12 runners and Margaret was 12th in 4:26:28.   She had run faster seven times that year.   Christine (McMeekin) Whittingham  was 4th  in a time of 4:12:43 – 4 seconds faster than her best up to that point.

Margaret at 28 years of age had run in her third Commonwealth Games and run faster than ever over 1500m.   Christine McMeekin was only her most recent rival – Christine Haskett had been a serious opponent for many years over the country and on the track, and in the previous year Judith Shepherd had provided her with a genuine challenge on the track and country.   Margaret was still not finished with the Scottish track or cross-country scene yet.

In the SWCCU Championships in Rosyth, there was no Margaret Coomber and the championship was won by Judith Shepherd from Kerry Robinson.   Selected for the World Championships, Margaret was the third Scot to finish behind Judith Shepherd (44th) and Kerry Robinson (67th), in 82nd place of 100 starters.   Back on the track, she was ranked in four events again – and for the second time was in the 3000m ratings.    The times and rankings were:   400m:  58.0 (19th);     800m:   2:10.1 (7th);          1500m:   4:23.08  (5th);          3000m:   9:53.0   (4th).   Competitively, in the SWAAA Championships on 16th June Margaret won the 1500m from Fiona McQueen (Glasgow) in 4:27.   Fiona was one a very good group of young athletes from Glasgow being coached by former Scottish cross-country internationalist and Victoria Park AAC runner Ronnie Kane.   His small squad had great spirit and included Fiona McQueen, Judith Shepherd, Lynne McDougall and Janet Higgins.   When he died rather prematurely the group split with athletes going to college in America, to France as well as to other coaches within Scotland.  It was a real loss when he died.

Margaret ran in the international cross-country championship again in 1980 making it fourteen in a row since her debut in 1967 and although she finished 88th, she was the last scoring runner for the Scottish team and kept her record of being a counter in every one of the fourteen.

Florida State women’s team, 1981: Margaret is on the right of the centre row.

In 1980, at the age of 30, she moved to Florida and remained there from season 1980/81 to 1983/84.   Husband Malcolm joined the coaching team at Florida State and one year later English international Sandra Arthurton signed on for the University team.   Very successful, her cross-country achievements were listed in the University’s annual as follows:

09/20/1980 ALABAMA INVITATIONAL                               3  19:05.3      3

10/04/1980 FLORIDA STATE INVITATIONAL     5K                  1  17:06        1

10/11/1980 FURMAN INVITATIONAL                                5  19:11        5

10/18/1980 FLORIDA INVITATIONAL                               1  16:48.1      1

11/01/1980 AIAW REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP                         3  18:34        3

1981 Season

09/19/1981 ALABAMA INVITATIONAL                               2  17:52.3      2

09/26/1981 FLORIDA STATE INVITATIONAL     5K                  3  17:21        3

10/03/1981 CALIFORNIA INVITATIONAL        5K                 14  18:10.6     14

10/23/1981 FLORIDA INVITATIONAL                               3  16:54        3

11/07/1981 AIAW REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP                         3  17:30        3

11/21/1981 AIAW CHAMPIONSHIP                                 48  18:56       32

1982 Season

09/18/1982 ALABAMA INVITATIONAL           Three-Mile Run      3  17:23        2

09/25/1982 LADY SEMINOLE INVITATIONAL     5K                  2  17:18.6      2

10/02/1982 VIRGINIA INVITATIONAL          5K                  9  18:25.6      9

10/16/1982 TENNESSEE INVITATIONAL                             7  18:27        7

10/23/1982 FLORIDA INVITATIONAL                               3  16:34.3      3

11/13/1982 NCAA REGIONALS                 5K                 29  18:10

1983 Season

09/17/1983 NC STATE INVITATIONAL                 5K                  4  18:01.1      4

09/24/1983 FLORIDA STATE INVITATIONAL     5K                  3  16:57.1      3

10/01/1983 4-WAY MEET                                            5K                  7  16:53.5      7

10/15/1983 CLEMSON INVITATIONAL                              12  17:28.2     12

10/29/1983 APPALACHIAN STATE                            5K                  1  17:42.8      1

Track races were listed separately and are as noted below.   Immensely impressive but note that she was often required to compete twice in one meet and some of the ‘doubles’ were difficult – eg 24th April’s 800m/3000m double.   Starting with 1981.

1982

1983

1984

When looking at the times bear in mind that the indoor tracks varied in distance and con figuration, the effect of doubling up in events (sometimes quite close together on the programme) and the imperative of getting high places for the University as opposed to going for a good time.   Margaret’s performances kept her well up in all the national ranking lists back home but there were to be no more Games appearances for this excellent athlete who had run so well in Scottish and British championships, and who had represented both Scotland and Great Britain with distinction over many years at the top of the sport in this country.

Frank Clement winning the Europa Cup 1500 metres at Meadowbank in 1973

Born in Glasgow on 26th April 1952, Frank Clement has been British 1500 and Mile record holder, British Champion and Olympic finalist.    A member of Bellahouston Harriers for his entire racing career he has also competed in all Scottish championships on track and over the country as well as representing his club – and for a time Strathclyde University – in the famous Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay race.   There were never any airs or graces about Frank – he is a straightforward, direct person who never ever at any time, not even when trading records with Steve Ovett, had a bad word about anyone.   An example: after a disappointing SAAA marathon in Edinburgh when I had to drop out when running (for me) quite well with a recurrence of tendinitis, I went into the cafeteria at Meadowbank and turned round to look for a table when a voice from the far wall said that I was looking fed up.   It was Frank.  When I told my tale of woe, he just told me to cheer up – it had been the Olympic trial the previous week and he couldn’t run because of illness.   It kind of put my minor problem into perspective.   A better example by far is that of a 12 year old Alex Wilson standing by the finishing funnel at the Senior National Championship asking the top runners as they came in for their autographs.   Alex says “Most stumbled right by me, up to the eyes in lactic acid – all except Frank and Andy McKean.   Frank kindly obliged even though he was gasping for oxygen.   What a cool dude!”    Click on the thumbnail for the full autograph, written 32 years ago and kept since then.

Questionnaire (December 2010)

Name:   Frank Clement

Club:      Bellahouston Harriers and Linithgow Athletics Club.

Date of Birth     26th April 1952

Occupation: Retired from Sport and Recreation Manager with Glasgow City Council.

List of Personal Bests:

How Did You Get Involved in the Sport Initially?

At school aged 15 years our teacher Dan Clancy got the class to go out running rather than play football.   From this a team was selected for the Glasgow Schools Cross-Country Championships and we trained for three days a week for four weeks.   The team came in first, second and third and we went on to win the Scottish Schools Championships as well.

Has Any Individual or Group had a Marked Effect on either Your Attitude to the Sport

Or On Your Performances?

Initial inspiration was Jim Ryun.   Robin Sykes, Bellahouston Harriers,  guided me through my teenage years.   Training with and encouragement from Mike Mclean was of great benefit.   Watching Lachie Stewart, Ian Stewart and Ian McCafferty during 1970 Commonwealth Games nailed my commitment.

What Exactly Do You Get Out Of The Sport?

It has given me a great deal.   Initially enjoyment and self satisfaction and then fun, friendship and great opportunities to see the world: a career in sport and further enjoyment as a coach and official as I have aged.

Can You Describe Your General Attitude to the Sport?

Delighted that over the years the sport has become more professionally organised and managed and that excellent facilities are now available with good support for athletes.   Some disappointment that fewer young people seem interested in taking part, that performance standards in some events have slipped and that the sport does not now attract significant media attention.

What Do You Consider Your Best Ever Performance?

Front running an invitation 800 metres in Athens in 1973 in 1:46.0 seconds beating the UK record holder, Andy Carter.

And Your Worst?

Failing to reach the European Championships 1500  metres Final in Rome in 1974.

What Do You Do Apart From Running To Relax?

I don’t run any more but try to get out on my bike twice a week (weather permitting).

What Goals Do You Have That Are Still Unachieved?

Some of my best times were posted in 1978 (aged 26 years).   Injury and subsequent back surgery  in 1979 put an end to my career when I felt I still had better performances to deliver.

What Has Running Brought You That You Would Not Have Wanted to Miss?

I met my wife through running – she was also a member of Bellahouston Harriers.   We have five daughters and so far eight grand-children.

Can You Give Some Details Of Your Training?

There were two quite distinct periods to my career.   1970 to 1975 when I averaged around seven sessions per week and then 1976 to 1978 when I increased this to give an average of ten sessions per week.

(In an email to Colin Youngson about his training, Frank comments on the lunchtime sessions from Strathclyde University gym, “We had a great team at Strathclyde Uni and our lunchtime training sessions with Mike Hall, Innis Mitchell and Colin Hutcheon really made me realise what was needed to become an athlete.”)

Frank first drew himself to the attention of the wider British athletics public in January 1972 when at the age of 19 he became the first Scottish winner of the AAA’s Indoor Championship at Cosford in 3:46.3 which was a championship best.   Only those who have seen the track at Cosford will be able to fully appreciate the feat: a 220 yard track laid in a corner of a massive aircraft hangar on an RAF base.   The bends were quite tight, the arena was draughty and it was not a good place to go for a fast time.   Scottish aficionados knew all about him – in 1971 he had been second in the SAAA 800 metres in 1:52.7 behind Ross Billson, and, still a Junior, was ninth in the 1500 metres ranking list.   He had in fact been working his way through the ranks.

In 1969, as a Youth (Under 17), he had run 2:01.3 for the 800 metres and been second twice to Ron McDonald in the 1500 metres at the Scottish Schools and the SAAA Championships and had a season’s best of 4:02.0.   As a Junior in 1970 (aged 18), he was third in the SAAA Championships behind David McMeekin and J McGill.   His best 800 metres time for the season was 1:55.5.   He won the Scottish Schools 1500 metres and was third in the SAAA behind Ronnie McDonald and John Ross and his best time for the season was 3:51.7.   As winner of the Schools title he ran in the Schools international where he was third.   He was fourth in the British Junior 1500.   The following season, aged 19 and running for Strathclyde University, he was second in the SAAA Championships behind Ross Billson of Ayr Seaforth in 1:52.7.   In the 1500 he was again second to Ronnie McDonald in the SAAA; he was also second in the British Universities championship in Birmingham in a personal best of 3:48.0.   Just 48 hours later he was first Scot home in the British Isles Cup.   Came 1972 and his first year as a Senior and a year when he suffered from Achilles tendonitis!   Nevertheless, he won the Scottish Universities 800 metres in a season’s best of 1:51.6 and in the 1500 metres his best was 3:44.4 on 10th June.   Earlier on 24th January he won the AAA’s indoor title at Cosford in 3:46.3.   In the ‘Glasgow Herald’ three weeks later a ‘Special Correspondent’ (surely Ron Marshall?) wrote the following: “British athletics suddenly became aware at the indoor International match against Spain at Cosford, near Wolverhampton, on Saturday 19th February, that Frank Clement of Bellahouston has all the credentials of a first class 1500 metres runner.   Three weeks ago Clement gave a majestic performance in winning the AAA’s indoor 1500 metres title without gaining deserved recognition.   His second performance before the supporters had them transfixed.   Although making his international debut at 1500 metres, he ran with experience that belied his 19 years.   The Strathclyde student, partnered by Adrian Weatherhead, another Scottish internationalist could not shake off Jean Borraz, an athlete with a devastating finish and a supposedly better pedigree.  The Spaniard made his victory strike in the last 350 yards but Clement lengthened his stride and followed in his slipstream.  Then in the last 100 metres he unleashed a power sprint that gained two seconds on Borraz and a 16 yard victory.   Clement registered 3:46.8 with Weatherhead third in 3:50.21.   Clement became an automatic choice for the European indoor championships at Grenoble on March 11th and 12th.   He will not be going as the meeting coincides with university examinations.   When asked about his plans for the Olympic Games, the forthright Glaswegian said, “I would only be interested in going to Munich if I thought I could win a medal.”

His next major feat came in July 1973 when at the AAA’s Championship at Crystal Palace and leading the field out of the last bend, he was outsprinted by New Zealand’s Rod Dixon.   Dixon’s time: 3:38.9, Clement’s 3:39.4.    Being the first Briton across the line, he was the British Champion.   In August that year, as a student at Strathclyde University, he won the World Student Games 1500 metres in Moscow in 3:42.3 and later that same month, in tandem with Brendan Foster in a GB team against Hungary, he ran 3:38.5 for the 1500 metres.   He ended his season at Meadowbank on 8th September he ran  one of his finest ever races when he won the Europa Cup 1500 metres in 3:40.8.   He went to the front early on and just kept going to win by a distance.  In 1973 he was awarded the Coronation Cup which is presented by the SAAA to the outstanding athlete of the year.

In 1974 he set his first British record.   In the GB v Sweden match in Stockholm on 30/7/74 he ran the 1500 metres in  3:37.4 (3:37.38 ) when he finished third.   This beat Brendan Foster’s existing time of 3:37.64.    He held the record for almost exactly three years until Mike Kearns ran 3:36:81 in 26/7/77.   Exactly one year later, on 30/7/75, he set his second British record.   This time it was for the mile, again it was in Stockholm and it was Peter Stewart’s record of 3:55.3 that he captured with 3:55.0 (actually 3:54.95 rounded up).   This lasted until Steve Ovett set a new mark of 3:54.69 on 26th June 1977 but Frank regained the record on 27th June 1978 when finishing ahead of John Robson in Oslo in 3:54.2.   Robson recorded 3:54.3.   Ovett then set new figures for the Mile of 3:52.8 on 20th September 1978.  At the end of 1974 he and Dave McMeekin had the top 15 times at 800 metres of any Scot with Frank second in the SAAA event a mere one tenth of a second behind Dieter Fromm of Germany.   This was his fastest time of the year and the 1:48.4 had him second Scot.    In the 1500 metres he had the top four times and six of the top nine.   The Scottish Athletics Yearbook compiler said: “Missing the Commonwealth Games because of University Studies and being surprisingly eliminated in his Heat at the European Championships due to illness, Frank Clement had a disappointing season in his quest for major championship honours.   However after a slow build-up throughout the season, Frank broke the United Kingdom 1500 metres record with a superlative performance of 3;37.4 at Stockholm”.  

 In the AAA’s Championships in 1975 he was runner-up to Danie Malan of South Africa in a time of 3:40.3 to Malan’s 3:38.7.

1976 was Olympic year and the official trials were at the Kraft Games at Crustal Palace on 12th June.   Frank was third in 3:40.0 behind Ovett (3:39.6) and Moorcroft (3:39.9): three runners covered by four tenths of a second.   There were lots of close finished in Franks career.   In Montreal, Frank had a good Games.   Before going to the Games he had defeated John Walker in an 800 metres in Zurich but misfortune on the final lap maybe cost him a medal.   In the first round he was second to John Walker in a fast race in 3:37.5 to Walker’s 3:36.9; in the second semi-final he was fourth in 3:38.9.   The final, on a damp afternoon, was a tactical affair with lots of bunching and jostling and in the final straight John Walker of New Zealand won in 3:39.2 with Frank only half a second behind in fifth place.   He was the top Briton in the event and was coming on hard and fast at the finish: I remember him saying at a British Miler’s Club day at Huntershill in Glasgow that his plan had been to go at 1200 but in the race, with 300 yards to go he was knocked on to the grass and had to get back on to the track before he could get on with the race.   What if he hadn’t been knocked at that point?   He was finishing faster than any of the other finishers, if there had only been another five or six yards we all thought!   If the BBC ever releases any of its Games tapes the Scottish public could judge for themselves!   Doug Gillon reports that five metres past the line, he was first!   He also ran in the 800 at the Games after running a first class time of 1:45.6 in Zurich where he was third.   He had had a number of good performances at the event – eg in 1973 he ran 1:46 for an 800 metres in Athens and won the SAAA title comfortably with 1:48.1.   However after winning his heat in the Games he was eliminated in the semi-final.   The British Milers’ Club always does a report on the major Games meetings races in which they are interested – 800, 1500 and now it also does steeplechase and 5000 metres.   Dave Cocksedge comments on John Walker’s tactics thus: “Was John Walker lacking confidence after being nailed by Frank Clement in the 800m heats?   It certainly appeared so.   He claimed after the race that he planned to attack over the last 500 metres but held back to the back straight…”    As far as Frank is concerned he said: “Frank Clement too would benefit more from a strong pace, but possibly influenced by his improved 800m form this year, preferred to follow and try to kick.    He won a World Student Games with a 52.2 second last lap in 1973, but was wrongly positioned to try a similar break at the bell this time.   When he was ready to move, the decision had been made for him and he ended up playing the same catch-up game as the others all the way to the finish.”   That was how it looked to a journalist and statistician in Autumn 1976; his report might have been altered slightly had he spoken to Frank  but it does shed a different light on the race.

Three Cross Country Internationals and Track Rivals: Frank Clement (3), John Robson (21) and Graham Williamson (27)

(Taken with the author’s permission from ‘Whatever the Weather’ by Colin A Shields)

Frank is often seen, not without reason, in Scotland as part of a trio of really outstanding international, record-breaking milers with John Robson and Graham Williamson being the other two.   In a Heat of the AAA’s 1500 metres in 1977,  Robson ran a pb of 3:41.1 and in the Final was was third in 3:43.8 with Clement fourth in 3:44.1.    The three runners all turned out in the SAAA Championships in 1978 and after a fascinating race and a terrific two man duel, Robson won in 3:40.1, which was a Scottish Native Record, with Clement second in 3:40.5 and not far away was Graham (Date of Birth: 15/6/60)  in 3:42.1 which was a UK 17 and 18 years age bests.   The UK Championships were held at Meadowbank that year and the positions were identical with Robson’s time being 3:43.9.

The Commonwealth Games were held in Edmonton in Canada in 1978 and Clement and Robson were taken while Williamson was left behind despite running really well and winning the AAA’s Junior Championship in 3:39.7 (a championship record).   It was generally felt that he had been harshly treated by the selectors and when England sent Steve Cram – Williamson’s great rival and over whom Williamson had a 21 – 1 winning record at Under 17 and  – for the experience of running a major Games.   However Robson and Clement both ran well in the Games    Both qualified for the Final and lined up with Bayi (Tanzania), Moorcroft (England), Waigwa (Kenya) and Dixon (NZ).   Bayi set the pace – 57.5 for 400, 1:55.2 for 800 and 2:53.9 for 1200.   I quote from John Keddie’s official history of Scottish Track and Field:    “He had not shaken off Robson, Moorcroft or Clement.   As the runners turned into the final straight – Bayi still leading – the excitement grew to fever pitch amongst the capacity 43000 crowd.   First Robson strained to pass Bayi, but it was Moorcroft who proved the strongest, just edging past in the last few strides to win in 3:35.48 with Bayi (3:35.59) just holding off Robson (3:35.60) and Clement (3:35.66) coming through like an express train only to find that the finishing line came too soon as he swept past them all a few metres over the line.   Ironically the next day in Warsaw, Williamson set a European Junior record of 3:37.7.”  

Given Frank’s ability it was inevitable that he was a notable runner on the road and over the country in winter.    He ran in all the classic road races and relays such as the McAndrew Relay in October and the Nigel Barge in January and it would be impossible to cover them all, so this profile will look only at the National Cross Country Championship and the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay which were the two main events in the Scottish winter season.

A one club man, he ran in the National Cross Country Championships for Bellahouston Harriers other than when he was at Strathclyde University.   He first turned out in the 1969 Youths (Under 17) race where he finished fourteenth and then in 1970 (again in the Youths age group) where he was fourth, one place behind Lawrie Spence and one ahead of Dave McMeekin – all three were to become serious senior athletes and all would break four minutes for the mile!   As a Junior in 1971 he was fourth and in 1973  he was one place behind Dave McMeekin in sixth and was selected to run in the World Junior Cross Country Championship where he finished 34th.   He missed the 1974 race and in 1975 he was ninth finisher in the Senior event and that merited selection for the World Cross Country Championship.   In 1976 he was twenty eighth, he missed the race in 1977 but in 1978 he gained his third international vest when he was seventh in the championship.   In 1979 he was down the field in 38th which was one place ahead of Jim Alder – the Scottish International team captain for many years and Commonwealth Games Champion.

His first run in the Edinburgh to Glasgow was in 1970 when he ran on the second stage for Strathclyde University where he dropped one place from sixth to seventh.   It is fair to point out though that this was regarded as the most difficult stage of the race and it was particularly so for first year Juniors.   The following year he ran n the first stage which was a stage for racers – for the only time in the race all clubs started together and it was a straightforward race.   Frank was fourth.   Missing the 1972 race he had his last run for the University, this time on the fourth stage where he had the fastest time of the day and pulled the team up from 12th to 8th.   It was back to Bellahouston Harriers in 1974 when he progressed from seventh to fifth on the second stage.   On the second stage for the next two years he took over sixth and handed over in sixth in1975 and moved from sixteenth to fourteenth in 1976.   1977 was another good run when he ‘won’ the first stage.   After missing 1978, he ran on the third stage in 1979 where he maintained ninth place and he ran his final Edinburgh to Glasgow in 1980 when he finished second on the first stage to F Aase of the Skalj club from Norway so he was unarguably the best Scot on the stage.   He retired from the sport in 1980.

Frank had to retire from the sport at the early age of 28 in 1980 because of a back injury and it was a serious loss to Scottish and British athletics.   He then spent 26 years  working for Glasgow City Council, mainly in the Leisure and Recreation Department where he was responsible among other things for  the smooth organisation of the Glasgow Women’s 10K and of the Great Scottish Run and is one of four British contacts on the international AIMS list.   He was always interested in raising the profile of the sport and when the British Milers’ Club wanted to stage one of their prestigious Grand Prix meetings in Glasgow Frank was the key local authority figure who gave all the encouragement he could and arranged for facilities and equipment to be made available.  It was a tremendous success and came to Glasgow for three years.   He was also active in the organisation of Scottish Athletics and spent four years as Chairman of that body.   When he was appointed in March 2000, Doug Gillon reported it.    “Frank Clement, the former European Cup 1500 metres champion and 1976 Olympic finalist, is the man chosen to resurrect the fortunes at the Scottish Athletics Federation.   Currently sports development manager for the Culture and Leisure Services Department of Glasgow City Council, Clement is believed to have beaten off contenders including leaders of the hill-running faction, which recently overturned the membership scheme.”     Frank was no stranger to working with national governing bodies – he had been a member of the SAAA General Committee in the late 1970’s – but this one was a difficult one.   The whole structure of Scottish athletics had been changed in the mid-1990’s and many of the new schemes and innovations had not gone down well with the clubs.   The attitude of Scottish Athletics to these complaints was seen as negative by the clubs and with the appointment of Frank, there was an attempt to heal the rifts.   Frank undertook to visit any club in the country which wanted to discuss anything with the governing body and he crossed and re-crossed the country, meeting club committees and members, listening to their comments and requests and taking the information back to Edinburgh.   This was a huge task and Frank did it well.    In addition to a day’s work it was even bigger with a lot of late nights and travelling involved.

 Honours have been showered on him and we can’t go through the list but as a taste – in 2010 at the Glasgow Lord Provost’s Awards Dinner he received the Sports Prize, he is a Life Member of Scottish Athletics (awarded in 2003), a life member of the Sports Council for Glasgow as well as a host of other awards.   Frank moved to Linlithgow where he lives with his wife and daughters.   He is a member of the local athletics club, Linlithgow AAC where for a while he was an active coach and a real asset to the club.   If you would like to see Frank’s annual progression then go here .    Although he doesn’t run these days, he has a couple of road bikes in the garage and gets out a couple of times a week.   Consultancy work and spending time with the grandchildren take a lot of his time.

Adrian leading in the International Match at the Opening of the East Kilbride Track

I first spoke to Adrian in 1980 when he was a member of the Scottish Junior team for the Bell’s International at Meadowbank.   I was the admin officer (ie I gave out the tracksuits and collected them back in, gave the athletes wee Scottish badges to swap, etc) and Adrian was one of the two 1500metre runners, the other being Stewart MacPherson, also of Springburn Harriers.   I had known of him and seen him in action for several years before that.   I had just been appointed Scottish Secretary of the British Milers’ Club and Adrian was a member and eligible for race invitations so we soon became friends.    In addition I had been training at Springburn and watched him training under the guidance of Eddie Sinclair.   Eddie’s top athlete was Graham Williamson and Adrian used to train with him and even went altitude training with him to New Mexico.   But I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s go back to the beginning.

Adrian (Date of Birth:28/11/62) was one of a  group of young Springburn Harriers who won everything there was to win in the way of championships and open races and who won the Western District Young Athletes 3 x 2 Mile Relay Championship from the year it was inaugurated (1976) to 1980 before Clydesdale Harriers won it in 1981.   They won the National YA Relay in 1977.   They won team and individual titles at Junior Boy, Senior Boy and Youth levels with many staying on to become good Seniors in the club.   The coach at the time was Eddie Sinclair – a former Scottish International cross-country runner – who worked the boys hard but sensibly.   Before Eddie got involved, the Under 17 age group used to start their races hard, ease up for the middle third and then pick up the pace at the end – the Springburn technique was to run hard all the way with no ‘sag’ in the middle.   The runners who came through like Graham Williamson, Graham Crawford, Dunky Middleton and Eddie Knox were all very good.   Other names well-known at the time were those of Freddie Farrell, George Jarvie, Davie Tees, Nickie Souter, the Beaney brothers, the Picken brothers, Stewart MacPherson, Stephen Begen and many, many more.   Adrian, when he joined the club, was becoming part of a rolling success story.

He first appears on the scene in 1977 when as a Boy he started the year with thirteenth place in the National Cross Country Championships with the Springburn team second.   In summer he won the Scottish Schools 1500 metres in 4:22.1 and in the same season he was third in the SAAA (4:26.1) and West District (4:39.1).   He appeared in the Boys Rankings for the 800m where he was twelfth with 2:09.5 and in the 1500 where his Scottish Schools winning time ranked him fourth. He started the next year with fourth place in the Senior Boys Cross-Country Championship and led the club team to a comfortable victory over Edinburgh Southern in the team race.  In summer 1978, in the Youth age group and racing boys up to two years older he was second in the Schools in 4:05.5 and third in the SAAA 3000m Championship with   8:48.2.   These times ranked him seventh in the 1500m and third in the 3000m.   In 1979 he won the SAAA Youths 1500 metres in 4:02.2 plus the 3000 metres championship with a time of 8:39.0.    He then went into a good winter season in which he won the Western District Youths (U17) Cross-Country Championship with Springburn winning the team title and then the following year when he won the Junior Championship.   In 1980, at the end of the Cross Country season after finishing second in the National Championship,  he was selected for the Scottish Junior Cross-Country team for the international championships when he was really only sixteen years old!   Better, the race was in Paris and he was the first Scot to finish!    Next year (1981) was not as successful and he could only finish twentieth.  On the track in 1981 and 1982 he had a bad time.   He had been at altitude training in Boulder, Colorado, with Graham Williamson and on his return did not run well at all, and there were injuries too.   As he was a BMC member I kept inviting him into the races we were putting on and he came along and did his best.  My reasoning was that the ability that had served him so well in the past had not gone away and that if he was prepared to run in these races and finish down the field, then his motivation must still be there.   He appeared in no ranking lists in either year.  He didn’t re-appear in the cross-country championships either until 1985 when he was twenty third.   Being a good clubman he ran in the Edinburgh to Glasgow all through the 80’s:  in 1980 (seventh stage), 1981 (eighth stage), 1982 (fourth stage), 1984 (first on the first stage), 1985 (13th to 8th on the second stage), 1987 (9th to 5th on the second stage).   Springburn was not in the race in 1989.   His fitness pattern shown above was replicated on the track with the 1984 – 1990 period being really outstanding.    Having been brought through the ranks by coach Eddie Sinclair, Adrian was troubled with a series of knee injuries.   On his return he started training with George Martin, a former professional athlete who was coaching the women and girls at Huntershill, and came back to his best.

Starting 1985 with an excellent twenty third in the National Cross Country Championships, that summer  he had a best 800m of 1:52.1 (eleventh in Scotland), 1500m of 3:41.9 (second in Scotland, twenty second in GB),  and Mile of 3:58.28 (first in Scotland, sixteenth in GB).   This was his first time inside the magic four minutes for the Mile and put him in a select group of six runners who had done so inside Scotland and no one else did it before his death in 2007.   1985 was a significant year – the Commonwealth Games were being held in Scotland in 1986 and there was opposition from his old training partner and friend Graham Williamson, Alistair Currie, John Robson, Tom Hanlon and the usual Anglos who ‘discover’ a Scottish connection in Games year!   He started 1986 in fine style with a good fifth place in the National Cross Country Championship and selection for the World Championships where he was one of the team’s counting runners.  In the course of the 1985/86 period he had broken the four minute barrier twice (3:59.45 on 23rd July 1985 and 3:58.28 on 13th July 1986), he won the SAAA Championships in 3:43 in 1986 and it was the fastest winning time since 1978 and only one winner was faster in the twenty years up to his death.   With the Commonwealth Games in Scotland he was clearly hoping for a call up to the team but when this did not materialise, he was very angry.   He had been told on a trip with a Scottish team to the Small Countries International (the small countries were Catalonia, Cyprus, Ireland, Wales and a few others) by John Brown, the team manager and one of the selectors, that he would be included if he won the SAAA Championships.    Doug Gillon reported on the incident in the August 1986 ‘Scotland’s Runner’ as follows: “Disappointment at his omission from the Games, prompted Springburn’s Adrian Callan to return the 1500 metres trophy which he won at the Scottish National Championships with a winning time of 3:43.00.   Callan felt he was misled by a communications breakdown, alleging that the Games team manager, John Brown, had denied him a race in Innsbruck – the same race which could have earned Graham Williamson a late place at 1500 metres.   Brown denies making such statement to the young Springburn accountant.    Callan described the trophy as ‘worthless’ and demonstrated his undoubted talent with a front-running 3:41.9 in Shettleston’s open graded meeting at Crown Point.   Again however it was tantalisingly close to the 3:40.5 laid down back in January 1985.”   I knew Adrian quite well and he was quite clear in saying that he had been told that in view of the sub-four and form since then that he only had to win the SAAA title to be sure of inclusion.   When he was not included he phoned me because I was Scottish Staff Coach for 5000 and 10000 metres and asked if I would take the trophy back on behalf of the SAAA.    I had my own battles to fight at that time and it was more appropriate that it be returned to one of the administrators than to a coach.   I suggested that since he lived in Bishopbriggs, he take it to the President of the SAAA, Bob Peel, who also lived in Bishopbriggs.   And that is what he did.  There were many people who felt aggrieved at non-selection at that time but Adrian was entirely justified in the stand he took.

At the end of 1986 he went with fellow Springburn Harrier Robert Chalmers on a sports scholarship to Nevada University.   As Robert says in an article in ‘Scotland’s Runner’  for January 1987, “We spent a very hectic late July and early August getting things organised and only received our student immigration forms two days before we left.   We flew out to Reno, Nevada, on August 24th and arrived 38 hours later (including a night stop in San Francisco).”   It was an interesting experience but they returned after only six weeks and their experiences and opinions are in the article which can be reached at www.salroadrunningandcrosscountrymedalists.co.uk    The picture below is from that article.

He didn’t run in the National Cross Country that year,   His track running, not surprisingly,  tailed off a bit for a few years before he came back (he was too good not to) in the mid-90’s as a longer distance runner.   Times that appeared in the ranking lists from 1987 to 1995 are in the table below

Had the table gone from 1980 to 1995 the passage from top left (800/1500) to bottom right (5000) would have been more easily seen.    He also had excellent times recorded for 10 Miles on the road as well as for the many now popular 10K races.   His personal best for 10000 was done in the year 2000.  He still had work to do for Springburn even if it was not on the track.  In 1988 he helped them to win the West District Cross Country title and then he was in the team which won it again in 1993    In 1988 Springburn won the Scottish Six-Stage Road Relay Championships.   Made up of three short stages (c5000m) and three longer ones (c10000m), the team of Alex McIndoe, David Donnet, Graham Crawford, Adrian, Jim Cooper and George Braidwood won by only 35 seconds from Edinburgh AC.   Graham and Adrian recorded the fastest time on their stages.

 He returned to cross-country running in 1989 when he was ninth finisher (but only second Springburn man behind Paul Evans) and in 1990 he was fourteenth (three places behind George Braidwood.).

***

Then he started a ‘new’ career as a top flight road and cross country runner but unfortunately for Springburn it was Shettleston Harriers that reaped the benefit.    He switched clubs in 1995 on the day of the Edinburgh to Glasgow – as they say in the official club history, “By the end of the Shettleston celebrations in a Glasgow hostelry, the ‘best in the West’ had made themselves even stronger.   Adrian Callan who had not taken part in the race, went to the celebrations as a member of Springburn and a friend of some of the Shettleston members but left as a clubmate having been impressed by the ambition, and no doubt the conviviality, of Shettleston’s top runners.”

Adrian (62) and Peter Fleming (66)

The change of clubs certainly happened about that time Shettleston were second in 1994 and  Adrian’s last National Cross Country Championship in Springburn colours was in  February1994 when he finished fifth.   He was certainly turning into a formidable cross country runner for all the fact that he was a big and strong man, not at all like the typical cross-country whizz.   Had Scotland still been in the International Championship in her own right then he would surely have collected many more representative honours.   His record in the National Cross Country Championship for Shettleston was – 1995 sixth, 1996 eleventh, 1997 seventh, 1998 nineteenth, 2000 nineteenth, 2001 thirty eighth, 2002 twenty fifth and 2003 twentieth.  Whatever the club he supported it whole-heartedly.

If we look at team medals won while he was a member of Shettleston Harriers, they are quite breathtaking.   The major medals are marked on the table below – the positions marked are the medal winning teams of which Adrian was a part.

That’s 33 team medals and not counting such as County Relays, County Championships or non-championship events such as the McAndrew or Allan Scally Relays!    On an individual level, Adrian seemed to revel in a situation where he was not striving for the very top any more – he was doing what he wanted to do – run and enjoy it.   The team aspect and the lack of individual pressure only made him a better runner.   He won the District Relays more than once, he won the set the fastest time in the Six Stage several times and he even won the Shettleston club championship three times – 1994/95, 1995/96 and 2002/03.   He liked testing himself against the best – he had in the eighties and early nineties raced in the British League for Wolverhampton and Bilston for instance, and as a member of the Shettleston team he raced in the AAA 12 Stage Relay in 1995 and in 1996.   His time as a member of Shettleston Harriers lasted for over ten years and had many remarkable facets.

He had run some very good races on the track over 3000 metres with Shettleston’s John MacKay in the summer of 1994 with times being 8:05.77 for Adrian and 8:06.60 for John in  race at Meadowbank.   He joined in a couple of their sessions and Bill Scally had actually been coaching Adrian for a couple of months before he switched clubs.   Being the loyal clubman that he was, he thought long and hard about the issue and had a number of conversations with Bill about moving.   There was a good bunch of runners at Shettleston at that time – Billy Coyle, Graham Wight, Tony Coyne, Andy Little, John MacKay and others – and for a man who had enjoyed so many years with a good group around him at Springburn, that must surely have been an attraction for him.   Shettleston had lost something at that time just after Nat Muir’s retirement and Adrian with his pedigree and presence – he really was impressive: tall and physically strong he always looked the part.   Some runners like to train on their own but Adrian liked company and as a member of Shettleston Harriers he took part ineir regular long Sunday run which moved from venue to venue as the weeks went by but one of the regular features was Adrian taking everyone back to his Mum’s house for breakfast.

He continued running on the track tough and his best run is reported to have been over 5000m in 1995 when he finished second in the Scottish Championships to Dermot Donnelly who won in 14:16.40 to Adrian’s 14:18.82.   Chris Robison, International cross-country and track runner was third.   In 1998 he was second again – this time to Glen Stewart before returning to Glasgow for his Stag Night!    While with the club his best time for 1500m was 3:51.4 in the Lanarkshire County Championships on 23rd August 1997.    When I asked John MacKay about Adrian’s best runs for the club, he checked with other club members and came up with two outstanding performances.   First when he ran 15:00 for the short stage of the six-stage relay and broke the record  when the team finished second in 1999.   He was 37 at the time, an age when most are looking forward to starting a career as a veteran.   Second was in the Allan Scally Relay Race which is organised annually by Shettleston Harriers.   Bill Scally was organising the club team which won in a new record time with all four runners ( Billy Coyle (22:15), John MacKay (22:30), Adrian (22:18) and Graham Wight (22:15)) inside 23 minutes – a quite phenomenal performance – there have been years when there were not four runners in the entire race inside 23 minutes.   John also reminded me that Adrian’s range was quite fantastic – his 66:01 for the half-marathon during the European clubs championship in Strasbourg being particularly noteworthy.   The course was of three laps with a mile long climb in each and many a top class runner was left in his wake that day.  There are so many outstanding performances from him at about this time – eg. ninth and part of the four man Shettleston team that won the BAF 10km team championship for the only Scottish win ever in this event.    He won medals as a 15 year old, and also as a veteran – second in the vets National in 2003.

The other major event in his life while at Shettleston of course was that he met his wife, Lara Halliday, after being introduced by John and Elaine MacKay.   Lara was the sister of Darren Halliday who ran for Shettleston.

A very young Adrian Callan with an even younger Yvonne Murray

after they won the Gallery Mile Races at Kirkintilloch.

Possibly because he was one of a family of four, Adrian got on with everybody and was a well liked and much respected athlete.   There are lots of examples of his generosity and generally friendly nature.   About 1985/86 he had a caravan that he had bought in St Andrews so that he could go and do some training in peace and quiet and he often took friends along to share the caravan with him and do some running too. The idea apparently was that he had somewhere he could go and just concentrate on his running.  Fiona Meldrum says, “Anyone was welcome to join Adrian at his caravan and we spent several trips there.   Every run finished with Adrian ensuring that we stood in the sea up to at least mid-thigh for at least ten minutes.   Bl**dy freezing – even in summer!  (One of my funniest memories from then was the caravan site laundry.   Being poor students or unemployed folk meant that money was obviously a bit of an issue.   It therefore led to guys putting wet, sweaty gear straight into the tumble dryer so as to avoid paying for the washing machine!”

He was friendly with Ross Welsh down in Annan (in the Scottish Borders) and at that time Steve Ovett had bought himself a castle in the area.   Steve Binns had also come to the area from England and they would often get together when Adrian visited.   It was pointed out that it was hard to believe just how slow Ovett’s easy runs were and also pointed out that Adrian seemed to share this philosophy.    The ‘craic’ was said to have been good and Adrian and Ovett shared the same dry sense of humour.   There were times nearer home when Adrian would do a hard session in the morning and then walk top the top of Ben Lomond in the afternoon/early evening.   Or the long Sunday runs where Adrian and training mates would often end up at the All-You-Can-Eat Curry House and spend the entire afternoon there.

Adrian was diagnosed with leukaemia at the end of 2004 and he died in January 2007 at the age of forty four.   He had competed at a time when there were lots of outstanding milers about and I would like to quote Doug Gillon on the subject: “He competed in the golden age of miling, otherwise he would have won more than one Senior Scottish 1500m title but he represented his country on road and cross-country as well as on the track.   His career spanned the twilight years of Frank Clement and John Robson, and was a contemporary of Graham Williamson.   This trio are still Scotland’s fastest at the mile and metric equivalent   Today he would have been a star.”

And two final quotes from two of his friends:

“He was a really decent bloke and a great friend who was as happy running at club level as he was at international level.”      And  

                                                                    “I still miss the chats with him and the Sunday runs.”

Georgena Craig (130) in the 1964 National Women’s Cross-Country Championships at Bury,

  behind Madeleine Ibbotson (Longwood), eventual winner, and ahead of Pam Davies (Selsonia) the silver medallist.

Picture from Arnold Black, taken by Eric North

Georgena Craig (nee Buchanan) was a very talented athlete who ran mainly in the 880 yards but was ranked at various distances from 220 yards to 3000 metres, raced in relay teams over the 4 x 110 distance as well as the 4 x 880 yards and she was ranked in and won medals in the pentathlon.    Competitively she ran in two Empire/Commonwealth Games and was part of a world record setting GB 4 x 880 team.    Although it is as a track athlete that we will look at her career here, it should be noted that her talents extended to cross-country running.   In the National Championships, she was second in 1961-’62 to Dale Greig, won in 1962-’63 with Dale second, was second in 1963-’64 to Dale and won in 1964-’65 from Leslie Watson with Dale third.   These results are intriguing in that Dale was known to be a very strong endurance runner who held the women’s world best time for the marathon while Georgena was a very fast runner over 220 and 440.  Georgena then missed the National for the next three seasons (or at least was not highly placed in them) but was ninth in season 1968-’69 and eleventh in 1969-’70.   She also represented Scotland in the international championship.   Her best times are in the table below.

Born on 17th July 1942, she became a senior athlete in the summer season in 1962.   On 5th May 1962 in the Western District Championships at Scotstoun, Georgina won the Mile in 5:46.6 and the ‘Glasgow Herald’ said Miss D Greig (Tannahill) led for most of the way but she was caught by Miss G Buchanan (Maryhill) and beaten by a yard.”  A week later at the SWAAA Pentathlon Championships the report read: “Miss G Buchanan (Maryhill) excelled in the half mille with a time of 2:18.2 which is more than eight seconds quicker than the time returned by the winner of the Western District title and will now be submitted as a new Scottish native record.”   Seven days later in the West v East fixture at Scotstoun, Georgena won the 880 yards from I Inwood in 2:20.3, a new meeting record.   On to 29th July at Gourock where she was second to C Kelly in the 220 yards and second again to A Gorman in the 880 yards.   Each time she was giving away yards in the handicap.   In the Land O’Burns Trophy Meeting at Ayr on 11th August she won the 880 yards in 2:21.8, in the Edinburgh Highland Games at Murrayfield on the 18th she was second lodged between J Beretta (AAA) and Maeve Kyle (N Ireland) in a race won in 2:16.3 and a week later in Cowal she was again second behind Madeleine Ibbotson (2:16) and Maeve Kyle (2:20.4) in 2:19.     It was a summer with lots of competition and one in which she gained a lot of valuable experience.   By the end of 1962 she was ranked third in the 880y with a season’s best of 2:16.2, and second in the Mile with 5:19.0; competitively she was second in the SWAAA  1 Mile Championhsip.   In 1963 her range widened considerably as can be seen from her times and ranking positions:   220y   26.0   10th;    440y   58.8   3rd;   880y   2:13.9   1st;   Mile   5:24.4   2nd;   Pentathlon   3288 pts   5th.   Competitively she was first in the SWAAA  880 yards and second in the Mile.

The summer 1964 season started for her on 20th May in the Glasgow Championships in which she won the 800m in 2:21.   Despite missing the West District Championships, Georgena ran in the West v East event and finished second to I Inwood in the 880 yards and the winner was given 2:23.9.   In the SWAAA Championship on 13th June she won both 880 yards and Mile.   The ‘Glasgow Herald’ said “Miss Buchanan came back to form in the 880 yards championship which she retained in the good time of 2:15.9, two seconds slower than her record in the event last year.   The Western runner later resisted the challenge of Miss I Inwood (Maryhill) in the Mile, winning by 10 yards in 5:24.4.”     Two weeks later at the Gourock Highland Games Georgena had two seconds in the handicap 220 yards (running from a mark of 3 metres and then in the 880 yards from the scratch mark after giving I Inwood 12 yards start.   On 8th August in the Scotland v Ireland match at Dam Park in Ayr Georgena won the 880 yards and was reported as follows: “Miss Buchanan never gave her rivals any chance by setting a fast pace through her first quarter in 63.7 and won in a new national best time of 2:13.1 which improved her own unratified record of 2:13.7.”   She could have done with that same time the following week when on the tight little grass track at Murrayfield in the Edinburgh Highland Games she finished third behind Mrs GD Ibbotson who won in 2:13.1 with Pat Lowe second.   Her season then ended with a win at Bute Highland Games at Rothesay when she was timed at 2:22.2.   The second finisher had a handicap of 60 yards – this was ferocious handicapping on the cinder track which was seriously downhill on the back straight and just as seriously uphill in the finishing straight!   Georgina;’ best times for summer 1964 ranged from 26.3 for 220 all the way through to 5:24.4 for the Mile.   They were 220y:   26.3    ranked 12th;   440y:   59.0   6th;   880y:   2:13.1   1st;   Mile:   5:24.4   4th.

Georgena’s best times for summer 1965 were  220y   26.2   7th;   440y   57.1  1st;   880y   2:10.1   1st;   Mile   5:23.6   3rd;   Pentathlon   3221 pts   9th     SWAAA   1st 880y     2nd Mile    and her progress throughout the summer can be traced in the reports from the ‘Glasgow Herald’ which were pretty detailed and quite comprehensive.   The report on Monday, 3rd May after the West District Championships on Saturday, 1st, was headed Three West Titles for Miss Buchanan and said:   “Miss G Buchanan was the top performer at the West District Women’s Championships on Saturday at Scotstoun when she won the 440 yards, 880 yards and One Mile events in times she has beaten on more than one occasion .   The opposition was not up to the usual standard thus enabling her to nurse her energies in judicious fashion to tackle all three races.”     Her winning times were 61.5, 2:20.5 and 5:29.2.

 10th May (reporting on the previous Saturday’s events said this.   “Miss G Buchanan who had competed in the forenoon and afternoon in the pentathlon championship, two hours later took part in the 880 yards at Hampden Park and after having beaten a wind of gale force won in a time of 2:24.5.   She set a fast pace with the wind at her back down the enclosure side followed by Miss I Inwood but when she turned into the wind the pace was clearly affected.  Three hundred yards from the finish Miss Inwood took up the challenge but Miss Buchanan displayed reserve power even against the wind and strode away from her rivals and won by 15 yards.”

On 17th May the report on the East v West competition at Nethercraigs, Glasgow:   “Among those who distinguished themselves, was Miss G Buchanan who wisely decided to concentrate on the 440 yards and 880 yards, a decision that paid off handsomely with a fine win in the 440 in 58.4 sec, 0.5 sec faster than the meeting record, and then took 1.6 sec off the previous best for the half mile with 2:18.7.   It was felt that Miss Buchanan might be beaten by either of the East competitors in the 440 yds but she set her sights properly by going out fast from the start leaving Miss B Lyall behind her all the way and won by eight yards.   Miss Buchanan’s tactics were equally successful in the longer race and despite valiant efforts by Miss I Inwood to hold her, she won by 10 yds.”  

On 24th May it was on the Glasgow Athletics Championships at Scotstoun.  “Miss G Buchanan was successful in retaining the 880 yards title.   After having passed the bell in a fast 64.5 sec she won in 2:15.6” 

The SWAAA Championships were held at Pitreavie on 12th June and there was a large contingent from the Anglo-Scots club in England present.   “The mile was no race at all.   Mis V Tomlinson (Aldershot) having run 54:55.8 earlier this month went out from the start as if on a training run and in so doing built up such a lead as to focus attention on the race for second place.   That query was soon answered when Miss L Watson (Maryhill) left Miss G Buchanan in pursuit of the leader but at the tape Miss Tomlinson was 70 yards ahead in 5:06.7, an all-comers record.   An hour previously Miss Buchanan had been an equally convincing winner of the 880 yards finishing 60 yards ahead in 2:15.2, 2.1 sec slower than the national record.   One wonders why she is persisting these days with fast first laps and much slower second laps.   Her time at the bell was 64.5 which gave her a second lap time of 70.7.   How much easier she would find two laps of 66 sec is arbitrary but one feels that until she looks into her pace judgment she will continue only as a 2:15 runner.”  

Her next competition was in an match between Dunfermline College of Physical Education, Edinburgh Southern Harriers and Western AAC in which Western were third but Georgena won the 880 yards in 2:21.8 and ran the last stage for the winning 4 x 110 yards relay team.   Two weeks later she won the 440 yards in the Octavians meeting in Edinburgh in 59.3 and then it was the Gourock Highland Games where she won the 220 yards handicap off a mark of 3 yards in 26.7 and the 880 yards from scratch in 2:19.2 as well as being part of the winning 4 x half lap relay team.   The track at Gourock is a heavy grass track which is downhill on the first bend and uphill on the second bend so fast times are not expected there!   She had a good report on the Strathallan Games on 7th August when she was said to be in her best form over the ‘sodden grass circuit’ and won in 2:16.1 – she was off scratch of course and the limit runner was E Stewart of Maryhill who had a start of 58 yards.   On the 30th of the month in the Edinburgh Highland Games at Murrayfield she finished third to M Hodson (Bury and Radcliff) and Pat Lowe (Birchfield) with the race being won in 2:12.9.   The 1965 season finished there and the big challenge in summer 1966 was to get in to the Scottish team for the Empire Games team for Jamaica.

Georgena’s best time for summer 1966 were:   220y   26.5   17th;   440y   59.5   5th;   880y   2:09.2   2nd;   Mile   5:08.4   1st.   Competitively she was second in the SWAAA  880y, and third in the Pentathlon.  She had also got married and was henceforth known as Mrs G Craig.   On 2nd May 1966 Maryhill Harriers LAC held a six club open meeting at Scotstoun and the report said “Miss G Craig showed her mastery of half miling when she outpaced her opponents in 2:13.3, her fastest this year.   Miss M Hodson (Bury) proved to be no threat having won a 440 yards shortly before and it was only from Miss P Brown (Middlesex) that only a fleeting challenge came.”      It was a good time to start the competition season with and the following week in the SWAAA Championship at Scotstoun she won the 440 yards and 880 yards and was runner-up in the 200m.   Her times were 60.4 and 2:22.3.   In the West v East at Ayr on the 16th May, Georgena won the 880 yards in 2:20.3.  On 11th June she ran in the SWAAA 880 at Pitreavie and finished second to M Hodson who was timed at 2:09.2.  On 13th June came the announcement in the papers of the team for Jamaica.   The ‘Herald’ read: “Representatives from the nine sports at the Empire Games in Jamaica from August 4 to August 13 spent six hours yesterday in Edinburgh in deliberations over the 60 competitors they would send.   At the end of their talks, they issued the following team …”   From the athletics point of view, there were 12 men and 6 ladies being sent to represent the country and the ladies contingent included Georgena Craig for the 880 yards.    IT seems a very small team in total – 60 athletes – and there were the usual complaints about athletes omitted and the reporter mentioned particularly Dick Hodelet of Greenock left out of the men’s 880 yards.   But Georgena was in the squad.

On 2nd July she travelled with a small group of Scottish athletes to the White City to run in the WAAA Championships.   The report read  as follows.   “Mrs G Craig led the field at the bell in 61.7 in the final of the half-mile but thereafter tired and finished sixth.   Her time of 2:07.9 however was a furth of Scotland record.”   One week later she took part in an invitation meeting at Grangemouth Stadium, the first meeting to be held there, and competed in the Mile where Anne Smith of Mitcham set two new Scottish all-comers records of 4:48’5 for the mile (the first time 5 minutes had been beaten by a woman in Scotland) and 4:30.7 in the 1500m.   Georgena set a Scottish record for the 1500m of 4:49.4 and equalled the Scottish record for the mile with 5:08.4.   Two weeks later the headline in the ‘Herald’ read “Mrs Craig’s Easy Win at Gourock.”   and followed with “On the track the most eye catching win was by Mrs Craig, not so much by her time but by the number of yards she had between herself and the second girl home.   Here is a case for more severe handicapping: as at Kirkintilloch earlier in the week, she caught the front runners with almost a lap to go and from that point she was left to decide whether to try hard or to win by the minimum.  She tried hard and finished 50 yards clear.”     That was the final race before heading for the Empire Games in Jamaica.   Obviously fit – Scottish records of one sort or another at 880 yards, 1500m and One Mile plus a win by 50 yards in a handicap where she was off scratch, all indicated that.

There were two Heats of the women’s 880 yards in the Games.   Rosemary Stirling was in the first and Georgena was in the second.   Results in the table below.

* Rosemary’s time was a new Scottish National Record.   Just looking at the time, Georgena’s race seems to have been an almighty scramble up the back straight and with only four to qualify, she was unlucky but in such a melee anything can happen.   It was unfortunate but her Games were over.

The first race on her return was at the Edinburgh Highland Games on 20th August where there was an invitation 880 yards won by Rosemary Stirling in 2:08.7 which was a new Games Record: Pam Piercy was second and Georgena third but no times were reported for the race other than the winner.   She ‘triumphed convincingly’ in the 880 yards handicap at Shotts running from scratch in 2:17.4.   As at Gourock, times at Shotts mean nothing, it’s the victory you went there for: the track is downhill in the back straight, uphill in the home straight and in September was generally of the consistency of grey porridge.   The season was over.

1967:   Georgena did not compete at all in 1967, was not ranked in any event.    In 1968 however she appeared in three lists – 440y:   60.1, ranked 14th; 880y:   2:19.8   6th;   Mile:  5:21.8   5th.   Georgena certainly started the season well.   On May 11th in the West District Championships, she won the 800m in 2:30.2 from McGregor of Maryhill on 2:34.8 and then won the Mile in 5:39.3 from D Stewart in 5:43.4.   A week later at the Glasgow Championships at Scotstoun she won the 800m in 2:20.4 from Lesley Watson in 2:25.0.  And a week after that, in the East v West match, she was third behind Barbara Lyall in 2:24.5.   Her 5:21.8 for the Mile was run at Grangemouth on 6th July when finishing 4th in the SWAAA Championship..   The 60.1 for 440y was run at Grangemouth on 26th May when she was third, the 880 time was at Grangemouth on 23rd June

1969 was the year when distances changed from imperial to metric and races were over 400, 800 and 1500 – after all the Commonwealth Games were coming to Meadowbank in 1970 and the new track had to be marked out in metric distance.   The buzz in that season was incredible as athletes tried to stake their claim to places.  As far as Georgena was concerned, the two big rivals were Rosemany Stirling who had been her team mate in Jamaica and who had done wonderful things in the years since then, and Mary Speedman, daughter of International coach Jimmy Campbell, who had moved to 800m and 1500m   The season started with the West District Championship in Glasgow and Ron Marshall wrote: “Mrs Georgena Craig, for so long Scotland’s No 1 half-miler,  was given as hefty a defeat from another Scotswoman as she could ever have endured.   All the same it was sad to see someone with her past record come under the chopping block.   Mrs Mary Speedman allowed Mrs Craig to lead in both the 800m and 1500m and then put herself in the lead 300m and 200m from home.   In both instances, There was no vestige of a challenge from a tired Mrs Craig and Mrs Speedman was an easy winner each time.”    I’m not sure what ‘coming under the chopping block means – probably a mixed metaphor such as the BBC reporter who spoke of drawing a red line in the sand – but the tone of the article implies that Georgena’s days as a challenger for international selection were over.  He couldn’t be more wrong – don’t know though, he was the man who opined in the Herald that the 1500m distance would never take off in Britain and we would probably settle on a 1600m race!   Anyhow, Georgena had her sights on Edinburgh 1970 and her best marks were:   800m   2:14.6   7th;   1500m   4:49.5   7th;   3000m   10:35.7   1st    SWAAA  3rd 1500.   She followed the District Championships on 15th May with a victory at Peffermill in Edinburgh in 2:14.6 which was her fastest for the season.   Speedman had eight times faster than that though, and Stirling had four.   Her best time in the 1500m was set at the SWAAA Championships at Grangemouth on 5th July.   Only one 3000 metres race was held in Scotland – and it was won by Georgena.  Run at Scotstoun on 30th August, it was a brand new event for the country and there were no championships or events of the distance at sports meetings.   She won it in 10:35.7 from Ann-Marie Orpiszwenska (11:32.6 and Dale Greig (11:46.3.   The only other Scotswoman to run it was Susan Foster of Aldershot who ran 11:21.6 at Crystal Palace on 6th October.  Then it was on to the Commonwealth Games in 1970.

Her  form in 1970 could not have been more different from the 1969 season.   On 9th May in an International against Ireland, Ron Marshall’s report on the event included this.  “On the track, most praise from Scottish officials went to Georgena Craig for her crisp, spirited running in the Senior 800m.   This was the runner of two or three seasons ago we were watching.   She came off the last bend hotly pursued by Andrea Lynch (Ballymena), the Scottish 400m champion, but as soon as Mrs Craig became aware of the danger, she surged forward to the finishing line and left Miss Lynch to wonder why her effort had been in vain.   Mrs Craig’s winning time was 2:16..3, much faster than she has gone for some time.”   The excellent running continued through to the Scottish Championships at Meadowbank on 6th June.  This time the report read: “Rosemary Stirling’s 800m  was surely a superb display of running in which she left no one in any doubt about her chances of a medal on the same track in just over a month from now.   In second place came another veteran, Georgena Craig, taking a similarly new lease of life in clocking a native record of 2:08.7.   Third place went to Mary Speedman in 2:08.9 and I expect all three to be in the team.”    The SWAAA were expecting 22 places to be made for the women’s athletics team, and in any case, all three were indeed selected.   In a meeting at Meadowbank on 13th June, the British women’s 4 x 800m team 0f Lillian Board, Pat Lowe, Sheila Carey and Rosemary Stirling set a new world record of 8:27 but were unanimous in their opinion that it had been a soft record and it could be broken again fairly easily.   As in 1966, there were two heats of the women’s 800m and the results are below.

Commonwealth Games: Two Heats and a Final:  First Four to Qualify

Georgena had made the final this time and without a proper report on the race it is impossible to make any comment but I’ll do so anyway!  When experienced athletes such as Georgena and Sheila Carey run last and second last in 2:16.1 and 2:18.5, you have to suspect some sort of ‘incident’ during the race.   (And you have to sympathise with T Fynn of Canada who missed out on a place in the final despite having the same electronic time as the fourth placed Gloria Dourass!)

Lillian Board had been diagnosed with cancer and in the course of 1970 it became worse and she ended her track season early.   When the new attempt on the 4 x 800m record was announced, Georgena Craig was drafted into the team.    At the Coca-Cola International Invitation Meeting at Crystal Palace on 5th September, 1970, they obliged but the race did not go as expected.  Let Ron tell the tale: “Two Scots, Rosemary Stirling and Georgena Craig, shared in another world record, though only through the disqualification of the West Germans.   The West German Women’s 4 x 800m relay squad broke the tape in 8:22.6, a world record, but were disqualified for passing the baton on the first leg take-over out of the legal area.   So the world record went to Britain (Miss Stirling, Mrs Craig, Pat Lowe and Sheila Carey) who finished second in 8:25, two seconds inside the record set by Britain earlier this year.”

On September 12th at Dunblane Highland Gathering she won the 220 yards in 27.3 off 10 yards on a rough grass track and a week later won the re-dated Glasgow Championship 800m on the cinders at Scotstoun in 2:16.8.   But the icing on the cake was the award of the Sports Journalists Association Team of the Year Award.   Although the SJA Awards had been going since the 1950’s, this was the first year that a team award had been presented.   It went to the GB Women’s 4 x 800m squad which included Lillian Board, Sheila Carey, Georgena Craig, Pat Lowe and Rosemary Stirling.    The following year it went to the British Lions rugby team, and the year after to Rodney Pattison and Chris Davies (sailing).   A very prestigious award indeed.

For the record her best times for 1970 were 800m  2:05.8 (ranked second),  1500m  4:45.1  (ranked 5th)  and in the SWAAA she was second to Rosemary Stirling in the 800m in 2:16.1    A season to remember

In 1971, she was not ranked in any event and did not seem to race at all.    This is similar to the year after the 1966  Empire Games when she disappeared from view. That was put right in 1972 when she not only ran well but set a personal best for the 1500m.   Unfortunately there is little coverage of her next two years in the sport in the Scottish daily newspapers but we do have her best performances each year.   In 1972:   800m   2:18.2   12th;   1500m   4:48.6   10th   and in 1973:   800m   2:20.9   18th;   1500m   5:04.2   25th.

Georgena’s best year would probably have to be 1970 when she raced in the Commonwealth Games and had a share of the world record as well as setting a personal best time for the 800m   Her most unlucky must have been 1966 when she was run out of a place in the final of the Empire Games 880 yards by one tenth of a second in a scramble for the finishing line.   However that may be, she was a very good middle distance runner indeed.

Hugh was a British Milers Club member – not only that, he was club member number one!    He still gets his membership card every year, and the number on it is significant.   Frank Horwill always had a soft spot for Hugh, partly because of his readiness to join up to the club’s ideals right at the start, but partly also because of his whole-hearted approach to racing.   The questionnaire below was completed recently as part of a comparison with one of the current crop of young BMC members.

DoB: 12-9-44

Started running at 13 (but never remember when I didn’t run)

Clubs; Victoria Park AAC , Wallasey AC, Belgrave Harriers , Sale Harriers

Personal Best Times

100yds 10.6,          220 yds 24.0,         440 yds 51.0,           880 yds 1 50.3,         ¾ mile 3 0.5,         1500m 3.45.4,          1 mile 4m 1.0,          2000 metres 5m 16.6,         2miles 8m 51.4,         3 miles 13m 52.8

Titles

Scottish Boys CC Champion 1960

Scottish Youths 880 yds Champion 1960 1961

Scottish Junior 880 yds Champion 1962 1963

Scottish Schools Mile Champion 1960 1961 1962

AAA Junior 880 yds Runner up 1962

AAA Junior 1 Mile Champion 1963

British Schools 1mile 1961 1962

Scottish 1 mile Championship runner up 1965 1967

Scottish 1500metre Championship runner up 1969

Coaches:   John Stirling Victoria Park ,John Anderson, Eddie Powell Sale Harriers

 Brief explanation how the BMC came to be?      1963 British miling at a low ebb following the Bannister/.Hewson/Ibbotson era-Frank Horwill wrote to various athletics journals and there was a response from 35 athletes and the club was born.It is detailed in Frank’s book-Obsession for Running

In 1963 can you remember what you did in your leisure time both at home and outside of the home (include exercise and anything that related to relaxing i.e. cinema, bowling etc.)?

I was always interested in sport in general and at that time I was still playing rugby a sport that I am still involved with today.   We also went to the cinema and in the prehistoric days before even discos we went to beat group dances

Can you describe what running gear you wore in those days from racing wear to training wear and footwear (no goretex, digital watches etc, costs etc)?  

This was the very early days of adidas and Puma fighting it out for the running show market before that it was just Fosters who then became Reebok who invented the ripple sole(for ross country) which predated the Nike waffle sole.   My own club Victoria Park at that time dominated in Scotland and also could take on the top English clubs (they had even won the English Cross Country team tile the first time it had left England) and they even  had a cobbler who would come down and take measurements for hand made spikes.    Trendy tracksuits were in their infancy with such makes as Copdale,Umbro and Bukta -Ron Hill was strating out to experiment with string running vests and cutaway shorts

What sort of training were you doing at Zofia’s age (17) and what frequency per week?

It was always quality before quantity trained 6 days per week  twice a day Mon-Fri.     Interval work-hill reps and steady runs-mileage probably about 50 per week even did some weights

Were you a cross country man or a track man or were you happy on either surface?

I did track road and cross country preferred track/road but did a lot of cross country –and then cross country trails were just that barbed wire fences etc .The only time I remember a cross country race being called off was during a foot and mouth epidemic

Availability of transport was not as it is today or the road infrastructure as accessible as it is at present, so how did you travel to races which were over 100 miles and more away?  

Strange but public transport was probably better in some ways  travelled to races by train or bus never really encountered any problems.   Then some clubs members got cars and we shared costs drove to races in England on a regular basis

The world records were 1-46, 3-35 for men and 2-01, 4-12 for women in 1963, did you think they would be where they are today and where do you think they will be in say, 20 years time?

Irrespective of how good you are there is always somebody coming down that road behind you who will do better-its just the way it is–not really suprised by the improvements especially with the influence of the Africans -Kenyans-Ethiopians and north Africans.   I assume that progress will continue but may well slow down

Let’s compare facilities in 1963 and now. Did they hinder you or make you more determined to succeed no matter what it took. Obviously you accepted what you had and made the best of it. Are facilities necessary for middle and long distance. (Tartan tracks etc.)?  

I don’t think not having tartan tracks hindered us in fact it may even have prevented some of the stress injuries–not sure if sophisticated facilities are required for runners -running is a natural activity and as long as you have roads, paths ,grass and hills just get on with it.   OK,  you do need to measure progress but sometimes lack of facilities is a spur to drive you on–many great sportsmen succeeded because they had to overcome this and it helped mould them

Do you think youngsters are being developed the way they should? Are we too hard or too easy in our training methods? What about present leisure time pursuits of youngsters (computers, music etc.)?

 I dont’ like the approach of “it was always better in our day” the older you get the better the sportsman you were it is easy to look back and be selective about what you remember

Its a different era now and different challenges face our young athletes–ok in athletics the watch has stopped and the unforgiving minute has been read and recorded so times tell their own story and there does seem to little progress from the Cram/Coe/Ovett era but that was a special time -a purple patch that type thing only happens every so often in sport

Probably we were naturally fitter in some respects by being used to walking/running or cycling more in your day to day activities and that gave you a base of general fitness to build on but we should not knock young people there are those who still want to succeed and we should encourage them.

What piece of advice would you give to youngsters today, firstly to those wanting to succeed and also to those who may drift away from the sport altogether? 

Were you a mileage man or a speed man or a bit of both?

A bit of both but never really a high mileage man

Did you have an athletic hero who inspired you around 1963 (could be from a past era e.g. Nurmi, Zatopek etc.)?

  No contest-Herb Elliott

Is there any special race you can remember that inspired you (either yourself or someone else)?

Rome 1960 -1500 metres –he totally destroyed the field winning by about 3 seconds also his double 880/1 mile at the 1958 Empire Games in Cardiff

Do you think you reached your athletic limit (i.e. got the best out of yourself)?

No– I set a World Age (group for a 16 year old) best for the 1 mile at Santry Stadium Dublin in 1961 4m 10.9 s and that became a bit of an albatross for me.I did reach 4m 1.0 but I had always wanted to be the first Scot to break 4 mins

You can always find excuses–injuries etc but I just didn’t reach the goal I had set myself – end of message

Did you go to university and how did that affect your athletic progress?

No I didn’t go at that point but did go later when I attended teacher training at Didsbury College Manchester. when I ran for Sale Harriers 1967-70

If you went into work (industry, office) how did that affect your athletic progress?

I started work in an insurance office and trained during my lunch hour it had to be quality work there was no time for anything else

Who do you admire today in athletics?

Paula Radcliffe

What about the state of athletics in this country. Is there any hope and what have we got to do?

There is always hope we have done it in the past  Bannister/Chataway/Ibbotson era and the Ovett/Coe/Cram/Elliot/Williamson period -the same talent is out there somewhere

What do you think about the state of the BMC at the moment. It still has the same values, but does much more now than it ever did?

  I am not really qualified to comment on that as I am no longer actively involved in the club–although I did help organise training weekends with Frank Horwill about 10 years ago and the spirit was still burning then