Author: The Author

Ian Hamer leading the AAA’s 5000m in 1991: he won in 13:49

Ian Hamer was a Welsh runner who came to Scotland to attend Heriot-Watt  University in 1987 and stayed here until 1991.   Like several others, such as the Irishmen John Jo Barry and Cyril O’Boyle, fellow Welshman Simon Axon and several Englishmen, he threw himself into the sport here and added to the quality of whatever event he ran in.    Competitively he sought out the hard races and had top class results to show for it – he won the AAA’s 5000m in 1991 as well as the UK 5000m in the same year.

In his first year in Scotland he looked very good but did not seem quite the outstanding athlete that he was when he left in 1991.    Four of his best races at the end of 1987 are in the table below:

It is clear from these few races – especially the second stage of the Edinburgh to Glasgow where he sped through the field from eighth to first – that he was an athlete of quality.   His racing during the winter was intermittent with several races that he might have contested – eg Scottish Universities championship being uncontested,    The following summer – 1988 – Ian ran in the SAAA 5000m at Crownpoint and finished fifth in 13:58.15 behind Neil Tennant, Paul Cuskin, Gary Nagel and B Rushworth and just ahead of Adrian Callan in 13:58.93.    He had the reputation of being a fast finisher and his shoot-out with Adie Callan verified that.   That was at the end of June and then on 10th July in the Inter-County Championships at Corby, he was third in the Mile in 4:17.6 having run 4:12.7 in the Heat.   On 16th July he won the mile at Swindon in a BMC race in 3:59.9 with Alistair Currie in third just outside the 4  minutes in 4:00.5.    Another finish with three men covered by 0.6 seconds.   By the end of summer, he was ranked high in four track events.    In the 1500 his best time was 3:46.1 (5th), in the Mile it was the 3:59.9 reported above (1st), in the 3000m it was 8:02.3 (5th) and his best 5000m was 13:58.0 (2nd).

When they went into season 1988-89, Scottish athletes couldn’t plead ignorance of Ian Hamer’s abilities.  In the Glasgow University road race on 5th November he finished second to Adrian Callan – 22:40 to Adrian’s 22:39 and third placed Paul Dugdale’s 22:40!   Ian did not run in the Edinburgh to Glasgow that year but into the New Year – he had been third in the Scottish Indoor 1500m and he raced indoors again this year.    On 11th January, in the East District Indoor Championships at Kelvin Hall, Hamer won the 1500m from Mark Fallows in 4:56.51.    Ten days later, 21st January, in the Scottish Universities Indoor Championships at the same venue, he stepped up a distance to win the 3000m in 8:24.9 from David Donnet of Glasgow.  On 16th February the event was the Scottish Civil Service Sports Council Indoor Championships where, running as a guest, he won the 3000m in 8:18.5.     By the end of the indoor season Ian was 5th in the 1500m with a best of 3:52.07 and 8th in the 3000m with the 8:18.5 from the CSSA Championship.      This led into a good summer of 1989.

Ian had a run for Wales on 30th June in the Small Nations International in Antrim where he won the 5000m with Scotland’s Bobby Quinn third in 14:03.8.   He won a 3000m at Loughborough on 25th July in 7:51.4 before heading back to Wales for a 1500m at Cwmbran on 5th August where he was first in 3:38.9.   Eleven days late at the same venue in a BMC race over 800m Ian was third in 1:49.5 with another BMC race at Cheltenham on 8th September over a mile when he was again sub-4 – first in 3:59.1 before ending the season with a Two Miles at Crystal Palace on 15th September where 8:31.15 was good enough for sixth.

Summer 1990 would be Ian’s first Commonwealth Games medal and the winter leading in to it was impressive.  As was his custom, he raced sparingly over the winter and his first race was in November. On 17th September he raced in the Munich  v  Edinburgh/Scotland Select at the Olympic Stadium in Munich and won the 1500m in 3:43.40. Then it was on to the roads and the Glasgow University Road Race on 11th November.   Here he defeated Nat Muir in a controversial finish – he had been selected for the Games by this time (a late inclusion)  – he was one of six together going on to the track and Nat looked like the winner, 30 yards or so from the line, Hamer couldn’t go round Nat so he stepped up on to the grass infield and passed him that way.   There were cries of ‘foul’ from some who saw it but Ian commented if officials felt like complaining, they should see what goes on out on the roads.   He did not the course, he did not impede Muir  and since the grass surface was inferior to the cinders he did not  gain an advantage.   He also said that he wouldn’t have got within a minute of a fit Nat Muir.   The result stood.    He did not run in the Edinburgh to Glasgow the following week.   With the Commonwealth Games in New Zealand at the end of January there were no cross-country races for the end of the year.

After the long journey there, his first pre-Games race was in a 3000m in in Sydney, Australia, on 14th January where he ran 7:50.9 to finish third.    This was followed by a Warm Up meeting in Auckland six days later, also over 3000m, where he was second in 7:46.40.   In the race itself, he was third in 13:25.63 behind Andrew Lloyd (Australia) in 13:24.86 and John Ngugi (Kenya) who ran 13:24.94 and in front of Kerry Rodger, Moses Tanui, Paul Williams and eight more top class runners including Yobes Ondieki who was reckoned by some to be favourite for gold.   Unfortunately not one of them was a Scot.   The race was not without incident however.   Doug Gillon reports: “The 5000m developed into one of the most sensational and dramatic of all time, with three of the leading contenders falling.   After only two laps the favourite, John Ngugi, and England’s European champion, Jack Buckner, crashed to the track.   Amazingly, by 1200 metres an adrenalin surge had carried Ngugi once again to the front of the pack, while Buckner essayed a more conservative approach.   Even more amazingly, Ngugi proceeded to draw clear.   Then came the second fall, at the same spot, two laps later.   Yobes Ondieki, ranked Number One in the world last year, determined that his compatriot would not steal away for the gold, attempted to close him down.   But he too hit the track.   The pursuing pack split asunder under Ngugi’s pressure and England’s Mark Rowland and Canada’s Paul Williams were clear of the rest with the minor medals to fight out between them.   Suddenly the pursuit hotted up, Rowland and Williams were sucked up 600 metres from the finish and it was any one from six for silver and bronze at the bell.   Ngugi, loping casually along with his ungainly action, seemed to have won easily, being some 5 seconds clear with a lap to go.   Then, with 300 metres to go, Welshman Ian Hamer struck with a devastating surge, drawing Australia’s Andrew Lloyd with him.   Lloyd’s surge lasted the longer, but even 30 metres from the line Ngugi’s lead seemed impregnable.   The crowd noise was deafening and it drowned the sound of the Australian’s softly-softly approach.   As Ngugi eased at the line, Lloyd lunged past to take the gold, winning by eight-hundredths of a second in 13 min 24.86 sec.   Hamer sliced an incredible 20 seconds from his best to take bronze.  

A quantity surveying student at Heriot-Watt University, Hamer was a late addition to the Welsh team.   At the UK Championships at Jarrow last May Hamer, chasing the Welsh qualifying standard, was not even rated good enough for a  run in the A race, won by Steve Cram.   Lloyd’s fairy tale success came just five years after he lost his wife in a car crash.   He himself has needed seven operations to put him back on track.” 

There is more coverage of the race in “Scotland’s Runner” of March 1990 in David Jones’ “Impressions From Auckland.”   As if to prove that his talents were not restricted to track, he then won the World University Cross-Country Championships.    This is a biennial championship, started in 1968 and in which 64 countries have taken part (although only three – Britain, France and Spain –  have taken part in all championships.   The 1990 event took place on 1st April in Poznan, Poland, and Ian won in 28:02 from Antonio Serrano (Spain) who was seven seconds back, and Haydar Dogan (Turkey) who was another two seconds away.   The last time that Britain had won was in 1976 when Scotland’s Laurie Reilly did so.

Back home, there were three indoor races in Glasgow’s Kelin hall at the end of February and the first half of March where he recorded 7:55.75, 7:57.91 and 7:58.15.   He was clearly going exceptionally well and he went even better in the British Universities Championships in Antrim at the start of May, Ian set a new championship record in winning the 10000m in 28:30.   On 6th July in Edinburgh there was another very quick 3000m (7:50.95) and on the sixteenth in a 1500m in Belfast he ran 3:39.95 for fourth place.   On the twenty eighth of the month at Wrexham he ran in a 1500m in which he was second in 3:41.13.  At the end of August and start of September, the European Games were held in Split, Yugoslavia.   He ran in the 5000m and although he made the final, there was no medal this time for a tired Ian Hamer, who finished twelfth in 13:32.61 – one place and two seconds in front of Eamonn Martin while Gary Staines was second in 13:22 .45 in a finish where less than a second separated the first three.   The summer ended on 12th September in a BMC race at Bristol where he ran a Mile in 4:01.4.   He won it.   This ended a season which started in January in Australia and took in top class events in Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales, Yugoslavia and Poland.    His best times for the season were  – 800m  1:54.0i;   1500m  3:39.95;   1 Mile 4:01.4;   3000m  7:46.40;   5000m  13:25.63;   10000m  28:30.44.    Impressive as the times were, the competitive record was at least as good with many world class scalps in his collection.

But there was a further honour to come: Gordon Ritchie announced in the November issue of “Scotland’s Runner” that he had been elected Scottish Universities Athlete of the Year.   He wrote:

“The choice had been made simple by Ian’s outstanding performances at four major championships.   The good news for the future is that Ian will be remaining at Heriot-Watt for a further two years during which time he will be studying for an MSc in construction management.   The year began in whirlwind fashion for Hamer.   Selected at the last minute for the Welsh Commonwealth Games team, he travelled to Sydney in late December.   After a few weeks spent acclimatising, he travelled on to New Zealand, where he ran a Welsh record in the 3000m (7:46).   His aim in the Games was to reach the 5000m final, but it is now history that he ran a superb race to bring home the bronze medal in a time of 13:25.   The 5000m was the most exciting and eventful race in the Games, but Ian stayed out of trouble and more than justified his selection.

Almost immediately after returning from Auckland, and while still caught up in the euphoria of his medal winning run, he was selected to run for Britain in the 3000m at the ill-fated European indoors in Glasgow.   Owing to a mix-up by the officials, Ian left the arena on Saturday believing that he had been eliminated.   The following morning, having been out for a training run, he was told that he was in the final.   He failed to live up to his own expectations in the final but that is hardly surprising in the circumstances.   Typical of Ian is his attitude to this race.   He says that if he had been going to win, he would have won regardless of the problems.   In retrospect he admits that it was not meant to be and that perhaps he was wrong to run in the first place.

After the indoor season, he returned to the cross-country scene for the World Student Games in Poland.   He was in a different class at this event and won gold for Britain.   Ian then returned to his books in an effort to pass his final exams at university.   Despite his absence for two months at the Commonwealths, and his hectic training schedule, he still managed to get his degree.   The absence from the track during the exams probably left him with little realistic chance of a medal in Split.   Despite this however he reached the final of the 5000m and had a crack at a medal.   The problem that he faced was the heats.   In Auckland the heats were more comfortable and there was an extra day to recover before the final.   In Split he had to run a 4:10 mile in the middle of the heat to ensure that he qualified.   With his limited experience of major championships, he found it all a bit too much.  

What does the future hold for the young Welshman?   His post-graduate course lasts two years, which will take him through the World Championships and to the Olympics in Barcelona.   He also has his sights set on the World Student Games in Sheffield in 1991.   In the days of semi-professional athletics, it is disappointing to note that despite his success and great potential, he has been unable to attract a major sponsor to support his quest for further medals.   His tution fees for the MSc are being paid by his parents, and his ambitions may be thwarted b y lack of funds.   When there appears to be so much money in the sport at present, there must be something wrong when none of it comes the way of such a talented young man.   The experience he gained at the Europeans and the Commonwealths can only help his quest for gold.

Where does the university scene fit in to the schedule of an internationalist?   He admits that his two best runs of the year were his golds at the World Student Games in Poland, and the British Universities Championships in Antrim.   The university outdoor scene can be used to sharpen up in  preparation for bigger events, and also as a useful gauge of fitness in the early season.   More importantly it is a lot of fun and is of a higher standard than many people think.    Best wishes to Ian in his preparations for future majors and in his studies at Heriot-Watt.”  

Victory in Poland

Ian’s first race the following winter was at Livingston on 29th September where he won the Livingston and District Open Road race in 30:45 from Tommy Murray (31:04) – a significant gap bearing in mind Tommy’s form at that time.   Missing the cross-country relays, the next outing was in the Edinburgh to Glasgow on 18th November he had an excellent race on the second stage moving from sixth to second in what would have been the fastest time of the day but for an even better run by an Englishman: John Sherban was having his first run in Falkirk Victoria Harriers club colours and went from eighth to first.   Colin Shields in “Scotland’s Runner” said, “The second stage witnessed a brave run by Falkirk’s new signing, World Student Games runner John Sherban.   Despite a fall on the newly instituted overbridge crossing of the old roundabout, which caused him gashed arms, legs and a bleeding nose, he recorded the fastest stage time to gain seven places and hand over a narrow five seconds lead from Ian Hamer (ESPC).”   By the start of the new year, he was back on the boards of the Kelvin Hall and won the Scottish Universities Indoor Championship 3000m in what Gordon Ritchie described as a ‘solo run to victory’ in 8:03.5 – the second  runner clocked 8:8:50.3.

1990-91 was to be his last real season in Scotland and his best times were – with one exception – done outside Scotland.    They are all remarkably good and noted in the following table.

* Run in the Van Damme Grand Prix

Competitively it was a good year although he was most unlucky in the World Championships 5000m heats.   The event had been held every four years but from 1991, the World Championships were to be held every two years and Ian was picked to run in Tokyo.  First though, in the AAA’s Championships in Birmingham on 26th/27th June, Ian was second in the 5000m to Eamonn Martin (13:32.99) in 13:33.66 with John Sherban third in 13:39.43.   He was selected for the World Championships in Tokyo in 1991 where he ran n the 5000m but, running in the third heat, he finished sixth in 13:54.49 and failed to qualify for the final.   The race was won by Brahim Boutayeb (Morocco) in 13:53.75 from Dieter Baumann in 13:54.07, Stefano Mei (Italy) in 13:54.35,  Dionisio Castro (Portugal) in 13:54.39, and Ondoro Osono (Kenya) in 13:54.41.   Six men covered by less than 0.75 seconds!

Neither that winter nor the following summer, 1991 – 1992, did Ian did not race in any of his usual races North of the border but it was a good year for him    He was second in a Grand Prix in Rome in June  in 13:09.8 which placed him third on the UK All-Time list, and in the Barcelona Olympics he was fourth in the fifth heat in 13:40 and did not qualify for the final..

Ian had been a student in Scotland, from 1987 to 1991 and crammed in a lot of good running – the highlights are here but there were many other excellent races (eg Scottish Universities cross-country champion in 1989) and he did add to the high standard of endurance running in Scotland at the time.

John Sherban was an established athlete when he came to Scotland in October 1990 because his girl-friend was doing a post-graduate degree in computing at Edinburgh University.    By the middle of January he had accumulated a remarkable list of race successes including:  18th November, 1990:  fastest time on the second stage of the Edinburgh to Glasgow for Falkirk Victoria Harriers whom he took from eighth to first, a position they would hold all the way to the finish; 1st December: winner,   Fife AC  Lita Allan Cross-Country from T Mitchell:    8th December   East District Cross-Country League second to Peter Faulds (they had the same time and crossed the line hand-in-hand);   22nd December: Edinburgh Queen’s Drive race first; 1st January:  Portobello Promethon first;   5th January:   Nigel Barge Race first from H Cox;   19th January  East District League first from T Hanlon.

He was at the time only 26 and had been running from his late teens.   Born in Doncaster on 30th July 1964, and brought up in Scotland between the ages of 9 and 15, he attended Waid Academy in Anstruther before he moved to school in a Buckinghamshire Grammar School. A rugby player at school, he used to go for a run before the rugby practice and was encouraged by a teacher to get into some school races.   Although he was introduced to the sport at about 18 years of age, he didn’t start training seriously until he was about 20.    He had won the British Universities Cross-Country and track 5000m championships as well as having represented England  v  the Rest of the Commonwealth.   He saw himself as mainly a track runner but he had more than his share of success on the road and over the country.   For instance that first run in the Edinburgh to Glasgow for Falkirk was one where he not only picked up seven places, but passed such as Ian Hamer, Alistair Walker and Kenny Lyall.   Colin Shields in the magazine “Scotland’s Runner” commented on the run: “The second stage witnessed a brave run by Falkirk’s new signing, World Student Games runner John Sherban.   Despite a fall on the newly instituted overbridge crossing of the old roundabout, which caused him gashed arms, legs and a bleeding nose, he recorded the fastest stage time to gain seven places and hand over a narrow five seconds lead from Ian Hamer (ESPC).”     In March he further displayed his road running talent by running the fastest long stage of the Six Stage Relay Championships with a time of 28:12 which was 15 seconds quicker than John Robson who was second fastest.   Falkirk was fifth team to finish.    John didn’t run in the National in between these events.

In summer 1991 he was ranked in the 3000m [7:58.47, 4th], 5000m [13:49.3, 2nd] and 10,000m [28:35.61, 2nd] counting the national 5000m championship among the events won.   In the 5000m rankings, the first five were Ian Hamer [Welsh], Peter McColgan [Irish], Tom Hanlon [Scottish], John Sherban [English] and Steve Ovett [English],  in the 5000 the first five were Hamer, Sherban ,  Evans and Hanlon, and in the 10000 Hamer, Sherban, Evans, Robson [Scottish].    Most of his running was done in England over the summer but he did return for the national championships and won the 5000m in 14:06.2 from John Evans of Australia [14:10.80] and Paul Dugdale [Horwich RMI] 14:29.56.   His first year in Scotland had undoubtedly been a good one and he was interviewed By Margaret Montgomery for “Scotland’s Runner” in March 1991.    In it he referred to the fact that he had been plagued by injury over the past six years and said

“Everything’s gone wrong below the knee which possibly could.”   Defining himself as a track runner who always manages to get injured before the season gets into full swing, John Sherban maintains that his cross-country and road successes are not indicative of his  true area of excellence or of his biggest aspirations.   “Basically I’m a 5000m runner although recently I’ve been tending more towards the 1500m and 10K.   Unfortunately though I’ve not had a full season for five years.”   Despite being plagued by injury, Sherban notched up a number of major successes between 1984 and 1990, including a win in the 5000m at the British Student Games at Meadowbank in 1987 and at the British Student Cross-Country Championships in 1988.   He is now in the best form he has been in for many years and at the time of the interview was looking to build on the successes he enjoyed in the latter part of last year and the early part of 1991 by winning a place in the British team for the World Cross-Country Championships and by bringing his time down as close to 13:30 as possible.   His present best for the distance is 13:54.   Perhaps because he has never been able to throw himself into training and competition wholeheartedly, Sherban is remarkably relaxed in his approach to training.   The bulk of his training consists of running to and from work.   A three mile distance as the crow flies but one he generally pads out to five or six. ….. On top of running to and from work Sherban’s only other training is a weekly track session with his club, Falkirk Victoria Harriers, and an interval session on grass.   I try to pack training round my working day so that it doesn’t interfere with my home life.   I like the feeling of knowing I’m in for the night once I’m back from work.”  …  Sherban’s official coach is Brian Scobie, the Scot who lectures in English at Leeds University where Sherban studied chemical engineering.   Scobie is presently in America, a fact which makes little difference to Sherban who seems for the most part to have trained himself for the past five or six years.   “Even when I was at Leeds, the relationship between Brian and myself was more of a social thing.   But I suppose I would subscribe to his philosophy of doing everything hard – harder if you’re feeling good.”   The fact that he doesn’t work hand in glove with a coach seems not to matter to Sherban – although he compensates to some extent by joining in the odd session with Malcolm Brown, who coaches Ian Hamer.”

John was a hard trainer, witness the tale from Brian Scobie of a session at Leeds -I remember on one occasion in a winter track session in Leeds which I had set probably at about 10-12 x 400 in 57-8 seconds.   The recovery was probably about 30 seconds on that night.   On top of that it had started to snow as soon as we had got going and gradually it was thickening as he knocked out runs in 56 seconds through to the eighth or tenth.   John was running in his flats, without socks, in shorts that were brief and flimsy and wearing a vest of the kind now only seen on porn stars.   With two to run and the coach wondering about liability, he ripped off his vest and banged out the last two runs in 55 and 54 seconds.

In winter 1991-92 he missed District and National Relays, didn’t run the Edinburgh to Glasgow and wasn’t in the field at either District or National Cross-Country Championships.   But there were two appearances close tohether at the start of January – on 1st January he won the Portobello Promethon and on 4th January at Mallusk in Ireland, he was there and appearing in the results under a ‘Scots Results’ heading – he finished seventh in 23:10 in a race won by three Kenyans in 22:37, 22:47 and 22:55.   He was first Scot ahead of Bobby Quinn in 11th and Alaister Russell in 36th.   This was the same date as the Nigel Barge which he had won a year earlier.

In summer 1992 John was ranked sixth in the 1500m tables with 3:45.9 which he ran at Kingston on 19th July, second in the 3000m with 8:00.76, run at Haringey in London on 5th July with a two miles in 8:31.48  at Sheffield on 14th August and had a series of good 5000m times – 13:52.08 (Loughborough on 28th July), 13:52.87 (Birmingham, 27th June) and 14:08.54 (Meadowbank on 20th June) – the best of which placed him second in Scotland behind Paul Evans of Belgrave.   It will be noted that all but one were outside Scotland and, in fact, the 500m time in Birmingham placed him only 14th in the race – the kind of opposition that really helps obtain fast times.    It is a real dilemma for Scottish selectors when good runners in Scotland keep winning and getting high places north of the border in Games years while those with access to fast races furth of Scotland post very fast times in tougher races.   As John  said in the interview with Margaret Montgomery, the number of quality runners is just much higher in England.   However back to the profile – John was running very fast indeed in summer 1992 although he did not appear in any Scottish championships – county, district, inter-area or national.

He had been recognised as a Scot for the purposes of international competition the previous winter with the race in Mallusk.   Winter 1992-93 started for John with fastest time in the East District Cross-Country Relays (by 15 seconds) with Falkirk Victoria second to Reebok, followed by second to Reebok again on 31st November in the Allan Scally Relay at Shettleston where John again had the fastest time of the afternoon (by 19 seconds), and on 15th November he was in action on the long sixth stage of the Edinburgh to Glasgow relay where he held on to second place with the day’s best time (by 39 seconds.   John also won the East District championships on 15th January by one second from P Dymoke of Livingstone second and Terry Mitchell of Fife a further three seconds away.   He did not run in the Scottish National Cross-Country Championship and we next saw him run on the track.   With 1994 being a Commonwealth Games Year, most athletes would be trying to catch the eye of the selectors.

How did John perform in summer 1993?    At 5000m he had two good times –   he topped the rankings with 14:05.1 finishing tenth at Loughborough on 20th June, and 14:15.85 when second to Chris Robison in the SAF  Championships.   The better of these times placed him 33rd in Britain which was an indication of the standard north of the Border at that time.   The SAF race was a steady run with Chris Robison using his well-known sprint finish (he had been a sub-4miler) to collect the victory.   Half a dozen Scots were capable of sub 14 for 5000m but they didn’t have to do it – therein lies the difference in standards.   His best run on the road that summer was a win in Leeds on 5th December over 10K in 29:11  which placed him 23rd in England and first in Scotland.   The good news from Scotland’s point of view was contained in an article in “Scotland’s Runner” by Doug Gillon:   “Falkirk Victoria’s John Sherban, fastest man on the long stage of the English 12-stage championship, hopes to make Scotland’s team for Victoria  at 10000m.”   He had earlier pointed out that Sherban qualified to run for Scotland on residential grounds.   The only thing stopping John from running for Scotland would be a serious loss of form (extremely unlikely) or injury (more likely).

In winter 1993-94, John’s first race was the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay when he again ran on the second stage and again had the fastest time of the day for the Falkirk team that finished second.   He had been third in the AAA’s 10K Road Championship that year and done a very good run in the 12 stage which placed him 27th all-time on the ranking list, ahead of men such as Andy Holden, Paul Taylor and Geoff Smith.

Going for his place in the Games team, John started the year with a very fast road 10K win – 28:46 – at Grangemouth on 20th February.   He topped the lists for 3000m and 5000m with 8:02.07 (when finishing second at Meadowbank on 8th July) and 13:46.4 when winning an early season race at Crawley on 28th May.    Despite an injury-ridden season, he managed to run 14:11.14  winning the East District championship at Meadowbank on 15th May and 14:06.16 at Gateshead on 20th July.   These were good enough to see him selected for both 5000m and 10000m in Victoria but the nemesis of injury was still stalking him.   He travelled to Canada and raced in a 5000m on Prince George Island on 13th August in 14:10.43.     What happened there is reported in the following article which Doug Gillon wrote in the ‘Glasgow Herald’ of 28th August 1994: 

“TRAINING in a railway tunnel to avoid the snow on Christmas Day and running around the pitching decks of destroyers and aircraft carriers in mid-ocean are just two examples of the commitment which has plucked John Sherban and Chris Robison from obscure roots, and brought them by tortuous routes to represent Scotland in the 10,000 metres at the Commonwealth Games.   Both are Yorkshire-born, and each competed for England before seeing the Saltire in the sky and defecting. They will line up for Scotland next weekend, ready to strive with the convert’s passion for their adopted country.

He has represented England against the Rest of the Commonwealth and won the British Universities’ cross-country and 5000m track titles.   But he did so displaying a refreshing laid-back lack of intensity and club-runner bonhomie rare in the upper echelons of his sport.

Nobody should question the 30-year-old Falkirk Victoria Harrier’s attitude to his sport and this forthcoming race, however. Missing a session is anathema. When Edinburgh’s climate on Christmas Day precluded training outside, he did 20 repetition runs in the disused railway tunnel under the Queen’s Park.   He spent $2000 on a preparatory altitude trip to Boulder, and has contributed significantly to bring coach Brown to Canada for the Games. Fortunately, his intellect has blessed him with a good professional career in bank computing.

Sherban believed he had a medal chance here until last weekend when his last warm-up race was a disaster in an ill-conceived (for endurance competitors) meeting at Prince George, 450 miles away from the village.   The meeting was said to be at an altitude of 1800 feet. But Sherban, seated behind the pilot of the 20-seater light aircraft that flew them there, checked the altimeter as they landed.   ”It read 2900 metres,” he said. ”The place was baking hot, and although we arrived mid-morning, my race was not until 10pm at night. I spent the day trying to sleep under the stand, the only cool place.”

His target time in the 5000m, 13-32, was out of sight after six laps as his lungs complained in the rarified air. He finished, demoralised, in 14-10.43. ”We did not get back until after 3am. It was a disaster.” Brown is now striving to rebuild dented morale.   ”I run on inspiration rather than to a plan,” says Sherban. ”Malcolm is more calculating, and would prefer me not to, but he is right more often than not, so this time I am going to give it a try.”

His injuries returned and he had to withdraw from the event he had been racing all year, the 5000m on 24th August, and when it came to the 10000m on 27th August, he had to drop out while Chris Robison finished 10th in 29:50.23.   It had been a disappointing season for him, to put it mildly,    He did some racing on his return – a  9:10.45 steeplechase on 17th September at Bedford – but his season was really over after the Games.

That winter (1994-95) John Sherban ran in the National Cross-Country relay where he lifted Falkirk Victoria from tenth to fourth on the second stage, the short third stage of the Edinburgh to Glasgow where he ran the fastest time of the day by over a minute while lifting his club from eleventh to fifth, and missed the District and National  Championships as well as the six-stage road relay.   In summer 1995 he topped the 5000m rankings for the third successive year and had four times in the Scottish top 15.     Much faster  than the previous year, his best of the season was 13:46.76 set at Birmingham on 15th July.   Unplaced in any championship race his best times were al run south of the border – 14:01.28 at Birmingham on 1st July, 14:08.21 at Crystal Palace on 3rd June and 14:20.9 at Enfield on 19th August.    His best 1500m time was 3:45.6 at Derby on 30th July.   Scotland had seen the last of John Sherban – as the Scottish Athletics Yearbook for 1996 said: “Having left to live in Australia, he will be missed from the Scottish running scene in road, track and cross-country events.”

The reason for his coming to Scotland being as it was, it was natural that most of his summer running be done in England but  he did run well in Scotland and added to the quality of any representative team for which he was selected.   He was unfortunate in his catalogue of injuries, especially in 1994, but was undoubtedly a runner of real quality.

Cyril o’Boyle running in the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay 

Cyril O’Boyle was one of the great characters In the sport.   A quite superb athlete over a long period he also had a mischievous sense of humour and was one of the few athletes I have met who could transform the performance of a team just by turning up to run.   Coming from Donegal he had won many titles and trophies there before coming to Scotland.   He had won the North of Ireland Senior and Junior Cross Country Championships in the same year and also the Irish equivalents in the same year.   Typically for Cyril, when he moved to Scotland nothing went smoothly.   There were two governing bodies for the sport in Ireland, the NIAAA (Northern Ireland AAA) and the NACA (Northern Athletic and Cycling Association) which did not see eye to eye with each other.   When he came to Scotland and joined Victoria Park AAC he had difficulty getting permission to run because the NACA was proscribed by the SAAA who only recognised the NIAAA!   He returned to Ireland where he was banned by the NACA who did not recognise the SAAA.   Then he came back to Scotland and chose to run for Clydesdale Harriers and again had to seek permission from the SAAA (who did not recognise the NACA)!   Fortunately the permission was forthcoming and Cyril (and later on his family) was able to race for Clydesdale Harriers.

Cyril with Jimmy Ellis, Johnny Stirling with Ian Binnie in front while with VPAAC

Cyril was born in Kinclasslagh on 23rd February 1926.   The family emigrated to America when he was an infant but returned to Ireland when his grandfather died when he was seven years old.   He worked for a time at St Coman’s Hospital and then moving to England for a short spell before settling in Scotland.   His career as a runner was quite outstanding.   

His quality was such that he is still almost revered in Ireland.   If you look at the internet site for the Strabane History Society there is an entry in the sports section which reads: “In 1950 Cyril O’Boyle from Letterkenny, registered as a Strabane athlete, won the All Ireland NACA (I) Junior Cross Country Championships at Graystone, Co Dublin.   Three months later O’Boyle won the senior event to become the first Irishman ever to record both events in the same year.”   Very few athletes were mentioned by name in the section.   The Finn Valley AC site was even more fulsome in its praise and a bit more detailed about his career with this piece in an account of sport in the Rosses district.   “It is fitting that we should end this study of our long distance runners with an account of the feats of Cyril O’Boyle.   Though his parents were not natives of the Rosses, he was born in Belcruit and attended Belcruit National School.   Reared in an athletic atmosphere where to shine as an athlete was the main ambition of the Rosses Youths, O’Boyle while yet a schoolboy outshone all his pals in long distance races.   It was no disgrace for his school friends to suffer defeat at the hands of O’Boyle for one day he was to meet and defeat the best athletes in Ireland.

 O’Boyle became attached to Strabane AC and soon showed that the Mile was his best distance.   He won the Mile Senior Championship of Ulster in 1950.   In 1951 he became Irish Junior and Senior Champion in the 5 Miles Cross Country Races.   He won the Mile Senior Championship of Ireland in 1952.   Not content to rest on his honours he crossed from Glasgow where he was then resident to win the 4 Mile Championship of Ireland in 1954.  In the latter event he was only a few seconds outside Martin Egan’s all time Irish record.   He still competes against the best, especially in cross country races.”    This was written in 2001 and was part of a fairly long article on the heroes of Irish athletics posted on the excellent Finn Valley AC website and is worth looking up at www.finnvalleyac.com

Cyril leading Alex MxDougall (Vale of Leven) in the Balloch to Clydebank 12 miles

Cyril joined Clydesdale Harriers in season 1953-54 although some club members claim to remember him training with them a year or so before this.    He joined a very good club squad with George White, John Wright, Pat Younger, John Hume and company all at their best and  he went on to win many medals with and for the club.   He had very high standards for himself and would not run unless he was 100% fit.   There were times when the club would have been much better off with his presence but because he did not feel right, he would not run.   For that reason when he did turn up, his was always a welcome presence at any race.   In one of my first Edinburgh to Glasgow races, he was late in arriving and we were all on tenterhooks when he arrived at the very last minute possible and wandered on to the ‘straggler’s bus’ to great cheers from the rest of the team who had a marvellous lift just from his presence.   He ran in 10 E-G relays for the club and always did his very best.   (The stragglers bus?    There was a bus for each stage of the race and you were supposed to travel on the appropriate bus for your stage: but when the buses left for Edinburgh, there was always one that waited an extra 15 or 20 minutes for late arrivals and it was called the stragglers’ bus.)

Cyril’s athletic ability was always taken as read.   In the first place he was a notoriously hard trainer.   No run with Cyril was ever an easy run or a steady run: it was always a hard testing outing for the rest of the pack or whoever he was out with.   At one point he was asked to work with young Phil Dolan who went on to become a Scottish Internationalist on the track and over the country.   Phil will tell you that Cyril never did anyone any favours on a run: even with a 17 year old he worked hard.  There will be more about and from Phil later. Cyril’s training however was never pointless or thoughtless.   He read a lot and thought a lot about the sport.   He went to any meeting or lecture that he thought would help him: Forbes Carlisle the great Australian swimming coach was speaking in the Clydebank Public Library and Cyril was there – was Carlisle not coach for the Konrad twins?   Was swimming not also an anaerobic event?   He went to seminars held by the cycling club – was that not relevant as well?   When he was given a subscription to the ‘Runner’s World’ magazine by his daughter Moira he devoured it and discussed the articles at training and even on the hoof during the runs.   He could talk about the cardio vascular system in a way that few other club runners I have met could, he knew about the training of Vladimir Kuts and about ‘active rest’ days.   For a man without a great formal education he was learned in the ways of athletics.   He did not however accept all that he was told.   When as a teenager in Ireland he wrote to the great Joe Binks, a former world mile record holder about training he was told to curtail his training drastically and come down to three days a week.   Cyril laughed at this and went on his own way.    One of his dicta was that if you could not do the same session the next day, you were training too hard: it was not all thoughtless bashing out of the miles.

John Cassidy, George Carlin, Cyril and Douglas McDonald on the Reservation

What was he like as a coach?   Just after Phil Dolan had joined the club, he was encouraged to start training with Cyril.   Let Phil take up the story.   “After being linked up with him, Cyril approached me on the steps of the pavilion at the Recce (The recreation ground in Dalmuir).  “I’m Cyril” says he, “you must be Phil Dolan?”  “That’s right.”   Cyril asks “What training do you wish to do?”   He continues, “I was thinking of two laps of the Golf Course.”   “Fine,” I says and after changing we ran towards the Park Gates.   The pace was easy and confirmed my initial views that this would be an easy workout.  Little did I realise how wrong I was!   The pace gradually heated up and as we approached the various vantage points on the course Cyril would remark on the scenery be it the hills or the Clyde.   I was in no condition to counter.   He did not drop me – not that he was unable to – but it was a valuable lesson in the level of fitness required to compete at a decent level.   He could have lectured me or run away but his example of fitness and approach set the tone of my own fitness for years to come.”

Away from the track Cyril was as partial to a piece of venison as the next man and knew how and where to go about getting hold of it.    Whenever he was in or near the hills whether on a family picnic, on a run or just out walking he kept a weather eye open for the marks and signs of their presence.   He couldn’t stand snares and any he found were torn up and thrown as far away as he could manage.   We all had a tale to tell about this and Phil’s goes as follows: “I had occasionally run up the Humphrey Road into the Kilpatrick Hills on my own, so one day Cyril suggested a run up the Humphrey.   This was quite out of character but thinking it was a pleasant change I agreed.   We made our way up the hill and just before the first gate he beckoned me to leave the path, jump the fence and make our way up the grassy slopes and into the woods.   Suddenly it all became clear – he was surveying the wildlife and seeing what gamekeepers were on duty.   As the years rolled on the pattern became familiar.   Many a meal of venison, wild fowl and home baking I would enjoy over the years.     

Some years later Cyril, Pat Younger, Frank Kielty, Sandy MacNeill and Allan Sharp were in the Whitecrook dressing room.   Cyril, Pat and Frank were going to look for deer but required a van.   Sandy volunteered his services little knowing of the consequences (he could have lost his van if caught!)   I am not sure if Allan joined the group but in any event they got the deer but narrowly escaped detection and it was only on the following Thursday that Sandy fully realised the possible consequences of his actions.” 

The other great thing about Cyril was his impish sense of humour.   He was like a wee boy sometimes with his jokes and tricks.    He had trouble at one time with his heel and there was a big swelling on it.   He saw the doctor and when asked at the club what the solution was he said that they could cut a big cross in the swelling, peel back the skin and scrape out the problem tissue.   Was there anything else they could do was the next question to which he replied that, well, there were some wee tablets you could take!    After a particularly good run on the second stage of the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay he ran in behind Adrian Jackson of Edinburgh University.   When it was put to him that he might have overtaken him Cyril replied that he just could not bring himself to pass a green jersey!   In reality he had run a superb race.    Crossing the moors above Clydebank he would tell you to bear right, bear right and when you looked up he was haring off to the left.   When the Road Race organisers at the Babcock’s Sports decided one year that runners would have both individual numbers and also team numbers, most just wore their individual numbers but Cyril wore both, one above the other, just to confuse the officials!

He was also very gregarious and generous: I went in one night to collect an ‘Athletics Weekly’ that I had loaned him and ended up with a dish of stew and potatoes and a big spoon in my hand – plus a glass of clear liquid from an Iron Brew bottle that did not contain Iron Brew!   His family – wife Noreen and daughters Moira and Pat were all well known in the club and all ran at some time or another.  Pat did not stick at it because of her asthma but Noreen became a veteran international runner and Moira of course ran for Ireland in Olympic, Commonwealth and European Championships in the marathon.

He won many club championships at a time when the club with John Wright, George White and Pat Younger was very strong.   At County level he won the track One Mile and Three Miles championships more than once, on the road he won the Balloch to Clydebank several times, he won the cross country championship and had the fastest time in the county cross country relays.   In the National Championships he was in the first ten twice.    His best run in the National was probably in 1955 when the club was third.   They had all trained as a group that winter with Cyril missing the late night Monday and Wednesday sessions because as a seasoned runner who could train during the day he did his own training then while joining in with the lads on Tuesdays, Thursdays and at weekends.   He was sixth that year and should have been selected for the international but was not picked because of his Irish nationality.   It was a close vote in the selection committee where he only lost out by one vote – and the Clydesdale representative voted against his inclusion!

He was always very competitive.   Even later on when he was not racing, he kept himself very fit and never gave anyone an easy run.   Phil Dolan again: The Ulster Marathon takes place in August of each year and often takes place in Donegal.   It was called the Letterkenny Marathon and incorporated the Championships.   In 1976 I won the race which at that time took place on uneven, undulating roads.   Cyril and Danny McDaid followed the race and provided encouragement.   He befriended an unknown English runner whom Cyril just called ‘The Englishman”.   It transpired that he was a member of the Warrington club and trained with an English internationalist whose name escapes me.   After the race, Cyril questioned him on his level of fitness and the type of training he followed.   Most of his running was on the road or parkland.   The following Tuesday he was invited to Cyril’s where he was taken over some of the toughest terrain imaginable.   Both Cyril and I ran away towards the end of the run and then returned to get him.   He was exhausted and could not drive the ten miles back to town until nightfall.   He was added to Cyril’s list of ‘victims’ – a euphemism for any athlete passed on training runs!”

He was not always so keen to catch the opposition early however as on this occasion recounted by Phil:   One dark winter’s night as we ran along the canal bank some spotty youth grabbed Cyril’s woollen hat.  As I quickened my pace to retrieve it Cyril cautioned and advised me to take my time.   The chase seemed to take longer than required but as we approached the Linnvale Bridge it all became clear.   The spotty youth was shattered.   Cyril then let it be known that the behaviour was unacceptable.   I have no doubt that he did not employ that trick again.”

Cyril to Bobby Shields at the second changeover in the E-G

His record in the Edinburgh to Glasgow eight stage relay is also a good one.   His best runs in the event were in 1955 when he was on the longest stage against some of the top men and turned in the sixth fastest time; in 1959 when he had fifth fastest again on the sixth stage.   Generally in the first ten times and but for one race he was chosen for the most difficult stages – the very high quality second stage and the long sixth stage.

However, if we go back to his arrival in the club, we had a first class athlete who had seldom if ever raced when he was with Victoria Park for a short spell.   Then he ran in the Dunbartonshire Cross Country Championship and it set everyone talking.   J Emmett Farrell writing in the ‘Scots Athlete’ for February 1955 said:

“A surprise victory to some but not those in the know was the success of Cyril O’Boyle, now of Clydesdale, who had a comfortable margin over the much improved A McDougall (Vale of Leven) and Gordon Dunn (Garscube) in the Dunbartonshire 7 Miles Championship.   The class of O’Boyle becomes clear when we learn that he won the Eire 4 Miles Championship last July in 19 mins 48 secs and was second in the Mile when he and the winner both clocked the same time of 4:24 in an entry so large that it looked like a cross country start. 

If cleared by his Irish Association and eligible to compete in our open championship, O’Boyle – a most consistent and hard trainer – will be definitely one to watch.”

And as if that were not enough he went on to say in his preview of the National Championship to say: “I have such a high regard for Eddie Bannon (Shettleston) that I am loath to write him off and, if he does not win, the man I fancy would be the classy Irish runner Cyril O’Boyle, now with Clydesdale Harriers.   At the moment I would bracket these as joint favourites.”

He then listed the first six in what he considered finishing order: 1.   Bannon; 2.   O’Boyle; 3.   Joe McGhee; 4.   AH Brown; 5.   J Stevenson;   6.   D Henson.   The actual finishing order was Henson, J Stevenson, McGhee, Binnie, T Stevenson, O’Boyle and Bannon.   Cyril was 45 seconds behind the winner. And 15 seconds ahead of Bannon.

Cyril went on to run well enough the following summer without too much racing involved but the following winter he started in the DAAA Relays where he ran the second stage in the team which was second to Garscube Harriers in the third quickest time of the day.   In the Midlands Relays at Stepps he had the fastest club time by 19 seconds from John Wright in a team which finished sixth.  He then ran in the Midland District Championships at Lenzie where he finished 16^th – one place behind John Wright – with the team placing third.  This time in the ‘Scots Athlete’ Emmett Farrell was only predicting a first ten placing for Cyril in the National.   Then he wrote:“Cyril O’Boyle is an enigma.   In the mood he could probably win outright this race, on the other hand he can be without fire.   The wide open spaces of Hamilton may suit him more than the tight Lenzie trail.   Colleague George White perhaps running better now than at any time in his career may fail to earn a jersey only because there are so many classy runners in the field.”   Living up to his enigma status Cyril did not run at Hamilton where George White was thirty first, ten places ahead of Jackie Higginson.

Emmett was spot on with his remark that Cyril was an enigma.   It might be that he felt within himself that he had nothing left to prove having won National titles in Ireland and with a handful of wins in Scotland; it might just have been in his easy going nature that made him an in-and-out kind of athlete, he might just have been lacking self discipline or self confidence.   The truth was probably at least in part down to a series of bad injuries.   From time to time the ‘Clydebank Press’ used phrases such as “Cyril O’Boyle’s troublesome tendon…” or “A recurrence of an old injury …”    Whatever the reason was, for the remainder of his time with the club he had superb runs interwoven with very ordinary performances.  For example the following cross country season he raced sparingly with a time slower than John Wright in the McAndrew Relays, then he had the third fastest time in the County Relays followed by the second fastest time for the club in the seventh placed team in the District Relays at Stepps with 14:27 behind John Wright’s 14:07 which was the sixth fastest of the day.   As for the National, he did not run there.   A lot of the inconsistency could be put down to injuries that came with increasing frequency as time progressed which hindered training and racing.

His influence on the club had been wider than his own racing however: he could motivate others, he could get them talking about training and racing and generally added to the club spirit.   He gave the others a good feeling about themselves.   For the rest of his time with the club he ran when he could and was actually turning out at times in the early 90’s before returning to Ireland.    At one point he was only coaching/advising two athletes – Phil Dolan and his own daughter Moira.   When they were both selected for the international cross country championships in Wrexham in the same year he claimed to be the only coach who had a 100% success rate for international selection.   Incidentally Moira was a regular member of the Irish team after they returned to Ireland and was a top class marathon runner with times inside 2:40 for the distance.   She ran in Scotland in the 1986 Commonwealth Games event (as Moira O’Neill) where she finished eighth in 2:42:29.   Other than that she won the Belfast Marathon twice (1985 and 1986) and the Dublin Marathon twice (1988 and 1989).   She set Northern Ireland records for the 15K (56:16), 10 Miles (58:29), Half Marathon (1:15:57) and Marathon (2:37:06).

Then there was the time when he went with the family to Ireland on holiday and he won the veteran’s race at a local meeting with Moira winning the Ladies race, Noreen being first Lady Veteran and Pat?   Well she won the beauty contest!   What a family!    Regardless of his reputation as a coach, poacher or practical joker he was justly remembered as a top flight athlete on both sides of the Irish Sea.   Phil has yet another tale to tell: “In 1970 I ran in the Peel Hill Race in the Isle of Man and won beating Maurice Herriott in the process.   The result was on Manx Radio and when I got back to my hotel I entered the lounge to partake of the traditional supper.   There was an Irishman on holiday who had been listening to the radio and when my pals began to talk about the evening, the Irishman began to chat.   It transpired that he knew of Cyril and his exploits in the Irish Four Miles Championships.   He confirmed that Cyril was indeed very well known in Ireland and if his reputation needed increased in my eyes, then that meeting confirmed it!

After he retired and returned to Ireland many of the Harriers travelled over to visit him and received the warmest of welcomes.   The picture below is of Cyril on the left with another Harriers legend, Pat Younger, outside his little cottage.

Cyril (left) at his cottage in Ireland with old Clydesdale team mate Pat Younger 

In 2001 Cyril was ranked number six in the World M75 10,000 metres track ranking lists with a time of 46:54.93 which he ran in Brisbane, Australia on 9^th July of that year.   (www.masterstrack.com/rankings2001/10km.html)    This was an Irish Masters Track and Field Record.    He also raced in the World Vets in Gateshead in 1989 where as an M70 veteran he clocked 6:03.27 for 1500 metres, in the World Cross Country in 2001 as an M75 he was fourth in the cross country in 39:20.   He was also entered for Championships in Potsdam in Germany (2002) and Aarhus in Denmark (2004).

Quite a celebrity in the Northern Ireland athletics world, he was the first inductee into the Donegal Athletics Hall of Fame in February 2016.   It is covered at –

http://www.finnvalleyac.com/news/?co-boards-awards-night-849.html  which has several pictures of Cyril and wife Noreen, and there is also brief coverage at –

http://www.donegalsporthub.com/gallery-cyril-oboyle-is-donegal-athletics-first-hall-of-fame-inductee/

As the man said in ‘Gregory’s Girl’, “What a guy!”

Adrian Jackson, front row right – next to Hunter Watson.

Adrian Jackson was a very fine runner indeed and when I first came into the sport in 1957 he was one of the best in the country – bear in mind that the 1950’s was almost a ‘Golden Decade’ for Scottish distance running.   Colin Youngson wrote this profile and as you read it, note the names that he crossed swords with and you will appreciate the quality of the athlete.

Adrian Sylvester Jackson was born on 15^th December 1933. As a young man he ran for a club in Leeds but then went away to study at Edinburgh University between 1953 and 1960, when he completed his medical degree. Throughout this period AS Jackson was an outstanding athlete, and frequently the best runner in the East of Scotland. He was EU CC champion from 1954-1959; and won full blues for Cross Country in 1954, 1957, 58 and 59; and for Athletics in 1954, 1955, 56, 57, 59 and 60. He was a Scottish International athlete on both track and country

Hunter Watson, who later became a long-serving Club Secretary for Aberdeen AAC, was studying at Edinburgh University when news came in Autumn 1953 that an outstanding young runner from Yorkshire was about join the Hare & Hounds. [Hunter was a talented athlete who went on to win the East District Youth CC in 1954 and to finish second in the Youth National CC. Later that year he became Scottish Junior Mile Champion. In 1955 Hunter was East District one mile champion and in 1956 secured Scottish Universities titles at one mile and three miles. He enjoyed a long career, winning bronze and silver medals in the Scottish Senior 880 and Mile; and eventually retired to concentrate on coaching after victories in: the 1976 British Veterans 800m; 1976 Scottish Veterans 800m (in record time); and 1977 Scottish Veterans 1500m (also a new record).] He remembers sitting in a train compartment, travelling from Edinburgh to Kirkcaldy before the first East District League race of the Winter season, and trying to guess which of his team-mates was this new star from the North of England. He did not realise that the short fellow opposite was that very man, Adrian Jackson, who was to be the Best Man at Hunter’s wedding and a lifelong friend. Hunter sums Adrian up as “a very pleasant, unassuming wee chap”. Hunter featured along with Adrian in many winning EU teams, including the 1955 Scottish Junior CC.

In early 1954, after a thrilling race for the East District CC title, Adrian finished only three seconds behind the winner, Sandy Robertson (ESH), but led Edinburgh University Hare & Hounds to the first of three consecutive team victories, when they lifted the Fraser Trophy. Adrian, that year’s Scottish Universities CC Champion, was favourite in the 1954 Scottish Junior National but, as Colin Shields noted in his centenary history of the SCCU “Young John MacLaren of Shotts Miners Welfare Club, who had the handicap (due to a childhood attack of polio) of a withered left arm tied to his chest, ran a sensational race …. showing grit and courage to defeat Jackson by four seconds.” Nevertheless, Edinburgh University won the award for first team.

In early summer, Adrian won the Scottish Universities track events over one mile (in front of Hunter Watson and Alastair Wood) and three miles, a feat he repeated in 1955, 1958 and 1959. He also broke SU records at these distances. In the East Districts, he was first in both one mile and three miles. His time in the latter (14.27.1) was a new record.   Then on the track at New Meadowbank, Edinburgh, Adrian Jackson became SAAA Champion at one mile. After a tactical race against J.L Hendry of Walton AC, Jackson won in 4 minutes 19.5 seconds. Emmet Farrell commented in The Scots Athlete “The time might be considered workmanlike, but for a man regarded primarily as a two or three-miler, it was a grand effort”. Apart from the mile, Adrian’s best times that season were: 2 miles 9.14.8; 3 miles 14.22.1.

 In November 1954 at Galashiels, Edinburgh University won the Mackenzie Cup after winning the Eastern District Ten Miles CC Relay. A few days later Adrian ran on the prestigious Stage Six in the Edinburgh to Glasgow Road Relay, when the Edinburgh students did very well to finish fourth.

Adrian won the 1955 British Universities CC title, by 150 yards on Wimbledon Common. That season’s Scottish National Junior Cross-Country Championships produced a similar result to the previous year: A.S. Jackson second to John McLaren (who later had a tremendous run to win the English Junior CC as well), with EUH&H retaining their team title. Scorers were ‘The Famous Four’ – Adrian Jackson, Adrian Horne (1956 East District CC winner), Hunter Watson and Jim Paterson (who won Scottish titles at 440, 880 and Two Miles Steeplechase and in 1957 became National Record holder over 800 metres with the outstanding time of 1.47.5).

During the track season, Adrian won the Scottish Universities mile (once again, in front of Hunter Watson and Alastair Wood) and three miles. However in the East Districts mile, Hunter outsprinted Adrian to win in 4.18.1, which was a new record. Then AS Jackson defended his Scottish One Mile title, but finished second, well behind the new star Graham Everett. Undoubtedly, one of Adrian’s finest achievements was when he won the 1955 World Student Games 5000m in Spain. San Sebastian was the venue; the redoubtable General Franco presented the trophy; and shortly afterwards, Adrian lost it and never saw it again! He was third in the Scottish rankings for Three Miles (14.13.0).

Later that year in the E to G, the Edinburgh Students were eighth, with Adrian again on the longest Stage Six, only 28 seconds slower than the fastest man, Eddie Bannon of Shettleston (who was National CC Champion four times).

1956 was a very successful year for Adrian Jackson. In the summer he won the East Districts One Mile and then became Scottish Champion in the Three Miles track event – another tactical victory (14.33.6) at New Meadowbank. In The Scots Athlete, Jim Logan reported: “This race was another cat-and-mouse, with the issue clearly between Adrian Jackson and Andy Brown. Jackson began his effort at the second-last bend and almost met disaster when he collided with a lapped man who politely, but belatedly, moved out to let the leaders pass inside. Jackson was undisturbed by the incident and raced home seven seconds clear in a very fast finish.” The cover photo of The Scots Athlete magazine for August 1956 shows Adrian stalking the early leader Bobby Calderwood, with a very young-looking Andy Brown tucked in behind. Adrian’s fastest time for three miles that season was 13.55; and for two miles 9.00.7. He was first in the Scottish Rankings for both events.

Bobby Calderwood, Adrian Jackson and Andy Brown in the Three Miles in 1956.

He also won the British Universities 3 Miles Championship. After that, an invitation came to take part (one of two British athletes) in the Mannerheim Games in Helsinki, on the 1952 Olympic track.    On 4^th June he won the 5000m in 14.13.6, which was tenth on the British all-time list. That time would have been good enough for fourth in the Olympics (when Emil Zatopek had won in 14.06.6). In 1924 Paavo Nurmi’s world record had been 14.28.2. Adrian was first in the Scottish 5000m Rankings.

In November EU finished 7^th, but Adrian broke Pat Moy’s record for the important Second Stage by one second, with the time of 29.48. (In 1958 EU were ninth, but Adrian ran very well for fourth fastest on Two, only 16 seconds slower than the fastest man –  Shettleston’s Joe McGhee, the 1954 Vancouver Commonwealth Games marathon victor.)

In 1957, Adrian regained both the Scottish Universities CC (in Aberdeen) and the British Universities CC titles. He also won the East Districts CC (and repeated this feat in 1958, 1959 and 1961). In 1961, having graduated from EU at last, he represented Braidburn AC and narrowly defeated the rising star John Linaker from Pitreavie AC. In the summer of 1957, Adrian did not compete, probably because of injury or studying for important examinations. In 1958 he retained his SU CC crown in Edinburgh; and was second in the Scottish Three Miles (14.16.2). He also ran 14.05.6 that season and was third in the ranking list.

George Brown (later on a stalwart for ESH, see The Fast Pack) studied at EU between 1956 and 1959 and ran well on track (4.12.7 mile), country (featuring in SU CC team victories) and road (sub 50 minutes for the Tom Scott 10 Miles.) George remembers Adrian as quiet, pleasant and extremely modest. They used to train by running five and a half miles from King’s Buildings, down to Liberton Dam, across some flat country, then farmland, followed by a tour of the tough Braid Hills. This demanding route was also used for EUH&H time-trials!

Scottish International runner and Scottish Three Miles Champion Steve Taylor of Aberdeen AAC remembers Adrian Jackson as a polite, well-liked gentleman. However Steve recalls with chagrin one East District so-called Cross Country Championship at Newcraighall, during a foot-and-mouth crisis in 1961, which had to be run on the road. Taylor had a good lead but Jackson finished very strongly to push him into second place. Steve also remembers a dreadfully hot International CC Championships (1961 at Nantes) when Adrian and he both suffered, due to the temperature and the formidable concrete barriers which had to be cleared.

Adrian Jackson’s best placings in Senior National CC (contested over nine gruelling miles at Hamilton Racecourse) were 7^th in 1958 and 6^th in both 1959 and 1961. Consequently he was chosen to run for Scotland in the International Cross Country Championships in: Cardiff 1958, (46^th), Lisbon 1959 (30^th) and Nantes 1961 (51^st). He was a scoring member of the Scottish team in 1958 and 1959.

In 1959, Adrian won the Scottish Universities CC title in Glasgow, with David Carter from St Andrews University in second place. That summer Jackson ran very well to win a silver medal in the 1959 SAAA Three Miles, losing narrowly (by two tenths of a second) in a sprint against Alastair Wood of Shettleston (and later Aberdeen AAC), who finished in 13.58.6. That season, Adrian recorded a faster Three Mile time of 13.52.2 and was fourth in the Scottish ranking list.

After 1961, it seems that Adrian Jackson retired from athletics and concentrated on his medical career, becoming a Consultant Anaesthetist in Cheltenham. However from 1982 onwards he competed with considerable success as a veteran in the World Medical Games, winning fifteen gold medals. In 1982 the event was termed The Medical Olympic Games and Adrian won both 1500m and 5000m (16.58, which set a new record). Later on, he competed in half marathons, triathlons and even the 1992 London Marathon.

It is however as a runner with Edinburgh University that he will probably be best remembered in Scotland/   He was probably at the height of his powers as a runner then – note his racing in international races during that period .   There was an interesting double act with Hunter Watson at that time: invariably when representing Edinburgh University against another university or a club, Hunter led for the first three laps and Adrian got away from him on the final lap. No one ever split them . However, the tables were reversed on one occaion  when Hunter did manage to beat Adrian in the mile:  on that occasion  for some inexplicable reason he led and Hunter was able to out sprint him on the final straight. Thanks to his pace making his team mate was able to get down to 4:18.1 on that occasion and, as a consequence cut 5.2 seconds from the record for the East of Scotland mile championships in 1955. The press did not report who the previous record holder had been but, almost certainly it had been G.M. (Morris) Carstairs, someone who had finished sixth in the 5000 metres in the 1938 European Championships.   

There is no doubt that Adrian Jackson would have been a top class athlete in any generation and Scotland was lucky to see him racing at his best.   He died on 1st May 2014.   

Leading in the AAA’s  in 1949

Scottish athletics has often been enriched by the presence of Irish runners.   During the dark years of the 1920’s and 1930’s many Irishmen came to Scotland looking for or following the work that was available.   For instance a large group came to Clydebank to work on The Empress of Britain and stayed on, or left and came back to help build Job Number 534 (The Queen Mary).   Many signed up with Clydesdale Harriers with the best being Hans Noble, who ran for Ireland in the International Championships in Wales in 1933.   He was to return after the war and become the first official coach in the club – in common with other clubs pre-war, his predecessors in the role were designated ‘trainers’.   However, the one who made the biggest impact in the country was almost certainly John Joe Barry.   When in Scotland, he ran for the small St Machan’s AC based in Lennoxtown under the Campsie Fells and he would go on set world records and win many championships and become one of Ireland’s best ever runners.

He was born in the United States, in Joliet, Illinois on October 5th 1925.   After leaving school he joined his local club, Ballincurry AC when he was 19 and for the remainder of his running career he was known as The Ballincurry Hare – and that nickname became the title of his autobiography published in 1986 but now, sadly out of print.   While with Ballincurry AC, he won the Irish cross-country title plus the track mile and four miles championships in 1945.   After joining the Civil Service Harriers, he he won the half mile and mile championships in 1946  and in 1947 he ran an Irish record for the mile of 4:15.2 breaking the 4:15.6 set by Tommy Conneff in 1895 which was a world record at the time.   In 1948 he won the half mile and mile titles again running in the colours of Clonliffe Harriers.   In 1949 he won the SAAA three miles and also the AAA three miles.   When he won the 1950 American indoor mile title he held simultaneously the Irish, Scottish, English and American mile titles.    He had gone to America to attend Villanova University, the first of many Irishmen to do so.   He graduated in commerce and finance in 1954 following which he spent most of his business career in the States.   After he retired he returned to live the rest of his time in Dublin, where he died in December 1994.

His personal best times were: 1500 – 3:51.4 (1949);    Mile – 4:08.6 (1949);   2 miles – 8:59.0 (1949);    3 miles – 13:56.2 (1949);    5000 – unknown.

John Joe Barry lived and competed in Scotland in 1948 and 1949 racing a lot – many said too much – and in 1949 was the best and most consistent distance runner in the British Isles.   We will look here at the lead-in to and then his wonderful 1949 summer season.  His 1948 Scottish season was not notable but the first mention we get of him is in the ‘Scots Athlete’ of December 1948 which simply says, “Another favourite with the fans is the Irish miler JJ Barry.   Now resident in Lennoxtown we should see plenty of him next season.   Although apparently established as a miler, it is possible that the “Ballycurren Hare” may yet gain even further distinction over the longer stretches.”   Although he didn’t seem to race much over the country, in the Midland District Championships on 5th February 1949, the winner was JJ Barry of St Machan’s AAC by a second from JF Fleming of Motherwell YMCA.   Eddie Taylor’s race report read “Olympic runner JJ Barry of St Machan’s AC getting there by one second before Jim Fleming of Motherwell YM followed by Jim Stuart of Shettleston 20 secs behind.   These three dominated the race taking it in turn to be in the lead and trying to ‘break away’.   John Joe made an effort twice in the wood to cut loose, Stuart had one or two tries and Fleming about half a mile to go tried to shake off the opposition, but all these endeavours were unsuccessful and it was ‘cat and mouse’ to the finish.   Barry obviously has the class and these three reputed milers will shake up our long distance stars for National honours.” 

 The report in the ‘Glasgow Herald’ on the Ibrox Sports organised by Bellahouston Harriers on 28th May, 1949, started “JJ Barry’s winning time of 14 min 30.2 sec in the special three mile race was remarkably good considering the conditions.   Seconds were lost because of the gusty wind with which he and the other competitors had to contend in the finishing straight which had to be traversed in each lap of the 12 lap journey.   Andrew Forbes, the Scottish champion, cut out the pace for most of the race.   He led at one mile in 4 min 48 sec and at two miles in 9 min 50 sec and still had a chance of beating his own record of 14 min 32.2 sec.   It was obvious however that the all-comers record of 14 min 03.4 was in no danger of being broken.   Over the last lap Forbes continued to lead but with 300 yards to go HA Olney (Thanes Valley Harriers) shot out from behind and Barry immediately followed him.   The pair raced up the home straight but 30 yards from the tape, Barry went to the front and, confidently glancing over his left shoulder, the Irishman won by two yards from the Englishman with Forbes another 30 yards behind.   Forbes covered the distance in 14 min 34.8 sec.”  

In the Glasgow Police Sports at Hampden on 11th June, Barry took on Fred Wilt of the Unites States in a special two miles race in which both men ran from scratch in a handicap event.   The ‘Herald’ said:“One of the best races in the programme was the two miles in which JJ Barry of Eire found more than his match in Fred Wilt of the United States.   Finishing the first mile in 4 min 32 sec, the Irishman did more than he was accustomed to do by making the pace.   Neither he nor Wilt was concerned about the field of handicap runners during the first mile and a half.   Then both made substantial progress, and over the last lap the American put in a finish with which the Barry was unable to cope.   He as well as the winner was inside the 45 year old record of Alfred Shrubb, the winner by 4.4 sec and Barry by 3 seconds.  

In the April issue of the magazine there was a report on the all-Ireland championships held at Finglass where Steve McCooke won for the third time in four years over a minute in front of John Joe who finished strongly to be second just one second in front of third man P Fahy.   The international that year was held at Baldoyle Racecourse in Dublin and he was second Irish finisher (14th) in the team that finished third.   He was one place in front of Scotland’s first finisher Andy Forbes of Victoria Park by seven seconds.   Emmett Farrell, in the preview of the SAAA Championships to be held in June said.“JOHN JOE BARRY IS ELIGIBLE.   Now resident in Lennoxtown, and running under the colours of the local St Machan’s, John Joe Barry will be eligible for this year’s championships.   Thus early in the season John Joe has shown that his cross-country efforts have not blunted the brilliant speed which earned for him the title of ‘The Ballycurren Hare’   Barry is both versatile and unorthodox to such an extent that he could run in the 1 mile or the 3 miles or even both events.   Should he confine his attentions to the mile, he would appear to have the edge  on his opponents including holder Jas. Fleming and ex-holder Frank Sinclair.   Still the Motherwell man should be capable of improvement and could the latter really get down to a serious preparation, well even Barry would know he had been in a race.” 

On Monday evening of 13th June, at Helenvale Park in Glasgow, John Joe ran one and a half miles in 6:33.8 – a world’s best time for the distance.   The distance was not recognised as a world record because the distance was not recognised but nevertheless it made the whole athletics world sit up and take notice.   The Glasgow Herald athletics correspondent said: “John J Barry the St Machan’s and Clonliffe Harrier (Eire) runner created a new world record for one and a half miles at Helenvale Park last night when at St Machan’s Sports meeting he covered the distance in 6 minutes 33.8 seconds.   Barry’s time was 2-10th sec faster than the previous best set by Glenn Cunningham (USA) in 1937 and 2.7 better than the British record set by Tom Riddell (Shettleston Harriers) in 1935.   With the Scottish mile and three mile champions J Fleming and A Forbes running from 20 and 25 yards respectively Barry covered the first mile in 4 min 22 sec and had his field well in hand. Round the last lap he put in a superb effort to beat W Lennie (Vale of Leven) to whom he was conceding 85 yards  and won by 30 yards.”   A world record set in Glasgow in a handicap race at a meeting organised by St Machan’s AC from Lennoxtown.   That’s a thing that will never be seen again – and not just because St Machan’s AC is defunct.  I’ll say more about the club below.

Andy Forbes and Barry had some great duels and none more exciting than in the SAAA Championships in June, 1949, in the Three  Miles Championship.   The Herald’: “Probably the best achievement on Saturday, was that of A Forbes in the three mile event.   In one of the finest races seen in Scotland for many a day, Forbes covered the distance in 4 min 18.4 sec – 13.8 sec  better than his previous native record.   JJ Barry (St Machan’s) the winner of the event in 0.2 sec faster time put in a tremendous finish to catch the Scot.”

The report by Emmet Farrell in his ‘Running Commentary’ in the Scots Athlete also made a bit more of Forbes’s running than of Barry’s but gave his reason why.   “The duel between John Joe Barry and Andy Forbes in the 3 miles was a classic and will be a fragrant memory to those privileges to be present.   Forbes in particular ran the race of his life and although losing his title cracked his own native record to the tune of 14 seconds, a remarkable display of powerful and artistic running.   It may seem churlish to lavish more praise on the runner-up than the victor.   Barry after all came back in magnificent fashion after his disappointing show in the half mile to win the three miles title in gallant fashion despite the reaction caused by his earlier racing and previous heavy programme.   He too proved himself a “bonny fechter”.   But we knew John Joe was capable of such running.   On the other hand, Andrew Forbes surpassed himself.   Not only did he bear the heat and burden of the day, by assuming the role of pace maker, but he took John Joe right to the tape, demonstrating an entirely unsuspected brand of finishing power.

The finish of 1949 SAAA Three Miles Championship

Despite Barry’s four star display in the 3 miles at Hampden, I had a feeling that he was beginning to feel the strain of his recent terrific programme yet the proof of the pudding is the eating.   A few days later the Tipperary man completed the mile at Helenvale Park in the wonderful time of 4 mins 12.1 secs , just 1.1 secs outside Wooderson’s all-comers record of 4 mins 11 secs.   Barry lapped in respectively 61, 64, 66 and 61.2 secs.   Wooderson in 60, 64, 66 and 61 secs.   A remarkable similarity indeed.  

As if that were not enough, Barry competed at Dublin next day where he gave an example of his amazing powers of recuperation.   In the 2 miles invitation event he ran clean away from Douglas Wilson who joined him on the scratch mark and passed Andy Forbes off the 35 yards mark to put up the magnificent time of 8 mins 59 secs, 6 secs faster than the time put up by Sidney Wooderson 3 years ago and claimed as a world record for a grass track.   Barry’s time is the fastest ever run in these islands.   The British record stands to the credit of Gunder Hagg of Sweden with his time of 9 mins 0.6 secs set at the White City in 1945.   Incidentally, though again beaten by Barry, Andrew Forbes ran another grand race, clocking an approximate time of 9 mins 17 secs, only 4 secs outside Scottish native record time.”   

Barry went on to win the AAA’s 3 miles on 16th June at the White City.   “Andrew Forbes (Victoria Park) knew quite well that to figure among the leaders at the finish of the three miles he had to get out to the front, and so he made most of the pace in the early stages, and then JJ Barry, who was the favourite for the race, took a hand in the leading out work.   Between them they they reeled off the first mile in 4 mins 47.6 secs, two miles in 9 mins 33 secs and despite a determined challenge by the Englishman AH Chivers Barry stayed on to win in 14 mins 11 sec.   Forbes finished fourth behind HA Olney in 14 mins 36.8 secs, a time which he has beaten handsomely more than once.”

This prompting Emmet Farrell to mention him as a possible British athlete of the Year.   “John Joe Barry has of course put up the most consistently high standard of performances in these islands.   Technically John Joe does not rank as a British runner as in International competition like the European or Olympic Games he would represent Eire.   The great Irish runner is the promoter’s dream, a colourful, brilliant whole-hearted trier.   Last year he ran like a novice this year he is on the fringe of world class.   What of the future?   Sooner or later he must meet men of the Reiff-Zatopek class.   Will he endeavour to conserve his energies somewhat?   Will he get down to a definite schedule?   We shall see.”

Before meeting these stars however, it was back to earth with a bump when he ran a mile at Linlithgow the following week in 4 minutes 20.8 seconds but could only finish fifth – he was conceding starts up to 165 yards in the handicap.   A week later in the Vale of Leven Sports he had a tussle with Walter Lennie of the home club (who had a 55 yard start on him)  to finish second to the home runner by the width of a vest in 4:20.5.   On August 6th at the Rangers Sports, Barry “was his usual rampant self” in winning the two miles – “never before had he made his opponents appear such novices” – from Andy Forbes (off 20 yards) and James Reid (off 40 yards) in 9:14.2.   On 13th August in the international between England & Wales and Scotland & Ireland, he won the three miles in 14:41.6.   On 27th August he set a new Irish record for the mile of 4 minutes 8.9 seconds.   The ‘Herald’ said: “JJ Barry whose previous best time for the mile was 4 mins 9.4 secs failed in his attempt in Dublin to reach the goal of all milers – a four minute mile.   He did, however, set a new Irish record of 4 mins 8.9 secs.   A second lap of 65 seconds ruined his chances, but his times for the first third and fourth laps of  60.6, 60.7 and 61.3 seconds were creditable efforts.”

At the start of September he ran in Belgium over a mile against Willy Slijkhuis of Holland but was beaten by almost four seconds – 4:12.4 to 4:16.0 – and the report on the race in the Scots Athlete ended with the following paragraph:   “Unless he changes his mind Barry intends to settle in the USA after appearing in the indoor season early next year, and if so we may see him only on rare occasions if at all.   I feel certain that the “Ballycurran Hare” will prove a popular figure over there.   Our loss will be America’s gain.”   And so it proved – John Joe moved to USA and was the first of many great Irish runners to study and train at Villanova University.

Over his career, John Joe Barry won nine Irish track titles, one Irish senior cross country title, one English AAA 3-mile title (1949), one Scottish AAA 3-mile title (1949), and one American indoor mile title in 1950. He won his Irish cross country title as well as an Irish mile and 4-mile title in 1945 with Ballincurry AC. In 1946 he won the 880 yard and mile titles with Civil Service Harriers, in 1948 he won the 880 yard and mile titles with Clonliffe Harriers, and in 1949 he won the 880 yard, mile and 3-mile titles also with Clonliffe Harriers.  

The St Machan’s club in Lennoxtown was set up by Father Denis O’Connell in a little village under the Campsie Fells just north-east of Glasgow.   During his early years in Scotland, Father O’Connell was alarmed at the divide between Catholic and Protestant and set about using athletics as a means to bring the communities closer together.    Among his activities was a Community Games where all could come together and he also established the St Machan’s Athletic Club.    During his time in Lennoxtown, 1941 to 1949, the club grew steadily with John Joe Barry being an outstanding example to all in the area, not just the athletes.   Strangely enough, his departure to Methil in Fife coincided almost exactly with John Joe’s move to USA.   He organised sports meetings in Lennoxtown and further afield bringing many of the very best athletes in Scotland to compete there.  

Father Whelan in Lennoxtown presents John Joe with a trophy: Father O’Connell in the middle.

John Joe Barry was the first of many, many famous Irishmen to travel to the United States – he was followed by such as Olympic champion Ron Delany, Eamonn Coughlan, Ray Flynn, Frank Murphy, Noel Carroll and Sonia O’Sullivan.

There is a mass of information about him on the internet but I only found one clip of him in action – winning a mile in Dublin in 1949 – and it is here at –

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/barrys-mile-highlights-dublin-sports

Look him up and read about him.   A wonderful runner, a charismatic character and a great role model – we were fortunate that he ran in Scotland and brought out the best in our best men as well as bringing the crowds out to athletic meetings.

Dick Wedlock (3) leading the international field at Elgoibar in 1972 including Lachie Stewart (1)

His record here was a good one: 1970  5th, 1971  8th; 1972  4th (10th M Gammoudi!)

Dick Wedlock was a superbly good athlete who was maybe unfortunate to be competing at the same time as Lachie Stewart, Ian McCafferty, Ian Stewart, Fergus Murray and Don Macgregor.   A Commonwealth Games competitor in 1970, his run was overshadowed by Lachie’s superb victory, a multi-international in the world cross-country championships and a very good road runner, he always found the spotlight on others.   In the twenty first century he would be an undoubted star of Scottish and British endurance running.   His unfortunate accident brought him headlines of the wrong kind altogether and to some extent ensured that he would be remembered for something other than his athletic qualities.   How good was he?   Let’s just list some of his achievements:

• 5 senior appearances in the World Cross-Country Championships and 1 Junior
• Dick won the Scottish cross-country championship as a senior in 1969, was second in 1970  and third in 1971, plus bronze medals in the Junior and Youth Nationals
• 5 gold and 3 silver team medals in the Edinburgh to Glasgow from 9 runs plus a gold, two silver and one bronze in the Senior National,
• Team gold in the English CC championships.
• Team silver in the European Clubs CC Championship twice
• Commonwealth Games 10,000 metres, 1970
• Best times of 8:17.8 (3000m, 1970), 8:59.4 (Two Miles, 68), 13:47.0 (Three Miles, 68), 14:21.6 (5000m, 70), 29:57.4 (Six Miles, 66) and 28:42.6 (10,000m, 70) as well as being an able steeplechaser.
• Three silver and two bronze medals at SAAA Track Championships.

Well-liked and highly respected he has been overlooked for too long.

Dick Wedlock (Born on 26th January 1946) started off as a Junior Boy in Shettleston Harriers.    The Shettleston Harriers Centenary History tells the story of his beginnings: “Allan Scally first spotted Dick as a 12 year old at the St Bridget’s Secondary School Sports at Maxwell Park, Baillieston, in 1958.   Within months Allan was predicting a great future for his new protege: ‘I have complete faith in this new boy.   His performances to date are comparable to any of the well-known athletes I have coached, even Eddie Bannon and Graham Everett.’   Perhaps the fact that coach and athlete shared the same birthday served to enhance the relationship.   For the next four years Dick was a regular member of the boys teams and by the age of 16 was Midland District Champion, Lanarkshire champion, Lanarkshire Mile and Scottish Half Mile record holder, culminating in the National Senior Boys title in 1961.   When he defended his title the following year he was beaten by Duncan Middleton, Springburn Harriers, his first defeat in two years, a result he reversed a few weeks later”

Dick was clearly very good right from the start and had dominated the Shettleston club championships winning the Senior Boys titles in 1960, 1961 and 1962 and the Youths title in 1963.   Not surprisingly it came as a shock when he decided to leave later in 1963.   Shortly after the defeat by Duncan, he joined Motherwell YMCA in a move that took many by surprise,   Barred from team competition for 14 months, he ran as an individual and won many races and titles before helping helping Motherwell win District and Edinburgh to Glasgow titles.   When he left, champion decathlete and staunch Shettleston man Norrie Foster is quoted as saying, “The first thing we must remember is that we are amateurs and if Dick feels that he can better his running by leaving, then he has every right to do so.   Instead of grumbling, let’s find out why he is leaving, and if the fault lies with us, put it right.”   This magnanimous attitude is possibly one of the reasons that Dick returned to Shettleston when the Motherwell YMCA club split on the formation of Law and District AAC.

He started his career with Motherwell in 1964 in the style that he left Shettleston: third in the Inter-Counties behind Springburn’s Knox and Middleton, first by 15 seconds in the Scottish YMCA Championships, third in the National, again behind Knox and Middleton all achieved in February before winning the British YMCA Championships (held at Paisley) by 200 yards.   Into the summer and in the Lanarkshire Championships he won the Junior 880 yards in 2:02.3, and finished second in the mile.   He was not placed in the West District Championships the following week and was also unplaced in the SAAA Championships – no disgrace with opposition like Graeme Grant (Dumbarton), Knox and Middleton in the same age group – but came the winter and he ran in his first Edinburgh to Glasgow in November 1964.   Motherwell and had no fewer than five best stage time – Alex Brown was first on the first stage, Andy on the fourth stage, David Simpson on the fifth, Ian McCafferty on the sixth, Dick on the seventh (32 seconds faster than the second quickest) and John Poulton on the final stage brought the team home.    Bert McKay and Willie Marshall made up the team.   It was an excellent debut.    At the start of the season in October he was in the second team for the McAndrew Relay, the Lanarkshire Relay (sixth fastest Motherwell man) and the Midlands District Relay at Cleland where Motherwell teams were first and third (he was fifth fastest Motherwell man) before the ‘big one’ – the E-G in which he performed so well.   Motherwell was so strong at this time that they were winning in virtually every race and although he probably raced in the Lanarkshire Championships, the Nigel Barge, etc his name does not appear again until the Midland District in mid-January where he finished sixth to be first Junior.   In the  Inter-Counties in February he finished third behind Lachie Stewart and A Carse of Edinburgh and fourth in the Scottish YMCA Championships.   On to the National Championships in February where he was a first year Junior who had been third in the Youths race the year before.    This time he was fourth in the Junior race behind McCafferty, Roger Young of Edinburgh University and Alex Brown.    This gained him selection for the Scottish team and in the International he finished twenty fifth to be a scoring runner for the team.

His only ranking the following summer was for the steeplechase where he recorded 9:49.4 to be fourteenth in Scotland but Dick’s name did not appear in any championship or open meeting but he was no doubt a member of several Two and Three Mile teams held throughout the summer because he came into winter 1965/66 in good shape.   We don’t know how well he did in the McAndrew since he wasn’t in the first team of McCafferty, McKay, Brown and Brown, but the following week when Motherwell mixed their first two teams to take first and second in the Lanarkshire Relays, he was in the first team of AP Brown, I McCafferty, R Wedlock and M McNulty who won with Dick’s 12:39 being the sixth fastest of this outstanding club squad.  Seven days afterwards he was lead off man for the second team in the YMCA relays and led the first team at the changeover – despite this he was still only sixth fastest club man in the event.   He was therefore not in the first team which won the District Relays at the end of October, and he may also have run in the Glasgow University Road Race but the big one was the Edinburgh to Glasgow in the middle of November.   This time the Motherwell club had to be satisfied with second place to Edinburgh University  described as the best University cross-country team ever assembled – with the students faster on six of the eight stages.   Dick ran the third fastest time on the final stage and took over over a minute behind Roger Young for the University: he had third fastest time behind Alastair Johnston (VPAAC) and Young who was ten seconds quicker than he was.   Thereafter it was back to the second team for this talented runner who had, probably without realising it, run his last E-G for Motherwell.   Motherwell won the Nigel Barge Road race at the start of 1966 (with the two Browns and Bert McKay the top team and the second team was sixth) and also the  District championship where Dick was probably among the counting runners but not among those named in the Press.   It was into the National Cross-Country at Hamilton where Dick did not figure in the results at all.    In summer 1966 he won his first SAAA Senior track medal.  It was in the Six Miles where he was third in a time of 29:57.6.   But, maybe more important, 1966 was the year when Dick left Motherwell and moved back to Shettleston.   He was now just coming up to twenty one and had had a very good career so far.   He had raced with and watched and learned from some of the very best athletes in the country at both Motherwell and earlier with Shettleston.    It was natural that his very best years were yet to come and would be spent in the blue and gold of that club.   The Shettleston Harriers history remarks “When some Motherwell members left to form Law and District AC, Dick returned to Barrachnie to play a key role as the club emerged from its fallow time.”

I am going to jump to the winter of 1967 which was when he was available for team duty and things really started to hum – for Dick and also for Shettleston.   The October relay season saw the Shettleston team unbeaten abd unbeatable – he had come from the totally dominant Motherwell YMCA to the equally powerful Shettleston just at the point of transition.   The results of October are summarised in the table below.

It was clear that this team would do well and in the Edinburgh to Glasgow in November the club, seventh in 1966, improved to second with a very good squad forward: Norman Morrison third on the first stage, A Blamire held third, Martin McMahon was still third at the end of the third stage, Bill Scally pulled the team up to second, Les Meneely on five dropped back to third, Dick ran the long and very competitive sixth stage and pulled the team back up to second with the third fastest run of the day, Bill Mullett and Henry Summerhill brought the club home in second. This was the famous race where there was a dead-heat awarded for second place.   Henry Summerhill for Shettleston and Terry Baker of Aberdeen were neck-and-neck heading for the line when a taxi cut across in front of the Aberdeen man; Summerhill took the chance and accelerated away to cross the line first.   The judges held a street corner conclave and announced a dead-heat.      Not only Dick’s first year back but he had already won three gold medals in the short relays and here was a silver one in the Edinburgh to Glasgow.   At the time of the Kingsway Relay, Ron Marshall of the ‘Glasgow Herald’ spoke to Dick who “attributed his big improvement this season to avoiding injuries and having a fast group of men to train with.   It has also been no disadvantage for him to set up home a mere sprint away from Shettleston’s track! 

On 25th November Dick won the match between the SCCU and the Army and was selected for the match against the Universities on 9th December.   On 2nd December in the Lanarkshire Championships, he was fifth – behind McCafferty, Knox, Brown and Brown!   Three of his former Motherwell team-mates in the first four.   In the match against the Universities he was fifth but moved up to fourth because in fourth place was a non-scoring reserve – the very good Jim Brennan of Maryhill.     At the start of 1968 he took part in the Nigel Barge Road Race at Maryhill and finished fifth in the same time as team mate Norman Morrison in the Shettleston team that finished third.   The following week, Dick won the Springburn Cup road race from Jim Brennan and the ‘Herald’s’ reporter suggested that the carrot of a trip to a European cross-country race had encouraged the vegetarian Wedlock.   He was listed as a reserve for these events which were frequent at the time.   There were several cross-country races held on the Continent every winter and the Scots three- and four-man teams were popular and successful with Lachie, Ian, Fergus Murray, Jim Brown and company all doing well and advertising the quality of Scottish endurance running.   One of these was in Elgoibar and on January 20th Dick finished fourteenth there in a team where Lachie Stewart was second.   In the National at the end of February, won by Lachie Stewart of Vale of Leven AAC, Dick was the first Shettleston Harrier to finish when he crossed the line in eighth place.   Shettleston were fifth placed team.   No place was found for him in the team when it was selected the following Monday evening.

In summer 1968, Dick was ranked in the One, Two and Three miles with best times of 4:11.6, 8:59.4 and 13:47.   In the Scottish Championships at Grangemouth on 22nd June he was second to Lachie Stewart in the Three Miles in 13:50.4 to Lachie’s 13:48.4 with Alastair Blamire third in 13:52.6.   Although running for Vale of Leven, Shettleston and Edinburgh University, they would soon all be running as part of a superb Shettleston Harriers team.   In general though, he kept a low profile over the summer season.

Winter 1968/69 started with the McAndrew Relays at Scotstoun, and the headline in the “Glasgow Herald” read ‘Easy Victory For Shettleston In McAndrew Relay’, and the text read “Shettleston Harriers gave notice on Saturday of what should be a succession of relay wins in the coming months when they led the field in the McAndrew Relay at Jordanhill from start to finish.   Their winning time, 55:20, was less than a minute outside Motherwell’s record set three years ago.    The move to Shettleston from Vale of Leven of Lachie Stewart certainly bolsters the formers strength but  as it turned out on Saturday, they could have won just as easily using their fastest man in the B team, Alastair Blamire.   He had been unable to run in the club’s trial the previous Saturday and so went automatically into their B quartet.   Blamire chased his clubmate Dick Wedlock spiritedly round the three mile circuit and finished only 16 seconds behind, well clear of any chasing runners.   For a long time afterwards, the B team looked capable of finishing second overall, but Summerhill who dropped one place and, more particularly Patterson on the third leg let the chance slip.   Stewart and Wedlock shared the fastest individual time of 13 minutes 30 seconds and fourteen seconds slower came Ian McCafferty”   Team and times:   R Wedlock   13:30;   M McMahon   14:09;   JL Stewart   13:30;   W Scally   14:11.      Seven days later it was the Lanarkshire Relays where the Seniors won again, thanks to a good team performance- Bill Scally’s first stage where he kept Alex Brown at bay, Lachie Stewart’s second stage where he increased the lead against Ian McCafferty and Dick Wedlock and Martin McMahon on the last leg.   .   The four fastest times were Stewart, Wedlock, McCafferty and Scally.    In the Midland District Relay Championship two weeks later they won again, this time the heroes were Tom Patterson 11:53, Dick Wedlock 11:47, Bill Scally 12:03 and Lachie Stewart 11:44.  It was a surprisingly good run by Tom who had been in the second team for all the other relays.

The short relay season over, all the ‘big’ teams – Shettleston, Law and Bellahouston – kept all their men out of the GU Road Race.   Came the Edinburgh to Glasgow eight-man relay the following week.   Martin McMahon was fourth at the end of the first stage and Norman Morrison dropped to fifth on the second stage, Tom Patterson on the third stage moved them from third to second and Dick Wedlock put them in front – from then on it was no contest and they were only two seconds (a quarter of a second per man, as Ron Marshall said in the ‘Herald’) outside Edinburgh University’s record.   On the very last day of the month, Dick ran in the SCCU v The Army and was third behind Blamire and McCafferty.   In the Lanarkshire championships on the first Saturday in December, he was second behind Lachie Stewart in the winning team.   Dick received a nice early Christmas present when he was chosen in December as part of a three man team – Lachie Stewart and Jim Alder were the others – to race in Hannut, Belgium, at the start of February.   In the Nigel Barge at the start of January 1969 he finished second, behind Lachie but in front of Andy Brown and Bert McKay.   The following week, in Lachie’s absence Dick won the Springburn Cup by almost a minute from Harry Gorman of the host club.   Then came the race in Hannut on 1st February: won by Gaston Roelants from Tim Johnston, the Scots runners were down the field a bit.   Lachie who had won the race the previous year, was clearly out of sorts and finished twenty fifth, Jim Alder was fifteenth and new boy Wedlock (referred to in the report as ‘Ron’) was eighth and first Scot.   Selection repaid!   On 8th February, Dick won the Shettleston Harriers club championship and the Nationals were not far away.   It was Dick’s chance to shine and he had a brilliant run to beat them all – McCafferty, Lachie (recovering from ‘flu to be fair), Myatt, Alder and all the rest.    Selection certain. for the international which, this year, was a ‘homer’ for the Scots being held over a  hilly course at Mountblow Golf Course in Clydebank.

The events are covered on page 138 of Colin Shields’ official history of the cross-country union as follows: Lachie Stewart defeated Mariano Haro (Spain) in the Elgoibar International race before being struck down by ‘flu.   He had barely recovered by the time of the National Championships at Duddingston Park in Edinburgh where the ground was icy, rutted and rock hard after a bad spell of weather.   Still suffering from the after effects of the ‘flu, Stewart had no chance of achieving his third successive win and finished a disappointing tenth.   Dick Wedlock shared the lead with Alder for three of the five laps before striking out on his own over the final three miles to score a deserved victory.   His only other National win had been in the Boys race eight years earlier and in the intervening years he had the misfortune to record good performances, which would have won races in any other era, behind such illustrious names as McCafferty, Murray and Stewart.   Alder faded in the last couple of miles and Fergus Murray sped through to take second place, 8 seconds behind the winner.   …..   The international championships, for the first time since 1960, were staged in Scotland and the Union, in conjunction with Clydebank Town Council, staged them at Clydebank.   A hilly picturesque course was laid out around Dalmuir Park and the adjacent golf course, that was acclaimed as the most testing course over which the championship had been held for a number of years.    Without any of the bad luck that had affected his performance in previous international championships, Ian McCafferty fiished third for the best individual performance by a Scot since Flockhart’s victory in 1937 in Brussels.”   Dick finished 36th to be one of the scoring men in a good Scots team.

Scottish team at Vichy: Weatherhead, Stewart, Stoddart, Falconer, Wedlock, Bryan Jones, in front: Morrison, McCafferty and Alder.

With the Commonwealth Games being held in Edinburgh in 1979, 1969 was a key year for all Scots track runners.   Dick started his season on 17th May with a win in the Land o’ Burns Trophy meeting Three Miles in 14:9.4 – three and a half seconds clear of Eddie Knox in second, but he didn’t appear in the first three in any of the middle distance events at the West District Championships at the end of the month..    He next appeared in the columns of the Press after his second place in the SAAA Championships at the end of June.   Held at Grangemouth, the 5000m race was won by Lachie Stewart 14:09.6 with Dick second in 14:24.8 and Bert McKay third in 14:30.8.  By the end of the season, Dick was ranked 14th in the 3000m with 8:27.8, third in the 5000m with 14:03.4 and twelfth in the 3000m steeplechase with 9:34.8.     The 5000m time was actually third equal with Michael Bradley who was better known as a miler/1500m runner, and they were both behind Lachie Stewart (first with 13:55) and Gareth Bryan-Jones (second with 13:56) and ahead of Jim Alder (14:03.6), Fergus Murray (14:06), Alastair Blamire (14:07) and  Ian McCafferty (14:13.6).    With scalps like these under his belt, the selectors had to take even more notice of Dick Wedlock in Commonwealth Games year.

The winter of 1969/70 started as normal with the McAndrew Relay race organised at Scotstoun by Victoria Park AAC.   Except that for Shettleston, Dick Wedlock did not run – he was substituted by Junior Man, Joe Brolly and the best they could do was second.   He was however forward for the Lanarkshire championships where he ran the third stage and came from 170 yards down on Law & District to hand over a winning lead to young Joe Brolly.   He ran the first stage of the Kingsway Relays at Dundee the following week, led the field home and shared the fastest time of the day (13:25)  with Fergus Murray.    The team could only finish third this time.   The West District Championships were held on 1st November and the Shettleston team were given a big lead by Dick Wedlock on the first stage over Andrew Brown of Law and District – this time he was fourth fastest over the course.   Shettleston’s top men all avoided the Glasgow University race and then in the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay, they finished second to Edinburgh Southern Harriers – Dick was one of three club men who set the fastest stage time of the day when he was 19 seconds faster than Bryan-Jones on the fourth stage.

1970 started with a victory for Dick in the Beith race on 1st January and two days later,  the Nigel Barge road race where he was again second to Lachie Stewart in a very illustrious field.   After the race, the Scottish selectors agreed that the team for Elgoibar and for San Sebastian on the 18th and 25th of the month would be Lachie, Dick and Adrian Weatherhead of Edinburgh.    In San Sebastian, the Scots were fourth with Lachie Stewart fourth, Dick was sixth and Weatherhead twentieth, other than Lachie winning, the result of the Elgoibar race is not known.   His good running continued with a victory in the Inter-Counties cross-country championship on 31st January when he won by 9 seconds from  Ferguson of Ayr having led from start to finish and his second successive victory in the Shettleston club championships in the next two weeks.   In the National on 24th February, on Ayr Racecourse, was won by Jim Alder with Dick Wedlock second and Bill Mullett third.    The team in the photograph above was chosen with Bill Stoddart and Jim Wight as reserves.      In the race itself, the Scots team again were ‘so near and yet so far’ and their excellent team finished fifth with their last three scoring runners in 42nd, 4th and 46th – Dick was 45th.   It had however, been a very good winter for the Shettleston man and he went into the summer of 1970 in great shape.

His first appearance that summer was the West District Championships and in the 5000m on a slow Westerlands track, he was third behind Lachie Stewart (14:10) and Mike Bradley (Springburn, 14:20) in 14:30.   Bradley was the form man – he had won the 5000m at Meadowbank at the beginning of May and the 1500/5000 double in the Lanarkshire championships.   Dick made his big bid in a tremendous race with Lachie Stewart in the Scottish Championship at Meadowbank on 5th June when Lachie won in 28:33.4 and Dick was second in 28:42.0.   If you want to see how hard it was, have a look at the photograph below, which I obtained from Lachie.        They went into the Games as second and third fastest behind Jerome Drayton of Canada.   Most of  the English Press didn’t believe it: I remember watching the English 10000m championship and hearing the commentator (I think it was David Coleman) saying that “Lachie Stewart is said to have run 28:33 in Scotland”.    Mel Watman in the “Athletics Weekly” of 18th July 1970 had an article on ‘Who To Look Out For In Edinburgh’ in which he said about the 10000m: “I confess I shall be unable to view this race with professional detachment.   I badly want Ron Clarke to win.  Clarke is the athlete I admire most in the world and I feel that it would be a gross injustice should he pass from the scene without a gold medal to his name.    If he can’t make it, and there has been little evidence lately that he is anywhere near his very best form (which may prove beneficial as the “big one” may come at just the right time), then I hope it’s Dick Taylor who succeeds – just to shame the critics who kicked him when he was down last September.   Temu (the Olympic champion), O’Brien, Drayton and Matthews among others should make sure it does not develop into a private duel.   Mel Watman:   1.   Clarke;   2.  Taylor;   3.  O’Brien.   Stan Greenberg:  1.   Matthews;   2.   Clarke;   3.   Drayton.”    Two eminent statisticians and not a mention  of the men ranked second and third in the Commonwealth and no real reason for their prediction – Clarke because he ‘deserved it’ and Taylor ‘just to show them.’   A reminder of the top ten going into the race:   1.   Drayton (Canada)  28:25.8; 2.   Stewart   28:33.4;   3.  Wedlock  28:42.0;   4.   Clarke   28:43.8;   5.   O’Brien (Australia)   28:47.2;   6.   Caine (England)   28:51.0;   7.   Matthews (England)   28:59.8;   8.   Taylor (England)   29:05..0;   9.   Stephen (Tanzania)   29:15.6;   10.   Plain (Wales)   29:26.8.

The story of the race, and Lachie’s triumph is too well known to bear repeating here but in all the hullabaloo about the race, Dick Wedlock acquitted himself nobly in this, his first Games of any sort and at the age of only 24 in an event where athletes mature with experience.   He finished  thirteenth in 29:09.8.   The full results are at the Commonwealth Games website, just click on the link for a or the full list  http://www.thecgf.com/games/results.asp      Undoubtedly the high point of his career so far, Dick and his supporters were looking forward to even better things to come.

Dick and Lachie after the trial: they knew they’d been in a race!

Not surprisingly with both Stewart and Wedlock plus Norman Morrison in the team, Shettleston won the McAndrew Relay with Bill Scally the fourth man running only one second slower than Dick.   The club mixed the runners up a bit and won the Lanarkshire 10 Mile Road Relay with their B team in second place.   Dick ran the last leg of the A team and like the previous week, was not the fastest man in the team – even with Lachie Stewart in the B squad.   By the Midland District Relays on 7th November he had started to show his true form with joint fastest lap with Shettleston team-mate Norman Morrison.   As in the Lanarkshires, Shettleston had first two teams.   The Shettleston runners again avoided the Glasow University road race, preferring to prepare for the Edinburgh to Glasgow relay – it was clear that they had an outstanding team.   The very good quartet from the previous winter of Stewart, Wedlock Morrison and Scally were still there and arguably in better form than twelve months before and such as Henry Summerhill, Tom Patterson, Les Meneely and Tom Grubb were all looking sharper and were certainly a year more confident.     The team on the day in running order was Grubb, Wedlock, Patterson, Morrison, Summerhill, Stewart, Meneely and Scally and they were given a really hard time of it by Edinburgh Southern Harriers – ESH led for the first four laps and there were seconds in it all the way – indeed at the end of the third lap the were neck and neck with a time of 1:20:33 each, after the fourth stage the times were 1:50:32 and 1:50:33.  Even after the long sixth stage the gap was only 46 seconds and at the end of the race Shettleston won by 13 Seconds.   Dick had had a super run on the second stage, turning in the fastest time ahead of Fergus Murray, Hugh Barrow, Frank Clement, Jim Wight, Colin Youngson and Doug Gunstone.   The ‘Glasgow Herald’ for 7th December had the headline, ‘Splendid Victory for Wedlock’ after he had beaten Lachie Stewart by 66 seconds in the Lanarkshire Championships with Tom Patterson third.

On 12th December the SCCU team was beaten into fourth place but Dick Wedlock had a superb run finishing second to  Andy Holden after a hard race.   The three top men were absent from the SCCU team since they were racing in San Sebastian.   The report on the race read: “Wedlock made a change of plan a few days ago as to how he would tackle the race.   A couple of weeks ago he had little intention of going all out.   As far as he was concerned the Solihull event would be just a workout at the back of the field.   He changed his mind however in mid-week and it was just as well for the SCCU as the nest Scot was Norman Morrison in twentieth place.   Andy Holden, an international steeplechaser from Preston, was the individual winner, but not before Wedlock had tested him to the utmost over the four-lap trail covering a total distance of 7 miles 600 yards.   At half-distance a bunch of about ten runners were setting the standard, when Wedlock, swiftly pursued by Holden, broke away.   The short striding Scot with the imperceptible heel-lift created a bit of space for himself but not enough to snap the thread of contact between himself and the man from Preston.   Towards the end of the third lap, being run over heavy grassland with  few undulations, Holden took over the lead and had about six seconds in hand.   He extended this to about ten seconds on the next lap but Wedlock came again on the run-in and was down once more to six seconds.   Alan Blinston bronze medallist in the European 5000m last year was eight seconds behind Wedlock”

In the second week of the New Year, He won the Springburn Cup ra e from Alastair Johnston of Victoria Park.  but a week later in the Nigel Barge Road Race he was beaten by Ronnie McDonald of Monkland Harriers who was still an 18-year-old schoolboy.   They, together with Alastair Johnston, were together until at about 200 yards to go, McDonald just took off.   “He was just too fast for me,” said Dick after the race.   The National was in February and on 31st January Dick was the highest placed Scot when he was eighth in the San Sebastian International Cross Country Race Don Macgregor was eighteenth and Gareth Bryan-Jones thirty fourth which set him up nicely for the National Championship at Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, where he was third behind Alder and Blamire to lead Shettleston to victory in the team race  and earn him selection for the world championships in Spain.   Before then however came the English Cross-Country Championships and Shettleston completed their wonderful unbeaten winter season by winning yet again.   Blamire (11th), Stewart (19th), Wedlock (24th), Morrison (32nd), Summerhill (64th) and Grubb (131st) were the men.   In a very muddy trail for the international championship in Spain, Wedlock was the second Scot behind Ian Stewart (9th) when he was twenty fourth.   He had been a counter in every cross-country championship he had run.

The 1971 cross-country team:

Back Row: Bill Scally, Henry Summerhill, Dick Wedlock, Norman Morrison and Alastair Blamire

Front Row: Les Meneely, Tom Patterson, Lachie Stewart and Tom Grubb 

In the West District Championships at the end of May 1971, Dick shared the pacemaking with Ian McCafferty before finishing second in 14:45.6 ahead of Hugh Barrow on 14:52.4.   It was a good start to the summer if a bit slower than the previous year and a week later in the 500m at Rawyards Park, Airdrie he was second to Jim Brown in an almost identical time of 14:45.8 with Paul Bannon third.       There were however no Scottish titles for him this year although he ended the summer with best performances of  8:33.4 for 3000m, 14:27.0 for 5000m and 29:42.6 for 10000m when finishing third in the SAAA Championships, won by Lachie in 29:00.0.

Winter 1971/72 started with the McAndrew Relay.   Shettleston won this yet again with Dick Wedlock on the last leg after Scally, Stewart and Summerhill had all done their bit.   In the County relay the following week, Paul Bannon of Shettleston was struck by a car on the opening leg; fortunately he was unhurt but the team could only pull up to third by the end of the race with Wedlock on the final stage after Stewart and Meneely.   In the Allan Scally Relay at Shettleston Dick had the unusual experience of dropping two places – to Pat Maclagan (VPAAC) and Alastair Wood (AAAC) and could only say at the end that it was just one of those days and he just couldn’t get going.   The team won however. The following week, he was back in form and running on the third stage he was the fastest of the Shettleston contingent and second quickest on the day ahead of Lachie Stewart and ten seconds behind Jim Brown.   The big one – the Edinburgh to Glasgow was the next race on the fixture list.   Shettleston triumphed but not without a serious fight.    However it was down to Dick Wedlock to get the team clear when he set off only one second behind Alastair Johnston on the long sixth stage.    He was content to run on Alastair’s shoulder right up until the last mile when he moved away to hand over a 70 yard lead and they were never caught thereafter.    Only a week later there was a televised cross-country race from Parliament Hill in London and Dick in 15th place was third Scot home, behind Lachie Stewart and Jim Alder.   Seven days after that, it was the Lanarkshire Cross-Country Championship which Dick had won the previous year.   This time he led until after the halfway mark before the ‘find of the season’, the prodigious Junior, Jim Brown and Ian McCafferty broke away with Brown the winner.    At the start of the New Year, 1972, Dick won the Beith race from clubmate Henry Summerhill but the main article in the ‘Glasgow Herald’ was about the European Clubs championship which Shettleston had won the right to contest having won the British championships.   It was to be on the 16th of January in Belgium.   On January 8th, not running in the Nigel Barge this time, Dick won the Springburn Cup race at Auchinairn by getting clear of club mate Norman Morrison a mere half mile from the finish.

Clearly in fine form Dick went with the rest of the Shettleston team to Arlon in Belgium, representing Britain in the European clubs championship.   He performed nobly finishing second to Karel Lismont, European marathon champion.   Shettleston, who were ‘set a marvellous example by Wedlock’ finished second with 41 points to the Belgian 17.   Dick missed the National because of ‘flu but he was nevertheless chosen for the international championships in Cambridge.   With an in-form McCafferty, Lachie Stewart, Jim Alder, Alastair Blamire, Ian Stewart and other first class athletes all chosen, the disappointing results of the previous years were expected to be over.   Great things were expected of the team.   Meanwhile back with the Shettleston team, if they were to qualify for the European championships they had first to win the English national.    Unfortunately 1972 was the year of the notorious Sutton Coldfield race.   A severe snowstorm started up as the race began and got steadily worse as the event went on.   Many athletes dropped out distressed, some developed frost bite and generally the race was a disaster – Shettleston finished down in 23rd place with1263 points..   Dick Wedlock however ran on and was their first finisher when he crossed the line fifteenth.   The Scottish team finished fourth the following week – not bad but everyone, athletes, officials, Scottish runners, the team themselves – all thought that this could be Scotland’s year.    Scotland’s long-suffering team manager Jim Morton was not just disappointed, he was angry and gave the team a real tongue lashing in the public prints.   He did however, exclude from his tongue lashing Dick Wedlock, who finished seventy second, as ‘this is the first time he’s let me down.’

In summer 1972, Dick appeared in two ranking lists: in the 5000m he was twentieth with 14:31.4 and in the 10000, he was seventh with 29:59.2.   He opened the season with a win in the West District Championships at a rainy Carluke in 14:31.4, exactly one second ahead of Alastair Johnston of Victoria Park.

Norman, Dick, Paul Bannon and Lachie won the McAndrew Relay in 1972 and set a course record but Shettleston lost their District Relay title in early November but with Lachie, Dick, Paul Bannon and Alastair Blamire were all absent, being rested by the club for the following week end’s race at Parliament Hill in London.    Shettleston did in fact win the team race and Dick was forty third.   The Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay of 1972 is remembered as ‘Ian Stewart’s Second Stage’ when the Anglo, running in the colours of Aberdeen AAC, smashed the record of that stage.   Dick took over from Alastair Blamire in second place on the fifth stage and Ron Marshall’s report in the ‘Glasgow Herald’ read as follows: “Dick Wedlock chose the right day to turn it on.   Chasing after Aberdeen’s Steve Taylor on the five and a half miles to that oasis called the Forestfield Hotel, Wedlock smashed the course record of 26 min 19 sec by 21 seconds and , more important, sent lachie Stewart away with a lead of 48 seconds.   The race was over.”      Dick started 1973 with fourth place in the Nigel Barge Road Race behind Norman Morrison, Paul Bannon and Doug Gunstone but this time passed on the Springburn Cup race at Bishopbriggs and was also an absentee at the Midland District Championship.   It was in January 1973 that Ian McCafferty started talking openly about turning professional and of taking payments – sometimes as much as £100 – and by the end of the month he had burned his boats as an amateur by telling ‘Scotsport’ on STV that he had an offer from USA to join their pro group but he was taking his time about taking up the offer because he had other propositions put to him, such as working with sports goods firms, particularly Puma with whom he already had an ‘arrangement’.    The international team would no longer have McCafferty on board.    The team was selected after the National in February and Dick was again one of the runners having finished ninth in the championship.   The international itself was run in Waregem, Belgium, and in deep mud in some places, shallow mud in others and not very much in the way of firm ground.   It was the year that Jim Brown won the Junior Championship to give him the complete set of gold, silver and bronze medals for the event.   Dick was well down the field in 120th position.   Shettleston, as Scottish champions this time, again took part in the European Clubs Championship in season 1972/73, and again finished second – Norman Morrison won the race, Lachie Stewart was third, Alastair Blamire ninth but Dick, who had been second the year before, dropped this time to eighteenth which gave a total good enough to defeat English team Tipton but not enough to depose the home team.

Summer 73 and the opener for Dick so often in the past, the Lanarkshire Championships at the start of May, had not one single Shettleston Harrier among the competitors.   Ron Marshall in his column directing a word of criticism a those on the lookout for non-Scottish competition.   They are, he said, becoming so selective that dozens of Scottish competitions are becoming denuded  of   their presence and so devalued.   BY the District Championships at the start of May he still had not shown his hand – the District Championships were contested mainly by Lachie (the winner), Alastair Blamire and Lawrie Spence.   Nothing at all that summer on the track – and it was the summer before the Commonwealth Games in New Zealand in January 1974.   The official Shettleston Harriers history said that a long term injury had ruled Dick out of contention.   Summer 1973 was basically written off.

Into season 1963/74 and the ‘Herald’ report said that Shettleston fielded none of their top four runners and paid the penalty.   They were actually ninth in the race and then eleventh in the Lanarkshires.   There was some consolation when they finished second to Victoria Park in the District Relays.   Although the team did not do as well as the year before, they finished sixth, Dick was on the fifth stage where he pulled the team up two places from ninth to seventh with the second fastest time of the day behind Martin Craven.   He was not in either the Nigel Barge or the Springburn Cup or the District Cross-Country races in January.       In February, he did run in the National and finished forty first and was nowhere near selection for the international.   Summer 1974 was like summer 1973 with no medals or rankings.

When Ron Marshall came to report on the McAndrew Relay in October 1974, he wrote towards the foot of his piece, “one competitor conspicuously missing from the fray was Dick Wedlock who is ill in hospital after a road accident on Thursday.   So often in these four man relays, Dick was considered as one of the mainstays of the Shettleston team.   His absence on Saturday cast a cloud not only over his club colleagues, but over all of us who have watched his many fine performances these last six or seven years.”   The report sounded a bit like an obituary – and Dick’s running career was certainly over.   The story is told in the Shettleston Harriers centenary history.   “The main talking point at the McAndrew Relay on October 5th, 1974, had nothing to do with athletics – at least not directly.   Three days previously Dick had been taking part in a Fire Service sponsored run from London to Edinburgh.   As the group approached Newcastle, he was resting with other runners in the back-up minibus parked in a lay by.   In 2003 he recalled the seconds that changed his life forever.   ‘I was stretching out on one of those long seats with my foot against the door and my head resting against the back of the driver’s seat.   I had just been handed a cup of tea when through the rear window I saw a lorry heading straight for us at speed.   I was the only one to see it and though I shouted out a warning, it was too late.’   The force of the collision drove the rear of the bus towards the driver’s seat.   Of the three other fire-fighters on board, one was thrown clear, another wrenched his back and a third, Sinclair Watson of Maryhill Harriers, was badly cut by flying glass.   Dick sustained a broken foot and a broken neck, was paralysed from the neck down and in spite of early hopes would never walk again.”  

Dick was just 28 years old and at an age when distance runners are just about at their best and at a time when he should have had another fifty or so years at least of normal life ahead of him.   There is no way to quantify the enormity of what happened to this talented and likeable young man.  The running community did what they could to help – mainly by fund raising efforts.   For instance there was a 24 hour relay held on 28th December that year organised by the Fire Service from the Fire Station at Anniesland Cross round the McAndrew relay trail with runners from all the local clubs taking part.    International athletes such as Hugh Barrow, Alastair Johnstone and Norman Morrison all took part in this one.   There were also social events held for the same purpose.    Dick came about several races for a while after the accident and died on 16th August 2007.

(from The Observer, probably in early 1981, making her born in 1948?)

Leslie Watson is a beautiful woman with a magnificent shape which is famous throughout the world of long-distance running: famous because its beauty brings a smile to all men who run with her.

She is 32 years old, 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighs 8 stone, and she has run 47 full marathons, plus two London to Brighton races (each of 54 miles 460 yards), plus one 100 kilometres race. She has even run two marathons in the same weekend. Is it any wonder, therefore, that we men who occasionally venture into the supposedly muscle-pounding, gut-wrenching realms of marathon running regard her with awe and with love?

She comes from Glasgow, from Sauchiehall Street, the only daughter of a doctor and a dancer. Her father was a university boxing Blue, her mother a professional dancer who specialised in Russian Cossack dancing. Leslie does not know why she started to run. “When I was only five, I used to arrange races with my friends after school, or after dancing classes. They always beat me so I went on and on, race after race, until eventually I outlasted someone.”

When she was ten, one of her school friends who was a member of Maryhill Harriers told her that there was a girl as slow as Leslie in the club, so she joined and thus began her athletic career. There is no doubt that she was an athletic scrubber – a scrubber being a person with little or no talent. Bruce Tulloh was a scrubber. So was I.

Scrubbers need a certain amount of luck and Leslie was lucky to find that the scrubbers of Maryhill Harriers were looked after by a P.E. teacher called John Anderson. While others trained the potential champions in the club, John made his girls work hard – so hard that complaints were made to the Scottish Women’s Athletic Association that this man was damaging the girls permanently. The damage he caused was to get three of them – Margaret Crawford, Cathy Kelly and Leslie – into the Scottish cross-country team. Leslie, at the age of 18, became the Scottish Mile Champion. And John Anderson became the Scottish National Coach.

By now she was training also to be a physiotherapist and shortly after she qualified she came down to London to take a job at St George’s Hospital, Hyde Park Corner. Six months later she resigned because she found it impossible to live, and impossible to go training, on her Health Service salary. Now she has her own practice, hard by Harley Street and Wimpole Street: an independent, successful woman.

She ran her first marathon when hot pants were fashionable. “I wore them but really I was a little too fat, so one day when I saw an advertisement for the Masters and Maidens marathon it crossed my mind that marathon running might be slimming.”

At the time she was doing some running, but no more than 20 miles per week in a good week, although she did go for one very long run of about 20 miles, very, very slowly before the Masters and Maidens “just to feel what it was like”.

That marathon would have been the end for most people. She started out far too fast, recording a personal best for five miles (29 minutes), and she was wearing light unpadded shoes which covered her feet in blisters. But she finished in 3 hours 31 minutes “knowing that I had run a stupid race and knowing that I was unfit. But it was certainly slimming!”

That marathon, the Masters and Maidens marathon, was also a landmark in the history of British sport. It was organised by a man called Alan Blatchford, the originator of challenge walks in the south of England. His events were for everybody, male or female, honoured knight or street cleaner, professional or amateur. He set a challenge and hoped that everyone who attempted it would enjoy themselves. But some athletics officials did not like this approach, and besides, it was forbidden for women athletes to run against men.

So the second time that Leslie ran in the Masters and Maidens she entered as Julie Kemp. But by now she was becoming famous in the sport as the pretty lady who always had a smile on her face and loved marathon running. And so it was inevitable that her real identity leaked out. The result: a warning that if she did it again, she would be banned from all athletics under Women’s AAA laws.

She says that people in this country seemed to be frightened of authority. “I have a Canadian friend who says that if such threats had been uttered in Canada, the whole Canadian team would have turned out in the next race and challenged the authorities to ban them all.”

But now, thanks to people like Leslie Watson and Alan Blatchford (who died, tragically, three months ago at the age of 44) sense has prevailed and women are allowed to compete with men – sometimes. Medically there was never any reason for not allowing women to run whatever distance they chose. The American College of Sports Medicine has issued a statement recommending “that females be allowed to compete at the national and international levels in the same distances in which their male counterparts compete.”

The discrimination against women was a social relic of the Victorian age, when women were regarded as the weaker sex, always having the vapours. But now there are thousands of men in Britain who have proof that women like Leslie, utterly feminine and delightful, have bodies which can outrace them and minds which never give in.

So I, who have run only one marathon, asked Leslie, who has run 47, for some advice. She said, “Don’t be put off psychologically by the distance. It’s not such a phenomenal way if you start slowly. I can remember a friend of mine, Barry, saying to me before my first marathon ‘Anyone can run a marathon – it’s just a question of at what speed.’ I agree – anyone can run a marathon if they are healthy, wear good shoes, and do a little training.”

What sort of training is she doing for the Gillette London marathon in March? “The problem about the race,” she said, “Is that it is so early in the year. I tend to use early marathons as training runs, just because I am a very lazy trainer. That’s why I would advise everybody to try some races at various distances – especially women who seem frightened of racing.”

“And as to the training itself, it is always better when you have some company. I’m now doing some speedwork with another marathon runner, Caroline Rogers, but a typical week in August this year would have been: 12 miles on Saturday, 20 miles on Sunday, 6 miles on Monday, nothing on Tuesday, an easy 9 miles on Wednesday, 12 miles on Thursday, and 6 miles on Friday. Mark you, that’s about the best week I’ve ever done – 65 miles.”

“The basis of my training is to try to concentrate on two long runs – one on Sunday of 20 miles or over, and one on Thursday of up to 15. But I wouldn’t recommend that to anybody who is only doing 20 miles a week at present. Gently, gently does it, and never get put off by the thought of the distance.”

The picture above is of Leslie Watson, in her London Olympiads kit, winning the London – Brighton race in 1979.   It is typical of how she always appeared in races – elegant, long striding, hair flowing and she always seemed to enjoy every step of her running.   Leslie Watson was one of Scotland’s top specialist marathon runners of all time – of either gender.   Starting as a young 800 metre runner with Maryhill Harriers Ladies, she became also one of the most prolific and successful of Scottish marathon and ultra distance runners with 68 career marathon wins in Scotland, England and abroad.   In 1981 she had an astonishing seventeen races in the top twenty of the Scottish rankings, all inside three hours, with Rosemary Wright (2) and Priscilla Welch filling the other three places.    The following year she only had thirteen times in the top twenty!   Remember that these were early days for women’s marathon running and she was a regular in the world rankings too with the best year being 1979 when she had no fewer than five times in the world lists.   If we go back to 1981 and list the races in chronological order rather than in ranking order we get the following table.   Two a month were not uncommon and there was not a month without a marathon between March and the very end of November!

The marks with aa asterisk indicate that the time found a place in the World Rankings for the year.   It should be noted that in the year in question she also ran a world’s best time for 50 miles on the road and at the other end of the scale had a 10:15.2 time for the 3000 metres.  She had had a good career on the track prior to taking up the marathon – the earliest mention I can find for her in any ranking list is in 1963 when she was eleventh in Scotland in the 880 Yards  and two years later she won the SWAAA One Mile Championship.   She also had World Bests at 50K on both road and track as well as a British 100K record.   Over the country she was twice Scottish Champion.   These are just the headline facts from a remarkable career which needs and deserves to be looked at more closely.  

Leslie second from left at Westerlands in Glasgow, early 1960’s

How did she get into the sport of athletics in the first place?    An article by Chris Brasher in ‘The Observer’ in early 1981 explains it as follows: “She comes from Glasgow the only daughter of a doctor and a dancer.   Her father was a University boxing blue and her mother a professional dancer.   Leslie does not know why she started to run “When I was only five I would arrange races with my friends after school or after dancing classes.   They always beat me so I went on and on, race after race, until eventually I outlasted someone. ”   When she was ten, one of her school friends who was a member of Maryhill Harriers told her that there was a girl as slow as Leslie in the club, so she joined and so began her athletic career.   There is no doubt that she was an athletic scrubber – a scrubber being a person of little or no talent.   Bruce Tulloh was a scrubber and so was I.   (Tulloh won the European 5000 metres championship and Brasher was Olympic steeplechase gold medallist.)   Scrubbers need a certain amount of luck and Leslie was lucky in to find that the scrubbers of Maryhill Harriers Ladies were looked after by a PE Teacher named John Anderson.      While others trained potential champions in the club, John made his girls work hard – so hard that complaints were made to the SWAAA that this man was damaging the girls permanently.   The damage he caused was to get three of them – Margaret Crawford, Cathie Kelly and Leslie – into the Scottish Cross Country team.   Leslie at the age of eighteen became the Scottish Mile Champion.”

How did she progress under John’s regime?   In 1961 as an Intermediate (Under 17) she recorded 2:33.8 for 880 yards to be second Intermediate in Scotland and twelfth in the Senior Rankings.   This time came down to 2:31.6 in 1962, 2:30.5 in 1963, 2:23.3 in 1964 and 2:21.5 in 1966.   The 1966 time placed her seventh in Scotland but her Mile time was second in the country with 5:14.4 and she won the SWAAA Mile title as well as being second in the West District.  In 1965 she had topped the Scottish rankings for the Mile with 5:12.5 run in Wimbledon and she finished second in the SWAAA Mile Championship behind the English girl Tomlinson (5:15.6 behind 5:06.7).    She kept running well on the track but moving up when the opportunity arose – the 3000 metres for women was only introduced in 1969 but there was no mark recorded by her in the rankings at that point although she was to go on to run inside 10 minutes for the distance.

Like all endurance runners she competed in the cross country races that were held throughout the winter with considerable success.   One of the interesting features of this racing was the number of times she finished close to the original Scottish Marathon Pioneer, Dale Greig.   In 1964 Dale won the SWCCU title with Leslie down in fourth, in 1966 Leslie won leading the Maryhill team to victory with Dale second a mere eight seconds behind.   The result was repeated in 1967 with the difference ten seconds.   In 1968 Dale won with Leslie sixth. In 1969 Lesley was seventh with Dale eighth (14 seconds difference), in 1970 Dale was eighth with Leslie ninth (12 seconds difference), in 1971 Leslie was ninth and Dale tenth – three seconds separated them.  Leslie’s next appearance in  the National was 1974 and her placings were ’74: eighth;   75: sixth;   ’76: seventh;   ’77: sixth;   ’78: sixth;   ’79: ninth;   ’80:  tenth.    Sixteen years and never lower than tenth, and then only once.   The 1974 race was the first one that had her listed as ‘London Olympiads’ rather than Maryhill.

Had she stopped there, then she would have had a successful career – very few win national titles on the track or over the country but she had both.    Back to Brasher: “After she qualified as a Physiotherapist, she came down to London to take up a job at St George’s Hospital, Hyde Park Corner.   Six months later she resigned because she found it impossible to live ,and impossible to go training, on her Health Service salary.   Now she has her own practice hard by Harley Street and Wimpole Street, a successful woman.   (The picture below is from her Clinic website).  “One day when I saw an advertisement for the Masters and Maidens Marathon it crossed my mind that it might be slimming.”   At the time she was doing some running, but no more than 20 miles per week, although she did go for one very long run of about 20 miles very slowly before the Masters and Maidens “just to find what it was like.”    She started out far too fast setting a personal best for five miles (29 minutes) but she finished in 3 hours 31 minutes “knowing that I had run a stupid race and knowing that I was unfit.” 

XXX

She started running marathons in 1975 at the age of 28 and her first win was at Barnsley and she was timed at 3:18:46.   And a brilliant career took off.   If we look only at her marathon victories then she won 52 races in the period from 1975 to 1985.    In tabular form we have the following.

These are by no means all the marathons that she ran in this period – remember that in 1981 she had seventeen of the Scottish top twenty!   In 1978 she was third in the English WAAA Marathon which was won by Joyce Smith and then she won the event in her own right in 1981 in a time of 2:49:08.   I think, looking at the results that 1979 – 1980 might be regarded as her peak for endurance running magic.   She won 24 marathons (and ran and was placed in many more) in three years;

In 1979 three women ran unofficially in the London to Brighton race and Leslie won that in 6:55:11 (the picture above in the London Olympiads vest is from that race – no number because it was unofficial!) and in the following year when the first women’s race was held over the course, she won it again in a slightly slower time of 6:56:02.

* She set a world 100K Record of 8:15:50 in Grantham

* She set a new World Record 50 miles record on the road at Lake Waramaug in the USA of 6:02:37

* She set a new World 50 Mile Record of 6:20:42 at Barnet in 1983.

The American ‘Frontrunner’ magazine reported the Lake Waramaug 50 Miles as follows: “Leslie Watson (33) came over from London, England, with the intention of breaking the women’s world record for 50 miles.   She did with a sensational 6:02:37 to break the record by two minutes.   She was tenth over all in the race, starting fairly fast, slowed a bit, but ran steadily.   She finished strong and looked good.”

But she was not yet finished with the marathon and won in Maidstone again in 1988 at the age of 40 and in 1989 won in Adelaide, Australia; Rennes in France and New Milton on Humberside.   In 1989 she also won the Davos Mountain Marathon in 6:52:51.   In 1985 she had a marathon best time of 2:46:53 and, to demonstrate that she had lost none of her track speed, recorded 9:59.9 for 3000 metres.   In 1986 her top performance time-wise was 2:45:50.   When asked by Brasher about her training, she had this to say: “Training is always better when you have some company.   I’m now doing some speedwork with another runner,  Caroline Rodgers, but a typical week in August this year (1981) would have been 12 miles on Saturday, 20 miles on Sunday, 6 miles on Monday, nothing on Tuesday, an easy nine miles on Wednesday, 12 miles on Thursday and six miles on Friday.   Mind you that’s about the best week I’ve ever done – 65 miles.   The basis of my training is to concentrate on two long runs – one on Sunday of 20 miles or over and one on Thursday of up to 15 miles.   But I wouldn’t recommend that to anybody who is only doing about 20 miles a week at present.   Gently does it and never get put off by the thought of the distance.”

Her annual progression in terms of times was, starting in 1975 was 3:18:46, 1976  3:02:24, 1977  3:05:07, 1978  2:58:23, 1979: 2:50:58, 1980 2:47:07, 1981  2:45:46, 1982  2:46:18, 1983  2:45:47, 1985  2:46:53, 1986  2:45:60 and there was the wonderful year in 1989 when at the age of 44 she won Adelaide, Australia in 2:49:49, Rennes, France in 2:47:58 and New Milton, Humberside in 2:51:33!    Lifetime personal bests – so far! – are in the table below

Six years later, her best marathon was 3:05:52.   In 1993 she ran 3:00:25 at Windsor as a LV 45 and also ran 10 miles in 61:54.   In 1994 her best was 3:00:59 as well as racing to 2:11:31 in a 20 miler where she finished third.   I could find no trace of her running a marathon in 1995 or 1996.    She continues to run and it does not take too much scanning of the web to find results for Leslie in the 21st Century.    From the early 1960’s to 2010 she has had a running career of almost 50 years.   The table below shows her current (2010) UK  rankings.

She is still however a very competitive sports person.    She takes part in powerlifting as well as swimming and other physical fitness competitions.    A quick look at power lifting websites reveals that she is still winning.   eg in the Greater London Powerlifting Championships in 2007 she won the 48Kg Class.   With a Body Weight of 46.65 kilos she lifted 85 Kg in the squat, 65 Kg in the Bench Press and 105Kg in the deadlift making a total of 255 Kg.    If you want to see her in action, she appears in many clips on youtube: just go to www.youtube.com and type in Leslie Watson and there among the clips are several of her in action looking just as she did in all those marathons.   The picture below shows Leslie in her GB Tracksuit at a powerlifting competition in USA in 2007.   She has also appeared in all the various forms of the media from the covers of such as Athletics Weekly, Runner’s World and the now defunct Jogging Magazine to commentating on the London Marathon as part of the team, taking part in a programme with Ian Thompson advising newcomers on preparing for the marathon and in many news and sport features in the Press (such as the article by Chris Brasher quoted here).

If Dale Greig broke through the glass ceiling keeping women out of marathon racing – remember that it was only in 1969 that women were allowed to race as far as 3000m on the track – then Leslie shattered it so that it could never be put back together again.   As an athlete she was of the very highest calibre on track and country but on the roads she achieved feats that no other Scottish marathon runner of either sex did.

Here is another 1981 Interview, this time from ‘Athletics Weekly’.

The Brasher Interview

Alan Wilson in 1986

Alan was a tall, slim runner who, although of a naturally quiet disposition, was pleasant to talk to and a man who clearly thought a lot about his sport.   A member of Victoria Park AAC he seemed to be at his best in the 1980’s when the standard of road running was at its highest in Scotland – indeed arguably that was the case throughout the UK.   His best times as recorded by the statisticians were as in the table below.

I knew Alan slightly and it surprises me now looking back to see how seldom he appeared in the lists – but at that point the road races on the fixture lists were at all sorts of distances from 7 miles to ultra marathons and not the mass of 10K’s or proliferation of half-marathons that we see nowadays.

In May 1983 he set his own personal best for the half-marathon when he finished ninth in the Luddon Half Marathon at Kirkintilloch in a time of 66:48.   Later that year he was thirteenth in the Glasgow Marathon in 2:23:54.   The marathon for which he is most remembered, however, is the Glasgow Marathon at the end of September 1984 and his run was quite excellent – never mentioned by the ‘Glasgow Herald as one of the leaders, he was placed ninth of 9449 finishers.   The quality of runners in his wake was high: first vet was Donald Macgregor one place behind in 2:19:01, followed by Jim Brown (2:19:08) and many others of the country’s top men.

So – a very good runner who, in the days of the 10K would have been one of the highest rated in the country.   As it is, his times, especially the 2:17:40, would have earned him Scottish vests for at least the Commonwealth Games.  We also have a half marathon tine of 66:48 when he finished ninth in the Luddon Half Marathon in May 1983.  His former team mate and friend Alastair Douglas has this to say about him

“Alan did not initially appear to have a lot of natural talent but by sheer hard word, single-mindedness and using a scientific approach, he achieved some very impressive results.   He finished second in the Junior National in a very good year.   He managed to get himself very good personal bests for 10000m and the marathon and was a member of Glasgow University’s famous BUSF winning team in 1984.  

I remember hearing about one incident when he was running a cross-country race when it was very icy.   It was debatable whether spikes or road racers would be better.   He opted for the spikes.   Unfortunately for him he was winning the race going into the last 200m   However a road ran parallel to the finishing straight and he got outsprinted by somebody in road racers.   However he produced the rule book which apparently stated that he should have won under the rules of cross-country and he eventually got a share of first prize.  

Alan’s career seemed to span his University years.   It was probably wrong in retrospect to label him as somebody with a lack of natural talent.   He had the ability to absorb and benefit from a lot of hard training – something which a lot of seemingly more gifted runners could not do.”

Alastair is right in his remark that Alan’s career spanned his University years because we seem to have lost track of him since then.    The next contribution is from an article in the Glasgow Academy’s magazine by Hugh Barrow who also ran with him for Victoria Park.

“Alan Wilson of Victoria Park recorded 2:17:40 in 1984 and this earned him a British vest.   Alan also recorded good times of 3:34.0 for 1500m and 14:07 for 5000m running in the colours of Westbury Harriers, Bristol.   Alan also represented Scotland in the World Junior Cross Country Championships in 1983.   When you consider that the first Briton home in this year’s London Marathon, Andrew Lemoncello, recorded 2:13 it puts Alan’s performance of 30 years ago in perspective.”

The Junior National referred to twice above was in 1983 when Alan was second to John McNeil, an outstanding Junior from Law & District who had a very short athletics career and ahead of such as Alan Puckrin of Greenock Glenpark.  He didn’t do too much cross-country running, however,  In the previous year he had been twenty second in the National, as a Youth in 1981 he had been twenty fifth.   The best I can see as a Senior is for the 1984 race when he was twelfth – one place behind George Braidwood, and one place in front of Graham Laing and Neil Tennant.

Alan was a runner who developed as a University age athlete, who seems to have organised his own athletics career and who, had the career been a bit longer, might well have been even better.  After all, his 2:17 was run when he was just 20 years old (DoB: 3/03/64).  One of the tasks is now to track down some of his road and track races in the mid 80’s and record as many performances as possible.