Author: The Author

Graham Crawford is one of Scotland’s best respected athletes – respected as a person but also highly respected as a runner and class performer.   On the road, over the country and on the track, he was an excellent competitor.   Look at some of his series of victories on the surfaces – three Jimmy Flockhart wins over the country, winning the Strathallan 1500 four times and the 3000m six, and of course for the half-marathon distance – don’t even go there!.   13 half-marathon wins in one year (ie 13 x 13) and a very good run in the Sun Life stage race from Glasgow to London.  When in form, he gave no one an easy time in a race.   There is a story of Ian Stewart, after being beaten by Harald Norpoth in a hard battle of a race lying on the track and asking for the TV microphone: he then said to Harald through the TV screen, in a very tight close up, that “that was a bloody hard race Harald, and next time you’ll get more of the same!”   That could well have been Graham Crawford’s thinking after a defeat.    But, as we will see below, he was just as hard on himself in training and that was maybe what made him so hard in the race situation.    I asked him to complete the questionnaire but we just passed on that and asked the professional journalist to share his own memories of his career.    You’ll agree that it makes for a fascinating read and insight into the career of a very good athlete indeed.

Falkirk Half Marathon 1985

Graham Crawford. DOB. October 5, 1956. Occupation journalist.

Club Springburn Harriers, briefly Wolverhampton and Bilston second claim.

PBs – 800m – 1.58.4; 1,500m – 3.50; 3,000m – 8.10; 5,000m – 14.10; 10mile – 48.48; 10.3 mile – 49.19; half marathon – 63.46.

Ran for Scotland on track, road and cross country. Represented GB at half marathon.

I played football constantly as a youngster and ran everywhere. I loved being outdoors, being physical. I remember doing impromptu longish distance running races with a few pals when I was 10 and 11 years old. In my teens I did paper rounds and milk rounds, and PE was the only lesson I looked forward to at secondary school. My heart would soar, while everyone else moaned, on days the PE teacher said we were doing a cross country run. Not long after starting Bishopbriggs High I heard about ‘novice races’ being held by Springburn Harriers aimed at all the local secondaries including St Ninian’s in Kirkintilloch and Lenzie Academy. I ran my heart out over a mile and a quarter, finished about 5th, and was hooked.  Old Jack Crawford (whom the club’s annual road race is named after) invited those interested to come along to the Springburn club nights, based at the old wooden hut at the bottom of Auchinairn Road, Bishopbriggs. I quickly found out that the club had a long history of producing top young runners, including former world junior cross country champion Eddie Knox. OId Jack offered support in the early track and road races, meticulously recording our times.

I was small and skinny for my age, and was greatly encouraged when I made the Bishopbriggs High team, running against boys up to two years older, for the Lanarkshire Schools (at muddy, challenging Cleland) and Scottish Schools. Initially I tended to train autumn to spring in those days, and was delighted to be the fourth counter for a Springburn senior boys team which took second at the national cross country. A few years on, as a second year youth, I got  serious about training. The club coach was Eddie Sinclair (best known for his success with miling great Graham Williamson) but he and my clubmates were Kirkintilloch and Lenzie based, so I did my own thing. I remember doing a basic winter diet of 20-25 one-minute hill reps on Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays (I felt I lived on that hill by a Friday), a long run on a Sunday and steady sustained runs of around 55mins on other days. I backed off the hills a few weeks before the Scottish National at Drumpellier Park, Coatbridge, and did a few fast rep sessions with spikes on grass. To my delight, I finished fourth behind John Graham and Nat Muir. Not far behind me were the likes of Hammy Cox, Eddie Stewart and Graham Laing.  I also led my Springburn teammates to the team prize, and that meant a lot to me. The club subsequently went down to the English National (at Luton?) with high hopes of a successful cross-border raid, especially as our top junior Jim Lawson was eligible to join us as a youth in England, but we all thought we ran below our best. Even though we still managed second of 93 teams, a fine achievement, we were deflated. We felt we could have won.

I experienced a bigger disappointment at the Scottish Schools cross country championship. With John Graham and Nat Muir no longer at school, I was favourite in some eyes to win. However, I was unwell on the day and finished seventh. It was won by my Springburn teammate Tommy Patterson whom I had beaten by 30 seconds two weeks earlier at Drumpellier. Instead, I was a minute behind him. That hurt. I remember having a wee sob to myself later that night. However, with hindsight a lot of young Springburn runners who enjoyed success didn’t handle the transition to being a senior and quit the sport, while my lack of championship success kept a hunger alive. I’ve always missed out on individual championship medals. Four times fourth in the West District cross country is an example.

As a junior man, I again trained very hard, clocking 70-80 miles a week on my own. Nat was turning into a world class athlete, so my realistic target I felt was second in the junior National. However, I picked up a bad injury and while I was recuperating I got distracted and involved in a pretty carefree, reckless life. I partied endlessly and didn’t turn a leg for four years, and there was no coach there to say ‘hey, it’s time to get going again – there is always another race, another target’. At the age of 24, having made a pretty good job of messing things up, I was realising I couldn’t go on like that. I caught a UK marathon trial race on the television and in that moment decided it was time to start running again. Six months later, I was a match for anyone at Springburn and within two years was running cross country for Scotland and clocking the second fastest times at the McAndrew and Kilbarchan relays. I was in a hurry, and by then I was being assisted by older clubmate Harry Gorman who was advising me on pace/speed training. I really did appreciate his involvement, and it was a fruitful relationship (he was best man at my wedding. I can remember our shared delight and surprise at my relatively rapid progress on track and road. They were exciting, fun times. A very one-paced runner was discovering that with application and quality training, he could actually run quite fast.

The relationship was eventually marred by my propensity for secret overtraining and we went our separate ways. The culmination was a winter where I averaged 125 weeks for about three months, still doing quality sessions, hill work (up ploughed fields with 1kg weights around each ankle!) and circuit training. It was too much for too long. If I had the least bit of spare energy, I expended it in training. Rest was a four-letter word. After a few disappointing races where I ran flat because of my deep-seated fatigue, I was persuaded by Harry to take six weeks off. That summer, having resumed more sensible training, I set track PBs at most distances. Overtraining was a fairly common Scottish trait and I had it bad. I was very driven. I foolishly wanted to train hard and race well all the year round. I loved doing hard sessions, and loved racing – cross country, road, track, highland games, low key hill races. Dave Bedford was my boyhood hero and as well details of his legendary training, I soaked up everything from the Athletics Weekly about the many top English and Scottish runners in the seventies and eighties. It was always the more extreme trainers I tried to match. Looking back, I can see I lacked real specific targets and structure and that some other Scottish runners and plenty of English runners were clearly better at getting the balance right. While their training was goal-orientated and structured, I was a spontaneous, compulsive, obsessive, runaway train and essentially uncoachable. I once ran 50 races in 14 weeks, and over the years swung from purple patches, when I could control my training excesses, to periods of deep disappointment where my relentless desire to win was never going to be enough to overcome deep fatigue in overtrained and under-rested muscles. Perhaps because I lacked natural pace, I  was always overcompensating by trying to be tougher and stronger – endure more.

I finally learned the lesson of rest being as important as hard work in 1986, when initially my legs were so shot from a half marathon I had no option but to run easy for a week. And lo and behold, I could go out on the seventh day and run really fast again. It would be difficult to imagine a more surreal and remarkable year – and, as usual, it was not planned. In the space of eight months, I was to run 20 half marathons and win 13 of them as well as win two 15-milers, an extremely fast 10 miler and perform well in many shorter races. It remains quite a unique block of racing I believe. And, I repeat, it was all spontaneous – a fun journey of discovery.

The first half marathon – Dundee

 My first half marathon experience had been a happy baptism, at Dundee the previous October, which I won in 66.35. Two weeks later, split by the second fastest leg at the West District Cross Country relays, I ran 65.29 to win the Falkirk Half Marathon. I then had a relatively unspectacular winter’s training and racing (and yet another poor national cross country) before clocking a respectable 29.49 for the Kodak 10k starting at Crownpoint, Glasgow, won by Nat Muir in 28.45, two seconds in front of Allister Hutton.

On a windy March 23, 1986 I found myself lining up for the Inverness half marathon. I went off hard with Simon Axon and was soundly beaten by him. I ran 66.35 and he was about a minute faster. Two weeks later – split by a long leg at the six-stage relays – I set a course record winning the Glen Fruin 15 (14.6 miles?) race at Helensburgh in 75.38 just ahead of Bellahouston’s Andy Daly. Two weeks later it was the Jimmy Scott memorial 15 miler at Strathclyde Park where I led home Peter Carton of Shettleston in 78.10. Was I pleased with the run? Yes, it was hilly in parts, windy and I had spent hours moving house earlier that morning! A fortnight later, and four days after a windy 3,000m in 8.38, I had a rare dnf in the Pearl half in Edinburgh won by Neil Tennant in 64.41 on what I thought was a particularly challenging course. It was an exceptional run by Neil. Two days later I won a Sri Chimnoy two-mile race in 9.14 followed by a hilly 10k road win in Dundee in 32.23 four days after that. Eight days on, on May 18, I set off at a blast with Peter Fleming of Bellahouston in the Luddon Half Marathon, Kirkintilloch, clocking 19.05 after an undulating four miles before we hit strong wind. Peter broke the tape in 65.57 with me second in 66.35.

Six days later, I was down in Kirkcudbright for another half and fancying my chances. Looking around, I did not see anyone to worry me. From the gun, a lad tore away ahead of me. I was a fast starter in these races, and I remember thinking he must just one of those new, inexperienced guys who get carried away for the first half mile before fading. A few miles later, I was thinking otherwise. We were tramping along, locked into a relentless pace. 19 minutes at four miles INTO a wind and I’m hanging on, repeatedly thinking ‘who the hell is this guy?’, (reminiscent of Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid wondering who were the indefatigable posse chasing them down at the start of the film). At six miles I remember thinking, ‘if this was a 10k I’ve just had a damn good race’. About a mile up the road, the elastic broke and Mike Carroll of Annan (I eventually discovered his name) went on to clock 63.32 and put nearly a minute between us. It was a class performance. He was a tough, relentless pacer. Later that year he was 30 yards ahead of the pack in the Great North Run after two miles, in a race which Steve Jones and Mike Musyoki clocked under 61 minutes, a world best I think. Carroll ran 64 something, but I remember thinking that if he had screwed the nut early on he could have clocked around 62 and taken some big scalps.

A week after Kirkcudbright, during which I sneaked in a windy track session on cinder (3x3x400, averaging 65 secs, with 30 seconds between efforts and a lap between sets), I won a six-mile road race at East Kilbride in 30.52, trying to save something for the Irvine Valley Half Marathon the following day. I won that half in 70.09 and my training diary records it was ‘quite windy and extremely hilly’. Five days of easy recovery runs later, I won a hilly Bearsden Half Marathon in 68.15, with Alasdair Douglas second in 69.54 ahead of Alan Wilson, 72.11, and Alan Adams 72.12.  I remember thinking around about then ‘this is good, let’s just roll with it – where can I race next?’ However, that euphoria was punctured eight days later when I struggled to clock just over 70 minutes to finish seventh on a very hot day at the Clydebank Half. I went off fast with Laurie Spence and Peter Fleming, but after a long sustained climb after a few miles I think Laurie and I suffered while Peter proved to be imperious in 64.17 (on a difficult course on a hot day!) Alan Wilson had quick revenge on me in second place, followed by Hammy Cox and Tommy Murray. Undaunted, a week later I won the Lochgilphead Half on a hot and windy day in 70.44, six minutes ahead of the second placer. A week later – split by a midweek 8.20 open graded 3,000m at Meadowbank behind Colin Hume, 8.09, and George Braidwood, 8.12 – I won a hilly and warm Dalry 10k in 30.47 by more than a minute from Kilbarchan’s  Gordon Tenney, and then did a fairly hard track session the following day! A week after Dalry, I won a hilly Stonehaven Half Marathon in 71.16, and then, on the following day, took the Knock Hill race at Crieff by a second from Ian Howie in 18.24. Just two days on I ran a windy 3,000m in 8.32 at Grangemouth behind George Braidwood. Four days later, I chanced my battle-weary legs at the Runsport Marathon at Stirling. In ideal conditions on a flat course, I missed the opportunity for a fast time, clocking 65.57 behind a very impressive Peter Fleming, 63.16, Simon Axon, 65.35, and Donnie Bain of Falkirk, 65.40. Six days later, I ran a 1,500 at a windy Crownpoint for sixth in 3.56 behind Nat Muir, 3.52, Braidwood and Robert Fitzsimmons, 3.53. Pleased at the time with the lack of track work, I ran a four-mile relay race leg at Dundee the following day without going flat out. Just two days later, on the Tuesday evening, I found myself locked in an epic battle with Terry Mitchell in the Crieff Half Marathon, with him collapsing over the line four seconds in front of me in 63.42. (Terry, my apologies for my ungracious behaviour after the race when I took you to task for not sharing the pace. I could be a bit of a p***k in the heat of battle at times in those days). I had been obsessed with running a fast time while Terry was thinking of winning. What was our reward for such a tough duel over 13 miles on a hot summer’s evening? Terry won 12 shuttlecocks and I received six golf balls!

Just four recovery days later, I was on the start line for the old Helensburgh Half Marathon course, a two lapper which involved twice making the climb up Sinclair Street. I was 100 metres or so clear at halfway, but looked around at 9 miles to see Dougie Frame of Law closing. He caught me by 11 miles and I hung on to him until the final mile when I chucked in the proverbial kitchen sink, determined not be beat by a close margin, as had happened at Crieff. I won by five seconds in 66.05. My prize was a medal. With the golf balls four days earlier, I remember thinking it was scant reward for two such tough races in five days. A week later I was at my beloved Strathallan Highland Games at Bridge of Allan (I was living there at the time) where I won the 3,000 metres handicap off scratch in 8.42 before finishing second in the 1500 handicap off scratch in 4.02 right behind my young clubmate Davie Donnet (off 35 metres). Three evenings after that, it was an 8.28 clocking for 3,000m at Coatbridge just behind Willie Nelson of Law. Just a further three days on, I was up at 4.30am, for the drive up to Elgin for the Moray Half Marathon. I beat Bruce Chinnick by more than a minute and set a course record of 66.09 which still stands today. The training diary says I was tired, and I did easy 40 minute and 30 minute recovery runs each day for four days and then a single easy run of five miles before winning the Blairgowrie Half Marathon by a minute from a German runner in 67.05. Just three days later, August 20, I was delighted to record 3.53 for a 1,500m at Meadowbank (Alistair Currie 3.46), barely three seconds slower than my pb. This was run on sheer condition, with no track work. (By this time my resting pulse before a weekend race was dropping to as low as 33 beats a minute). Four days on, I won the Midlothian Half Marathon in 67.20. Two days after, I did 12×400 with 40 secs recovery, and five days later, on August 31, I was on the start line for the Livingston Half. My running diary says it was undulating and quite windy, but I solo ran 64.41 to finish over a minute ahead of Dave Cavers of Teviotdale. A week of easy running later, I pushed the pace at the Land o Burns Half at Ayr (some hills, windy in parts), but was outstayed by Alex Gilmour of Cambuslang in the last mile, running 64.24 to his 64.02, with Dougie Frame third in 65.50 and Laurie Spence (didn’t beat him often) clocking 67.54. I then gave myself six days of easy recovering running, though totalling 11 to 14 miles in two runs most days, and it paid off in the Round Cumbrae  ‘10’ starting in Millport. It was a complete circuit of the island, flat and the true distance was around 10.25/10.3 miles. There was no wind, making perfect running conditions, and I tore off from the gun. Immediately on my own, I only had the lead car and mile markers for company. By mile three or four miles, I realised I was hitting a perfect beat, clocking 4.43/44 for every mile. It became a target for me to try and maintain, and I managed it. I passed through nine miles in 42.30 and reckon I was around 47.15 at ’10 miles’ and crossed the line in 49.15, a record. What thrilled me most was seeing the previous record holders’ names engraved on the tiny trophy – John Graham 49.29 and Jim Brown 49.38. Clyde Valley’s finest, and big hitters (I had gone through my teenage years and early twenties hearing Brown spoken of with awe by other runners). They may not have had as benign conditions as I had, but it was now my record. Think it still stands.  Second behind me was Cambuslang’s Charlie Thomson in 51.51, saying he felt he had a good run. The road show continued, and a week later, on September 22, I won a windy Aberfeldy Half Marathon in 67.39, ahead of Falkirk’s Martin Coyle, 68.23.

However, the first cracks were beginning to show. The diary reveals I was tired all week and six days after Aberfeldy I dropped out of the Livingston 6-mile road race, ‘weary’ at four miles. Allister Hutton won just ahead of John Robson. Not for the first time, I had failed to show my best when up against the big guns. The following week showed I was very tired. I just jogged a little and even took two days off, but on Sunday, October 5, I won the Stranraer Half in 66.02 but felt the course was short. I gave myself two weeks, including a week away on holiday up north with the wife, before picking up the Fort William Half Marathon on the way home. On a cold, wet and windy day, I ran in training shoes determined to do just enough to win in 69.06. There was just one more week to go for my last half of an incredible year, at Falkirk on October 26. I took an early lead only to be caught by Donnie Bain at around 9 miles. However, he didn’t manage to open a gap, and with a mile to go I gave it everything I had. I was tired and mentally spent from all the racing, but I really liked the idea of winning 13 races at 13 miles in one year. I got a bit of a gap and hung on to win by ten seconds in 66.45. A week later I won the Lasswade cross country, six days later was sixth (25.06) in the Glasgow Uni five mile won by Nat Muir in 24.18, and eight days later I ran the fastest leg in the second stage of the Edinburgh to Glasgow relay. Just six days on from that, I was a weary third behind Terry Mitchell in the Gauldry cross country. I think that last burst of shorter races after Falkirk was act of defiance against the stories I was hearing. People were saying that after that crazy sequence of halfs and other races that I would be burnt out and possibly never run well again.

Anyway, after Gauldry I was indeed well and truly done – for the year.

Trailing Mike Carroll in the Kirkcudbright Half Marathon

Other proud running memories? My relay team races with Springburn. Like many distance runners I was a fairly selfish athlete, however a good relay race could really arouse my passion. Three times in four years, we finished second in the Scottish cross country relays, and on the other occasion were third. We never quite got our best four of Adrian Callan, George Braidwood, David Donnet and me all firing on the same day. However, we were formidable opponents. Emphatically winning the west district cross country relay with Adrian, George and Jim Cooper was a happy day for us all, as was when we unexpectedly won the six-stage road relay at Livingston. I nearly blew that for the team and would never have lived it down. I somehow had got it into my head that the race was at Strathclyde Park where it had been before. On arrival at the park, I became increasingly uneasy at the complete lack of runners until the penny dropped that perhaps I was in the wrong place. I called Adrian’s parents and they directed me to Livingston. I drove as fast as I could, however Livingston is a big town and I could see no sign of runners there either. Spotting a police car I waved for it to stop and asked for help. They said ‘follow us’. Eight minutes later I was at the far end of the town where the race was already under way. I had five minutes to get my number on and jog to the start of my second leg. Yes, it was that close.

Another proud achievement was winning the Jimmy Flockart Memorial cross country at Drumpellier Park three times. The third time, I was 35 years old and not expected to beat the young, up and coming Stephen Wylie of Cambuslang. I remember Doug Gillon of the Glasgow Herald giving me a nice write-up for that.

I was also pleased of my achievements at Strathallan Highland Games, especially since I lived in Bridge of Allan for four years. I won the 3,000 handicap six times and the 1,500 handicap four times, and in the early years they involved pretty fast times for a grass track against good runners. I loved the highland games and would often run two or three races in a day, which helped my clock up those 50 races in 14 weeks. I guess my view was ‘when you are fit, make hay’. I might have messed up at times with that approach, but it was who I was. I loved racing, and loved winning. I also liked having somewhere to go at the weekend, and better still if it was a race I had not tackled before. I had no qualms about getting in the car and driving up to Elgin or down to Stranraer. It kept the spark alive, as did my ever-evolving training  regimes. I trained twice a day most days, but broke up the tedium of always running by mixing in circuits and weights at times, both of which I think helped me. Over the years I did land training with swimmers, and circuits with wrestlers, boxers and cyclists. I believed I made the most of my limited pace, with the weights, circuits, hill work and lots of intervals and track racing. I was 29 years old before I ran my first half marathon. Too many young runners move up distance too soon these days, and don’t run enough track in the summer. I can be a real bore about that. There is no point me giving a typical week’s training, because I’m not sure there was such a thing for me. I experimented a lot, did too much at times and generally trained hard. I don’t think it is the detail that counts, it is the essence – consistent hard training in whatever shape or form helps you. Also keeping the spark, the desire – there are many ways to climb a mountain. 3x4x400 on cinders with spikes in 62 secs, with 30secs recovery and a lap between sets was a session which served me well at peak fitness for 1,500s and 3,000s (a  distance I really enjoyed) at the start of the track season. When I was fit, 8x2mins very fast on the road with 30secs recovery was another key session. Recoveries were generally pretty short. Another memorable training period saw me doing 2min spells on the road during a 16-18 mile run. I started once a week doing about 10x2mins with 2min recoveries. Not too hard, just letting it come naturally. Each week I added on two more reps and eventually also cut the recovery. Eventually I was doing 26x2mins with one minute recovery and it felt boundless. I was getting so strong on it – and faster. As a variation, I did 10x2mins with 1min recovery and then straight into 10x1min faster with 30secs recovery and then straight in 10x30secs very fast with 30secs recovery. It felt marvellous to be able to do that and still be in one piece. A good session was as satisfying as a good race to me.

When I trained around the streets of Bishopbriggs and Glasgow on my own as a teenager in winter nights, I use to fantasise over the last few miles that I was on my way to winning an Olympic or European marathon goal. Funnily, I never did run my dream event. The half marathons I did suggested a potential for the full distance, but they also served to inform me how hard it would be to do a second 13 miles. I knew, knowing my nature, that it would have be pretty near to my half marathon pace, and because of health and injury problems I never did get the continuity of training that I knew would be necessarily to show the marathon its full respect.

Regrets? Not one. It is how the movie unfolded, but I agree with John Graham when he observed that if he was to do it again he would have been a little kinder to himself at times.

I’m deeply impressed and grateful for the compilation Brian McAusland and Colin Youngson have put together of so many of Scotland’s finest middle and distance runners, many whom have inspired me and achieved far much more. I am a running fan. Reading the stories reminds of how many good runners we had in my generation alone. Thanks guys, for the races and the memories. I’m humbled and honoured to have this opportunity to tell some of my own wee stories as well. Hopefully, 1986 at least was quirky enough to be of interest. It just happened. I just went along, fascinated, for the ride.

Graham the journalist interviewing Colin Donnelly at Oban

   Graham As A Veteran

And that’s where Graham’s own amazing story ends but we can’t leave it there.   He is still running as a V50 and as I write (March 2013) he has just been first in his category at the Jack Crawford Memorial 10K promoted by his own club, Springburn Harriers.   As an indication of his quality over the past few years, the Power of 10 website, while not comprehensive, gives a picture shown in the table below.    No comment of mine is required about the standard but it is always a source of inspiration to see man who is a lifelong runner and clearly enjoys the sport for its own sake.

As a Relay Runner

Graham speaks in his profile of his love of relay running, and he ran many while a veteran that I have not listed above, so it might be appropriate to look at his record in these events.   In the biggest and best of them all, the Edinburgh to Glasgow 8 stage relay, he ran in nine with a net gain of eleven places.   He ran the second stage five times with the best run being in 1986 when he came from ninth to fourth with the fastest time of the day, while in 1982 he came from 17th to 10th and in 1983 from sixteenth to twelfth.     The West District Relay title won in 1989/90 that is referred to above did indeed come after several years of frustrating near misses for the club.  Third in 1982/83 with a team of Harry Gorman, Graham Crawford, Jim Martin and Adrian Callan, with Graham third fastest overall on the day, and with athletes over the next few years such as Graham, Adrian, George, Stephen Begen and David Donnet at their disposal they did not improve on it until 1987/88 when they were second.   The runners this time were Begen, Crawford, MacIndoe and Callan.   They could never, as he says, get the top four together at the same time until season 1989/90.   David Donnet ran the first stage and handed over in fourto Graham who worked his way through to first before sending Adrian Callan off.   He held first as did George Braidwood on the final stage for a long awaited triumph.   The ‘Glasgow Herald’ reported as follows: “Springburn Harriers, already winners of the Lanarkshire relay title, scored their first victory in the senior 4 x 2.5 mile event at the SCCU Western District Cross-Country relay championship defeating 120 teams at Dalmuir Park, Clydebank.   They received the Struthers Shield for their victory, having taken the lead at half distance and held on to it with some good performances from Scottish internationalists Adrian Callan and George Braidwood.”   They proved it was no fluke by being third the following year with a team of MacIndoe, Braidwood, Crawford and Donnet.   Although they did not win the National Cross-Country Relay at any point, this particular group came very close indeed.   In 1987/88 the quartet of Begen (first), Crawford (3rd), Donnet (5th) and Callan finished second; in 1988/89 it was Cooper (29th), Crawford (5th), Donnet (6th) and Callan who were second and in 1989/90 the team was Donnet (8th), Crawford (2nd), Callan (2nd) and Braidwood who finished third.  They won it again in 1993/94 with a team of Jim Cooper, Adrian Callan, George Braidwood and Graham, the picture above is of him working on the second stage of the mucky, hilly Woodilee course at Lenzie.  He refers above to the winning of the Scottish Six-Man Road Relay race in 1988 and it is indeed quite a story.   You can access Doug Gillon’s very full account of the race – in which Graham, after arriving late – ran the fastest time of the day on the third stage – at

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19880328&id=DDlAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=OlkMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3113,7616820

That was the third stage but generally Graham seemed to specialise in running the second stage – my feeling is that the second stage needs a fighter and a hard competitive spirit – just in case the first runner has a poor one, or in case ground has to be made up, or in case a lead has to be maintained, and in any of these situations there is no more competitive runner than Mr Crawford.

In the winning West District Relay Team.

On The Track

It is maybe appropriate to take a look at some of Graham’s running on track and over the country a bit more closely. As far as track running is concerned, his record on all surfaces is good – grass at Highland Gatherings, cinder on occasion and tartan in others all came the same to him. He progressed quite rapidly in the early 1980’s. Have a look at the table below: every year in every event was faster than the year before with the single blip at 3000m in 1985!

The 8:10.7 for 3000m noted in the table above has particular memories for him. He says, “One of my proudest races was setting my 3000 pb of 8.10 in an open graded at Meadowbank. Alastair Currie, by then a 3.41 or faster 1500m runner, was running his first serious 3000 and his brother Alan agreed to set the pace. It was quickly just the three of us at the front, and Alan dropped off the pace with three laps to go leaving Alistair in front. I was hanging on to Alistair with no particular plan other than to run a fast time. With 750 to go Alistair dropped his shoulders or arms just slightly as if he was uncomfortable for the first time and I instinctively seized the moment and rushed passed him. I had about 30 metres on him at the bell and was making a long run for home. At 250 I looked back and saw that Alistair had woken up to the fact that he could muster a finish, and a fast one. As he charged down on me and I gave everything I had around the last bend and up the home straight. I won, perhaps by a metre”.  I had caught Alistair just at the right moment because he had not run a 3k before and that little bit of doubt crept in for him.” And he continued to run well – 3:53 for 1500m and 8:28 and 8:30.94 for 3000m in 1986 which you will remember was his year for running all those half-marathons. If we put his personal best times into a table we get the following:

He also picked up several Scottish representative appearances.   “On track, I represented Scotland in some kind of match in Birmingham in a 3,000′, ran 8.14 for third in windy conditions behind two English runners. that got me picked soon after for a Celtic international 5000 (Ireland, Wales, Iceland) at Meadowbank. John Woods won in 14.06 I think and I was just a second behind Lawrie in 14.13 off a slow first mile.”

(And former Scottish steeplechase champion Tom O’Reilly told me that Graham ran in some steeplechase races for Springburn in inter-club fixtures and that he could have been a good class steeplechaser had he wanted to do so.)

There were several road honours too and when asked he said, “On the road, I ran for Scotland in a half marathon against Welsh and English teams at Stafford with Charlie Haskett and Tommy Murray. think that was in 1987, the same year I ran for Great Britain in a half marathon at Zuider on Zee in Holland in January. memorable for being colder than I’ve ever experienced before. Someone said the wind chill was minus 17. I had big lumps of ice clinging to the back of my hair where the sweat had frozen. Ran 68 minutes +” 

The British vest referred to above was won in January of 1987 and it was reported in “Scotland’s Runner” as follows under the headline “Ups and Downs of Holland.”   “When Springburn Harrier Graham Crawford discovered on his arrival at Amsterdam Airport on January 11th that his first race for Great Britain would be run over frozen sand dunes and beaches, he quickly forgot any idea of a fast time on the flats of Holland.   And when temperatures on race day plummeted to minus 13 degrees C, and were worsened by a chill wind straight off the Russian continent, the 18th International Egmond Ann Zee Half Marathon simply became a matter for survival.  

In the Blairgowrie 2 Miles

The 30-year-old Scot borrowed a pair of running tights from team-mate Jimmy Armsworth and bought a ridiculous woolly hat that had him looking like a Smurf.   He didn’t care, his ears were now safe.   And lining up also with gloves and three tops, he still felt far from overdressed.   “I cannot honestly say I have experienced it colder,” he says. In the race, which attracted 7500 starters, Crawford and Ashworth started steadily and so never made contact with the leading group.   But they went through the field to finish 17th and 7th respectively, in 68:44 and 67:25.   Both felt that they had had solid runs, especially Ashworth who had clocked over 130 miles and three track sessions in the previous seven days, in his determination not to interrupt preparation for this year’s London Marathon.   The race was won by England’s Mike Bishop in the remarkably fast time (and record) of 65:11, in view of the course and conditions.   Second was Dutch 5000 metres runner, Rob de Brouwer, ahead of fellow countryman Marti ten Kate.   Belgium’s evergreen Karl Lismont was 14th, and former Olympic marathon silver medallist Gerard Nijboer 22nd.   Other British placings included Bishop twin, Martin, in eighth, and super-veteran Mike Hurd, 26th in 70:53.”  

The Stafford Race was written up in the ‘Glasgow Herald’ of 7th April 1987 as follows: “CRAWFORD HAT-TRICK OF VESTS”   Graham Crawford of Springburn Harriers, Scotland’s most successful and consistent runner over the half-marathon last summer, leads a a Scottish team in the home countries international match incorporated into the Potteries Half-Marathon at Stafford on Sunday.   Crawford gained his first major UK international honour when representing Great Britain in a half-marathon international race in Holland earlier this year and, with with previous Scottish international appearances over cross-country and track to his credit, this versatile athlete completes his full set of Scottish international vests.   Tommy Murray of Greenock Glenpark Harriers and English-based Charlie Haskett (Dundee Hawkhill Harriers (who were both in Scotland’s team in the World Cross-Country Championships at Warsaw last month) complete the three-man team.”  

While we are on the subject of road running, Graham also recorded 49:19 for 10.25 and it is fair to wonder about how well could he have run the marathon.   It’s a question he himself raises above, but with this proven speed in road races – and relatively speaking, he gets faster than most of his peers the greater the distance run.   There is no doubt that 48:48 and 63:46 are better than 1:58 and 3:50.    He was also easily strong enough for the distance – it took immense deep down strength to run as often as he did in 1986.   If there is any doubt remaining about his strength, he ran in the Sun Life Great Race from Glasgow to London in September 1990 where with runners like John Graham, Dave Moorcroft and Steve Brace dropping out for various reasons he made it all the way to London.   The report in “Scotland’s Runner” read as follows:

“The winner of the inaugural Sun Life Great Race was Paulo Catarino of Portugal who collected prize money of £35,000 for his not inconsiderable efforts. Twenty six year old Catarino completed the 230 mile, 20 stage race in the incredible time of 18-32-43. Consistency was the key to the event, illustrated by the fact that Catarino did not win a single stage over the three weeks of the race. The deciding factor in his triumph was that he did not finish any lower than eighth on any given day. Delmir dos Santos, the 24 year old Brazilian running for the American Boulder Road Runners Club took the green vest for the overall points winner. His colossal total of ten stage victories ensured his success. The first four stages of the race were dominated by 43 year old Kenyan, Kipsubei Kisgei if not always for the right reasons! Although he won all three Scottish legs, he self destructed when he was seen to strike dos Santos on the fourth stage from Gretna to Carlisle. The starting field numbered 107 when the race got under way in Glasgow on September 2nd. By the day of the final Westminster stage, only 82 runners remained. Many of the ‘big’ names withdrew or failed to finish including Mike McLeod, John Graham, Fraser Clyne (who was supposed to write a diary of the event for ‘Scotland’s Runner’), Steve Brace, Gary Kiernan and Dave Moorcroft. In the team contest, the lead changed hands many times before the Boulder outfit took the title.

Hammy Cox, representing Red Counties AC, finished 18th, the highest placed Scot and the third Briton. Brian Kirkwood, UK Elite, ended 38th with Graham Crawford, Wolverhampton & Bilston, finishing in a highly creditable 58th, after entering the event at the last minute. After recovering, Graham said, “It was a first class event which was highly professional in its organisation – especially considering that this was the first event of its kind. The word most used by competitors when describing the event was ‘fascinating.’ Both your own performance and the changes of position up front made it constantly interesting,” he said.

With the bulk of the race being run at a phenomenal sub-5 minute-mile pace it was not surprising that many athletes didn’t last the pace. However Graham found that despite the rigours, the most common reason for withdrawing was bad blisters. “The race proved that many runners under-estimate their powers of recovery,” commented Graham Crawford. As for his personal performance, Crawford was more than delighted. “I didn’t intend to run but as it got nearer, I was bitten by the bug and it was a case of ‘what the hell’ in the end. The Springburn Harrier’s worst moments occurred – ironically – in the Scottish stages. “By stage four (Gretna to Carlisle) I was unsure whether I would last one mile, never mind the 12.8!” he says.

Crawford had only one or two minor criticisms. “The organisers may have slightly under-estimated the amount of back-up needed in a race of this size. Masseurs and physios are essential in a competition of this duration,” he said. “Also, you often got the impression that 99% of the locals didn’t realise what was going on. Perhaps more emphasis could be put on publicity next time.” As for prospective entrants for next year’s race, Graham had some advice. “A period of sustained road running prior to the event is essential, aiming for at least 80 miles per week at sub six minute pace,” he said. I would certainly recommend the event to any athlete. It is certainly something you should experience.”

Finally, although the publicity he generated for his club was invaluable and stretched over decades, he was on one occasion in hot water with Springburn Harriers.  In 1991 the result of the Brampton to Carlisle road race which was won by Carl Thackray, had David Donnet of Springburn second, Mike Carroll of Annan third and Graham Crawford fourth.   There was no third runner from the club so there was no team prize.   Why was there no third runner?   Well, the race was held in the same weekend as the prestigious Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay and the club was none too pleased at two of their top three or four runners absenting themselves.

Some Thoughts On Cross-Country Running

Graham was also a good enough country runner to run for Scotland in the World Cross-Country Championships in Gateshead in 1983 when he finished eighth, he was actually two places higher eight years later when he was sixth in the National at Irvine. He was however reported as follows by Doug Gillon in “Scotland’s Runner” as saying, “It was Graham Crawford of Springburn, finishing sixth just behind hill-running specialist Colin Donnelly of Cambuslang who put the Caird Park race into perspective. Not that Crawford is a mediocre runner. His performance in last year’s Great Race, and a string of more than a dozen half marathon wins a few years ago, mark him at the age of 35 as a durable and morethan proficient performer. “But I would have to say that when I finished eighth a few years ago, I ran much better, and in far higher quality company,” he confessed with frank objectivity.”

He also represented Scotland in a home international cross country at Cumbernauld, and in several similar or televised invitational events at Gateshead, along with appearances in such events as the Inter-Area match at Cumbernauld. The cross-country talent was always in evidence. Graham wrote a piece for the excellent ‘Scotland’s Runner’ magazine which I will reproduce in its entirety here because of the insight it gives into his beginnings in the sport.

“In the beginning, there was cross-country. A harrier was measured by his ability in an event in which time and distance were only relevant in relation to those around him. Nobody started and stopped sports watches.

To me as a youngster cross-country was the be all and end all. I was the complete opposite to today’s ‘fair weather’ new runner. My season began with the return to school in August/September, peaked with the main championships in February/March, and fizzled out rapidly thereafter with the advent of Spring and its uncanny ability to convince a young lad that, in girls, there is definitely more to life than being left battered to death by hailstones, semi naked, in the middle of a farmer’s field.

Still, come Autumn, off you would trot again into the wet and windy nights, undaunted and with fresh dreams, aims, targets and schedules. The call of the wild perhaps. You certainly always returned for more, and particular races could operate a pull of their own – despite all logic.

Beith was the best. I mean the best example. New Year’s Day, up to your knees in cow shit and then back to the wooden hut and a washdown in troughs of freezing and rapidly blackening water. If you got lucky there was a ballot prize (a big attraction) and then a two hour wait for the reduced service bus to crawl its way back to Glasgow. No it wasn’t a ballot prize that made you return after saying never, NEVER, again. It was perverse logic at play. You wanted to finish in the first three and figured nobody, but nobody would go back. Of course, everyone was thinking the same, and we’d all turn up again. I did it until I was old enough to take a Hogmanay hangover with me.

Ayrshire has always been good for cross-country races on the most heart-breaking of winter days, and Stewarton is another legend. I have vivid memories of big lassies and wee lassies in their early teens come staggering down the street (true, a cross-country race that finished in the street) with bare feet, or only one loose sock with a ball of mud flapping on the end, and collapsing, sobbing, into their mother’s arms. (They weren’t so well prepared in those days – the late Sixties – and come to think of it, it was the biggest lassies that made the biggest fuss. Still, nearly every competitor had marvellous fun going back into the fields afterwards to find the shoes schlupped off in the mud.

Lanarkshire’s greatest course, sadly no longer in use, was at Cleland. Heavy, heavy going, a mighty hill and enough barbed-wire fences to have every man counting “one – two” as he crossed the line.

Ah, the memories, it’s no wonder I can’t understand new runners reeling back in horror when I suggest a wee diversion off the tarmac during a training run. Just across a few fields so I can smell the mud and the grass again.

“WHAAAT? What about the nettles? There’s a barbed wire fence. And a burn. Geez, what about the farmer?” they wail.

And I sigh, and explain, “In the beginning for all the greats and for much of their development, there was cross-country. Cram, Coe, Ovett, Moorcroft, Aouita, Foster, Hill, Bedford, McCafferty, Lopez – them all. Budd, Weitz and Kristiansen as well. They know the delights, the challenges, the benefits and the joy of running strong over a true test of stamina and grit.”

Lachie Stewart won the Stewarton race in 1968, 1969 and then made it a hat-trick in 1970, after winning the Commonwealth Games 10000 metres. And his son Glen, who is showing the same kind of talent, will probably be there this year.

So join a club, get to know the races (some can be well-kept secrets but at least there are now hot showers afterwards), and there will be more than enough satisfaction, fun and fascination to get you the door with the rest of us on the cold wet and windy nights.

And by the way, Beith is now a road race.”

The article appeared in the October, 1986, issue of the magazine and was written in conjunction with an article on Nat Muir. It is quite a powerful statement of the attractions of the sport but also indicates the depths of the love Graham has for all kinds of endurance running.

Early Cross-Country Running

The Springburn Harriers young athletes were mainly coached by Eddie Sinclair, himself a cross-country internationalist in the 1950’s and their boy’s senior boys, youth and junior teams all did very well and were among the best in Scotland, winning medals and titles at County, District and National level as well as in regular open races such as those at Bellahouston Park. The table below give some indication of this success in the National Championship for Graham’s teams.

As he himself says above, in season 1973/74 when they won the team title, the club realised that Jim Lawson who had been a member of the Junior team was, because of the English age groupings, eligible to run with the Youths team. The club decided to send an Under 17 team to the English Cross-County Championships. The team went down to the race and, despite running below their best, came home with the silver medals which should have been a source of great pride. This was not the case however since they felt they had not performed to their ability.

Graham’s best run in the senior national was in 1983 when he led the club home in eighth position. This led to his selection to run for Scotland in the International Amateur Athletic Federation championship which that year was held in Gateshead. He finished in 182nd and was a scoring Scottish runner.

1986 Revisited

And finally, if you want more on 1986, have a look at “Scotland’s Runner” for November 1986: his own look back is on pages 44 and 45, while Colin Shields makes some percipient observations on page 43.   The magazine is online at  http://salroadrunningandcrosscountrymedalists.co.uk/Archive/Scotland’s%20Runner/SR%20No%205.pdf . Even so, it might not be appreciated how hard he worked himself in 1986: the sheer scale of the feat can be seen if we set the results out in tabular form. (* means course record time).

The run at Ayr of 64:24 has him still placed 12th on the Scottish All-Time lists.*

In case you were wondering, Graham’s track statistics for the next few years are noted in the table below.

The ‘Glasgow Herald’ had the results in most weeks but fairly often in the ‘In Brief’ section. He was virtually an ever present that summer. For instance the month from 21st May to the end of June had the following:

“Graham Crawford of Springburn Harriers, already a winner of several top-class half-marathons this year, successfully moved up in distance when winning the Jim Scott Memorial 15 mile road race at Strathclyde Park. Crawford covered the three laps around the loch in 1:16:10 and finished 42 sceonds ahead of Peter Carton (Shettleston Harriers).” 21/4/86

“Scottish International Mike Carroll of Annan and District AC won the Kirkcudbright Milk Half-Marathon from 300 competitors and led his club to victory in the team context. Carroll set a course record of 63:32 when winning for the second successive year with Graham Crawford of Springburn Harriers runner-up in 64:27.” 26/5/86

“Graham Crawford (Springburn Harriers) scored his second road race victory in 24 hours when he defeated 300 rivals at the Irvine Valley Half Marathon at Galston yesterday. He covered the hilly course in 70:08 to win by over 600 yards from Gordon Tenney (Linwood AC).” 2/6/86

“CRAWFORD KEEPS HIS ROAD RACE RECORD. Scottish Internationalist Graham Crawford of Springburn Harriers continued his recent series of road race successes when winning the half-marathon at Bearsden and Milngavie Highland Games at Kilmardinny. Crawford led more than 400 rivals from the start, covering the hilly course in one hour eight minutes 15 seconds to win by more than quarter of a mile from local runner Alistair Douglas (Victoria Park). 9/6/86

The report of the Clydebank Half Marathon the next week was so scanty that it only reported down to third finisher.

“Graham Crawford (Springburn Harriers) continued his string of road race victories when winning the inaugural Mid-Argyll Half-Marathon at Lochgilphead yesterday in 70 minutes 44 seconds.” 23/6/86

There was a shortage of results in the ‘Herald’ during the Commonwealth Games in 1986 which enjoyed mammoth coverage, with the European Championships a month later also getting some good coverage. But it was not long before the scribes there cottoned on to his continuing successes. Some more reports.

“Graham Crawford won the Moray Half-Marathon in 1-6-9”. 11/8/86

“Scotland’s most consistent road runner, Graham Crawford (Springburn Harriers), recorded another victory when defeating over 300 rivals in the TSB Alyth to Blairgowrie Half-Marathon in 67:05 finishing 600 yards in front of RAF Serviceman George Reynolds (Aberdeen AAC).” 18/8/86

“Graham Crawford of Springburn Harriers won the Goretex Fabrics Half-Marathon at Howdden Park, Livingston, his fourth victory in three weeks. He set a course record of 66:41 and won by 300 yards from Denis Cavers (Teviotdale). [I think he meant David Cavers!] 1/9/86.

“Graham Crawford (Springburn Harriers) brought his road running season to a triumphant close on Cumbrae when he beat John Graham’s course record for the 10.25 mile road race by 13 seconds. Crawford’s time was 49:15.” 15/9/86.

“Scotland’s most prolific road runner of the year, Graham Crawford (Springburn Harriers) scored his eleventh half-marathon victory in 20 weeks, defeating 200 competitors in the Stranraer Half Marathon yesterday – his 30th birthday. Victory won him a trip to the Paris Marathon next spring. Leading from the early stages he won in 66:02 from Ian Park (Ballydrain Harriers).” 6/10/86

It was a mad racing programme that no half sensible coach, exercise physiologist or sports scientist would have organised or recommended. If a summer like that can lead to a fastest time on the torrid second stage of the Edinburgh to Glasgow, maybe more runners should have tried it. It was a wonderful year and superb display of fitness, speed and, of course, enthusiasm. It is also a year that Graham can look back on with pride.

In fact he can look back on his whole running career with considerable pride in his achievements and his many successes over many surfaces and in all weathers. One international vest in any endurance discipline would please most athletes – to gain international recognition on the track, on the roads and over the country takes remarkable talent.   And through it all his enjoyment shines through – too many of our top runners can’t wait to get out of the sport as soon as they have, in Emmet Farrell’s phrase, “shed their silk”.   I suspect that Graham will be running for a long time yet.

Martin Craven (448) leading the field in the Edinburgh Marathon, 1984

Martin G. Craven was born on the 15^th of December 1940, at Hoylake in the Wirral, moving from there to Chester and then to Kendal when he was starting third year. He started cross-country at Heversham School when he successfully persuaded the games master that rugby was not his forte (not unusual for skinny runners!) Subsequently he joined Kendal AAC as a youth.

Martin first represented Edinburgh University Hare & Hounds in the 1959 Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay and went on to become a ‘blue’ for both cross-country and athletics. After graduating he went to Oxford University for a year and ran in the cross country and track teams. Then he worked and competed in the North of England until 1969 and was proud to wear a Kendal AC vest but maintained second-claim membership of Edinburgh Southern Harriers. During the 1960s he did a lot of road races, building fitness for the longer distances. He was surprised and pleased to win his first marathon (1966 Preston to Morecambe) in 2.24.26; and to regain his title (2.20.58) the following year.

Martin Craven’s most notable achievements included running for Scotland in the International CC in 1963; and gaining a GB vest in the 1967 Kosice International Marathon. From 1970 onwards he became a vital team member of the very successful ESH team; improved his marathon PB; and in 1981 won the M40 Scottish Veterans Cross-Country title. Martin continued to race well into his early fifties.   It is obvious that his running career explored the full spectrum: youthful exploits, peak performances, maintained competitiveness and eventual retirement while still quite fit in late middle-age. In fact, Martin Craven’s success in achieving his full potential should be inspirational.

The Edinburgh University Hare & Hounds regime was legendary. The arrival of Fergus Murray in 1961 triggered harder, faster, longer training which eventually led to an E to G record in 1965 and three victories in a row up to 1967. Although Martin Craven had matriculated in 1959, he did not graduate until 1964 so his training must have been influenced considerably. EU finished 17^th in the 1959 E to G, with Martin on Stage Three. In 1960 they improved to 10^th (MC fifth-fastest on Stage Five). Martin did not reappear in this prestigious race until 1970 but then ran eleven in succession for ESH.

His early cross-country running was inauspicious: 37^th in the 1960 Junior National. Next season he did improve to 20^th and EU finished third team. Thereafter he must have improved very rapidly, since he was selected for the Scottish team after the Senior National at Hamilton Racecourse on 22^nd February 1963. John Linaker, Alastair Wood and Andy Brown were the first three, but Tom Cochrane, Calum Laing, Bert McKay and Martin Craven could not have been far behind. In the International CC Championships at San Sebastian, Martin finished 70^th, only two places after Scotland’s sixth counter McKay.

A major highlight was the 1967 AAA Marathon Championship on 26^th August at Baddesley Colliery, near Nuneaton. Uniquely, Scots won gold, silver and bronze, through the efforts of Jim Alder, Alastair Wood and Donald Macgregor. Martin Craven too placed highly; and he and Donald were chosen by the BAAB to wear their first British vests at the famous Kosice Marathon in Czechoslovakia on 10^th October.

Olympic Marathon runner Donald Macgregor described this race in his 2010 autobiography “Running My Life”. Anyone interested in Scottish distance running should buy this detailed and fascinating book (email dfm237@hotmail.com). This was the 37^th international ‘Peace Marathon’, which continues to the present day. Previous winners included the great Ethiopian athlete Abebe Bikila. There were 130 starters from 13 countries. The following extract is abbreviated.

“Martin and I lined up on a damp but warm morning (22-26 degrees C). The traditional course started in the stadium and led through some outskirts of the town to the village of Sena on the Hungarian border some 13 miles away to the east, and straight back again. The route was more or less flat, so that the wind played a prominent role in determining whether or not the times would be fast. In 1967 there was a westerly breeze on the way out, so that the finishing positions would very likely be decided over the second half.

 A group of 17, including Martin Craven and me, formed from the start and remained bunched together until shortly before the turn. By 20km, reached in around 1.21.00, a cohort of five – Nedo Farcic (Yugoslavia), Meravi (Ethiopia), Craven, and the Soviets Baikov and Sucharkov – had taken 300m off the next group of five, including me. The wind was now behind us and the pace crept up. The leaders reached 35 km in 1.54.22 and Farcic and Meravi managed to break clear from the other three. By the finish Nedo Farcic was away and clear for his biggest-ever win in 2.20.53.8. The Ethiopian followed just over a minute behind (2.21.58.2) and then came a procession of nine further runners all under 2.25, the last being myself in 2.24.54.2. Martin was fourth in 2.23.14.0. Somehow neither of us felt able to do more than just keep going over the last 15 km or so, no doubt because we had not recovered fully from Baddesley.” Nevertheless, Martin Craven had every reason to be very pleased with his GB debut!

Martin running in the 1963 BUSF Championship Three Miles

Martin ran the Seventh Stage in the 1970 Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay. He recorded easily the fastest time and clawed back Shettleston’s lead to sixteen seconds. However Bill Scally withstood the challenge of Kenny Ballantyne and ESH finished second. In 1971 they were third, with Martin gaining five places on Stage Two.

By then I was living in Glasgow, running for Victoria Park AAC and before long came into direct contact with Martin Craven. On the 12^th of December 1971 I managed to complete an arduous 18 mile Sunday session with Edinburgh University people, including Andy McKean, Jim Dingwall and ‘The Crab’. (This was Martin’s nickname, due to his unusual running style.) My diary notes: “Over road, fence, path, hill, bog, precipice etc.” Thereafter, whenever I went to Edinburgh for a weekend, I often trained with Martin, who seemed to wear lightweight Tiger ‘Cubs’ (costing 29/6!) on all occasions, amazingly without incurring injury.

On 1^st January 1972 Martin was 8^th in the Morpeth to Newcastle Road Race, while I could only manage 16^th, a minute adrift. Yet in the National CC at Currie I managed to finish comfortably ahead of him.

ESH were third in the 1972 E to G, with Martin Craven third-fastest on Stage Four. Although Martin finished ahead of me in the 1973 National, when ESH won silver medals, there was little between us, as ensuing contests emphasised. On February 24^th he was tenth and one place ahead of me in the Carnethy Hill Race. A week later, in the EU 10 mile road race, while Andy McKean strolled to victory, I just managed to secure second place after a great struggle with Martin and the effort almost made me sick. (Martin won this extremely hilly race in 1975, recording 49.56.)

In November 1973, ESH won the E to G, after Martin Craven moved into the lead on Stage Five, recording the fastest time. I was teaching in Sweden by then but moved to Edinburgh in August 1974 and joined ESH. Immediately our rivalry was renewed, when on the 25^thof August at Meadowbank on a wet and windy day, I only just got the better of Martin to win an inglorious SAAA Track 10 Miles Championship. However on 21^st September he outkicked me by one second to win the Millport 10 on the island of Great Cumbrae.

For the next seven years we were team-mates and friendly near-neighbours, frequently training together on Sundays (long run), Mondays (short rep session) and Wednesdays (longer reps), as well as battling out many close races and sharing team triumphs.

In the E to G, ESH won in 1974, 1975, 1977 and 1978, as well as finishing third in 1979 and fourth in 1980. As mentioned previously, Martin Craven ran eleven races in a row and won five gold medals, one silver and three bronze. He always made a valuable contribution but personal highlights were in 1975 and 1977. In the former, we broke the race record and were ahead all the way, with five fastest times, including Martin Craven’s record-breaking 20.42 on Stage Three, which increased our lead from three seconds to one minute 51 seconds! However Martin’s Stage 8 performance in the latter year was even more vital. We were without Alistair Blamire and Allister Hutton, and yet somehow ground out another victory. Ron Marshall’s report in the Glasgow Herald bore the headline “Craven courage on final leg of relay”. He wrote: “In one of the closest finishes for many years, Edinburgh Southern Harriers triumphed in the 37^th Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay yesterday. Edinburgh AC were bridesmaids for the fifth year in a row and Shettleston, the holders, were third.

Rarely has there been a chance of any of three clubs taking the trophy as the eighth and last leg started, but that was the position as each runner sped over the city boundary – only 27 seconds separating the three. The order was: EAC, Southern, Shettleston.    Martin Craven (ESH), easily the most experienced of them, paced himself beautifully over the five and a half miles, slipping ahead of EAC’s Eric Fisher, while the early burst by Stewart Easton (Shettleston) took its toll and he fell back almost as strikingly as he had originally closed the gap.   Craven crossed the winning line in 27.58, the fastest of the stage, for an overall winning time of 3.40.24. EAC took 3.41.01, 67 seconds ahead of Shettleston.”

In the National Six-Stage Relay, Martin helped ESH to win gold medals in 1979 and 1980.    One might assume that the National CC Relay would be a little short for Martin Craven but in 1976, with the additional assistance of Ian Elliot, Allister Hutton and Alistair Blamire, ESH won the event.    In the National CC between 1973 and 1980, Martin won no less than eight team medals in succession with ESH: two gold, five silver and one bronze. His best individual placings were 12^th in 1975, 14^th in 1974 and 18^th in 1976. In total, he won ten SCCU team titles.

On the track, Martin Craven’s fastest 5000m was 14.32.6, when he won at Meadowbank on 14^th April 1973. He followed that with a 10,000m PB of 29.55.4 at the same venue on 16^th June. Then in 1975, when he was especially fit, he ran 49.40 in the final SAAA 10 Mile Track event for a meritorious third place behind Doug Gunstone (48.55.4) and myself (49.00.8). His fastest Scottish Track Ten was actually 49.19.6 in 1973, when he was third after a close contest with the winner Doug Gunstone (EAC) and Colin Martin (Dumbarton AAC).

After his excellent races in 1967, Martin Craven returned to marathon running in the 1970s. He ran 2.21.05 when sixth in Manchester in 1970; 2.22.11 in the 1971 Maxol; and was fifth in the Scottish rankings with 2.20.35 in the Maxol in 1972. 1973 produced 2.22.03 at Harlow; and 1974 2.26.07 at Windsor.

However his fastest time was an impressive 2.18.38 when 11^th in the AAA Marathon at Stoke on 1^st June 1975. This made him third in the Scottish rankings. In addition he was picked (for Borders Counties) to run in the English Inter-Counties 20 mile road race, finishing second in an excellent 1.41.30, followed by future GB Marathon International Dave Cannon (3^rd) and John Hillen (12^th) which gave Borders the team title.

After this, Martin continued to battle occasionally with the classic distance, finishing with 2.25.01 when sixth in the 1979 Glasgow Marathon; and 2.31.55 as a veteran in the inaugural 1981 London Marathon.

By then, Martin Craven was the 1981 Scottish Veterans Cross Country Champion. He continued to compete well until he was over fifty years old, retiring as a well-respected, popular runner with every reason to be proud of his outstandingly consistent, successful running career.

Tony Coyne (on right) passing the baton to Billy Coyle in the 1993 E-G

Tony Coyne was a very good endurance runner with a good turn of speed who was one of the Bellahouston Harriers group of talented athletes which included Peter Fleming and Andy Daly.   After a successful career as an athlete which included a spell at Shettleston Harriers, he returned to Bellahouston Harriers where he is now a coach.    We began by asking Tony to answer a variation of the Scottish Marathon Club questionnaire.

Name:   Tony Coyne

Date of Birth:   11/08/58

Club/s:   Bellahouston Harriers/Shettleston Harriers

Occupation:   Dental Technician, the same as Lachie Stewart who used to work in the Lab that I worked in a few years before me.

List of Personal Bests:   1500:   3:51          3000:   8:24          5000:   14:36          10K:   30:20          Half Marathon   67:00          Marathon:   2:19:16

How Did You Get involved In The Sport Initially?   I worked in a Dental Lab that George Braidwood came to as an apprentice and he used to run home after work.   At that time I used to play a bit of football and as we both lived in the same part of Glasgow I used to join him on his runs home after work.   After a few weeks he invited me down to run at Bellahouston Harriers and that was the last time I kicked a ball for nearly 20 years.

Has Any Individual Or Group Had A Marked Effect Either On Your Attitude To The Sport Or n Your Performances?   I was lucky enough to be involved in the group training sessions that Frank Dick used to do at Bellahouston Sports Centre before he went on to become the sports guru to the stars.   After that I was part of the Alex Naylor group that produced a few stars in the 80’s.   The last few years of my running career were spent under the guidance of Bill Scally, the man who inspired me to become a coach and a man whom I admired greatly for his dedication to the Shettleston Harriers, his athletes and the sport of athletics in general.   I cannot begin to tell you how much I learned about training whilst part of his squad.

What Exactly Do You Get Out Of The Sport?   I have learned to be a well organised person, and I got a great sense of achievement from training and competition.

Can You Describe Your General Attitude To The Sport?   I think that athletics has made me appreciate other people more, and the efforts that they put into their training is just as great as the talented guys who pick up all the prizes.

What Was Your Best Ever Performance?   Third place in the Barcelona marathon on my debut for Scotland when the team won the team prize too.   (I even got a big hug and a kiss from Brian Goodwin as I crossed the finish line.)

And Your Worst?   One year, before the E-G I had been having an early autumn purple patch and was looking forward to the big race as I was the lead off man and feeling confident of us doing really well, but stupidly on the Friday before the race weekend I donated a nice pint of my rare blood group to the Blood Transfusion Service (doing my civic duty) not realising that giving away a pint of red blood cells would have a hell of an effect on my performance on the Sunday and I duly finished second last on the first stage blowing the club’s chances that year.   (It took me a few years to own up to that never to be repeated mistake to my team mates.).

Did you achieve all your goals or was there something that you feel you missed out on?   On reflection, I think I achieved all that I could.  Being married with a young family and mortgage meant i was not in a position to try athletics full time, but I don’t lose any sleep thinking about it.

What Did Running Bring You That You Would Not Have Wanted To Miss?   A mental toughness and a competitive edge which I feel helped me as a runner but has also helped in my chosen  career.

Could You Give Some Details Of Your Training And/Or Your Training Philosophy?   Back in the day, a typical training week would be:

Monday:   (1)   Lunchtime group interval session on the golf course in Alexandra Park with G Braidwood, F Clement, P Fleming, A Daly, G Getty and J Hendry.

(2)   pm   Easy jog home from work

Tuesday:   am: Easy jog to work;        lunchtime: gym session;           pm easy jog home

Wednesday:   am   Easy jog to work         pm   Track Session at Crown Point Track

Thursday:   Repeat of Tuesday.

Friday:   am   Easy jog to work

Saturday:   Race

Sunday:   am   Two hour group run (Braidwood, Fleming, Getty and Daly) in Pollok Park and surrounding golf courses.

My training philosophy?   Always respect other runners whatever level they are at because we were all joggers at one time.

***

An indication of the status of Bellahouston Harriers in Scottish marathon running at the time can best be seen in the Scottish Marathon ranking lists for 1983.   Only Aberdeen had more in the lists, the nearest Glasgow club was Victoria Park with four sub 2:30 men while Bella had ten!    They were

Vicky Park’s best was 2:23:54 by Alan Wilson.    Of those above, Tony was under 2:20 in less than a year as was Graham Getty, Jimmy Russell was under 2:30 and Bob Guthrie was under 2:25.   It was a quite remarkable group.

Back to Elite Endurance

Dick Penman to Joe Connolly: Edinburgh to Glasgow, 1958

Joe Connolly was neat and tidy in everything he did – he always looked well dressed with his hair neatly parted, he was also a very neat runner, no arms flailing around, no really jaggy elbows which of course meant no wasted effort.    He was also a great Bellahouston Harrier and he was often seen out on the road at the Edinburgh to Glasgow, after he had done his stint, giving his man advice and encouragement.   But most of all he was one of the best road and country runners the country had in the 1950’s and early 60’s.   For instance, on the road, having taken a lead from Dick Penman in the E-G of 1958 he held it despite the best efforts of Binnie and Wood to chase him down; and on the country a Scottish Championship and five international vests speak of his class.   Unfortunately there were no track titles but then, with Graham Everett in the Mile and Ian Binnie, Alastair Wood and the like around, that was no disgrace.   One of the things that always interests me when talking or writing about champion athletes is how they got into the sport in the first place.   We are lucky in that respect that in June 1956, just as things were starting to happen for Joe Connolly, the ‘Scots Athlete’ had him as one of their Rising Stars with a profile by Joe Gordon.   It is reproduced in full here.

 “One of Bellahouston’s group of young members who has been improving steadily and now looks like rising to the top is Joe Connolly, a 20 years old British Railways Clerk.   Joe, small and slim, looks anything but a distance runner, but during the past year has certainly made his mark in cross-country and track.      When he joined Bellahouston Harriers in 1950, Joe had no previous running experience, but he managed to finish second in his first race, a boys two miles cross-country and in spite of vowing “never again” he carried on training.   In 1951 he won his club’s track championship, and ran in various races from 100 yards to 880 yards, managing 2 min 15 sec for the latter as his best time.   During the winter of this year, Joe ran for his club team in Youth Cross-Country races, being a non-counter in teh Renfrewshire and Midland District Championships.   the National at Hamilton however saw Joe making 15th position and being a member of the third placed team.  

In 1952 Joe improved his half mile time to 2 min 11.3 sec and qualified for the Scottish Youths 880 yards final.   During the cross-country season 1952/53, Joe began to show some indication of his form to come when he won the Bellahouston Harriers Grandison Trophy, breaking the course record in two out of three races.   In the Clydesdale Youth Race he was defeated by Ian Tierney of Cambuslang in the record time of 14 min 42 sec after having his stride broken by a dog in the finishing sprint!   His form on the country varied somewhat, but once again at Hamilton he finished 12th in the youth race, being a member of the winning team.  

Joe started track season 1953 with the intention of improving on all his performances and his best 880 yards time came down to 2 min 5.2 sec.   August of the same year saw Joe starting his National Service with the RAF but found little opportunity for serious training.   However, he says, “I feel that this period of rest from competition proved beneficial as I had continually been competing since 1951.”   

During track season 1955 Joe re-started serious training and ran in various RAF races.   He clocked 53.2 seconds for 440 yards, and the good time of 1 minutes 59.3 for 880 yards in the Technical Command Championships.   After his demob in August, he competed in half-mile handicaps and picked up several prizes.   Joe was no longer on shift work at his job on the Railways and thus was able to train every evening.   This improved his form tremendously and in the early season road relays he was running really well and ran a magnificent race to win the first stage of the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay in 26 minutes 24 seconds, a time which is the second fastest time ever.   In the Renfrewshire Championships Joe was second counter for his team, but as they only finished second once again a championship medal eluded him.   He hopes one day to beat this ‘hoodoo’.

Later in the season Joe suffered from ‘flu which affected his running but a week’s lie-off helped and he came back with a ‘bang’ to finish fourth in the Scottish Junior National, again being a member of the winning team.   Competing in the English Junior race in Warwick, Joe feels that he ran below form and finished 37th.   After a few weeks rest, light training on the track was started and April found Joe training six times a week.   Since then he has concentrated on interval running, over distances from 220 yards to 880 yards and runs between six and eight miles during each session including approximatelytwo miles warm-up and limbering down.  Occasionally eh has an easy session on the Golf Course to provide a break in the routine.   

Jow has also been consistently clocking under 4 minutes 30 seconds  for the mile on poor tracks and with top class competition seems likely to improve vastly upon these times.   Although a self coached athlete Joe gives credit to his Bellahouston clubmates and officials for suggestions n training etc.   He aims this season to improve all his times from 880 yards to three miles and his further ambitions are to represent Scotland bothin track and cross-country which I am sure with all his enthusiasm, he can eventually realise.

Joe passes the baton to Des after the first class run in the 1958 race

That’s a pretty comprehensive report on the start of Joe’s career in the sport but as the ‘Scots Athlete’ of the same year reminded us, he was not the only star in Bellahouston.   “Bellahouston Harriers On The Upsurge.   Bellahouston Harriers are beginning to close the gap with such as Edinburgh Varsity, Shettleston and Victoria Park.   One of their up-and-coming stars is young Gordon Nelson, the new steeplechase champion who has followed in the footsteps of previous champions from the same club Bob Climie and Tommy Lamb.   Joe Connolly is also a fine versatile runner and they have three of the finest half-milers in the country in Stoddart, Fraser, Cowan.   I doubt if any club in Scotland could beat them in a 4 x 880 yards race.   They are fortunate in having several very enthusiastic club officials at their disposal.”    (Stoddart  [1:57.3], Fraser [1:58.1] and Cowan [1:59.8] were second, third and sixth in the SAAA Championship 880 yards that year.)

Came the winter 1956/57 and the previews for the season and for each separate race started to appear.   Emmet Farrell said in the October ‘Scots Athlete’, after discussing VPAAC and Shettleston Harriers, Perhaps the big two will be expected to fight out the issue again.   Yet I fancy a strong challenge may come from Bellahouston with a van composed of such as Nelson, Connolly, Goodwin, Fenion and Penman.    The support of their tail may decide the success of their challenge.”    The success of their challenge was not such as to upset the ‘big two’ too much – in the Edinburgh to Glasgow, they were third behind Victoria Park and Shettleston with Joe running the very difficult second stage and turning in the fourth fastest time – no mean feat.   But it was a Bellahouston man who was the surprise ‘hit’ of the National when Harry Fenion won the race in style; where was Joe Connolly?   “Colleague Joe Connolly just out of the junior ranks made a brilliant debut made a brilliant debut in earning his first jersey by holding off McLaren for second place.   Had Gordon Nelson not had to call off through tonsilitis,  Bellahouston might have had an incredible 1-2-3  and could possibly have won the team race.”   They were in fact second with Fenion, Connolly, Penman 22, Irving 23, Irvine 33 and Dickson 44 the other scoring runners.   In to season 1957/58 and although they were getting closer, Bellahouston split the other two and Joe continued to improve.   In the Edinburgh to Glasgow he ran the second stage and was only one second behind the fastest time on the stage.   In the National in February 1958, Joe led the club team home when he was sixth, two places ahead of Harry Fenion who was one place ahead of Des Dickson.   They were second – only ten points behind the winning Victoria Park team.    It was good enough too to get a second international cross country vest for Joe  who finished 34th which was thirty places up on the previous year’s performance and this time too he was a scoring runner for the Scottish team.

‘Continued to improve….’ he certainly did.   In the SAAA Championships for 1958, he was second in the Six Miles and third in the Three Miles.   Results were: Six Miles:   1.   AJ Wood   29:10.2;   2.   J Connolly   29:13.8;   3.   J Wright   30:22.4.   Three Miles:   1.   I Binnie   13:57.6;   2.   A Jackson   14:16.2;   3.   J Connolly   14:27.2.   There was a minor controversy after the championships/trials since it had been said that first three would go but despite his non-appearance for the event, Binnie was selected instead of John Wright (Clydesdale) for the Six Miles.   In the event he actually ran in neither!    Joe Connolly was initially selected for the Six Miles only but in the event he was selected in both Three and Six Miles.   He ran in the Six Miles right at the start of the Games and finished seventh in 30:20.4.    I will put the top ten into a table so that the calibre of opposition will be easily seen

Others behind him included Hugh Foord (England) and Ray Puckett (NZ).    In the Three miles, Binnie was 14th of the 21 finishers, Connolly was 16th (and had been lapped in the process) with Wood not running.

Winter 1958/59 was not only the best season yet  for the club but Joe Connolly had an excellent season and followed this with a very good summer in 1959.    Colin Shields in his official history of the SCCU said, Bellahouston Harriers who had been so near success in past years, finally achieved the breakthrough they deserved in season 1958/59.    They won the Midland Relay title for only the second time in the history of the race as Des Dickson (Bellahouston) and William Kerr (VPAAC) led the field on the opening lap.   The Bellahouston runners, Bert Irving, Harry Fenion and Joe Connolly ran away from their rivals to win by 250 yards.”   More important yet – they won the Edinburgh to Glasgow relay in November.   After VP and Shettleston had swapped the lead for the first four laps, Dick Penman took Bellahouston into a lead on the fifth stage with Joe Connolly on the fearsome long sixth stage being hunted by Alastair Wood for Shettleston and Ian Binnie for Victoria Park.   When he kept the lead and handed over to Des Dickson and Ramsey Black for the last two stages, the team won the gold that they had so richly deserved for so many years.   Joe Connolly’s run was the one that clinched it although all the remaining outstanding runners did their share of the heavy lifting.   In the National at Hamilton in February Joe Connolly was seventh and was selected for the team to compete in Portugal where he was fifty seventh..   In summer 1959 Joe improved even further in what were to be his specialist and appeared on two Scottish ranking lists: in the Three Miles he was ranked ninth for his time of 14:26,  and in the Six Miles he was sixth with a time of 30:23.6.

November 1959 saw Bellahouston defending their title in the Edinburgh to Glasgow race and they finished second, a mere eighteen seconds behind the winners with Joe being second fastest on the long sixth stage to Motherwell’s Andy Brown.   In the Midland Cross-Country championship, Joe was third over the demanding Renton trail outside Dumbarton finishing behind Graham Everett (Shettleston) and Andrew Brown (Motherwell) and in the National in February 1960 he was fourth behind Everett, Wood and Brown to book his place to the International yet again.   He was forty fourth this time and again a scoring runner for the Scotland team.

Summer 1960 and Joe Connolly ran well enough to be ranked at no fewer than four distances.   At one mile he was eleventh with 4:19.2, at two miles he was seventh with 9:11.4, at three miles he was sixth with 14:08.2 and he was third in the six miles with a season’s best of 29:06.6.   In the championships he did particularly well with second in the Six and third in the Three Miles.    But if the 1958 Empire Games were the highspot of his track career, the winter 1960/61 would see the top performance of his country career.   Third in the Midland District Championships after helping Bellahouston to another second place in the Edinburgh to Glasgow with a sparkling fastest time on the second stage.   But it was in the National Cross Country Championships that he was at his very best with his first (and only) championship triumph.   They were all there – Everett who had had a very good winter up to that point, Alastair Wood who always wintered well, Andy Brown, Adrian Jackson, Gordon Eadie, Ian Harris and John McLaren all ran.   Again he was selected for the international, to be held in Nantes, where Graham Everett, second at Hamilton, narrowly beat him for the honour of being first Scot home.    Everett was 18th and Connolly 21st.         In summer 1961 he was again in four national track ranking lists: in the Mile he was 21st with 4:23.8, in the Two Miles 12th with 9:15.6, in the Three Miles he was 3rd with 13:53.4 and in the Six Miles he was 4th with 29:43.0.   In the SAAA Championships he was third in the Six Miles.     Over three years he had two seconds and three thirds in the Championships.   This was the last year that he was to appear in the ranking lists and there were to be no more international cross-country vests.

In fact he only ran one more Edinburgh to Glasgow race and was first on the first stage in a team that was fourth.   He did not appear in any more National Cross Country races either and his career just stopped with the 1961 eight stage relay.   Joe had represented all that was good about the sport in the sport after the war – he came into the sport as a Youth, worked to get to the top and, self-coached for his entire career, won national titles, gained international jerseys and ran well in the Empire Games.   He would be an excellent role model for any young runner in the country in the twenty first century.

Luddon Half Marathon, 1987

Hammy Cox (2039), Graham Crawford (17) and Alex Gilmour

I joined the Scottish Marathon Club in 1960 and for one of my first races I was to be picked up by Jimmy Scott in his van outside Queen Street Station in Glasgow.   When I first arrived there was no one else waiting other than a man with glasses, a toothbrush moustache and hair slicked back.   We got talking and he was very friendly.   As the weeks and months went by, I became quite friendly with Bertie Cox who was a good class road runner for Greenock Wellpark Harriers.   We also met up at the annual inter clubs between our two clubs and at Marathon Club presentations and socials.   His son, Hammy, was to be a much better athlete than his father and known throughout Scotland from early on in his career.   No stranger to controversy, he was a very talented runner respected throughout the sport.    He came into the sport as a boy and in 1971-72 as a Senior Boy (Under 15) was 28th of the 171 finishers in the National Championship.   A year later and in the same age group he had moved up to sixth.   As a Youth (Under 17) in 1973-74 he was seventh, and then was back up to sixth in 1974-75.   He had moved that year to the new club of Spango Valley AC.   He raced in more than the National of course but his progress as marked in these events was marked.

Hamilton Cox was born on 27th May, 1957.   He showed early talent with Spango Valley AC running 3:59.5 for 1500m in 1977.   Hammy ran in thirteen Edinburgh to Glasgow Relays between 1977 and 1992 for three different clubs – Spango Valley, Bellahouston Harriers and Greenock Glenpark – the club he had started out with and with which he ended his running career.    Later in 1977 he made his debut in the Edinburgh to Glasgow eight stage road relay on Stage One.   He ran the same stage in 1978 and Stage Four in 1979.   Then in 1981 Spango Valley finished seventh (with Hammy on Stage Three) and his team won the medals for the most meritorious unplaced performance (ie the most improved team.).   By 1982 Hammy had switched to Bellahouston Harriers.  .   In the 1982  Edinburgh to Glasgow, he was second fastest on Stage Three by only five seconds and moving from sixth to second with the team ending up fourth and out of the medals    They put this right the following year.    The Bellahouston team of Peter Fleming, Andy Daly, Graham Getty, Tony Coyne, George Braidwood and Alistair McAngus had been strengthened by the addition of Hammy and Neil Black had a wonderful race to finish second.   Hammy was fastest on Stage Three, where he devastated the record with 23:48 – setting a new record and erasing the outstanding 20:18 set by Colin Youngson on the former shorter stage.  Hammy’s time stood until the race met its end.    In 1984 he moved Bellahouston from fifth to second with second fastest on Stage Three.   He did not run in 1985 but in 1986 he ran for Greenock Glenpark Harriers on Stage Six where he moved up from 15th to 13th.   Missing 1987 he ran the sixth stage again in 1988 when he held tenth position.   In 1989 he held on to ninth position but ran the third fastest time on the leg.   In 1990 he had a real stormer on the second stage moving from nineteenth to sixth.   In 1991 on the second leg again he moved up from tenth to eighth.  His last run in the great old race was in 1992 when he went from fourteenth to twelfth in a team that won the Most Meritorious medals – he had won one with Spango Valley in 1981 (and Glenpark would win them again in 1995 but without Hammy’s services

He was also a very good relay runner generally, whether on the road or over the country.   In the West District Relays he tended to specialise in the first stage where he had some really outstanding races.   In 1976 he led the first stage home and Spango Valley was third team.  The following year they were second after he led the first stage with the fastest time of the day, and in 1979-80 he won the first stage for the winning team.   In 1981-82 he was again first on the first stage with the fastest time of the day for Spango Valley.   In 1982-83 he turned out for Bellahouston where he was fifth fastest for the unplaced team.   He didn’t run again for the Bellahouston team in the West District Relays.   In 1982,  his team was second in the Scottish Relay Championships.    A great triumph was in 1985 when Bellahouston Harriers won the Scottish Six-Stage Relay championship and they added Scottish Cross-Country relay bronze that autumn.    He ran subsequently for Glenpark  Harriers in the West District Relays with his best run being in 1988-89 when the team won.   This time he ran on the second stage and brought the team from 20th to fifth.

If we stick with the country for now, he ran in nine District Championships as a Senior with many fine runs among them – 13th in 1976-77, tenth in 81-82, 12th in 84-85, 4th in 85-86, 5th in 88-89, 5th again in 89-90 and an unwilling 2nd in 1990-91: I say unwilling because Tommy Murray who had won was disqualified and Hammy was upgraded to second from third.   Equally unwilling to be elevated to first place was Alaister Russell who was quoted in the Press as saying Tommy won the race fair and square   The reason for the disqualification was simple: – Tommy had resigned from Glenpark and joined Cambuslang but had been entered for the West championship by Glenpark before his resignation.   He refused to wear a Glenpark vest and so was disqualified.   It had been a good year so far for Hammy who had been second to John Sherban in the Nigel Barge Road Race and then won the Jimmy Flockhart Memorial Cross-Country race at Coatbridge.   However none of his hoped for Scottish selections had come to pass, mainly I suppose because he ran mainly on the road.   The March 1991 issue of the “Scotland’s Runner” carried this under the headline “Cox Snubs Officials.”   Despite heaping abuse on Scottish Cross-Country Union officials, the confused Greenock Glenpark runner Hammy Cox was offered an olive branch then snubbed them again!   Cox, citing his road form, had ranted at international team manager Jim Scarbrough and his fellow selectors when he was passed over for national cross-country teams this winter.   He stated categorically that he would not compete again for Scotland.   A week later he complained that the selectors had the nerve to believe this when they read it in the papers.   “They should have checked with me,” he said.

Then, after having finished third in the West District Championships behind Tommy Murray (later disqualified) and Alaister Russell, he yelled at Scarbrough, “You couldn’t pick your nose!”   He declined to accept his medal.   “I wouldn’t shake hands with any of that lot,” he said.   But he confided he wouldn’t mind running in the Inter-County Championships.   “I can get plenty of road races on my own but I need to be selected by Scotland to run in the Inter-Counties,” he told me.  

All credit to the long-suffering Jim Scarbrough – when he heard this, he phoned Cox and offered him a place.   You’ve guessed it, Cox turned him down!

Just to confirm their good faith, Cox was named as a reserve for the Scottish squad which competed in the UK trial for the World Championships. “

In the National at Irvine on 24th February  Hammy had one of his best cross-country races and finished fourth.   Doug Gillon in the “Scotland’s Runner” for April 1991 commented as follows:   In fourth place Hammy Cox, passed over by Scotland this winter, cocked a gleeful snook at the selectors as he pointed out that several of the men preferred to him had finished in his wake.   His wife, Jayne, has taken legal advice on certain matters alleged to have passed on certain matters alleged to have passed between her husband and the SCCU officials, and this contest may run and run.”  

In June 1991, “Scotland’s Runner” had an extended interview with him by Margaret Montgomery which I will reproduce here.   The article plus illustrations are on line at

http://salroadrunningandcrosscountrymedalists.co.uk/Archive/Scotland’s%20Runner/SR%20No%2058.pdf

SURVIVING THE HEAT

At 34, Hammy Cox has been running competitively for 19 years and over the past few years has earned himself a reputation as one of Scotland’s better distance runners.  Cox, a civilian mechanic with the police in Greenock, spent his formative years as a track athlete concentrating on 800 and 1500 metres.   At 15 he was fastest senior boy in Scotland over 1500m with a personal best of 4:13 and throughout his teens also held a number of Scottish Schools and club titles over 800m.   “My father was a good athlete and he gave me lots of encouragement,” says the Glenpark Harrier whose own children, Graeme 16 and Jill 14, have distinguished themselves as junior and schools athletes.   

Cox made the move from track to roads four years ago.   His first half-marathon attempt was at the Luddon in 1987 – and not only did he win but he broke the course record!   With the event now a 10K, his half-marathon time of 64:31 presumably can not be bettered.   “I suppose I should have increased my distance years before I did,” he now reflects.   “Until 1987 I was still battling away on the track and getting nowhere.”    Having found his niche rather later in life than he might have liked, Cox didn’t waste more time making his mark.   After his revealing debut at Luddon, he decided to test his capabilities over the full 26 miles by entering the Glasgow Marathon, and although his preparation didn’t go as intended, he nonetheless managed an impressive third.   “Three weeks before I was due to run, I injured an ankle,” he recalls.   “I ripped up my number thinking I wouldn’t be able to enter and resigned myself to being a spectator.   Then the day before the race, I decided I wasn’t feeling too bad and that I’d give it a go.   Really, in the circumstances – all my preparation having gone haywire and my fitness not up to scratch – finishing at all was a bonus but getting third in 2:19:43 was great! 

It seems that since rediscovering athletics at 30, Cox has blossomed.   He is adamant however, that he wouldn’t have achieved nearly as much had it not been for forging a successful athlete-coach relationship with Joe Haverson in the aftermath of the 1988 Warsaw Marathon.   As British team manager for the Warsaw event, Haverson impressed Cox with his solicitous attitude to the athletes under his care.   Foreseeing that there wouldn’t be much of the right type of food in Poland, the manager had taken plenty of it himself and duly doled it out to the UK athletes when the reality of what they could eat struck home.   “I’d never met an official who cared so much,” comments a somewhat wry Cox, “He watched over all of us but in such a way that I didn’t feel patronised or lose self confidence.”

By his own admission, the Greenock athlete “didn’t have a clue about marathon preparation and race tactics.   Asked by Haverson prior to the race what time he hoped to run it in, Cox responded that he was looking for a 2:16.   What he hadn’t thought about, what Haverson pointed out to him, was the heat.   “It was 80 degrees,” recalled Hammy with a laugh.   Joe advised that I took half a minute off my time for every degree of the heat over the temperature I was used to.   He suggested I tried for 71 minutes at the halfway stage – I was going for 68.   In the end I took his advice and even doing that, I was surviving and no more over the last mile.   If it hadn’t been for him, I’d never have finished.”

Haverson was also keeping a bemused eye on the Scot’s eating habits.   A confessed “junk food junkie” Cox prepared his body for the Warsaw event on his usual diet of fried and fatty foods.   Haverson said nothing until after the race and then pointed out to the Glenpark runner that he was probably running at 80% of his full capability eating as he did.   During a five week rest period following the Warsaw, Cox had time to reflect on Haverson’s words and guidance.   He then phoned Haverson and asked him to be his coach.   A strictly low fat, high fibre diet followed and Hammy lost 12 pounds in two weeks.   “I couldn’t believe it when I first ran at my new weight,” he says, “I felt so much healthier and there was a marked improvement in my performances.”   As an example he quotes the British Airways 10K at Bellahouston where he came fourth behind Nat Muir, Allister Hutton and Chris Robison.    “Before I would have been lagging a minute behind that lot,” he says.   “This time I was a very close fourth, there were about three seconds separating the four of us.”       

Hammy says luck has played a big part in his athletics progress.   Had he not met Joe Haverson, he feels he would have continued approaching distance running the wrong way, and might have become discouraged and given up when his times didn’t improve.   As it is, he found not only encouragement and guidance from Haverson but also from fellow runner Gerry Helme.   The latter, who wears the hat of promotions manager for New Balance, was responsible for encouraging Cox to run in international races abroad.   He also arranged a sponsorship which provided your man with a year’s supply of New Balance clothing and shoes.   “I met Gery at the Derry Half-Marathon in 1988,” explains Hammy.   “After the race he asked me what races I was planning for the rest of the year.   When I told him my plan was to run the Dublin Marathon in six weeks, he was horrified and said I needed to run half-marathons and 10K races on a regular basis to build up to an event like that.   He said he’d find me some races abroad and before I knew it he was ringing me up telling me I had a place in a  ten miles road race in Holland the following week.   Two weeks after that I was running in a ten mile road race in Germany.”   The relationship forged with Helme has continued and even today Helme is largely responsible for the Greenock athlete’s participation in prestige road races abroad.     

“I thought that to appear in the sort of races Gerry was talking about, you’d have to be an Allister Hutton.   If it hadn’t been for him I’d still be making do with two mile cross country races in Scotland – which aren’t really enough.   On the whole I don’t think there’s enough encouragement or advice to Scottish athletes.   After all, it was just luck that I met Gerry.”   Cox says  that the fear of disappointing his friend after he has gone to the trouble of securing him a place in a big race abroad is usually more than enough to make him turn out a good performance.   He is also convinced that the higher number of quality races he now runs has played a major part in his development as an athlete.   “When I went to the 1988 Dublin Marathon, I was more prepared than I had ever been and I ran my personal best time of 2:18:04,” he avers.   “Actually I should be able to knock three or four minutes off that time, but most of the marathons I’ve run have been either very hilly or very hot.  

Although Cox enjoyed a successful start to 1990 with seventh place in the City-Pier-City in Holland and fourth in a half marathon in Denmark, he was soon knocked off his stride with injury.   Consequently he decided not to try and defend his Dublin Marathon and Land o’Burns half-marathon as planned and concentrated instead on the Sun Life Great Race.   While this doesn’t sound like much of an “easy option” for an injured athlete, Cox thought it was ideal in the circumstances.   “I wasn’t in the right condition to defend my titles so this seemed like a good compromise,” he says.   “I had to run ten or 15 miles every day for 20 days but at least other runners could have taken over if it had got too much.   However, I managed OK by by putting in about 85% effort each day.”

An unfulfilling road season behind him, Hammy decided that, for once, he’d put a lot of effort into the cross-country season.     For once?    “Usually I focus all my energy on road running and then lie low during the cross-country season,” he admits.   I normally give cross-country about 60-70%, but this time I was determined to do well after missing so many of the major road races.”   Last December he won the Renfrewshire CC Championships and in January came third and was awarded second in the West District Championships (Tommy Murray was disqualified with the rest of the field moving up a place).   His winter season included wins in the Jimmy Flockhart Memorial Race, the Glenpark Harriers Willow Bowl and the CIBA Geiggy Road Race plus second places in the Nigel Barge and Bill Elder 10K.   Despite his consistent road and cross-country form, Cox was overlooked for every cross-country international during 1990-91.       It is a subject that he feels very strongly about – not least because he claims there has been a fair measure of confusion surrounding the reporting of what he has, and has not, said about the matter.  

“It’s true that I said I didn’t want to run for Scotland again at the West Districts, but it was just one of those heat-of-the-moment things,   I was completely sickened at running so well and being passed over for the National side,” he says.   “What had particularly aggravated me was that there had been a late call-off for the international at Mallusk two weeks earlier.   The person who was asked to step in to the team hadn’t beaten me all season.   The selectors tried to tell me they had picked someone who had no family and who would be available at short notice.   But as everyone knew, I was intending running that day anyway – in the Nigel Barge.   I was prepared to put that before family commitments so I’d obviously have put the Mallusk meeting before them.   Although Cox admits he lost his cool at the West Districts (he distinguished himself by refusing to accept his medal) he says he later calmed down enough to make it known that he wanted to run in the UK Cross-Country Trials.   He says this intent was picked up – mistakenly – as the inter-counties event by a well-meaning journalist who in turn informed the selectors.   The net result was, according to Cox, that he looked like a ‘complete turkey’ who didn’t know his own mind.

“I was duly asked to go to the inter-counties but I’d already arranged to spend the morning of that race taking my daughter to a race,” he says.   “There was just no way I could go.”   I explained to international team-manager Jim Scarbrough that it was the trials I was hoping for a race at.  Unfortunately though nobody ever got to know about the mix-up and it looked as though I’d turned down the very thing I’d wanted.”   Having performed well at the West Districts and with a good cross-country season behind him, Cox was convinced that his wish to go to the Trials could not be overlooked.   He says he was supported in this belief by SCCU Secretary Ian Clifton, who indicated that the way to ensure getting to the trials was to run well at the West Districts after which the team was always picked.          Despite this alleged assurance, Cox was – once again – overlooked.   He remains bitter about the circumstances.   “Normally the team gets printed in the paper very soon after the West Districts but this time it didn’t go in for weeks,” he says.   “In the meantime I found out that a number of people had been phoned and asked to be part of the team.   It’s my belief that they held off choosing the team as long as possible in the hope that they could pass me over.   In the end it included a lot of people who weren’t running nearly as well as me .   Out of the final nine they chose, I should have been about fifth.    At the last minute I was made second reserve.”   Having put his version on the record, Cox adds ruefully that he just wants to forget it ever happened.   And despite everything he says he bears no personal grudges.

” I don’t have anything about the guys who were picked over me, even though some of them weren’t running as well as me at the time.   It’s not their fault and I dare say that if I were asked to represent Scotland over and above Allister Hutton, I’d probably do it even though I’m not his standard.    I realise it’s probably only a matter of time until some of them overtake me anyway – they’re young with lots of potential and I’m 34.   But then that is what is so hard to swallow about the whole thing – it might have been my last chance to represent Scotland at cross-country.”  

Despite the rumpus surrounding his recent performances, Cox remains as dedicated an athlete as ever, usually training seven days a week and showing no signs of disillusionment with the sport.   In many ways his life revolves around athletics.   Between Monday and Friday he pounds an average of 16miles per day.   Weekends when not spent in further training are devoted to races – running them and getting to and from them.   But for all this, Cox remains the devoted family man, managing to keep his athletics from interfering too much with the rest of his life.   Organisation is the key word, with the bulk of training taking place during lunch hours and before getting home from work for the night.   “I run home from work and get in before my wife does,” says Cox.   “In fact I’m the one who makes the tea.   At weekends I often race or train on a Saturday, but my wife works most Saturdays anyway.   On Sundays I get one long run in before lunch which leaves us the rest of the day to ourselves. “

A balanced unobsessive attitude.   But then for all the controversy he has managed to immerse himself in, Hammy Cox seems to me that sort of man.

*

Weekly training schedule: Monday – Thursday: Ten miles lunchtime, six miles home in the evening.     Mon/Tuesday: 10 x 1000 with one minute recovery; 12 x 800 with one minute recovery.   Friday: Ten Miles, or four if racing Saturday.   Saturday: 12 miles plus 20 x 400 with half minute recovery if not competing.   Sunday: 14 – 20 mile run.  

It is however as a road runner that Hammy is perhaps best known and we should have a look at some of his best races on his favourite surface.    Note, please, that his E-G third stage run in 1983 was quite outstanding and the record set on that day was perhaps one of his best ever runs.   After the race in Warsaw in 1988, he returned in June 1989 and led the field for the first half of the race but the heat got to him and he finished third in 2:22:0 behind Tony Duffy (2:18:38) and Ian Hagen (2:20:43).

In the Luddon Half-Marathon in May 1987, Hammy won by half a minute.   The picture at the top was taken after 7 miles – Graham Crawford (number 7) recalls Hammy telling him that if he had made one more surge, he would have dropped him at three miles, he was so shocked and stretched by the early speed – to which Graham replied that one more surge would have finished him as well!   Hammy won in 64:31 to Graham’s 65:06 and Alex Gilmour’s 65:24.   The time was a course record which withstood challenges from Peter Fleming, Nat Muir and Fraser Clyne before it was changed to a 10K in 1990.  In September 1987 Hammy ran very well in the Glasgow Marathon where 5516 runners started the race.   The race was won by Eire’s Eamonn Tierney in 2:19:19 with Scotland’s Terry Mitchell from Fife AC  second in 2:19:40 and Hammy only three seconds behind in a personal best of 2:19:43.   The race was very competitive with a group of 20 runners together at 10 miles.   This was reduced to five at 20 miles.   Tierney broke clear at 23 miles although MItchell closed the gap two or three times before losing touch with only a mile to go.   Fast finishing Cox (Greenock Glenpark Harriers just failed to catch Mitchell.

Hammy’s victory in the Edinburgh People’s Half-Marathon on May 1st in 66:14 from Alan Robson came before they both represented Scotland in the international team later that month over the full marathon distance at Aberdeen.   Coincidentally his son Graeme (12) won the 200m and 400m titles at the Renfrewshire Championships on Saturday and daughter Jill (10) won the Inverclyde 200 ad 800m races on the Sunday.

Then on 22nd May 1988 Hammy ran brilliantly to win the City of Aberdeen Milk Marathon which featured an international contest between England, Scotland and Wales.   The ‘Press and Journal’ report by Russell Smith tells the tale:

“ENGLISH RUNNERS ROUTED

Scotland the Rave

Winner Hammy sets sights on British team

The police garage mechanic who put the brakes on England’s seven-year domination of the Aberdeen Milk Marathon has his sights set on new horizons.   For Hammy Cox. the 30 year old Greenock Glenpark Harrier, is hungry for a British vest.   The Aberdeen run was only his second marathon and Cox claimed “Not only did I win on a tough course but I had two current British Internationals behind me.”   He now plans to run a marathon trial in Nuremberg but added, “I’ll gladly go elsewhere if they want me to run for Britain.”  

Cox celebrated after the race with fellow Scottish international Frank Harper from Pitreavie who came second.   Edinburgh Southern Harrier Alan Robson Kept the English out of the medals by coming third.   Cox said “England’s Dave Jenkin was the runner we feared most, but it was the Welshman Owen Lewis who gave us most to think about.   We knew we had Jenkin beaten by the 12 mile mark.”   The Scots had it all to themselves from the 14 mile mark, having motored to the halfway stage in 1 hour 9 minutes 20 seconds.   And it was Cox who found the extra gear as Harper struggled around the 18 mile mark.   The Greenock runner finally emerged with a 65 second winning margin on a day of triumph for the Scots.   The battling Dave Jenkin salvaged some English pride in fourth place before Scottish team-mate Doug Cowie wrapped up the international team honours with fifth place.

1. Hammy Cox (Scotland) 2:21:15;   2.   Frank Harper (Scotland)  2:22:20;   3.   Alan Robson (Scotland)  2:26:21;   4.   Dave Jenkin (England)  2:25:55;   5.   Doug Cowie (Scotland)  2:26:21.

International teams:   1st Scotland (8 points);  2nd Wales (23 points);   3rd England (24 points)

It was not made clear whether the British vest ever materialised but on 16th July that year he won the Nuremberg Marathon in 2:22:25 running for Glasgow in a Glasgow v Nuremberg match where Glasgow won the team race.   He followed this on August 14th with fourth in the Glasgow Half Marathon in 67:49.

One of Hammy’s best events was the Sun Life Great Race, referred to above, which involved a stage race from Glasgow to London – similar to the old Trans-Continental Foot Races, or the Tour de France for cyclists.   The actual event Hammy referred to is reported in “Scotland’s Runner” for November 1990 by Jason Clark under the headline of ‘Paulo wins race, but Hammy, Brian and Graham are the local heroes.’.

“The winner of the inaugural Sun Life Great Race was Paulo Catarino of Portugal who collected prize money of £35,000 for his not inconsiderable efforts.   Twenty six year old Catarino completed the 230 mile, 20 stage race in the incredible time of 18-32-43.   Consistency was the key to the event, illustrated by the fact that Catarino did not win a single stage over the three weeks of the race.   The deciding factor in his triumph was that he did not finish any lower than eighth on any given day.   Delmir dos Santos, the 24 year old Brazilian running for the American Boulder Road Runners Club took the green vest for the overall points winner.   His colossal total of ten stage victories ensured his success.   The first four stages of the race were dominated by 43 year old Kenyan, Kipsubei Kosgei  if not always for the right reasons!   Although he won all three Scottish legs, he self destructed when he was seen to strike dos Santos on the fourth stage from Gretna to Carlisle.   The starting field numbered 107 when the race got under way in Glasgow on September 2nd.   By the day of the final Westminster stage, only 82 runners remained.   Many of the ‘big’ names withdrew or failed to finish including Mike McLeod, John Graham, Fraser Clyne (who was supposed to write a diary of the event for ‘Scotland’s Runner’), Steve Brace, Gary Kiernan and Dave Moorcroft.   In the team contest, the lead changed hands many times before the Boulder outfit took the title.  

Hammy Cox, representing Red Counties AC, finished 18th, the highest placed Scot and the third Briton.   Brian Kirkwood, UK Elite, ended 38th with Graham Crawford, Wolverhampton & Bilston, finishing in a highly creditable 58th, after entering the event at the last minute.   After recovering, Graham said, “It was a first class event which was highly professional in its organisation – especially considering that this was the first event of its kind.   The word most used by competitors when describing the event was ‘fascinating.’   Both your own performance and the changes of position up front made it constantly interesting,” he said.”

The above information was sent to me by Brian Kirkwood who might have more to add to a separate page on the Great Race but it is printed in tabular form so that the incredible performances turned in day after day by the leaders can be seen and the demands made on every one of the participants.   223 miles in 20 days!

Graham Crawford of Springburn Harriers who also ran well in the race commented, I cannot emphasise enough how impressive Hammy’s performances over three weeks in the Great Race were.   His final position of 16th in the general classification saw him on the heels of some world class runners and ahead of others he would not have expected beforehand to have bested.”

Unfortunately many of Hammy’s road races were abroad – Warsaw twice, Dead Sea in Jordan, etc – and not reported in the press back at home – it would be interesting to find what his own assessment of his best runs is.   Competitively he is better than his placings in the all-time Scottish Road Rankings would indicate.   They have him at sixteenth for 10K with a time of 29:29 run in 1991 and twenty first in the half-marathon with 64:57 run in August 1989.   Meanwhile at the marathon distance,  Hammy recalls 3 marathons in 1989. He did Barcelona (Scottish team) in the Spring (sixth). Warsaw in the Summer where he ran for Britain and came third and Dublin in October (second). He got another British vest in 1990 at the Hong Kong marathon, where he was 3rd. His last Marathon was representing Scotland in Las Vegas in 1991.

This profile began with Hammy’s Dad, Bertie who was one of the long standing members of the Scottish Marathon Club and it is fair to close by mentioning his daughter Jill who ran for City of Glasgow.   Jill was a popular and able athlete who ran right through all the age groups and who is still in action as a Vet 35.   Ranked – often in the top ten and at times even higher – in the 1500m, 3000m, 5000m on the track and at 5000m, 5 Miles and 10000 metres on the road with an excellent record over the country as well, Jill continued the dynasty into the third generation.   She had many victories to her credit including the Beith New Year’s Day race in January 2000 – the very first race of the new millennium has to be one for the scrapbook!    Indeed a talented family with Hammy certainly the best – so far – and at least two of his times will never be bettered.   The records set in the Luddon Marathon and the third stage of the Edinburgh to Glasgow both lasted until the races were finally brought to a close.

Graham taking over from Lachie Stewart in the 1983 Six Stage Relay

Graham Clark (born 31^st March 1956) was a Scottish Cross-Country International athlete. Tragically, he died young in 2003 and since then Carnegie Harriers Running Club have organised the Graham Clark Memorial Race every August. This is 3.9 miles in length: three laps of the Knockhill Racing Circuit near Dunfermline. Below is a profile of this talented, sadly-missed runner.

At the very start of Graham’s athletic career, a major influence was Olympic Marathon runner Donald Macgregor, who contributes these memories of his young protégé.

“I first met Graham when he was a third year pupil at Dunoon Grammar School in 1972. I had just got back from the Munich Olympics and taken up my new job as Principal Teacher of Modern Languages. I had written an article for the school newsletter in which I described my experiences and asked if any pupils wanted to come running with me. Only around three or four responded. Graham was clearly the best of these, and in a group we ran around 3.5 miles round Hafton Estate. Soon Graham and I started going longer runs up Glen Massan and over the hill to Kilmun, an extremely hilly route through Puck’s Glen. On one occasion Kenny Moore (USA Olympic Marathon runner) and his wife came to visit me in Dunoon, and we went out with them on a sunny but damp day.      

Graham, whose father worked as the school janitor, by now was doing quite hard fartlek with me, although he did not come on my long Sunday runs over 15-20 miles. We were more like club mates than pupil and teacher.

At the end of fourth year (I think), he left Dunoon and went to work for the Ordnance Survey in Southampton. That didn’t last too long and he was soon back in the area, and joined Spango Valley AC.

I had left Dunoon by then, and saw him only occasionally at races.

I was shocked to hear of his early death. Purely by coincidence I saw an ad for a ‘Graham Clark Memorial Race’ and on enquiry established that it was him. I then discovered that his wife Angela taught at Bell-Baxter High School in Cupar, not far from St Andrews. I went to see her and showed her some souvenirs from my Dunoon days, and later presented her with a cup from the Fukuoka Marathon (in Japan) for the winner of the race in Graham’s memory at Knockhill.Graham was a fine cross-country runner and competed twice for Scotland in the World Championships.”

Cameron Spence, who ran for Northern Ireland four times in the World Cross, was a key member of Spango Valley. He wrote the following. “I first met Graham in 1975. Dave Martin had brought him over for the ‘Sail Away Greenock’ Relay. I got him signed up and what an asset he proved to be to Spango. He helped us to establish the club as one of the best in Scotland and to win many, many championships. But for me his finest performance was at Irvine in 1980 at the Senior National CC, where he finished fourth. This was at a time when Scottish Athletics was on the crest of a wave, because we had so many talented runners in those days and to make the top ten or even twenty you had to be good. Graham was. He represented Scotland at two World CC Championships and won many individual titles on track, cross-country and road.”

In the Edinburgh to Glasgow Road Relay, Graham Clark first appeared for Spango Valley in 1977, when they finished 21^st and last. However Graham moved up four places on the classy Stage Two and finished only three seconds slower than his erstwhile mentor Don Macgregor. In 1978, Graham’s club improved considerably to tenth, and he was sixth-fastest on Two, gaining five places. In 1979 Spango repeated tenth place, but Graham gained no fewer than eight places on Two and was third-fastest. In 1981, Spango won the most meritorious performance medals for finishing seventh, with Graham gaining three places on Stage Four (third fastest). Finally in 1984 Spango Valley were the third team to reach George Square, with Graham having moved them into that position on the long Stage Six.

In the Six-Stage Road Relay, Graham Clark’s best run was in 1980, when Spango ended up fourth and he was sixth fastest on the long leg. Then in 1984 he was one of the team that won bronze medals in this Scottish Championship event.

Graham’s best times on the track all dated from 1982: 3000 metres (8.13.5); 5000m (14.38.42); 10,000m (30.28.4).

There was little doubt that his favourite surface was the country. In the West District Senior CC he was third in 1978; second (by six seconds to Brian McSloy) in 1979; and second again (by only three seconds to McSloy) in 1980. In the West District CC Relay, Spango finished second in 1977, but enjoyed a day of triumph in 1979, when Hammy Cox, Graham Clark, Tom Dobbin and Cameron Spence led from start to finish. Graham recorded the third-fastest time in that event.

Other highlights recalled by Cameron Spence include the following.

“Graham first ran for Scotland in 1977 and finished second. He won his first Renfrewshire title in the 10 mile Road Race Championship in 1979; in the same year he won his first Renfrewshire CC title.

In 1982 he won the famous Beith road race on New Year’s Day, after he had been up all night celebrating. This was even mentioned in the national press.”

The Scottish Senior National CC Championship was perhaps the setting for Graham Clark’s greatest runs. In 1979 he was seventh, and unlucky not to be selected for the World CC. However he made no mistake at Irvine in 1980. In his centenary history of the SCCU, Colin Shields wrote the following.

“The Championships were held over the level, well-drained grassland course at Beach Park, Irvine…….The course, which received fulsome praise from competitors as the best championship trail for over a decade, was conducive to fast running except for the final 600 yards of each of the three laps in the Senior race. A long, sweeping downhill stretch led to a 150 metres stretch of strength-sapping sandy beach, and this was closely followed by a 1 in 5 sandhill that had the fittest athletes walking up with their hands on their knees by the final lap. Defending champion Nat Muir recorded his usual outstanding performance, turning in a decisive mid-race surge that brought him home 17 seconds clear of John Robson, with 1978 champion Allister Hutton finishing third a further 29 seconds behind.”

Graham Clark finished an excellent fourth, only 8 seconds down on the illustrious Hutton, and in front of so many international runners, such as Lawrie Spence, Gordon Rimmer, Brian McSloy, Jim Brown, John Graham, Cameron Spence, Ron MacDonald, Fraser Clyne etc. In the World CC Championships on the Longchamps Racecourse in Paris, Graham Clark was sixth counter in the Scottish team which finished seventh. This was to prove Scotland’s best team performance in the World Cross while participating as an individual nation between 1973 and 1987.   Graham was tenth in the National in 1981; ran for Scotland again in the 1982 World Cross; and finished 13^th in the 1983 National.   Cameron Spence added the following.

“Graham moved south in the early 1980s and continued running down there. He moved back to Scotland, to Dundonald in fact, in the 1990s and rejoined Spango. He wasn’t the same runner who had left ten years earlier but he still enjoyed competing. He then moved to Dunfermline and made the sensible decision to join Carnegie. I had a phone call from one of their members and he was very glad that Graham had joined them. Graham started competing for them, joined the Committee and became Secretary. Then he started coaching. He had a great bunch of lads under his wing and they were all improving. During his final year he became their President. He will be sorely missed.”

Back to Elite Endurance

Sheila Catford winning the Glasgow Half-Marathon in 1988

Sheila Catford is ranked fifth on the Scottish all-time list for the marathon behind Liz McColgan, Kathy Butler, Hayley Haining and Lynn Harding and above such as Lynn MacDougall, Karen Macleod and Susan Partridge.   She is also eleventh on the Half Marathon list and has good times at 10 miles, 10K and 5 miles on the road.   However, along with Heather MacDuff, she is possibly the least known of all Scottish ranked distance racers.   A lot of that has to do with her domicile being in Yorkshire where she ran for Leeds City AC,  but her career as a Scottish internationalist was comparatively short and that added to the complications.   Nor is there much information in the press about her, nor are other athletes a good source if information.   What follows has been put together solely from information available in the public domain in an effort to paint a portrait of this excellent athlete.

Sheila Catford first came to the attention of the Scottish athletics public in September, 1987, when the ‘Glasgow Herald’ carried the headline “Brave Marathon Victory” above an article by Doug Gillon which read “Scotland found a new athletics star when Sheila Catford scored a stunning victory in the Glasgow Marathon.   Catford was unable even to walk after a serious accident last year yet she was only 26 seconds away from breaking the course record when she clocked 2:37:31. sixtieth  overallamong a field of 5300 finishers.   It was her sixth marathon. …. Catford, who disguises her Dundee birthplace beneath a thick Yorkshire accent, wrote to the SWAAA last year telling them she was available for selection.   But her hopes of international recognition were dashed when a car crashed into her bike on a roundabout.   ‘I couldn’t walk for three and a half months,’ she said  with scarcely a pause to draw breath.   ‘I had severe headaches for six weeks and it was five and a half months before I could even jog for ten minutes.   In fact I spent the day of the London Marathon doing a two hour session on an exercise bike, watching the TV and moaning, “I should be running in that!”   I had hoped to get into the Scottish Commonwealth Games team.’   Catford, who has aspirations of being selected for Scotland in future, reckons a cup of water cost her a record and a return trip to Paris for two.   “I’m not used to drinking on the run, and it gave me a dreadful stitch.   I was nearly two minutes inside  record schedule at 18 miles.”   Victory represented a double for Maryhill Harrier Brian Scobie, Catford’s coach.   Scobie also trained the 1985 women’s winner, Angie Pain.”

That was on the 11th September but just a month earlier, on 9th August, 1987 – she had won the Newark Half Marathon in 1:13:26 and on 20th December in the Saltwell Harriers 10K Road Race she won in 34:21 which was a course record.   She actually won this race four times in succession recording subsequent times of 34:40 (1988), 35:04 (1989) and 35:58 (1990).   So with these three races alone she had shown impressive quality at 10K (where she had also won the Liverpool 10K), Half Marathon and Marathon.   Having ,missed out on the 86 Commonwealth Games Sheila must have had a realistic chance of going to the Commonwealth Games in Auckland in 1990.   Her next race in Glasgow was in the Half Marathon in September 1988 where the race description with the photograph above read : “The exhaustion of running a half marathon flat out is all too graphically expressed by Sheila Catford.   Unusually for a road race of this distance, Sheila Catford, Sandra Branney and Lorna Irving ran alongside each other between miles three and ten before Catford’s strength allowed her to pull away and win in 72:49, a personal best.   Branney. who like the winner will be chasing a Commonwealth Games marathon place in New Zealand also ran faster than ever before, recording 73:02.   Irving was 73:26.”

The reference to Catford’s strength above is interesting because neither Sandra nor Lorna were perceived by anyone to be lacking in that department in any way.   Sheila was a member of :Leeds City AC and trained with Brian Scobie’s excellent group of endurance runners.   It was probably the best group of women long distance runners in Britain at the time with runners of the calibre of Veronique Marot, Angie Hulley (Pain), Julie Holland, Sarah Rowell, Jill Clarke, Sandra Atherton and Sheila taking part in his sessions.    Undoubtedly this helped Sheila and explained the remark from ‘Scotland’s Runner’ about her strength ‘allowing her to pull clear.’

Came 1989 and in the London Marathon in April and Sheila finished eleventh in 2:33:04.   Doug Gillon reported under the headline “England Snubbed As Lynn Books Her Games Place”  as follows:    “After having shattered the UK women’s marathon best in the ADT London race yesterday, Veronique Marot snubbed England’s selectors by announcing, ‘I’m not interested in the Commonwealth Games’  …  Lynn Harding, first Scot in 2:31:45 beat Lynda Bain’s Scottish best and was well inside 2:35 which guarantees Auckland selection … Sheila Catford, also of Leeds, booked her passport when she knocked 40 seconds from her best time with 2:33:04.”   Sheila also won the Moray Marathon on 6th August, 1989 on what was clearly a bad day for road racing (the men’s race was won outside 2:31!) in the slow time 3:10:08.   Back racing in Leeds she again won the Saltwell Harriers race in December to set herself up for the Games the following year.

The Auckland Games were held in January 1990 and the Scottish representatives were Lynn Harding and Sheila Catford.   There was a report in the ‘Glasgow Herald’ on 23rd January, 1990 which read: “Sheila Catford who is due to run in the marathon for Scotland a week on Wednesday, struck a big blow for her morale this evening when she finished second in an 8000m road race in the city’s Domain Park.   The winner was the New Zealander Wendy Bisset who is not due to compete in the Games.   Ripon-based Catford finished eight seconds behind in 26:07, scoring a seven second victory over England medal hope Angie Pain, the former Glasgow marathon winner.”    This time was ranked highly in the GB 5 Miles lists but was demoted to a sidebar marked Measurement doubtful’   The Games marathon was another story however.   The race was won by Lisa Martin of Australia in 2:25:28 (eight minutes clear of second placed Tani Ruckle, also Australia) with Angie Pain (under her maiden name of Angela Hulley) third in 2:36:35.   Sheila was first Scot and placed ninth with 2:43:48 with Lynn Harding eleventh in 2:47:24 and Moira O’Neill of Ireland (brought up in Scotland as Moira O’Boyle and member of both Clydesdale Harriers and then Victoria Park AAC) twelfth in 2:48:52.   All three were well below their normal running form.    It wasn’t her last marathon in 1990 however because she was third in the WAAA’s Marathon Championship in April (held in conjunction with the London race) in a time of 2:36:42 against the winning time of 2:33:07 run by Nicky McCracken.   the following year, 1991, she won the Albo d’Oro della Firenze marathon in Italy in 2:35:37 and the trail runs cold thereafter.

It is difficult to find results for Sheila after that although she is reported to have run in the 1992 Glasgow Half Marathon where Liz McColgan managed to get a run on the when she had not entered – apparently she woke up at 6:00 am, felt like a run and had Peter phone in saying she wanted to run!   However it went, the trail for Sheila effectively went cold after 1990.  Sheila  split from husband Dave and reverted to her maiden name of Sheila Boyde and appears on various websites as Sheila Boyde.     A good number deal with her career outside of athletics:   “Sheila Boyde, Nutritional Consultant trained under Dr Patrick Hatfield at  The Institute of Optimum Nutrition  in London.   Sheila has a BSc (Hons) in Health Related Exercise and Fitness and continues to be actively involved in her local community promoting health and fitness and she also has both the UK Athletics Coaching Award (Level 3) and the YMCA Personal Fitness Trainer Award (Level 3).   She was also Nutritional Advisor on the Yorkshire TV Series “Wellbeing” along with a teaching career in a range of schools and institutions.”

She continues to run however and has appearances recorded under the colours of Ripon Runners (“Coaching sessions at Ripon Runners continue with professional ex-athlete coach Sheila Boyde.   She recently threw up a challenge to anyone interested in running.   “Do you want to get fitter in 2007?   Do you want to streamline your physique and be part of a very sociable happy group?   If so then join Sheila on Thursday nights at 6:30 at one of Ripon Runners club meeting nights”    and Harrogate Harriers (On the first Sunday of the New Year (2009) Harrogate Harriers A Team of Sheila Boyde, Paul Render, Ben Grant and Ashley Brook came second in the Harrogate Ringway Relay covering the 22 miles in 2:18:04.)   The Power of 10 has her as a member of Ripon and gives her credit, as a V45 for 10K’s in 39:54 at Melmerby and 40:07 at Harrogate in September in 2009.

However it works out, it is good to see that she is still running and running well in addition to putting something back in to her local communities.

Back to Marathon Stars

Mike Carroll leading Graham Crawford in the Kirkcudbright Half Marathon in 1986.

Mike Carroll (28 June 1958) was an excellent distance runner on the roads and on the track who was one of the country’s best marathon runners.    I only met or spoke to him once – when he ran in the Scottish team which took part in the international fixture to open the new track at East Kilbride.   He was perfectly affable, friendly and sociable but went for his warm-up run before the race and took so long to return that there were fears that he might miss the actual race!   Teamed with Adrian Callan, he ran very well indeed though.   Mike was a talented runner who would disappear from the scene for a year – or maybe longer – then come back running as well as ever.  It was as a roadrunner that he is best known and that is where most emphasis will be placed in the profile but we can start with a look at his places in the rankings over a ten year period which show the range of distances covered with some distinction.

Ranked first for the 10000m in 1989, second for the same event in 1990 and third in the marathon in 1993.   Not bad statistics but his competitive record was also very good with two victories in the Scottish half-marathon championships plus medals in the 10 miles and 10K championships.   Unfortunately for all his ability he only ran in one Edinburgh – Glasgow Relays – one for Annan in 1990 where he ran sixth fastest time on the second stage/   He took up the sport in his Twenties because he had a brother who was a runner and there were lots of races then with thousands of competitors, it took his fancy and, as he wanted to get fit he started running.      Mike’s breakthrough year was 1985 with three very good marathons and that’s where we will start.

***

In the Great Scottish Run of 30th September 1984, Mike Carroll was thirteenth in 2:19:19 following immediately behind fellow Scots Tony Coyne and Jim Brown.   Despite running under the name of ‘J Warwick’, this late season marathon may well be what won him his first Scottish vest the following year.  At the time however it got him into a lot of trouble with the authorities.   It was the first of the really big Glasgow Marathons, there was a lot of coverage on the BBC and, running under an assumed name, he led for the first half of the race.   The Scottish authorities were not at all happy and they let him know it.    Be that as it may, Mike’s first marathon of 1985 was as part of a Scottish team competing in Barcelona on 17th March.    The ‘Glasgow Herald’s headline read: MARATHON MEN TAKE TEAM TITLE and it went on to read, “Scotland took the team prize against top Continental opposition in the Barcelona Marathon with three runners finishing in the first six.   Scottish Internationalist Paul Kenney (Birchfield Harriers) finished runner-up in 2:18:34, just 18 sec behind the winner, Raphael Garcia-Perez of Spain, with Glasgow dentist Tony Coyne (Bellahouston Harriers) third in 2:21:33.   Mike Carroll (Annan and District) running in his first international race finished sixth in 2:22:31.” And that was the entirety of the report.   Barcelona was always a good race for Scots on a fast course and not too much travelling involved.   It was a good debut for Mike very early in the season.

With the high spot of his career coming in September, the rest of the 1985 season was a fairly good one for Carroll.   For instance,

“Mike Carroll of Annan and District, who represented Scotland in the recent Barcelona International Marathon, won the Kirkcudbright Academy Milk Half-Marathon when defeating 500 rivals in 1 hour 5 min 52 sec.”   ‘Glasgow Herald’, 27th May.

“Mike Carroll of Annan and District AC, a member of Scotland’s winning team in the recent Barcelona International Marathon, was an easy winner of the Dalry Civic Week 11 mile road race.   He defeated 350 rivals to to win in 56:53.”  (Glasgow Herald, 1st July 1985)

‘Glasgow Herald’ of 5th August, “Mike Carroll, the 27-year-old Annan and District runner, surprised British track international runner Jim Brown (Clyde Valley) and Edinburgh marathon champion Lindsay Robertson  (Edinburgh Athletic Club) to win the TSB 10 mile road race in Edinburgh yesterday.   Carroll fought back after Brown had taken the lead at six miles to win in 49:46.”

Edinburgh Marathon, 1985: Mike Carroll, Murray McNaught and Evan Cameron

The ‘Glasgow Herald’ of 2nd September, 1985 had this report in the ‘Results in Brief’ section: “Only 2000 runners finished the Edinburgh Waverley Market Marathon out of a total of 3300 entries.   The winner was Mike Carroll, a 27-year-old production engineer from Annan, in 2:18:41.   In 61st place overall was the man who the Commonwealth Games gold over the same classic distance in Edinburgh in 1970, Ron Hill, who recorded 2:48:15.   The first woman home was Heather McDuff of Edinburgh AC.”   And that was the report in its entirety.   Hardly fulsome but it was a different story later that month.

When he ran in the Glasgow Marathon on 22nd September, Mike surprised many when he was first Scot to finish crossing the line in sixth place in 2:18:24.   e was not a member of the official Scottish team although he beat them all, he was even ahead of Don Macgregor.   Doug Gillon’s report read: “If anything the veteran victory of the redoubtable Don Macgregor from Fife only underlined home discomfort.   For Macgregor, 46 years old, finished tenth overall in 2:19:36, beating all of the official national team.   He missed out on the honour of being first Scot home by only 68 seconds.   That honour fell to Mike Carroll of Annan and District Athletic Club.   It won him the Anthony Finlay Memorial Quaich and a trip to the Sea of Galilee Marathon in December.   It also completed a remarkable double for just three weeks ago he won the Edinburgh Marathon.   Yesterday’s time of 2:18:24 was 17 seconds faster than his capital run.   Last year he ran with another athlete’s number, much to official disapproval.”

As it turned out, the Sea of Galilee Marathon was won by a Scot – but by Lindsay Robertson and not Mike Carroll.  In fact Mike did not run in Tiberias at all that year because of injury – he was to have some recurring injuries to his hamstring and calf which would keep him out for quite long stretches of time.   He also worked shifts and had a young family which also affected how much running he could do.   He was coached for a time by Gordon Surtees, who also coached Tom Hanlon, in the North of England who sent him schedules by post which he had to follow.   Unsurprisingly, Gordon was not a big fan of Mike’s shift work but that was the way it was.    He was also put in touch with Gerry Helme, the agent, by Hammy Cox.   Helme got Mike several races abroad notably two in Amsterdam.   Again, what races Helme could get were complicated Mike’s shift work and family commitments.

 Glasgow Marathon 1985: First Scot

Mike did not run in the 1986 London Marathon in April where Allister Hutton in third place was top Scot in a time of 2:12:36.   The first major appearance for him in 1986 was in the Pearl Assurance Half-Marathon in Edinburgh on 4th May.   Neil Tennant won the race in 64:41 with Australian Laurence Whitty second and England’s Bernie Ford third.   Tommy Murray was fourth and Mike was fifth in 66:21, six seconds behind Tommy.   Then it was on to one of his favourite races – the Kirkcudbright Milk Half-Marathon on 24th May which he won and was reported in the ‘Herald’:   “Scottish international Mike Carroll of Annan and District AC, won the Kirkcudbright Milk Half-Marathon from 300 competitors and led his club to victory in the team race.   Carroll set a course record of 63:22 when winning for the second successive year with Graham Crawford (Springburn Harriers runner-up in 64:27.”   On 3rd June Mike won the Lockerbie Gala 6 Miles in 28:17 from club mate Rob Carey who ran 29:34.   With the Commonwealth Games being held in Scotland in 1986, there was massive coverage of that and then of the European Games a few weeks later which led automatically to a shortage of reporting on other athletics events but it is clear that 1986 was not as good for Mike as 1985 had been.   In 1985 he had been ranked in every list from local, to national to British rankings but he was nowhere to be seen in 1987 at all.  Even the many local races in Annan, Dumfries, Lockerbie, Kirkcudbright and even Ecclefechan were being won mainly by his clubmate Rob Carey.

‘Scotland’s Runner’ for April 1988 had an article called ‘Focus on Dumfries and Galloway’ which noted the main races and the illustration on the page was a good picture of Rob Carey in action with the caption reading ‘Annan’s Rob Carey – the local man to beat in Dumfries and Galloway’s road  races.’   The only reference to Mike was a single sentence on the Dumfries half-marathon pointing out that Mike Carroll set the course record in 1985.    Well, Mike answered that on 24th June with his third victory in the Dumfries half-marathon in 65:42 – the second fastest time ever and one which has only been bettered twice in the 24 years since then.   Other than that though, the only time credited to him was 14:15.3 for a track 5000m which placed him ninth in the national rankings.   1989 was even faster for the Kirkcudbright half marathon with a victory over K Moss of Chorley in England and Andy Daly from Bellahouston in yet another record of 63:55 from a field reported to be over 300 strong.   A hint as to why he was out of action for so long was in the comment in “Scotland’s Runner” was “The fastest time by a Scot to date this year was recorded at the Kirkcudbright Academy half-marathon,  Mike Carroll of Annan established himself well clear of injury problems to complete the course in 63:55.   Ken Moss of Chorley was second man home and Bellahouston’s Andy Daly was third.”   1989 was also the year that he took to the track with success.   In the SAAA 10000 metres championships he lifted a silver medal and again “Scotland’s Runner” reported.   “Kevin Forster of the new Tyneside club, Valli Harriers, went through the halfway mark faster than many of those in the 5000m leading home a field of runners with Annan’s Mike Carroll the surprise package.   He returned from prolonged injury to win his first championship medal less than a week after buying his first pair of track spikes.   Result:   K Forster (Valli)   29:08;   2.   M Carroll (Annan) 29:22.”  This time placed at the top of the Scottish 10000m rankings for the entire year.   The time and the manner of doing it saw him selected for the international match organised to open the new track in East Kilbride.   He ran in the 5000m with event winner Adrian Callan.   Callan was timed at 14:11.2 and Mike at 14:15.3 which, at the end of the season, had him rated eleventh in the country.   There were two more races of note for him in 1989.   On 25th June he ran in the Dumfries half-marathon which he won in 65:42 – a new course record and his second of the season – from R Hall of Teviotdale who was over four minutes behind in 69:48.   On 6th August he travelled to Cramond in Edinburgh for the 10 miles road race which he won in 48:11 – a course record, the third of the season – from Fraser Clyne of Aberdeen who was over two minutes adrift with 50:23.   By the end of 1989, Mike Carroll was back in action and injury free for the first time in several years.

 ***

Mike ran more races in 1990 that he had done in the past three or four years combined – and with great success.   He started the summer with a win and a course record in the Selkirk People’s Half-Marathon in 66:43 from Alan Robson (ESH: 67:35) and three weeks later was third in the Glasgow Brightside SAAA 10K Road Race where he was behind Geoff Turnbull (29:21) and Gary Nagel (29:23) – both Valli Harriers) – in 29:59.   On 3rd June he won the Irvine Valley Halh-Marathon from Galston by more than 5 minutes in 62:19 with Gordon Tenney of Kilbarchan second in 67:38.   On 10th June the Scottish People’s Half-Marathon was held in Dunfermline and Mike won in a new course record of 66:48.   The report in Scotland’s Runner said  “Mike Carroll won the Scottish People’s Half-Marathon when it was held for the first time as part of the Dunfermline Half-Marathon on June 10th.   Carroll’s time of 64:48 was more than two minutes inside the 198 winning time and 80 seconds ahead of Dundee Hawkhill’s Ian Campbell (66:07) who was himself almost a minute ahead of third placed Fraser Clyne (Aberdeen).   On  24th June, he missed the Dumfries Half-Marathon where he would normally be found because he was running in a 10000m in Austria for Scotland. The race in question was in Kapfenberg and Mike was eighth in 29:59.43.   He also missed the SAAA Championships which were immediately afterwards on 27th/28th June.   However he was back on form again on 1st July when he won the Cumnock Half Marathon in a new record of 63:54 from Billy Nelson of Law and District (67:38).   Two weeks later (14th July) he was at the other end of the country setting a course record at the Inverness 10K which he won in 29:30 from Bruce Chinnick (29:48).   On to the end of August when hw was second in Livingston.   The report reads: “Ieuan Ellis of Wales won the Livingston International Half-Marathon from over 800 runners, but his time of 64:57 in warm conditions never looked like threatening the £10,000 on offer for the winner if he broke 62 minutes.   Second was Annan’s Mike Carroll who had been leading until the eight mile mark, in 65:34.   Carroll, Ian Campbell and Hammy Cox won the team event for Scotland.”   On 16th September he was second in the Land O’Burns Half Marathon in a torrid race with some of the country’s very best road runners.   The first few places: 1.   P Fleming (Bellahouston)   64:18; 2. M Carroll (Annan)  64:50;  3. Ian Campbell (Dundee Hawkhill)  64:57;   4. T Murray (Greenock Glenpark)  66:34;   5. G Croll (EKAAC) 66:53;  6. D Frame (Law)   67:36.   He also ran well on the track in 1990 and was ranked in three events     In the 3000 he ran 8:17.9 to be 18th, at 5000  he ran 14:19.76 to be 13th and in the 10000m 29:59.43 was good enough for 2nd.   1990 was also the year of his first run in the Edinburgh to Glasgow.   After several years out of the race, Annan & District AC competed in 1989 without Mike and finished twenty second of twenty two teams, nevertheless they were back the following year.  He was on the second stage, taking over from Rob Carey, whose 16th place must have been a disappointment to the club as well as to Rob.   Mike could only gain one place pulling the club up to sixteenth and the team eventually crossed the finishing line in eighteenth.

In 1991 it seemed that Mike was back suffering with his injuries again – after a good April with second in the Selkirk Half-Marathon (which was 155 yards short) to John Robson (62:12) with a time of 62:39, he next appeared on the first Wednesday in September after winning the Dumfries 10K in 30:11 which was the first of four victories in five years in this event.  He was not in the rankings at all nor did he run in most of his ‘regular’ events.

In 1992, Mike was back to his best with a whole series of good runs and victories to his credit.   He won the Annan CC River Race on 1st March from Alaister Russell of Law and District in 30:14 (a new record) to Alaister’s 31:04. He then won the Tom Scott 10 miles from Charlie Thomson in April but the story of the race is remarkable in its own right.   Report from “Scotland’s Runner”:

“Scottish marathon internationalist Mike Carroll produced a fine piece of front running to win the first major road race of the season, the Tom Scott Memorial.    Contested over a ten mile course from Law Village in Lanarkshire to the finish in Strathclyde Park, the 33-year-old Annan runner finished in 48:05, a convincing 50 seconds ahead of Cambuslang’s Charlie Thomson with Edinburgh Racing Club’s Brian Kirkwood in third.     This was the thirtieth year of the Tom Scott Memorial, held in memory of the Motherwell club runner who used to run to work every day between Law village  and the town before he was tragically killed in a car crash in England.   The 1991 victor, Nat Muir, was forced to pull out shortly before race day through injury.   

From the outset of this year’s run Carroll was closely shadowed by the British cross-country internationalist and pre-race favourite Chris Robison, recently back from competing in the World Championships in Boston.   At the half-way stage Carroll and the Spango Valley athlete were in a group of five , with Carroll doing all the work at the front into a slight headwind.   By six miles however the pair had made a significant break and opened up a gap on the chasing pack, led by Alaister Russell of Law and District.   Just as it looked as if  a tight finish was to ensue, Robinson pulled up with a calf injury around a mile out leaving Carroll with a clear run into the Park and subsequently to the tape.   Robison later explained, “When we came to Motherwell itself it was a close race.   Mike was running well down the hills and I was perhaps pushing it just a bit to hang in with him.   Then about two miles out I felt a twinge in my calf, but kept on going.   Unfortunately it got steadily worse and with around a mile to go it really went and I thought it best to pull out before I did any lasting damage.   It’s very disappointing to lose a race through injury.” 

Carroll who was unaware of Robison’s misfortune until well after the race, said he was fairly pleased with his performance but was forced to alter his tactics almost from the start.   “I’ve always liked to make the running in the past, but my coach was trying to get me out of that habit, so initially I was planning to just sit in with the pack.   However I was kind of taken aback at the start of the race when there was no pack and no one seemed willing to take it up, so against all orders I found myself at the front early on.   Luckily I could still run a solid race from that position.”   He revealed that the Selkirk Half Marathon and then a 10K at Wishaw were his next targets with all the major championship races around that distance in his season’s packed schedule.      “I might even run a full marathon,” added Carroll after the race.   “I’ve been a wee bit inconsistent over the past two or three months running really badly one week and then the following race running very well, but I’ve been trying out a couple of new things under my marathon coach, so hopefully this is everything starting to click now, as that wasn’t a bad run today.”    (Scotland’s Runner, May 1992)

That started an excellent season.  His best run of the year ranked him ranked third Scotsman for the half-marathon distance with a best for the season of 63:48 when he won at  Haarlem on 18th October.   The only other home Scot to run quicker was John Robson with 63:27, run in Selkirk on 19th April.  Mike had three other times listed that year for the distance and they were 64:09 finishing 57th at South Shields on 20th September, 64:31 when coming second to John Robson at Selkirk in September and 65:00 for victory at Coatbridge on 2nd August – this last was yet another course record.   He had three times faster than fourth placed Peter Fleming’s best of 64:45.   One half-marathon time not in the rankings was for the Dunfermline Half Marathon where he was a previous winner.   This time it was a race against his old rival, Terry Mitchell.  “The cool, misty conditions at the eighth Dunfermline Half-Marathon may not have been ideal for the large crowd of spectators but they certainly worked to the benefit of the runners.   The men’s race was scooped this time by Fife AC’s Terry Mitchell in a record of 66:49.   Mitchell tailed Annan’s Mike Carroll (who won the event on a slightly different course two years ago in 64:48) for almost ten miles before taking up the front running position.   Though never seriously challenged by Carroll thereafter, the two remained within several hundred metres of each other to the finishing line.  Carroll’s time, 67:10.”   He won the Annan and District 6.75 miles Road Race on 24th June in 32:05 from Steve Binns, an English and British athlete who had moved to Scotland and joined Annan and District, by two second.   He finished the summer season with another record – in the Dumfries 10K on the first Wednesday in September for the second time in 29:25.   1992  was also notable for two silver medals in Scottish championships: on 31st May Mike was second in the 10 miles championship at Glenrothes behind Terry Mitchell in 51:42 to Mitchell’s 51:17.   Then on 12th July he followed David Donnet (Springburn) home in the Scottish 10000m championship with 30:23, nine seconds down.

As he had hinted at the Tom Scott in 1992, Mike was back up to the marathon in 1993 – at the end of the season he was ranked third behind Peter Fleming but ahead of Alan Robson, Fraser Clyne and Hammy Cox – with a time of 2:19:18 run in Paris on 14th March.  Mike tells me that he was running for Great Britain that day, a selection assisted by the intervention of Gordon Surtees.  “Scotland’s Runner” has him listed as winning the Selkirk Half-Marathon on 11th April in 66:10 which was less than a month after the 26 miler.   On 6th June he won the Dunfermline half marathon from Pittencrieff Park in 66:05 to gain revenge over Terry Mitchell who ran 69:24 and Martin Coyne (70:10). and this was another course record for Mike.   But generally he was not as fast over the half-marathon as in 1992, ranked fifth best with 65:03 recorded when he won at Helensburgh on 25th July.   As far as rankings go, he was ranked  at 10K on the road where his best of 30:31 saw him twentieth, a time turned in when winning at Dumfries on 9th September.     This was his third win at this race.   As far as championships were concerned, he won  the Scottish half marathon in Aberdeen on 27th August in 65:05 from Terry Mitchell who ran 66:54:

Mike retired from racing at the age of 37 – actually he says he retired three or four years before that but he was being ribbed by friends that he couldn’t run any more and so on, so he ran in the Dumfries 10K in 30:30.

In 2008 he was suddenly in all the papers for the wrong reasons.   Mike was badly injured on 10th October 2008 in a car crash near Annan and it was described simply by the ‘Daily Record’ as follows: “Former long-distance runner was badly hurt in a crash involving his car and a bus.   Mike Carroll, who ran for Scotland, is said to be stable in Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary after the crash near Annan.   Mike, 49, of Annan had to be cut free from the wreckage of his car by firefighters.   A family friend said he had suffered a number of fractures and a neck injury.”   The Annandale Observer added the information that He was one of three people injured and taken to hospital after the accident at Newbie Bridge.  It happened at a notorious blackspot on the Dumfries – Annan B724 Low road which was closed for much of the day.   Firefighters from Annan and the Major Rescue Vehicle from Dumfries freed the motorist.”

When Mike looks back on his athletics career he can be really proud of his achievements: many very good times, many good head-to-head wins against some of the very best and Scottish vests on the road, country and track.   We could do with him back running at that standard today.

Back to Front Page

he article below is a fascinating account of the life and sporting career of Paddy Cannon, written by Alex Wilson who donated it to us and published in the Track Stats magazine.   Alex has taken a lot of trouble to research the subject and he is the only one from that particular period on this website.   It not only tells us a lot about the man himself but also illustrates and describes an athletics scene that is different from our own but which at its heart is basically the same.

The Career of Paddy Cannon, farm worker, record breaking professional runner, successful football trainer.

By Alex Wilson

The name of Paddy Cannon, alias Peter Cannon, will not be familiar to many today, but in his time he was a very popular figure in his native Scotland and even further afield.   During the 89 years of his life, he created what you might call an enduring legacy by leaving his indelible imprint in the history books, both as a distance runners and as a football coach.   Cannon was of medium build, stood 5’8″ (173cm) and never weighed more than 147lbs (67kg) during his competitive days.   But behind the moustache and unassuming demeanour lurked a ferocious competitor with a burning desire to win – whatever the sport.   In addition to setting two professional world records on the running track, he coached Edinburgh side Hibernian to their last win in the Scottish Cup.

Paddy Cannon first saw the light of day at Raploch, near Stirling, on 14th January 1857, the son of Irish immigrants Peter and Bridget Cannon.   His father was an agricultural labourer who worked on King’s Park Farm.   In those days the farm occupied a sprawling piece of land beneath the craggy outcrop on which Stirling Castle stands.   Today, it’s a golf course.   From an early age he learned to pull his weight on the farm.   Just like any other youth, he played football and enjoyed sports, but never did he imagine that he would make history on the running track and set two world records.   In fact, he was 20 years of age before he realised that he had any talent for running.   It was by mere chance that Paddy Cannon became a runner.

The story has it that in 1877 a Glasgow shoemaker who had settled in Stirling noticed a group of young men in King’s Park.   The shoemaker had been an athletics trainer and, seeking to carve out a new niche for himself in Stirling, persuaded the men to show their paces.   One of these was Paddy Cannon, who, despite being dressed in heavy workboots and corduroys, romped home an easy winner.   The shoemaker was so impressed with what he saw that he arranged for another trial a short time later.   On this occasion he brought along a pair of running shoes for Cannon who, now properly attired,   showed his true ability.    Excited by his discovery, the shoemaker became Cannon’s sponsor and two weeks after the second tryout persuaded Cannon to enter the Strathallan Games at Bridge of Allan.   He ran in the open mile off the 100 yards mark.   there was a huge field but Cannon held his own and but for inexperience would have won.   He was only beaten by a foot and a half into third place behind David Livingstone of Tranent, himself on the cusp of a successful career.   On May 31st 1881, Livingstone would finish second in 53:53.5 to William Cummings in the prestigious “Ten Miles Race for Sir John Astley’s Champion Belt” at Lillie Bridge Grounds, West Brompton.   Cannon’s rookie performance created quite a stir among the local pedestrians.   A week later at Falkirk, he avenged his Strathallan defeat by winning the confined mile for Stirlingshire men, the open mile and the two and three mile handicaps!   This was an extraordinary performance for a novice.   Paddy Cannon would not have been a runner had it not been for the Scottish Highland Games, a millennium old tradition which had enjoyed something of a revival in Scotland with the advent of half-day working on Saturdays and statutory bank holidays.   By the late 1870’s they were a common and highly popular Saturday afternoon pastime.   He was practically invincible in two and three mile races at Highland meetings where he would concede all manner of starts to his opponents and still come out on top   Unfortunately, promoters were rarely particular about track measurement or timekeeping.   All that essentially mattered was finishing order, as this dictated the distribution of prize monies.   many of Cannon’s performances no doubt some very good ones, are therefore unknown.    Not much is known about Cannon’s early career, save that he is said to have run the great William Cummings of Paisley, then world record holder for the mile,  to within a yard in the Bute Highland Games in the early 1880’s.

In 1883, Cannon renewed his rivalry with David Livingston in the Five Miles Championship of Scotland at Arbroath on 15th September.   In a close-run race he finished a yard behind the Tranent runner  who was credited with a time of 24L31.0.   It would have been a world record had the track withstood scrutiny.

Back on the Farm and hard Work to keep Fit

After his early successes, Cannon went back to working on the farm with occasional spells at the saw-mills during the winter, and when the summer came round, he would free himself for the Highland Games season.  However the farm work, as Cannon knew, was hard graft without labour saving mechanisation.   Stacking hay, to mention but one example, was an intensely physical chore before  the advent of hay baling machines.   This was one reason why Cannon was extremely fit despite doing little in the way of specific training.   In fact he was a great believer in the benefits of walking and hard work.    By his own admission he was a hard taskmaster, as demanding of himself as of others, a sentiment echoed by John James Miller in “Scottish Sports and How to Excel in them: a Handbook for Beginners”:   “Punishment”, vowed Paddy Cannon to me on one occasion, “that’s the keynote for distance running efficiency.   That is the mill I had to go through and there’s absolutely no other way.”   Unusually fro the time, Cannon neither drunk nor smoked.   His physical fitness and healthy lifestyle no doubt enabled him to withstand the rigours of weekly competition during the summer Highland Games season.   He usually ran in two events, and sometimes in three, at meetings, racking up the racing miles.   He clearly showed a preference for meetings which promoted both one and two mile events where he could make double money.   In 1885, having been practically unbeatable in Scotland over two miles, Cannon turned his attention further afield.   Pedestrianism was flourishing in Lancashire and Cannon’s sponsors entered him for what was a famous four-mile handicap promoted by Albert Fletcher at the Moorfield Recreation Grounds in Failsworth, near Manchester.   The “All England Sweepstakes” were held on 19th September 1885 and featured a quality field including Arthur Norris of Brentwood and William Cummings, lately of Preston.   Cannon was comparatively unknown in these parts and Cummings was handicapped by 200 yards.   Cannon’s backers couldn’t believe their luck and betted heavily on their man at odds of 4 – 1 against.   The outcome was almost a foregone conclusion: Cannon overhauled the last of the runners to whom he had conceded starts at the halfway mark.   Taking the lead before the three mile mark (c14:40), he ran out an easy winner in 19:28.0 (equivalent to a shade over 20 minutes for the full four miles.)   The backmarkers didn’t stand a chance, and Cummings pulled out early in the race after failing to make any inroads on Cannon’s lead.   Needless to say, Cannon’s jubilant backers went home with a sackful of money.   However, in his defence, Cummings was likely saving himself for an upcoming race at Lillie Bridge that would decide a high-stakes three-race match against Walter George, the ex-amateur champion from Worcester.   If so, the strategy certainly paid off, Cummings easily defeating George by 420 yards in a world record time of 51:06.6 amid claims that George had been poisoned.

Cummings and Cannon seem to have struck up a working relationship after crossing paths at the Failsworth meeting.   A little over a week after Failsworth, Cannon accompanied Cummings to Lillie Bridge for his race against Walter George.   On 3rd October both men appeared in the Mile Handicap at the Edinburgh Royal Gymnasium.   The reporting newspaper noted that Cannon had been “training along with the Scottish champion Cummings.”   The working partnership continued in 1886 when Cannon trained Cummings at Preston in preparation for another series of matches against Walter George over a mile, four miles and ten miles for £200 each.   The first match in the series, a Mile race at Lillie Bridge on 1st August culminated in a victory for George in a phenomenal 4:12 and three quarters – over three seconds below the previous world record held by Cummings, who collapsed (gave up) 100 yards from home.   Cummings levelled the scores by winning, albeit with suspicious ease, the second race over four miles at Preston Pleasure Gardens in 20:12.6 on 11th September, thereby forcing a lucrative decider at Aston Lower Ground, Birmingham, on 2nd October.   This time George had his revenge, setting a hot pave with the avowed intention of running his opponent off his legs.   Indeed he succeeded in breaking Cummings in the third mile, which can be explained by the fact that the first three miles were accomplished in a near-world-record  14:40.2.   Cummings fell increasingly further behind and eventually retired in the sixth mile, having been lapped.   George reached six miles in 30:26.8 but without any opposition to spur him on, slowed thereafter to outside world record pace and was eventually allowed to stop in the ninth mile.   That concluded Cannon’s working partnership with Cummings, even if the consensus was that Walter George was unbeatable.   Cannon had by all accounts done a good job of nursing Cummings through injury and back to peak fitness.   In his mile race against George, Cummings after all had led at the three quarter mile mark in a near-record 3:07 and three quarters, and would probably have beaten his own best time had he finished.

With the matches out of the way, Paddy Cannon and William Cummings went back to being adversaries.   Apart from coaching Cummings, 1886 was a relatively quiet year for Cannon.   He did, however, seize the opportunity to visit his ancestral homeland turning out in the half mile and mile handicaps at the Caledonian Games at the Ball’s Bridge Ground, Dublin, on 13th June.   He was npt in his best form however, and lost both events, coming in third in the half mile in 2:09.5 and second in the mile in 4:41.3.   On to the 1887 season which Cannon began with a bang, winning the two mile handicap at the Broxburn Annual Athletic Games on July 14th, in 9:21.0 – a Scottish professional record  and one of the fastest times to date.   Nine days later, he showed a good turn of speed in the mile handicap at the Edinburgh Royal Gymnasium finishing third off 50 yards in an estimated 4:21.0.   On 8th September 1887, Cannon dispelled any doubts that there might have been over his performance in the

two miles at Broxburn by winning the two mile handicap at the Manchester Royal Jubilee Exhibition Sports, held to commemorate 50 years of Queen Victoria’s reign.   After rushing through the first mile in 4:33.0, the Stirling runner came home in 9:21.5, defeating fellow Scot Joe Newton of Dundee by 150 yards.   Also in September, 1887, and probably in connection with his appearance at the Manchester Exhibition, Cannon competed in the ix Miles Handicap at Failsworth – the scene of his four miles coup two years before.   The field included Will Snook, of Shrewsbury, the former Birchfield Harrier who, as an amateur, was a two-time AAA 10 Miles Champion and two mile world record holder.   In 1886 Snook had been suspended by the Amateur Athletic Association on allegations of roping (not trying to win) un the National Cross Country Championships and banished to the professional ranks.   Snook had recently won a mile race at Leicester in 4:27.8 and so was still a force to be reckoned with .   Details are sparse, save that Cannon was placed at the 110 yards mark and won in 30:46.2 (worth 25:54.7 for five miles), beating Snook by 400 yards.

Three months later Cannon returned to Failsworth Ground to race Arthur Norris of Brentwood in a mile race for a £50 cup and £50.   Norris, a 4:36 miler, had unexpectedly defeated Cummings the previous year and needed only to win to make the cup his absolute property.   He received 40 yards start, thus presenting Cannon with a stiff task.   A crowd of fully 1000 persons watched anxiously as cannon went off at a great pace and caught his man at half way, but he couldn’t break Norris and in the home straight the Brentwood man drew right away to win by eight yards in 4:31.5.    In Cannon’s defence, the Failsworth race came only three weeks after marrying a 22 year old weaver called Annie Mackin at St Mary’s Chapel in Stirling.

Cannon set about preparing for the 1888 season with a new found zeal and strength of purpose his self-professed ambition to set up a professional record for the two miles or any other distance.   Having broken with his previous summer/winter cycle by running at Failsworth in late 1887, Cannon entered the Professional Mile Championship at the recently opened Victoria Park Grounds, Govan, on 21st January 1888.   There were three competitors: himself, William Cummings of Preston and Arthur Norris of Brentwood.   The match was for a sweepstakes of £25-a-side and a challenge cup.   The 50 guinea solid silver cup had been presented by Mr Lewis, a London patron of pedestrianism, and had to be held against all-comers for 18 months.

Defeat by William Cummings for the Mile Championship

Despite the unfavourable weather and a heavy track due to rainfall on the morning of the race, some 3000 persons assembled to witness the event.   Cummings was the favourite at 6 to 4, while odds of 3 to 1 were being offered against Norris and 4 to 1 against Cannon.   Norris received 40 yards start, Cummings and Cannon starting from scratch.   Cannon reeled off the first quarter in 62 seconds with Cummings, playing his usual waiting game, on his shoulder.   At the end of the first lap, Norris still had his handicap having set off at an equally hot pace.   In the second lap, the scratch men pegged back 20 yards on Norris and the half mile was reached in 2:09.5.   Cummings went past Cannon in the third lap and was within 10 yards of Norris when the three-quarter mile post was reached in 3:16.0.   Cummings rushed past Norris on the last lap and sailed up the straight, looking back the easiest of winners by 10 yards in 428.0.   Cannon was second in an estimated 4:30.0, a similar distance in front of Norris.   In February 1888, there was talk of a series of races against William Cummings at two miles, four miles and six miles, each race worth £25 a side.   However, the proposed match fell through, as these kinds of tentative arrangements so often did.   On 14th May 1888, Cannon entered into a three mile match with Robert Hunter of Govan at the Victoria Park Grounds, Govan, conceding Hunter a start of 350 yards.   Nine days earlier, Hunter had run a dead-heat with Cannon in another three mile handicap at teh Vale of Clyde AC sports having received 350 yards start there too.   A close race was again expected though Cannon was still the bookies’ favourite at 6 – 4 on.   The Stirling man went away at such a fast pace that everyone expected him to crack.   However he was in fine fettle and the track was in good condition.   Hunter was overhauled three quarters a mile from home and retired with a lap to go.   Never slackening his pace, Cannon plugged away and broke the tape amid thunderous applause, to find that he had written his name into the record books.   His time of 14:19.5 was fully 16 seconds inside Jack White’s record.   From now on, Peter Cannon would be named in the same breath as Walter George and William Cummings.   Cannon now turned his attention to the two miles record.

The opportunity arose out of a three-way two-mile sweepstake involving himself, Walter George and William Cummings.   Cummings however was forced to withdraw at the eleventh hour owing to a leg injury.   On Saturday, July 28th, 1888, in heavy rain, Cannon finally crossed swords with the great Walter George at the Victoria Park Grounds in Govan.   A close race was anticipated, and given the constellation, a world record was definitely in the air.   Of the two men, George had the faster time, having run 9:17.4 at Stamford Bridge in 1884, but Cannon was the man in form.   Despite the weather, some 3000 spectators turned out to witness the race.   The track was rough and heavy, and a record looked impossible, but the Stirling man was undeterred.   The toss fell to George and he took the inside lane, but shortly after the start, Cannon went to the front and soon left his illustrious opponent far behind.   He was 150 yards ahead at the end of the first mile in 4:33.4, his powerful stride eating up the ground.   Maintaining an electrifying pace, Cannon won easily by 300 yards and brought the house down with a comprehensive victory.   The official timekeeper, Mr Bonar registered 9:12.5 on his watch.   Cannon had therefore missed Bill “Crowcatcher” Lang’s long-standing record by a mere second.   But for a better surface and someone to push him, as James Sanderson had done Bill Lang at Manchester 25 years earlier, the record would have been his.    In return for his efforts, Cannon carried off a mammoth money prize of £300, which surely would have made up for any disappointment he felt at missing the record.   That year, Cannon made another attempt to break the two miles record at the Glasgow Exhibition enclosure on September 8th.   His race was the highlight of an excellent afternoon of sports at the “Highland Gathering” and witnessed by a bumper crowd of upwards of 25,000 spectators.   With a number of runners starting ahead of him, Cannon made his usual fast start, passing the mile post in a blistering 4:32:0   However this effort was too much to sustain; he faded in the closing stages and was left licking his wounds in second place.   Ferguson of Greenock took full advantage of 140 yards start to win a “punishing” race by a good 10 yards in 9:22.4 to Cannon’s estimated 9:25.0.

An attempt on the four mile record and a crowd of 10000 to spur him on

Cannon returned to the Glasgow Exhibition and made his next record attempt in a Four Miles Handicap on Saturday November 3rd 1888.   The world’s best was 19:36.0, accomplished by Jack White, the legendary “Gateshead Clipper” at Hackney Wick on 11th May, 1863.   The weather was raw and uninviting, and not conducive to record breaking but nevertheless a large crowd turned out to watch the professional sports and, in particular, to see Paddy Cannon run.   Eight started, the Stirling man the back marker off scratch and conceding big starts to veterans William “Cutty” Smith of Paisley, and Bob Hunter of Govan.   The task looked impossible for when the men stood on their marks, Smith and Hunter were only 40 yards behind Paddy, with practically a lap in hand.   Nonetheless, Cannon immediately set about pegging back their lead, passing the mile post in 4:48.2, 2 miles in 9:44.0 and 3 miles in 14:45.0.   Entering the last half mile he was only 50 yards down on the leaders, Hunter and Smith and closing rapidly.   In the last lap he finally took the lead but despite a spirited sprint down the straight to win by 12 yards, he missed breaking the world record by 4.2 seconds.   Nonetheless his time of 19:40.2 was a Scottish professional record.   So great was the disappointment among followers of pedestrianism that the Executive of the Glasgow International Exhibition staged a special four mile race against time and arranged to give a valuable prize if he broke the record.   The trial finally came off on the evening of Thursday, November 8th, 1888.   The track, according to “The Scotsman”, “was officially measured and certified … [as] a guarantee to those who look upon Scottish performances as open to question.”   Three well-known runners were entrusted with the task of pacing Cannon – Bob Hunter of Govan, J Ferguson of Greenock and A Arrol of Glasgow – each taking it in turns to draw Cannon out.   the track was specially lit up for the occasion, and at eight o’clock in the presence of 10000 vociferous spectators the race got under way.   there was a high, biting wind blowing throughout the race and having to run alone  did not make Cannon’s task any easier.   All he had to guide him as to his progress was the timekeeper’s call every half mile.   Cannon set off at a quicker pace than five days earlier, passing the mile in 4:22.0 and two miles in 9:37.8.   After the call at two and a half miles (12:06.2), he knew that he had the record within his grasp.   Having covered three miles in 14:34.4, a time only he himself had bettered, Cannon went through three and a quarter miles in 15:47.0 and three and a half miles in 17:002.2 to reach the bell in 8:15.4.   The crowd sensing a new record was imminent, the noise inside the enclosure grew to a deafening pitch as the excitement mounted.   Straining every sinew, Cannon finished with a sprint to stop the clock in 19:25.4.   Finally the record was his!   Not only that, he had neaten the existing mark by fully 10.6 seconds!   His intermediate quarter times from three to four miles were world records too.

Cannon was still hungry for success and, therefore, two world records were not enough.   He would not rest until he had claimed the two, five and six miles figures as well!   Another winter of hard training lay ahead.   On 4th January 1889, Cannon began his quest with an assault on Jack White’s figures for five and six miles at Hampden Park, Glasgow.   He had with him three pace makers – Robert Hunter of Govan, H McDermott of East Calder and Tom Graham of Lanark.   the conditions were not ideal – a cold wind was blowing and the track was soft owing to a recent frost.   When the race got under way at 2:35 pm a large crowd was present to cheer the Stirling man on, with the pace makers organised to draw him out mile by mile.   He shrugged off the adverse conditions and gave it his best, passing the mile in4:45.6, two miles in 9:46.4, three miles in 14:52.0 and four miles in 19:59.4.   However the record was never truly within his grasp that afternoon, and despite efforts by Graham and Hunter to shield him from the wind, Cannon slowed to reach five miles in 25:13.4 – a fine time but well short of the requisite 24:40.0.   Ultimately it was too tall an order, even for a man of his ability.   However a strong closing mile brought him to within 27 seconds of the record, and he breasted the tape in 30:17.0.   Cannon at least had the consolation of setting a new Scottish professional record, eclipsing the previous figures of 30:18.4 set by his great rival, William Cummings during his record-breaking ten miles at Lillie Bridge on 29th September 1885.

From One Highland Games to Another: two in One Day

Following a successful summer campaign, with recent wins at the Strathallan Meeting and in the Great Three Mile Handicap at the Bute Highland Games, Cannon launched yet another attack on the two miles record.   The undertaking took place on the ground of St Mirren FC at Westmarch, Paisley, on the morning of Friday 16th August 1889.   Cannon ran strongly throughout, sprinting the last 200 yards, but again the record eluded him.   the official timekeeper’s watch registered 9:13.0 – 1.5 seconds outside Bill Lang’s mark.   Cannon was said to have remarked on finishing that he could have broken the record had he been pushed.   Most runners would have been satisfied with a good day’s work, but not Paddy Cannon!   Later that afternoon he put in an appearance at the Luss Highland Gathering in the picturesque village of Luss, on the shores of Loch Lomond.   However after his hard work at Paisley, coupled with the fact that he had been over-handicapped, he had to be content with second place in the two mile handicap.   Two weeks later, on 31st August, Cannon competed in the Two Miles Flat Race at the inaugural Highland Games and Sports in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where there was a large Scottish colony, thus ensuring a good attendance.   Cannon was a little off colour, probably because of the long journey over from Scotland, but caught and passed every opponent but one.   Compatriot Tom Graham took full advantage of 145 yards start to win by 30 yards in 9:42.2 to Cannon’s estimated 9:30.0.   For Cannon the nig race of 1889 was only a month away: the One Mile Championship for a sweepstake of £1100 and Mr Lewis’s Silver Championship Cup.   It took place at Victoria Ground, Govan, on Saturday 28th September 1889,   The four competitors who joined in the sweepstakes were William Cummings, Preston, and Peter Cannon, Stirling, both off scratch; George Powell, Wales, 30 yards start and Fred Goodwin, London, 66 yards.   Each man had laid a £25 stake.   Cummings was the holder having won the first race at the same venue twenty months earlier.   An immense crowd of spectators filled the enclosure and the stands, with most interest centring on the mile championship.   In the days preceding the event, the Glasgow Herald had dampened any expectations of a phenomenal time by commenting that the ground “was not a good one” .   Indeed the 352 yard track was heavy and on the day of the race a gusty wind was blowing.   Cannon, reportedly “in capital condition”, was attended on by JM Campbell of Alexandria.   Cumming was the bookies’ favourite on 7-4 on, while odds of 6-4 were being offered against Cannon.   When the race got under way, Powell set off quickly and overhauled Goodwin in the second lap but then retired, suffering from cramp.   Cannon and Cummings ran side by side, and the Stirling man tried earnestly to shake off his opponent, albeit without success.   The first four laps took: 48 and a quarter, 1:41 and three quarters, 2:36.0 and 3:35 respectively, and after Goodwin was passed the race took on an air of inevitably for Cummings was a 52 second quarter miler.   Sure enough when they entered the home straight Cummings pulled out and, amid thunderous cheering, romped home the easiest of winners by six yards, smiling and looking back.   The times were as good as could be expected: 4:28 and three quarters for Cummings and an estimated time of 4:29.9 for Cannon.   Being from nearby Paisley, Cummings was a popular winner.   By retaining the Mile Championship, he not only won the sweepstakes but after the race, Cummings announced his retirement from racing after having already announced his intention to do so.

The Clans Gather in Paris, and the “Great Champions” race at One Mile

In the autumn, Cannon crossed the English Channel to represent his country in the Gathering of the Clans in Paris as part of the Exhibition.   This unique sporting event saw the greatest number of Scots descend on the French capital since the days when the Scots furnished a fighting contingent for the Kings of France in the 16th and 17th centuries.   However, instead of men-at-arms, this particular Scots contingent – some 300 strong – consisted of bagpipers, wrestlers, caber tossers and, of course, athletes.   There were ten entries for the ‘Great Champion One Mile Race’ on Thursday, October 17th, 1889.   They included Will Snook and Joe Hind of Carlisle, but neither man had shown good form that year, and Cannon was the favourite.   The race was not so much fast as controversial, for Cannon was badly fouled by both Snook and Hind in the closing stages and he could only finish third.   However, the stewards ruled in his favour and awarded him the win, much to the displeasure of the English supporters who in turn cried “foul”.   Snook who had been first past the post  was relegated to second, and Hind to third.   the ruling made a great difference to Cannon’s pocket, for the first prize was 50 guineas, a gold vase and the medaillion d’honneur de Paris (Paris Medal of Honour).   In the four mile champion race the next day, Cannon with a point to prove, set off quickly and ultimately ran out an emphatic winner, finishing a quarter of a mile in front of Snook in 20:34 and three quarters.   The French spectators were said to have been awestruck by his running.   For his efforts, Cannon collected 100 guineas and another gold vase and medaillion d’honneur de Paris, making the trip to France a highly profitable venture.

Just as Cannon was at the pinnacle of his career, a leg injury caused him to break down in training.   The injury was so serious that it wrecked the first half of the 1890 season.   A proposed three race match against J Courtney of Portsmouth fell through and tentative plans to go to America and compete against their best professionals also had to be shelved.   The trip to Paris had evidently whetted Cannon’s appetite for racing abroad.     Cannon eventually made a recovery and when he won the two mile handicap at the Glasgow Police Sports in 10th May 1890 he knew he was back on track.   Injury or no injury, Cannon evidently had his mind set on racing in America, and in early June 1890, he sailed out of Glasgow on SS Ethiopia, travelling under his alias, Peter Cannon.   Upon his arrival in New York, Cannon stopped with a friend in Brooklyn and let it be known that he was ready to accept engagements with “any man in America”.   Despite securing the services of MJ Finn of Natick as his manager, Cannon’s search for competition at first proved fruitless.   His main would-be adversaries, Peter Priddy of Pittsburgh and James Grant of Boston were playing hard to get, demanding that he put up $1000.   After failing to secure a match within several weeks of his arrival, a disappointed Cannon was on the verge of returning to Scotland when the Caledonian Club came to the rescue.   Scots accounted for a large share of the immigrant population in North America, and consequently most major cities had their Caledonian Club or a similar organisation, which served to promote the musical, Literary and social heritage  of Scottish culture.   The premier event in the calendar of any Caledonian Club was the annual Scottish Highland Gathering and Games which naturally were similar to those typically held in the Motherland.   And so it was that Cannon participated in the 37th Annual Picnic and Games of the Boston Caledonian Club at Oak Island Grove, Revere Beach on Thursday 28th August 1890.   The club had put up $2000 for professional athletes and a good field was thereby secured, upwards of 15000 spectators paid their admission to watch the event.   the bustling ground was awash with men in kilts and echoed to the sound of bagpipes.

Cannon was entered for the five mile scratch race.   It was the event of the day and had been the principal topic among athletes in the month  leading up to the Gathering.   The Caledonian Club had allocated some $300 to this race alone.   Cannon was up against stiff competition in the shape of James Grant, Boston; Peter Priddy, Pittsburgh; Ed McLellan, Pittsburgh; Dan Burns, Elmira; and Nick Cox, New York.   Grant, the local hero, was tipped to win, having set an American five mile professional record of 25:22.3 at Cambridge, Mass, only three days earlier.    Cannon must have been mortified by his billing as “Peter Cannon, Champion of England”!   Ed McLellan set the pace from the second mile onwards, reaching three miles in 15:49.0, with only Cannon and Priddy for company, and Grant who was suffering from cramp 50 yards in arrears and practically out of the race.   Three and a half miles were dispatched in 18:35.0 and four miles in 21:21.0.   the order remained unchanged until a quarter of a mile from home, when the Pittsburgh duo set about themselves, much to the detriment of Cannon, who lost contact, McLellan producing the better finish  to win by 20 yards in 26:37.5.   Priddy was second and Cannon third.   A newspaper reported that “Cannon was left by the two Americans as if anchored”, but without detracting from what was a respectable performance under the circumstances.   On 1st September, Cannon competed in the five mile race in Philadelphia, PA.   It was the feature event of the annual athletic sports promoted by the Philadelphia Caledonian Club at Rising Sun Park.   A crowd of 5000 “canny Scots” witnessed a close race between Pennsylvania’s own Peter Priddy and Cannon, the former winning in an astounding time of 24:30 which suggested that the track was considerably short.   Only three days later, Cannon was back in action at the 34th Annual Games of the New York Caledonian Club at Jones Wood and Washington Park, New York.   He was entered for the three and five mile scratch races both of which were open to all-comers.   In his first event, the three miles, victory went to Peter Priddy in 15:40, Cannon comin in second before an audience of 10000 ebullient spectators.   The subsequent five mile race provided the most thrilling finish of the day.   British ex-patriot Nick Cox of New York took the lead from the start and set a stiff pace which only Cannon and Priddy were able to match.   Cannon moved to the front half a mile from home and began a long drive but Priddy went right after him and took the lead, both men dropping Cox.   Thus it remained until the finishing straight when Priddy and Cannon engaged in a mad scramble for the line, Priddy winning by inches as both men clocked 26:59.0.   After a week of frenetic activity Cannon concluded his racing tour of America, packed his belongings and bade farewell to the Land of Opportunity.   The 1890 season had been one of mixed fortunes.   Apart from his racing tour of America, the year had marked the birth of Cannon’s first child, John.    Over the next decade, the family would grow to include another four boys and a girl.

Paddy Cannon did not so much retire from professional running as to fade away.   Age was beginning to creep up on him and after the injury-plagued 1890 season his performances began to slip.   Cannon was now at the crossroads. with the responsibilities to think about, his first priority as a parent was to feed and clothe the family.   The money from pedestrianism was a supplement, no more, no less.    His regular income came from working on a farm where he prided himself on being a threshing machine operator although this was generally considered a hazardous job.   Threshing engines were designed for the removal of husks from grain to make flour.   They had various moving mechanical parts and their operators literally risked life and limb.   A contemporary newspaper tells of a woman threshing machine operator who “had her clothing caught in the machinery and one of her legs drawn and dreadfully mangled”.   Another tells of a foreman who “put his hand too far into the beaters while feeding the machine and the beater tore a finger from his hand.”   From 1890 onwards, Cannon confined his competitive outings mainly to weekends and public holidays.   He continued to compete at Highland Meetings for several more seasons and, for a time at least, continued to pull crowds thanks to his undiminished popularity.   He held on to his scratch man status for a while, albeit conceding ever decreasing starts as his biological clocked ticked onwards.   At the Blackford Highland Games on August 10th, 1891, he won the two miles off scratch but had to settle for second to John Taylor of Kirkcaldy in the mile handicap after finding himself unable to make up the handicap of 25 yards on the latter.   On August 27th 1896, Cannon, now in his 40th year, was third in the two mile handicap at the Abernethy Games where, remarkably, he was still the backmarker!

By now however he was generally receiving rather than giving starts and, therefore still enjoying a modicum of success at meetings.   At the Jedburgh Games on July 11th 1896, he competed in three events, winning the ‘Basket and Stone’ race (winning £1), finishing third in the ‘Go as you Please competition’ and winning the two mile handicap (winning £1 10 shillings).

An older looking Paddy Cannon dressed in running kit

Two weeks later, at the Kelso Gathering, he had another payday when he finished third in the half mile handicap off 65 yards, third in the two mile race and second in the mile handicap off 75 yards.   The following year Cannon competed at the Strathallan Games in the two mile handicap, which featured Anglo cracks Harry Watkins and Fred Bacon.   He started from the 75 yard mark alongside T Conchie of Shap who provided a turn-up for the books by winning in 9:33.2.   A newspaper described it as a “very punishing race”, adding gallingly that “veteran P Cannon [brought] up the rear.”

One Sporting Career Finishes, Another Opens.

However, little did Paddy Cannon realise that as the curtains were coming down on one great career, another exciting career was about to take off!   In 1896, Cannon took on a job as the groundsman of Hibernian Football Club (Hibs) in Edinburgh.   He enjoyed outdoor work and coming from a Catholic-Irish household, was a loyal Hibs supporter.   It was something of a dream job for Cannon, and would be the beginning of an association that would last for almost half a century.   The family moved to Edinburgh and into a tenement at 9 Lyne Street in the aptly named Canongate district which then had a large Irish population.   Hibs were founded by Irish born football enthusiasts in 1875 and named after the Roman word for Ireland.   Hibs early years were turbulent.   In 1887 they won the Scottish Cup, but the following year they almost went out of business when a number of their best players defected to the newly formed Glasgow Celtic Football Club.   The game wasn’t professional in those days so no money changed hands directly.   However Celtic lured away the Hibs players by offering them businesses such as pubs and shops.   Consequently Hibs struggled to field teams during the following seasons.   Things went from bad to worse when their treasurer emigrated to Canada with a large portion of the club’s funds.   The upshot was that the club went defunct in 1891.   A reformed club called Hibernian Football Club was established in 1892 and acquired a lease on a site at Easter Road which is still their home to this day.   Hibs fortunes took a turn for the better when their committee promoted Paddy Cannon to the post of trainer-groundsman in 1897  thereby enabling the club to draw on Cannon’s experience and knowledge of conditioning for athletic performance.

Cannon put his charges, many of whom were young players, through a new training regimen destined to reap benefits in the longer term.   His training methods were considered innovative and modern in that era and he was highly respected by the Hibs players of the day.   The young Hibs players blossomed under his tutelage, and with club secretary Dan McMichael holding the reins, Hibs reached the final of the Scottish Cup in 1902.   The week before the final, Cannon primed his charges for the big challenge with long walks to Portobello, dominoes at night and a “diet of thick potted-head sandwiches washed down with cups of milky cocoa.”   It was his unique way of fostering good team spirits.   The plan worked perfectly: the Hibs team gelled together to beat Celtic 1-0 in the final, which bizarrely was contested at Celtic’s home ground of Parkhead Stadium.   The following year Hibs won the Scottish League title for the first time in impressive style, amassing 37 points in 22 games to finish six points clear of Dundee FC.   Arguably the period between 1901 and 1903 was the finest in Hibs history when they were concurrent holders of the Scottish Cup and the Scottish League Championship Trophy.   Hibs have won the Scottish League Championship three times since then but have never repeated their Scottish Cup victory of 1902.

Of course other clubs were quick to follow the example set by Hibs.   “Levelling the playing field” so to speak.   Hibs would never again reach those lofty heights during the remainder of Cannon’s tenure as their trainer but they performed by and large consistently during this period, save for a bad patch during the First World War and were never once relegated.

Like Father, Like Son: Another Cannon on the Track

Cannon’s son Tom was cast from the same mould as his father and shared his father’s passion for running and football.   Not surprisingly, he also followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming a professional runner and later a football trainer at Hibs.   It was probably his son Tom’s running aspirations which induced Paddy to make a sensational comeback on the pedestrian scene in 1918 at the ripe old age of 61.   A nostalgic match over half a mile was arranged between himself and his old adversary William Cummings at Ibrox Park, Glasgow, on August 17th 1918.   Even in old age, Cummings (60) was still the faster of the two men over the short middle distance, winning by 30 yards in 2:49.   Sadly this was to be Cummings last appearance on the running track.   he died the following year in a Glasgow hospital.    At the same Ibrox meeting, Banknock coal miner George McCrae eclipsed William Cummings’ ancient 10 miles record with a time of 50:55.0.   Earlier in the year McCrae had also erased Cannon’s three miles mark of 14:19.5 from the record books with a time of 14:18.6.   George McCrae was, as it were, the “spiritual successor” to Paddy Cannon.   In fact, McCrae was the first Scottish runner since Paddy Cannon’s heyday to be truly worthy of such an epithet.

The following year, Cannon entered the Powderhall Marathon alongside his son Tom.   remarkably, the distance, ten miles, was the farthest he had ever raced!   Of course given his age, he was the limit man with a start of nine laps.   the veteran Hibs trainer tenaciously defended his lead for fully half of the distance but then had to yield to his younger rivals.   He eventually finished fifth, just outside the prize list having covered seven miles in about 52 minutes.   For a man approaching 62 and on a heavy track and in cold conditions, it was a creditable performance.   The new ten miles track record holder McCrae finished eleventh in the handicap but did enough to win the £25 and the challenge cup for the fastest time (53:32.0).   What an occasion it must have been witnessing those two greats of Scottish distance running, Paddy Cannon and George McCrae running in the same race.

PADDY CANNON 63 and son

Paddy Cannon and son Tom

As heart warming as it was to see the old champion back in action after all these years, Paddy Cannon never intended to make more than a brief comeback for the sake of the family album, as it were.    From then on he left all the running to his son Tom who developed into a 4:30 miler and flew the Cannon family flag for several years, winning various Powderhall handicaps over the mile and two miles.   In the early 1920’s, Paddy Cannon retired from active trainer duties and handed over the reins to his son and fellow pedestrian “Di” Christopher of Currie.   However, he remained loyal to Hibs and worked as their groundsman until old age compelled him to give that up too.   He was blessed with a long and healthy life and remained a loyal football and athletics enthusiast until his death in his ninetieth year at City Hospital, Edinburgh, on August 23rd, 1946.   His wife Annie died three weeks after him.   In the late 1920’s a journalist writing in praise of Paddy Cannon created what is actually a fitting epitaph to the man:

“He was a great athlete and a sound trainer, and the pity is that Scotland cannot raise more of Cannon’s kind.”

Paddy Cannon’s Personal Best Performances

I hope and think that you will agree that the above comprehensive account of the life and times of a wonderful athlete sheds some well-deserved light on an athletics scene similar to our own but of which too little is known by the present generation.  

Jim Brennan leads Pat Maclagan in the Midlands Championship in 1968

There are many runners who work their way through the age groups showing great promise and even run well as Junior and Senior before dropping out of the sport and totally disappear from view.    One of my favourite runners of the 1960’s was Jim Brennan of Maryhill Harriers.    Jim was a friendly, approachable runner in a club which at that point was not having much competitive success, a runner who won International recognition at Junior and Senior level and who beat most off the best in the country at one time or another.    Jim’s best track times of 9:05.6 for 2 Miles and 30:03 for 6 Miles would have seen him in the top 20 in the country in 2013 -and his steeplechase time of 9:25.2 would have had him ranked sixth in 2013!   None of them on tartan tracks either.   Jim was muscular individual, looking more like a boxer than a distance runner perhaps, who supported his club in everything and when they came to an inter-club fixture with my own club on one occasion he agreed to take some time to talk to some of the local young athletes about his training.

Before we look at his career in detail it might be appropriate to ask the man himself about his career as an athlete.   We put the questionnaire before him and his replies are given verbatim.

Name:  Jim Brennann

Date of Birth: 2nd July, 1946

Clubs:   Maryhill Harriers and Irvine AC

Occupation: Painter and Decorator

Personal Bests: Probably 10 Miles Championship in 1969 and Tom Scott 10 Mile Road Race finishing behind A Brown and winner Jim Alder

How did you get involved in the sport in the first place: Glasgow Schools Champion half mile in 1960 aged 14.

Has any individual or group had a marked effect on either your attitude to the sport or to individual performances?   Mr Bob Bell and Mr Matt Lang, true gentlemen; the whole club members and my friends Nirmal Singh and Edmund MacKenzie

What exactly did you get out of the sport? Friendship and a good upbringing.

Can you describe your general attitude to the sport?  Friendship and a good upbringing.

What do you consider your best ever performance?  My first race ever at 1960 Garscube Harriers boys races relays.   I was in a mixed team, I ran first, fastest time for my age group.

And your worst?   Barry International Cross-Country.   Should have withdrawn from the race with a bad cold but that was the way I was brought up.What did you do to relax?   Cycling, golf and love watching athletics.

Were there any goals that you failed to achieve?   Probably at my young age I am sure I could have been much better if I had a coach but I was self coached since I was 14.

Can you give any details of your training?   Track: lots of repetition work, all distances; road, 60 to 80 miles a week.

Your career as far as most of us are concerned ended in 1969 but you did run for Irvine AC too ?   Yes, I ran for Irvine for about 12 years with good memories.

Do you still run for any reason – fun, habit, etc?  Occasional;ly I put the gear on and do one and a half to about two miles.

Your family ran too.   Can you tell us a bit about that?   My son and two daughters ran with Irvine with a lot of good results.  My son is a qualified coach with North Ayrshire AC.

Did you yourself ever get involved as a coach or official or in any other capacity in the sport?   Yes, I did a bit for about four and a half years.   Four of my Youths finished second in the Scottish Schools AC.

The start of a West District Three Miles at Westerlands: Jim Spence, Colin Martin, Albie Smith, Bert McKay, Alex Brown, Lachie Stewart, Alistair Milroy, Ian McCafferty, Hugh McErllean, Jim Brennan, Brian McAusland

That is what Jim himself has to say and it looks like a good career in the sport despite the fact that it was cut short in a running and racing capacity in 1969.   He clearly enjoyed running, inculcated that love in his children and also gave something back as a coach.   

As a runner, he first appears in the results in season 1961/62 when he was fifth in the Boys National at Hamilton 13 seconds behind the winner, Duncan Middleton of Springburn.   A look at the top six reveals the quality at the time –

1.   D Middleton (Springburn)   7:58;   2.    R Wedlock (Shettleston)  

8:03;  3.   W Eadie (St Modan’s AC)    8:07;   4.   W Donaldson (Edinburgh AC)   8:11;   5.   J Brennan (Maryhill)   8:11;   6.   T Brown (St Modan’s AC)   8:15.   All went on to become good senior athletes.

During the following summer, he suffered from the fact that there were really no distance races for his age group – many races only had an 880 yards, others only went up to the Mile.   He would have followed the normal pattern of running in handicap races at highland gatherings and preparing for the winter.   By season 1962/63 Jim was in the Youths (Under 17) age group and started 1963 with the Midlands District Cross Country Championship on an icy course at Strathleven, just outside Dumbarton.    It was up an age group from last year but he also finished up a few places when he finished second, and only 4 seconds behind, to Ian McCafferty .    Behind him were Ian Young (Springburn), Duncan Middleton (Springburn), S Grant (Motherwell) and Davie Tees (Springburn).   A good run.   Came the National and he was fourth behind McCafferty, Young and, the favourite on the day, Carroll of Edinburgh AC.   Time differences were slight with Jim only 27 seconds down on the winner and followed home by Tom Brown (St Modan’s), Duncan Middleton and Dick Wedlock.

In winter 1963 he was a bit more experienced and already known as a good runner and hard worker – one you had to battle to defeat.   In the Midland championship, again at Strathleven, he was second again – this time to Duncan Middleton and one place in front of Eddie Knox, also Springburn.   Seven seconds down on Middleton he was only two ahead of Knox who was followed home by Dick Wedlock, Tom Brown, Walter Eadie and Alistair Blamire.        In the National, at Hamilton he was 6th behind Knox, Middleton, Wedlock, Eadie and Brown.    Summer 1964 was a replay of 1963 – in the West Districts at Westerlands the longest race was the 880 yards which Tom Dobbin (Greenock Glenpark) won from Eddie Knox.    In the National there was a mile where Eddie Knox won comfortably, but there were no steeplechase races or anything further than a mile on any programme.

In the early 1964 winter season short relays, Jim was not prominent partly because his club at that time was not winning many medals but mainly because the quality of the opposition was too much for any first year Junior.   The sheltered haven of Youths races (where there was often a fast start and a fast finish with a rest in the middle) was not preparation for hard-all-the-way races against seniors on a weekly basis.  However the progress was there for all to see.   He missed his own club’s Nigel Barge Road Race at the start of January and then ran in the Senior race at the District Championships  and was ninth across the finishing line.  In the process he picked up many notable ‘scalps’ including Hugh Barrow (fastest man in the Kingsway Relays, later at Fernieside and enjoying a spell of very good form)) and his Victoria Park team mates Pat Maclagan and John McLaren.  He next appeared on 6th February in the Inter-Counties Championship at at Cleland Estate, Motherwell, where he was sixth in a very good field.  One week later and he won his club’s Junior title in a time 12 minutes faster than the winning senior but less than a minute ahead of the second Junior, Robert Stevenson, who was a very good runner indeed, only unfortunate that the standard in the country was so high at this time.   Robert ran many good races and beat many of the best runners but never received the credit he deserved.    In the National Jim Brennan did well to be 7th in the Junior race where he was competing against runners some of whom were nearly two years older than he was. The result is worth noting.

1.   I McCafferty;   2.  R Young;   3.   AP Brown;   4.   R Wedlock;   5.   W Eadie;   6.   I Young;   7.   J Brennan;   8.   J Raeburn;  9.   A Blamire;   10.   S McIntosh;   11.   J Wight.

Although not selected for the International in Ostend, Brennan was first non-travelling reserve for the Junior team

Following this, summer 1965 was a good one for Brennan with a series of very good races.   As a junior he was racing against seniors most weeks and when it is remembered that the seniors included Ian McCafferty, Lachie Stewart, Andy and Alex Brown, Dick Wedlock and the like, it was not easy.   However he did perform well – on 22nd May he was second to Graeme Grant of Dumbarton in the Junior Mile at the Glasgow Championship at Scotstoun, on 28th June he was second in the SAAA Junior Mile to Alistair Blamire, on 24th July he won the handicap mile at Gourock from Jim Johnston of Monkland Harriers, admittedly off 60 yards to Johnston’s 20 and in the SAAA v Army match at the end of July he was second in the Junior Mile, again behind Blamire.   (In the latter meeting the Junior 2000m steeplechase was won by Doug Gillon in 6:26.6).   By the end of 1965 he was ranked in three events – 25th in the Two Miles with 9:18.0, 14th in the Six Miles with 30:12.0 and eighteenth in the 3000m steeplechase with a best of 9:58.0.   This set him up nicely for another good winter which was to culminate in his first Scottish international cross-country vest.

1965/66   His first race of the season was in the City of Glasgow Relay Championship in early October where he was fastest over the course.   Then on a very muddy trail for the Midlands Relay in Stirling at the end of the month he was first on the opening stage, eight seconds ahead of Alex Brown, and third fastest on the day.  It was a very good run that surprised the pundits.   The good form continued into November when he was fourth in the University Road Race behind Lachie Stewart, Bert McKay and Eddie Knox.   Maryhill was not involved in the Edinburgh to Glasgow so Brennan’s next race was at the end of November when he ran as a non-counter in the SCCU v British Army match at Glasgow Green: so well did he run that he was sixth finisher in the race.   The first Saturday in December was dedicated to County Championships and in the City of Glasgow event, Brennan triumphed.   The report in the ‘Glasgow Herald’ read:

“The surprise of the day was in the Glasgow championships where WH Barrow (Victoria Park) finished second equal with P Maclagan, a clubmate, behind J Brennan (Maryhill Harriers).    Brennan’s ability to charge without fear through the rough undergrowth in Garscube Estate   contributed largely to his margin of victory; those following were inclined to pick and choose their routes.  Occupying all positions from second to sixth Victoria Park had a walkaway win in the team race.   Details:   1.   J Brennan (Maryhill)   33:01;   2=   WH Barrow and P Maclagan (both Victoria Park)   33:24;   4.   C Laing (Victoria Park)   33:29;   5.   A Smith (Victoria Park)   33:45;   6.   A Johnston (Victoria Park)   33:47.”

A week later in the SCCU v Scottish Universities he was sixth in a race won by Lachie Stewart.   The races kept on coming and seven days later he was fastest over the course in the Maryhill Harriers handicap championship.   Such running deserves its rewards and his came in the form of an invitation to take part in a Three Miles race to be held at Celtic Park at half-time in the Celtic v Rangers match.   The boy done good and finished third behind Lachie Stewart and Andy Brown but in front of Alex Brown, Bert McKay, and Pat Maclagan.   His next outing was in the Maryhill Harriers open road race for the Nigel Barge trophy where the winner was again Lachie Stewart but Brennan was fifth only 35 seconds behind.   The ‘race-a-week’ routine went on and the following Saturday he was ninth in a very good Midland Championship at Strathleven Estate, Dumbarton.   It had been a race a week since mid-October for Jim Brennan but there was now a two week gap until he was fifth in the Inter-Counties race in Musselburgh at the start of February.   The week before the National is club championship time and Brennan won the Maryhill Harriers junior title for the second successive year.    Then on 26th February it was the National at Hamilton where he was fifth to finish and selected to run in the Junior team at Rabat in Morocco with Knox, Blamire and Steel.      The star of the day was Eddie Knox who finished third with Brennan tenth – “JJ Brennan in his first big meeting did well to take tenth place and helped put Scotland third in the team race with 28 points.   Our other counter, JR Blamire, was fifteenth.” – and Alistair Blamire five places back.

The next mention of him in the prize list was on 4th June when he was second in the Mile at the Burgess Week Sports at Bishopbriggs in Glasgow behind Jim Johnstone of Monkland Harriers in 4:21.7 to Johnstone’s 4:16.2.   Brennan probably kept racing but results were limited to the top three in some events and in other weeks, only the winner was given: unfortunate in the run-up to the SAAA Championships were Brennan did not take any medals, hardly surprising with Stewart and McCafferty in great form leading into the Games.  He was fourth in the Three Miles however.  Nevertheless he did race during the season and was ranked in three events – Mile, Three Miles and Steeplechase.   The mile was run 18th October in Glasgow where he was fourth in 4:18.6 – 0.6 behind Duncan Middleton.   Twelfth in the Three Miles with 14:03.6 run at Meadowbank on 12th June in the Inter-Counties meeting.   His best race of the season however was the SAAA Steeplechase on 25th June where he was fourth in 9:25.2.   He was also second in the District championship behind Lachie Stewart and ten seconds in front of Jim Bogan in 9:38.0.   There were several noted steeplechasers behind him including Alistair Blamire, Ian Harris, Tommy Cochrane, Jim McLatchie and Doug Gillon.   In cidentally, 9:25.2 would have placed him fifth in the rankings in 2013 =- and his time was run on cinders.

Winter 1966/67 started for him in October with fastest time for the second year in succession in the Glasgow Relay championship ahead of Maclagan and Johnston of Victoria Park.   Clearly in good form, he was third fastest in the Midland District  relay at Stirling and ran the third fastest time just 19 seconds slower than Ian McCafferty and 14 behind Lachie Stewart.   The following week in the Glasgow University Road Race he was third – Lachie Stewart won in a course record time of 25:16, Andy Brown was second in 25:32, Brennan third in 25:42 followed by Eddie Knox in 26:02, Alex Brown in 26:15 and Dick Wedlock in 26:22.   Lachie led the race from the start followed by a bunch of four – Brennan, Andy and Alex Brown and Eddie Knox.   Jim and Andy broke away from the other two and the ‘Glasgow Herald’ reporter had this to say:   “Brennan must have felt that second place was his a mile from the finish as he challenged and overtook the veteran Brown.   But, as he said in the dressing-room after the race, “Brown knew how to play with the head!”    Coming in the gate of Westerlands, Brennan was out-manoeuvred by a quick break and in the finishing lap gradually fell50 yards behind.”   Although his club did not feature in the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay on 19th November he was selected after the race for the SCCU team to compete against the Army at Carlisle the following week.   It was a good team – Ian McCafferty, Andy and Alex Brown, Lachie Stewart, John Linaker, Ian Hathorn and Gareth Bryan-Jones with Eddie Knox as reserve.   In the actual race he ran well enough to finish fifth (fourth Scot) and that was good enough to see him selected immediately after the race for the team to race against Scottish Universities two weeks later.   And the team this time included Fergus Murray, Mel Edwards, Kenny Ballantyne, Eddie Knox and Alastair Johnston as well as Stewart, McCafferty and the two Brown brothers.   I list the teams to show the quality of men that he was running with – he was not selected in poor years for the sport.   The following week, Brennan led from start to finish to win his third Glasgow championship in three years with Victoria Park taking the team title for the third successive year as well.   The headline for the SCCU v SU match read “Scottish Union win with Customary Efficiency” and Jim Brennan was fifth behind Linaker, Alex Brown, Bryan-Jones and Knox.

Into 1967 and he started with seventh place in the Nigel Barge race at Maryhill but followed that with a good third at Springburn the following Saturday, beaten by McCafferty and Knox.    His third race in three weeks was the Midland championship at Bellahouston Park where he was fifth – just 36 seconds behind Lachie Stewart in second place.   At the start of February, Brennan was third in the Inter-Counties Championship, held again at Cleland,  behind the two Brown brothers and ahead of Knox, Cochrane and McKay.   It seems incredible when reading these results to realise that so many of the chief protagonists were still Juniors as far as the cross-country season was concerned, but that’s how it was and the National Junior Championship at the end of February was a keenly fought contest.   Eddie Knox won by one second (28:03 to 28:04) from Alistair Blamire with John Myatt third (28:33) and Jim Brennan fourth (28:59).   The rules defining eligibility for the Junior age group were anomalous in that both Blamire and Brennan were eligible for the age group domestically but were seniors for the purposes of international competition.   Their running for the season had been so good however, that the selectors put them both into the team for the international at Barry, Glamorgan, in Wales on 18th March.   The result in the international was a comfortable win for Gaston Roelants of Belgium, Blamire and Brennan were 63rd and 88th respectively.

He doesn’t seem to have competed at all that summer, certainly not in any of the main events such as SAAA Championhips, District Championships, Glasgow Championships, in any of the invitation events at Grangemouth or elsewhere or even at any of the big Highland Games meetings like Gourock or Babcock and Wilcox.   It has to be believed that he was ill or injured because he was never one to shy away from competition.

Winter 1967/68 started for Jim Brennan on Saturday 7th October in the McAndrew Relay when he was mentioned in the ‘Herald’ report as running on the first stage thus: “For a time J Brennan (Maryhill), a  Scottish cross-country internationalist, challenged the Shettleston man [Bill Scally] for the honour of leading in the field of 77 over the first two and three-quarter miles, but this was an athlete of some stature he was running beside, not the  moderate performer we have known.  Over the last mile past Scotstoun Showground, Scally crushed Brennan with a fiery burst and the race was over.”   At least he was back in action, probably more than a bit ‘ring rusty’, and the report the following week gave some indication of why he had been absent.   The event was the City of Glasgow Relay championships where he had the fastest time for the fourth consecutive year with Victoria Park winning the team race – also for the fourth consecutive year.   The key section in the report read: “The best individual time was returned by J Brennan (Maryhill Harriers) who appears to have recovered from the foot injury which has kept him out of competition for several months.”   The event was held this time on the flat Knightswood Park so his time could not be put down to charging through rough undergrowth.   A week later he was first on the first stage of the Midland District Relay, one place ahead of Brian Goodwin of Bellahouston Harriers with the fourth quickest time of the day.   Despite racing relatively well, Brennan was not picked for any of the teams that year – he was absent from the SCCU teams v the Army and against the Universities, and when a big team with six reserve (all allowed to run) was picked to race at Granollers in France, there was no Jim Brennan.   It may be that his foot injury had flared up again but it seems strange that he was not there.   He was back in the results columns again on 2nd December when he won the City of Glasgow championship by 28 seconds from Alistair Johnston of Victoria Park, a competition where Glasgow University won the team race.   When the race between SCCU and the Universities came along in the second week in December he was allowed to run as a non-counter for the Scottish team and showed them the error of their ways when he finished third behind Knox and Blamire but in front of Bryan-Jones, Wedlock, Wight, Brown, Maclagan and Myatt.   The ‘Herald’ said “The form of Brennan, who suffered the anonymity of being a non-counter, was especially pleasing.   His third place confirmed his return to top class competition in the future and, who knows, maybe a place in the team for Tunisia in March.”   

“BRENNAN RECOVERS BEST FORM” was the headline in the ‘Glasgow Herald’ on 18th December and the brief report read “J Brennan (Maryhill Harriers), an Internationalist last year, recovered his best form when he won the East Kilbride open senior five and a half mile road race with a time of 25 min 57 sec.   Other placings were:- 2.   AP Brown (Law)   26:04;   3.   J Myatt (Strathclyde) 26:08”   In the traditional first race of the New Year – the Nigel Barge at Maryhill – Brennan had a fine run to be fourth, this time lifting the scalps of Wedlock and Morrison of Shettleston and Knox of Springburn although he had to give best to Bryan-Jones and Blamire.   After the race teams were selected for races on the continent for small three and four man teams and Brennan was not selected for any of them, one of the penalties for running in the same era as Stewart, Alder and McCafferty.   He was not alone in this and the following week, the ‘Glasgow Herald’ pointed out that the first three in the race at Springburn were all reserves for these races – Wedlock won, Brennan was second and Maclagan was third.   Two of the three were in action in the District Championship at Bellahouston Park the following weekend and the headline read

“MACLAGAN BREAKAWAY BROUGHT NO RESPONSE FROM BRENNAN.”    “The effect of a sudden breakaway on an athlete was clearly illustrated at the Midland District championship at Bellahouston Park on Saturday.   The man making the break renews weary limbs with winged heels.  The victim clanks on his way, no longer stemming the onset of weariness.   For more than four of the six miles in the senior contest a grim struggle was played out between P Maclagan (Victoria Park) and J Brennan (Maryhill) over the toughest course they have encountered this season.   Out on their own they flitted in between trees, choosing the path they felt best for themselves, Maclagan the turf, Brennan the tarmacadamed path.   Held together by an invisible thread they gave the crowd every reason to expect a searing battle for the tape.    But a mile and a half from the finish on a deserted stretch of the course  Maclagan made the telling move which only he and Brennan could describe later.   Brennan apparently dropped slightly behind the other without the Victoria Park runner speeding up and on sensing this, Maclagan increased his stride rate and built up a 60 yard gap without response from Brennan.   From then to the finish Maclagan made the distance between them 100 yards and he crossed the line for his first major success.”   The times were 31:26 and 31:53.

The National championship at the end of February, 1968, was Jim Brennan’s first as a senior.   He finished ten seconds behind Pat Maclagan – unfortunately the positions were eleventh and twelfth while the race was won by Lachie Stewart who defeated Alistair Blamire by only one second.   Twelfth meant no international vest for Brennan this time despite being a very good run by a first-year senior.

He did no appear often in the first three in 1968 but there were some significant runs.  On 9th June he competed in the Inter-Counties steeplechase at Grangemouth and finished third in 9:58.8 behind George Skinner (Shettleston) and William Allan (Edinburgh Southern).   Sixteen days later, on 25th June, in the Glasgow Transport Sports Meeting at Helenvale, he ran in the Two Miles track in Glasgow and won in 9:05.2 which was to be his season’s best and ranked him sixteenth in Scotland at the summer’s end.

The new competition year began in October and although the winner of the Glasgow Relay was not named, Victoria Park won the team race, if things went to form, then Brennan may have won that one, but he did not run in the Midland Relay the following week although there were three full Maryhill Harriers teams on parade.    He was also missing from the Glasgow University Road Race and the Springburn race round Bishopbriggs the week after that.    After missing more races and not being considered for selection for any of the SCCU squads, he suddenly reappeared in mid December when he retained the City of Glasgow Cross-Country Championship by 52 seconds from J Crawford of Victoria Park with Glasgow University winning the team race over the gentle, grassy Knightswood trail.   The return to competition however seemed short lived as he was nowhere to be seen in any races in January1969 – at least not in the top eight or ten and in the case of the District championships he was not in the top twenty, so it is probably safe to say that he was not racing at this period – crucial if he had any designs on the Commonwealth Games team for 1970.   He could only finish 20th in the National at Duddingston that year but he did run in it..

1969 was to be the year that Jim Brennan won his first track championship as a senior.   The championship was the Ten Miles track championship on  3rd May at Scotstoun which he won in 50:41.2 from Bill Stoddart (50:53.0) and Bert McKay (51:23.0) .   That had him ranked at number one in Scotland in a year when  Bert McKay was the only track man to contest the distance – the others were all marathon men  seeking a shorter faster race before the SAAA Championship.   On the way he was timed at 30:03.0 for Six Miles which ranked him  second in the country.   It was however a distance that had been replaced by the metric version, 10000m, and all the very top men were running that distance in ’69.   Lachie Stewart and Jim Alder had the top six times in the land with Fergus Murray third and Hugh Barrow fourth individuals.   There were nine Scots faster at 10,000 metres that year than Jim was at six miles but they did not have to do another four miles at the end!   It has to be said however that the 10 miles was right at the start of the season – seven weeks or so before the SAAA championships and bearing in mind the few races he had at the end of the cross-country season, he maybe needed a long, fast run at that point.   The ‘Glasgow Herald’ reported –

“BRENNAN CHAMPION AFTER 40 CHILLING LAPS.   Victoria Park’s stretch of bad luck with the weather continued at Scotstoun on Saturday when their open scratch meeting was bedevilled by a biting nor’easter.   Contrary to the proverbial ill wind, no one was benefited by it.   Among the most cruelly affected by it were the sprinters and the 10 milers, the latter group having to tour 40 chilling laps for the title of Scottish champion.   Jim Brennan finally took the tape 100 yards in front of W Stoddart who was in turn comfortably ahead of Bert McKay.” It was Commonwealth Games preparation year and most athletes were trying to catch the selectors eye and establish dominance over the opposition and Jim, possibly with the hangover of the foot injury, found it impossible that summer.   Nor did he run over the winter until the National when  he finished 40th and second Maryhill Harrier.   This was not his usual running by any means.

Whatever the injury Jim disappeared totally from the sport after only eight years – eight years when he ran at the top of Scottish distance running against the very best in the country.   He competed on the odd occasion in the early 1970’s but his career was basically over in 1969.