Author: The Author

John Robert Boyd was born on 30th July 1933, won gold and silver at the SAAA championships, set a national half-mile record and won in a British vest – and yet very few in Scotland could tell you anything about him if they were asked.

His first major medal was won in the SAAA 880 yards held on 2nd July, 1957.   The title was won by JV Paterson in 1:53.1 while Boyd was second in 1:54.1 with J McNally (Doon Harriers) finished third in 1:55.0.    Most races being handicap races, which had the virtues of providing hard races for all types of runner whether they were evenly matched in terms of ability or not,  he did not have too many first places but on July 20th he won the half-mile at Gourock Highland Games in 1:55.7 off a mark of 8 yards to beat W Morrison of Larkhall, off 22 yards.   The ‘Glasgow Herald’ described the race: “JR Boyd (Glasgow University) was the backmarker in the open half mile, but he took the lead in the last lap, and won easily in the time of 1:55.7.”   But the best race of the year for Boyd – maybe even the best of his career – was one in which he finished fifth.   It was at the Rangers Sports on 3rd August and the report from the Glasgow Herald tells the whole story.

“One record was equalled and one broken at the seventy-first annual sports of Rangers Sports on Saturday at Ibrox Stadium.   MA Farrell (AAA) won the invitation event by less than three yards and equalled the all-comers record of 1:49.2.   The next three in the race, D Johnson, B Hewson and M Rawson were all credited with the same time of 1:49.6.   The native record of 1:51.9, held by JV Paterson (Edinburgh University) was broken by JR Boyd (Glasgow University), who finished fifth in 1:50.7.    Paterson himself set so fast a pace that he completed the first lap in 52.5 seconds and held a comfortable lead from the more experienced half-milers, who did not however show any anxiety until 300 yards from the finish when they closed with Paterson.   There then ensued a magnificent finish in which Paterson was left trailing.”   

The English contingent was in evidence at many meetings in Scotland in July and August and those hoping to see Paterson andBoyud in action against them at Cowal 31st August were disappointed when M Rawson (Birchfield), JV Paterson and JR Boyd all pulled out of the half-mile which was won by M Farrell (Birchfield) in 1:55.2.   The English athletes were also out in force a week later at Shotts Highland Games with Bill Dance winning the open half mile and GE Ogle winning the Mile but  Boyd was out in the medley relay for Glasgow University.   “Glasgow University were all powerful in the medley relay.   JR Boyd gained a good lead over the first half mile and his three colleagues saw to it that their rivals did not get within challenging distance.   They won in the good time of 3:40.2 despite a wind of gale force which met then in the finishing straight.”

Boyd was not out in any of the major cross-country events in the 1957/58 winter.   The reason was maybe apparent when he finished third in the 880y at the Police Sports at Ibrox on 14th June behind Donnie McDonald (Garscube) and Les Locke (Polytechnic) – running in the colours of the RAF.    He was four places further up than in 1957 when he won the 880 yards at the Rangers Sports on 2nd August.   “JR Boyd, formerly of Glasgow University, has certainly returned to form since he joined the RAF.   His half-mile win in the good time of 1:50.8 was only one-tenth short of equalling his own native record – a performance which helps to justify the claim that was made for his inclusion in the Empire Games team.   Boyd was not content with one achievement for he went on to win the open furlong handicap from 10 yards in 22.7 seconds.   His start in this race was generous.”  

The actual half-mile result was: 1.  JR Boyd;   2.  T Cox (AAA);   3.   H Haus (Holland).   1:50.8.

He followed this on 9th August with a run in the invitation 1000 yards at the Edinburgh Highland Games.   The report read:   M Blagrove (Ealing and England) and JR Boyd (RAF and Scotland both broke the 1000 yards record of 2 min 11 sec held by C Beetham of the USA for 19 years.   Their times were 2 min 10 sec and 2 min 10.9 sec.   No doubt Boyd will be credited with a native record.”   Coming as it did so soon after the Empire Games in Cardiff there were many very good Games athletes on display – we need only mention Peter Radford in the 100y, Milka Singh, John Salisbury and  John Wrighton in the 440y, George Kerr, Mike Rawson and Mike Farrell in the 600 yards, M Lincoln, D Ibbotson in the Mile, Basil Heatley, John Merriman and Onentia of Kenya in the two miles to give some idea of the standard which went all the way through the track programme and the field events were every bit as good.   If Edinburgh was the most glamorous Highland Games, Cowal was the best attended and it was there on 30th August that Boyd ran in an invitation mile.   Billed as an attempt on the Scottish record by Graham Everett, it narrowly missed the target although it was won by Everett in 4:07.5 with Bert McKay (MYMCA) second and Boyd third.   Donnie McDonald of Garscube was the early pace-maker and took them through 440 in 58.5 and 880 in 2:01.4.   At this point Everett took the lead and came through three-quarters in 3:04.6.   Given that the existing record stood at 4:06.6 he looked as though he could get the record but the wind became strongerand slowed him to a 62.9 last lap, leaving him 0.9 outside.

Boyd, no doubt because of the RAF connection, did not race in Scotland very much in the early part of the season but had a very good late season.   When the SAAA championships came around at the end of June, he was favourite to win the title.   He did – but John Wenk, an Anglo Scot, gave him a harder fight than everyone expected and finished only a couple of yards down – see the picture at the top of the page.   His time in the RAF may have come to an end by now for he was running in the colours of Ayr Seaforth AAC.   Every eighteen year old had to do two years national service, most serving in the Army although those in ‘reserved occupations’ could have a deferment until their training was complete.  Back to 27th June – Boyd won in 1:54.2 from Wenk with Neil Donachie in third place.   A week later, 4th July, Boyd won the East v West inter-area match at Scotstoun  from Neil Donachie in 1:54.3.

On 11th August at the White City Boyd, now running regularly in the Seaforth vest, qualified for the final of the 880y by only 0.05 of a second but made nothing of it in the final, finishing seventh in a race which had a very slow first lap and a much faster ‘burn up’ on the second.    Keddie in his centenary history of the SAAA suggests that Boyd’s run in the GB  ‘B’  International at St Helen’s on 25th July was his best ever race.   The match was against Holland and he won in 1:52.4  a faster time than he had done in the SAAA.   His season continued to the Edinburgh Highland Games on 22nd August where it drew to a close  when he finished third in the 880 yards behind McClean of Ireland and John Wenk.

1959 had been a fairly good season with an SAAA title, a win for the British B team and best times of  51.4 sec for the 440 which placed him 20th in Scotland and a best 880y of 1:52.4 which placed him second.   There were no marks for Boyd in the ranking lists at the end of 1960 and he did not appear in any of the championships or major Highland Games or sports meetings although he was in action in the following summer.

On 29th April, 1961, the new track was officially opened at Dam Park in Ayr and, as a member of the local club, Boyd turned out in the half-mile.   He won from fellow Seaforth member Jack Davidson in 1:58.5 with J Brownlie of ESH third.  Boyd won his first championship medal for some time on 27th May at Westerlands in the West District championship half mile and finished third behind Willie Morrison of Larkhall YMCA (1:58.1) and Bill Black of Maryhill.   His place as the Ayr Seaforth half-miler seems to have been taken by Jack Davidson who won many races over the summer, including most inter-club fixtures.   Nevertheless by the end of the year, Boyd was credited with an  880 in 1:56.2 which placed him 16th in the rankings.

He was a good club man and is reported to have run in many relays at this point of his athletic career.   In 1962 he even turned out in, and was ranked nationally in,the 440 yards hurdles.   If he turned out in the inter-club fixture with Edinburgh Southern Harriers on 28th April, he did take first place in any event but the word is that he probably did run.   The middle distance races were won by Ken Ballantyne and George Brownlie of ESH in 1:55.5 and 4:22.1.   He certainly took part the following week in an inter-club against Shettleston at Seedhill, Paisley, where Ayr won with Boyd taking the 880 yards in 2:01.2.   Ayr, as was almost habitual, both relays too.   However in the match against Victoria Park at Dam Park on 19th May, while the middle distance events were won by Ayr Seaforth the men concerned were Jim Wilson and Jim McLatchie in 1:58 and 4:22 respectively.   This time Ayr won only the 4 x 440y relay with the shorter event going to VPAAC.   Victoria Park won by only one point – 99 to 98 – and it is interesting to note that there was a Six Miles event on the programme, won by Bobby Calderwood of the Glasgow club in 32:00.4.   Unplaced in the SAAA championships at the end of June, he was also absent from the results sheet on 7th July for the medley relay at Ardeer where the 880y man for the A Team was McLatchie and for the B Team, J Wilson.   At that time apparently Jack was running mainly relays – the 4 x 440 and the sprint medley – with the well-known and respected Frank McCarvel in charge of the squad.   Nevertheless, by the end of 1962   he had an estimated 880 time of 1:57.9 which ranked him 29th in the country for the distance and he had a run over the 440 yards hurdles which was timed at 60.5 seconds which was good enough for 19th Scot over the distance.

He was not by now running as well as he had a few years earlier.  Having graduated from Glasgow University at the end of the 1950’s, his career should have been really taking off by now.   He had nothing left to prove – Scottish champion, Scottish record holder (with a time which broke Paterson’s record of three years earlier and a time which would stand for seven years) plus very good performances for Britain, for the Atalanta Club and of course for Ayr Seaforth, he had an athletics career to be proud of.

Craig Douglas winning the cross-country league match at Hawick in 1965

He ran the last couple of miles with only one shoe on, but it didn’t make the national press.

Craig Douglas who started his running career with Teviotdale Harriers and won medals and Scottish vests before moving to Edinburgh Southern Harriers was only one of several from the club to make that move.   Ian Elliott, Brian Mather, Peter Roden and Joseph Raeburn were others who subsequently took that route.   He moved in May 1967 but we will start at the beginning when he was a junior member of Teviotdale Harriers and setting club records year on year.   I quote from the club history which, after lauding his performances as a team member starts its own profile of his career in the club colours with his domestic record setting:

“He bettered every senior club record with the exception of the Cup Race.   The first to fall was the junior championship in 1961 when he smashed Denis Riddell’s 1959 time by 32 seconds; that was followed by the senior championship by 27 seconds in 1962; the Jubilee record by 13 seconds the same year; the Jubilee by 10 seconds in 1963; the club championship by 12 seconds in 1964;  the Jubilee by 5 seconds again in 1964; the Christie Cup record in 1964, another 3 seconds off that the following and another 18 seconds in 1966; the Langheugh record was shattered by 51 seconds in 1965; and that year the Menzies went to him by 6 seconds.”   Most of us don’t know what the various trophies and records are for but they do indicate the regular. year on year improvement of a developing runner, with the records not being set by a second here or two seconds there either.

As a cross-country runner he fist appears in the records when on 5th March, 1960, he was seventeenth in the  Youths National, a position he improved to fourth a year later behind such good athletes as Jim Finn (Monkland), George Brownlee (Edinburgh Southern) and Hugh Barrow (Victoria Park) with Lachie Stewart (Vale of Leven) two places behind him.  

Having shown what he could do in the Youths (Under 17) age group his first season running against seniors was 1961-62 when he was a first year junior.   Living as they do in the Borders, Teviotdale Harriers often have to travel longish distances for competition and on 21st October 1961 they first team went to Dundee for the Kingsway Relay where they finished victorious.   Alastair Wood of Aberdeen had the fastest time of the day (13:28) with the junior from the Borders being second fastest with 13:42 and Mike Ryan (St Modans) on 13:48.   Teviotdale went one better two weeks later on 4th November when their team of Douglas, Brian Mather, George Meikle and Arthur Moodie won the East District championships with Douglas being the equal fastest time of the day with Steve Taylor of Aberdeen.   Ahead of ESH by a yard or so after two laps, they increased this to 20 yards by the finish.   Another two weeks and on 18th November he ran in his first Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay on the first stage where he finished  ninth for the Teviotdale team that finished sixth.  Back to the country for the East District league match on 2nd December where Douglas won by 70 yards from G Brownlee of Edinburgh Southern Harriers to see Teviotdale win the team contest by 33 points.   The next championship fixture was the East District championship at Dundee on 20th January and Craig Douglas was the first Teviotdale runner home, finishing fourth to pick up first Junior medal as well as a first team winner’s trophy.   In the League match in December the report put Teviotdale’s victory over ESH down to several key men being absent from the Edinburgh team, no such comments were made this time when the Borderers won by four points.   The major championship however is always the national championships and this year it fell on 3rd March at Hamilton.   Douglas ran in the Junior championship for the first time.   “AIC Heron *Edinburgh Southern Harriers) surprisingly won the Junior Championship, beating JC Douglas (Teviotdale) by 70 yards in 30 min 25 sec with M Ryan (St Modan’s) the same distance behind Douglas. ”   The Teviotdale team was third.   Douglas’s team mate Arthur Moody was eleventh and because of the fact that there were several runners too old to be international juniors in the field, they were both selected for the Scottish team for the international along with Jim Finn, Alistair Heron and Lachie Stewart.     When it came to the actual race in Sheffield on 24th March, unfortunately, it was a different story – the scoring runners were Stewart in tenth, Heron eleventh and Finn sixteenth.   Moody eighteenth and Douglas twenty first were non scorers.  

Winter over, it was time for track spikes. First Championship of the season was the East District event on 26th May at New Meadowbank where Douglas finished second in the 880y to Frank Dick who won in 2:02.6.   It was unfortunate that these were held on the same weekend as the Border Championships where Peter Roden and Brian Mather won the 880y and Mile and the Three Miles respectively in the Teviotdale colours.   The standard in Scotland at this time was high with Jim McLatchie having a very good summer and Hugh Barrow probably the pick of the Juniors but the additional hurdle for any young half-miler/miler was the number of Anglo-Scots who suddenly parachuted on to the scene.   In the SAAA championships at the end of June, the first two places in the 880y were the Wenk brothers, and the winner of the Mile was Mike Berisford all of whom were members of the Anglo-Scottish Club.    In the Braw Lads Gathering at Galashiels on 30th June Douglas won the half-mile in 1:55 from a mark of 30 yards.   Although he did not appear in the first three at any of the major meetings over the summer, by September 1962 Craig Douglas had best marks of 50.7 for the 440 yards, 1:53.7 for the half mile and 4:19.7 for the mile, which marks ranked him eighteenth, sixth and nineteenth for the year.

Edinburgh to Glasgow start, 1961 

Season 1962-3 began as ever with the short relays.   The athlete’s training year usually went from October to the end of August the following year with September more of a rest month – almost always a very active rest!   For Craig Douglas as for most other endurance runners, summer 1963 started in October 1962.   The next six months would help determine to a large extent how he would perform.   He missed the McAndrew Relay on the first Saturday in October where Teviotdale finished third behind Motherwell YMCA and Dundee Hawkhill (including Fergus Murray) with all the Glasgow and Edinburgh clubs trailing.   The club team consisted of Roden, Mather, Meikle and Wilson.   After a third place in the Kingsway Relay, Teviotdale won the East District Relay title for the second year in succession with a team of Mather (16:13), Meikle (16:30), Roden (16:13) and Douglas (15:57) defeating Edinburgh Southern and Edinburgh University (including Fergus Murray).    Two weeks later on 17th November, the Edinburgh – Glasgow relay topped the agenda and Douglas was running on the first stage where he finished eighth for the team that came in sixth across the line in Glasgow almost four hours later.   Into the new year and on 19th  January, 1963, in the District Championships in Edinburgh, Craig Douglas was the first individual (“JC Douglas had a comfortable win”), he was also of course 1st Junior but the club team of Douglas, Riddell, Meikle, Hamilotn, Roden and Turnbull) finished third.   All eyes were on the national championships after that and having finished second the previous year, Douglas must have had high hopes for 1963.   Held on 28th February at Hamilton, the race was won by Fergus Murray from Mike Ryan, Alex Brown and Lachie Stewart and Craig Douglas while Heron was back in fifteenth.   Fifth behind those runners was no disgrace though and he was again selected for the international match at San Sebastian.   Lachie Stewart was top Scot when he finished in third place in the international with Douglas in tenth  place and the team winning the bronze medals.   

After two SCCU International appearances, 1963 was to see him win his first SAAA international vest.   However at the start of the season, in the East District championships there seemed to be a dearth of Teviotdale athletes -in the distance events and oneof those posted missing was Craig Douglas.   He was out the following week in the invitation three-quarter mile race at the Lanarkshire Constabulary Sports at Shawfield against Hugh Barrow, Scottish record-holder for the distance and Graham Everett the Scottish mile record-holder, but after a clash on the first bend, Barrow fell  leaving Everett to win by eight yards from Douglas with Victoria Park’s Graham Peters third.   In the Scottish championships on on 22nd June, Craig Douglas won the first of his SAAA titles.   It was over 880 yards and he won in 1:55.2 from Jack Davidson from Ayr.   The routine of sports meetings continued until there was a Hawick tour-de-force at the Falkirk FC Sports at Brockville Park on 27th July.   The track at that venue was a short track with veru tight bends that made it difficult for the low handicap runners to really open up anywhere but “JR Wilson (Teviotdale) won the handicap 880y from the back mark of 12 yards in 1 min 57.3 sec and the Scottish champion JC Douglas (Teviotdale) certainly did well to finish second with another runner from Teviotdale, P Roden from 10 yards, in third place.”   In a match between the Home Scots and the Anglo Scots at Scotstoun on 10th August, Douglas took on his predecessor as Scottish 880y champion, John Wenk.   The result was a victory for the Anglo by 1.4 seconds – 1:56 to 1:57.4.   As a reward for all his fine running over the season, he was selected for the international match with Belgium held in conjunction with the Edinburgh Highland Games at Murrayfield on 17th August.   The result tells the story of a hard fought race:   1.   Rocksaert (Belgium)  1:58.6;  2.  Douglas (Scotland) 1:58.7;   3.  Martens (Belgium)  1:58.7.

The hard facts at the end of summer 1963 for Craig Douglas were: 440y in 51.0 which ranked him twenty third; 1:55.2 for 880y ranked eighteen; 4:17.8 for the Mile ranking him twenty third.   Not as good as the previous year but half-miles are not always all about time – tactically a slow run victory may be as sweet as a one led gun-to-tape but when the best for the season is outside twentieth best Scot, it is not where the athlete would like to be.

On October 5th 1963 Motherwell YMCA won the McAndrew Relay at Scotstoun and no one was really surprised – it was the second place of Teviotdale that raised the eyebrows.   They had beaten the best that ESH, Shettleston, Victoria Park and all the rest could muster.   Mather (13:10), Harley (13:15), Wilson (13:37) and Douglas (13:16) – not one in the first half dozen times but only 27 seconds between fastest and slowest in the squad.   On 26th October in the East District Relays at Fernieside, Edinburghthey again won the title from ESH with a team of Mather (14:20), Harley (14:33), Wilson (14:26) and Douglas (14:10) – only 23 seconds between fastest and slowest in the team.  Douglas was second fastest of the day behind Fergus Murray.   One week later at Newcraighall Pit Baths, Edinburgh, Douglas won the East District League match from Donald Macgregor with the Teviotdale club team beaten by Edinburgh Southern Harriers who had all six counters in the first 11 men home.   A week’s rest then into the Edinburgh to Glasgow on 17th November.   Douglas this time had the severe test of the second stage, the lap of champions, and dropped one place, from 7th to 8th.   The single place was dropped to Calum Laing of Glasgow University on a charge from 11th to 7th.    On 31st November, at Kirkcaldy he won the second East District League match from team mate RK Harley but the club was second to ESH again.   The top men kept turning out for the club: the team was Douglas, Harley, Mather, Hamilton, Meikle and Roden.   The same six runners were the scoring men when the East District championships were held at Hawick on 18th January, 1964, and the team result was the same – ESH first, Teviotdale second – but this time Douglas was fourth behind Fergus Murray, Ron Coleman and Mel Edwards.   The third and final East District League match was held on 25th January at Musselburgh where the finishing order was Murray, Hartley and Douglas.  

The top event of the winter, even including the Edinburgh to Glasgow, the national championship of Scotland was held at Hamilton on 29th February  and Douglas, still a junior within Scotland, was fifth in that championship behind Mel Edwards, Ian McCafferty, Lachie Stewart and Joe Reilly (VPAAC), with Alex Brown in sixth place.    

Craig Douglas won his first East District track title on 29th May, 1964, when he won the 880y from Turnbull (Octavians) in 1:54.8 which was a championship record.   He had run well at the Lanarkshire Police Sports the previous year but this time it was his team mate JK Wilson who showed the way home to Graham Everett and Jim Johnston.   Unplaced in the SAAA Championships, Douglas was running in the Mile in a triangular contest at Scotstoun against Maryhill and Dundee Hawkhill and won in 4:20.8.   Then on 18th July, in a match between an Edinburgh Select and the Nykoping and Heleneholm clubs, Douglas was back down at the 880y and ‘won this event impressively’ in 1:53.3, a best ever time for any Teviotdale Harrier.   Running in the half-mile at various sports meetings and gatherings he was often handicapped out of it but at Strathallan on the first Saturday in August he won the event from a mark of only 4 yards in 1:57.9 seconds from Neil Donachie of Edinburgh AC.   Back in Edinburgh for the Edinburgh Highland Games on 15th August which incorporated a match between Edinburgh and Munich, Douglas represented the former and finished second in the 880y, splitting the two Germans, in a race won in 1:56.9.    August always ended with the Cowal Highland Games and Douglas was there on the 29th running an 880y handicap race from a mark of only 2 yards – I wonder how much easier it is to run from 2 yards than it is from scratch?   He finished second to W Robertson of Bellahouston whose time was 1:53.5.

At the close of play 1964, his best times were 1:52.8 which ranked him third in Scotland behind John Wenk (1:51.4) and Dick Hodelet (1:52.6) and 4:20.8 which had him back in twenty fifth place.

Winter 1964-5  started with the McAndrew Relay on 3rd October and Teviotdale was much lower down the results list than the year before finishing ninth.    On the very last Saturday of the month, in the East District relays, the club lost their title to Edinburgh Southern, finishing second approximately 180 yards back.   Craig Douglas ran the first stage and gave the club a lead but Kenny Ballantyne pulled it back on the second stage for the Edinburgh club and they were never headed again.   Douglas’s time of 13:43 was twelve seconds slower than Don Macgregor’s 13:10 and they were the two fastest times of the day. The Edinburgh to Glasgow was held on 21st November and this time he got the longest stage in the race to run – the seven mile sixth leg.  He retained seventh position for the team which was their finishing position.   His cross-country and road running was finally receiving notice and he was selected for the SCCU team against the Army at Barrachnie on 27th November.    He finished sixth, 43 seconds behind Fergus Murray who won the race.   Back to league duty on 5th December he won the East District league match at Newcraighall by 40 yards from Roger Young with Fergus Murray back in sixth position.   Teviotdale was unplaced but then, at that time, all three Edinburgh clubs were probably at their strongest ever and Edinburgh University won from Edinburgh AC and Edinburgh Southern.     His next representative race was on 19th December when he ran for the SCCU against Scottish Universities at Kings Buildings in Edinburgh.   Here he finished twelfth, over two minutes behind winner Ian McCafferty.

On 16th January, 1965, the Edinburgh  Districts were held at Newcraighall and Craig Douglas was third individual and Teviotdale did very well to be second team behind the all-conquering Edinburgh University squad and 23 points in front of Edinburgh Southern.   The successful team was Douglas, Raeburn, Meikle, PC Roden, AJ Roden and Riddell.    The third and final league match was at Hawick on 13th February, 1965, and Douglas won in 33:15 from Roger Young and Fergus Murray of Edinburgh University.   The team, with John Hamilton a scoring runner instead of George Meikle,  finished second.   It was now on to the National on 27th February at Hamilton.   This was his first run in the senior race and he acquitted himself well with an eleventh place finish to lead the team home in sixth place with Douglas, AJ Roden, G Meikle, P Roden, D Riddell, P Riddell the runners.

It had been a fairly successful winter for him with several victories and two representative matches and a solid debut in the senior national. At club level too, there was a good bunch of runners, most of whom had run together for years, plus some new younger men adding to the strength too.  How would he fare in summer 1965?

SCCU  v  Scottish Universities: Andy Brown, Lachie, Bill Ewing, John Lineker, Hugh Barrow, Craig Douglas, Ron Coleman

On 29th May, 1965, at New Meadowbank Douglas won the East District 880 yards title for the second time beating Martin Sinclair and Bill Ewing in 1:53.5, another championship record beating his own time of a year earlier to get his championship season off to a good start.   The West District title had been won by Graeme Grant from Mike Maclean and Brian Scobie in 1:54.3 on the same day at Westerlands.   Douglas returned to Shawfield for the Lanarkshire Police Sports on 12th June where he was third in the invitation three-quarter mile race which was won by Graeme Grant in 3:04.3 from Bill Ewing.   On 30th June, he ran for the SAAA against the Atalanta Club and won in 1:51.7 which was only one second outside the national record, beating Graeme Grant in the process.

The SAAA Championships were held on Saturday, 26th June and Grant won in 1:54.9 with Dick Hodelet a surprise second in 1:55.4 from Douglas in 1:54.6.   Hodelet who had been given little or no chance by the reporters before the event, came out of the last bend into a headwind and passed Douglas about 50 yards from the tape.   A week later in the Braw Lads Gathering at Galashiels, Douglas won the 880 yards scratch race in 1:56.5.   Then his fastest 880 yards so far came on 19th July at Salford in a match between Scotland, Wales and the Midland Counties where he finished third behind Harris of Wales and McKim of Midland Counties in 1:50.0 – exactly one second behind the winner in a tight finish.   It was almost three seconds off his pb of 1:52.8 run the previous year, was the tenth best in Britain at the end of the year and maybe demonstrates the value of good opposition in running a fast time.

On 21st August, running for Scotland against Iceland at Murrayfield, Douglas was second to Graeme Grant in the 880 yards which was won in 1:55.5.   He followed this with a very good at the Cowal Highland Games meeting on 28th August when he won the scratch 440 yards in 49.8, and the handicap 880 yards in 1:55.6 from the 10 yards mark.   His season ended there but before looking at the 1965-66 season, we should note that the 1:50.0 run at the Scotland/Wales/Midlands event topped the Scottish ranking list – the first time he had done so.   His best 440y was 49.8 which had him in twelfth position and 4:18.7 was twenty eighth.   Two personal bests (440y and 880y), two international vests, a medal in the SAAA were all evidence of a good summer’s work.   But the question that seems obvious is, why didn’t he go to the AAA’s?   Grant, Middleton and Maclean all went to the English championships and benefited from the experience, his best time had been done in England that summer so – why hadn’t Craig Douglas been down south more often?

The Scottish winter programme is very regular – you could sit down on the 1st October and write out every race that would come up over the winter – 1965-66 was no different and it would start with the short relays.  He first appears in the East District relay championships on 30th October when he was second fastest over the course.   The brilliant Edinburgh University squad provided the first two teams with the three year old Edinburgh AC in third.   Fastest over the trail was Fergus Murray (13:03) and Douglas was only four seconds slower on 13:07.   Although not racing on 6th November he was selected for the SCCU team to face the Army on 27th November along with McCafferty, Stewart, Alder, Brown, Knox and Murray.   The ‘Glasgow Herald’ report on the Edinburgh to Glasgow relay on 20th November, had an excellent photograph of him running at the front of the field on the first stage where he finished  fifth, 26 seconds behind the stage winner, Alistair Blamire.   The Teviotdale team was eleventh.   It was then a short jaunt to Glasgow Green for the match against the Army where Douglas was ninth finisher.   Selected for the Scottish Universities match, he could not run but even without him and Lachie Stewart the SCCU won comfortably.   The next championship was on 15th January at Kirkcaldy in the East Districts  where he was sixth individual although the team was unplaced.   It was a very good field indeed for this race – runners behind Douglas included Ken Ballantyne, Dave Logue and Alistair Blamire, while Ewing, Elson and Linaker were the first three.

Thereafter Craig Douglas missed the rest of the cross-country season.   The Teviotdale Harriers teams were finishing further down the order than they had been too – he even missed the national on 26th February.    However there were several months before the track season began to operate properly so there was time to get over any injuries or illnesses that may have been plaguing him.

By the time of the Scottish Cup Final on 23rd April, where it was by now customary for there to be two invitation scratch races to entertain the fans, he ran a Mile in 4:10.7 – a personal best on a good track against good opposition.   The result bears repeating:   1.   JL Stewart  4:10.5;  2.  JC Douglas  4:10.7;  3.  I McCafferty  4:11.5;  4.  WH Barrow  4:11.5;  5.   K Ballantyne  4:12.5;  6.  J Linaker  4:12.9.   Just a month later, on 28th May he won the East District 880y championship for the third consecutive year defeating Adrian Weatherhead, another very good runner, in a time of 1:53.6.   Again selected for the match against Wales and the Midland Counties on 4th June at Wolverhampton, Douglas had another fine run to finish second to GA Dean (Midland Counties) with the respective times being 1:52.0 and 1:52.5 and it is worth noting that Dean ran for GB in the Tokyo Olympics that same year.  he won the 880 for the SAAA against Atalanta on 29th June in 1:51.5.   He was for some reason that is not obvious seldom given much press attention but on this occasion there was an interesting comment made by the ‘Glasgow Herald’ reporter who said “At the Scottish Championships on Saturday Douglas confessed to having renounced all ideas of concentrating now on the 880y – he would like to have a go at the mile – but his 1 min 51.5 sec last night certainly showed he has not lost the knack of two-lap running.   In second place, as a non-counter, was ADS Middleton whose 1:51.9 is his best yet, and even more praiseworthy is the 1 min 52.4 of A Stewart, still a Junior athlete.”   The reference to the SAAA Championships the previous Saturday is to the fact that Douglas was not among the medals at the SAAA Championships on the final Saturday in June where Grant, Hodelet and Maclean took the medals in that order.   The official history of Teviotdale Harriers said that by winning against Atalanta he preserved his record of never having been beaten by a Scottish runner in 1966.

He kept it too at the Strathallan Gathering where he was the back marker in the handicap 880y.   The Herald report read that “the 880y was one of the few races won by a backmarker.   Douglas was conceding four yards to R Hodelet, runner-up in this year’s Scottish championship, and yet, at the bell, he was in the lead.   Hodelet briefly challenged and went into the lead but it was a token effort.   With 220y to go Douglas sprinted easily ahead leaving Hodelet to fight, in vain as it turned out, against an upper handicap man.”  The ‘upper handicap man’ as it turned out was Adrian Weatherhead off 14 yards!   Douglas’s time was 1:53.9.   Then came the weekend of the Cowal Highland Games at Dunoon.   The weekend was described in the club history as follows:

“Craig travelled the length and breadth of Britain to compete in prestige events.   An example of this being in August 1966 when he covered a distance of 1000 miles in three days.   That was Cowal Games, Dunoon, on the Friday and Northampton on the following day.   In the former his win in a special invitation 880y in 1:51.1 was the highlight of the meeting.   That day there was a new kind of prize for amateurs.   Cigarette gift coupons were given by the sponsors instead of the usual trophies and prizes, so that the successful athletes could choose their own gifts.   Craig received 5000 for his win.   Also on offer were 10,000 coupons if the Scottish record was broken.   Craig’s time was only   eight-tenths of a second outside.   On the Saturday he was in Northampton competing in the one mile and in this he reduced the 1964 club record of 4:10.8 held by R Wilson to 4:09.7.   Some weekend indeed!   The following month he was competing against Munich, again winning, this time the 800m and he also had the distinction of carrying the Scottish flag in the closing ceremony.” 

In 1966 the Edinburgh Highland Games did not incorporate an international nor even an inter-cities match but there was among the invitation events a 1000y race.   “JP Boulter, England’s fastest half-miler, took the opportunity of renovating the Scottish 1000 yards all-comers record of 2 min 10.8 sec which had stood for eight years when he recorded 2 min 9.2 sec .   In third place JC Douglas (Teviotdale) almost burst a blood vessel when he heard he had equalled the national record of 2:10.9.   He has probably had his best season so far in his athletics career.”  

The Munich Match (17 September) referred to above was the return of the 1965 meeting held at Murrayfield and Douglas won the 880 yards in 1:54.2 while Graeme Grant won the 1500m in 3:50.2.

It had been a good summer, a very good summer, and Craig’s 1:49.9 in Birmingham in July ranked him second behind Graeme Grant’s 1:48.9m, his 4:09.2 was eleventh best and his best 440 time (Hawick, 13th July) of 51.1 twenty fourth.   The ominous sign for those from Hawick was that he appeared on the ranking lists for   ‘Teviotdale/ESH’.

He went into the winter of 1966/67 in very good shape and on a high psychologically.   A feature of the East District Cross-Country relay championship on 29th October was the first and third places of Edinburgh University – but they were split by four members of the Teviotdale ‘old firm’.   Douglas, Mather, Meikle and J Raeburn were the runners and Raeburn had third fastest time of the day and Douglas fourth quickest.   The 19th November was the date for the Edinburgh to Glasgow and Douglas had a very good run on the seventh stage pulling the team from  11th to 8th with equal second fastest time of the day.   Not selected for the SCCU v the Army the following Saturday he passed on the East District league match on 5th December.   The reason was that he was making his indoor racing debut in December 1966 at  Cosford where he won the 880 and two months later on 4th February placed fourth in the final of the AAA’s indoor event which was won by another Scot, Duncan Middleton.    Indoor athletics was a relatively new development in Britain.   After some faltering attempts of racing on indoor surfaces had failed because of the difficulty of racing on a flat surface with short laps, or on at least one occasion after dusting the surface of said track with a kind of talcum powder causing the runners to slide off the track, the track at RAF Cosford, just north of Wolverhampton was accepted as the ‘home’ of indoor athletics.   Assembled when required in part of a disused aircraft hangar and very cold a lot of the time  the banked track was a good one for running fast and the venue was easily accessible from all parts of Britain.

Craig leading John Davies (6), Duncan Middleton and John Gingell at Cosford

There is no trace of Craig Douglas in the East District Championships of 1967 nor in the National – reconciling the work required for long distance running over rough terrain with dykes to climb and streams to cross with that necessary for top speed indoor 880y running was probably the problem.   However we learn from the club’s centenary history that

“In May, 1967, following what was described as an ‘internal dispute’ Craig resigned from Teviotdale Harriers and joined Edinburgh Southern.   This is no place to discuss the ‘whys and wherefors’ of the row, suffice to say that Teviotdale Harriers lost the services of a great athlete.   Craig’s international career continued with his new club until his retirement from competition in 1977 following a leg operation.” 

The writer comes across in several passages as a friend and admirer of Craig and what he contributed to the club by a man who supported the club to the best of his ability up to that point when his enthusiasm went to the ESH cause.

Edinburgh Southern Harriers took part in many more league and cup competitions than Teviotdale Harriers did with more opportunities for competition but summer 1967 was a relatively fallow year for Craig as he came to terms with the demands of running with a new club and probably a new competition structure.   His first time of note was a 50.3 440 yards at Hawick on 14th June which, at the end of the summer placed him twenty second in Scotland.   There were no medals in either District or National Championships, nor were there any representative matches either.   His best half-mile of the year was a 1:52.7 when finishing fifth at Grangemouth on 24th June in the Scottish championships behind Middleton, Maclean and Grant.   Exactly 2.5 seconds behind the winner and 1.5 behind the third place he was close but not nearly close enough.

Having changed clubs, Craig was banned from team competition and for winter 1967-68  he was ineligible for any relays or as a counting runner in any team event.   He didn’t even appear as an individual entry in any event that winter, and if he competed on the boards at Cosford he was neither placed nor did he turn in a noteworthy time.

Summer 1969 was when Craig Douglas won his first 1500m championship medals – and he won them at both District and National levels. It was a good year with rankings in the top ten for 800m, 1500m and Mile.  One of his first times was also his best – he ran 3:46.3 when winning at Edinburgh on 16th May – a time which by the end of the season ranked him number two in Scotland but number twenty in Britain.   The only Scot ahead of him was Ian Stewart on 3:39.1 and that topped the British lists.   That set him up for another race in Edinburgh.

The East District championship was on 31st May at New Meadowbank and after a hard race he won in 3:48.1, two tenths faster than Adrian Weatherhead in second place with John Lees nine seconds back in third.   Before the SAAA championships, the SAAA v Atalanta match took place on 21st June at Grangemouth with Craig running in the 800m for the SAAA team.   He won in 1:54.1 from Alan McDonald who was only one tenth behind him.   Then came the hard race for the national 1500m title.   Mike Bradley of Paisley had been having a very good season indeed with some good victories, Hugh Barrow of Victoria Park was a hard and experienced racer of genuine quality and both were among those who lined up for the start.   The times of the first three tells a lot about the race.   First, Craig Douglas in 3:50.2; second Hugh Barrow  3:50.3; third Mike Bradley 3:50.8.   One tenth separating first and second and only half a second between second and third.   His best, ie fastest, 800m run was on 23rd August at Nottingham where his 1:52.3 was good enough to win and his third title was the Inter-Counties which he took in 3:54.1 to defeat Mike Bradley by only 0;4 of a second.

It was undeniably his best season as a 1500m runner where he ranked second with his 3:46.9 behind Anglo Maurice Wands.    His best Mile time of 4:11.1 placed him eight and his 1:52.3 for 800 had him equal sixth with Hugh Barrow.   The time was an 880y time less 0.7 seconds.

in 1969-70 Craig seemed to return to his original pattern of running road and cross-country over the winter season.   ESH was having a good year and there was a very good bunch of endurance runners in the club at the time.   They were fourth in the McAndrew without Craig’s services.   The team which won the Kingsway Relay for them contained Fergus Murray, Ken Ballantyne, Donald Macgregor and Gareth Bryan-Jones, while the team placed fourth in Glasgow had been Billy Murray, Ballantyne, Jack White and F Steell.   Seven runners, all top class and there were others waiting in the wings.   One of them joined in a third permutation when the East District Championships took place on 1st November.   The ESH team was down behind Edinburgh AC at halfway (Billy Murray 13:49 and Ken Ballantyne 13:27)  when Fergus Murray (13:04) put them in the lead and Craig Douglas (13:22) finished the job bringing them home first.   Then came the Edinburgh to Glasgow on 16th November with Craig running on the seventh stage.   The team was in first place at that point and he held on to it quite comfortably, the flashy-phrase making ‘Glasgow Herald’ man reporting that “Craig Douglas, his dumpy looking legs devouring the route through Coatbridge, reached the new checkpoint in record time” 

There was a massive change of emphasis the next week when Craig went form an eight stage team race on the roads to an 800m indoor race in Cosford where his 3:50.6 took him into second place, albeit with the same time as the winner.   However on the 24th January 1970 Craig was a key member of the team that won the District cross-country championships at Grangemouth when he finished sixth and third scoring runner for the ESH team that won the title.   He was also running close to his best when, in the national championships at Hamilton on 21st February, he finished sixteenth ahead of such luminaries as Pat Maclagan, Alastair Johnston, Eddie Knox, John Myatt and Andy Brown – fourth counter for the gold medal winners.

On 25th April in a five-way League Match in which ESH beat all the other competing teams (VPAAC, Shettleston, Octavians and Bellahouston), Craig won the 800m in 1:57.1.   The ESH team continued to do well in the various leagues and Craig contributed his share of the points.   On 16th May in a match in the British League at Sale, he won the 1500m in 3:52.8.   Craig’s next victory came in the East District championships on 23rd May when he won the 800m in 1:51.4 from Convery of Edinburgh AC.   This was his fifth East District 800m title.   The Scottish championships were held early in 1970 because of the upcoming Commonwealth Games and Craig entered the 800m.   He finished third behind Mike Maclean (1:51.2) and Ross Billson (1:50.6) in 1:51.0.   After this it was unlikely that he would be selected for the Games team but he kept on running well and on 20th June he had two victories in another 5-sided inter-club Scottish league match at Grangemouth.   He won the 800m in 1:54.0  and the 1500m in 4:00.    Next there was a British league meeting, also at Meadowbank, on 4th July when he won the 1500m in 3:51.8 helping ESH to a handsome victory.   The Duns Games were held on 11th July and Craig was back to his roots in handicap racing in Borders Games.   Out in the 880 yards, running from a mark of 2 yards, he won in 1:54.1.   His value to ESH was emphasised if further emphasis were needed, when he won the A 800m in the final British League fixture on 22md August at Woodford Green in London.   Then on 5th September they won the Scottish league title to keep it company.

It had been another good season which had been started a solid winter of cross-country success mixed with indoor running and had seen another SAAA medal, this time bronze, and a host of wins in league matches of varying standards.   As far as times were concerned, his best 800m was the SAAA’s 1:51 which placed him fourth in the standings at the end of the season, he had a 3:47.1 1500m (fifth) and a superb 4:01.8 mile (also fifth).

Not in the first team for ESH in the McAndrew at the start of October, 1970, Craig ran the lead-off leg for the Dundee Kingsway race which the club won comfortably with their three fastest men also being the day’s three fastest times:  Douglas 13:45; Macgregor 13:30, Bryan-Jones 13:40 and F Murray 13:51.    On the following Saturday, 24th October, he finished third in the East District League match at Hawick behind Weatherhead (EAC) and Bryan-Jones) to assist the club to first team position.   If the Edinburgh University team had been the one to beat for the past few years, that role was now assumed by ESH.   The East District cross-country championship relay was held on 7th November at St Andrews.   Douglas (11:16) and Macgregor (11:19) had them well ahead at half distance and Bryan-Jones (11:39) and Murray (11:45( extended the lead, and the second team of Craven, Matson, Coyle and Logue were second (the first two named were faster than Fergus Murray by 4 seconds) and the C team of Stark, Ballantyne, Wood and McFall was third.   Douglas had second quickest run of the afternoon, three seconds slower than Weatherhead.   If they were the top dogs in the east, Shettleston were their equivalent in the west and they came head to head in the eight stage Edinburgh to Glasgow on 21st November.   Craig was on the first stage against such contenders as Tom Grubb of Shettleston, Alistair Johnston of Victoria Park and Jim Wight of EAC.   He had run the stage before and this time he was first to reach the change-over eight seconds up on Grubb and ten ahead of Bellahouston’s Brian Goodwin.   Thereafter they stayed in front to the end of the fourth stage but on the fifth Henry Summerhill set a new stage record in taking first place from Graham Stark of ESH.   Although each of the Edinburgh team’s last three runners (Macgregor, Craven and Ballantyne) ran faster that the opposition (Stewart, Meneely and Scally), the Glasgow side managed to hold on to the lead to win by only 13 seconds.

Running for the SCCU against the Army and the Northern Counties on 26th November at Leeds, the ‘chunky Edinburgh Southern Harrier’ took the lead early in a match in which Kip Keino featured running for the Army but fell back to finish a very good sixth ahead of many quality runners.

Craig tucked in behind Hugh Barrow: North Inch Relays, 1967

On 12th December Craig was running for the Scottish team in an inter-area match where he was forced to drop out because of severe stomach pains about halfway through the race.   Most unlike him – there were others who dropped out from time to time, and at times the excuses were stretching credibility a bit, but he was not known for this and it was a loss to the Scottish team.   He was back in form again on 23rd January in the East District championships as part of the ESH winning team of  Murray (2), Bryan-Jones (3), Macgregor (7), Douglas (8), Craven (9) and Ballantyne (13).   They won by 81 points.   The big championships of the winter, the national cross-country championship, was held on 20th February  when ESH (109 points) had again to give best to Shettleston Harriers (83).   It had been a good winter for Craig and he must have been looking forward to another good track season.

He started track racing with a 51.3 seconds 400m at Meadowbank on 25th April in the ESH club championships finishing second behond Jack Walker and then, not content with that, he won the 1500 in 3:49.4.   Emmet Farrell liked to ask “does distance blunt speed?’ and no doubt he would have quoted Craig as proving something but it was a good start.   A week later he took part in a four-cornered inter-club between ESH, Heriot-Watt, Edinburgh and Aberdeen Universities and won both 800m and 1500m – the 800m in 1:53.5 and the 1500m in 3:47.0.   Fast 400m, 800m and 1500m over two Saturdays – Craig showed again, as he had done through his career, that cross-country distance hadn’t blunted his speed.   Another good run at Hampden before the Cup Final on 8th May over the invitation 1500m: Mike McLean set the initial pace, Ron MacDonald took the lead and in the last lap he was challenged by Weatherhead and Douglas.   In the end McDonald won by only one tenth from Douglas against a very good field  in 3:53.2.     Weatherhead was 3:55.   The District Championships were held on the 29th May and Craig took part in both 800m and 1500m and came away with gold and silver.   The gold came in the 1500m which he won in 4:01.1 from Ken Ballantyne in 4:02.2 and Ian Graves in 4:03.2.   In the shorter distance he was second (1:55.3) to Graeme Grant 1:54.1.

The SAAA championships on 26th June provided Craig with his second championship title of the year and the second national title at the distance.    He won in 3:54.3 from Ron McDonald (3:54.5) and John Cherry (Springburn but running in the colours of Boston University) who was 3:56.6.   Leage athletics had not figured too much in the programme up to that point but on 3rd July the British League match was held at Meadowbank and the reporter remarked “Craig Douglas, the Scottish 1500m champion, was outstanding for the home club with some impressive running in the 800 and 1500m which he won in 1:50.2 and 3:47.0 respectively.   Peter Stewart (Birchfield) returned a personal best time of 1:50.8 in taking third place in the 800m.”   Back to Borders handicap running a week later when he was at Duns AC open meeting.   Running in the 800m handicap off virtual scratch of 2 metres, he wound his way through a field of 33 runners to whom he was conceding starts of up to 66 metres to win in 1:53.5.   His commitment to the club was seen at the start of August (7th) in the Octavians Relays at Meadowbank when he was part of the 4 x 400m team with Adam Chedburn, AT Murray and Graeme Grant which won in 3:24.3, and also in the  4 x 1500m team which won in 16:08.4.   The quartet was J Raeburn, K Ballantyne, G Grant and C Douglas and the time was a new record – but could not be recognised as such because one of the team was born outside Scotland.   The record went instead to the Bellahouston team who finished second in 16:12.6.   In the battle in the British League to stay in the first division at Smethwick on 21st August, he pulled a muscle in the 800m but limped painfully to the finish for last place points.

The season was pretty well over from that point.   How had he done?   Well there were two 1500m titles, and a share of two more in the relays, there were times of 51.3 for 400, 1:50.2 for 800m,  3:47.0 for 1500m and 4:10.3 for the Mile.

Why change a winning formula?   Came the short relays in October and he was there.   His first fastest time came when he won the first east district league match at Hawick leading ESH to victory in the team race.    As an indication of how the make-up of the teams had altered, the club’s counters were Douglas, Raeburn, Craven, Kerr, McFall and Coyle.   Some of them were back for the East District relay two weeks later when Douglas, Brown, Bryan-Jones and Murray won with Craig on the opening stage having the second fastest time of the day – 5 seconds slower than Andy McKean.   The third weekend in November meant the Edinburgh to Glasgow relay and on 20th November the teams lined up at Fettes College gates.   Shettleston won, but their battle was with Victoria Park for most of the route rather than Edinburgh Southern.   Craig was on the fifth stage and up against Norman Morrison, Bill Ewing and Joe Reilly.   Running into a very fierce headwind on the long exposed stretch through Blackburn he moved the club up one place with the fastest time of the afternoon which was twenty seconds up on Reilly and over half a minute faster than Morrison.   The Brampton to Carlisle ten miles road race was usually held on the same day as the Edinburgh to Glasgow but in 1971 it was a week later and on Saturday, 27th November, Craig was second over the ten miles distance four seconds behind Blackburn’s John Calvert who was timed in at 48:52.   The next East District league match was on 4th December and ESH again won the team race with Craig in seventh second club counter behind Craven’s fifth place.

Into 1972 and that was the year when the Springburn Cup applied for and got the same date as the classic Nigel Barge race which was always held on the first Saturday in the New Year.   The Barge was the classic start to the new year and their entries held despite the competition.  Nevertheless many runners went to the better sponsored Springburn including almost all the Shettleston Harriers.    No matter, Craig ran in neither but he did run on 15th January in the East District league final – and even the reporter from the ‘Glasgow Herald’ noticed it:

“DOUGLAS OUTWITS DOWNIE FOR TITLE

Craig Douglas (Edinburgh Southern Harriers), the Scottish 1500m champion, was pressed hard by Sam Downie (Falkirk Victoria Harriers), a vastly improved junior, for the individual title in the East District league race of four and a half miles at Pitreavie.   Douglas, by his greater experience, succeeded in outwitting his rival over the last 50 yards and won by a couple of seconds.”   It was 22:45 to 22:47 at the finish.   It was also a victory for ESH – Douglas, Bryan-Jones (5), Joe Raeburn (8), Stark (15, DM Wood (17, McFall (18).   The boot was on the other foot on 22nd January in the District championships at Berwick where Downie won from Jim Wight and Craig was only seventh.   Craig did not run in the National – his attention was elsewhere.   Running in the Scottish Indoor Championships at Bell’s Arena in Perth he was second to Ron McDonald in 3:54.4 to McDonald’s 3:54.1.

It was a nice lead in to the track season where there was another medal in the SAAA 1500m championship.   Championships usually started with the Districts and Craig showed that he was in good form when he won the 800m in 1:54.3 which was three tenths ahead of GC Davies of Edinburgh University.   In the SAAA Championships however he was second behind Ronnie McDonald in one of the slower winning times – outside 4:03.   Nevertheless at the end of the year he was ranked fourteenth in the 800m with a best for the season of 1:53.8, only fifteenth for 1500m with 3:52.5 but added a new string to his bow with an indoor time of 9:18.2 for two miles.   What did 1971-72 add to our knowledge of Craig Douglas?   Well, the main points were that he was a good Two Miles runner on the indoor ttrack with its short laps and tight bendsm but also that he could fight it out with the best of them over 10 miles on the road!

Although not racing as much as usual, Craig was out in the Edinburgh to Glasgow on 18th November running the eighth stage for the ESH team that finished third.   This time he had only sixth fastest time and maintained the third position that he had taken over.   He appears in the results again on 13th January in the East District League match where he was fourth, 12 seconds behind Willie Day (Falkirk Victoria Harriers) to lead ESH to first place in the team race.   A week later, on 20th January, 1973, at Eskbank in the district championships, he finished 10th to be fourth scoring runner for the winning ESH team.   The first finisher for the club was Ian Elliott, another who had started out on his athletic career with Teviotdale Harriers.   Douglas did not compete at all in the national cross-country championship on 17th February at Coatbridge.

Summer 1973 was the only year during his entire career when Craig Douglas did not feature in any track ranking list over 400, 800 or 1500m.   Nor were there any medals in either District or National track championships.   It may be that the injury sustained in the league match mentioned above had developed into something bigger but in general, 1973 was a blank year for him.   He did run in the East District Relay however and was second fastest man in the ESH second team, behind Martin Craven and the four in the first team.   He then ran in the Edinburgh to Glasgow on 17th November that year on the third stage when he moved the club up from seventh to sixth with the third fastest time of the day for the team that finished first and took the gold medals.   In the actual District Championships on 19th January 1974 he was down in twenty seventh place, sandwiched between Mel Edwards (Aberdeen) and Paul Kenny (Dundee Hawkhill).   Came the National and there was no Craig Douglas in the field when ESH finished second to Edinburgh Athletic Club.

Having missed summer 1973 Craig competed in 1974 and had marks registered at 800m (1:55.5, ranked twentieth), 1500m (3:53.8, sixteenth) and 5000m (14:36.2, eighteenth) but Scottish middle distance running was now into the era of David McMeekin, Ronnie McDonald, Frank Clement and Lawrie Spence making the winning of medals harder although it would have been very interesting indeed to see how Craig Douglas at his best would have fared against them.   The SAAA championships were complicated further by the fact that the SAAA had encouraged many from outside the country to compete – ‘open championships’ was the phrase used and both 800m and 1500m titles went to East Germans.

The summer led in to what would be Craig’s last winter season.   He ran the first leg for the team that won the Dundee Kingsway Relay on 19th October in what was the day’s second quickest time.   He filled a similar role a week later when he led the field home on the first stage of the Allan Scally relay at Shettleston for the winning team.   The East District relays were on the 2nd November and again he ran the first stage, ran the third fastest time and saw ESH win the race.   Two weeks later, 16th November it was the prestigious Edinburgh to Glasgow relay.   ESH was set on the wining track by Colin Youngson’s first leg ‘win’, and never lost the lead.   Craig ran on the third stage and set the day’s fastest time for that stretch.   Whatever had happened during the summer, he had now run four relays in five weeks and been in four winning teams.   The first ever national four-man cross-country relay took place on Saturday 23rd November at Bellahouston and Craig could do no better than seventh on the first stage.   He could offer no explanation for what was, by his own standards, a poor run, saying only that he felt very cold for the whole distance.   The result was a win in the inaugural relay for newly-formed Clyde Valley.   Craig did get a medal – albeit a bronze – to add to his collection of District and National trophies.   He made up for the run when he finished third and first from ESH in the East District league on 30th November at Dalkeith behind the EAC pair of Alder and Wight but ahead of Gunstone and Hutton.   The next championship event was the East District Championship to be held on 16th January 1975 and Craig, in eighth place was only the fourth ESH scoring runner on the day – needless to say, they won the team race.   That only left the biggest championship of them all, the national.   This was held on 15th February at Coatbridge and ESH finished second to Edinburgh AC.   Craig was fifth counter out of six when he finished twentieth.   This was the day when the winning team had all six men inside the first eleven places and Jim Dingwall in thirteenth did not get a winner’s medal, and even their eighth runner, Joe Patton in twenty fourth, was ahead of ESH’s last counter, Nigel Bailey in twenty seventh!

For Craig, his career at the top and winning national medals was now over.   Williamson and Robson were coming up to join the McMeekin, Spence and Clement middle distance runners, and Craig’s injury problem in 1975 was such that he had to give up the sport.    He is a vastly under-rated athlete: three SAAA victories plus two silvers and two bronzes, eight District championships and two relay golds; over the country there were multiple gold, silver and bronze medals in the District and National championships and relays plus an outstanding record in the Edinburgh to Glasgow relay.   A few years later going head to head with Clement, Robson and Williamson would have been very, very interesting.   The team mates that I have spoken to all say that he was a hard running, never-give-in kind of runner and a great guy to have in your team.

–

Duncan running 1:53.4 indoors at Cosford in 1967

There were four very good half-milers in the mid-60’s and into the 1970’s in Scotland.   Dick Hodelet of Greenock Glenpark Harriers, Graeme Grant of Dumbarton AAC, Mike Maclean of Bellahouston Harriers and Duncan Middleton of Springburn Harriers.   Duncan had a relatively short career at the very top when he was winning titles, setting records and winning races but he was the only one who came into the sport with a Scottish title in his very first season.   He was an Under 15 Boy when he won the SCCU Championship at Hamilton Racecourse and several fairly intense rivalries were set up there.    Among his opponents in that race (he won in 7:58) in March 1962 were Dick Wedlock (second in 8:03), Walter Eadie (third in 8:07), Jim Brennan (fifth in 8:11); the following year as a first year Youth he was sixth (14:54), one place ahead of Wedlock (15:01) with Brennan fourth (14:39); and in the next year again, he was second (to Eddie Knox) in 15:02, Wedlock was third in 15:10, Eadie fourth in 1518 and Brennan sixth in 15:30.   It can be seen that he was mixing it with very high quality opposition and not on a one-season-only basis.   He would go on to win British and Scottish titles over 880 yards with 1967 undoubtedly his best year.   Only one year behind McCafferty and company, the ‘what if …’ question arises in Middleton’s case as in so many others in athletics.   What if he had raced over the Mile and Three Miles rather than the quarter and half-miles?   His undoubted speed would have given him an enormous advantage in the increasingly tightly fought battles up the finishing straights of the 1970’s, and the risk of injury from fast running in the cold Scottish winters.   A it is what we can say is that he was an outstanding member of a series of very good Springburn squads all the way through his career, he was a top flight middle distance runner and a credit to Scottish athletics.

Duncan Middleton was born in Glasgow on 4th July, 1946, and was only 14 when he won that SCCU Championship.   Springburn as a club was flying high – particularly among the younger athletes being produced by Eddie Sinclair’s enthusiastic coaching.   Eddie’s boys were the best in the country at the time and one of Duncan’s contemporaries from another Glasgow club had a straightforward explanation for their success.   Boys and youths races, he said followed a pattern where they started fast, steadied up or went to sleep in the middle of the race, then finished fast.   Springburn boys started fast, didn’t slow up, and finished fast.   There was no wee rest in the middle of the race.   They were all well conditioned athletes and the production line of runners like Ian Young, Eddie Knox, George Jarvie, Adrian Callan, Graham Williamson and company seemed endless at the time: every presentation was dominated by Springburn’s Boys (U15), Youths (U17) and Juniors (U20).   The seniors weren’t too bad either and won their share of medals and trophies too.   Duncan had come into a club where success was the norm and expectations were high; where there were champions to follow through the ranks.   He had a real talent which, added to the training provided, led to personal success.

In that first winter of 1961-62,  there was no Boys race in the Lanarkshire Championships but on November 25th, in the second Central League match he caused a bit of an upset as the ‘Glasgow Herald’ reported:  “D Middleton (Springburn) caused a surprise in the second series of boys races in the Central League when he beat F Wedlock (Shettleston) on the post in the senior event both finishing in 9:29.”   ‘Senior’ in this context means Senior Boy (14-16) as there were only races for Junior Boys and Senior Boys in the League.   This was because there were no races for Under 15’s in County Championships or in relays at County, District or National level.  On 16th December, the third Central League match took place without Wedlock and Middleton finished second to Fleming of St Modan’s AAC.   The next head to head with Wedlock came on 13th January in the fourth Central League match at Paisley when Wedlock defeated Middleton with Brennan third.   The next championship of course was on 20th January, 1962, in the Midlands Championship, where Middleton was second behind Wedlock but, in maybe a sign of the rivalries to come, both were timed at 8:33.   For the second race that season they were tied on times and each had won the verdict once.   On to the National at Hamilton on 3rd March and there was no doubt about the result: the ‘Herald’ again: “R Wedlock (Shettleston) lost his Boys title to D Middleton (Springburn) by 20 yards in 7 min 58 sec.”    

There were no Boys track championships at National SAAA level until 1974 so the Under 15’s ran in the track league, if their club was affiliated, in whatever open races they could find, in inter-club fixtures and highland games and in sports meetings.   It is difficult to track a young athlete’s progress through the April to September period.   Fortunately, Middleton had by now moved up to the Youths (15 – 17) age group and was competing against runners up to two years older than he was but in the West District Championhips at Westerlands on 28th May, he finished in the Youths 880 yards behind Daubney of Ayr Seaforth and Brown of St Modan’s in a race won in 2:03.2.   He occupied a similar position in the SAAA Championships at Meadowbank on 23rd June when he finished behind GK Oliver of Galashiels Academy and R Carroll of Edinburgh AC.   The winning time was 2:00.4.   Other than these two championship races, Middleton did not appear often in the results sheets over the summer and it was into winter 1962-63.

In the Lanarkshire county relay championship on 13th October, 1962,  he was only third fastest over the Youths trail behind Ian McCafferty and team mate Ian Young – but all three broke the previous record for the course.  The winter programme ran like clockwork and on 27th October, as ever two weeks after the County Championships,  he was a member of the Springburn team that finished second to Motherwell in the Garscube Harriers Youths team relays at Westerton.   Into the New Year and on 19th January in the Midland District Championships, Middleton was fourth  behind three top talents – McCafferty (14:57), Brennan (15:01),Young (15:30).   At Paisley for the Inter Counties on the first Saturday in February, he finished fourth, but well behind winner Ian McCafferty and one place behind his Ian Young.   The county, the district, the inter-counties all built up to the National, held in 1963 on 23rd February at Hamilton.    The In the National result was a win against the odds for Ian McCafferty (14:12), the odds seemingly favoured R Carroll of Edinburgh who finished third (14:27).   Ian Young was second (14:23), Jim Brennan fourth (14:39), Tom Brown fifth (14:41), Middleton sixth (14:54) and, one place behind Middleton was Dick Wedlock (15:01).

On 25th May, 1963, on a day when Hugh Barrow won both Junior and Senior Mile titles and double victories were achieved by Ming Campbell and Sandy Sutherland   in the West District championships at Ayr, Middleton won the Under 17 880 yards in 2:00.5 from fellow Springburn Harrier Eddie Knox.   The big championships however were the SAAA national championships, held at Westerlands on 22nd June, with Ming Campbell winning three titles in the sprints.   In the Youths 880 yards, the winner was David Henry from Gala Academy in 1:58.1 from Middleton in second and Graeme Grant third.   Henry was an exceptionally good young runner who held sway over all comers as a Youth but who totally disappeared from the sport after going up to university.

That winter began with a second fastest time of the day in the Youths relay at the county championships – Eddie Knox ran 9:21 and Middleton 10 minutes for the winning team.   There was another team victory on 2nd November at the relays at Garscube when the team of Knox, Gorman and Middleton won from St Modan’s AC.   Knox was fastest runner of the day this time around.   November 11th was the date, Lewisvale Spartans Relay was the occasion.   Springburn came in second with St Modan’s the winners despite Eddie Knox running the day’s fastest leg fastest in 8:52 with Middleton timed at 8:55 as second quickest runner.   In the Midland District Championships on 18th January, Middleton (14:48) emerged triumphant in front of Brennan (14:55) and Knox (15:07).   Eddie Knox, Duncan Middleton, Harry Gorman and others in Springburn were not only great team mates but they were also rivals whom spurred each other on in training under Eddie’s watchful eye and built up a fearsome reputation.   In the national championship that year the order in the Youths championship was first, Knox (14:48), second Middleton (15:02) and third Wedlock (15:10).   The ‘Glasgow Herald’ gave the race one sentence.

Middleton was acquiring the reputation of a good half-miler during the summer competitions with a gradual but consistent incremental improvement year-on-year.  Missing the county championships on 23rd May,  in the West District Championships the next Saturday, Tom Dobbin of Greenock Glenpark beat Knox in the Youths 880 yards in 1:58.8 with Middleton still nowhere to be seen.   In the various sports meetings held around the west of Scotland in May and June, the 880 races were being won by Graeme Grant, Dick Hodelet, Hugh Barrow and others but no sign of Middleton who was absent from the SAAA Championships too with victory going to Hendry in the Junior ranks and to Dobbin in the Youths race while Eddie Knox won the Youths Mile.   One has to assume that that summer was lost due to injury.   Then one reads the Athletics Weekly Who’s Who entry and reads that  “1964: No racing.   (Retired for 9 months).”   There’s a thing – not many as honest as that.   However, there was no sign of the man that summer, the winter of 1964/65, but although he missed all the championships (county District and National) he did record a time of 1:58.5 which was three-tenths adrift of his 1963 time.

But he was back in business and that was the good news for his club and for his country.  He went straight into the short relays.  Solid runs in the McAndrew, Lanarkshire and Dundee Kingsway relays got him started and in the Midland Relays at Stirling on 29th October, 1965, he was on the lead-off leg for Springburn and turned in a time of 13:10, only 12 seconds slower than Eddie Knox in the fourth placed team.   He also ran in his first Edinburgh to Glasgow relay on 20th November.   Running on the exposed 5th stage he picked the team up from ninth to eighth in the fifth fastest time of the day.   The five miles plus was also probably the furthest he had run in any serious race so far but it was not the last – he was out in the classic Nigel Barge Road Race on 8th January, 1966, where he finished 34th.   In the national on 26th February, he finished thirteenth to be Springburn’s third scoring runner behind Knox (2nd) and Gorman (9th) after a winter which showed quite clearly that he was in good shape for the summer of 1966.

As a first year senior competing in such company as Dick Hodelet, Graeme Grant, Craig Douglas and Mike Maclean, he didn’t win any of the major championships but he did take seven whole seconds from his personal best for 880 yards.   In the SAAA championships he won his heat in 1:57.6 to qualify for the final  There he was unfortunate to finish fourth of the ‘big four’ – 1.   Graeme Grant 1:50.3;   2.   Dick Hodelet  1:51:50.7;  3.   Mike Maclean  1:51.2;  4.   Duncan Middleton  1:52.0;   5.   Martin Sinclair  1:52.3;   6.   Adrian Weatherhead  1:52.9.   Clearly running really well but with the standard as it was he seldom featured in published results but his best of the season was in Dunoon at the Cowal Highland Games when he was third in 1:51.3.

He switched coaches at the end of 1966, moving from Eddie Sinclair to John Anderson.   There were maybe signs of this transition when the ‘Glasgow Herald’ report on the Lanarkshire relays on 8th October commented on Middleton dropping from first to fourth on the second stage saying “AD Middleton swithering between cross-country and next year’s track aspirations“.    He was out again in the district relay on the last stage when he was outsprinted by Dumbarton’s runner for third place.   At the end of November, he ran the first stage of the Edinburgh to Glasgow and finished eighth of the twenty runners.   An interesting feature of that year’s first leg was the number of top half milers running it – Mike Maclean was tenth, Graeme Grant was twelfth and Tom Dobbin was nineteenth.   The apparent problem had been solved by the start of 1967 when, on 4th February he won the AAA’s indoor 880 yards championship.   On a day when Ian McCafferty took the headlines of the meeting at Cosford the half-miler was also entitled to a good Press.   The report read as follows:

“AD Middleton, lost in the cinder kick-back last year of Grant and Hodelet, came into his own with a great 880 yards in 1 min 51.5 sec, a UK all-comers best performance.   Aged 20, he has been coached by Mr JH Anderson, the national coach, since October last year and the effects have been astounding.   Limited weight training and speedwork form the basis of his preparation – they meet as often as possible at the new Grangemouth track – and the modern Middleton has responded to the work like a Pavlovian dog.   Saturday’s ploy was simple.  It was to go to the front from the outset and make J Gingell, the holder, do the worrying.   It worked wonderfully but coming off the last banking with 30 yards to go Gingell went through agonies trying to oust the Scot; he failed by a matter of inches.

Middleton thus becomes the first athlete in Springburn Harriers long history to win a senior AAA title, and strangely if he is chosen to compete against France he will have become a British internationalist before being a Scottish one.”

 The result was Middleton first in 1:51.5 with Gingell second.   His selection for the French match was confirmed the following week and he was paired with John Whetton for the 800 metres.   In the actual match in Lyons on 26th February, Whetton was replaced by Gingell who finished second in 1:53.8 with Middleton third in 1:54.2.   Outdoors, the West District championships were passed up in favour of the British Games invitation 880 yards at White City where he finished fifth, two places behind Graeme Grant (1:51.5)  in 1:52.0.     Then on 3rd  June at the Birmingham Games, Middleton was part of a Scots 1-2 in the 880 yards.   The ‘Glasgow Herald’ again: ” AD Middleton did the donkey work for more than a lap then W McKim (Midlands) shot into the lead halfway down the back straight, desperately trying to relive his four minute mile days of three seasons ago.   His onslaught flattered to deceive; MJ Maclean elegantly repulsed him coming into the home straight and a painful effort by the Englishman to withstand Middleton’s late thrust for his second place was beaten aside.”   Maclean ran 1:52.3 and Middleton 1:52.8.

A week later (10th June) at Grangemouth Stadium in the Inter-Counties meeting, the 880 yards was described as one of the best races of the afternoon and it resulted in a win for Middleton over MF Sinclair and WH Barrow who ran a personal best of 1:52.6.   Middleton’s time was 1:52.2.   Another very close finish in a half mile.   Two weeks later, 24th June, at Meadowbank Middleton set a new Scottish 880 yards record of 1:50.2.  The opposition was all there in the form of the other two top men of the period,  Maclean and Grant.   Coming in to the last 100 yards he was behind the previous year’s winner Grant, and everyone’s favourite, Maclean, but just surged past Grant and then, he said afterwards, “Mike seemed to be coming back easily to me – it made me forget how tired I was.”    He was four tenths of a second in front of Maclean and a single second up on Grant.

Back at home Middleton won the 440 yards at the Land o’ Burns Trophy meeting on 12th August at Dam Park in Ayr in 49.9 seconds while his more usual event, the 880 yards was won by Hugh Barrow from Adrian Weatherhead in 1:56.7.   Another regular late season meeting was the Edinburgh Highland Games on 19th August and this time Middleton was second to Grant in the 880 yards in 1:54.3 – only one tenth away from first.

By the end of summer 1967, Middleton was in a whole different class to anything he had been before.  Ranked at three events – 440 where 49.9 put him eighth, 880 1:48.6 first and Mile 4:12.7 eighteenth.   That plus competitive success at GB and Scottish levels plus his first British international vest.    ‘Scottish Athletics, 1968′ (The statisticians’ yearbook) said:   “Duncan Middleton, the 1967 AAA Indoor 880 yards winner and record holder, showed fine judgment and pace to hold off the strongly fancied Mike Maclean and establish a new championship best of 1:50.2.  The stylish and intelligent Springburn runner had a successful season and excelled himself in the AAAfinal in returning his best time of 1:48.6 for fifth place in a strong field.”

The change of coach and success indoors had not taken him away from the relay season in October.   On 14th October he ran the first leg for the team that was second to Shettleston with a time only slightly slower than Eddie Knox.   Dundee Kingsway Relay was the following week and again Middleton was in the team which this time could only finish fourth and out of the prizes.   In the District Relay on the 28th of the month he ran fourth for the Springburn team that won silver in the race, albeit he was the slowest club runner on the day.   He did not run in the Edinburgh to Glasgow in 1967 though.

His new year started with the AAA’s indoor championships on 3rd February in the RAF hangar at Cosford  where John Gingell won back his title with Middleton third  in 1:53.6 and Craig Douglas fourth in 1:53.9.   Unfortunately the Olympic year of 1968 did not have many happy results for Middleton.   On 3rd June, 1968, he ran in the British Games at White City and could only finish eighth in 1:52.2 while Mike Maclean managed to run an excellent 1:49.8 for fourth place.   This was to be Middleton’s fastest time of the year – ranking him fourth.   The statisticians’ yearbook commented that ‘Middleton’s decline and eclipse in the major races was a disappointment.’   His only triumph was winning the Inter-Counties in 1:54.9 from Colin Martin (1:55.5).

In winter 68/69 he ran but as not in his best form.   For instance, in the District  Relays he was in the THIRD Springburn team of four with Ian McIntosh, Nicky Souter and Tom O’Reilly.   The first team was sixth, the second team eleventh,  and the third team 24th, while Duncan himself was the eight fastest of the twelve.   This time he was not in the team for the Edinburgh to Glasgow but he was out in the District Championships on 18th January when he could only finish 84th while Springburn won the team race with 72 pints.   By the end of winter 198/69 his career was effectively over.   There were no more medals in any championships, indoor or out, Scottish or British, gold, silver or bronze for Duncan Middleton.

It had been an interesting career yielding more success than most of the athletics population can ever dream of – British gold and international representation as well as Scottish gold, British and Scottish records and yet it was such a short spell at the very top.     But at the end of the day, Scottish athletics is lucky to have had his services and he himself can be proud of what he achieved.

Duncan Middleton in the McAndrew Relay 1966

Duncan was the subject of an ‘Athletics Weekly’ Who’s Who in December 1967 and it is reproduced below.

“Full Name: Alexander Duncan Middleton.   Born in Glasgow 4.7.46.   5’11”, 140lb35″ chest; 52 pulse at rest; commercial student; Springburn Harriers; single; coached by John Anderson (Scottish National Coach), “I was coached by Eddie Sinclair (club coach) from 1963 to 1966”, lives in Glasgow.

Became interested in athletics in 1960 – “My friends were members of Springburn Harriers and I went along with them one night in October and started cross-country and road running.”   Began at  cross-country and 880 yards; favourite event now is 880 yards.  

Best marks:   220 – 23.3 (1967);   440 – 49.9 (1967);   880 – 1:48.6 (1967);   Mile – 4:12.7 (1967);     

Annual 880 progress:   1961 – 2:08;   1962 – 2:01;   1963 – 1:58.2;   1964 – No racing (retired for nine months);   1965 – 1:58.5;   1966 – 1:51.3;   1967 – 1:48.6.   AAA indoor & Scottish outdoor champion 1967; GB international; member UK 4 x 880 record team.

Most pleasing performances were “AAA final (5th in Scottish record of 1:48.6) and Scottish AAA’s championships.”   No disappointments.  

Next year’s target is Mexico City; all time target is Empire, European or Olympic medal of any sort.   Intends competing “until I lose interest.”

Most likes “chance to meet people and the chance to travel around.   “Dislikes people who run down coaches as “bums”.   Most of them give up their spare time to help athletes with no reward other than the athlete doing well.”   View of administration: “No Complaints.”

That is where the Who’s Who item ends but this profile ends with Duncan, third from left in the back row, at a Springburn Harriers presentation in the 1960’s.

Mike Maclean (12) tracking Graeme Grant (3) off the bend.

Of the four runners who dominated the 880 yards from the early 1960s into the 1970’s, Mike Maclean (4/5/1096) was the most successful – three SAAA senior titles plus silver and bronze, AAA’s medallist, three Scottish records, topped the national rankings in three consecutive years and Commonwealth Games semi-finalist in 1970.   A record to be proud of.   He was also the only one of the four to have won the SAAA Junior half-mile – he did this in 1965 in a time of 1:57.7.

He had obviously been running for a while before that season but we will start with that summer of 1965.    Mike Maclean began by winning the handicap 880 yards in the Glasgow Championships on a windswept Scotstoun track on 22nd May in a time of 1:51.8 from a mark of 26 yards.   This set him up nicely for the West District Championships the following Saturday at Dam Park in Ayr where he finished second – one place behind Graeme Grant of Dumbarton who recorded 1:54.3.   There were Scottish Athletic League triangular matches almost every other week and since Bellahouston Harriers was in the same league as clubs such as Edinburgh Southern Harriers and Victoria Park (the strongest clubs respectively in the east and the west at the time) he was getting a number of quality races under his belt.   Greenock Glenpark Harriers had a number of very good 880 yards runners following in the footsteps of former SAAA champion Dick Hodelet, and Tom Dobbin was one of those.   Powerfully built he was a genuine talent but in the SAAA championships he finished second to the taller, more elegant Mike Maclean who won the Junior championship in 1:57.7.   Graeme Grant won the senior title from Hodelet by a mere half second in 1:54.9.   Grant and Hodelet were already active on the Highland Games circuit but Maclean seldom appeared there but he was of course getting more League fixtures at a good club level  with Bellahouston than they were.    An example of this was the Land o’Burns trophy meeting at Ayr on 14th August where Maclean had a sparkling write-up for his performance in the medley relay: “One Scottish record was broken, the mile medley (880 x 220 x 220 x 440), by Bellahouston.   MJ Maclean gave Bellahouston a wonderful lead of 10 yards after the opening leg, timed at 1 min 56 sec, which H and W Robertson succeeded in holding.   The last leg, by H Baillie, was timed by unofficial watches as 48.5 sec, with ofcourse a running start.  Even so Baillie, aged 18, showed great potential over a distance he has tried seriously only three or four times.   The club’s winning time was 3 min 28.9 sec, 1.1 sec better than the previous best by Ayr Seaforth.”

Maclean did take in the Bute Highland Games at Rothesay seven days later where he won the Junior 880 yards off scratch in 1:57.   Bellahouston also won the SAAA Junior Medley relay at Cowal on 28th August.   Bellahouston won three relay titles at Cowal (Junior 4 x 110, Senior 4 x 110 and Junior Medley) and then won the SAAA title the following week, 4th September, at Shotts where the Glasgow Herald reporter covered the race well:

“Glasgow University, holders of the Scottish medley relay title, even with BW Scobie, WM Campbell, J McGeogh and AB Kennedy, found Bellahouston Harriers more than a match for them.   MJ Maclean, a junior, obviously instructed to have as big a lead as possible over the 880 yards first leg, never let up and Scobie found it impossible to get any nearer to him than 20 yards.   Thereafter the race was as good as won for H Robertson, W Robertson and H Baillie made the most of this advantage and won by 25 yards.”   The winning time was 3 min 34 sec.

Although a speed based half miler who seemed to prefer running 440 and 880 to doing the 880/mile double, Maclean like all endurance runners of the time took part in the cross-country relays and on 9th October led off the Bellahouston Harriers four man team which won the race – the other runners were Jim Irvine, Brian Goodwin and J Wood.   He even ran in the Edinburgh to Glasgow eight man relay on the eighth stage in 1965 in the sixth fastest time of the day, only two seconds slower than the much more experienced Clark Wallace of Shettleston.

The first time that Maclean featured in the results columns in 1966 was when he finished second to Dick Hodelet in the West District 880 yards on 28th May at Westerlands.     The winning time was 1:52.2.

There was a whole host of races on 13th June and the one that Maclean raced in was the Inter-Counties Championship 880 yards which he won in 1:53.8, while rival Hodelet won the 440 yards in 49.4 sec.   That was the weekend that the team for the Commonwealth Games in Jamaica was announced and only one half miler was selected: Graeme Grant and the general feeling was that, although Grant merited his place, Hodelet had been badly done by.    He was to show during the rest of the season that this judgment was correct.   Maybe Grant also had a point to prove and he did so in the SAAA Championships at Meadowbank on 25th June when he won fairly comfortably with Hodelet second and Maclean right on his shoulder in third.   Times?   Grant 1:50.3, Hodelet 1:50.7, and 1:51.2.   Hodelet and Maclean left for Dublin and an invitation 440 yards immediately afterwards and the race took place on the Monday evening when they finished second (Hodelet) and third (Maclean)   First and second off the last bend they were both passed by Noel Carroll who won in 48.5 sec.  Both Scots set personal bests for the distance of 49.0 and 49.2 respectively.   On 2nd July both men represented Scotland against Wales and the Midland Counties at Birmingham.   The race was won by Craig Douglas who was running as a guest in 1:49.9, Maclean was second in 1:50.2 and Hodelet who had a disaster of a run could only finish down the field in 1:56.8.   This was to be Maclean’s best time of the summer and place him third in Scotland.

The Scottish 4 x 110 yards and 4 x 440 yards relay championships were held on 20th August at the Edinburgh Highland Games.   Maclean was in the Bellahouston team which won the latter race fairly easily in 3:22.9, the other runners being HJ Carmichael, W Robertson and H Baillie.   Cowal Highland Games was always a highlight of the season where the runners competed in front of big crowds on a fairly good 440 yards cinder track – fairly good compared with the short bumpy grass that were normally a feature of the Highland Games circuits.   Maclean went this year for the invitation 440 yards in which he finished third behind team mate Hugh Baillie and Victoria Park’s Bob Laurie.   The winning time was 48.7 sec.   First Saturday in September was always Shotts Highland Games (440 yards hard track, down hill back straight and uphill finishing straight) and Maclean was by now a frequent participant in these meetings.   The medley relay championship of Scotland and, of the first leg, The ‘Glasgow Herald’ said:

“The 880 yards with G Grant (Dumbarton), A Stewart (Edinburgh AC), AT Weatherhead (Octavians) and MJ Maclean (Bellahouston) was indeed a classic field of performers.   Grant, the favourite to lead the field was well and truly beaten by Maclean.”     Bellahouston again won the race with J Williams, HJ Carmichael and W Robertson completing the line-up.   The same quartet won the medley relay at Dunblane the following week to finish the season.

Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay start, 1966.   Maclean on extreme right, Grant third from the right.

More relays but this time of the road and cross-country variety and Maclean did his bit for his club, supporting teams on all surfaces.   This year his Edinburgh to Glasgow leg was the opening stage out to Maybury Cross and he was twelfth on the stage.   An interesting feature of this stage that year is that three of Scotland’s very best half milers were out on it for their clubs – Middleton of Springburn was eighth in 28:01, Grant was 10th in 28:13 and Maclean was 12th in 28:26.   It was a typical winter with solid work being done but with no spectacular results achieved.

Came summer 1967 and on 29th April Maclean started the season with a victory.   For several years there had been races at Hampden before big matches and at half time, but the were usually of one mile or even two miles but this year they introduced a half mile and Maclean won in 1:54.3 from  Hodelet who was three yards back.

Half Mile at Hampden: Maclean wins (4) from Hodelet (2) with Barrow (5) and Grant also in shot

Back at Scotstoun on 20th May, and back on relay duty, Maclean ran the ‘glory leg’ for Bellahouston.    Read on …

“Odds on favourites in the 4 x 440 relay, Bellahouston Harriers, had to wait until the last leg before they lowered the soaring temperature of their supporters when MJ Maclean took an unchallenged lead early in the lap.   But in the first leg HJ Baillie, not yet back to peak fitness, had looked sluggish in the home straight, as A Stewart (Edinburgh AC) took the bit between his teeth in an inside lane and matched Baillie, the national 440 yards record holder, right to the change-over point.   J Convery and H Munro maintained this cheeky challenge for the Edinburgh club, before Maclean reminded them of their station in life and left F Steell to take a gallant place behind him at the tape, minutely ahead of Edinburgh Southern.”     In the West District Championships at Westerlands on 27th May, Maclean won the half mile in 1:55.1 from Hodelet and Colin Martin of Dumbarton, and the n raced the 440 yards an hour later finishing second, five yards behind Ross Billson’s  49.2.

His biggest victory of the season so far came on 3rd June in the Birmingham Games.   “Another 1-2 for Scotland came in the 880 yards.   AD Middleton did the donkey work for more than a lap and then W McKim (Midlands) shot into the lead halfway down the back straight desperately trying to relive his four minute mile days of three seasons ago.   His onslaught flattered to deceive; MJ Maclean elegantly repulsed him  coming into the home straight and a painful effort by the Englishman to withstand Middleton’s late thrust for his second place was beaten aside.”   Maclean 1:52.3, Middleton 1:52.8 and McKim 1:53.5.   On 10th June in the Home Countries International at Grangemouth, Maclean ran 48.8 for the 440 as part of the 4 x 440 relay team and in doing so almost caught Olympian John Sherwood on the third stage.

At Bellahouston Harriers, the relay successes kept coming and the inter-club triangulars also proceeded through the summer and then the SAAA Championships were held at Grangemouth on 24th June.   After his season so far, Maclean was the clear favourite for the SAAA title over 880 yards and it looked very much as though he was the winner as he came into the home straight in front of Grant with Middleton third.   But Middleton came through, passed Grant and swept past Maclean for second place.   Maclean’s 1:50.6 was an excellent time but Middleton’s 1:50.2 was better.    Both men travelled to the AAA’s championships in London the following weekend (15th July) and in the 880 yards championship final, Neither man was disgraced and Middleton finished fifth in 1:48.6 behind Boulter (1:47.3 – UK National record and equalled European record), Noel Carroll (1:47.6), K Colburn (USA 1:48), … Middleton was fifth and Maclean ninth with, unfortunately, no time taken.

Back at home, Bellahouston were not doing as well in the relays with the Victoria Park team (usually Barrow, Hepburn, Wood and Laurie) winning almost all of them, but at the end of August they, along with ESH, were the only unbeaten club in the track league top division.   The SAAA Medley Relay was decided as usual at Shotts with Maclean second on the first stage behind Barrow of Victoria Park which club kept the lead until the final change-over.   With Baillie expected be only a matter of feet behind Victoria Park’s Laurie, a great race was in prospect until Baillie was sent clattering to the ground after a collision with an opponent at the vital moment when the baton was passed.   It wasn’t their year for relays but the ‘Glasgow Herald’ correspondent commented on the track as follows: “The blame really rests with an association which can award the holding of a national event to a meeting whose track has no lane markings and is approximately 17 feet wide instead of at least 24.”   Elsewhere in the article he refers to ‘the loose surface’.    At that time even the best runners ran in such conditions which varied from bumpy grass (lots of places), short tracks (2+ laps to the half mile, often only 300 yards (and at at least one sports meeting, the track had to fit inside the goalposts), unrolled cinders, specific track knowledge was often required (eg at one meeting there was a hold about a third of the way round the top bend right on the inside of the inside lane, tracks with the first bed down hill and the second uphill and the straights parallel to one another but at different heights above sea level.   BUT – the times were good and the runners all learned how to take care of themselves in big fields on tight bends.   Victoria Park also won the relay at the last meeting of the season, held at Dunblane Gathering which was held in a natural amphitheatre or bowl with grassy banks all round the short, tight, grass track for the spectators to sit and watch the meeting.

It was more of the same in winter 1967/68 for Maclean and he again was part of the Bellahouston team that won the Renfrewshire championship on 14th October.   On 28th October at East Kilbride, he was second fastest runner for the club when they finished ninth team of the 36 complete teams.  He missed the Edinburgh to Glasgow however and started to get ready for summer 1968 which he started early, as in 1967, with a victory in the half-mile at Hampden before the Cup Final.   This year he won in 1:52.6 from Craig Douglas (1:53.3) and Dick Hodelet (1:53.9).    Not bad for early season and round a football pitch.   His first significant victory of the year however cam when he won the West District 880 yards on 27th May when he defeated John Cherry (Springburn) in 1:56.5 to Cherry’s 1:58.8 on a very windy afternoon.   On 8th June at Grangemouth in the British Isles Cup, Maclean was out in the half-mile where his 1:51.9 was 0.8 behind England’s John Davies but was good enough to take the scalp of John Whetton, third in 1:52.3.   The season was hotting up and on 15th June in the inter-area match between Scotland and Midland Counties at Leicester, he was again second .   Winner this time was Dave Cropper, the ‘Head Waiter’, in 1:51.7 with Maclean on 1:51.8.   The times tell you a lot about the Scot’s finishing kick -Cropper’s was ferocious and he was often content to sit back, let the first 700 or 750 yards roll by and then accelerate dramatically past the opposition: that Maclean was only 0.1 down would indicate that competitively he was not over-awed by the Englishman nor decisively and hopelessly beaten.

The Scottish Championships were held at Grangemouth on 22nd June and this time Maclean won his gold medal.   First in 1:51.6 from two experienced campaigners in Dick Hodelet (1:52.1) and Craig Douglas (1:52.6) it was to be the first of three for the Bellahouston Harrier.

His 1:49.9 run at Grangemouth at the start of June was to remain his best for that year placing him at the top of the rankings, with the next best being Hodelet’s 1:51.4 and Hugh Barrow’s 1:51.8 third best in the country.    He had also shown that neither travelling nor big names had the power to ‘throw’ him as Whetton and Cropper found out.   The SATS yearbook commented that ‘Mike Maclean was clearly out on his own.’

*

1969 would be arguably Maclean’s best with ten of Scotland’s best times over 88oy/800m to his credit, including the top six times which were all his.   Keddie in his centenary history of the SAAA suggests that 1970 might be his best year, but there is a debate to be had about that.   Winter had come in October and on 2nd November in the Midland District relays he was part of a Bellahouston team (with Goodwin, Adair and Yates) which finished third.   Not just a member, but the fastest man in the team.    The team was third in the West District Championship proper and Maclean was their first finisher when he crossed the finishing line in 14th place in a time of 33:50 with Brian Goodwin next in 33:53 and then Jack Adair sixteenth in 34:00.    No Edinburgh to Glasgow that year though. And summer that year started on

22nd March when he ran indoors at the track at RAF Cosford.   There he ran a very good 1:51.11 when finishing third. Then back home on 26th April at Hampden Park Maclean won the pre-match 880 yards in 1:54.1 from J Convery (ESH) and AJ Wood of Victoria Park.   On the third Saturday in May, 17th, it was back to Dam Park for the Land o’Burns Trophy meeting.   Strange as it may seem, Mike’s main opposition came not from Middleton, Hodelet, Douglas or Billson, but from a runner better known for 5000m running.   Ian McCafferty had been running a lot of Mile races and quite a few 800m races as preparation for the longer distances internationally and doing it very successfully with a sub4 minute mile to his credit.   However at Ayr, he had to give best to Maclean – “Another national champion to win was Mike Maclean and although he beat off a fighting challenge from McCafferty in the closing stages of the 800m fairly easily we had for a few seconds the distinct possibility of the little Law runner creating the biggest surprise of the day.”   Maclean’s time was 1:54.4, McCafferty 1:55.   In the absence of Maclean in the West Districts on the last Saturday in the month, McCafferty won the championship in 1:53 and that same weekend, Maclean was selected to run in the representative match at Leicester on 14th June.   In that match, against the Midland Counties, he won in 1:51.6 from P Miller who ran 1:52.8 – a fairly comfortable win.   On 21st June when SAAA took on Atalanta at Grangemouth, Maclean won the 400m in 49.1 while Craig Douglas won the 800m in 1:54.1.

Defending his title in the SAAA Championships on 28th June at Grangemouth, Maclean successfully defended his title when he won from Graeme Grant in 1:51.5 – Grant’s time was 1:53.2 and Billson in third was 1:54.2.   On the strength of that win he was picked for the Scottish team to compete against England, Wales and Ireland for the Cambrian Trophy.

Maclean was on a wonderful plateau that was important in pre-Commonwealth Games year.   The first major Games to ever be held in Scotland, and Maclean was heading into it  with a wonderful record.  Just look at this:

Time       Position     Venue                       Date     Rank

1:49.9     5th              Grangemouth          7 Jan      1

1:50.0     6th              White City               2 Aug      2

1:50,3     R                  Scotstoun                24 May   3

1:50.4     1st                White City               26 May   4

1:50.7     4th               Wolverhampton      19 Jul     5

1:50.7     1st                Dam Park                  10 Aug   6           ie the top six times in Scotland with only 0.8 sec between first and sixth.   And more …

1:51.1      3rd               Cosford                      22 Mar  8

1:51.2      1st                White City                1 Aug      9=

1:51.5      1st                Grangemouth          28 Jun   13

1:51.6      1st                Leicester                  14 Jun     14       ie   10 times out of the top 14 in the country over 800m.

He was also ranked in the 1500m as ninth individual with 3:52.1 done at Meadowbank on 13th July and at 400m with a time of 49.0, run at Grangemouth on 7th September.   Number 12 in the UK over 800m was good too.   A quite remarkable season.   The SATS year book commented: “Once again Mike Maclean was in a class of his own in the two lap event, his superiority being amply demonstrated by his eleven performances in the top marks of the year.   He was unbeaten in ‘home’ events against fellow Scots and he confidently retained his national title; but with a season’s best of just under 0.1 sec under 1 min 50 sec his expected breakthrough into the upper GB rankings did not materialise.   1970 however, could well be Mike’s big year!”

Having had such success in 1969 and with the Commonwealth Games coming over the horizon at an ever increasing pace, Did Maclean continue to run cross-country?   Of course he did: when something has been as successful as the winter training and racing had been over the previous years why change it when it matters?   He was out in the County championships and ran the second stage on which he ran a time that would have seen him in the first team for any other club other than the winning Shettleston team where he would have been only one second slower than their fourth man.   For the second year he missed the E-G and all the longer cross-country events.   At the start of the summer, he didn’t win the 800m race at Hampden – this went to Englishman Colin Campbell of Polytechnic Harriers – and it’s not clear whether he actually competed.   In any case Maclean’s season really started at the West District Championships where he won the 800m in 1:55.5 from McCafferty (1:56.0) – the slow time was apparently accounted for by the fact that the track had required the cutting of  new lane because of the change from 440 yards to 400 metres.   I have to agree with the reporter who suggested that in Commonwealth Games year with qualifying times being required, they event should have been moved to Grangemouth.

The first ever combined men’s and women’s championships took place at Meadowbank Stadium on6th June – earlier than usual because of the need to pick the teams.   Maclean won the 800m from Ross Billson and Craig Douglas with the times being 1:50.2, 1:50.6 and 1:51.   On 13th June at the White City in the British Games Maclean had a very good run – but did not win.   The report read:  “The 800m was a near classic and certainly the fastest ever run in this country.   Colin Campbell (Polytechnic) won in 1 min 47.2 sec but coming home strongly in fourth place was Mike Maclean.   One day soon he will shatter every half-miler in Britain but he has a terrible knack of being boxed in in about sixth place with 200m to go in a top class race.   This happened on Saturday but after he had extricated himself round the last bend he flew up the home straight, drawing the leaders  nearer with every elegant stride.   The task was obviously insuperable but he went through the finish in 1 min 47.7, only three yards behind Campbell and became the fastest Scot since Jim Campbell’s 1:47.5 in France 13 years ago.”

The Games 800m had four heats, it was held on  23 July, and Maclean was second in the second heat which was won by Saisi of Kenya in 1:49.5 with Maclean on 1:50.0, Fisher (Australia) 1:5o.1 and Davies of England on 1:50.2.   Fastest qualifier was Doubell of Australia 1:49.4.   Unfortunately when it came to the next round, Maclean could do no better than fifth in the first semi- final, albeit in an excellent  1:49.9  being just shut out in a closely fought race.   In the final, Fisher was fourth and Davies fifth.   Maclean also ran in the 4 x 400m relay final with Wood, Walker and Taylor and Scotland finished sixth in 3:09.0.

The season was not finished however and on 8th August at the AAA’s Championships he was a mere tenth of a second behind winner Andy Carter with Pete Browne second: times?   1:49.6, 1:49.7 1:49.7!    A day was dedicated to the SAAA Relay championships at Grangemouth on 15th August and Maclean ran a great leg for his club in the 4 x 400m.   A week thereafter it was the Edinburgh Highland Games and there were quite a few athletes from the Games still around to add to the usual talent to be seen there.   In the 800m, Byron Dyce of Jamaica was the winner in 1:49.2 with Maclean second in 1:49.6 ahead of John Kirkbride (AAA) 1:51.2.   When Bellahouston won the 1200m relay at Shotts on 5th September, Maclean was not present but Bellahouston’s newest middle distance runner was starting to show what he could do when Frank Clement won the 800m.   He had been running well for some time and was well known as a talent to athletics people, but he was only just starting to become known to the wider populace.   The following week at what was usually regarded as the end of the summer season, Dunblane Gathering, the headline read “Maclean makes it easy for the rest” and went on to say that his running on the first stage of this relay gave his colleagues such a lead that they easily won from Garscube Harriers.   His season was now officially ended.

How good had it been?   Season’s bests of 50.9 for 400m and 1:47.7 for 800m were considerably good.   He had taken 2.2 seconds from his best run of the previous year taken part in several very close, very tight finishes and made the semi finals of the Commonwealth Games.   As in 1969, I can’t find any indication that he was beaten by any Scotsman over his specialist distance at any track on any surface.

Extract from the Cowal programme of 1971: Note the quality of the field in the invitation mile as well as in the Relay

Nevertheless, however good the summer had been he was out in the relays for the club, taking the fourth stage of the Midland Relays in November 1970, and later the same month he picked up two places on the seventh stage of the E-G in fifth fastest time on the leg.   By the end of  1971 there were no championship medals – not at District, Scottish or British levels and times ranked him 10th in Scotland behind Grant, Douglas, Billson, Cherry, McMeekin, Morrison, Wands and Scales with young Frank Clement (still a Junior) only half a second behind him.    What do we make of this?  Well, the SATS year book accounted for it when it said,   “Maclean was a shadow of his former self due to injury, he recovered sufficiently with a fine late season performance in the National League that gained him a place in the top 10 performers list.”

The first of these late season times was on 21st August at West London where he ran 1:52.2 in winning a league match.   The second was on 14th September at  Bellahouston where he was timed at 1:52.4 in winning over a domestic field at home.

And that was the final appearance of Maclean in any ranking list anywhere.   Possibly it was even the end of an era since Graeme Grant’s last race before emigrating to South Africa was also in August 1971.   Hodelet was moving in the direction of 1500m rather than 800m and the young ones coming up behind very quickly were Frank Clemet and David McMeekin.    Maclean raced throughout 1972 but by then his days of national championships and records had gone.   His influence lived on however – in a reply to a questionnaire several years ago, Olympian Frank Clement said that training with and receiving encouragement from Mike was of great benefit.

Below is an extract from the Cowal Highland Games programme for 1972 in which his name appears.   Note too the quality of athlete in the other races such as the mile handicap:   International runners such as Lawrie Spence, Dick Hodelet and Cammy Spence all entered with the third Spence brother Jim up on the 150 yards mark!