Author: The Author

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!

Graeme Grant on the left with Chris Carter, John Boulter and Mick Varah,

GB 4 x 880 yards world relay record setting team, in 1966

Graeme David Grant was one of a group of four half-milers who completely dominated the event in Scottish athletics from the early-1960’s up to 1970.   The other three were Dick Hodelet (13/3/1942), Duncan Middleton (4/7/46) and Mike Maclean (4/5/1946).   They virtually monopolised the event, all won SAAA Championships, all set Scottish records and all were at least Scottish internationalists.   For the record, if we look at championships won, then we get this:

SAAA 880 yards winners:   1964  Hodelet;    1965  Grant;   1966  Grant;     1967  Middleton;   1968:  Maclean.

SAAA 800 metres winners:   1969:  Maclean;   1970:  Maclean

As juniors (ie Under 20) Grant won the Mile in 1964 while Maclean won the 880 yards in 1965.

Records were also set by the quartet:

1964:   880 yards    1:504.  Hodelet;     1966:   880y   1:50.3   Grant;   1966:   880y   1:50.2   Grant

1970:   800 metres:   1:50.2   Maclean;   1970:   800m  1:47.7   Maclean

And at other distances:   1969:  600y   Maclean   1:11.5;   1971:   1000m  Grant   2:23.3

There were also of course many other very good athletes around at the same time  such as Craig Douglas, Jim McLatchie, Hugh Barrow and Ken Ballantyne when they came on the scene but they were the top half-milers for the seven or eight years when they were at their peak.

Graeme leading at Cowal Highland Games

Graeme was a pupil at Hermitage Academy in Helensburgh and joined Dumbartoon AAC from there.   He needed to join a club and Dumbarton was a good club with a strong track team at the time – Bobby Mills, decathlete, Jack Brown a very good middle distance runner but versatile enough to take part in field events, the young and talented Colin Martiin and several others were there.   Living in Helensburgh he didn’t have a great part in the club’s social life but did come the eight miles to Dumbarton for training sessions with club members on the Common  beside the Brock Baths.  1964 was the year when Graeme Grant first made the headlines – he won the SAAA Junior Mile in 4:21.0 but had an even better run of 4:12.5  which ranked him eleventh in Scotland.   However at what was to be his best distance, he only ranked 18th with a time of 1.55.7.   With a date of birth of 24th May 1946, however, it should be noted that he was a comparative novice in the event and barely 18 years old.

He started his year on 30th May in the West District C*hampionships at Westerlands when, in the absence of any 880 yards event for Junior Men, he finished third in the Junior Mile behind Joe Reilly of Victoria Park and Tom Brown of St Modan’s in 4:23.9.   In the Lanarkshire Police Sports at Shawfield on 13th June, a very popular meeting with the runners running on a track inside the outer ring which was used for most of the year for greyhound racing, Graeme had a very busy afternoon.   “H Baillie (Bellahouston) who has been showing tremendous for in Junior sprinting events this season, was beaten by only one-and-a-half yards in the 300 yards having given away 14 yards to the winner, GD Grant (Dumbarton).”   This win was followed up with a second place in the open mile behind JD Knox of Shettleston who won in 4:16.7.   A week later, on 22nd June, Graeme won the junior half-mile at Babcock & Wilcox Sports in Renfrew off a mark of 30 yards in 1:50.9  (the senior race was won by Danny Wilmoth (Springburn) in 1:56.9 off 62 yards).   The last week of June was, as usual, the SAAA Championships and here Grant won the Mile from Brown (St Modan’s) and Raeburn (Teviotdale) and, in the words of the ‘Glasgow Herald’ reporter, ‘anointed himself with distinction’.   He next appeared in the results on 1st August at Bridge of Allan where he won the Junior 880 yards from a mark of 30 yards in 1:54.9.   There were probably many more races that are unreported at this period because of the handicap system where he could run really well and still be unplaced (and hence not mentioned in results) but where, nevertheless, he was learning his trade as a young half miler and sharpening his elbows as well.   22nd August saw Graeme compete at Rothesay in the Bute Highland Games where he won the Mile off 10 yards from Alex Brown and Ian McCafferty in 4:16.1.

*

By the end of 1965, Graeme had won his first senior championship and was ranked nationally in four different events.   The championship win was in the West District championships but he started his season with a sixth place in the invitation mile at Hampden behind Bill Allison (ESH), Ian McPherson (VP), Lachie Stewart, Ian McCafferty, and Albert Smith (VP), with Joe Reilly (VP) and Eddie Knox (Springburn) in his wake.   The Scotstoun meeting in May was always a good one and went under various titles – Glasgow Highland Games at one time, the Glasgow Athletic Championships at another and this year it was the latter, and held on 22nd May.   Graeme ran well enough here to win the junior mile from Jim Brennan of Maryhill in 4:23.8.   A week later at Dam Park in Ayr on 29th May, he defeated the man who was to become one of his main rivals, Mike Maclean, and the more experienced Brian Scobie to win the half-mile West District championship in 1:54.3.   Into June and on 12th June the ‘Glasgow Herald’ reported on the Lanarkshire Constabulary Sports at Shawfield as follows: “G Grant (Dumbarton) had another success here in the three-quarter mile special invitation scratch race in 3 min 4.2 sec with W Ewing (Aberdeen University) and C Douglas (Teviotdale) unable to match the speed of the winner over the last 50 yards.”    As in 1964, he turned out at Babcock & Wilcox Sports on 19th but this time in the senior 880 yards which he won in 1:52 off a mark of 12 yards.  Grant had also had a double victory in handicap races at Lanark as well as having a good run to finish behind Craig Douglas at Pitreavie at the start of June.   With the West District title safely won, the big domestic race of the season was the SAAA Championship half mile which he duly won in 1:54.9.

The report on the race read: “GD Grant (Dumbarton), a junior with the stamina one expects from a senior, ran away with the senior 880 yards from such notable opponents as RT Hodelet (Greenock Glenpark) and JC Douglas (Teviotdale).   Coming out of the last bend into the headwind, Grant made his break followed by Douglas.    Hodelet, given little chance in these columns on Friday, showed how a champion strives to retain his title and, astonishingly, passed Douglas in the last 50 yards, a gallant runner up to the new champion.”  

Clearly in good form, Grant, representing the SAAA, tackled the American team from Brigham Young University at Westerlands in Glasgow on Monday, 5th July over the 880 yards and won in 1:52.7.   He continued racing in handicap races at various highland games and sports meetings before setting a ground record on the heavy, soaking wet, grass of Battery Park in Gourock  on 24th July.   The ‘Glasgow Herald’ thought it worthy of the top spot in its coverage of the event.   Despite the sodden conditions six ground records were established at Gourock Highland Games on Saturday, the most notable being that of GD Grant (Dumbarton) who won the open half-mile from scratch in the excellent time of  1 min 54.9 sec.   Grant ran so well that even at half distance he looked all over the winner – no mean achievement against opposition of the calibre of I McPherson (Victoria Park) who after having eight yards start was beaten by ten.”  

It was a race of a different sort altogether the following week at Pitreavie when he represented the SAAA against the British Army.   He rose to the occasion again and won in 1:56.7 with the other Scot, Dick Hodelet, in third place.    He also represented the SAAA on 23rd August at Murrafueld in the Edinburgh Games against Iceland when he again won – this time in 1:55.5 from team mate Craig Douglas.

By the end of the year he had best times of 50.6 for the quarter-mile (ranked 23rd), 1:52.0 for 880 yards (3rd), 4 11.7 for the Mile (10th) and (maybe strangely) 60.5 for 440 yards hurdles (23rd).

If 1965 was a good year for Graeme Grant, 1966 was even better.   His pb was hacked well down, he ran in the Empire Games in Jamaica and should have had a share in a world record.   If we start at the beginning, there had been several inter-club fixtures for Dumbarton in the track league early that year, but the first competitive appearance fro Graeme was at the Glasgow meeting at Scotstoun on 23rd May when he was second in the 440 yards in 50.6 seconds.   He was unplaced at Westerlands in the West Districts the following Saturday, but only because he was racing in a top class field south of the border.   In the British Games in London he was out in the 880 yards with his performance heralded in this report:   “JP Boulter provided his finest run for a long time, leading from start to finish for a victory in 1:47.9 – the second fastest in Europe this season.   He held off an unexpected but highly impressive challenge from GD Grant, the Scottish runner who finished second.   Grant, a surveyor from Helensburgh, was one of the least considered runners at the start but 1 min 48.2 sec later he had forced himself right into the selectors’ reckoning and taken some powerful strides towards Scotland’s Empire Games team.”    Strangely enough, for all his very good running, Grant never won a GB vest but on 22nd June 1966 he ran in a British squad which broke the world record for the 4 x 880 yards at Crystal Palace in London.   The team, pictured at the top of the page, was Graeme Grant 1:49.5, Mike Varah (1:48.9), Chris Carter (1:48.0) and John Boulter (1:48.2), was timed at 7:14.6.   Unfortunately, after winning the race, the team was disqualified because a false time as called out (unofficially) to one of the runners.   The race was clearly one, none of the runners infringed any of the rules but they were disqualified by an example of “officialdom gone mad”!    There was a letter from Menzies Campbell in the “Glasgow Herald” two days later in which he complained that the BBC had altered the programme for viewers on the 22nd with the result that viewers in Scotland could not see the athletics in which there was ‘considerable interest in the fortunes of GD Grant’.   BBC Scotland had decided at the last minute to show show-jumping from Ingliston rather than the Crystal Palace event which was seen by the rest of the UK.

 Graeme took another giant step in the direction of Games selection in the SAAA Championship at New Meadowbank on 26th June when he won his second national half-mile title.   “GD Grant has settled all doubt in my mind as to who is our best 880 yards man by beating RT Hodelet and M Maclean with two yards to spare.   At the bell, Grant was timed at 53.8 seconds and appeared to have no fears of a break by anyone at that stage.   With 220 yards to go those three were clear of the field, and for the rest of the race the respective gaps of two yards and a couple of feet stayed the same.   How Maclean was timed at 1 min 51.2 sec behind Hodelet’s 1 min 50.7 sec when he went over the line virtually on his shoulder only the timekeepers can tell.”    Grant’s time was 1:50.3.   Having run a fast 440 and 880, the following week at Gateshead, on 29th June,  he finished third behind John Whetton and John McGrow in a 1500m in 3:46.6.

On 9th July at the AAA’s championships, Grant finished sixth in the final in 1:50: the race was won by Irishman Noel Carroll in a championship best performance of 1:48.0 with Chris Carter and John Boulter second and third.   By the end of the month it was back to ‘auld claes an’ parritch’ for him when he won the 880 yards at Gourock Highland Games from Duncan Middleton (off 10 yards to Grants scratch on the starting line) in 1:54.1.

At the start of August he was in Jamaica with the Scottish Empire Games team, listed to run in the 880 yards and Mile.   Second in the fifth heat behind L Yearwood and ahead of Ralph Doubell, he went through to the semi-final in a heat won in 1:50.  The semi-final was another story and he could only finish eighth in his semi-final.   In the Mile, he won through to the final by running his heat to finish fourth in 4:10.1 but did not finish the race when he got there.

By the end of the year he had bests of 49.8 for the 440 yards run in Birmingham on 2nd July which ranked him ninth,  1.48.2 for the 800m (Birmingham 28th May) which topped the list,  and for the 1500m 3.46.6  which placed him second (behind McCafferty) and a Mile time of 4.07.8 6.

There was a slight drop off in performance in 1967 – not surprising after the ‘high’ of 1966 – no records, no championships and no ranking topping performances either.  However, he had run cross-country that winter being part of the Dumbarton AAC team that won the Dunbartonshire County relay championships over the unforgiving trail at Clydebank on 8th October.   The following Tuesday in the invitation mile race at the inauguration of the Westerlands floodlights, Graeme was second to Hugh Barrow in 4:16.5, two and a half seconds behind the winner.  At the very end of the month – 29th October, Grant ran the lead-off leg for Dumbarton AAC in the Midland District Relay Championships at King’s Park in Stirling and the team had a hard battle for third place with his team mate Bobby Mills outsprinting Graeme’s rival Dunky Middleton of Springburn Harriers for third place.   On  19th November Graeme ran in his first Edinburgh to Glasgow Realay.   He was on the first stage and finished tenth – one place and three seconds behind Ian Binnie of Victoria Park.   Two weeks later, 3rd December, he was second in the Dunbartonshire Championships Strathleven, 44 seconds behind Ian Donald (Clydesdale) with Bobby Mills third.  At Bellahouston Park on 21st January he finished an excellent 17th in the Midland District Championship – one place ahead of Allan Faulds, two ahead of John McLaren and leaving such athletes as Bill Scally, Tommy Patterson, Albert Smith, Alastair Johnston and many others well behind.   A very successful winter season on the roads and over the country leading into the summer of 1967.

Starting the summer with a 440 yards in an inter-club with Forth Valley and Dundee Hawkhill at Grangemouth  on 22nd April he won the match event in 51.4:m  he was only second across the line however since Mike Maclean, running as a guest, ran 51.0.   Nevertheless it was a good start to the season.   Having had a good under-distance run, he then ran over-distance at Durham on 6th May turning in a time of 4:10.7 for the Mile when finishing second.   The Glasgow Championships were held on 20th May but Graeme Grant was further south- running in an 880 yards at Huddersfield he returned victorious.   the report read: “GD Grant (Dumbarton) made an encouraging foray into England on Saturday by winning the 880 yards in 1:55.7 at Longwood Harriers floodlit meeting in Huddersfield.   With 220 yards to go, A Simpson, the British mile champion, and Walter Wilkinson, another four minute miler,   made a battle of it round the bend.   Into the home straight these two left just enough room in  the inside room for someone of Grant’s width to squeeze through.   The uncompromising Scot made room nicely and finished a fifth of a second ahead of Simpson.”   Back home and on 30th May he won the 440 yards and 880 yards events at the Dunbartonshire County Championships in 51.5 and 1:55 respectively.

He had to move up a gear for the home countries international at Grangemouth on 10th June when he faced Olympian John Whetton in the half-mile and finished second in 1:52.6.   On 17th June he was back at his happy hunting ground of Moorcroft Park in Renfrew for the Babcock & Wilcox Sports and he won his heat in 1:54.9 and the final in 1:52.5 running from scratch on a grass track.   It is interesting to look back and see that our runners were running heats of the half-mile which was maybe a valuable exercise and preparation for championship racing when now, almost 50 years later, they very seldom run more than a single race in a week, never mind in a weekend and certainly never in a day!   Graeme had run well in under distance races as well as in over distance events but the real test would be in the SAAA 880 yards championship where he was looking for a third win.   In his preview of the championships, Ron Marshall in the ‘Glasgow Herald’ said:

“The 880 yards has aroused the most interest as it did last year among Scottish enthusiasts.   The holder GD Grant (Dumbarton) is one who can bombast his way round any track no matter the standard of opposition and he is not shy to let his presence be known to any rival who gets in his way.   That attitude may knock his main rival, M Maclean (Bellahouston) off his stride, only metaphorically one hopes, but there is a feeling in many quarters that this is Maclean’s year.   Not to be dismissed are AD Middleton (Springburn) who has still to consolidate on his indoor performances, and JC Douglas.”

After that, how did the race go?   Marshall again:

“As he stood modestly on the rostrum awaiting the 880 yards winner’s trophy, AD Middleton (Springburn) might have been picturing again in his mind that last 100 yards as he swept past the ailing defender, GD Grant (Dumbarton), in pursuit of the man who in everyone’s eyes was the new champion, MJ Maclean (Bellahouston).   But in Middleton’s words, ‘ Mike seemed to be coming back easily to me – it made me forget how tired I was.’   And as Middleton took the tape by two yards the stopwatches froze in a new Scottish national record time of 1 min 50.2 sec.”      Grant’s time was 1:51.2 – exactly one second down.

Running on the first night of the AAA’s Championships in London on 14th July, he ran fast enough to record a season’s best for himself with 1:51.1 but it only gave him fourth place in his heat and he did not qualify for the final, although Middleton did.   In the Land-o’Burns Trophy meeting at Ayr, which was a mammoth event with 30 events on the programme at ten clubs invited to take part, Grant finished fourth in the 440 yards in the good time of 50.5.     On the wet and soggy track at Adamslie Park in Kirkintilloch, Graeme won the half mile off a mark of four yards and turned in a time of 2:01.1 – a remarkable time on the short track with far too many tight bends for fast running.   The Edinburgh Highland Games were always an attractive fixture and in 1967 it featured an international match between Scotland and Iceland – Grant was out in the half-mile which he won in 1:54.2, just in front of Middleton who had been timed at 1;54.3.   The last Saturday in August was always the Cowal Highland Gathering with events on Friday night and on Saturday afternoon.   It was a grand meeting ending with the ‘March of a Thousand Pipers; who, having gathered out of sight of the park, traditionally come marching in formation, wave after wave of them, over the hill and down on to the track and they gather in formation in the infield: a marvellous sight.   Athletics was always of a high standard -as were the lavish expenses paid – and in 1967 Graeme was out in the mile on Saturday – McCafferty was the man though but Graeme took the field through the bell in 3:03.1 before leaving the track to McCafferty and Barrow who battled it out right to the final straight where the Motherwell man triumphed in 4:03.1.

Graeme Grant on the seventh stage of the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay, 1967

Into the winter of 1967/68 and Dumbarton AAC again won the Dunbartonshire Cross Country Relay Championship with Grant on the last stage of the race.   He switched to the first leg for the District Relay on 28th October for the club team which finished fifth.   He was out again in the Edinburgh to Glasgow on 18th November, running the seventh stage this time and was sixth fastest on the stage picking up four places from seventeenth to thirteenth.   December 2nd saw Dumbarton win the County Championships again and on 19th January, back in Bellahouston Park, Graeme was nineteenth across the finishing line in another very good run for a track specialist.   There was no sign of him running the National but a race of that distance only two and a bit months before the track season was maybe not to be expected from a man ranked number three on the Scottish all-time list for the half-mile  and number ten for the mile.

The summer of 1968 was not his most productive – possibly due to injury.    He also started running for Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and the transition to tertiary education is often a difficult one so that maybe had something to do with it.    There had been no sign of Grant in any of the early season races – he did not race at Hampden at the end of April and he missed  both the Glasgow Championships at Scotstoun and the West Districts at Westerlands before tackling the Scottish Universities Championships on 1st June.   He finished second to A McFie of Edinburgh University in 1:58.3, only one tenth of a second behind.    Two weeks later he ran in the British Universities Championships at Westerlands, on 15th June, where he finished second (1:54.6) in a tight finish to Andy Carter of Manchester (1:54.3).    University examinations would be over by the end of May and there may well be a connection between end of term work and absence from the tracks around Scotland.   This 1:54.6 was his best time of the year and only ranked him 18th among Scottish 880 yards runners for the season.   The Scottish half-mile title was won by Mike Maclean quite comfortably in 1:51.6 from Dick Hodelet.     While rivals such as Chris Carter went on to compete in the Olympic Games in Mexico in October, Graeme had to face the rigours of the Scottish winter.

It was now on to 1968/69 for Graeme Grant.   On 12th October in the DAAA County Cross-Country Relay Championship at Strathleven Estate, Grant ran on the first stage for Dumbarton and turned in the joint fastest time with Ian Donald (Clydesdale Harriers) to send his team to victory.   Not in the quartet  for the District Relay, Graeme turned out on the first stage of the Edinburgh to Glasgow on 16 November where, clearly below par, he was nineteenth of the twenty runners.   Missing the County Championships in December, he was back to form in the District Championships at Bellahouston on 18th January where he finished eighth – one place behind Eddie Knox of Springburn.

Summer 1969 was a happier one for Graeme than 1968 had been – an SAAA medal and a couple of fast runs over 800 metres and 1500 metres.   With the Commonwealth Games coming to Edinburgh in 1970, the SAAA switched to metric distances for the championships.   This had unfortunate side effects with ‘reporters’ becoming ‘journalists’ and not reporting.   eg at the end of April Heriot Watt defeated Glasgow University at Westerlands with almost the entire ‘Glasgow Herald’  article taken up with the issue of how switching to metric would confuse officials, athletes and the public.   Which is unfortunate for many of the athletes but we know that Graeme was first in the 1500m in 3:56.2 for a fairly good start to the season.   However John Cherry (Springburn) and Mike Maclean were the form men when the SAAA team for the inter-area match at Leicester on 14th June was picked.   With the absence of his name from the results columns (eg he did not run in the West or even the East District Championships, nor was he in evidence at the Scottish Universities Championships.   However when the SAAA Championships took place on 28th June he came away with the second place medal.   The race was won by Mike Maclean in 1:51.5 with Graeme almost two seconds away in 1:53.3 while Ross Billson of Ayr Seaforth was third in 1:54.2.    It was his fastest run for two years.   He was to go even faster in 1969 though.   On a tour of Norway at the end of the month he ran 1: 51.3 when finishing third in Oslo.   This was good enough to rank him third in Scotland at the end of the year.

Winter 1969/70 and there was no Graeme Grant in the Dumbarton AAC team in the County Relay or in the District Relay – he was now running for Heriot Watt in the early season relays and ran the first stage for them in the East Relay in November: the team finished 24th.   He was back in Dumbarton’s black and red for the Edinburgh to Glasgow where he ran the seventh stage.   Taking over in tenth, he handed over in the same place in equal sixteenth time.   On 24th January he finished 52nd in the West District Championships at Lenzie with the team in ninth.   Missing the national again and summer 1970 with the Commonwealth Games loomed.

The  SAAA Championships came early in 1970 – the first Saturday in June rather than the traditional last weekend – because the Commonwealth Games were to be held at the same stadium just over a month later.   Graeme had not a single result logged before the championships, he was not placed in the event and missed out totally on the great occasion.   His best run of the year was clocked at 1:54.4 to place him equal seventeenth best Scot over the distance.

1971 was to be a magnificent Indian summer for Graeme before he emigrated to South Africa but before that, with no indoor facility in Scotland, indeed there was no permanent indoor track in Britain at the time, cross-country and road running beckoned once again.  He resisted the beckoning and did not run in any of the events which mattered from county relays to national via the E-G relay.    His club affiliation for the year was noted as HWU/ESH – he had joined Edinburgh Southern Harriers, no doubt to access the extra competition at British League level that such an affiliation afforded.   How much difference these changes – no serious winter racing over the country plus change of club and possibly fresh motivation plus the impending emigration (give it one last real go!) – made is incalculable but he was rounding into his best season since 1967.

His first notable mark came in the 400 metres on 1st May in a four-cornered contest between ESH and three universities – Edinburgh, Heriot Watt and Aberdeen.   The race was won by David Jenkins in 46.4 seconds with Graeme third in 49.6.    His new enthusiasm was shown very clearly at the Scottish Universities Championships on 17th May at Pitreavie where he won the 400m, the 800m and the 1500m all on the same afternoon.   On a day of strong winds he won the 400 in 50.7 seconds from Tom Renwick (both HWU), the 800m in 1:56.5 from Frank Clement 1:59.3 – Strathclyde), and finally he won the 1500m in 4:02.7 from Stuart Easton (4:05.1 – St Andrews).   Came 29th May and in the East District Championships, Graeme won the 800 metres from Craig Douglas (ex-Teviotdale, now also ESH) in 1:54.

Proof of his continuing good running came at Rawyards Park in Airdrie at the Airdrie Highland Games on 5th June.   It was a good cinder track which the Parks Department always had in good condition for the games and many good, fast times were posted there.    In the invitation 1000 metres Graeme – now always entered as HWU – equalled the Scottish record of 2:23,3, six yards in front of Frank Clement.   He was to run this unusual distance twice more in 1971 and the Scottish Athletics yearbook had this to say about it:   “This seldom run event produced a Scottish record equalling performance by Graeme Grant at Airdrie.   He had two other good performances at Belfast and seemed ideally suited to this distance.   The stronger Frank Clement bested 800 metres runner David McMeekin in their tussle at Airdrie.”   The Belfast performances of 2:23.6 (19th June) and 2:24.1 (27th July) gave him the top three times of the year with NormanMorrison’s 2:24.3  at Belfast on 19th June being next best.

In the British Games at Edinburgh on 12th June, Graeme was third in the 800 metres in 1:50.1 behind Dave Cropper (1:49.6) and Pete Browne (1:49.8) to prove that he could still mix it with the best that Britain could offer.   Missing the SAAA Championships, Grant won the B 1500m race in the British Athletic League Division One for Edinburgh Southern in 3:49.5 on 3rd July.   In the AAA’s championships on 24th July, luck was not with him when he reached the final but could only finish eighth in 1:52.   There was a much better run from him on 31st July when he defeated Peter Stewart of Birchfield in the BAL match at Hayes in 1:53.6 against Stewart’s 56.7 – just before the European Championships where Stewart was to run in the 1500m.

Back at home on 7th August and running in the Scottish relay championship 4 x 400m he won gold along with JC Douglas, A Chedburn and A Douglas) and then won silver with the 4 x 800m team with J Raeburn, K Ballantyne, Grant and Douglas behind the Bellahouston team of Wallace, Jackson, Maclean and Clement.   In the Edinburgh Highland Games at Meadowbank on 21st August, he won the 800m in 1:50.0 from Ross Billson (1:50.3) to round off the season nicely to top the rankings for the year, being 0.2 sec faster than Billson.

He had five times in the top eight recorded by Scotsmen with another two at 14th and 21st on the season ending rankings.   It had been a very good season indeed for Graeme Grant who was heading for South Africa in 1972.  There is ony the one time in 1972 in the rankings – a 1:51.2 which was fifth best for the year.

He was a very interesting runner.   Not known for his gentle “after you, Claude” running style, he would run over someone rather than round him, he was never afraid to take on the pace, make the others dance to his tune and do his very best every time.   Most 880y/800m runners at the time did some cross-country but Graeme did quite a lot of good runs in championship races.   Where some would turn out in low key events to get some bulk into their training but avoid putting themselves on the line, he turned out in county, district and national events, he ran 2.5 mile relay legs and five mile stages of the Edinburgh to Glasgow.      It was unfortunate that he never really did himself justice in the Jamaica Games or even the AAA’s championships.   Maybe even more unfortunate that he did not get a share of a world record when the relay team was disqualified for reasons outwith their control.  He ran it, he deserved it.

Graeme Grant was a very good runner.