Uncategorized – Page 101 – SCOTTISH DISTANCE RUNNING HISTORY

The Universities E-G

Posted on September 11, 2015 by The Author

. . .Fergus Murray to G Evans, 1964

The Blue Riband of the Scottish winter season was undoubtedly the eight stage Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay. Started in the early 1930’s and suspended during the war years, it started up again n April 1949 and the first University teams to take part were Edinburgh and Glasgow. Other teams to compete were from Strathclyde University, Aberdeen University and St Andrews University. Both Edinburgh University and Glasgow University took part in 1954 and they were the only two to run in the event until 1959 when St Andrews entered a team. All three took part until 1964 when both Strathclyde and Aberdeen brought the number of university teams in the race up to five – or a quarter of the total. When St Andrews finished 20th and last in1965, they dropped out until 1972. The remaining four teams continued to turn out until that year when Aberdeen dropped out for a year.

Other than Edinburgh University (17th in 1988, and 17th again in 1991, there were no teams from any of the Universities after 1986 – and the newer establishments such as Dundee University and Heriot-Watt University did not take part at any time. The respective totals for appearances in the race were: Glasgow University Hares & Hounds 30, Edinburgh University Hare & Hounds 34, Strathclyde University 13, Aberdeen University 9, St Andrews 9.

Medals were won by Glasgow University for third place in 1960 and 1962 and by Edinburgh University for second in 1964, first in 1965, 1966 and 1967 and third in 1969.

The best university team ever to have taken part is universally accepted to be the Edinburgh squad from . . . . . the mid 60s. The team is profiled by Colin Youngson here and the Glasgow squad is here

Glasgow University was the first university to win medals in the race. The 1960 race was won by Shettleston Harriers from Bellahouston Harriers with the students third – Colin Shields in his centenary history of the SCCU commented on the good runs from Douglas Gifford and Calum Laing but the truth is that the whole team ran well. Jim Bogan was twelfth on the first stage and Calum pulled them up to fourth with the second fastest run on the second stage, only Joe Connolly of Bellahouston was faster and then Ken Rogers (second on the stage) moved up to third. WS Hunter (third fastest) dropped back to fourth and the place was held by J Gray (seventh fastest) and Douglas Gifford (fourth fastest on the long sixth stage) before Dick Hartley on the seventh stage moved up to third with second fastest and then Tor Denstad ( second fastest on the stage) held that to the finish. It was a very good team performance to get in among the medals. In 1962, the performance was again a superb team effort : Dick Hartley was fourth on the first leg, Calum Laing ran the fastest time on the second stage and moved up to first place with Jim Bogan on the short third stage losing a place only to the day’s fastest time to hand over in second. Gifford held the place with fourth quickest on the stage, followed by Ray Baillie who dropped to third, although he did run the fourth fastest time on his stage. Allan Faulds (fourth fastest), Cameron Shepherd (third) and B Scott ( eighth) held third to see the bronze medals safely going back to Westerlands.

Start of the race in 1960: Jim Bogan of Glasgow fourth from the right with Robert Clark of Edinburgh fifth from the right

If the GU H&H efforts were good, Edinburgh University was quite outstanding and they were in fact the best cross-country and road team in the country in the mid to late 60’s. Their progress had been steady – 10th in 1960, 9th in 1961, 8th in 1962, 5th in 1963 – and then an excellent second in 1964. The heroes were Alistair Blamire (4th), Fergus Murray (1st), G Evans (1st), Jim Wight (4th), Chris Elson (3rd), Roger Young (4th), Frank Gamwell (3rd) and Ian Young (2nd). Murray and Ian Young had fastest times on their stages. Going in to the 1965 race, they were slight favourites but Motherwell YMCA with the Brown brothers, Ian McCafferty. Bert McKay and Dick Wedlock and many very good support runners had won the race three times in succession and were well capable of winning it again. However, it was not to be for the Lanarkshire team – it was to be the first time that a University team had won the big race. The ‘Glasgow Herald’ said:

Edinburgh University have done it at last. With a team of eight green-vested, grim faced stoics they hurled Motherwell YMCA’s efforts to the ground on Saturday in the Edinburgh to Glasgow relay race, and in so doing set a wonderful race record of 3 hr 36 min 32 sec, more than seven minutes faster than the previous best time, set by Shettleston Harriers in 1961. In second place were Motherwell, 80 sec behind, and third were Victoria Park, their best performance since 1959.

How easy it would be to say that Motherwell, the holders since 1962, were beaten because they were weak in two of the stages. Certainly on the third and fifth legs they allowed the reins to slide disastrously through their fingers such was the lethargic response from their two men. But the truth is that the students were solid in every department along the course, with perhaps the exception of W Allan on the third leg. So superior were they that on six of the eight legs they had better times than Motherwell’s runners, a fact that gives a more realistic reason for the Lanarkshire team’s demise.

Two athletes were outstanding. AF Murray (Edinburray (Edinburgh University) and Andrew Brown (Motherwell). The former, given a lead of 80 yards over WH Barrow (Victoria Park) and one of about 180 yards over I McCafferty (Motherwell) on the sixth stage from Forestfield to the Airdrie War Memorial (seven miles) wound himself up and pounded over the distance at an average speed of 13.4 miles per hour. That killed off any vestige of a challenge from the two others and Murray gained another 38 seconds for his club over Motherwell. At a mile an hour slower, Andrew Brown had given chase earlier – on the fourth leg – to an out-of-sight A Smith (Victoria Park) who had been given a good lead on the field by P Maclagan. Inexorably Brown gave himself a clearer view of of his quarry and at 1:05 pm, going through Bathgate – halfway to Glasgow – he put Motherwell in the lead. That had been indeed an excellent recovery by Brown.

Edinburgh University went into the lead on the next stage when F Gamwell caught up with and overtook W Marshall. Gamwell appeared to be suffering from a stitch about half a mile from the end of his stint but he still managed to give Murray a handsome send off. “

A good account but maybe a bit harsh on Allan (after all he was third fastest on the stage), Poulton (fourth fastest on the third stage for Motherwell) and Willie Marshall (fifth fastest on the fifth stage for Motherwell. Given that the Hare & Hounds broke the old record by over 7 minutes and Motherwell were more than five minutes inside that record, no one in either club could have been pulling less than their weight. However, it was a top class run however you look at it and a first for any University team.

But Edinburgh University was not yet done with the E-G. They won again in 1966. This time the reporter is Colin Shields in his fine book, “Whatever the Weather”:

“They achieved their second win with another fine display of consistent team running in a time of 3hrs 36min 53sec – just 21 seconds outside their own record. They produced four of the eight fastest stage times with three of the runs being in record time. Alistair Blamire equalled his own first stage record; Ian Hathorn set a new record of 21 min 05 sec on the hilly third stage; Jim Wight was fastest on the seventh stage with his run of 28 min 10 sec and Chris Elson took nine seconds from the final stage record with his run of 28 min 21 sec to bring Edinburgh home to a clear victory. They finished almost three quarters of a mile ahead of Victoria Park with Motherwell YMCA finishing third, just four seconds ahead of Aberdeen AAC.”.

There’s an old saying that everything goes in threes. There is usually nothing to it of course, but in the case of Edinburgh University H&H and the Edinburgh to Glasgow it rang true. They won it again in 1967. Ian Hathorn was eighth on the first stage and the team worked its way through the field so that at the start of the fifth stage they were in first position and they never went back at any point. 8th to 5th to 4th to first! Remarkable. The ‘Glasgow Herald’ made it sound a bit harder than that though.

“Edinburgh University, hustled out of their stride by more than one club during the early part of the Edinburgh to Glasgow, finally came through with less assurance – and a smaller margin of victory – than when they won last year and in 1965. I suppose if it all works out right in the end, then a club’s decision on where to run their men is justified. But I would have thought that the students might have put Blamire, last year’s record breaker on the five and a half miles of the first leg, on it again. Instead Hathorn, who set a record on the four mile stage last year, did little towards lifting his team’s morale by coming in eighth in the initial leg more than a minute and a half behind the leader.

Blamire on the second leg wasted no time in overtaking Greenock Glenpark’s man and the representative of the race’s only non-Scottish club, the 9th Old Boys from Belfast. Passing the showground at Ingliston the Edinburgh runner padded along for a mile with Johnston (Victoria Park) and then shot clear of him. Blamire caught no one else after that , an indication of the gap that had developed before he received the baton.

The University moved into third place in the third leg and over the next stage Logue finally put the holders in their accustomed position by covering the five and three quarter miles in exactly half an hour. Young, Bryan-Jones, Jim Wight and Elson finished the job for an aggregate time of 3 hrs 44 min 30 sec, about eight minutes outside the record set by them two years ago.”

Everybody wants to pick the team, whatever the sport, and it’s especially simple after the event. There is no weak link in a team that wins the race. If one of your top men – and a guy who set a stage record has to be in that category – is a bit off form, then there is a very good case for setting him off first and then the others at least know the task ahead of them and can work accordingly. It is also possible of course that a runner who is in very good nick has a bad day for reasons that later become apparent – for instance one year the first runner for a team expected to be among the challengers ran really badly – he had contracted an allergy to some food that he had consumed the previous night and the result was unforeseeable. The team won, so the selectors and runners had done their job.

The team that finished third in 1969 was a very good one indeed – in running order with their place in brackets it was Jim Dingwall (3), Andy McKean (4), Dave Taylor (5), Dave Logue (3), D Glover (3), Alistair Blamire (3), J McFie (3) and R Hendry (3). They were beaten by Edinburgh Southern (with at least two former EU runners in their ranks) and Shettleston with Lachie Stewart, Norman Morrion and Dick Wedlock among those carrying the baton.

The standard of competition in the E-G was such that it took a very strong team of eight men running at or near their best to get in among the gold, silver and bronze rewards. The incentive to get a place in the race was great and clubs strove mightily just to be invited to compete. However, there was another ‘prize’ there for clubs who would not win any of the precious metals: the award for the most meritorious performance by an unplaced team. That’s what it was for: I quote: “An extra set of bronze medals will be awarded to the unplaced team who gave the most meritorious performance.” At various times these medals have been described as for the most improved team – not so. The judges responsible for deciding on the ‘most meritorious performance’ were listed in the programme for the race. Sometimes it did indeed go to the most improved team (however that was decided (was 19th to 10th better than 11th to 5th for instance?) but at other times it went to a team which in its very first appearance in the race finished fairly high up, at other times it seemed to go for consistency (eg a team that had finished say 5th, 6th and 5th in successive years). Whatever, it was much sought after. Three University teams won this medal:

in 1962 St Andrews won it after finishing eleventh – they had been nineteenth the previous year; in 1964 Aberdeen University won it in their very first year in the race; and in 1967 Strathclyde University won it after finishing twelfth, having been twentieth the last time around. These teams all had very good runners in them – the St Andrews squad included Donald Macgregor on the second stage, the Aberdeen crew had Bill Ewing on the second stage and the Strathclyde team had John Myatt occupying that position. And that’s the sum total of medals won by university teams in the race. None after 1969 but that’s not the only measure of success: great athletes like Frank Clement, Lawrie Spence and John Myatt turned out for their team regardless of the fact that the team did not have any chance of medals and so gave other students the opportunity of taking part – and incidentally gave club runners an opportunity to race against the stars over a different distance. The same is true, of course for the others – Bill Ewing for Aberdeen and Don Macgregor for St Andrews and so on.

It was a wonderful, high quality event and the whole standard of Scottish cross-country and road running dropped when it was abandoned. The University teams all added to the atmosphere and standard of the race and it is interesting that Glasgow and Edinburgh ‘old boys’ in the form of Westerlands and Hunters Bog Trotters also competed in the race – sometimes alongside the university teams.

The Atalanta Club

Posted on September 11, 2015 by The Author

Hugh C Maingay, one of the founders of the Atalanta Club

The Achilles Club was founded in 1920 for past and present members of Cambridge University Athletic Club and Oxford University Athletics Club and is a registered track & field club in its own right. The club’s website tells us that the club supports OUAC and CUAC financially and organises a programme of fixtures, overseas trips and domestic and international social gatherings. It is exclusive to the two universities although other universities have formed similar groupings – not as successful and very few, if any, as long lasting. In Scotland the equivalent was the Atalanta club. Atalanta was a character in Greek mythology who, having taken an oath of virginity to the goddess Artemis and only agreed to her father’s desire that she marry, on condition that the suitor must beat her in a foot race with the forfeit being death. Many a suitor perished in the attempt. Colin Youngson comments on the Achilles/Atalanta links:

“Since 1949, the Achilles Club has awarded annually two gold medals, for the best performance by a club member on either Track or Field. Recipients of the Track award include Roger Bannister, Chris Chataway, Chris Brasher, David Hemery and Richard Nerurkar. The only Scottish athlete to obtain this prestigious medal was Alastair Wood (Oxford University and later Aberdeen AAC), who won twice: in 1962 [when he was a close second( to that year’s European and Empire champion Brian Kilby) in the AAA Marathon; and a splendid fourth in the European Marathon]; and in 1966 [when he is reported to have run 2.16.06, and also set a new European record of 2.13.45 in the Forres marathon. For some obscure reason, the latter time has never been accepted by the SAAA, but was ratified by the AAA in 1967, and is now recognised by the Association of Road Running Statisticians (www.arrs.net) as the fastest time of the year in 1966]. Alastair was also narrowly pushed into second by Jim Alder in the AAA championships in 1967, with 2.16.21”.

Several people have contributed information about the club – which has been sadly undocumented – notably Hugh Barrow, Hugh Stevenson, Sandy Sutherland, Colin Young and Colin Youngson. Very few of the present generation have heard of it but it was an important club in its day. Colin Young has this to say. “My father who was at Glasgow between 1923 and 1926 was a member of Atlanta which in those days covered the 4 older Scottish universities ( in age order :- St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh). It seems to have been formed to act as a countervailing force to Achilles ( Oxford & Cambridge) . It was describe as “the club beyond a blue” but all you had to be was be an active athlete to join – I only had a half blue (called a green at Edinburgh!) My dad was very proud of the fact that his name and mine appeared one after the other in the life members list. I think Robin Murdoch and his son appeared in the same way too.”

Hugh Maingay leads 880y group in World Student Games, 1928

One of the founders of the Atalanta Club was Hugh C Maingay, above, a student at Edinburgh University in the 1920’s. It was a deliberate follow-on to the Achilles club and covered the four ancient Scottish Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews. The first fixture was on 31st July, 1926 at Hampden against Achilles. It was a day of fine weather and the crowd was estimated at 5000. It was a bit ambitious – Achilles turned out several Olympians such as Lord Burghley and Douglas Lowe and the Scottish Universities were defeated 25 points to 8. The report in the ‘Glasgow Herald’ read:

LAUNCH OF THE ATALANTA

The Atalanta, the new athletic club of the combined Scottish universities, received its public baptism at Hampden Park on Saturday afternoon under auspicious circumstances, as not only did the late Lord Rector of of Glasgow travel specially from London to be present, but the Achilles Club paid the newcomers the high compliment of turning out practically the strongest side at their command in the match which had been arranged to celebrate the occasion. That the home representatives did not win one of the twelve events staged was disappointing, as they were expected to take at least two, the weight and the high jump, but Dr Spark, who would have won the first, did not arrive owing to train delays until after the event was decided, while J Crawford Kerr, the Scottish high jump champion, had to leave to join his ship on the morning of the meeting. Although being so signally defeated, the Scottish students can take heart from the performances given by RB Hoole, RA Robb, DF Murnell, AD Macdonald and Hugh C Maingay. In opposing DAG Lowe in the half-mile, the last-named had a thankless task, but he ran better than he has ever done and covered the distance in a yard worse than two minutes. Macdonald’s running in the hurdles was excellent. He chased Lord Burghley all the way and was only a yard away at the tape. The South African is improving with every public appearance and his performance on Saturday was better even than it looked, as the turf seemed to be much slower than when he ran against Gaby in the international.

Hugh Stevenson’s Atalanta Vest

Good competition, good performances, but never a win. Atalanta had, however, shown that they were a good team and further fixtures were organised. The following year on 27th June 1927, the first of a series of meetings against the Irish Universities was held in Dublin. There had been many links between Scottish and Irish Universities and between the SAAA and the Irish Association too. There had been cross-country races between Dublin University Harriers and Edinburgh University Hares & Hounds in alternate years between 1897 and 1906 with the home team always being victorious and there had also been competitions with Glasgow University and Aberdeen University.

Colin Young’s Dad was one of the founder members of the Atalanta Club and Colin still has some of his father’s Atalanta apparel: for instance the scarf below was an official production that members were proud to wear away from the track.

Then of course there were the annual Scotland v Ireland internationals between 1895 and 1913. So there was a kind of inevitability about the Atalanta v Irish University fixtures. The report read

“The inaugural athletics match between Irish Universities and the Atalanta club, the combined Scottish Universities Select team from Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews and Aberdeen, took place on the sports grounds of University College Dublin in Terenure. The Irish Universities team was selected by the Irish Inter-University Committee which organised and ran the Intervarsity Championships. This new international event in the athletic life of both countries was mooted as a fixture that would strengthen the ties between Ireland and Scotland. The Scottish team included RD Allison, the Scottish Universities 100 and 220y champion, and ex-440y champion AF Clark, Scottish 120y hurdles champion RB Hoole, the Scottish 440y champion and Dr AP Spark in shot putt and discus who was a member of the British Olympic team in Paris in 1924. Based on Irish, British and world records, the Irish Times had commented a day before this contest on the backward condition of athletics in Ireland in that there were few men capable of holding their own with the front rankers of other countries. The newspaper welcomed the inauguration of the international inter-universities contest as “an important and marked advance in the development of athletics in Ireland.” In its report on the contest the Irish Times further commented “Athletics and various other branches of sport have always received a considerable amount of attention in our universities and colleges, which have given to sport athletes whose feats of skill, courage and endurance have reflected credit on their institutions … The successful launching of the international inter-universities contest should act as a great stimulus to all who have the welfare of athletics in Ireland at heart … Thus we have in this inter-universities contest a strong incentive for our ‘Varsity athletes to redouble their efforts on the training ground. And who can at the moment doubt that out of this modest beginning may emerge a regular international University contest.” The outstanding performance of the Irish Universities team was that of Sean Lavan in winning the 220y and 440y, placing 2nd in the discus, and anchoring the one-mile relay team to victory. The Irish and Scottish teams were entertained to supper. While the contest was scored on number of wins across 11 disciplines, had the contest been scored 2 for a win and 1 for runner-up as in the contest in 1929, Ireland would still have won by 29 pts to 15 pts”

The official Irish account of the meetings is contained in a lengthy and detailed pdf document by Cyril J Smith.

Two weeks later there was another match for Atalanta – this time against the English Universities other than Oxford and Cambridge. The comments in ‘The Glasgow Herald’ read as follows: “During their short life the Atalanta club have shown considerable enterprise. A year ago they introduced the famous Achilles club to the Glasgow public, their first ambitious effort as a club, and this season, having found their wings, they fixed up a programme which comprised three fixtures. The first against the Irish Universities, took place at Dublin; the second at Ibrox Park on Saturday afternoon, when a team from the IUAB, as the combined strength of the Universities of England and Wales, outside Oxford and Cambridge is termed; while the third, with the Achilles club, will take place in August. All this pioneer work is bound to have its effect on University athletics in Scotland, as there is nothing which tends to improve the standard more than matches in which the contestants compete on a level footing.”

In the match itself, the visitors won by 25 points to 20 and the stand-out performer was unfortunately not a Scot but a London University sprinter – Jack London from British Guiana who won both sprints. There were several good performances by members of the Atalanta Club but one of the best was by WR Seagrove in the half mile – he won in 2:01.6 by six yards. He also ran in the one mile medley relay which Atalanta also won in 3:37.8. Seagrove had been a competitor in the 1920 and 1924 Olympics in the 3000m team race and won a silver medal in each.

On 29th June 1929, Atalanta met the Combined English and Welsh Universities at Manchester – for the first time since its formation, Atalanta won! The meeting was reported in the ‘Glasgow Herald’:

” ATHLETICS.

First Win for the Atalanta Club.

… Ian Borland, third to Crawford in the Scottish Championships, was also returned as doing even time at the Atalanta match. ….

For the first time since the inception of the club, an Atalanta team proved successful in a match against a sister combination and their victory at Manchester over the Combined English Universities was the result both of meritorious performances and excellent team work. It should hearten them for their contest with Irish Universities at Hampden Park on Wednesday evening. In addition to his win in the 100 yards, in which he had the assistance of a slight following wind, Ian Borland ran a good quarter to win in 51 1-5th sec, one second better than his championship time at Hampden and Alister Clark must also have hurdled better for he recorded 15 3-10th sec against 15 3-5th sec a week ago. RL Howland appears to find the southern air more congenial than ours is, for he cleared 44′ 7″ in the shot putt, over three feet better than in the championships, and only three inches short of his best public performance. HC Maingay did not run as freely as usual but was consistent in that he again was under 2 min for the half-mile. ….. “

The club was doing well but it was not yet finished its programme for 1929.

The second Irish match was held in Scotland on 3rd July 1929 at Hampden, at that time the biggest terraced stadium in the world with a capacity of 130,000, which was extended to 150,000 by 1937 and only exceeded in 1950 by the Maracana in Brazil. I quote: For several of the Irish athletes this was their first experience of running on a cinder track. For Irish Universities, Dr Pat O’Callaghan (UCC), Irish Olympic gold medallist in the hammer at Amsterdam in 1928 and Los Angeles in 1932, won the hammer, shot and discus, and Michael Moroney (UCD) took the long jump and high jump for an Irish clean sweep of the field events. The ‘Flying Scotsman’, HC Maingay (Edinburgh) ran away with the half mile in 1:58.6and his compatriot Ian H Boland (Glasgow) the 220 yards. Joe Eustace (Dublin University), who had won the 100y in 1927, made it an event double in 1929. Atalanta took first and second in the 880y and the Irish Universities took first and second in the high jump and long jump. While the result of the contest was never in doubt by the time of the last discipline on the 12 event programme, the meeting closed with an epic battle in the mile relay with Patrick C Moore (Irish Universities) and Ian H Borland (Atalanta) on the final leg fighting stride for stride down the home straight all the way to the tape, Moore winning by inches. For the record, the Irish Universities won by 23 points to 13.”

Of course there were competitions against other Scottish schools and colleges and one such was that against Hillhead HS at Hughenden on Thursday 19th May in ‘a match on team and relay lines.’ The club team was described as a formidable one and included R Murdoch, M Morison, NM Glen, NA Selkirk, GP Richardson, RJW Barlow, JB Barr, GB Esslemont, AM Lapsley, JC Taylor, FR Ogilvie, AW McCosh, W Wright, AS Kitchin and DM Brander. Thre were eight events on the programme including an 880 yards team race (3 to run and 3 to count) and a one mile team race (3 to run and 3 to count). On the day, Hillhead defeated Atalanta by six events to two. Atalanta won only the mile team race and the shot putt. Complete results are in the Glasgow Herald of 20th May, 1932. The club was doing very well with members being prominent in invitation events at various open meetings around the country and entering championships under the club’s name – eg in the SAAA Championships of 1932 FP Reid won the 100 yards and 220 yards and JGD Parsons won the sprint hurdles wearing the club colours. Reid actually won the AAA’s championships wearing the Atalanta vest. The one who won most Scottish championships was Alister Clark who won the 120 yards hurdles in 1933, one year after JGD Parsons had won the same event. Clark had previously won the event in 1923 (Glasgow University), 1924, 1925, 1927 and 1929 (Edinburgh University). The event was possibly their strongest at the time and RG Muir was third in 1932.

In April 1933 they were back at Dollar again where the schoolboys won by 6 events to tw0 after the appropriate allowances were made – eg 100 yards in the mile, one foot in the high jump, five feet in the long jump. Two weeks later, 29th April, they defeated St Andrews University soundly by 38 points to 16.

On May 3rd, at Westerlands in Glasgow, they took on a combined Edinburgh University and Former Pupils Union team and the result was a tie with each team scoring four and a half points. Their best result of summer 1933 was probably the victory over the Catterick Garrison AA on 29th July by 18 to 16 1/2 points.

Other than for the Irish matches, the team did not travel outside Scotland too often – maybe for good reason! On 24th May in 1930, an Atalanta team travelled to Perry Barr in Birmingham and took on the Achilles club and the Universities Athletic Union with the result that they were third – Achilles had 47 points, the UAU 24 pts and Atalanta 6 pts. The biggest defeat ever but looking at what there was of the team, all of the big names were missing.

“The 1933 visit of Atalanta fell foul of the brewing political situation between the N.A.C.A.I., the N.I.A.A.A. and the B.A.A.B. that was to bedevil Irish and Irish Intervarsity Athletics in the 1930’s and led eventually to the removal of the N.A.C.A.I. from the I.A.A.F. as the recognised national body for athletics, the formation of a new governing body in Irish athletics (The Amateur Athletic Union of Eire), and a split in Irish athletics that would last until the formation of Bord Lúthchleas na hÉireann in 1967. The Atalanta v Irish Universities match was to have taken place in College Park, Dublin on 10 July.15,16 At the twelfth hour a telegram was received from the Atalanta Club stating that their visit to Dublin had been cancelled.17,18 No specific reason was given. However, it 3 was surmised that the Scottish team had been ordered to cancel their visit on instructions issued by or on behalf of the International Board, composed of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, as a consequence of the dispute between the N.A.C.A.I. and the Northern Ireland Association, and possibly also in retaliation for the ban on intervarsity competition imposed on Queen’s University of Belfast by the N.A.C.A.I.19 The Central Council of the N.A.C.A.I. at its meeting on Saturday 17th June, 1933 passed the following resolution to clarify its position vis à vis intervarsity athletics: “That Queen’s University, or any Athletic Club attached thereto, be not allowed to take part in any competition, tournament or match under the auspices of the N.A. and C.A. so long as they remain affiliated to an illegal body [N.I.A.A.A.], and that all Universities and University Colleges be notified of this intention. Further that no University or Athletic Club attached to a University in Ireland be allowed to compete against Queen’s University so long as they remain affiliated to an illegal body.”

University of St Andrews

Atalanta started the 1934 season with a match against Aberdeen University which they won by eight events to two – the two lost being the pole vault and long jump. JA Clarke won the 100 and 220 yards but he was the only double winner other than Ogilvie of Aberdeen.

They also had lower level competitions against schools such as Glenalmond and allowances were made for the age and experience of the athletes. For instance there was a meeting with Heriots School athletic club on 14th June 1934 when Atalanta fielded Hamish . WH Whalley, East, 2:01.0; Two Miles: A Carfrae, East, 9:55.6; 120y H: EFO Martin, Atalanta, 16.6; HJ: RKI Kennedy, Atalanta, 5′ 7″; LJ: RNM Robertson, Atalanta, 21′ 1″; Shot: T Montgomery, East, 34’7″; Javelin: T Montgomery, East, 143’7 1/2″; Relay: (4 x 220 yards) Atalanta 1:34.2 (won by half a yard).

In 1935 there was a match against Aberdeen University held, of course, at Aberdeen on 4th May which Atalanta won by 61 to 43, winning every track race including the relay.

There was another against Dollar on 25th April, 1936, and reported under the headline “Dollar schoolboys do well against Atalanta”. This one indicates the exact allowances made for the difference in ages and experience. It read:

“Fine handicapping by Mr Wm Wright contributed greatly to the success of Atalanta’s visit to Dollar on Saturday. Atalanta won three events, the Academy schoolboys two and one was a tie. JA Brown exceeded the present school record with a putt of 36 feet, and it is hoped that he will repeat his feat at the school sports next Saturday. The Atalanta ‘heavies’ demonstrated the javelin, discus and hammer during the afternoon. Results:

4 x 110 yards relay (Atalanta running four yards wide): Won by Atalanta. 4 yards. Time 49 4-5th sec

Three-quarter mile relay (Atalanta running 4 yards wide): Won by Atalanta. 8 yards. Time 2 min 48 3-5th sec

High Jump (Dollar allowed 6 inches): 1. Dollar (DV Beattie 5′ 2 1/2″, J Harvey 4′ 9 1/2″) 10′ 6 1/2″; 2. Atalanta (HM Murray 5′ 6 1/4″, AF McDonald 5′) 10′ 6 1/4″

Long Jump (Dollar allowed 3′ 6″): 1. Atalanta (HNM Robertson 19′ 8 1/4″, JM McKechnie 19′ 2″) 38′ 10 1/2″; 2. Dollar (HA Duff (19’3 1/2″, JA Brown 15′ 9 3/4″) 38′ 7 1/4″)

One Mile (Atalanta conceded 120 yards): A tie – 1. GA Smith (Atalanta); 2. R Hall (Dollar); 3. J Kerr (Dollar). Smith led by 20 yards. Time: 4 min 48 3-5th sec.

Putting the Shot (Dollar allowed 6′): 1. Dollar (JA Brown 36′ (breaking school record), K Montgomery 30′ 10 1/4″) 72′ 10 1/4″; 2. Atalanta (W Forrester 37′ 3 1/2″, J McKechnie 35′ 4 1/2″) 72′ 8 1/4″

Sure enough, Dollar had their school sports the following week and Brown putt the shot 35′ 10 1/2″ for a ne school record, but Atalanta was taking on, and beating, St Andrews University. The report explained the points awarded as three, two and one for first, second and third, that there were thirteen events, and the winning score was 48 points to 26. It also said that JC Stothard who had been named for the Olympic Games was unable to travel and compete for Atalanta. Several competitors from the Dollar match were able to turn out with the bonus of the presence of Ian Lapraik who won the half-mile.

Another week (May 9th) and they were getting the better of Aberdeen University – 61 1/2 points to 38 1/2 – with Morris Carstairs in the team this time. The only event which Aberdeen won was the 100 yards.

www.rastervect.com

Hamish Stothard, yellow cross, competing for Atalanta against Glenalmond on 9th June 1933

They met Dollar again on 24th April 1937 where, despite winning four events against two for the schoolboys, they tied on points with the Academy. The handicapping was interesting and possibly crucial to the final result – eg in the hurdles the pupils had 9 hurdles to cross compared with 10 for the students; in the Mile the school’s representatives had a 200m start; in the shot putt they had an allowance of 3 feet and in the high jump theey had 6 inches; and in the relay they ran 4 yards wide. The final score was 16 points each. The regular meeting on the first Saturday in May against St Andrews – in 1936 it was on 2nd May and in 1937 it was on 1st May, and there were weekday meetings against the SAAA (West District) – in ’36 on 1st June (West District won by 54 to 32 and the race of the night was when Jim Flockhart beat Emmet Farrell in the two miles) and in ’37 it was again on 1st June which was a Monday. There were also contests against other Universities – Glasgow was involved as was Aberdeen (8th May in 1937). The big meetings however were the internationals against Ireland.

“A further match between Scottish Universities and Irish Universities did not become possible until the rustication of the N.A.C.A.I. from the I.A.A.F. and the formation of the A.A.U.E. The Irish Universities team for the 3rd meeting with the Atalanta Club was confined to athletes from Trinity College Dublin and Queen’s University. The three colleges of the N.U.I. were excluded because they remained members of the N.A.C.A.I. Almost all of the Atalanta athletes were drawn from Glasgow University and Edinburgh University. The match took place on 6th July, 1938 at Westerlands, Glasgow University’s sports grounds, on a cinder track. Irish Universities won the five field events, three of them with 1st/2nd combinations. The individual track events were split with three wins each, although Atalanta won the 440y by default when Norman De Vere (TCD) was disqualified, after winning the race by a yard, for fouling his lane while coming up the back straight. De Vere made good his mistake by winning the 880y and by setting up an early lead in the medley relay [440y, 220y, 220y 440y] for an Irish win. Irish Universities took the 100y and 880y with 1st/2nd places. No records were set and no athlete achieved a win double. The scoring on this occasion was 1 = 3 pts, 2nd = 2 pts and 3rd = 1 pt, with 3 pts and 1 pt for 1st and 2nd in the medley relay, respectively. Irish Universities, with nine wins in the twelve events, won the match comfortably by 47 pts to 23 pts.”

1939 was a year remembered for the outbreak of war but up to that point, athletics continued as usual. On Tuesday, 30th May, Atalanta took on the SAAA (West District) at Westerlands and suffered a big defeat – 44 points to 28 – and the star of the show was Bobby Graham of the SAAA who beat J Muir (Atalanta) by 40 yards in the record time of 4:20.6 in the Mile. The club won the 120 yards hurdles (R Murdoch), the half-mile (JAM Robertson), Broad Jump (R Dickie) High Jump (W Murray), Pole Vault (A Gibson) and Discus (J Schneiderman).

The fourth meeting between Irish Universities, represented by Trinity and Queen’s, and Atalanta took place in the College Park, Trinity College, Dublin in 1st July 1939. There were seven track events including a two miles, but no relay, and five field events. This was the same day as the AAA’s championships at the White City but that did not affect the Scots who were again defeated, this time by 38 points to 33. There were nevertheless some good quality athletes out for the Scots – GM Carstairs won the two miles and was second in the half-mile, which was won by JAM Robertson who also won the quarter mile. Ian Lapraik was second in the two miles. Complete results:

100 yards: 1. GW Craigie (Irish Universities); 2. DH Sutherland (Atalanta). won by one foot. 10.2. 220 yards: 1. GW Craigie (IU); 2. JM Barber (IU). Won by four yards. 22.6

440 yards: 1 JAM Sandilands (A); 2. HM Kirk (IU). won by three yards. 51.2. 880 yards: 1. JAM Sandilands (A); 2. GM Carstairs (A) won by two yards 2:03.2.

Mile: 1. DH McNeill (IU); 2. J Muir (A). won by inches. 4:29.2. Two Miles: 1. GM Carstairs (A); 2. I Lapraik (A) won easily. 9:54

120y hurdles: 1. EM Coote (IU); 2. P Anderson (IU). won by three yards. 15.4 (RG Eccles (Atalanta) disqualified for knocking down more than three hurdles.)

High Jump: 1. RG Eccles (A) 5’10.5″; 2. W Murray (A) 5’9.75″ Broad Jump: 1. WT McClintock (IU) 22′ 3″; 2. R Dickie (A) 21′ 7.5″

Javelin: 1. W Baillie (IU) 154’10”; 2. G Gregg (IU) 154′. Shot: 1. LH Horan (IU) 46′ 10″; 2. JGH Cameron (A) 42′ 0.5″

Discus: 1. LH Horan (IU) 123′ 0″; 2. IAM McLennan (A) 117′ 10″

It was a close run thing with the Scots having first and second in half mile, two miles and high jump, plus a victory in the 440 yards with the mile only being won by inches. There is a short video clip of this meeting at

www.britishpathe.com/video/universities-sports-in-dublin

This was the last in the series before the War, the next would be on 12th July 1969.

The progress of the Atalanta Club had been remarkable. Founded in 1925, it had quickly gained an honourable position in Scottish athletics and had included in its ranks many top class athletes including Scottish and British international athletes, World Student Games competitors, AAA and SAAA champions, and at least two Olympians in JC Stothard and WR Seagrove.

University of Glasgow

The club was clearly active after the ’39-’45 War with John Hart, who had won the 120 yards hurdles in the green of Edinburgh University in 1946, ’47, ’48, ’49 and ’50 going on to win the titles in 1951 and ’52 as ‘RAF and Atalanta’. The club had started up again and there was a Scottish record for the half-mile set at Pitreavie on 30th June 1955 in the SAAA v Atalanta at Pitreavie. The half mile record was set by Donald Gorrie running for the SAAA. As for the actual contest, Atalanta won by 54 to 46. Their victories came from JRG Robertson (100y 10.4, 220y 22.9), JB Paterson (440y 49.6), W Hunter Watson (Two Miles 9:22.8), CAR Dennis (120y hurdles 15.6, 440y hurdles 56.3), RM Stephen (Long Jump 20′ 10″, Hop, step and jump 44′ 08″) DWR MacKenzie (Javelin 195′) and the relay. The club had its own vest – white with blue and gold bands.

There doesn’t seem to be a regular programme of meetings as there was pre-war but what there were seem to have been high profile matches.

For instance, on 15th April 1961 at Westerlands it was like old times with Achilles v Atalanta. This match was arranged for the opening of the new 440 yards track at Westerlands. It was a big occasion – the track had cost £8000 and all the dignitaries were there – the Principal, Sir Hector Hetherington, who welcomed the track and the opportunities that it created and added said that more ground was needed at Gilmorehill – 30 or 40 acres of it! Douglas Weatherhead, President of the Sports Club replied to the speech and the Principal was presented with a putter by by Miss Ann Miller, the Club’s vice-president. Norris McWhirter said that were more seating to be provided there was no reason why international fixtures could not be held at Westerlands. …. all this and the spectators had portable radios to keep in touch with the score at Wembley! The meeting was sponsored by the ‘Glasgow Herald’ which reported as follows:

“GROUND RECORDS AT WESTERLANDS: Achilles defeat Atalanta. Seven track and field ground records were broken at Westerlands on Saturday in a meeting sponsored by The Glasgow Herald, which followed the official opening of Glasgow University’s new blaes running track by the principal, Sir Hector Hetherington. The meeting consisted of a 16 event match between Atalanta and Achilles, which the latter won by 55 points to 47, a five event women’s contest which the Scottish Women’s Athletic Association beat a Scottish Universities team by 29 – 6, and two invitation events.”

The invitation events were a 100 yards race in which MG Hildrey won in 10.2 seconds from G Cmela (London AC) and A Meakin (Thames Valley), and a mile which Graham Everett won from T Ceiger (Achilles) and S Taylor (Manchester AC) in 4:12.8. The records were set in the shot by D Harrison (Achilles) with 52’9″, JM Parker (Achilles) in the 120 yards hurdles with 14.9 seconds, MC Robinson (Achilles) in the 440 yards hurdles with 55.4 seconds, D Stevenson (Achilles) and JR McManus (Atalanta) both cleared 12′ 5.75″ in the pole vault, CJ Bacon of Achilles threw the javelin 203′ 11″, Graham Everett in the Invitation Mile and the SWAAA Women’s 4 x 110 yards relay team. The best race of the afternoon was however one not yet mentioned – the Three Miles match race between Alastair Wood and DM Turner in which they ran together until the back straight of the last lap when Wood moved clear to win by 50 yards in 14 min 16.6 sec. Another familiar name on the programme was Adrian Metcalfe (Achilles) who won the 100 yards in 10.6 seconds from A Millar of Atalanta.

What was to become an annual match between Atalanta and the SAAA was held on 8th July, 1961, at Pitreavie where the SAAA won by 76 to 43 points. It was a good afternoon’s competition with the star of the show being Mike Hildrey who won thee events – the report in the ‘Glasgow Herald read: “Against a strong wind, Hildrey won the match 100 yards in 10.5 sec, narrowly beating his clubmate RW Whitelock. In the invitation event, run when there was less wind, he was a more comfortable winner, beating Whitelock by two yards in 10 sec, and his victory in the invitation 220 was even more pronounced with J Bender (Germany) three and a half yards behind. The SAAA relay team of three VPAAC members and GA MacLachlan (St Modan’s) beat the record held by Victoria Park by 0.1 sec in 42.5 sec. Another fine performance was achieved by Lt D Earle (United States) who cleared 14′ in the Pole Vault. His chances of a British title are bright for no other athlete has vaulted as high this season. R McKay (Motherwell) and KD Ballantyne (ESH) covered the last 20 yards of the mile almost together and finished in the same time, 4 min 17.3 sec, though McKay was judged to have won. AF Perkins (Ilford) set the pace in the Three Miles with AJ Wood (Aberdeen) waiting for his chance – unusual tactics for the Scot. Wood moved up at the start of the final straight, but Perkins also finished strongly and Wood was awarded the verdict only on the vote of a majority of the judges. GE Everett (Shettleston) had no problems in the mile, despite the presence of the four Englishmen, for he easily left them mover the final 200 yards and won in 4 min 11.8 sec.”

The complete results were : –

100y: 1. M Hildrey (SAAA); 2. R Whitelock (SAAA); 3. A Miller (A) 10.5

220y: 1. A Ballantyne (SAAA); 2. WM Campbell (A); 3. A Miller. 23.3

440y: 1. WM Campbell; 2. A Robb (SAAA); 3. FW Dick (A) 50.8

880y: 1. RG Clarke (A); 2. GB Brownlie (SAAA); 3. J Turnbull (SAAA) 1:57.3

Mile: 1. R McKay (SAAA); 2. K Ballantyne (SAAA); 3. WH Watson (A) 4:17.3

Three Miles: 1. AJ Wood (A); 2. A Perkins (Ilford AC); 3. B Harbach (Tipton AC) 14:21

120y hurdles: 1. A Belleh (SAAA); 2. AG McLachlan (SAAA); 3. KR Gilham (A) 15 sec

440y hurdles: 1. RR Mills (A); 2. B Birrell (SAAA); 3. KR Gilham (A) 57.5 sec

High Jump: 1. DS Cairns (SAAA); 2. D Chadderton (SAAA); 3. A Lawson (A) 6′ 2″

Long Jump: 1. JC Lundie (SAAA); 2. C Smith (A); 3. DR McKechnie (SAAA) 21′ 10″

Hop,Step and Jump: 1. DR McKechnie; 2. HM Murray (A); 3. IG Grant (SAAA) 44′ 3.5″

Pole Vault: 1. DL Earle (SAAA); 2. NJ Brown (SAAA); 3. HM Mabon (A) 14′

Shot Putt: 1. LM Bryce (SAAA); 2. HM Mabon; 3. JL: Crosbie (SAAA) 44′ 2.75″

Hammer: 1. AR Valentine (SAAA); 2. N McDonald (A); 3. FJL Kelly (SAAA) 170′ 6.5″

Discus: 1. HM Mabon; 2. WA Simpson (A); 3. CF Riach (SAAA) 130′ 9.5″

Javelin: 1. CF Riach; 2. CR Keith (A); 3. GA McLachlan (SAAA) 186′ 9.5″

Relay: SAAA (Ballantyne, Maclachlan, Hildrey, Whitelock) 42.5 sec.

There were invitation races at 100y, 220y and the Mile.

That this meeting between the two sides was gaining in importance was indicated not only by the calibre of athlete selected, but also by the quality of the runners from outwith Scotland in the invitation events and running as guests. Alf Perkins has been mentioned, as has Bender of Germany, but among Everett’s opponents were Mike Blagrove of Ealing, a four minute miler and A Rogers of Surrey AC. The quality of the domestic races was indicated by Ming Campbell’s second place in the 220 (he also won the 440 [where Frank Dick was third] and ran in the relay), Hunter Watson’s third place in the Mile as well as all the top Scottish field eventers on display.

One year later, on 4th Jul 1962, at Pitreavie, the SAAA (62 points) defeated Atalanta (57) by only five points in a meeting where on Scottish record was broken and another equalled. “In the 120 yards hurdles GA Maclachlan (St Modan’s) broke the Scottish record of 15.3 sec by 0.1 sec. The winner, A Belleh, whose time was 14.9 did not qualify for the record as he is a Nigerian. WM Campbell (Glasgow University) equalled the Scottish 220 yards record of 21.5 sec. Other outstanding performances were a mile in 4:04.3 by M Berisford (Anglo-Scottish), and a high jump of 6′ 9″ by CW Fairbrother (Victoria Park), who just failed at 6’10”. Results:

100 yards: 1. WM Campbell (A); 2. A Ballantyne (S) 9.9 sec. 220 yards: 1. WM Campbell (A); 2. Ballantyne (S) 21.5 sec

440 yards: 1. JS Stewart (S); 2. RL Hay (A). 49.6 sec. 880 yards: 1. WB Morrison (S); 2. N Donnachie (S). 1:54.6

Mile: 1. M Berisford (S); 2. J McLatchie (S) 4:04.3. Three Miles: 1. JH Linaker (S); 2. A Brown. 14:48.3

120y Hurdles: A Belleh (S); 2. GA Maclachlan (S) 14.9 sec. 440y hurdles: 1. Hay (A); 2. R Rae (S). 54.7 sec.

High Jump: 1. CW Fairbrother (S); 2. DS Cairns (S). 6’9″ Long Jump: 1. DJ Whyte (A); 2. W Talbot (S). 21′ 1″

Triple Jump: 1. DJ Whyte (A); 2. DR McKechnie (S) 45′ 11″ Pole Vault: 1. DD Stevenson (A); 2. DL Earle (S). 13′ 6″

Shot Putt: 1. AL Sutherland (A); 2. J Scott (S). 45′ 8″ Discus: 1. G Thomson (S); 2. WA Simpson (A) 141′ 0.5″

Javelin: 1. CF Riach (S); 2. CR Keith (A) 178′ 2.5″

4 x 110 yards relay: 1. Atalanta (AJ Patrick, W Russell, DJ Whyte, WM Campbell) 43.6 seconds.

The results have been set out in such detail to indicate the progress that had been made in the Atalanta team and its standing in Scottish athletics at the time. There were now 17 events on the programme, the complete programme except for the Hammer, and both teams turned out quality athletes looking down the list there are several British internationalists, many Scottish internationalists and two GB team captains in Campbell and Fairbrother. If we even look at the third placed competitors we see names like JC Togher (100y), J Bogan (half-mile), WH Watson (mile), RR Mills (440H), P Milligan (pole vault), L Bryce (shot).

Atalanta returning from Oxford, 1963

Willie Russell in the hat and shades, John Asher on the extreme right, in front with the duffle coat is John Glennie who became secretary of Atalanta, Alick Miller is the one with his face half hidden,

Atalanta as a club did not travel very much but on 27th April, 1963, they went to Iffley Road in Oxford where the match was between Loughborough Colleges (69), Oxford University (60) and Atalanta (58). Among the interesting results Frank Dick was third in the 880 yards (1:56.6), John Boulter second in the Mile (4:00.66), Stuart Storey won the 120y Hurdles in 14.8 and John H Cooper the 220y H and the 440y Hurdles in 24.7 and 53.1. The Atalanta placings were 100y 2nd J Gibbons 10.2; 220y 3rd A Miller 22.7; 440y 2nd J Steele 50.1; 880y 2nd J Wilson 1:54.5; Three Miles: 1st M Craven 14:06.8; 3rd C Laing 14:26.4; 440y H: 3rd RR Mills 55.9; HJ: 1st G Balfour and 3rd G Shannon, both 5’9″; PV: 3rd DD Stevenson 12′ 6″; LJ: 1st RR Milles 22′ 7″, 3rd G Shannon 22′ 6 1/2″; SP 1. S Sutherland 47’0″, 2nd D Edmunds 45′ 0 1/2″; 4 x 110 yards relay: 1st Atalanta (Arthur Gibbons, Alick Miller, Sandy Ewen and Ming Campbell) 42.7 seconds.

Willie Russell remembers that after the match, Oxford told the Atalanta team that they had laid on a barrel of beer at one of the students unions. A group from Atalanta turned up just in time for the barman to open the bar. By the time anyone from Oxford or Loughborough turned up the entire barrel of free beer had been consumed and a further barrel ordered! There is a similarity here to Hugh Stevenson’s tale after the Pen/Cornell match in June 1966.

The fixture with the SAAA was repeated on 3rd July, 1963, SAAA won again, this time by 9 points – 71 to 62. This time there was a full programme of all the standard track events up to Three Miles including both hurdles distances and two relays, four jumps and four throws. The quality was again of the highest but the windy weather did not help performances. Nevertheless, DD Stevenson (A) equalled his Scottish record of 14′ 0.5″ in the pole vault and the best race of the night was said to be the half-mile where Roderick MacFarquhar (Aberdeen University, representing Atalanta) beat Anglo JE Wenk who was running as a guest – they were both timed at 1:54.2 but MacFarquhar got the verdict. At the end of the year he was seventh on the Scottish ranking list for the distance. Note too that despite the wind Fergus Murray ran a whole minute quicker than John Linaker did the previous year. Results:

100 yards: J Togher (S) 9.9 sec; 220 yards: J Togher (S) 22.1 sec; 440 yards: 1. WM Campbell (A) 49.4 sec; 880 yards: R McFarquhar (A) 1:54.2; Mile: 1. G Brown (A) 4:14.1 Three Miles: F Murray (A) 13:49.

4 x 110 yards relay: 1. SAAA 43.1; 4 x 440 yards relay: 1. SAAA 3:20.8. 120 yards hurdles: 1. A Belleh (S) 14.9 sec; 440 yards hurdles: 1. RR Mills (A) 56.4 sec

High Jump: CW Fairbrother (S) 6′ 6″; Long Jump: 1. IC Grant (A) 22’4″; Triple Jump: 1. HM Murray (A) 47′ 7″; Pole Vault: 1. DD Stevenson (A) 14′ 0.5″

Shot Putt: 1. I Macpherson (A) 47′ 7″; Discus: 1. I Macpherson (A) 134′ 1.5″; Hammer: 1. A Valentine (S) 168′ 2″; Javelin: 1. S Hill (S) 163′ 8″.

Only two years later Campbell and Murray would be competing in the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Atalanta continued to flourish through the 1960’s and Colin Youngson summarises the 1964 and 1965 fixtures.

17^th June 1964 at Craiglockhart, Edinburgh. SAAA East Districts 64; Atalanta Club 54.

East District winners included: Justin Togher, who won the 100 yards in 9.9 and the 220 in 22.5; J Convery (440 – 51.0); J Turnbull (880 in 1.58.7); Ken Ballantyne (one mile in 4.21.1); and W Hogarth (120 Hurdles in a personal best of 15.0). For Atalanta, Alastair Wood finished first in the 3 miles (14.07.4), not far in front of East’s Donald Macgregor, who set a new PB (14.09.6). Lawrie Bryce (AC) won the hammer with a distance of 174 feet 8 inches.

Hugh Stevenson tells us that he competed in this fixture in which he represented the East and was second in the high jump to D Johnston of Atalanta.

4^th July 1964 at Pitreavie, Fife. SAAA 63 points; Atalanta Club 54.

W M Campbell (Glasgow University) the SAAA triple sprint champion, and pole-vaulter Norman Foster (GU), were notable absentees from the Atalanta team. The match produced some fine races, particularly in the middle distances. In the 880, Craig Douglas (S) led from the start until 30 yards from the tape, when Scottish champion Dick Hodelet (AC) came through with a storming finish to win in 1.53.7. The mile saw a surprise defeat of SAAA champion Ken Ballantyne (S – 4.11.6) by Bill Ewing (AC) in a personal best of 4.10.6 and also Roderick Wilson (S) in another PB of 4.10.8. The Three miles featured a keen tussle between Lachie Stewart (S – 13.49.8) and Donald Macgregor (AC – 13.50.0) both times being PBs, with Mel Edwards (AC) not far behind in 13.52.8. Les Piggott (S – 10.00) won the 100 from Ron Marshall (S – 10.1) and Bernie Nottage (AC – 10.2). Crawford Fairbrother (S) won the high jump with a height of 6 feet 6 inches.

Colin Young says that he can recall “an Atalanta dinner in Edinburgh in 1964. Menzies Campbell was there – possibly in the chair and M.E.L Weir ( now deceased and possibly the last secretary) would have been there. Menzies made a mild joke that we had held the dinner 3 years after the last one to avoid debate about whether a 4 yearly one would have been quadrennial or quadriennial !

Another guest was Lord Milligan a keen supporter ( see potted biography ex google below!) and former athlete. As you can see he was a senior and respected figure in the law establishment . He was also an elder in St Giles Kirk Edinburgh which I attended during my student days in Edinburgh. The Sunday after our Saturday night dinner was communion at St Giles and the noble lord was seen sporting black eye as he processed through the kirk bearing the communion cup! I have no idea how he acquired it as I recall the dinner being quite sedate when I left!”

Wednesday 16th June 1965, SAAA East Districts 66 points; Atalanta 52.

At Craiglockhart. On a night with a troublesome wind, the performance of the night was that of A Santini, representing Atalanta who won the high jump with a clearance of 6′.

30^th June 1965 at Pitreavie. SAAA Select 80; Atalanta Club 39.

A weakened Atalanta were well beaten on this occasion. Upsets occurred in the 880 and Javelin, when SAAA champions were beaten. The former was a great race, with Craig Douglas (S – 1.51.7, only 0.1 seconds outside the Native Record) turning the tables on Graeme Grant (S – 1.52.0). The javelin surprise was brought about by A Heath (S – 201 feet) who defeated F Riach (S – 191 feet 7 and a half inches).

In the 100, Justin Togher (S – 9.9) beat Bernie Nottage (AC – 10.0). Togher also won the 220 in 22.2. In the mile, Ken Ballantyne (S – 4.07.4) avenged 1964 defeat by overcoming Ian Macpherson (S – 4.07.8) and Bill Ewing (AC – 4.08.5), who both set new personal bests. In the 3 miles, the outstanding young runner Ian McCafferty (S – 13.42.8) ran right away from his team-mate Lachie Stewart (14.06.6). W Hogarth (S) took the 120 H in 14.9. Doug Edmunds (AC) won the shot putt with 49 feet 8 inches; and also the discus (144 feet 6 inches); while his Strathclyde University friend Lawrie Bryce (AC) was first in the hammer (176 feet 4 and a half inches).

Hugh tells us that “I attended a somewhat impromptu AGM of Atalanta at King’s, Aberdeen, at the conclusion of the Scottish Universities champs on 5 June 1965, when I was welcomed to the club, having won the 120 yds Hurdles that day. Secretary Glennie was there, as were Donald Gorrie, MEL (Mike) Weir and a special guest, an elderly gent who had won Scot Unis 3 miles some time in the 1920s. “

University of Aberdeen

Hugh Barrow, Scottish and British international miler recalls a meeting on 15 June 1966 between Atalanta v Pennsylvania & Cornell Universities at Westerlands where he ran in an invitation Mile. The Americans won the match by 97 points to 83 ‘after an entertaining match in which the lead changed hands about every 10 minutes.’ The Scottish winners were Dick Hodelet (880y 1:55.3), T Patrick (Mile 4:11.9), HC Robertson (Triple Jump 46′ 10.75″) and Graeme Grant won the invitation mile in 4:07.8. There were Atalanta firsts and seconds in the half-mile and mile where the runners were M Sinclair and W Ewing. Hugh Stevenson, a regular member of Atalanta teams remembers “After the match we repaired to the tearoom upstairs in the pavilion for a feed and speeches, Mike Weir presiding. As this was before the legendary bar at Westerlands had been created, he had kindly provided a keg of beer for the athletes to help themselves to, and ‘enjoy yourselves’. I had to hold back, as I had an Inter-Honours exam the next day; it was after midnight before our bus got back to Edinburgh.”

There was also a match on 28th June 1967 at Pitreavie between Atalanta and the SAAA. SAAA won by 73 points to 45. Mike McLean won the half-mile from Dunky Middleton for a SAAA one-two, and Hugh Barrow for the Association held off Adrian Weatherhead of Atalanta in the mile. Winning times were 1:58.6 and 4:16. Atalanta victories were by Bernie Nottage (100y and 220y in 10.3 sec and 22.0), Hamish Robertson (long and triple jumps with 22′ 07″ and 43′ 07″), Douglas Edmunds (Shot 50′ 05″) and Lawrie Bryce (Hammer 181′ 11.5″).

The 1968 match against the SAAA was on June 26th at Pitreavie and was another narrow victory for Atalanta, 62 points to 55.. Colin Youngson reports that the three miles, where Blamire and Wight dead-heated in 16:05, was a farcical affair with no runners there to represent the SAAA. Lachie Stewart, the original choice with Ian McCafferty, had given notice of his inability to compete while the latter failed to appear at all. Alistair Blamire comments on the race: “Alex Wight and I were upset that the SAAA failed to provide any opposition, especially as we had taken the event seriously, tailing off our training, and were hoping that Lachie Stewart and/or Ian McCafferty would help us to achieve good times in their wake. Consequently we decided to use the event as a training run and jogged round in 16:05. It was even more annoying to be criticised by the officials who had failed to produce any opposition for us. However it probably wasn’t their fault, and I can understand that they would be a bit cheesed off, especially when I waited for Alex as he stopped to tie his shoelace.”

Craig Douglas (S) won the 880 again, as he did several times in the annual fixture. Results: 100 yards: I Turnbull (A) 10.3; 220: M Campbell (A) 21.8; 440: Iggy Moriarty (A) 49.6; 880: Craig Douglas 1:54.8; Mile: Norman Morrison (S) 4:08.8; 2nd R Wedlock (S) 4:11.6; Three Miles: A Blamire and A Wight (A) 16:05; 120yH: W Hogarth (S) 14.8; 440yH; AT Murray(S) 54.2 sec; 2nd AC Robertson (S) 54.8; 4 x 110 relay: Atalanta 42.5.

High Jump: D Beck (S) 5′ 10″; PV: DD Stevenson (A) 15’0″; Long Jump: D Walker (S) 22′ 02″; Triple Jump: D McKechnie (S) 44′ 10.5″; Shot Putt: D Edmunds (A) 47’09”; Discus: D Fowlie (A) 134′ 9″; 2nd D Edmunds 132′ 2″; Hammer Throw: L Bryce (A) 193’11”; 2nd Chris Black (S – Junior) 163’06”; Javelin Throw: D Birkmyre (A) 207′ 3″; 2nd Fowlie 198′ 04″.

Atalanta was not noted for travelling to fixtures but there had been a move that year to head south – Hugh Stevenson again: “In summer 1968 Atalanta lined up a contest v Achilles, perhaps at Oxford. I was Captain of EUAC that year but I did not merit selection. The match fell through, as it was unviable through the inability to raise teams. On the day chosen for the contest, there was a friendly match with a touring Dublin Universities team at Saughton hosted by Heriot Watt along with athletes from EUAC, including some who had been in the original Atalanta selection, who had become available through its cancellation.”

There was also a match with the SAAA a year later on June 22nd, 1969 at Grangemouth which was won by the Atalanta Club with 104 points to the SAAA’s 92. Not only was there a full programme, but there were also events for women on the programme which were not part of the match. The winners in the match events were:

100 m: B Nottage (A) 10.1; 200m: I Turnbull (A) 22.2; 400m: M McLean (A) 49.1; 800m: C Douglas (A) 1:54.1; 1500m: M Bradley (S) 3:50.1; 5000m: R McKay (S) 14:24.4; 3000m S/ch: W Ewing (A) 9:08.2;

100mH: R Davidson (A) 15.0; 400mH: A Robertson (S) 54.5; 4 x 100m relay: Atalanta 43.1; 4 x 400m: SAAA 3:18.5

High Jump: C Fairbrother (S) 6’6″; Pole Vault: W McCallum (A) 11’0″; Long Jump: H Robertson (A) 23′ 1.5″; Triple Jump: H Robertson (A) 48′ 1.5″

Shot Putt: D Edmunds (A) 45′ 11.5″; Discus: A Black (S) 133′ 10″; Hammer: C Black (S) 166’5″

There was some very good competition indeed – eg in the 400m, Ian Walker was only one tenth behind Mike McLean with Ross Bilson on 50.0, in the 1500m Alistair Blamire was only one second down on Mike Bradley with Albert Smith two seconds further back (both were Atalanta athletes); in the 5000m unplaced runners were Donald Macgregor and Alex Wight (again, both Atalanta), Ricky Taylor was only one tenth behind Robertson in the 400m hurdles. There was genuine competition all through the programme.

The final match against the old rivals, Irish Universities, took place on 12 July, 1969, at Bellfield, University College, Dublin, but in the event it was only an Edinburgh team that took part rather than an Atalanta team and the Irish report on the meeting read: “Scoring on this occasion involved all competitors – 1 st = 5pts, 2nd = 3 pts, 3rd = 2 pts and 4th = 1 pt, with 5 pts and 2 pts for 1st and 2nd in the 4  110 y relay, respectively. The star performer at this intervarsity match was Andrew Webb, the Scottish national 400 m hurdles champion. He won the 440y hurdles in 54.4 sec, the 120y hurdles in 16.0 sec and the 220y in 22.6 sec. Another Scottish visitor to impress was Alastair Blamire, the international steeplechaser, who won the one mile, covering the final 880y in 2:01.8. The match turned into a closely contested event – Edinburgh University won 8 events, Irish Universities 7 events plus the sprint relay. Edinburgh took maximum points in four events – the mile, 3 miles, discus and shot putt – while Irish Universities scored 1st/2nd combinations in the 440y, hammer, and triple jump. Irish Universities failed to field two athletes in the 3 miles. The match went right down to the wire, giving the tallymen an arithmetic Olympiad. Edinburgh University took the honours by 86 pts to Irish Universities 85 pts.”

That’s the official Irish version but Hugh Stevenson was the winner of the 120 yard hurdles (and not Webb who did indeed won the 440yH) in 16 seconds. Webb also won the 100 yards in 10 seconds – not bad on wet grass. Edinburgh University had, on the same trip a match with Queen’s in Belfast but that was a simple inter-university event.

Information about other competitions, especially post war would be of interest – for instance there are reports of some fixtures at Glenalmond in Perthshire – and will be added as and when they become available. However it seems that this competition with the Irish team in 1969 was the last ever Atalanta match. We have a comment from Hugh Stevenson: “I also attended an AGM in the Spartans Club, Edinburgh, in 1968 or 69, when Weir, Neil Campbell and Lord Milligan were among those present. One of the topics of discussion was the future activities of the club, given the age profile of some members. On a suggestion that we meet for occasional golf matches, Lord Milligan made the witty punning response, ‘Bowls to you!’

It was a club that seemed to be doing well in the 60’s but it was a time when Leagues were sprouting and clubs were wanting their athletes to compete for league points. Society was a bit more egalitarian than it had been and the elite atmosphere which at times clung to the Atalanta team was maybe a bit of a deterrent to new chaps joining. For whatever reasons, it disappeared from view in the mid 1970’s. But it might well be that the real death blow was the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh: for over a year beforehand Scottish athletics concentrated all its efforts on this fixture – and to good effect too – but it meant that fixtures of all sorts were switched around the fixture list, or in some cases dropped altogether. Top athletes were getting invitations from many sources and racing programmes were being carefully structured and monitored.

Statistician Arnold Black notes that it was an affiliated club to the SAAA in 1972, was in the handbook and the secretary was John Glennie. MEL (Mike) Weir was also a secretary about this time. In 1974 it was still affiliated but no secretary or address given – by 1976 it was no longer affiliated. The assumption has to be that it was disbanded in 1975 or 1976. There was a match between Irish Universities, Scottish Universities, Birmingham University and the BLE President’s Select in Dublin on 14th June 1977 – but it was clearly described as a ‘Scottish Universities’ team. What was the difference? Atalanta was restricted to the four ancient universities and selection was not available to the newer establishments like Strathclyde or Heriot Watt. There were also events for women in this match. In June 1993 a series of Celtic matches were organised between Scottish Universities, Irish Universities and a Northern Ireland Athletic Federation. Over the years the Scottish Universities team dwindled to such an extent that they pulled out in 2003. It really was the end.

How good was it? Well it lost more matches than it won but that’s not the only yardstick. Was it an attractive team to compete against? A look at the opposition tells us that many of the best teams were happy to face Atalanta: Achilles provided the opposition on several occasions, the matches against what were the best Irish students (= the best Irish athletes in most cases), the top Scottish teams in the 60’s and 70’s, Pennsylvania and Cornell from the USA. Did it help develop Scots athletes – there is some evidence that it did so in the 30’s and some of the athletes from the 60’s reckon it helped them by giving them another level of competition. Did it attract the top athletes? Undoubtedly. Look at the table below for the names of post-war athletes who competed for the Atalanta team – it is not a comprehensive list but an indicator of the range of talent which represented the club.

Name	SAAA champion	Scottish International	GB International	Commonwealth Games	Olympic Games	Event
WM Campbell	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Sprints
DF Macgregor	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Distance
AF Murray	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Distance
DD Stevenson	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	PV

The roll call of national champions, Scottish and British internationalists and Commonwealth Games athletes includes such as Alistair Blamire, Craig Douglas, Douglas Edmunds, Bill Ewing, WS McCallum, Mike McLean, JV Paterson, Hamish Robertson, Sandy Sutherland and many more. Among the pre-war athletes who competed for the club was Hamish Stothard – who also competed for Achilles – who was also an Olympian and GB International. It was a genuine club – it had its own vest, and many members still have and treasure their Atalanta Club vest, it had its Annual General Meeting and as several former representatives have pointed out, there were the occasional Dinners. One member reported that these were not held annually, maybe every three years or so. Lord Milligan, Scottish Solicitor General and Lord Advocate who had attended both Oxford and Glasgow Universities, was a regular guest at these. John Glennie recalls, “I remember an athletics dinner with Lord Milligan where I did the toast albeit not quite sober or confident as a very young person in front of a Lord” . There should maybe still be a place for the Atalanta Club.

Meanwhile, Colin Young has sent along a copy of the club constitution and member’s booklet for 1963 which is a wonderful document with lots of interesting facts contained therein. If you are interested in the Atalanta Club, you must have a look at this Membership Card, 1963

Atalanta Vest and Tie

Picture from Colin Young

1931: The Second Race

Posted on September 11, 2015 by The Author

THE SECOND EDINBURGH TO GLASGOW RELAY

The race in 1931took place on Saturday 25th April with the runners sent on their way at 2:30 pm by Sir James leishman. Of the previous year’s competing clubs Eglinton Harriers had not entered and surprisingly Dundee Thistle who had placed second were not forward. Five additional clubs however had entered but on the day one of them, Greenock Glenpark, did not appear leaving Beith Harriers, Glasgow YMCA Kilbarchan AC and Victoria Park to raise the number to twenty one. The Victoria Park inclusion was an interesting one as the club had only been formed the previous April at a meeting in Partick Burgh Hall.

CP Wilson of Irvine YMCA must have been very popular with his team mates when an ankle injury prevented him finishing the first stage and before halfway Kilbarchan had also dropped out leaving nineteen clubs to finish the course. Plebeian Harriers were again the winners approximately three and a half minutes faster than last time and Maryhill, capitalising on Dundee Thistle’s absence improved by six minutes to second with a vastly improved Garscube and Edinburgh Northern filling third and fourth positions respectively.

PLEBEIAN HARRIERS. R Clark 25:43; M Rayne 31:24; F Connolly 22:50; D McGhee 31:08; SK Tombe 27:53; WJ Gunn 35:16; A Ingram 30:01; J Lamond 25:24 3:50:39
MARYHILL HARRIERS. WH Calderwood 26:56; D McN Robertson 31:55; JC McNair 22:34; AW Adams 31:57; DT Muir 29:02; D McL Wright 34:43; T Blakely 29:48; D McLean 25:12. 3:52:07
GARSCUBE HARRIERS. AS Brooke 27:52; J Girvan 32:06.6; E Loudon 23:05.4; D Urquhart 31:06; RM Roxburgh 30:08; CH Blue 37:06; J Thomson 31:46; DB Brooke 25:20. 3:58:30
4. EDINBURGH NORTHERN HARRIERS. JP Laidlaw 27:04; M Stewart 31:46; J Thomson 24:00; P Addison 32:45; W Morris 29:36; W Johnstone 36:46; G Lothian 31:46; H McIntosh 25:39.
Shettleston Harriers 4:00:25
Monkland Harriers 4:02:50
Edinburgh Southern Harriers 4:04:00
Springburn Harriers 4:06:40
Hamilton Harriers 4:08:05
Bellahouston Harriers 4:09:14
Beith Harriers 4:11:16
Motherwell YMCA 4:11:26
Olympic Harriers 4:11:51
Victoria Park AAC 4:13:15
Clydesdale Harriers 4:13:33
Dumbarton AAC 4:13:54
GlasgowYMCA 4:14:25
Canon ASC 4:19:30
Paisley Harriers 4:21:08

Fastest Stage Times

1.	R Clark	Plebeian Harriers	26:43 (Record)
2.	M Rayne	Plebeian Harriers	31:24 (Record)
3.	J McNair	Maryhill Harriers	22:34(Record)
4.	D Urquhart	Garscube Harriers	31:06(Record)
5.	SK Tombe	Plebeian Harriers	27:53(Record)
6.	D McL Wright	Maryhill Harriers	34:43
7.	T Blakely	Maryhill Harriers	29:48(Record)
8.	D McLean	Maryhill Harriers	25:12

1930: The First Race

Posted on September 11, 2015 by The Author

The first running of the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay took place on Saturday, 26th April, 1930 with a 2:30 pm start. The agreed route was:-

St Andrew’s Square to

Maybury Cross (now a roundabout) 5 miles

Broxburn 5.5 miles

Wester Dechmont Farm 4.5 miles

Armadale 5.5 miles

Forestfield Inn 6.25 miles

Airdrie War Memorial 7 miles

Barrachnie 5.5 miles

Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow 5 miles

44.25 miles

With the route from Barrachnie going through Shettleston, old Edinburgh Road, Duke Street, High Street and Ingram Street.

The pre-race favourites were Maryhill Harriers and Dundee Thistle with Plebeian Harriers, Springburn Harriers, Irvine YMCA, Garscube Harriers and Bellahouston Harriers all expected to do well.

Nineteen clubs:- Bellahouston H, Canon AC, Clydesdale H, Dumbarton AAC, Dundee Thistle, Edinburgh Northern, Edinburgh Southern, Eglinton H, Garscube H, Hamilton H, Irvine YMCA, Maryhill H, Monkland H, Motherwell YMCA, Olympic H, Paisley H, Plebeian H, Shettleston H, Springburn H, entered for the race but on the day only eighteen faced the starter, Treasurer Henderson of Edinburgh (Eglinton Harriers having withdrawn and only seventeen finished the course due to the sixth Paisley runner failing to take over at the 700 feet above sea level Forestfield Inn. . The race was run in fine weather and resulted in a win for Plebeian Harriers with Dundee Thistle second and Maryhill Harriers third.

A Ingram of Plebeian led at the first changeover from Dundee Thistle, Maryhill, Motherwell, Irvine and Edinburgh Southern. There was little change at Broxburn except that Irvine were now fourth and with Edinburgh Southern fifth and Motherwell sixth. The third stage saw one of the best runs of the afternoon when H McNair took Maryhill into the lead for the first and only time. Plebeian, Dundee, Irvine and Motherwell followed. On the fourth stage, JM Petrie of Dundee and O McGhee of Plebeian overtook A Mitchell of Maryhill with Irvine, Garscube and Motherwell now chasing.

The fifth stage saw WJ Gunn of Plebeian pass WS Russell of Dundee and open up a 30 second lead. At Forestfield, Maryhill had fallen back but were still followed by Irvine, Garscube and Motherwell. On stage six, Max Rayne ran valiantly to hold off the many time Scottish champion J Suttie Smith of Dundee and led by five yards at Airdrie. Maryhill, Irvine and Motherwell were followed by Springburn recovering well from 13th at the first changeover. From Airdrie to the finish there were no changes in position with the Glasgow club Plebeian Harriers moving steadily clear to win by three hundred yards.

PLEBEIAN HARRIERS. A Ingram 26:49; AM Murray 32:37; E James 23:19; O McGhee 32:07; IJ Funn 28:17; M Rayne 34:45; PJ Connelly 30:37; J Lamond 25:35.
DUNDEE THISTLE. W Macgregor 27:07; J Brannan 32:23; J Mckechnie 23:37; JM Petrie 31:07; W Russell 29:34; J Suttie Smith 34:07; A MacQueen 31:58; WD Slidders 25:06 3:55:00
MARYHILL HARRIERS. AH Blair 27:09; DM Robertson 32:27; J McNair 22:39; A Mitchell 32:28; DT Muir 29:22; T Blakely 37:03; D McLean 31:11; D McL Wright 25:54 3:58:13
IRVINE YMCA. R Wilson 27:32; D McGowan 32:30.5; D Aldie 23:40.5; A Aldie 33:01; D Kerr 30:57; CP Wilson 36:54; D Fry 30:33; J Watson 25:48 4:00:55
MOTHERWELL YMCA. R Graham 27:30; R Maitland 33:30.5; R Simpson 23:16.5; WJ McEwan 34:48; J Archibald 30:23; JNH Gardiner 36:26; D Shaw 32:23; WH Gardiner 25:35 4:03:51
Springburn Harriers J Stevenson 28:22; J Mars 33:39.5; J MacKay 23:54.5; W Grant 33:13; G Tully 30:23; R Allison 36:52; E Campbell 32:04; A Stevenson 25:38. 4:04:06
Garscube Harriers 4:04;17
Bellahouston Harriers 4:04:47
Monkland Harriers 4:06:16
Edinburgh Southern Harriers 4:06:40
Shettleston Harriers 4:08:16
Hamilton Harriers 4:09:37
Edinburgh Northern Harriers 4:13:02
Dumbarton AAC 4:13:54
Canon AC 4:15:08
Olympic Harriers 4:15:11
Clydesdale Harriers 4:16:24

Inaugural Stage Records

1.	A Ingram	Plebeian Harriers	26:49.5
2.	J Brannan	Dundee Thistle	32:23
3.	J McNair	Maryhill Harriers	22:39
4.	JM Petrie	Dundee Thistle	31:07.5
5.	WJ Gunn	Plebeian Harriers	28:17
6.	J Suttie Smith	Dundee Thistle	34:07
7.	D Scott	Monkland Harriers	30:18
8.	FL Stevenson	Monkland Harriers	24:22

1930-39 Races

Posted on September 11, 2015 by The Author

The story of the origins of the race and the first races are fascinating for all interested in the development of the sport in Scotland and are also of interest to the general running population. Des Yuill of Maryhill Harriers and Cambuslang Harriers wrote a series of articles for the Scottish Marathon Club magazine in 1985 and 1986 covering the 1930 to 1939 period. It would be a shame for the information to disappear from the public domain so I am reproducing them here as they appeared in the magazine.

The races of 1930 and 1931 were published with an introduction by Des in October 1985.

*****

“THE EDINBURGH TO GLASGOW”

by Des Yuill

“April 1932 and Gordon Porteous comes home to win the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay for his club the Maryhill Harriers.” These are the words that opened a television documentary about veteran athletes and featured Gordon and his great friend, clubmate and rival John Emmett Farrell. It’s a wonderful little film and I have it recorded for my video and never tire of watching it. It came about three years ago and at that time I was the convener of the Edinburgh to Glasgow relay and because of that I noticed a mistake that probably most of the other viewers missed.

Maryhill Harriers didn’t win the race in 1932. They were third in 1930, they were second in 1931 and they were third again in 1933. It wasn’t in fact until 1939 that Mayhill Harriers achieved what was to be their one and only victory in the race so the photograph of Gordon running through the finishing tape that opened the TV film was from 1939 and not 1932.

It appears that the first two races were jointly organised by the Scottish AAA and the Scottish National Cross Country Union but nothing happened in 1932. When the 1933 race came round, both these bodies were again involved but a third party had appeared because even in those days our sport sought and welcomed sponsorship. The sponsor in this case was “The News Of The World” and their link with the race was to last until the mid-1970’s.

The result of this is that the “News Of The World” Trophy which bears the names of the winners would lead one to believe that last November’s 1984 race, won by Falkirk Victoria, was the 44th but historically there have been in fact 46 races in the series.

Another glaring error comes to light if you possess a copy of one of the excellent programmes which for many years were produced by “The News Of The World” on race day. They list as the first winners of their trophy Plebeian Harriers in a time of 4 hours 7 minutes 5 seconds. This was not the case. Plebeian, having won the 1930 race in 3 hours 54 minutes 7 seconds and the 1931 race in 3 hours 50 minutes and 39 seconds faced a head win in completing their hat trick in 3 hours 59 minutes 17 seconds.

So there you are, the research is hardly started and yet mistakes and errors are coming to light but surely this gives us an opportunity to set the records straight. Colin Youngson who started the ball rolling with his two really excellent articles has obviously got more to come and I’m sure that many of you could pitch in with stories and facts to keep the series running. I’ve got a lot of accurate information about the early races and to follow up Dave Taylor’s excellent suggestion we should attempt to trace the history of this last great point to point race in Scotland. By Dave’s reckoning two races per quarterly magazine would keep the E-G saga running to the end of the century. OK, if two per magazine is too slow, we could double up with two from the thirties and two from the sixties. We could watch the records unfold. Which club has won it most? Who holds the most stage records? Who has run it most? I fancied it might be Hugh Barrow but Hugh thinks Brian McAusland has run it over twenty times for Clydesdale.

I’m prepared to start with reports of the early races but I will more than welcome reports, photographs, anecdotes from all sources, so come on club historians, dig out the material. Has Colin Youngson competed for most clubs or is it Davie Lang? Which stage has had its record broken most? Which stage has altered most? That’s easy – the seventh but don’t forget the stories and if I’m starting the history, I’m also starting the tales!

Having been race convener several times and officiated numerous times let me surprise you by telling you that I’ve also run in the race (one). It was in the early sixties and I ran the fourth leg for Maryhill. I handed over to John Emmett Farrell who although in his fifties was still able to command a place in Maryhill’s team. In those days of few cars the bus for the runners was parked half a mile beyond the changeover. Just as Dick Hodelet and myself (name dropper) reached the bus we had to assist another athlete on board. Yes it was John Emmett Farrell injured and out of the race. Guess who was waiting at Barrachnie to run the last leg and perhaps break the tape and have his photograph taken? Got it? It was Gordon Porteous.

Well I don’t know who won in 1932 but I sure know who didn’t win in 1962 but that is not why I started this story!

[That’s Des’s introduction – the whole of what follows is his and I heartily recommend it in its entirety.]

1930 1931

Murder Most Foul

Posted on September 11, 2015 by The Author

The Death of the E-G

The Death of the Edinburgh to Glasgow

(aka the ‘E-G’ and ‘The News of the World’)

If the race was so popular and so good why did it die? It had everything going for it:

* The affection of runners and officials who made it the centre of the first half of the winter – this was reflected in the atmosphere leading up to the race and on the day itself. I have seen banners and special T Shirts, I have heard trumpets, bugles and drums enough to do a small orchestra and clubs with not a lot of money saved up to hire a bus of their own for the race. Every club had a difficult to get on with guy who was a good athlete – clubs made their peace with them until after tea time on the race day!

* Tradition – it had been going on since 1930 and many clubs had a long list of past performances which was kept rigorously up to date, produced weeks before the race and comparative times noted and discussed.

* As a publicity item it was without equal. One of the biggest papers in the UK had been shovelling money into it and writing it up the day afterwards and even after the sponsorship was reduced and then stopped, it was still covering the race; it was written up by other papers and the ‘Herald’ always had good detailed coverage on the Monday in particular and the ‘Scotsman’ always had the annual picture of the start inside the back page on the Monday. The publicity could never have been bought by the SCCU.

* As a spur to performance for athletes and clubs it had an entirely beneficial effect. It is easy enough to lament the passing of a separate Scottish team in the World Cross Country Championships and I have lamented and made moan with the best of them, but the loss of the E-G was at least as serious. There was a dynamism at the start of the cross country season then that is now missing. The cause? The loss of the E-G which gave a focus and an attainable target for dozens and dozens of club runners who would be stars for a day……………………..and on the same day every year afterwards when folk said “Do you mind the year when…?” Twenty clubs listing twenty runners each, twenty score Scots with an ambition at the very start of the winter. All gone.

And Why? Mainly because some officials in Edinburgh decided that it would have to go. Reasons were given but they were the sort of reasons that a tired and irritable parent gives to a particularly bothersome child. Not real reasons but with maybe a grain of truth in them. Ostensibly it was because of lack of police permission, apparently it was because the roads were getting too dangerous but both of those could have been got around. A half hearted attempt was made to find an off road course between the two cities but when there was a minor hiccup it was simply abandoned. No consultation with the clubs merely a passing of information about a decision that had basically already been taken.

If we look at the road safety aspects of the decision then two points stand right out. First almost all the runners were road runners which means that they trained and raced on roads all the time. Training daily in the streets of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee or Aberdeen had made them all streetwise to the nth degree with senses tuned to the situations that they faced day and daily. Nor were the drivers to be encountered on the roads any more good or bad than those met daily. Indeed many runners ran to work on dark mornings daily sharing the road with rush hour traffic. Second, having run in or followed the race from the mid 1950’s to the 2000’s I only knew of two traffic related incidents – one in the 50’s and one in 1960 . Two in fifty years and none in the last 44 years of the race’s existence is not a bad record. So you had well trained runners with good road sense running in a race with two minor accidents in more than 50 years. Unfortunately minds were made up at the Gyle well in advance and no doubt existed in their minds that it was a good thing to end the race.

Suggestions were made but ignored. The two main principles of the race were that the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow were involved and the race had to have only twenty invited teams. It could of course have been run backwards as it has been in the past – ie Glasgow to Edinburgh. Starting at Crown Point at 8:30 it would be clear of the crowds in Airdrie before they were even up! Ending at Ingliston would not have meant running through Edinburgh either. Or how about really radical measures like running it in the dark? Running through the night is a wonderful feeling – even I used to feel that I was running fast – and poems such as the ‘Night Runners’ have been written about it. Start it at midnight in Edinburgh. That would give us a wonderful race to have on the calendar. If you want to make it more dramatic, the men could carry flaming torches instead of batons and pass them from hand to hand. As the torch burned down the last stages would have to hurry home before it did them some damage! There’s two suggestions. If you want more I could come up with another two or three. Others could come up with more and better!

But there are people alive today in Scotland with murder on their CV.

Race Day

Posted on September 11, 2015 by The Author

So what was the actual race day like for most competitors? Well you have to remember that for clubs and runners it had been going on for some time already – like the days of Creation, race day for the E-G was not a normal day of 24 hours! For the E-G the DAY was something like 31 x 24 hours that runners, officials and supporters had been waiting for! Selection was part of that – many club committees picked the last man or two on a trial in a straight race such as the Glasgow University 5 or put them all on the first stage of the Allan Scally. Either was a great folly in my view. In such a trial the guys went head to head and I almost lost out one year to a fast finisher who just sat on me and tried to scoosh past at the finish. Others who should have been in teams missed out because of this kind of trial. One of the big things about the relay was that you were often running in the middle of nowhere and had to judge the pace of the stage from start to finish on your own, or you took over 40 or 50 yards up on the opposition and could not get carried away into trying to drop him with a fast early half to the race – you were not running against who you could see but against the entire race including mainly yourself. A proper selection would have been to put the runners all on the later stages of the Scally when it was impossible to do a straight race against your main club opponent. However, we’ll suppose that you succeeded and made the team.

It was up in the morning very early to get to the bus – or latterly your lift – for the journey through to Edinburgh. You felt cold all the way through despite being heavily wrapped. The wrapping was essential because you would be really cold after your leg if you had run it properly and would need several layers on. You might have a flask of soup or coffee or tea plus a couple of sandwiches for sustenance. If you were running third or later you could probably get a tea plus a bacon and egg roll in the cafe just along from the Flora Stevenson School at the start. (That’s another thing – you found out about the geography of central Scotland in terms of toilets available at 5 mile intervals all the way across as well as the occasional tea room. For toilets there had to be one at the start and we used to use those in two swimming pools, at least two pubs and at the start of the fourth stage there was a big cow shed that was always open on race day! It was a VERY educational race!) The atmosphere really started building when you arrived at the starting venue and met guys from other clubs: they all had an “if only…” story. eg if only Jim Anglo had been able to make it up …., if only Jim X hadn’t done in his tendon…. , if only Jim Y’s change of club had come through in time…..(guess the guy’s new club according to your prejudices!) You could hear snippets of conversation like “What shoes are you wearing?”, “Do you think it’s cold enough for a T shirt under the vest?” and so on. Then there was the enigmatic guy who sometimes ran brilliantly and sometimes like unadulterated excrement sitting quietly in the corner -was that a good sign or a bad sign? Was he getting unnecessarily worked up or was he just settling himself for a good run? The the runners were out and warming up – sometimes a runner from the third or fourth leg would do the warm up with his first stage runner. There were supporters everywhere and friends from other clubs who were there asking as usual how you were feeling were today regarded with suspicion: why did they want to know anyway? The runners for the second stage were whisked away early in their bus so that they had time to get warmed up before their start. Atmosphere mounted. The runners were lined up outside the Fettes College Gates, supporters primed their cameras and their lungs, the ceremonial baton was presented to the lead runner of last year’s winning club and the photos taken. A moment of silence and the gun was fired and the runners took off. From the start the trail went a couple of hundred yards in the wrong direction, then a right angle turn to the right, another couple of hundred yards and another right angle turn to the right and straight on to the roundabout before a lind of half left up a longish drag. I usually did nearly a pb 400 yards round that square and still had another 5+ miles to go. Young guys always took that bit too hard – I remember one year coming off the roundabout in about 12th place with young Davie Tees of Springburn in front and Eddie Sinclair shouting at him to steady up a bit but not in those terms! I had him before the second drag. Many young runners – Fraser McPherson of Vicky Park was one and a whole host of University men – were guilty of this. With even minimum experience you knew the opposition and how you were going to run it anyway but sometimes you were thrown what the Americans would call a curve ball. The organisers were guilty now and then of putting in foreign teams and composite teams as a novelty! One year there was a Scandinavian collection and another there was an American group known collectively as the Kangaroos who were composite teams, then there was the Irish Achilles team with the Hannon brothers running; there were teams representing the North of Scotland and one year there was a team of eight good men and true whose clubs would not make the race but they were united to make a composite team. They complicated things a good deal at times but since Scottish athletics is basically predictable in terms of race outcomes they provided a welcome challenge. That typifies the E-G feeling: delight that you were running, dread that you might not be up to the challenge, and a superb feeling of exhilaration if you knew that you had run well and not let anybody down. The E-G was no place for bottle merchants!

The atmosphere was such that you had to really concentrate on doing your own running – if you heard what the supporters were saying you were not doing your job. The first time I ran I was like the rabbit caught in the headlights and didn’t even know where I was placed at the changeover. I thought I was last but I was actually thirteenth or fourteenth – there was no idea how that many people got behind me. They must have hidden up a close (or since it was Edinburgh up a common entrance!) until I passed. You had to be conscious of cars hooting, a lonely bugle blowing more to give the blower something to do to relieve his tension than to encourage someone specific, cars with ambitions to be barbers shaving your legs, the confusion of ordinary Edinburghensians and a general feeling of chaos and you were at the centre of it trying to keep your pace going, keep your awareness of the opposition and NOT BLOW IT. One year I was running five or ten yards adrift of Alex Brown with about two miles to go when Andy Brown appeared at the kerbside shouting to Alex “Two miles to go – nine minutes running!” Well it would be more for me but it meant that the finish was near and if I could relax and work a bit maybe I’d be done in just over 10 minutes. It was a superb but terrifying ordeal and it was the best feeling in athletics to be racing in the E-G! As the first runners came to the one mile to go sign just before the top of the road up from Barnton the first jogging spectators were to be seen – every club had runners who hadn’t made the team but wanted to be part of it out there jogging and shouting and sweating and sometimes swearing at their man – before coming over the top and swooping down the hill to the finish. If you were running well it was a wonderful finish to your leg. Your man there, facing forward but looking backward, club men telling him you were coming when he knew fine well that you were coming. Then crossing the line and before you could do anything for yourself someone would throw a coat, jacket, blanket over your shoulders and march you to the nearest club car unless you could persuade them to let you get your tracksuit from the bus first. Then it was onwards getting out every mile or so to encourage your team mate who wouldn’t actually hear what you were saying but would at least see your encouraging presence!

Joe Connolly with fastest time for the first stage in the post war series handing over to Tommy Mercer in 1955:

Joe McGhee Shettleston) and Pat Younger (Clydesdale) waiting for their runners to arrive.

The second leg runner would travel to his starting point before the first stage started to do his own warm up and get his head right for what was to come. Word would come through that Hamish on the first leg was running a blinder and well up there in the first three or four, then someone else would rush up to let you know that Hamish had totally lost it and blown up (the stupid b*gg*r had started too bl**dy fast as usual!), then just before they arrived over the top of the hill the news would be that he had just come through a bad patch after a good start and was now working his way back through the field. The net result would be that the guy you thought would be eighth or ninth was actually ninth or tenth. You watched your man come in, the sweat was more nerves than anything else, you were clocking where the opposition was (“Damn it he’s 40 yards up on Vicky Park – he should know it’s better for me to be 40 yards down for the handover”), getting a final pat on the back from a club member (why was it only the E-G that inspired folk to pat each other on the back? Scots don’t do pats on the back!), throwing your last top away anywhere when the baton was within reach and then you were in business. There were two lots of people on the second stage – those who deserved to be there as of right like Ian Stewart and company and those who were their club’s last best hope. The former group all knew each other well, had a healthy respect for each other and ran in a confident purposeful manner; the others ran with panic as a companion. Their one real though was please don’t let me be last. Was that Lachie Stewart still warming up for Vale of Leven and starting behind me? More bugles, more club banners, more buses – and more miles for each runner. There was an added issue for the second stage runners – it was A for Anglos! There were several categories of Anglos in the race – those like Hugh Elder of Dumbarton, Bill Kerr of Victoria Park or Jim Dingwall who had gone South for employment or studying and came back for the event and they were OK, there were guys who were bona fide Scots with a longish connection with a Scottish club like Jim Alder at Edinburgh AC and then there were the guys who popped up one year from nowhere and the from time to time for the E-G – guys like the aforementioned Ian Stewart who had no known connection with Aberdeen before he turned up one year to run for them. Then there was Ian McIntosh (or was it Ian McMillan?) who ran occasionally for EAC? I spoke to this guy on our bus who was cheering on one of the Knowles twins but when I asked him which one it was he confessed he didn’t know because he only came up once in the year. These guys were not welcome but when a strange accent was heard at the start of the second leg the question was, was he as good as his running suggested at the start of the run or would he come back later? There was no way of knowing and it also added to the challenge of a race situation that was out of the control of the runner himself.

By now the race was starting to stretch out a bit and there was a rule that any club half an hour behind the leaders would be pulled from the race and although I can only remember one club actually being removed it was a threat. Stages three and four would probably determine in which quarter of the field your club would finish. There was always a temptation to put your weakest runner on the third stage because it was the shortest but there were problems there too – if the weakest runner was in a position where he would have to retrieve ground lost on the second stage, would he be up to it or would the gap be increased to uncatchable proportions? If the weakest runner didn’t run well on hills what would he be like on the severe undulations of the stage? Would it not be better to put him on the seventh? The pressure was still on although the race traffic had thinned out a bit by now, clubs were running in groups and it was possible to make good progress while you were still in the first half of the race. Club officials, supporters and runners who had already done their stint would have watches out, calculating distances between the clubs, deciding whether their man could get the club in front. Whether they thought so or not, they would tell the athlete that he could get his man easily!

The third was important because it was really the last chance for clubs down the order to get back on terms with the main body of the race before the back of the race was broken by the fourth and fifth stages. Like the first stage, there were four fairly serious gradients on the third one and a couple of difficult road junctions. So the runner was doing his best with a diminishing number of cars and supporters vehicles around – for most clubs the first three or four were well away and the officials were wanting to see the front runners. However every group of runners produced a real race. Maybe there were just three or four clubs swapping places but their members were all hoping their squad could make a break and start chasing the next group up. You would pass a carload of supporters from another club that you knew well and they would look at their watches, look at you, look back at their watches and shake their heads. Then you counted the lamp posts until they started cheering on their own man trying to estimate the lead you had on him. Your own men were at the side of the road at least every half mile shouting encouragement trying to give you information that you couldn’t take in. There was no opportunity at any point to just relax and get on with the running. In all the races I ever ran or watched I only once saw a club official having a go at a runner immediately after his run and that was at the start of the fifth stage when the runner was standing exhausted leaning his back on the boot of the car with this fellow haranguing him for not trying hard enough. It was a bit if a disgrace but the supporter was really feeling the pressure and was no doubt getting some therapy from the situation. Another indication of the strength of feeling engendered by the race.

Supporters everywhere – like every club the Trotters tried to be everywhere!

The fourth was usually the third man in the team racing other third men in teams. It was mainly downhill on good surfaces and lots of spots for club cars to stop and help you on your way. There was a huge temptation on this one to go too fast at the start and club support was no help to sensible restraint! The fifth was so exposed – like Rannoch Moor with the rain but without the hills. Whatever weather was going, you got it in spades. Supporters cars tended to be fewer and further apart then on other legs and when you passed them then there was always someone drinking tea from a flask. What didn’t change on either stage was the wee groups of athletes and officials from the opposition .looking at their watches, shaking their heads muttering to each other and generally trying to psych themselves up and psych you out! When you came to the One Mile To Go sign there was a slight turn to the left and the open road seemed to keep going for ever. The relief at the Forestfield Inn was most welcome – goodness only knows what Hughie McErlean thought when his man wasn’t there and he had to keep going for another seven miles!!!

The good thing about the sixth stage was that it was all downhill, the depressing countryside that you ran through didn’t change that at all, the bad thing was that it was seven miles all the way to the War Memorial at Airdrie. Because it was the longest in the race and because the club had one of its very best men on the stage, support was massive throughout this stage! Cars every mile at most, runners jogging along the road between car stops not letting you slack at all, pedestrians in Airdrie, prams in Airdrie, umbrellas on wet days in Airdrie. In 1962 there was even snow in Airdrie with cars abandoned in the main street so deep was the snow. That was the year that Tom O’Reilly said that it was not so much dedication as sheer bl**dy stupidity and who is to say he was wrong? Because of the long bend round to the finish there were often runners jogging on and off the pavement that the racers didn’t see until the last minute and there was a real danger of running into them as well. The support continued, the trumpets continued, banners were still to the fore, clubs that favoured warpaint were still extant. And that trumpet, bugle or whatever it was still disturbed the peace.

The seventh was in many ways the easiest stage – that is a relative term, there was not in any way an easy stage in this race – because it was so far into the race, your general finishing bracket was determined and if you did blow it ever so slightly there was a man running last. It was a good stage on which to ‘blood’ young runners. The bad news was that you passed through Coatbridge. I remember one year passing the five pubs opposite the War Memorial (they had one too) when a drunk approached me and asked for a light. I ignored him and his next remark was “Away ye go, ye baldy yonk!” I didn’t mind the yonk, but baldy? I managed a smile when he swung his boot at me, missed and fell on his back. Not a club supporter there when you need one. It was very important for the club that it finished in the first fifteen to ensure inclusion next year in the race. There was one year when I had the job on this stage and pulled the team up from sixteenth to fifteenth by using what was by then a very auld heid to pull in 2 minutes 45 seconds on the Law runner ahead.

The first year I followed the last stage in the club bus we were well behind Springburn but when we passed Tommy O’Reilly Pat Younger opened the door and looking back past Tommy shouted “Come on George White!” George was nowhere in sight but Tommy almost soiled himself at the thought of having lost that much ground. I also had serious words with a Bellahouston Harrier who was pacing his runner (about 100 yards ahead of Bobby Shields) and giving him regular advice about our man’s position. Pacing is wrong and he was told in no uncertain terms but it was when I threatened to tell Brian Good win that one of his club was behaving in an illegal fashion that he finally backed down. The last stage was about keeping a position but if possible picking one up. On no account was the runner on the last leg to drop a place or it was the big bad burny fire for him. It was also the case that support for the second half of the leg was almost non existent (traffic in the East End saw to that) but the relief at the end was genuine. And the bugle or trumpet was finally silenced.

What a race – although the running race was over, the post mortems, celebrations or whatever the opposite of celebrations is, and so on would last for a couple of weeks and then it would start to pick up in September next year. It is a pity that the race has gone – I would hope temporarily – but we were lucky to have experienced it and even more lucky to have run in it.

“Blessed was it in that dawn to be alive!”

Some People

Posted on September 11, 2015 by The Author

The Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay was a great place for meeting people and for making new friends. The excitement was such that you all spoke to each other. Questions like “How much has he got on them?” or “Can he hold it?” or “Who’s your next man?” “Where did they get HIM from?” “What’s happened to your runner then?” Or just chat on the bus – on my first race, a wee guy got on, sat down beside me on our way to the third leg, and said that he was really pleased, he’d always got the long leg and couldn’t get a pint at Forrestfield but this year …. It was Harry Fenion and we always spoke after that and ended up buying each other tea and fudge doughnuts at Crown Point every Tuesday! The chap from EAC whom I asked about the runner on the stage asking which of the Knowles twins that was, getting the reply, he didn’t know because he only came up for the E-G and the National. Then on the first and only time that I ever ran the fourth stage, Andy Brown showed me and one other where to have a pre-race pee – in the farmer’s cow shed! There were lots of these wee incidents.

Like the time I ran on the third stage having taken over in a kind of no man’s land and handing over having gained a place when I didn’t believe I had passed anyone. Turned out to be a guy from St Andrew’s University (Gomersall???) . The following year when I was at Jordanhill I ran for the College against Ayr Seaforth and St Andrew’s in the half mile, mile (gubbed in both by Jim McLatchie), three miles (gubbed by somebody else) and the six miles where I was beaten by a chap called Rough from St Andrew’s. Trudging up from the 6 laps to the mile track (I had run 60 laps plus warm ups! Total madness) with him I asked how he had run in the E-G and the reply was that he didn’t race during the winter, he played football.

The strangest incident that I saw in the race was when Hughie McErlean of the Vale of Leven ran the fifth stage only to find that his team mate was not waiting for him, nor was he at the back of the crowd, nor was he to be seen anywhere. Hughie always gave everything 100% and was totally exhausted but the officials did nothing to stop him and he just carried on to do the long leg as well. I was in an official NoW bus and as we passed I suggested to the official in charge that we should maybe offer to pick him up. No, he couldn’t – his instructions were to go straight to the next xhangeover with no stops. So poor old Hugh had to soldier on for 7 more miles. Percy Cerutty had thing where if the guys were running, say, repeat 440’s, he would suddenly leap at them as they approached the end of one to shout “Another 100, another 100” and the poor runners had to stick in a further 100. In Hughie’s case it was “Another 7 miles, another 7 miles” Last seen pacing about saying “Just lock me in a room with him for five minutes, just five minutes…… “

Good deeds often rebounded too. I recall that after Garscube had been out of the race for a few years, I was running on the fifth stage as was the very good runner David Martin. He asked if we could warm up together and friendly old me agreed. We warmed up together and talked about the course. In the race I moved up from 14th to 11th, he moved up from 15th to 12th and he had sixth fastest and I had seventh with only 15 seconds between us. He was still a good guy though despite being my stalker for 5+ miles.

In the 80’s I was coaching a group of runners from Cambuslang in the squad and Jim Orr had a habit of nose bleeds before really big races – eg in the Worlds in New York he noticed blood on the ground, then he saw it on his shorts and then realised that he was bleeding. In the E-g the year he was on five, he came racing down the road with his number decorated in club colours of red and white – the red was blood, his own blood! The blood loss didn’t affect his running though!

E-G Memories

Posted on September 11, 2015 by The Author

The Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay died in November 2002 – ‘died?’ Maybe ‘put to sleep’ would be a more accurate way to put it. Or maybe it had been on ‘borrowed time’ for some years prior to that. However you phrase it, it left a gaping hole in the calendar and no real attempt has been made to resuscitate it. I’d like to mark some of the highlights from this great race over the next two weeks which meant so much to generations of runners across the land and the likes of which young athletes will never experience. If we start with the inaugural race before going on to some personal memories.

The first race was held on 26th April 1930 and the Glasgow Herald report read as follows.

“The Edinburgh to Glasgow Road Relay Race was held on Saturday in fine weather and resulted in a win for Plebeian Harriers, Dundee Thistle Harriers being second and Maryhill Harriers third. Keen interest was evinced in the race, big crowds assembling at the various changeover points and lining the route. The total distance of forty four and a half miles was divided into eight relays, the changeovers taking place at Maybury Cross (5 miles), Broxburn (10.5 miles), Wester Dechmont Farm (15 miles), Armadale (20.5 miles), Forrestfield Inn (26.5 miles), Airdrie War Memorial (33.75 miles), Barrachnie (39.25 miles), the finish being at Glasgow Royal Exchange.

NOVICES SHINE

Eighteen of the nineteen teams entered faced the starter, Treasurer Henderson of Edinburgh, in St Andrew’s Square Edinburgh, Eglinton Harriers being the absentees, and 17 completed the full distance, Paisley Harriers being compelled to retire, their sixth runner failing to take over at Forrestfield Inn. As anticipated the struggle throughout lay between Plebeian Harriers, Dundee Thistle Harriers and Maryhill Harriers. The members of the first two teams ran to form or above but there were several disappointing performers among the national champions. Thanks to excellent running by A Ingram, the novice champion of Plebeian, his team was in front at Maybury Cross, Dundee Thistle second. Maryhill third, Motherwell fourth, Irvine fifth and Edinburgh Southern sixth. At Broxburn the positions showed little change, save that Irvine were now fourth, Edinburgh Southern fifth and Motherwell sixth. The next relay saw one of the best bits of running of the entire afternoon on the part of J McNair, Maryhill’s novice champion. So well did he move that when Wester Dechmont Farm was reached, he had wiped out the deficit against him and given his club the lead for the first and only time. Plebeian were second at this point, Dundee Thistle third with Irvine and Motherwell next in order.

MARYHILL LOSE THE LEAD

Maryhill’s lead, however, did not survive the next section, for both JM Petrie, Dundee Thistle, and O McGhee, Plebeian, overhauled A Mitchell and the champions dropped back into third place, with Dundee Thistle and Plebeian in front and Irvine, Garscube and Motherwell treading on their heels. Then followed the most interesting part of the race, and the performance given by WJ Gunn and Max Rayne over the next two sectors, paved the way for the ultimate victory of Plebeian. Leaving Armadale Gunn was 38 seconds behind WS Russell, the Dundee representative, but he moved in his very best form and not only wiped out the deficit but gave Rayne a lead of 30 seconds at Forrestfield. At this point, Maryhill were still third but falling behind, Irvine fourth, Garscube fifth and Motherwell sixth.

SUTTIE SMITH HELD

Called up to face J Suttie Smith over the seven miles stretch to the Edinburgh War Memorial, Rayne made good use of his 30 seconds start from the champion. Smith ran well and did get on terms with his opponent at Plains Post Office, but from then on could make nothing of him, Rayne holdin on in the pluckiest fashion to change over 5 yards in front. At Airdrie Plebeian were still in front, Dundee Thistle second, Maryhill third, Irvine fourth. Motherwell fifth and Springburn, who after a bad beginning had gradually worked themselves up from 13th position, sixth. From then to the finishing post, the teams ran unchanged in placings, Plebeian in the last two stages gradually consolidating their lead until at the finish they had an advantage of nearly 300 yards. Notable performances were given during the race apart from those mentioned by D Fry and J Watson of Irvine, J MacKay and R Allison of Springburn, and by D Smith and FL Stevenson of Monkland. “

That report shows us all the ingredients that went to make the race such a success. The lead changing hands at the front with the first two teams at the end of the first stage being the first two teams at the end after an eight man battle all with the way with only short, temporary changes to the pattern. The race for the minor places being fought out and several inter-club duels taking place behind the main protagonists. I say ‘the main protagonists’ but every club was a main protagonist in the race, every one of them fighting for their place. The final sentence in the report indicates that even in unplaced teams, very good running was taking place by talented and determined individuals.

For all of us who had the good fortune to run in the race at its best, there are many stand out memories of running individually, or by our clubs, or by other individuals or clubs. I’ll mention some of mine next time.

Colin’s E-G

Posted on September 11, 2015 by The Author

Colin running in 1985

EDINBURGH TO GLASGOW RELAY: PERSONAL MEMORIES

(1966-1984; plus a postscript 1985 to 2002)

It was 19^th November 1966, and a nervous skinny youth, not long out of school, grabbed the baton on the last stage of the most important race of his life so far. Luckily for him, he had been given a simple task – running for a mediocre team in an insignificant position with only one (struggling) adversary within minutes of him. Having plodded past the opposition and brought Aberdeen University home in 12^th place, he had the innocence to write that evening in his untidy training diary “Easy. Not very tiring.” I still cringe when I read these words – which surely amount to a total misunderstanding of the basic philosophy of relay running: “RUN TILL YOU DROP – EYEBALLS OUT!” Occasionally tactics may enter into this form of competition, e.g. when operating into a headwind; or when jockeying for position on the first leg; or trying to go for a medal on the last one. And it is vital to avoid a complete ‘blow-up’ that will deprive your anxious team-mate of the baton. But in normal circumstances, if you fall over the line with one extra ounce of strength in you, then you have failed, and would be well advised to tell no one, let alone admit it in your diary! Such was the inexperience of youth.

Learning to ‘peak’ for such a race, managing to force everything out on the day, indeed producing a better performance just because it is a real TEAM event – these are skills which can take years to add to an athlete’s competitive armoury. To a club runner, however, the self-respect to be gained from a genuinely whole-hearted relay effort, may be one of the greatest pleasures to be derived from the sport.

Enough of this introductory musing. This lengthy article is meant to be a celebration of my favourite race at a time (1984) when changes in the pattern of competition may well bring about its downfall, much to my regret. I wish to remember incidents and personalities from the past and enable younger athletes to understand a ‘dated’ fascination with an old-fashioned form of competition. Hopefully my contemporaries will enjoy a bout of nostalgia and no doubt Brian McAusland will be stimulated to write a more definitive history of the E to G from the very first race! (Not a bad prediction! Indeed, as I retype this in 2009, he has put a great deal of information on his website, a phenomenon undreamed of 25 years ago.)

Vague rumours of legendary deeds had reached my ears – mainly concerning the tussles on the ‘long leg’ between Joe McGhee (Commonwealth Games Marathon gold medallist) and that uniquely relaxed character with the elitist attitude, Ian Binnie of Victoria Park. According to Binnie, he could give poor Joe several minutes start and still pass him before the finish. I never heard Joe’s side of the story but, as Ian never tired of reminding newcomers to the Vicky Park team who implored him, in later years, to consent to his inclusion, “It’s hard to motivate myself, lad. After all I have won SEVEN gold medals already.” Binnie’s best-known comment (to a younger team-mate, who was a deserving Scottish cross-country international, was, “Ach, Pat, it disny matter how many vests you win, you’ll never have any class. You see, a GREAT runner is always a GREAT runner – and a DUMPLIN’ is always a DUMPLIN’!” Another Binnie quote was to a dogged but unstylish team-mate as he prepared to ‘sprint’ for the line in a relay: “Hamish, ye’re wasting yer time. Cut yer losses – sell yer kit!”

I also knew that the 1965 event had resulted in a record-breaking performance by the marvellous Edinburgh University team who were also Scottish National and British Universities cross-country champions. Three hours, thirty-six minutes and thirty-two seconds. That was to last ten years.

The earliest set of stage records I have date from 1967. In order, they were held by Alastair Blamire (E.U.); Chris Elson (E.U.); Ian Hathorn (E.U.); Andy Brown (Motherwell Y.M.); Alastair Johnstone (V.P.A.A.C); Fergus Murray (E.U.); Jim Wight (E.U.); and Elson again! So you can see that the student team had a real stranglehold on the records. Perhaps the two most highly-regarded were Andy Brown’s fifth leg effort, by all accounts a stupendous run which, allowing for route changes, may not have been bettered to this day; and Fergus ‘The Beast’ Murray’s 31.07 on stage six, which has only been improved by 16 seconds in 19 years.

The real action in the 1966 race was of course lost on me. However the Edinburgh students triumphed again and there was quite a battle for the minor medals, between Victoria Park, who surged into second place on the last leg, leaving the unfortunate Innis Mitchell, the Scottish Schoolboys’ cross-country champion, to be shunted back to fourth by the combination of a wily, corner-cutting competitor from Motherwell Y.M.C.A. and a daft policeman, who sent Innis the wrong way, when he was still hanging on grimly to Aberdeen’s hopes of a medal.

1967 was a memorable race for me. By now I had begun to understand the charisma of the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay, and to recognise the principal, even Oscar-winning ‘actors’ who performed on the stages of this ‘long-running’ saga.

Pop music can be connected with specific memories, and Elton John’s ‘Border Song’ was playing on the bus when we halted briefly near the end of Stage One, and enjoyed the sight of a calm but stern figure in an E.A.C. vest, who seemed to be out on a solo training spin, so far was he in front of the second-placed Bill Ewing (‘Red Cloud’), who was that year’s S.A.A.A. Steeplechase champ. Yes, it was Jim Alder, the same masochist who used to train, on hot summer days, in a tracksuit and two wetsuits, because it made him work harder. He was en route to breaking the first leg record.

My other main memory from the race took place at the end of Stage Two, when an exhausted Mel Edwards, having run the fastest time, and forced Aberdeen A.A.C. onto the lead, fell over the line and handed on to Joe Clare. Unfortunately Mel, in true Aberdonian fashion, had saved a little cash by adding two red bands to a plain white vest. A novice official (one of the rule-book freaks) complained that Mel’s number obscured the bands, and threatened to disqualify Aberdeen, on the grounds that a club vest had not been worn. Anyone who has been lucky enough to meet Mel, now a veteran hill-running champ, but then a fully-fledged British International marathon runner, will know that there is not a more enthusiastic, better-natured gentleman in the sport. However, in these circumstances, he suffered a complete personality change! He swore and raged at the officious one, and I was sure that violence would be done. Luckily the S.C.C.U. representative backed down, and ‘Mr Hyde’ became ‘Dr Jekyll’ once more. Readers who are keen to guess which official was involved, may be surprised to learn that a certain Bellahouston runner had a perfect alibi – he was actually completing the second leg for his club at that very moment. Yes folks, that runner was named Brian Goodwin.

Edinburgh University won a close race by 50 seconds from Aberdeen and Shettleston Harriers, who tied for second place, after A.A.A.C.’s Terry Baker had broken the last leg record. These three teams were packed with well-known athletes of the time, and in the interests of being clear about who was actually competing in the late sixties, I am going to make quite a list. E.U. were: Alastair Blamire, Ian Hathorn, Andy McKean (his first appearance), Dave Logue, Ian Young, Gareth Bryan-Jones, Jim Wight and Chris Elson. Alex Wight was first reserve – no wonder they won yet again! As well as Bill, Mel and Joe, Aberdeen included Don Ritchie, Steve Taylor, Alastair Wood, Ian McKenzie and Terry Baker. Shettleston had Martin McMahon, Norman Morrison, Bill Scally, Les Meneely, the great Dick Wedlock, Bill Mullet and Henry Summerhill. In addition, Dick Hodelet ran very fast on the eighth leg, Albie Smith was best on his favourite Stage Three and others included John Myatt, Eddie Knox, Graeme Grant (a dangerous man), the durable Sam or Ian Graves, Fergus Murray (fastest once more on the long leg), and last but not least that ‘all-round superstar’ Doug Gillon, who went on to be the finest athletics journalist in Scotland (for the Glasgow Herald). I myself managed 9^th fastest on the Fourth Stage, three whole minutes slower than that fine Irish Olympian, big Derek Graham, and almost as far behind a certain D. Macgregor (whatever happened to him?) However I can take comfort from the fact that I shared the same time as someone who became Hon. Sec. of the S.A.A.A. – John Fairgrieve.

1968 was a vintage year and several records were rewritten. John Myatt took four seconds off the leg one record; Ian Young took leg five and Bill Ewing leg eight. Dave Logue was fastest on Stage Four and a youthful (but balding) Jim Dingwall appeared on leg eight for Edinburgh University. But the student team had lost several stalwarts to E.A.C. or E.S.H., while Shettleston had gained a new member – Lachie Stewart, no less! They proved unbeatable, and their final time was only two seconds off the overall race record. My own performance was undistinguished, crushed physically and psychologically by the fast men on Stage Two. Nevertheless I have three clear memories. One was the barrage of insults received by the miserable Pat Maclagan while he took Vicky Park from 5^th to 19^th place on the Second Stage. Normally he was such a good road runner, but that day he failed, not because of lack of courage (far from it), but because he incurred a stress fracture during the race. I hope his critics felt remorse when they learned the true reason for Pat’s slump.

Then there was the sight of 36 year old Alastair Wood, ex-European marathon record holder, and winner of many Scottish championships, with what looked like a sardonic smile on his face (perhaps just a racing grimace?), sprinting off to demolish the Stage Two record, as well as the much-touted Jim Alder, recently returned from the Mexico Olympics. The inimitable Wood insisted that there was ice on the road that day, and that he would have run faster, but for having to WALK a hundred yards on the way! Aberdeen had both Peter and Ian Stewart in their team, and my third image is of the youthful Ian, stylishly speeding down the hill into Airdrie, chased at a distance by an even more impressive Gareth Jones (current A.A.A. Steeplechase champion and also just back from Mexico), sweating like his nickname ‘The Horse’ and pulling in 16 seconds on Stewart, on the way to the equal fastest time on leg six (with Lachie). I failed to understand how it was possible to run THAT fast and survive! Eventually Aberdeen finished second and Edinburgh Southern (the beginning of a very long sequence of success) third.

There was a succession of route changes from about this time, which have recurred now and again up to the present day (1984). Only Stages One, Two, Five and Six remain the same.

1969 was a slight breakthrough for me (although I was one of very few who noticed), since I managed fifth on Stage One (27.32) behind Springburn’s Mike Bradley (26.50), Bill Ewing, the rapidly-improving Jim Dingwall and Hugh Barrow (ex-junior-mile-world-record-holder). Having got my effort over with early on, I could enjoy watching the stars in action. Alder enjoyed getting his revenge, defeating Wood on Stage Two and setting the fastest time of the day; and Ian McCafferty made a rare appearance for Law and District. It looked as though the redoubtable Dick Wedlock (reigning S.C.C.U. cross-country champion) was going to catch E.S.H. on leg four, but the Edinburgh club finished strongly for a clear victory. Their team that day was: Bill Murray, Kenny Ballantyne (ex-S.A.A.A. mile champ), wee Tommy Coyne, Gareth, John Bryant (later athletics journalist for The Times), Fergus, Craig Douglas (who won his .S.A.A.A. half mile title in 1963 and was not to win his second 1500m championship until 1971) and on the ‘glory leg’ the irrepressible Jackie White (who still puts in a regular appearance on E to G days, when he deafens clubmates and terrifies/infuriates rivals by playing the E.S.H. trumpet!)

1970, Commonwealth Games year, was less well-known for the best performance in the E to G by Aberdeen University – ninth, no less! It may not impress you, but Don Ritchie, myself and the other lads took a lot of pleasure from it and drank a lot of beer on account of it! I managed eighth fastest on the dreaded second stage, a more respectable 56 seconds slower than Wedlock and only 13 seconds down on A.J.Wood, always the man to beat if you were brought up in Aberdeen.

The real battle that year was between E.S.H. and Shettleston. It was a cliffhanger from start to finish, with the biggest gap between the two clubs, during the first half of the relay, being no more than eight seconds. Then the Western club took a minute twenty seconds lead, due to a fine run on leg five by that often underrated athlete Henry Summerhill, only for it to be reduced until Bill Scally was sent off on the Last Stage with a mere sixteen seconds lead on Kenny Ballantyne. The Southern man set off hard and Bill couldn’t prevent him from catching up. However it is well known that Bill is a cool customer, and he bided his time and saved his strength before bursting away from the track specialist to a thirteen second victory. Ken was fastest on the stage but I suppose that he was disappointed. Quite a duel; and a thriller for spectators.

1971’s event was described in the press as ‘one of the most exciting races of a long series’ and I remember it with an awful clarity. I had started work as a teacher in Glasgow, and joined Victoria Park AAC. Quickly I realised that this was a real ROAD-runners’ club – one sight of genuine mud and they chickened out immediately (apart from Pat Maclagan, who was, of course, different). The most important race of the year, I was told, was the TRIAL for the McAndrew Relay and then the McAndrew itself. However, in practice, the E to G team was a constant topic of conversation from the moment the previous race finished!

Naturally, after the 1970 race, most punters reckoned that only E.S.H. could provide the mighty Shettleston team with any kind of opposition. Yet, by the time that the baton got to me at the beginning of the Fourth Stage, it had turned into a contest between ourselves and the holders. Hugh Barrow, Pat Maclagan and Davie McMeekin had run exceptionally well to give me a twenty-one second lead over the young prodigy Paul Bannon (much later a Commonwealth Games marathon bronze medallist). I remember really belting off, full of determination and sure I was set for the run of my life. My hopes were shattered a few minutes later when, blind to the road signs, I charged straight ahead and didn’t turn right for Bathgate! Realising with horror what I had done (where was the bloody marshal?) I struggled across a patch of mud back onto the correct route. By then Paul had turned a lead of almost a hundred yards into nothing. Despite trying hard to retain some composure, I lost a further ten seconds by the end of the stage. Joe Reilly ran out of his skin to overtake Norman Morrison on the next leg, but Dick Wedlock timed his effort well on the long stage to draw clear of Alastair Johnstone. Despite brave efforts by young Fraser Logue and Albie Smith, Shettleston finished with a 59 second lead. The rest of their fine team: Tommy Patterson, Lachie Stewart, Les Meneely, Tom Grubb and the inevitable Henry Summerhill. Probably they would have beaten us anyway, but I will always feel very guilty about my orienteering mistake, and frustrated because I really might have held Paul off. (Like John Robson in the future, I did my very best to make up for my grievous error by running exceptionally hard in subsequent Edinburgh to Glasgow Relays.)

1972 saw probably the best single performance in the fifty-year history of the event. I refer to the great Ian Stewart’s magnificent run on the second leg to smash the opposition and the record. Many who were spectating that day will remember Stewart, his feet barely skimming the ground, zooming up the hill to the finish, with no one else in sight. A bemused Fergus Murray came in a minute behind, with the third man a minute after him! Norman Morrison did well to run ‘only’ 40 seconds more slowly than Ian’s 27.14, which was never beaten and is the longest-lasting E to G record.

There were other very good performances, but they were put in the shade by Ian Stewart’s. Jim Brown sped to the best time on Stage Four; Dick Wedlock broke the record on leg five; Gareth Jones set a new standard on the Seventh Stage; and Albie Smith equalled the record on the last leg. Andy McKean came within six seconds of Fergus’s 31.07 on the long stage, way in front of Jim Wight, Lachie, Dave Logue and me. But I was faster than that man Macgregor! Shettleston Harriers enjoyed a crushing victory, finishing two minutes clear of Aberdeen and E.S.H.

1973 I missed, since I was teaching and racing in Sweden. Dave Logue, realising my obsession with the event, posted the result sheet to me and it seems I missed a good one. Andy McKean was the star of the show, knocking seven seconds off Fergus’s outstanding Stage Six record. But Dave Logue was only 16 seconds slower than Andy. Maybe that was why he sent me the results ……

Gareth Bryan-Jones continued to smash relay records, and this year it was the Eighth Stage that fell to him. Jim Alder regained the first leg record with 26.43. In the end the race was a victory for E.S.H., in front of E.A.C. and Aberdeen AAC. Shettleston’s domination was broken, and the balance of power seemed to be shifting eastwards.

Having returned from Sweden and obtained a teaching post in Edinburgh, I joined E.S.H., because my ex-flatmate Dave Logue was a mainstay of the team.

At the time there was a wide variety of training opportunities in the city, and a choice of at least three ‘Sunday runs’: the University one (fairly even-paced unless McKean or Dingwall were guesting); the Balerno/reservoirs route which started at The Meadows (medium to fast, 16-23 miles); and the Wight brothers session (20 miles plus at a suicidal pace). On Monday and Wednesday evenings there were lengthy fartlek sessions for all comers (ESH, EAC, EU, anyone). So you either got fit or injured or retired prematurely!

This helps to explain the East domination of the E to G at the time. Of course I was delighted to have a chance to compete for such an excellent club, and was jittering (skittering?) with nerves at the start of the 1974 race outside Fettes College, as I clutched the ‘fancy baton’ (beribboned and in theory enclosing a message of goodwill from the Provost of Edinburgh to his counterpart in Glasgow). The mainly uphill nature of the course suited me well, and at halfway I managed to hang onto battling Willie Day (the only apparent veteran ever to take part in the Scottish ‘Junior’ cross-country back in 1967!) when he injected some pace and we miraculously managed to drop Jim Alder. I made an effort on the big hill towards (and after) the roundabout, but Willie caught me on the downhill to Maybury. Eventually I took a couple of seconds out of him up the finish hill (pretending to myself that it was just another burst on the Monday fartlek). It was my first ‘fastest’ on an E to G stage and I was delighted.

This race, run into a headwind, produced quite a battle between the Edinburgh rivals. Jim Wight (EAC) stormed past Don Macgregor into the lead on 2, but Donald ‘sat’ on him before sprinting right away in the last mile as Jim faded badly. The Southern lead was up to two minutes at halfway, but Doug Gunstone and Andy McKean (fastest on legs 5 and 6) clawed most of this back before Allister Hutton moved away from Joe Patton on 7, leaving Gareth to keep a 47 second gap on the speedy Jim Dingwall. There was some excitement on this Last Stage, but ESH finished 32 seconds clear. Lawrie Reilly (VP) was the only non-Edinburgh athlete to run a ‘fastest’ (on 2), although Ian Gilmour of Clyde Valley (who finished a distant third) was equal fastest on 4 with Alastair Blamire. John Graham made his debut (second fastest on 5); and this was the last time that McGregor ran for ESH or Dingwall for EAC. The subsequent rapid rise of Fife and Falkirk owed much to their inspiration. The perfect end to a perfect day for me was the traditional ‘Soup Tea’ at Hugh ‘Hugo’ Stevenson’s flat in Crow Road, Glasgow. A crowd of university, Vicky Park and Southern runners and their girlfriends, real ale, bread and cheese and a selection of spicy home-cooked soups. The ideal post-race diet!

1975 was an exceptionally fast race and everything went right – good weather, a favourable breeze, an all-international team for Edinburgh Southern Harriers, an overwhelming victory for us and records galore. Not to mention a great deal of pleasure and celebration (at least that was how one club and its supporters felt about it). By the way the Southern team (plus four) had finished 2^nd in the AAA 12-Stage Road Relay. I am not aware of any other Scottish team, earlier or later, doing as well.)

I enjoyed a ‘lifetime best’ run over this sort of distance by racing a ‘time-trial’ over the hilly first leg and breaking Jim Alder’s record by 43 seconds (26.00). The reasons, I suppose, apart from good peaking, were that I had trained several times over the route, trying surges uphill and extended speed trials, and more significantly that the race had come to be extremely important to me and therefore I probably tried harder in it (flat out from the word go), than a great athlete like Jim, to whom it could have meant little more than an opportunity to enjoy a brisk training race. This record was never broken (although subsequent route changes made it redundant). However I am well aware that the likes of Muir or Hutton could have reduced it by at least a minute.

Andy McKean, the fittest man in Scotland at that time, almost hauled EAC past Alastair Blamire into the lead at the end of the Second Stage (recording an excellent 27.37) but after that it was all Southern. Martin Craven finally smashed Ian Hathorn’s 1965 record for leg three (20.42); Ian Elliott stayed in front; Allister Hutton, just beginning to show the form which has made him the finest road runner in Scotland (with Nat Muir his closest rival), broke the record on the Fifth Stage (26.44); Dave Logue was fastest with 31.36 on the long leg; Fergus Murray maintained the lead; and the inevitable Gareth Jones broke his own record for the Eighth Stage with 27.01. Eventually we reduced the overall race record by two minutes forty seconds to 3.33.52. (Note that Blamire and Murray were also in the 1965 record-breakers!) EAC, who were unfortunate never to win the race despite finishing second frequently, did well to complete the course in 3.36.36; and Clyde Valley, that rapidly-improving club, were third. (As I retype this in 2009, I wish to claim that ESH’s course record was never actually broken, especially by Racing Leslie Deans Mizuno! Of course, I am prejudiced.)

1976, to say the least, was a disaster for the big-headed Southern supporters. It just re-emphasised that all EIGHT team-members must run well if a victory is to be possible. One disaster – and you’ve had it!

I was foolish enough to take part during a bout of flu – when the only thing I was truly capable of running was a temperature! With a real struggle I managed to crawl over the line on the First Stage behind Alastair Macfarlane, before tottering to the bus stop and staying in bed for the next three days. (This just previous to the revelation in the Athletic Press that one could strain the valves of the heart by running with a fever …)

My recovery was not aided by the phone-call I made to Fergus Murray that evening, when I inquired whether ESH had won gold or silver. (The News of the World used to sponsor the race and handed out rather tasteful medals with a picture of Edinburgh Castle and George Square – much better than SCCU plaques.) I was quite sure that either ourselves or Shettleston, who had made a comeback, would have won. “Didn’t you hear?” he asked, “Southern were eighth – Robson threw the baton into a field.” My reaction, a mixture of shock, horror and rage, can be imagined. If I’d known, I could have stayed in bed!

Then he told me the whole sad story – or savagely-amusing one if you came from the West! The aforementioned young John Robson (who later turned out to be an exceptionally fine road relay runner as well as fifth in the World Cross-country Championships and a world-class middle distance runner) had seldom raced over such a distance on the road, and the occasion had got to him – in a big way. He had just moved away from Paul Forbes, into the lead on the Third Stage, when he began to feel strangely fatigued, then mildly despondent, and then he is supposed to have cursed loudly and thrown the baton over a fence. The entire Edinburgh Southern support team, so the story goes, were aghast to witness the incident, and went into a passionate routine of pleading, cajoling, threatening etc – which had no effect on John, until his fellow Borderer and club president, Ken Ballantyne, convinced him to pick the thing up and jog to the end of the stage, by which time the club were in 19^th position and eleven minutes down on the leaders!

From the moment that the baton reached the start of the Fourth Stage, to the moment that the last Southern runner crossed the finish line, was rumoured to be EXACTLY the same time as that of the Shettleston representatives over the same stretch. Therefore, the reasoning went, it would have been a neck-and-neck struggle right to the end. As it was, of course, they won clearly and deservedly, and despite a brave fight, ESH were well back. That’s the way it can go in relays!

EAC were second and Falkirk Victoria Harriers third. Fife AC took the ‘most-improved’ award in sixth place: see what I mean about the effect of having Dingwall or Macgregor in your team? Jim was fastest on 2 and Dave Logue on 6. Fraser Clyne appeared with fastest on the final stage for Aberdeen AAC.

The 1977 Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay was notable for a very close and exciting battle on the final leg. Throughout the race ESH, EAC and Shettleston were vying for the lead. Nat Muir zoomed through in the fastest time on Stage Two for the holders, and EAC looked the likeliest winners by halfway, despite my record run on the third leg for Southern. (I had been fortunate enough to have a bit of a cold the previous week, and had moaned about this so convincingly that the ESH selection committee had kindly given me a ‘soft’ stage.) On the day I felt good and, having started fast, almost enjoyed the undulating and fairly brief nature of the course. The supporters were out in force, and I got a mile-by-mile update on the diminishing time-gap to the leaders, which was eventually reduced to 19 seconds from 90. Ironically enough, it was my ex-pupil, Colin Keir of EAC, who led at the end of the stage and was second fastest to my 20.18.

We dropped back on the next leg, but the aforementioned John Robson (he of the discarded baton) made sure that he was (almost) forgiven for his previous misdemeanour by running a truly valiant Stage Five, recording the best time in horribly cold and wet weather. Then Big Dave Logue (‘Arkle’ after the famous Irish Steeplechaser) gave us the lead on the long stage, which was also notable for Jim Dingwall’s wonderful run to equal the record of 31 minutes dead. Poor Jim had a shock in store for him when he reached the Foresthill Inn. (No, the pub had not run out of beer.) His Falkirk Victoria team-mate had not expected his arrival so soon, and was keeping dry in a car, casually removing his tracksuit, when Jim steamed in. It took the unfortunate fellow some time to get underway, but justice was done in that the time wasted was added onto HIS time and not the irate Jim’s.

Edinburgh Athletic Club regained the lead through Dougie Hunter on the Seventh Stage, but Martin Craven showed his experience, fitness and determination by holding off an early challenge from Stuart Easton, and then overtaking Eric Fisher to win the race for Southern. “CRAVEN COURAGE WINS RELAY” was the headline in the newspaper next day! We were particularly pleased to have won WITHOUT the services of our most valuable member, Allister Hutton. EAC were second and Shettleston third.

1978-9 was the ‘GRAND SLAM’ season for Edinburgh Southern Harriers. We won the McAndrew Relay, the Allan Scally Relay, The Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay, the National Cross-Country Relay, the Eastern Districts Relay and Cross-Country Championships, the National Cross-Country Championships and the National Road Relay. Victory in the E to G made it five out of the last six races for ESH. Halcyon days! Despite fine runs in grim conditions on leg two (Jim Brown) and six (Nat Muir), we drew away steadily. I had a comfortable lead on the Fifth Stage, which was just as well, because the weather really was atrocious – an icy headwind which brought first hail and then a genuine blizzard. Our lead was preserved but I was pipped for fastest on the stage by Davie Watson of EAC, a hard man who produced his best on a tough day for running. Eventually we won by three minutes from Victoria Park and Shettleston.

1979’s race took place into an even worse headwind, although it wasn’t so cold. Edinburgh Athletic finally got the better of ESH – but still lost to the top team of the year, Clyde Valley A.C.. They really deserved their win, going into the lead through the fastest run on the Second Stage by the gritty John Graham, and making sure of victory when Jim Brown, surely one of the supreme Scottish relay runners, was best on the long leg. I was fastest on Stage Five, with Clyde Valley already a distant dot on the horizon, and in the end ESH finished third.

In 1980 it was Clyde Valley who triumphed again, this time from Cambuslang, who had really shot to prominence, and Vicky Park. Maybe the WEST was taking over! Southern’s luck collapsed at the end of the Third Stage, and I must have come very close to being banned for life – for conduct unbecoming a ‘gentleman amateur’. I remember being handed a small lead by Ian Elliott, who must have run a very fast second leg, and tearing off into a remarkably powerful gale (or so it seemed to me at the time). Eventually, after a real tussle with the elements, I struggled towards the end of my stint, peering about vainly for the change-over line (since the stage had been lengthened that very day). There was a knot of people huddled together on the verge of the road, but they didn’t seem particularly interested, so I prepared to battle on. THEN THEY CALLED ME BACK! It WAS the finish of the stage – but where was my team-mate to receive the baton?

The shock hit me all the more strongly because I was very tired, and instant fury took over. That year I was captain of the team, and I remember bawling at poor Martin Craven, who was down for a later leg, to strip off and take over – we’d argue with the officials later! With some shame (although a saint’s patience would have been sorely tried in the circumstances) I recall using the foulest language, cursing everything and everyone, and bending the baton by bouncing it off the tarmac! At last the missing one emerged from somewhere, adjusting his dress (he hadn’t expected my arrival and had been relieving himself in a nearby field!) With my best wishes burning his ears, he tore off onto the Fourth Stage. The unfortunate young chap was taking part in his first E to G, and really exhausted himself trying to make amends, but the damage had been done – a full minute lead had been turned into a ten second deficit. Running the fastest time on the Third Stage was no great consolation, although I soon calmed down and realised that it was just bad luck. I was grateful to Colin Shields for his tact, when he wrote in his race report only that I had ‘displayed an outstanding range of vocabulary’!

Graham Laing and Nat Muir had shared the fastest time on the Second Stage, and Gordon Rimmer ran a great leg for Cambuslang on the Sixth. The fight for third place on the Last Stage was a classic – between the young and talented Ian Steel, and the experienced crafty campaigner Bobby Blair. Watching it was mixed pain and pleasure for me – I wanted Steel to win a medal for ESH, but also fancied that Bobby, an ex-team-mate from Vicky Park days, and a much underrated runner, might out-manoeuvre the youngster. And so it proved, with Bobby biding his time before sprinting away with half a mile to go to the finish in George Square.

Clyde Valley’s ‘young lions’ deserve a full mention. They had a very fine squad in seasons 1979 and 1980: Colin Farquharson, a talented and very determined athlete who was unlucky enough to be stricken by a serious injury just when he was coming into international reckoning; the even more injury-prone Ron McDonald, such a marvellous runner on track and country, when fit; the dogged Joe Small; youngsters Norman Agnew and Davie Marshall; that superbly gritty runner, Jim Brown, who must be ranked among the very finest of Scottish distance runners on any surface; ever-present Eddie Devlin, a genuine team man; the lean speedy Brian McCoy; and the immensely promising Peter Fox.

By 1981’s event I had changed clubs again, since a switch of jobs had meant a move back up north to Kemnay, just sixteen miles from my home town of Aberdeen. It became one of my dearest ambitions in running to be a member of Aberdeen AAC when they finally managed to defeat ESH and, if possible, win one of the four ‘National’ championships. Of course I hoped it would turn out to be the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay, not least because I doubted whether we could win any other championship with me in the team! It was not to be in 1981, however, for Southern were at it again, with a team largely composed of new faces – George Mathieson, Graham McIntyre, Evan Cameron, Colin Hume, Alex Robertson, as well as the classiest pairing of John Robson and Allister Hutton. The race was once again into a headwind. However ESH cruised away steadily, despite Clyde Valley cutting a large chunk off the deficit on the last leg. Allister Hutton, in his usual dynamic, perpetual motion style, took Southern into the lead with the utmost rapidity on the ‘track-men’s’ second stage. His team held their position right to the finish, with Ian Elliott breaking the record on three, John Robson fastest on five, Evan Cameron on six and Colin Hume on 7! Ron McDonald managed to break the stranglehold on the fourth stage, but no one could catch ESH this time. Clyde Valley were second, with Peter Fox fastest on the last leg, but the battle for bronze was fierce, if not very fast. Two self-confessed flu victims (rule one: get your excuses in first) Alastair Johnstone of Vicky Park and myself for Aberdeen, tottered determinedly on wobbly legs towards the finish, before a last gasp effort from me let Aberdeen squeeze into the frame by the nailbiting margin of three seconds. Poor Alastair had little chance of passing me on the final straight, because the traffic was so dense that only a single runner could force a passage through!

The 1982 E to G was another which had a prolonged struggle for supremacy. ESH led for quite a part of the race, after that man Hutton put them into the lead on the Second Stage, clocking the fastest time, of course. His club stayed in front until Neil Black ran an excellent fifth leg for Bellahouston, a club which had regained its prominence of many years before. Peter Fleming maintained their advantage on the Sixth Stage, although it was Douglas Frame of Law who was best over the seven mile stretch. On the unfashionable Seventh Stage it all happened, and positions were revised dramatically. Young Craig Hunter of Southern ran a real stormer and surged through to hand Alex Robertson, again the anchor man, a lead which he clung to safely. Colin Keir of EAC brought his club home in second place, and there was quite a surprise when Aberdeen AAC secured third place once more. An unhappy Bellahouston athlete had unaccountably lost three minutes, admittedly to Graham Laing, who sped through in effortless fashion to pick up a medal for us.

1983’s contest was nerve-wracking but ended in the sweetest result of all for me. “A race of high drama from the start” wrote ‘The Expert’, alias Doug Gillon. Firstly there was Adrian Weatherhead of EAC, a durable athlete of international class, who had enjoyed many excellent performances on track and country, but had kept off the road because he feared injury. At the age of forty he consented to race the First Stage, got within sixteen seconds of the record and ‘murdered’ the rest of the field. The Aberdeen lads, due to our captain Graham Milne, were happy to finish fifth. Neil Black took Bellahouston into first with the fastest time on Stage Two but Aberdeen had moved up to second through Graham Laing. Young Ian Matheson, on a trip home from his American college, kept us in that position, and on the Fourth Stage Craig Ross ran the race of his life to crush Andy Daly and put us into a winning lead. (Well, it turned out that way, although it was never easy.) Peter Wilson, the Scottish Marathon Champion, clung on grimly to his lead while Bella moved up again, but the most vital action came on the long stage, when Fraser Clyne, so consistent on road and country, managed an excellent 31.26 at the front, while Allister Hutton was edging up on him all the time for ESH, with a record-equalling 31.00. As Doug said “that (Fraser’s) could be singled out as the run that won the crown”. Mike Murray ran valiantly on the seventh leg, using his downhill speed to great advantage, and hung on to first place. Meanwhile, a veteran of seventeen E to Gs, I lounged casually by the start of the final stage……. No way! I was shaking with nerves and knew that, if I ‘blew’ this chance for Aberdeen, which had never claimed a ‘first’ in their history, then I would probably have to walk home, where Alastair Wood’s tongue would rightly tear me into small pieces! Eventually Mike panted up to the line and I shot off like the proverbial scared rabbit, with thirty seconds on Dave Logue and 53 seconds on Peter Fleming, the rapidly-improving young star who had won the Glasgow Marathon. It wasn’t difficult to work out the tactics – set off hard but try to keep a little in reserve in case anyone got too close. And get too close Fleming did! He positively rocketed away, quickly caught Dave up, and caused the unfortunate Northern Irishman to injure an Achilles tendon and drop back. Then Peter continued his meteoric progress until he was a mere twenty seconds behind me. The vociferous Bella supporters didn’t exactly help me by bawling things like “At’s MAGIC, Peter, ye’ve GOAT him – he’s DEID!” However an uphill came to my aid, and I managed to regain a few yards, just as Peter’s initial impetus began to fade. You can bet that I was extremely relieved to reach the finish forty seconds up. Even after slowing a bit towards the end, Peter Fleming had created a new record of 26.52. Aberdeen completed the course in 3.35.30 – the fastest time since Southern’s 1975 record. Clyde Valley were third over the line. In addition, the light easterly wind helped to produce stage records – Hammy Cox ran 23.58 on three; and Peter Fox 25.32 on four; as well as Hutton and Fleming. But I’m sure they didn’t celebrate as hard as the “special brew of iron men from the North”! (That man Gillon again, working hard for the sponsors – Barr’s.)

1984 turned out to be yet another fairy-tale success for a really likeable bunch of lads – on this occasion Falkirk Victoria Harriers. They had frequently been quoted among the pre-race favourites, but had not had the best of luck. This time they got off to a good start through Donald Bain – and never got out of touch from then on. George Mitchell, Ian Johnston and the much-injured but resilient John McGarva kept them near the front before Derek Easton pulled them through and the inevitable, inimitable ‘Guv’nor’ – Jim Dingwall himself – placed them firmly in the lead after the longest stage. John Pentecost, a mature ‘enfant terrible’ now, had a great leg seven, and who more suitable than ‘Mr Runsport’ (Stuart Easton) to complete the ‘glory leg’ in style? Falkirk won by a margin of over a minute and a half from Cambuslang Harriers, with Spango Valley sticking like glue to their ‘bronze medal’ in front of Bellahouston (another excellent finish from Peter Fleming, who broke his own record by six seconds) and Aberdeen. Bella had looked likely winners, but sagged on just one stage, again proving that a winning team cannot afford a single weakness. Adrian Callan looked very strong when he won the First Stage; Neil Tennant sped to the fastest time on the Second; Bobby Quinn was ‘mighty’ good when he broke the record on Four; I was amazed to manage the best run on Five; and Alan Wilson continued his rapid rise to fame by beating his rivals on the seventh leg. Last but by no means least, the most talented athlete in Scotland, Nat Muir, eased his elegant way to a new record on the Sixth Stage, taking nine seconds from the time shared by Andy McKean, Jim Dingwall and Allister Hutton.

When I typed this originally in 1984, I ended with the following:

IN CONCLUSION. New faces, faster records, different leading clubs. The Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay continues, however, and gives club runners and stars alike the chance to enjoy a unique moment of traditional sport in the modern athletics calendar.

No one can convince ME that, despite the advent of the motorway, there is increased traffic on the A road through Armadale, Airdrie etc. and that such a hazard gives the increasingly officious authorities in this land a justifiable excuse to ‘axe’ the event or otherwise change it beyond recognition. KILLJOYS KEEP OFF! And may the E to G continue to provide keen competition, triumphs and disasters, tears (and beers) for many years into the future.

Alas, as feared, the great event ended in 2002. Killjoys had their stupid way. Scottish Athletics is much the poorer. Check the times in distance rankings. More runners, faster times in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, compared with nowadays.

Now I will try to sum up the remaining races, rather more briefly than earlier in the article.

1985 featured a return to form by Edinburgh Southern Harriers, boosted by the return of John Robson and the addition of Aberdeen’s Peter Wilson, who was now working in Edinburgh. They ran very well, with Craig Hunter, Neil Tennant and John Robson (new record) fastest on Stages 3, 6 and 7 respectively. George Braidwood (Bellahouston) won Stage 1; Chris Robison (Spango) was fastest on Stage 2; Alan Puckrin (Kilbarchan) Stage 5; and Andy Beattie (Cambuslang) broke the record on Stage 8. However, with John Glidewell breaking the Stage 3 record and J. Tuttle fastest on Stage 4, ESH finished 43 seconds behind a guest team of multi-national USA-based stars strangely called The Kangaroos. Falkirk Victoria were third and Cambuslang fourth. I assume the medals went to the Scottish teams. If not, they should have.

1986 was my final really good run in the E to G. Paul Dugdale (Motherwell) won the first leg and Graham Crawford was once again fastest on Stage Two. However Chris Hall and Simon Axon had given Aberdeen AAC a good start and Jim Doig (British International orienteer and marathon representative) raced into the lead with the second-fastest time on Stage Three, losing only four seconds to Massachusetts Select’s R.Ovian. Although Ray Cresswell lost a little ground on 4 (Craig Hunter fastest), Graham Laing moved up again (second-fastest to A. Walker of Teviotdale, and Fraser Clyne battled back into the lead (John Robson fastest). Mike Murray ran really well to extend the lead to 22 seconds (American J. Marinilli fastest).

Although I was worried about my main pursuer being the very talented young star (and last leg record holder) Andy Beattie of Cambuslang, things could hardly have gone better. Being give a special gold baton could have been a jinx, but I took off hard into a definite headwind. After about three miles, Doug Gillon shouted out “23 seconds and not closing”. Before long I saw my good friend Jim Doig peering anxiously over my sweaty shoulder and then relaxing to say, “Colin, you’re running brilliantly.” An exaggeration of course, but when a few years later Jim died tragically young of meningitis, I was devastated, but eventually could take a tiny crumb of comfort from having made him proud at least once. I managed to bash on strongly to the finish, more than a minute clear, setting the fastest time on the stage. Cambuslang were second and ESH third. Doug Gillon may well have invented the quote he attributed to ‘a bystander’, which was “If you had cut Colin Youngson’s head off in Alexandra Parade he would still have made it to the finish in George Square”! So, at the age of 39, I still got marks for apparent effort.

1987 was a triumph for Cambuslang. Ian Archibald from East Kilbride won the first stage, with Charlie Thomson (Cambus) 6^th, one in front of Adrian Weatherhead (EAC). Next the Edinburgh Club’s Ian Hamer zoomed into first place on 2, although Peter McColgan was fastest for Dundee Hawkhill. Calum Murray was 8^th for Cambus, handing over to A. McCartney who moved up to 3^rd, behind Brian Kirkwood’s fastest time for EAC. Andy Beattie was fastest on 4 and closed the gap to the leaders to 15 seconds. Then on 5 Eddie Stewart was quickest and gave Cambuslang a 35 second lead. Alex Gilmour extended this to almost a minute (with John Robson ESH fastest on 6). Although on 7 (A. McAngus of Bellahouston fastest) Martin Ferguson EAC pulled back thirty seconds on P. McAvoy, Jim Orr with the fastest leg 8 got completely clear of Kenny Mortimer and Cambuslang finished almost 90 seconds in front. Meanwhile Aberdeen AAC, who had started a lowly 12^th, gradually made progress and I was second fastest on the last leg to gain ‘bronze’.

1988 was a near disaster for me! Stage winners were: 1 Tom Hanlon ESH; 2 Alan Puckrin Greenock Glenpark; 3 Ray Cresswell Aberdeen 4; A Walker Teviotdale; 5 Ian Archibald EAC; 6 John Robson ESH; 7 G. Harker EAC; 8 Andy Beattie Cambuslang. However the race tale was mainly that, after Stage 3, Aberdeen seemed to be cruising away. Ian Mathieson had made a solid start, Chris Hall got up to 3^rd, Ray Cresswell moved into the lead, and Dave Duguid, Graham Laing, Fraser Clyne and Simon Axon handed over to me a good lead of 93 seconds. However I had had a heavy cold, plus my hamstrings were suspect. Both legs deteriorated during the stage, and I could only limp on painfully while panicking. By the end I was only 21 seconds in front of Alan Robson from ESH. Whew! Cambuslang finished third.

1989 produced my final medal in the great race. Lucky to be in the team only because illness had struck faster, younger guys, I was stuck with Stage Four, which featured too many downhills and no headwind! Not my scene. Nevertheless, due to better runs by my clubmates, Aberdeen finished third after Simon Axon overtook EAC (or ESPC AC as they styled themselves) on the last leg. Fastest Stages: 1 K. Logan of Teviotdale; 3 Scott Cohen ESPC; 4 Nat Muir Shettleston; 6 Neil Tennant ESH; 7 Ian Archibald ESPC; 8 Gary Grindlay Falkirk Victoria. I have omitted Stage 2 (Peter McColgan) and Stage 5 (Iain Campbell) because these two Dundee Hawkhill Harriers, aided by Dave Beattie, T. Reid, Craig Ross, Charlie Haskett, R. Barrie and Peter Fox led the Hawks to a clear victory! This despite some real opposition from Cambuslang (2^nd) and (briefly, due to Nat) Shettleston.

1990 was ominous, and hinted at what was to happen in the final chapters of the mainly glorious tale of the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay. It had been noted that the previous year EAC had changed its name, since some financial sponsorship had been obtained. Third in 1990 was “Caledon Park Harriers”, a breakaway club with former ESH stars like Tom Hanlon and Alan Robson, but also including Alan Puckrin of Greenock Glenpark! This new team was fastest on four stages (1 Hanlon; 3 Puckrin; 5 Davie Ross; 6 Alan Robson). Their potential was frightening to the older traditional clubs. On Stage 7 B. Pattieson of Dundee Hawks was quickest, and his club finished second. However for one last year, Falkirk Victoria Harriers flew the flag for clubs with some history, with athletes who often trained together. R. Cameron was 8^th; John Sherban fastest on 2; Peter Faulds kept the lead; Ian Johnston was fastest on 4; Donald Bain kept in front; Gary Grindlay was shunted back to third by Robson; but Mike McQuaid moved up a place; and John Pentecost, after a marvellous battle with Dundee’s Richie Barrie, produced the fastest final leg and squeezed home 4 seconds in front of the previous year’s winners.

By 1991, things had changed once and for all. “Caledon Park Harriers” finished 13^th, still with Puckrin and some former ESH runners. However “Racing Club Edinburgh” another brand new organisation, with financial sponsorship, was packed with stars. Scott Cohen handed to Brian Kirkwood, D. Gardiner, M. Coyne, Davie Ross, John Robson, Tom Hanlon and Alan Robson. John Robson and Hanlon were fastest on legs 6 and 7 and they won by a minute from Cambulang, who moved up a lot on Stage Eight due to a great run by Andy Beattie (fastest). Teviotdale were third. Other fastest stages were: 1 J.Ross of Haddington ELP; 2 Chris Robison, IBM Spango Valley; 3 Peter Faulds Falkirk; 4 Charlie Thomson Cambuslang; 5 A. Fair Teviotdale. Aberdeen were 10^th and I had a decent run on Stage 3, my favourite as a veteran. At the presentation I was delighted to receive an S.C.C.U. tankard, engraved with the results of my record 25 E to Gs.

And so it went on. I am reluctant to go into much more detail about the final eleven races. Look up the results yourself. Apologies to valiant individuals omitted. Variously named Racing Club Edinburgh, Leslie Deans RC and Mizuno RC, the same organisation won twelve years in succession. On the one hand they featured extremely fine athletes who were marvellous to watch – most of the Scottish cream. On the other hand, it was an unfair monopoly and despite stern moments of occasional resistance from Falkirk, Cambuslang, Shettleston, Hunters Bog Trotters, Kilbarchan and Fife, in most years the ‘Superclub’ won quite easily.

Of course their runners broke all sorts of records, although the course kept changing, so accurate comparisons with earlier years were impossible.

I won thirteen medals (one silver with Victoria Park; four gold plus one bronze with ESH; three gold plus four bronze with Aberdeen AAC). Yes, I joined good clubs but I always lived and worked there and trained with the lads. My final five E to Gs were with Metro Aberdeen Running Club, which was basically a bunch of local road runners who broke away from AAAC when the club’s emphasis changed to track, especially coaching schoolboys and schoolgirls. As a wee club with great team spirit, Metro were proud to finish 7^th in 1994, when we were blatantly robbed of ‘most meritorious’ medals by the selectors (no disrespect to Clydesdale Harriers 9^th placed team who ‘won’ these). Fortunately an even better Metro team was 5^th in 2001 and finally judged ‘most meritorious’. Somehow I took part in another five E to Gs, finishing rather slowly at the age of 52 in 1999 after 30 appearances in my favourite race. My Metro years were great fun for me, with fine lads like Geoff Main, Nick Milovsorov, Fraser Clyne, Mark Johnson, Keith Varney, Davie Watt, Rob Taylor, Pete Jennings, Jackie Stewart, Steve Willox, Keith Farquhar, Phil Cowie, Andrew White, Bruce Moroney, Alan Reid, Duncan Wood and Kevin Tulloch.

However the medal-winning records of Racing Club’s best athletes are amazing. Alan Robson finished with 6 golds, a silver and a bronze; Brian Kirkwood and Ken Chapman 7 golds; and Scott Cohen and Glen Stewart won 8. Tom Hanlon, one of the few world-class Scottish runners, clocked up ten golds, a silver and a bronze. Davie Robb accrued an incredible eleven golds plus a silver and a bronze. In my opinion the greatest was the once-maligned John Robson, with ten golds, two silvers, a bronze and nine times fastest on a stage, often the long leg six!

The last three races, I believe, unless Brian McAusland corrects me, were pushed away from the A roads onto pavements, old railway lines etc. I did act as a marshal on one of them. The route changes destroyed the experience, since it was very hard to find changeover points, spectating was frequently impossible and the whole tradition had been ruined. Road relays, as the name suggests, ought to be on roads. The only event which compared in the least (in terms of atmosphere) to the E to G was the Scottish Veteran Harriers eight-stage relay from Alloa to Bishopbriggs. Now that really was dangerous with the traffic – but still no one was really hurt. The police, the killjoys, and the health and safety buffoons had their way – the event folded after 2002. Now all they have is the National Six Stage Relay, which is all very well but ……Scotland is safer, fatter, slower and more boring.

Scanning this interminably long rambling account, I seem to have gone on about my own runs (name me an athlete who is not to a considerable extent self-obsessed!), fastest times, records, medals. How can I sum up the truly important aspects of the late-lamented Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay? All your best clubmates battled to get into the team, as the club itself had to fight for the invitation to compete. Just to take part was a privilege and an achievement. Then the challenge was to conquer the weather, your nerves and the opposition to ensure that no energy was left when you handed over and that you had done your very best. Right to the end of each race, clubmates cheered you on to stave off pursuit or overtake those in front. Yes, it was extra exciting if a medal seemed possible, but self-respect or club honour was of paramount importance. The drama, the tension, the emotional and physical intensity, the bantering, the socialising afterwards – all quite unrivalled by other events. Anyone who took part in the E to G should treasure the experience. We were lucky!