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Lachie Stewart and Norman Morrison at Cowal Highland Gathering

Of all the Highland Games meetings, Cowal was probably the best known among the general public and among athletes it was seen as a two-day meeting, a well sponsored meeting (they paid expenses for invited teams!), and the one with the biggest crowds by far.   Clubs took buses to Cowal – it was a long drive – and many athletes went by train to Craigendoran (at Helensburgh) and then went by boat to Dunoon.   The journey, whether in a busload of friends or by train and steamer, was part of the whole day.   And the quality of the athletics was always high.    When I started going there, there were only six teams invited to the two miles team race and one of them was always an English club.    We were sharing the dressing room and lining up with the best of Longwood and Saltwell Harriers, for instance.   Running at Cowal was a dream of a day for men who normally had to pay money and travel to England to race these guys.

If we look at the 1959 Cowal Games first …    They were held on the last weekend in August and the inter-club element was usually by invitation unless there was a championship relay being held.   “Three runners in the two miles invitation caught the eye – GD Ibbotson (South London Harriers), a former world record holder for the mile, GE Everett (Shettleston Harriers) the Scottish mile champion, and AH Brown (Motherwell YMCA), holder of the Scottish native record for the three miles.   The first mile was completed in 4 minutes 25 seconds with Ibbotson allowing Everett to make the pace.   The position was generally similar until the last lap when Ibbotson went to the front and opened a wide lead from Everett, who appeared to be tiring rapidly.   Brown made a strong effort to chase Ibbotson but the Englishman finished 10 yards ahead of him in 8:37.7 , Brown’s time was 8:59.4 and Everett was third in 9:15.2 – a time which he has easily beaten on previous occasions. “

Everett was out again in the medley relay where the Shettleston team won (Everett, McNulty, Meggat, Dewar) from Garscube and Ayr Seaforth.

Another Englishman won the event in 1960 – John Anderson of Saltwell Harriers winning from Bill Kerr (Victoria Park) and Eddie Sinclair of Springburn in 9:05.7.   Team victors were Victoria Park (15 points) from Bellahpouston (21) and Springburn (24).   The West District relay was included on the programme and as won by Victoria Park (Dunbar, Turner, Hildrey and Whitlock) in 42.3, a native record, from Larbert YC and Ayr Seaforth.   The medley relay was Seaforth from Bellahouston and Liverpool Harriers.   The inter-club component was important to the development of the athletes and the sport and to be representing your club before tens of thousands of spectator at what was an international gathering gave the athletes a real shot of adrenalin.   The Rangers Sports were still going strong but they had no inter-club element to them – they fulfilled another function.

The team race in 1961 was on a higher plane than for many years when Ibbotson, Anderson and Everett faced each other on the starting line.   It was a wet day and times generally were slow but the report read: “The two miles was a close race among JD Anderson (Saltwell), GD Ibbotson (Longwood) and GE Everett (Shettleston).   They finished in that order, in 9:11, 9:11.8 and 9:12.2.   Anderson had the edge for speed on his opponents down the finishing straight.   GD Ibbotson turned out in the open mile, and although he made good progress through the big field of handicap runners, he just failed to be placed.   JT McLatchie (Muirkirk AC) showed fine form and won from 45 yards in 4:11.8.”

The team race was won by Shettleston Harriers (20) from Bellahouston Harriers .   Bellahouston had their consolation when they won the medley relay from Liverpool Harriers and Seaforth AC.   Their winning team of Currie, LaPointe, Robertson and Greig was timed at 3:35.5.   The West District Relay was again won by Victoria Park whose team was Ballantine, Hamilton, Hildrey and Whitlock in 43.2 seconds.   The only other invitation event was the Youthe 880 yards which was won by Hugh Barrow (VPAAC) in 1:57.2 from Jim Johnston and Jim Finn (both Monkland).

On  the second day of the 1962 meeting John Anderson achieved a notable double when he won the invitation mile as well as the two miles.   The photograph in the ‘Glasgow Herald’ showed three men straining for the line – Anderson, Ibbotson and Jim McLatchie with times of 4:08.9, 4:09.9 and 4:09.9.   The Two Miles was another hard race between the two Englishmen with Anderson’s 8:56.6 beating Ibbotson’s 9:01.2 and John Hillen (Saltwell) in 9:01.4.   As they took the eye of the photographer and the spectating masses, there was a hard team race taking part which was won by Motherwell YMCA.   The Medley Relay was won by Bellahouston (Currie, McGaw, LaPointe and Greig) from a fast finishing Seaforth AC  and Liverpool Harriers in 3 min 31.7 sec.    Bellahouston (Mayberry, McGaw, LaPointe and Rae) also won the West 4 x 110 yards relay in 43.6 seconds from Seaforth and Clydesdale.   Ibbotson had enjoyed his previous experiences at Dunoon so much that he brought his wife Madeleine up in 1962 and she won a women’s invitation 880 yards from Scotland’s Georgena Buchanan and Ireland’s Maeve Kyle.in 2:16.0.

31st August, 1963,  was another good day for JP Anderson of Saltwell.   The ‘Glasgow Herald’ report read: JP Anderson was one of the most successful competitors at the annual Cowal Games on Saturday at Dunoon.   He won the invitation two miles in the most satisfactory time of 8:54 on a track that had been made soft and heavy by continuous rain.   There was never ever doubt about Anderson’s ability, for when he decided to take control of the race all that was left was to see who was going to be second.    In the circumstances young I McCafferty (Motherwell YMCA) showed considerable ability, for in determined fashion he beat the more experienced JJ Hillen (Saltwell) for second place in 9:00.2 for his personal best and the best time ever shown by a junior.   Motherwell again won the team race with 15 points with the brothers AH  and  AP Brown the supporting members for McCafferty.   Bellahouston Harriers retained the Western District 4 x 110 yards relay championship.  Ayr Seaforth and Clydesdale were again second and third respectively.   

Saltwell Harriers was second in the two miles with 30 points and the medley relay was replaced by the SAAA junior medley relay which was won by Victoria Park (Laurie, Smith, Lappin and Wood from Edinburgh Southern and Seaforth.

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This was Anderson’s third year at Cowal, and Ibbotson had been there twice.   What was the attraction?   The arena consisted of an ash track round a very tight infield.   On the infield there was always (a) two pipe band circles, (b) a highland dancing platform, (c) a wrestling competition and the runners had to warm up around them, keeping an eye out for the pipe bands marching into the arena.   On the outside of the track there was a crowd of 40000 or 50000, so close to the track that the athlete in the outside lane could shake hands with the spectators.   It was a very intense experience.

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Cowal was always a two-day meeting with an incomplete programme on the Friday with most of the standard track events, then on the Saturday with a complete programme of events.  This enabled distance men to run two races, sometimes three, over the weeend.  On 29th August, 1964, young Hugh Barrow took the plaudits.  On the Friday evening he set a new SAAA record for the rarely run three-quarter mile distance of 3:00.5, just beating John McGrow on the line.   He would go on to equal this time twice – at Airdrie in 1968 and 1969 – but never to beat it.  Not content with that, he was out for his club on the Saturday in the two miles team race.   Second in the two miles to Derek Ibbotson, who won in 8:49.4, he set a personal best time by no fewer than 11 seconds when he ran 8:54.   Ian McCafferty was third in 8:59.4.   Glasgow University (McGeoch, Gibbons, Ewan and Campbell) won the Western District 4 x 110 yards in 43.1 seconds from Seaforth and Clydesdale.   The SAAA Junior 4 x 110 yards was won by Bellahouston  (Carmichael, Brown, Symeonides and Ritchie) from Edinburgh Southern and Victoria Park in 44.1 sec and in the SAAA Junior medley relay (440 + 220 + 220 + 440), Bellahouston (Baillie, Carmichael, Ritchie McLean) beat Ayr Seaforth and Victoria Park in 2:28.6.

Barrow (right) beats McGrow in 1964

Came 1965 and Edinburgh Southern Harriers were back at Cowal and led by  Kenny Ballantyne, they acquitted themselves well.  “The most absorbing contest on the track was the two miles in which R McKay, KD Ballantyne and E Knox ran in that order for most of the way.   McKay, the veteran of the three, was obviously trying to take the sting out of his rivals finish during the last two laps, and succeeded with Knox.   Ballantyne however had too much left and in the home straight fought past McKay and won in 9 minutes exactly. “

Bellahouston Harriers won all three relays that year – the West District 4 x 110 yards, the SAAA Junior 4 x 110 championship and the SAAA junior medley relay championship.

The 1966 Games 440 yards invitation race was a personal triumph for Hugh Baillie of Bellahouston Harriers who won in 48.7 but the two miles team race where the country’s top clubs faced each other was as hotly contested as ever.    Ian McCafferty (Motherwell YMCA) won from Hugh Barrow (VPAAC) by 17 seconds.   Only Barrow attempted to go with him and their times at the finish were 8:42.2 and 9:05.6.   McCafferty had come through the first mile in 4:21.   Motherwell won the team race, as they did at so many venues in the 1960’s, with 9 points (1, 3, 5).    In the relays, Bellahouston (Williams, Symeonides, Baillie and Carmichael) won the SAAA West District 4 x 110 yards in 43.4 seconds, and with a team of Johnstone, Wood, McAlpine and Wallace) the SAAA Junior 4 x 110 yards in 46.3.    Edinburgh Southern Harriers (Hay, Miller, Railton and Stewart)  however won the SAAA Junior medley relay in 2:32.2 from Bellahouston.

Alastair Shaw’s prize ticket from the mid-70’s: the prize was a cake stand

It is interesting to reflect on what effect all this head-to-head racing of runners of all standards at the various meetings had on standards generally in Scottish athletics.   It should be borne in mind that Cowal was not as easily reached as all the other central belt venues – Gourock, Ibrox, Shotts and the rest were all well attended and the top men, the clubmen and the young pretenders all faced their own rivals on tracks around the country week in, week out and although the times were not good the lessons in hard racing were learned and perfected.

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Star turn in 1967 was Lachie Stewart’s one hour run on the Friday evening in which he covered 12 miles 188 yards to set a new Scottish record.   He also ran in the two miles on the Saturday and although always up at the front of the field, he dropped back allowing Ian McCafferty to win in 8:59.4 seconds leading Motherwell to team victory with 8 points(1, 3, 4).   McCafferty also won the mile from Hugh Barrow in 4:03.1.   The relays?   The West District 4 x 110 was won by Garscube Harriers in 44.4 seconds after the ‘winning’ team from Victoria Park had been disqualified despite being well ahead at the finish, the SAAA Junior 4 x 110 yards was won by Shettleston Harriers in 44.8 seconds and the SAAA Junior medley relay championship was won by Shettleston in 2:32.2.

For some reason the Glasgow Herald correspondent took to reporting English fixtures at greater length about this time and the reports on Cowal and other Games and Sports dwindled and only winners were listed and, even less praiseworthy, the team events were not given their proper place.   In 1968, Lachie Stewart won the mile against Walter Wilkinson of Longwood Harriers in 4:05.7 as well as the team race in 8:59.6.   The West District 4 x 110 yards was won by Bellahouston and the SAAA junior 4 x 110 yards by Airdrie Harriers.   Shettleston retained the junior medley relay title in 2:34.0.   In 1969, the event went again to Lachie Stewart whose time was 8:52.6 and Shettleston won the team race; the West District 4 x 110 yards relay went to Victoria Park, thanks to a ‘splendid run by Andrew Wood, Victoria Park’s anchor man which enabled his club to win by six yards from Bellahouston Harriers .   Wood later ran from scratch in the final of the open 220 yards and won by two yards in 22.7.” 

Cowal continued to be  good meeting but the point has been made about the inter club element being an ifactor.   Man against man is what the sport is about but the club element where runners challenge themselves against their equals or betters for their club, when they would not do so for themselves, has always been an important factor in athletes development.

As an example of a typical meeting for the athletes we have extracts from the 1971 programme with all the results.

The meeting was still drawing the crowds in 1989 –

Unfortunately after many years as a model of how the light athletics (running and jumping events) should be incorporated into the programme, Cowal dropped all athletics events other than the heavies and the programme is less varied in other respects.   The only running event in the 21st century is a 5K road race (plus some schools races), and the arena events now look like this.   In the Stadium there are Heavy Events, Highland Dancing, Pipe Bands and Wrestling; and in the Performance Arena there is Axe Throwing.   This is a sad loss for the athletics community and for the local athletics fans in Dunoon.

Lachie Stewart (48) leading from Dick Wedlock (45) and Hugh Barrow (71)

Inter-club rivalry and competition did not stop with Tuesday or Thursday night matches but continued at Sports Meetings and some Highland Games during the summer season.   Many of these occasions were enhanced by the inclusion of a two mile team race and one – or at times two – relays at the end of the meeting.   Of course, athletes travelling to such meetings, would also enter individual races to maximise their pleasure or competition experience on the day.   It was not unusual to see a runner finish the team race and immediately change the race number for the one he would wear in the up-coming mile handicap; it was unusual to see – as we saw Gordon Eadie of Cambuslang do once – a runner win a 14 mile road race and then step on to the track for the two mile team event!   The sprinters in the 4 x 100 relay would as a matter of course also enter two of the 100 yards, 220 yards or 440 yards.   I remember at Cowal the relay came before the 220 yards handicap and since so few turned up for the furlong, it was decided to have a straight final.   After the decision was taken and the announcement made, the sprinters trooped across from the relay and it was discovered that there were almost two dozen runners for the straight final!   They went ahead with it and it made for a most interesting race.   But the thing is that the top men turned out in these races and with, say, Motherwell YMCA, Victoria Park and Shettleston facing each other almost every other week, the head to head racing that helped develop the top men, was the highlight of many a local sports day.

One of the most popular was that held at Babcock & Wilcox Sports in Renfrew at Moorcroft Park, on the third Saturday in June.  By then the runners were well tuned up having run  in the team race at the Lanarkshire Constabulary Sports at Shawfield on the first Saturday of the month and then as individuals in the Glasgow Police Sports on the second Saturday.   The Glasgow polis did not have a two mile team race at this point.   The track at Moorcroft Park was just good grass – it had no eccentricities (Cowal had a big hole on the inside of the second bend, Gourock had an uphill last bend and finish, and so on) , was easily reached by public transport and there was a trophy (the Empire Exhibition Trophy) for the club with the highest points for the afternoon..   In addition the prizes were of a good standard – eg we once had 54″  x  27″  fireside rugs for being second team.

In 1960 the race was won by Graham Everett in 9:00.2 at a time when he was SAAA Champion and GB Internationalist for the Mile.   To keep the inter-club theme going, Edinburgh Northern Harriers won the Medley Relay in 3:38.8.   1961 was also a close run thing in the team race – Graham Everett again won the two miles from two Bellahouston runners – Joe Connolly was second and Dick Penman was third but Bellahouston won the team race convincingly with 9 points to Shettleston’s 20.   Everett was out again in the medley relay and this time Shettleston won in 3:37.8.   The Empire Exhibition Shield went to a third club – Springburn Harriers who were closely challenged by Bellahouston and Victoria Park.   Nobody won anything unchallenged at Babcock’s.

Having come close in 1961, Victoria Park won the Shield in 1962 and possibly the two miles team race (the exact result is not available) but the Mile Medley Relay went to Larkhall YMCA who won in 3:38.8.   Came 1963 and it was Bellahouston Harriers’s turn to win the Empire Trophy and the match incorporated a match between Renfrew and London which was won by the home team.   The Two Miles was a clean sweep for Motherwell whose first three were Bert McKay (9:08.9), Andy Brown and Alex Brown with the team race being decided on these three places, with Victoria Park second  and Edinburgh Southern Harriers third.   The medley relay this time went to Maryhill Harriers from Dumbarton in second and Clydesdale Harriers in third.

In 1964 Lachie Stewart won the two miles in 9:6.8 while Motherwell again won the team race but the relays were the high point of the meeting.   The medley relay was won by Ayr Seaforth for whom Jim McLatchie, home on holiday from America, ran the first stage but an added attraction was the holding of the two SAAA championship relays over 4 x 100 and 4 x 440 yards.   The former was won by Glasgow University (McGeough, Gibbons, Ewan and Campbell) in 43 seconds, holding off Edinburgh Southern by a yard; and the students from Glasgow also won the long relay (Foster, Wilson, Hodelet and Campbell) in 3:19.1 by five yards.   The inter-club events added a great deal to the sports – coming just a week before the SAAA Championships didn’t hurt either.

Lachie won the race in 1965 in 9:11.6 with Victoria Park taking the team race.   Dumbarton AAC went one better than in 1963 when they won the mile medley relay in 3:42.3.   In 1966 the weather was wet, the ground soggy and times generally slow but Victoria Park again won the Empire Trophy which they had won a year earlier and the race of the afternoon was reported to have been the two miles which was won again by Lachie Stewart in 9:24.8 while Bellahouston defeated Dumbarton to win the medley relay in 3:50.2.   Bellahouston won the relay again in 1967 in 2:31.8 and Lachie Stewart of Vale of Leven won the two miles in 8:58.

Thereafter the third Saturday in June – which had always been taken up with the Scottish Schoolboys Championships, the Scottish Schoolgirls Championships and Babcock’s Sports was invaded by more and more meetings and one of the most enjoyable meetings on the calendar disappeared.

The point made at the top of the page – that inter-club competition which was beneficial to the clubs, to the individuals and to the sport in the country was continued throughout the season in a variety of ways.   We can look at some of the other sports and games that included two miles team and relay races on another page.

Inter Clubs at Shawfield and Brockville    Shotts and  Gourock    Cowal 

The inter-clubs were in the main  organised by the clubs concerned and were often annual fixtures – for instance Clydesdale Harriers always had track matches with Vale of Leven, Greenock Glenpark Harriers and Springburn Harriers with others (Shettleston, Victoria Park, Maryhill, etc) being less frequent.   They should not be looked back on in a patronising fashion – they were far from being easy, wee social occasions – although there was always a social element present.    I have printed the results of the first one here had 16 events, including almost all field events, and others had eighteen events on the programme.   Bear in mind that they required all the hurdles on the track for both hurdles races, the uprights and other kit for the high jump and pole vault plus all the throwing equipment to be present and in a good condition and that track events usually went up to 6 miles and had both relays..

They were not contested solely by B string or C string athletes – note some of the names below – SAAA champions such as Ming Campbell, Joe Connolly, Tom McNab, Peter Milligan, Alan Dunbar, Mike Hildrey and so on all appeared in them.   Arranged before the season started, these matches were often written in to the competition before the season began.

This is just a sampling of the fixtures – those from the East Coast are not here, nor are many of the local meetings in the counties around Glasgow such as Dunbartonshire, Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire or Ayrshire.   Not all results have been printed.   If you want any particular set added, it can be done.   Here we go.

Wednesday, 27th April, 1960:   “Bellahouston Harriers beat Shettleston Harriers by 117 points to 82 last night in an inter-club contest at Corkerhill.   R Sykes (Bellahouston) won three events,  the shot putt (41′ 9″), discus (126′ 4 1/2″) and the long jump (19′ 7”) and he was equal first in the pole vault.   Other winners:

100 yards: D Robinson (S) 10.7 sec;   220 yards: A McGaw (B) 22.9 sec;   440 yards: R Cairney (B) 51.6 sec;   880 yards: B Forrest (B)  2 min 9.3 sec;   Mile:   B Dickson (B) 4 min 32.3 sec;   Three Miles: J Connolly (B) 14 min 21.8 sec;   Six Miles:  J Irvine (B) 31 min 7.1 sec; 120 yards hurdles:  G Brown (B) 16.6 sec; 440 yards hurdles: Brown, 60.6.

High Jump: R Santini (S)  5′ 5″;   hop, step and jump: T McNab (B) 43′ 11 1/2″;   Javelin:  D Fraser (S) 149′ 8″;   pole vault: F McDonald and Sykes 9′;   Hammer:  T McNab (B) 79′ 1 1/2″;   4 x 100 yards relay:   Bellahouston (S Watson, R Sykes, S Wineberg, S McGaw)45.4 sec;    4 x 440 yards: Bellahouston (W Robertson, J Currie, A Forrest, R Cairney) 3 min 35.1 sec.”

Friday, 29th April:   Tomorrow there is a triangular contest at Barrachnie where Shettleston Harriers will have  Seaforth AC and Garscube Harriers as visitors.   Shettleston should prove too strong for both opponents as they have a much stronger team than that which lost to Bellahouston.”

Monday, 1st May:  Shettleston Harriers won a triangular match against Seaforth AC and Garscube Harriers with an aggregate of 89 points to 66 for Seaforth and 36 for Garscube.   J Meggat and T McNab (Shettleston) had doubles in the 100 yards and 220 yards  and  the long jump and shot putt  respectively.  

Results:   100 yards:  J McNulty (SH)  10.4 sec;   second race:  J Meggat (SH) 10.5 sec;   220 yards: W Stockton (SH) 23.6;  second race:  Meggat (SH) 23.6 sec;   440 yards: J Baird (SH) 53 sec;   second race: J Wilson (SAC)  53.2 sec;   880 yards:  J Young (SAC) 1 min 58 sec;   Mile: J Davidson (SAC)  4 min 35 sec; Three Miles:  I Donald (SH)  15 min 7.8 sec;   High Jump:  A Santini (SH) 5′ 3 1/2″; Long Jump:  T McNab (SH) 19′ 5 1/2″;  Shot Putt:  McNab (SH) 36′ 10 1/2″; 4 x half lap relay:  Shettleston  1 min 17.2 sec.

[There were also races for Youths and Boys]

Wednesday, 3rd May: “Bellahouston Harriers beat Jordanhill Training College by 108 points to 84 last night at Corkerhill.   G Brown (Bellahouston) won the 120 yards hurdles and 440 yards hurdles in 17.3 sec and 60 sec respectively.  Another notable performance was achieved by J Connolly (Bellahouston) who won the three miles in 14 min 13.5 sec, 2 sec outside his own personal best for the distance.”   

Friday, May 6th:  “Shettleston Harriers will meet Edinburgh University in what should be a very closely contested men’s inter-club match at Barrachnie.

Glasgow University should give a good account of themselves in a three cornered contest at St Andrews against the local students and Queen’s University, Belfast.    The Scottish Universities B Teams with Clydesdale Harriers will have a match at Westerlands.”

Monday, 9th May at Barrachnie:   “Edinburgh University beat Shettleston Harriers by 78 points to 64 at Barrachnie.   T McNab and RA Findlay, both of Shettleston, won two events.   McNab won the long jump and the hop, step and jump and Findlay the shot putt and javelin.   The students won 10 of the 15 events.”

Wednesday, 11th May:   “Bellahouston Harriers beat Victoria Park by 82 1/2 points to 78 1/2 points in an inter-club contest last night at Nethercraigs.   G Brown (Bellahouston) won both hurdles events, the 120 yards in 12.1 seconds and 440 yards in 57.4 seconds, and RC Sykes (Bellahouston) won the shot putt with 39′ 11″and the discus with 112′ 10″.   In the high jump, C  Fairbrother (Victoria Park) cleared 6’6″ but failed at three attempts at 6’8″.   

Friday, May 13th:  Springburn Harriers with 72 points won a triangular contest at St Augustine’s playing fields, Milton against Glasgow University (66 pts) and Garscube Harriers (45 pts).”

Monday 16th May, at St Andrews:   “One of the best performances at the triangular match between St Andrews University, Edinburgh Southern Harriers and Shettleston Harriers was the pole vault of 12′ 6″ by N Brown (Shettleston), beating the ground record by 9″.   St Andrews won the men’s contest with 95 points to Southern’s 62 and Shettleston’s 27.   Jordanhill Training College, with 39 points won the women’s contest from Southern, 36 and St Andrews, 33.    DJ Whyte (St Andrews) won three events – 100 yards (10.4 sec), high jump (5’11”) and long jump (22′  6 1/2 “)”

Wednesday, May 18th:   Glasgow University narrowly won an inter-club contest at Westerlands last night with an aggregate of 79 points.   Victoria Park AAC were runners up with 74, Jordanhill Training College third with 52, and Shettleston Harriers fourth, 38.   CW Fairbrother (Victoria Park) the British high jump champion, was one of the outstanding competitors with a jump of 6′ 7″, only half an inch outside the Scottish record.   G McLaughlan (Victoria Park) equalled the 120 yards native hurdles record with a time of 15.3 sec.

[This was a particularly interesting match with many top class athletes competing – eg Mike Hildrey won the 100 yards, Graham Everett won the mile, Joe Connolly won the three miles, Tom McNab won the triple jump and hammer, PeterMilligan won the pole vault and Fraser Riach won the shot, discus and javelin.]

Friday, May 20th:   Shettleston Harriers beat Glasgow University select by 71 points to 66 last night at Westerlands.”

Monday, 23rd May:   Edinburgh Southern Harriers beat Victoria Park AAC by two points at Fernieside.   Six ground records were broken and one equalled.     Bellahouston Harriers beat Ayr Seaforth by 71 points to 45 at Ayr.

Wednesday, 25th May:   “Glasgow University beat Bellahouston Harriers by 109 points to 78 last night at Westerlands.   R Sykes (Bellahouston) won the shot putt (41′ 8 1/2″), the discus (124′ 5″) and the pole vault (9′).   AM Miller (University) won the 100 yards in 10.4 sec and the 220 yards in 22.5 sec, and RR Mills (University) also won two events, the 120 yards hurdles (16.1 s) and the 440 yards hurdles (57 s).”

Friday, 27th May:   “Victoria Park AAC beat Glasgow University by 58 points to 40 last night at Westerlands.   I Binnie (Victoria Park AAC), holder of records from 7 to 12 miles, took part after a long absence from the track.   He won the two miles comfortably in 9 min 55.5 sec in heavy rain.” 

[June had most club championships, some county championships and a few open meetings – the big one was the SAAA Championships at the end of the month and the inter-clubs had been well used by most of the big names to get themselves in shape, often by running distances other than their usual but also some hard racing away in relatively private conditions against other top competitors. There were never many two or three club fixtures in June.    July was the ‘holiday month’ with all the various Fair Holidays – several had the first fortnight as their annual break, others had the second two weeks and and very few clubs could field a complete team at that time of year.  If you add in the AAA’s Championships with the best athletes competing there and having to prepare on their own for the week or two beforehand, the problem was exacerbated.   So June and July were relatively free of the inter-club fixture although there were a few.]

 Tuesday, June 14th:   “Garscube Harriers beat Springburn Harriers by 108 points to 102 last night in their inter-club contest at Knightswood.   MM Campbell (Garscube) won the 100 and 220 yards in 10.4 sec and 23.6 sec and E Sinclair (Springburn) won the mile in  4 min 33.5 sec, and the two miles in 9 min 33.1 sec.”

Friday, 12th August:   “Shettleston have a contest against Edinburgh Southern Harriers tomorrow at Scotstoun.   Shettleston, who have already beaten Victoria Park and Glasgow University, out to be more than a match for Edinburgh Southern.   The Glasgow club will be without GE Everett, who will be competing at the British Games at White City, London, but Southern will be more heavily handicapped through the absence of RB Cockburn in the sprints, KD Ballantyne in the middle distance events and D McKechnie in the jumps.   These three are included in the Scottish side who are due to compete in the Belfast Highland Games.”

Monday, August 15th:   “Edinburgh Southern Harriers beat Shettleston Harriers by the narrow margin of four points (95 – 91) in their inter-club event at Scotstoun.   Each club won 9 of the 18 events.   K Skilder was a triple winner for Edinburgh Southern in the shot putt, discus and pole vault.   F Davidson (Edinburgh Southern) and R Stephen (Shettleston) each won two events.   Both relay events were won by Shettleston, W Stockton, the Scottish quarter mile champion, paving the way for his club’s win in the 4 x 440 yards.”

Monday, August 22nd:   “Bellahouston Harriers beat Springburn Harriers by 58 points to 32 in their inter-club contest at Nethercraigs.”

From Runners World:

Merv Lincoln, Miler Who Was Always Second Best, Dies at 82 | Runner’s World 

Received from Hugh Barrow, this one is on how to be the very best distance runner you can be.   As he says, it is by one who has been over the course.

I received this one yesterday – it is what it says it is and I don’t need to recommend a document signed by the eight people at the foot.   Four of them are Scots.   Read on.

Open letter to everyone who cares about athletics:

Track and Field Athletics; The Facts

In the last 30 to 40 years athletics has changed from being run largely by volunteers (3 paid professional administrators and 9 National coaches under the British Amateur Athletics Board prior to 1991) to having 220 administrative and coaching staff costing over £10 million per annum. Since funding for performance began in 1999 more that £300 million has gone to athletics governing bodies, of which more than 50% has come from lottery or public funds.

Many people who have been directly involved in the sport during this transition in both voluntary and professional capacities are deeply concerned that the present powerful, rigid and very expensive structure masks overwhelming but officially denied decline in track and field athletics. The facts are:-

Participation
The latest Active People Survey 2013 (APS) states that 140,000 people over the age of 16 take part in track and field athletes as their prime sport. But analysis of results on the governing body’s own website shows that, in fact, approximately only 7000 over 16s compete in the sport 5 times per year or more. If the APS figures were correct around 1000 athletes would be found on each track in the country on training nights. Observation suggests that the real figure is around 50, which is compatible with the 7000 who are known to compete. The number of senior athletes declined in 2013 from 2012. The APS overstates the figures by a factor of 20.

Elite Performance
When elite funding was approved in 1998 the only objective KPI was to increase medals at Olympics and World outdoor Championships. The target for athletics at the Olympics was set at 6 medals for 2000 (matching the 1996 total) rising to 12 in 2012. The total achieved in 2012 was 6, no increase after 14 years of funding. In the World Championships in 1997 Great Britain won 6 medals and in 2013 Great Britain won 6 medals, again no increase.

Coaching
In a letter to an MP in Dec 2012, the head of Sport England stated there were 42,000 active coaches in athletics. The latest figures from Sport England, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act in 2013, gives 14,111. More than 50% of this number are not designated as coaches but ‘leaders’, having obtained this qualification by merely attending a one or two day course. Analysis of qualified coaches from 2008 to 2012 suggests the number has declined by 50%. The number of active qualified coaches is now around 3000.

Officials
It is very difficult to obtain accurate information on officials, but the anecdotal evidence is overwhelming. At all levels below elite, meetings are being run without sufficient qualified officials. The majority of officials are not registered and more that 50% of all meetings could not take place without using these officials. A meeting a Loughborough (an athletics Centre of Excellence) to select athletes for an international meeting was cancelled through lack of officials in March this year.

Summary
A lack of transparent, consistent whole sport performance measures hides the fact that £300 million since 1999 has resulted in just 7000 16+ track and field participants and 3000 coaches in 2013. Only 6 medals per global championship have been achieved, as opposed to the 12 targeted when performance funding started – and 5 of the 10 individual medals have been won by athletes who live and train abroad with foreign coaches. There has been no Olympic Legacy other than decline, a situation that demands urgent enquiry.

Gwenda Ward, Olympian, coach; Rob Whittingham, Track Statistician and author; Tom McNab, ex National coach, author and playwright; John Anderson, ex National Coach; Bill Laws, Chair, ABAC: John Bicourt, Olympian, coach; Hamish Telfer Ph.D coach, author and academic. Frank Dick Ph.D Former Director of Coaching, British Athetics Federation.

Probably the most successful Scottish club of the 1950’s:

A Victoria Park group taken at Milngavie

1955 was as different from 1975 as chalk from cheese: 1965 was different but there were many similarities and these will probably show up.   It was a decade that had an interesting mix – domestic fixtures and also many wonderful international stars appearing in Glasgow and Edinburgh every year at the various ‘Sports’.   It was still quite close to the war and the real austerity years so the number of domestic meetings was lower that it would come to be in the 60’s.   The Universities played a big part in the athletics of the day with inter-varsity meetings, university sports having open races included, university championships being major meetings in their own right; the various police forces had their meetings – three are mentioned below – with the Glasgow Police meeting in early June being the largest and featuring international stars; and there were the meetings promoted by local factories such as Babcock & Wilcox, Saxone and Singer’s which were regular fixtures.   Track Leagues which were a key part of the sport in 1965 had not yet appeared on the scene.  Another difference from today, was the coverage given to the ‘Britan  v  ….’ internationals.   The coverage given to meetings such as GBV France, GB v Hungary, GB v Russia and so on with two men per event, (no guest races and very,very seldom was there ever a guest competitor in any of the races) was comprehensive, at times lavish.   Maybe surprising when there was seldom more than two or three Scots in the team but it was very soon after the war in which all four British countries had fought side by side and there was no question of us not being British.   Anyway, what follows is a snapshot of Scottish athletics in 1955 and it should be compared with 1965 and 1975.

The summer season starts as ever at the end of April and start of May.

On 18th April, Victoria Park competed in the London to Brighton Road Race where they finished ninth with Shettleston sixteenth.   Ian Binnie (VP) was third fastest over the seventh stage and Graham Everett (Shettleston) was sixth on the next stage.   At home, Cyril O’Boyle (Clydesdale Harriers) won the Balloch to Clydebank 12 miles road race from Alec McDougall (Vale of Leven) in 66:05.   The penultimate weekend in April, 1955 was when Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities held their open meetings.   At Glasgow the star man was Alan Dunbar in the 100 yards which he won in 10.5 on the grass track at Westerlands, JGR Robertson won the 220 yards in 23.5.   The press report noted that Robertson was 6′ 1″ and 14 stone and also won the shot putt with 34′ 5″ as well as finishing second in the 100 yards.  JM Finlayson won the mile and three miles in 4:29.2 and 15:38.8 with Peter Ballance second in both.    L Barr won the women’s 100 yards (12.7) and 220 yards (29.9).    In Edinburgh, at Goldenacre, KA Robertson won the 100 yards in 10.4 seconds, JV Paterson won the 220 yards and the 440 yards in 23.6 seconds and 51 seconds and Adrian Jackson won the mile in 4:18.   The big event on 30th April, 1955, was the Victoria Park AAC meeting at Scotstoun. The report read: “A very successful outing for school youths and juniors was held by Victoria Park AAC at Scotstoun Showground on Saturday.   The feature of the school events was the fine performance of G Watson of Whitehill Secondary School who, in the 100 yards for boys 15 – 17, clocked 10.6 beating J Craig, John Neilson School, Paisley, by three yards.   V Reilly, last year’s Scottish Youth champion, won the Over 17 race in the same time.   Both Watson and Reilly returned the same time as did R Quinn who won one of three Victoria Park club races.   Quinn beat G Robertson, the Scottish schoolboy champion by half a yard in 10.6 in the club sprint, but over the furlong Robertson beat Quinn by a yard in 23.5 seconds.   I Binnie, the holder of records from two miles to one hour’s running, ran in a three mile race and won as he liked  in the good time of 14:27.4 beating his nearest rival, J Russell, by over half a lap.   Binnie ran the first mile in 4:33, and the second in 4:29. ”   Among the other schools winners was CW Fairbrother, John Neilson School, who won the high jump with 5′ 7″.

On the first Saturday in May there were four events, including an attempt by Ian Binnie on the ground record at Meadowbank in an invitation three miles at the Edinburgh Trades Council meeting.    He won by almost a lap from Stan Horne of Garscube Harriers in 14:15.3.   On the same day, his club defeated Heriot’s FP and Edinburgh Southern Harriers quite comfortably in a triangular fixture at Goldenacre.   Results: 100 yards W Breingan (VP)  10.7 sec; 220 yards V Hamilton (VP) 23.8;  440 yards:  R Quinn (VP) 50.8;  880 yards  D Henson (VP) 1:2:01.8;  Mile G Everett (Shettleston) 4:23.6;  High Jump  W Piper (VP)  6′, equalled ground record; Long Jump T Macnab (S) and G McFarlane (VP) 20′ 8″;  Hop, Step and Jump  T Macnab (S) 46’8″;  Shot J Donnelly (VP)  38′ 02″;  Discus  J Donnelly (VP) 118′ 6″.    Victoria Park also won the 4 x 110 yards relay.   The Victoria Park men’s road and cross country team was winning almost everything on the roads and many of the country races at this time, but their track and field team was not too bad either.  Meanwhile at Craiglockhart, Edinburgh University was beating a Glasgow University team by 68 points to 50 in the men’s match and 48 to 20 in the women’s.    In the B competition between the same two university teams, Edinburgh beat Glasgow 48 to 40.

There were several domestic meetings on 23rd May as well as meetings south of the border with Scots taking part.   Glasgow University ‘did not experience any problems’ in beating Aberdeen University at Westerlands despite the absence of several sprinters.   In the Mile, where Glasgow’s J Finlayson was expected to give a good account of himself, A Wood of Aberdeen won ‘as he pleased’.   In the Bonnybridge meeting, Miss J Herman ran a very good 200 yards in 27.4 seconds despite the ground conditions, Willie Drysdale of Monkland won the men’s mile in 4:27.   Edinburgh University defeated Stewart’s College at Craiglockhart and Clydesdale Harriers was the strongest club in the ne Dunbartonshire Championships with the two best performances of the day – by WS Linton (ex-Braidburn) in the 880 yards in 2:01.5, and John Hume in the 440 yards in 53.7 seconds.   Other winners were George Rodger (Clydesdale in the 100 yards) in 10.8, Bob Steele (Vale of Leven) in the 220 yards in 24.4, Stan Horne of Garscube in the Mile in 4:34.4, Gordon Dickson, also Garscube, in the Three Miles in 15:26.    Looking at that group, we note that Dickson moved to Victoria Park for several years before going back to Garscube, Bob Steele moved to Edinburgh, joined Edinburgh Southern Harriers and became administrator for the Scottish endurance squad and Willie Drysdale is still running in 2014 as a veteran, albeit for Law & District.   Ian Binnie ran at the Caledonian Games at the White City where he set the pace for the first mile before fading and finishing down the field.

On 28th May, Alan Gordon finished fourth and just outside four minutes for the Mile at White City.   In the Glasgow University championships, JGR Robertson defeated Alan Dunbar in both 100 and 220 yards in 10 sec and 22.5 seconds.   His 100 yards time was new ground record but at the Edinburgh University championships a new Scottish native record for the javelin was set by DWR McKenzie with a throw of 214′ 11″ but the athlete of the meeting was JV Paterson.  Paterson ran 50.3 seconds for the 440 yards and a half mile record of 1:57.8.   Adrian Jackson won the Three Miles in 14:58.9, considerably quicker than the Glasgow equivalent.

Athletics attention was firmly on the Glasgow Police International Athletic Gathering – the 72nd of the series – on 5th June, 1955.    Athletes from Scotland, England, Norway, Sweden, Holland, Belgium and Switzerland were all there providing good competition for the athletes, excitement beyond the ordinary for the spectators and good publicity for the sport.   The report:

“High winds affected performances at the 72nd Glasgow Police International Athletic Gathering on Saturday at Ibrox Stadium, where the attendance was below expectations.   Two records were accomplished – both in one race, the three miles.   R Dunkley, a former outstanding AAA’s Junior miler, made a superb last lap effort to beat the Scottish champion, I Binnie (Victoria Park), by 30 yards in the new all-comers record time of 13:50.3 – some 4 seconds better than the previous record of F Mihalic (Yugoslavia) at the Glasgow Highland Gathering last year.   Binnie clocked 13:54.8, a new Scottish native record.   Binnie in his customary manner set the pace for the field of seven entrants.   Before he reached the two mile mark he held a lead of 80 yards, clocking 4:31.4 for the first mile, and 9:12.4 for the second.   F Herman (Belgium) lay second, closely followed by Dunkley.   Just before the last lap the Englishman left Herman, cut down Binnie’s lead by the bell to 40 yards, and sped past him a furlong from the finish.   Binnie, as he himself said afterwards, had no answer to the effort.  

The other chief features were the win of AS Dunbar (Glasgow University and Victoria Park) in the special 100 yards, in which he beat Continental and English opposition in the fine time of 10.1 seconds, and the brilliant running of W Henderson (Watsonians) in the furlong for neither J Carlsson (Sweden) nor W Ferguson (AAA’s) could hold the Edinburgh sprinter who had to make all his own running in the outside lane.   He clocked 22.3 seconds and wn by a yard and a half.  

Local athletes achieved results better than normal.   In the open high jump W Piper (Glasgow Police) with a half inch allowance cleared 6′ 3″ – a fine feat in the conditions.   R Quinn (Victoria Park) won the open 220 yards from the back mark of one yard in 22.5 seconds  – one of his best achievements.   G Everett (Shettleston Harriers), a former Hutchesons Grammar School boy, won the open ‘half’ as he liked in 1:55.9.   He should be seen to advantage in the coming national Mile championship at New Meadowbank.”

Results of invitation events:

100 yards:   1.   AS Dunbar   10.1;   2.   J Carlsson (Sweden);  3.  W Ferguson (AAA’a).         220 yards:   1.  W Henderson  22.3;  2.  W Ferguson;   3.  J Carlsson

440 yards:   1.  FP Higgins (AAA)  50.2;   2.  JJ Hogg (Switzerland);  3.  H de Kroon (Holland).         880 yards:  A Boysen) Norway 1:53.7;  2.  DCE Gorrie (AAA’s);   3.  RD Henderson (AAA’s).

Mile:  1.   J Ericsson (Sweden) 4:13.3;  2.  J Disley (AAA’s);   3.   FL Wyatt(AAA’s).   Three Miles:   R Dunkley (AAA’s)  13:50.3;   2.   I Binnie (VPAAC);  3.  F Hermann.

440 yards hurdles:  1.  TS Farrell (AAA’s)  53.8;  2.  H Kane (AAA’s);   3.  PB Hildreth (AAA’s).   Pole Vault:  1.  R Lundberg (Sweden) 13′ 3″;   2.  NGA Gregor (AAA’s);  3.  R Petitjean (AAA’s).

There were also 7 senior events, 3 youth events and, of course, three events confined to the police.

The Scottish Universities Championships at Westerlands were also taking place that afternoon and Edinburgh was the top dog there.   JGR Robertson won the 100 and 220 yards but had some wind assistance when he recorded 10 seconds for the 100.   JV Paterson won the 440in 51.4, AS Jackson the three miles in 15:11.8.   CAR Dennis of Edinburgh won both hurdles races in 15.5 and 59.3 seconds, and also won the discus ith just over 109 feet.

Seven days later, 12th June, and the big British event was Oxford and Cambridge  v  Harvard and Yale at the White City.   But back at home in Scotland, another University fixture caught the headlines – Atalanta (a Scottish universities select team) was competing against the Christie Club (Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester Universities) and won by 60 pts to 45.  The top results were in the throws where Mark Pharaoh’s discus throw for Christie) and ECK Douglas of Atalanta’s hammer were better than their English counterparts.   Pharaoh’s discus was 160′ 9.5″ and Douglas’s hammer effort was 176′ 2″ to set a new ground record.   DWR Mackenzie threw the javelin 199′ 10″ which was also a ground record.   JV Paterson set a new record for the 440 yards with his run of 50.1 seconds.   RJ Beecroft (Christie) also set a new ground record – in the Mile with 4:15.1.   A Wood of Atalanta who was third ran anew personal best of 4:16.   The SWAAA Championhips were also held on that afternoon and the best results were by Pat Devine, just up from London, who won three events – the 100 yards (11.8), 220 yards (26.4) and the long jump (17′ 11″).   Aileen Drummond (later Lusk) of Maryhill Harriers also won two events – the 880 yards (2:30.8) and the mile (5:42.3).   There were also meetings at Motherwell & Wishaw and Madderty in Perthshire.   The annual Goatfell Race was also decided:  Stan Horne of Garscube defeated Pat Moy of Vale of Leven and Gordon Dickson of Garscube.   The winner’s time took 10 minutes from the record and the first five finishers were all inside the previous record.

On Saturday, 18th June, the headlines were all about a meeting at the White City in which no Scots appeared to be taking part – this was not uncommon as the reports tended to start with the biggest meeting and make their way down the page to a three line report on a wee local meeting.   Below that came the Scottish Schools Boys championship and Scottish Schools Girls championship held respectively at Goldenacre and Westerlands.   The girls event trophy for the performance of the meeting, the Frances Barker Shield, went to M Bain (Aberdeen Grammar School) whose time for the 80 metres hurdles was 12.3 seconds which was only one tenth outside the Scottish native record.   She also equalled the high jump record with 4′ 11″ but finished second in that event to another Aberdeen girl, P Bellamy (Albyn), who created a new meeting record of 5′ 0″.     Aberdeen High School also won the Paisley Shields for most points.   These trophies for a points aggregate were not uncommon at the time and were a variation on specific inter-club fixtures for such awards.  There were only two age groups at the boys championships – 15 to 17, and 17to 19 but there were eleven new meeting records set.   The name most familiar to the present generation ius that of Crawford Fairbrother (John Neilsons) who added 2.25″ to the high jump record by clearing 5′ 10″.   At the time the feat of the day was the pole vault record of 11′ 3.25″ by PB Hall of Fettes.   The 100 yards was won in 10 seconds flat by E McKeating, the Heriot’s cricket and athletics captain.

In the Lanarkshire Police Sports at Shawfield, home of Clyde FC, JGR Robertson of Glasgow University won the 100 yards handicap from one and a half yards in 9.8 although he only just made the final with 9.9 against Victoria Park clubmate J Semple by a foot.   TA Logan (Renfrew and Bute Police) won the shot with 46′ 1.25″ but the ball was found to be at least a pound short of 16 pounds and so it could not be a record.   Among the other results was John Stevenson (Greenock Wellpark) winning the two miles with 9:25.9, Victoria Park won the team race, W Piper (Glasgow Police with a half inch allowance in the high jump) winning his event with 6′ 1.5″.    This meeting clashed with the Babcock & Wilcox meeting at Renfrew and both suffered slightly in consequence but there was good sport there too with AS McManus of the host club winning the 220 yards in 22.4 off 7 yards and Bill Black of Maryhill off 15 yards winning the mile in 4:17.6.   J Campbell of Paisley won the 14 mile road race in 1:28:29.   The Empire Exhibition Trophy for the team with most points over seven named events went to Clydesdale Harriers whose medley relay team of John Hume, George Rodger, Willie McDonald and Bill Linton won the invitation event.   Robert Clark was substituted for Willie MacDonald and the team won the SAAA 4 x 400 championship later that year.

The Clydesdale Relay Team

The SAAA Championships were held on 25th June – the last Saturday in June being the traditional date for the fixture, everyone knew what the peak of the season would be and could prepare for it.   The report was headlined McGHEE’S FINE PERFORMANCE IN THE MARATHON” and went on

“In the Scottish Amateur Athletic Association’s sixty third annual championship meeting at New Meadowbank on Friday and Saturday, 13 competitors retained their titles and there were nine new champions.  The drawings for the meeting were up by as much as £200.   Three double event winners emerged – I Binnie (Victoria Park) won won the three and six miles, CF Riach (Jordanhill Training College) who won the discus and javelin, and CAR Dennis (Edinburgh University) who won the 120 and 440 yards hurdles.  

Without doubt the performance of the meeting was achieved in the gruelling marathon race in which Empire Games champion J McGhee (Shettleston Harriers) outstripped his rivals and won in the new championship best time of 2:25:50.   He beat GC King (Wellpark Harriers) by about one and a half miles in a race which he controlled from the start.   Although the award of the Crabbie Cup is in abeyance, it is clear that McGhee has an excellent chance of winning the award.   As many as 15 of the 18 who finished the marathon received standards all of them finishing within three hours for the testing course.   They were however favoured by a following wind.

Five runners finished within 4:21 for the mile on a track that was not in the best condition for fast times.  In addition the wind was a handicap.    The performance of GE Everett (Shettleston Harriers) in beating AS Jackson (Edinburgh University), the holder, by 15 yards in the fine time of 4:13.2 suggests that we have a fine miler capable of distinguishing himself in better company.   His judgement was beyond reproach for he contented himself with remaining within easy reach of the leaders until 300 yards from the finish and then finished so strongly that the holder could not cope with him.   The most thrilling race of the afternoon was the quarter mile .   The favourite, JV Paterson (Edinburgh University) who had a distinct advantage on entering the home straight, found R Quinn (Victoria Park) alongside him on the finishing line and the latter’s determined effort succeeded by inches in the good time of 49.6 seconds.  

The defeat of DWR McKenzie in the javelin was the surprise of the field events.   On many occasions he has beaten his latest 187′ 4.5″. “

That’s where the report ends – not a mention of Fraser Riach’s throw of 189′ 9″ which won the event!   It was the tradition until fairly recently that no permits were issued on the days of Scottish championships – track & field of cross-country – and it meant bigger entries and usually more spectators.

“Conditions at Westerlands are rarely ever ideal for athletics, and Saturday was no exception on the occasion of the Scottish junior and youth championships.”   was the first sentence of the report in the Glasgow Herald of 4th July.   The meeting incorporated the SAAA 4 x 440 yards relay championship and the Clydesdale Harriers squad of Linton, Rodger, Clark and Hume beat the favourites, Victoria Park, in 3:28 with Shettleston Harriers separating them in second..   So convinced was one of the Glasgow papers that  their photographer took a picture, which was published, of Bobby Quinn finishing as one of the victorious team.   In the championship itself, top performance was RR McDonald (Heriot’s) in the half mile where he set a new record of 2:05.3 and A Hannah (Athenians and Preston Lodge) set a new 220 yards hurdles record of 24.2 seconds defeating WG Montgomery (Cambuslang Harriers) who had just equalled the record when winning the 120 yards hurdles in 15.8 seconds.   At Stevenston in Ayrshire at the Ardeer Sports Club event Tommy Mercer (Bellahouston) won the handicap half mile off 38 yards in 1:56.8, and Molly Ferguson (later Wilmoth) won the women’s 220 yards off 9 yards in 28.5.

Many of the Sports meetings at this time were sponsored by local businesses – Babcock’s has already been mentioned – and the Saxone shoe company had a meeting at Kilmarnock called the Saxone Welfare Association Sports in the second weekend in July.   The competitors were mostly from local clubs such as Beith, Muirkirk and Irvine but there were athletes from wider afield including a sprinter from Belfast, T Mills of 9th Old Boys, who won the 100 yards.   The professional Border Games was also being held and the outstanding talent was Mike Glen from Bathgate who won the Two Miles Handicap  –  but there were 28 heats of the £200 Jedforest 120 yards handicap.   Back among the amateurs Joe McGhee repeated his win over George King in the 12 mile road race at the Dundee North End Sports in a record 1:06:24.   On the track top athlete was Miss P Bellamy (Aberdeen Amateurs) who won the 100 (off 7 yards, 11.3) and 220 yards (13 yards, 25.9).

CHAMPIONSHIP RECORD BY SCOTTISH JUNIOR  RELAY TEAM

Though the victories by BS Hewson and CJ Chataway, two of England’s four-minute milers, in the mile and four mile events received the greatest applause at the AAA’s Championships at the White City, London, on Saturday, there was no more impressive success than that of the Victoria Park AAC who won the junior 440 yards relay title in new record time of 43.8.   V Reilly, one of five athletic sons of a well-known Glasgow medical family, laid the foundation of the victory with a splendid first “leg”, and D Struthers, W Burns and R Beaton carried on the good work.   I suggest however that no one did more to win the title than and gain the record than the one who trained those boys in baton changing.   They were well practiced and confident.   Shettleston Harriers won the event two years ago and it seems as if Scotland have the youngsters to uphold their prestige in the future.  

The small Scottish representation won two more titles at the meeting, the others being the hammer and the high jump.   Dr ECK Douglas  won the hammer throw on Friday night, and a Glasgow police constable, W Piper, won the high jump on Saturday.   He cleared 6′ 3″ as did O Okuwobi (Cambridge University) but the Scot, who won a AAA junior title, the pole vault, in 1949, had fewer failures at lesser heights.   Piper has established himself as first choice for the British teams who have matches against Germany and Hungary and a visit to Moscow this year.  …. “

After Glasgow and Lanarkshire, the Edinburgh Police had their sports on this Saturday – 16th July – too.   Held at Meadowbank, Edinburgh Southern Harriers won the SWAAA 4 x 110 yards relay title, while Clydesdale Harriers won the men’s invitation medley relay.   Top athlete in a purely domestic field was Mrs JG Herman who was only 0.2 seconds outside the Scottish record when winning the 440 yards 58.5 seconds.   In the North, Alastair Wood set anew north  record for the two miles at Forres Highland Games taking 12 seconds from the old record.   Unfortunately the winning time was not included in the report of the meeting.   There were six starters in the 15 miles organised by the Broughty Ferry and District Development Association’s Sports, half of them dropped out and George King won the event in 1:39.04.

On 23rd July at the Aberdeen Corporation Sports at the Linksfield Stadium, JV Paterson equalled the Scottish half mile record when he won the event in 1:53.6.   Paterson and Bobby Quinn (VPAAC) were both off scratch in the 440 yards but Quinn won in 49.5 seconds with Paterson finishing third behind D Martineau (Aberdeen).   Piper was in the news too when he won the British Police high jump (6′ 5.5″) and pole vault (11′ 6″) at their championships at Liverpool.   There were six Scottish victories at the event.   The 100 yards was won by A Stewart (Lanarkshire) in 10.6,  the shot TA Logan (Renfrew and Bute) with 44′ 6″, the long jump by AM Law (Renfrewshire) with 21′ 1″ and Miss I Plenderleith (Edinburgh City won the 100 yards in 12.3 seconds.

There were also meetings at Elgin and Lochearnhead but the junior men again distinguished themselves at the AAA Junior Championships at Reading.   E McKeating of Heriot’s took first place in the 100 yards in 10 seconds, and A Hannah (Preston Lodge) won the 220 yards hurdles in 23.4seconds.   There had been doubts raised at the quality of the time keeping or course measurement after he ran 24.2 seconds at the Scottish Schools meeting, but this time was eight tenths quicker so putting all doubts to rest.

Piper’s reward was not long in coming – the next week on Saturday 30th July he competed at White City the following week and defeated the German W Puell with a clearance of 6′ 4″ at his second attempt, Puell needed three.   There were comments that Piper had started to jump wearing just one shoe, ‘a technique that is becoming more popular with British High Jumpers.’   At home there was another football club involved in the promotion of athletics – a joint Falkirk FC/Falkirk Victoria Harriers meeting at Brockville produced a two mile record from Alex Breckenridge (Victoria Park) – but then it was discovered that the course was short and the time, which came out of an intense duel with Graham Everett, could not be recognised.    The course was a lap short – I remember the same thing happening at Brockville when I ran there several years later – the lap had to be short to fit the space available and all distance races had more laps than elsewhere.   At this meeting there was some good athletics, though.   Neil Donachie (Braidburn) won the 880 yards off 10 yards in 1:56.3; Jim Irvine of Bellahouston won the Mile in 4:15.3 off 140 yards.   Among the professionals, Jay Scott won eight events at Dingwall – what a sportsman he was.

… and on the first Saturday in August it was, as ever, the Rangers Sports at Ibrox.

GREAT HALF MILE RACE AT IBROX STADIUM

Two New Middle Distance Records

Rangers Football Club have every reason to be pleased with their 69th annual sports meeting at Ibrox Stadium on Saturday when a crowd of 50,000 saw several splendid races, two of which – the half-mile and mile – produced new Scottish all-comers records.  

Never has so brilliant a half-mile been run in Scotland – eight yards covering the first four three of whom returned times inside the previous all-comers record of 1:50.   T Courtney (USA), BS Hewson (AAA) and DJN Johnstone (AAA) and A Boysen (Norway) have all been in record breaking form in recent years, so when the first lap with S Oseid (Norway) in the lead ended in 52.8 seconds and Boysen, holder of the record, went to the front a stirring finish was inevitable.   Only over the last 30 yards did Courtney gain the lead and despite determined efforts by Hewson and Johnson, the American held on and won by half a yard in the marvellous time of 1:49.2.   His performance is rated even better than the time indicates, for a troublesome wind faced the runners in the finishing straight and the track was very loose – factors that may well have added two seconds to the time and deprived Courtney of a world record.  

A 2:20 first half almost ruled out the prospect of a mile record until the native record holder, AD Breckenridge (Victoria Park), shot to the front.  but what a race developed round the last lap.   Neither Seaman (USA) nor Ken Wood (AAA), however, could hold the easy-running G Nielson (Denmark) who beat Wood by five yards in the new all-comers record of 4:08.9.   Had this race been run differently, two or three more seconds would have been lopped off.     R Blair (USA) was a commanding figure in the 120 yards short limit handicap.  He won the final splendidly yet had little to spare for B Shenton (AAA), often guilty of beating the gun, was very quickly off his mark, so the big American had to pull out something special over the last 20 yards to win.   His time of 11.4beat the all-comers record but it cannot be recognised because the following wind was well over the permitted maximum.   Blair also won one of the special 220 yards races in 21.8, 0.9 sec over his best time for the distance.   In the 220 yards hurdles race, PB Hildreth returned 24.3 sec – only 0.2 sec worse than his own British record established at the White City, London, four years ago.  

Results of Invitation Events

There were also eight open handicap events, two cycle races and the inevitable five-a-side where Hibernian lost to Celtic 2-0 in the final, goals scored by Fernie and Peacock.

There were no other amateur events on in Scotland on that particular day although there were a couple of professional meetings.

There was another major meeting at the White City just one week later – the GB  v  Hungary match which Hungary won comfortably.   ECK Douglas was the only Scot in action on  the Saturday and was placed third (first Briton) with a hammer throw of 181′ 11″ behind Czermak’s 193′ 2″.   There were several disappointing runs by British runners – Chataway (2nd) and Ibbotson (4th) were beaten by Tabori in the Three Milles where he won in 13:44.6.   Chataway had the same time but the judges gave the verdict to the Hungarian.   Brian Hewson won the 880 yards from Szentgali and Roszavolgyi in 1:48.6 which was a British all-comers record, and John Disley and Eric Shirley had a 1-2 in the steeplechase with the winning time being 8:55.4.

 Back in Scotland DWR MacKenzie (Edinburgh University won the javelin contest at Nairn Games with a new ground record of 200′ 5.25″.    There was also a professional meeting at Taynuilt in Argyll where the highlight was new high record set by Jay Scott of Inchmurrin – he also won the pole vault and long jump.      But there was no shortage of action the following week when Edinburgh Highland Games brought a touch of international athletics back to the domestic scene.

Just two weeks after the Rangers Sports, we now had England, Belgium, Luxemburg, Australia, South Africa, Eire and Switzerland sharing Murrayfield with Scottish handicap racers.  The report read:

“Two all-comers records were broken and one equalled at the ninth Edinburgh Highland Games at Murrayfield on Saturday.   The new all-comers records were achieved by K Wood (AAA) with 4:08.8 in the Mile, and Miss T Hopkins (Queen’s University, Belfast) with 5′ 6” in the high jump.    The equalled all-comers record was 25.1 sec for the furlong by Miss M Francis (AAA) the British record holder for the 100 yards.   The Games records were of course broken in these events and other Games records were achieved in the marathon, inter-city relay, 220 yards and Two Miles.   E Kirkup (AAA) won the marathon in 2:31:03 – 7 minutes better than the previous best of the late Donald Robertson four years ago.   J McGhee retired at 15 miles.   He has not fully recovered from an injured foot.  

Wood had a runaway win in the Mile.   He was content to lie behind the pace maker, AD Breckenridge, but entering the last lap he never gave his rivals a chance to get on terms with him.   His time was one second better than G Nielson at Ibrox  Stadium which is awaiting approval.   Miss Hopkins was an easy winner, beating the present all-comers record in the high jump of D Walby (Glasgow University) by 4 inches. She attempted 5′ 8.5″ , hopeful of beating the world record but failed.   The best race of the day was the two miles in which P Driver and BT Barrett fought out a terrific last lap, the latter losing by a yard in the good time of 8:57.7.   The Scottish champion I Binnie tried to keep with the leaders but he evidently cannot cope with the powerful finishes of the English runners.”  

Results of invitation Events: Men   Page 4!

*   Games Record         ** Scots team was DC Gorrie, JG Robertson, W Henderson, R Quinn       *** Glasgow team was D McDonald, JG Robertson, R Quinn, R Stoddart

Women

* Equals Games Record       ** All Comers Record

It really was an excellent meeting – an attempt on a world record, Scots ‘interfering’ in contests between world ranked athletes (Bobby Quinn in the quarter mile, Neil Donachie in the 880, Andy Brown in the two miles, Peter Milligan in the pole vault) – even beating them (Piper in the high jump), men and women competing before a big crowd and it all happened at home in Scotland!   Something that will probably never ever be reprised.

The  other big (-ish) meeting that day was the Bute Highland Games at Rothesay where Miss JDM Webster from Leith set a new Scottish record in the women’s mile.   She recorded a time of 2:23.4.   U O’Connor of Eire cleared 11′ 6″ in the pole vault for a new ground record and TD Logan (Glasgow Police) broke the ground record for the shot putt with 45′ 9″while, having a very good year, the Clydesdale Harriers team won the relay.    Clubs represented among the event winners were Bute Shinty AC, Ardeer Recreation Club, West Kilbride, Inverness Burgh Police, Lanark Constabulary and Glasgow Police – as well, of course, as Shettleston, Victoria Park, Bellahouston, Wellpark and Clydesdale of the more traditional clubs.   Jay Scott won six events at Abernethy Highlanders Games, St Ronan’s Games were held at Innerleithen and Glenfinnan Highland Games attracted a crowd of over 2000.   It would have been interesting to have seen Jay Scott at Murrayfield, would it not?

There were always two trips down the Clyde at the end of August.   Rothesay was first, then at the very end of the month – Cowal.    The biggest crowd of the summer outside of the Rangers Sports and Edinburgh Highland Games and except for the Throws an almost entirely domestic field.    In 1955 the top man was high jumper  W Piper, the AAA High Jump champion in the handicap competition.   Conceding generous starts to the opposition he cleared 6′ 6″ which was a personal best and equalled the four year old record set by Alan Paterson.   “Encouraged by that effort  Piper then attempted to clear 6′ 7.5″ and beat the native and all-comers record held by Paterson.   One of three jumps went very near to clearing the height but his elbow brought down the lathe.”   There were only two invitation events – the 880 yards for men and the 440 yards for women.   In the former R Boyd of Glasgow University ran the first quarter in 56.8 and at the finish had won in 1:55.0 but failed by only 0.7 seconds to beat the record held by Donald Gorrie.   R Stoddart of Bellahouston was second and Bill Linton of Clydesdale third.   In the women’s race, which was specially arranged for Miss J Herman (Edinburgh Southern Harriers) she found that Pat Devine of Dundee’s  Q Club too good for her.   Devine, best known as a sprinter had gone to live in London for a time to improve her athletics and had run for the WAAA at Edinburgh, won in 58.5 seconds – 0.2 outside the record held by Hermen who was beaten by several yards.   It was also on that weekend that it was announced that there would be a combined East and West German team for the 1956 Olympics with the only real point of discussion being which anthem to use!

That just about finished the summer’s athletics.  Piper was in action in both of the following two weeks for Britain  – one week later against France in London where he equalled the winning height (6′ 3″)but had to take second on countback, and two weeks later against Russia in Moscow where he was third after clearing 6′ 2.75″.   ECK Douglas was fourth in the hammer in Moscow.

At home it was the Shotts Highland Games on 3rd September where Graham Everett and Alex Breckenridge had a tremendous duel in the two miles before Breckenridge won in 9:33 leading his club to victory in the team contest.   Andy Brown (with a ‘rather generous allowance of 50 yards’) won the invitation mile from Alastair Wood who had foregone his handicap of 20 yards to run from scratch.   He justified the decision and was third at the end in 4:22.2 – not at all bad on the Shotts track with the downhill back straight and uphill home straight!   .   The Ben Nevis race was won by Eddie Campbell of Lochaber for the third time in four years in 1:50:05.   “Miss Kathleen Connochie, aged 16, the daughter of a Fort William doctor was debarred by the SAAA because of her age, but she made the run unofficially and was awarded a special prize.”   On 10th September it was the popular Dunblane Highland Games held on a grass track in a natural amphitheatre with fairly high grass banks for the spectators on the home straight and first bend.   Joe McGhee won the 14 mile road race in a new record time of 1:12:14 with George King and Hugo King both inside the old record as well.   Andy Brown gained his third mile race in as many competitions, this time off 45 yards, Joe Connolly won the 880 yards, and the sprints went to Breingan (VPAAC – 100 yards off two and a half in 10.2) and W Reville (Shettleston off 13 in 24 seconds).   The Pitlochry Games were also held with S Hogg (Cardenden) winning three events.  The final road race of the season before the cross-country and road running fixtures took over was the Scottish Marathon Club’s 20 miles event at Cambuslang.   Joe McGhee won in 1:45:09.   Hugo Fox was second (1:450:15), George King third (1:50:36), David Bowman (Clydesdale) fourth (1:59:02), T Phelan (Springburn) fifth 1:59:59) and Bob Donald (Garscube) sixth (2:05:14).

And so the season finished.  After the regular start with County and District championships at the end of April and May, interspersed with University fixtures and open meetings, the summer came to life with the Glasgow Police Sports and then the SAAA Championships, and accelerated even further in July and August with the ‘biggies’ being the Rangers Sports and Edinburgh Highland Games where the greats of the sport shared the track with club and university athletes, before ending with the Highland Games at Bute, Cowal, Shotts and Dunblane.   To some of us, it was maybe the best decade for Scottish athletics – we all had agood conceith of ourselves, not an arrogance but a confidence and knowledge of our place in the sport and the place of the sport in our lives in general.

Scottish Athletics has changed a lot over the past fifty or sixty years, particularly over the past twenty or thirty, and it is maybe a bit more difficult than is usually recognised to see the changes.   Running gear and the surfaces raced over – even the country raced over in winter – have changed and that can be seen without trying too hard but other changes have maybe been too subtle and too gradual to be noticed so this section will look at the differences in a number of different ways.   First of all, under the title of ‘A Year In The Life’ , we will have a look at one year in each decade to see what a typical season in the 50’s 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s  was like.

[ A Year In The Life: 1955 ]  [A Year In The Life: 1965 ] [ A Year In The Life: 1975 ] [ A Year In The Life: 1985 ]

A YEAR IN THE LIFE: SCOTTISH ATHLETICS IN SUMMER 1985

 SAAA 1500m Championship, 1985:  37 A Currie, 1  A Callan, 17 J Robson

The high point of the 1980’s happened in 1986 and what was almost the low point was in the same year.   The high point was the arrival on the scene of the ‘Scotland’s Runner’ magazine which ran from mid-86 to late 1993 and covered ALL of Scottish athletics in some depth.   The Commonwealth Games of the same year  was but a shadow of the 1970 Games.   The financial shambles, the African boycott and the poor representation of Scottish athletes all contributed – a large part was played by the British government (particularly Malcolm Rifkind) but the result of the selectors deliberations also led to a disappointing event.   With athletes like McKean, Lynch, Murray, Hanlon, Tennant, Callan, Currie, Robson, Williamson and Hutton at their disposal the team should have been bigger and stronger than it was.

1985 on the other hand was a very good year with athletes hopeful of selection performing often at the top of their game.   The shape of the season had been evolving over the decades and the expectations of athletes in 1985 were higher than those of any preceding decade of athletics in Scotland.   Physiotherapy, sports doctors, nutritionists and facilities were all more readily available.    Performances should have been higher than before too.   Assuming 1985 to be more typical of the decade than 1986, we can start our look at the year at the end of April.

The year started with a bang – the Rotterdam and London marathons took place on 21st April and Scots performed nobly in both.  In London Allister Hutton finished third in what was only his second marathon in 2:09:16.  Lindsay Robertson was 13th in 2:14:59, Jim Dingwall 18th in 2:15:24, Andy Girling was next in 2:15:38 and  Andy Daly was 21st in 2:15:47.   And Lynda Bain recorded a new Scottish record of 2:33:38.   In Rotterdam, John Graham was second in 2:09:58.   Two Scots inside 2:10 on the same day.   There were three marathons the following week – Lochaber where Colin Martin of Dumbarton won in 2:26.58 (a course record), in Dundee where Murray McNaught won in 2:20:25 and in Galloway where P Haworth of Keswick defeated Mike Batley (VP) by four minutes in a course record of 2:27:10.   In the first women’s league match at Meadowbank, Ann Clarkson won the 1500m in 4:32:33.

May is traditionally the start of the summer track and field athletics season and in 1985 there were three track meetings, a half marathon, the Edinburgh to North Berwick 22 miler and Scots running fast times in an invitation meet in Gateshead.   The two biggest meetings were the SWAAA East and West District championships.   In the East District Championships on Saturday, Shona Urquhart won both discus and javelin – the latter with 50.28m, just two metres short of her national record. Yvonne Murray won the 1500m in 4:22.8  and Karen Macleod won the 3000m in 9:52.8.   At the other end of the M8 in Glasgow Sandra Whittaker was the best performer when she won 100 and 200 metres championhips in 12.1 and 242.   Carol Sharp won the 800m in 2:10.4, Elspeth Turner won the 1500 in 4:32 and Audrey Sym the 3000m in 10:23.4.   The Men’s Track League was now run with all eight teams competing against each other in all four matches and at the first meeting Chris Black, who by now was concentrating on the shot putt, won three events – the the shot (16.27m), discus (45.82) and the hammer with 63.08m.   19 year old Alistair Currie ran 4:04.4 at Gateshead and brother Alan ran 4:09 after doing the pace making.  Alan Puckrin ran  14:13.8 when winning the 5000m at the same meeting.   Tommy Murray beat 1400 runners in the Cunninghame Centre Half Marathon in 68:28.   Robin Morris won his second Edinburgh to North Berwick 22.6 miles road race in 1:57.24.   These were all on the Saturday but Yvonne Murray travelled to Glasgow on Sunday for the Gaymers Old English Cyder 3000m through the streets of the city centre.   20 year old Yvonne won in 8:50.88 from Angela Tooby (8:56.7).   Lynda Bain was 16th in 9:26, Violet Blair 21st in 9:33 and Christine Price 22nd in 9:36.   In the men’s 10000m race Nat Muir was unplaced but ran 28:53, Allister Hutton, recovering from the London Marathon, was 15th in 28:57 and George Braidwood was 19th in 29:05.

The second weekend saw the Scottish Universities championships on the new track at Wishaw, the Pearl Assurance races for men and women in Edinburgh, the Gaymer’s Olde English races in Cardiff, two cup matches – the GRE Cup for men and the Jubilee Cup for women – , men’s GB league matches at Birmingham and Cwmbran, and the Gourock Highland Games.   In the University championships, Martin Johnson (Aberdeen) won the 400min a new meeting record of 48.7, and Richard Archer (3:51 – new record) out-kicked Robert Quinn (3:52.4) to win the 1500m after Quinn had led most of the way.   Elspeth Turner (Strathclyde) won the 800m in 2:13.6 and ran the next day in the Pearl Assurance Half Marathon in Edinburgh where she won the women’s race in 77:07, two minutes clear of Lorna Irvine (Borders AC).   In the men’s race Richard Charleston of Wolverhampton won in 65:54, Lawrie Spence was second in 66:00 and George Braidwood third in 66:09.   In Cardiff, Yvonne Murray won the 3000m in 8:54, two seconds clear of Christine Boxer.   In the men’s race Nat Muir was top Scot in 27:55 in sixth position.  Shettleston won the first round GRE Cup match at Crownpoint in which Brian Scally won the 1500 after Alistair Douglas did a lot of the early work before Alan Puckrin took the role of leader with Scally winning the charge up the finishing straight in 3:53.6 and Puckrin and Douglas both being timed at 3:53.7.   In the UK women’s league at Grangemouth Sandra Whittaker had a sprint double winning 100 metres and 200 metres in 12.3 and 24.6 seconds.   Adrian Callan won the 3000m at Gourock Highland Games – he was leading with one lap to go when the officials thought the race was over and stopped the race!   John Duffy of Greenock Wellpark won the 14 mile road race from Lachie Stewart (15 years after his triumph at Meadowbank) in 71:57 with Lachie winning the first veterans award.

Lachie Stewart: Hero of the 1970 Games in the Stirling Half Marathon: 1985

The SWAAA East v West competition took place on 18th May at Meadowbank and the East beat the West.   That was not the talking point however: Lynsey MacDonald had come back from illness and injury to win both the 100 metres and the 400 metres.   The 100 was run into a 2.14 metres per second headwind and she clocked 12.39 before turning her attentions to the 400m where she ran 54.14.   Trailing Fiona Hargreaves with 100 to go, she came through into the wind to win by one tenth.   Yvonne Murray won the 1500m on her own in 4:16.61.   There was agreement however that the finest performance of the afternoon was the long jumping of Lorraine Campbell whose 6.31 metres was the best by a Scots woman since the Games of 1970 and the fourth best of all time.   The ‘marathon boom’ was in full swing at this time and there was a marathon in Motherwell which was won by Charlie McDougall of East Kilbride AC in 2:26:52 with Ian Moncur from Elgin second in 2:27:26.   Glenrothes had a half-marathon which was won by Sam Graves in 69:10 from Jim Ash (Beith).   The Goatfell Race was won by Andy Styan of Holmfirsth in 20:12 from Mike Fanning (Keswick)with Paul Dugdale, attending Dundee University, third.   In the Scottish Vets 10,000m Albert Smith beat Tony McCall of Dumbarton to win the Glasgow 800 trophy.

The HFC GB Championships were held in Antrim and there were rumours of Irish terrorist plots but they were ignored by most Scots and the results were rewarding.   Five winners: Yvonne Murray won the 3000m in 9:00.2 with Liz Lynch third in 9:08.34, just behind Angela Tooby.   For her efforts, Yvonne collected £500 which brought her earnings over three weeks to £2200.   She also finished third in the 1500 behind Bridget Smyth ( a member of Steve Ovett’s club Brighton Phoenix) to pick up £100.   The Scots staged a clean sweep in the women’s 800m with Liz McArthur (Pitreavie) winning in 2:05.5, Karen Steer (Exeter) second in 2:06.3 and SWAAA Champion Carol Sharp third in 2:08.10.   In the men’s 800 metres, Tom McKean (described in the Glasgow Herald as ‘a Glasgow labourer’) went through 400m in 54.2 and kicked twice in the last 300m to defeat Steve Cram and win in 1:49.12 – only one second ahead of David Sharp from Jarrow.    Geoff Parsons won the high jump with 2.06 and Paul Mardle won the discus.  Former professional athlete  Gus McCuaig from Helensburgh took two bronze medals in the sprints and Lorraine Campbell from Dumbarton was third in the long jump with three jumps over 6 metres, the best being 6.21m.

Crown Point opened officially on 9th June, 1985 with a big star studded athletics meeting – there was also a large carnival element in the proceedings.   Doug Gillon describes the day:

Quality athletics came to Glasgow yesterday with the gala opening of the new £2.3 million pound sports complex at Crown Point Road.   The scissors arrived by parachute, bang on target for the Lord Provost’s ceremonial tape cutting.   A comedy car and battling Cumberland wrestling giants helped make it a carnival day, and thousands of spectators clearly relished the proceedings.   But the athletes were a bit bemused.   Not surprisingly perhaps.   When the pantomime car back-fired, the women’s 800m runners took off up the track for some 80 metres before they realised their error.   Chariots of Fire, indeed!   And the giant Cumberland wrestlers had the microphone plug pulled on their act as World and European medallists were forced to delay the start of the Mile.  

Even when the Mile did start, the international field seemed to show little appetite to compete.   The first lap took a pedestrian 65 seconds, yet the race’s first casualty was ready to drop out.  Before halfway had been reached (in 2:06.5), John Robson, the former Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, had gone with a recurrence of a leg injury; Paul Forbes the former UK 800m champion, found a sore throat too much to bear, and Italian visitor Primo Luca, all the way from Turin, simply disappeared.   But then with Alistair Currie from Dumbarton taking up the running in admittedly gusty conditions, a real race developed.   the third lap took just inside 60 seconds and the final one even faster.   But the field had played into the hands of Rob Harrison, European indoor champion at 800 metres earlier this year.   Harrison’s pace, with a 58 seconds final 400m, won the day.   He clocked 4:04 to lift a £400 prize for his trust fund, Gareth Brown (4:04.7 and £300) and the dogged Currie third (4:06.2 and £200).   The 3000m was no less fraught.  

Nat Muir’s intended assault on his own native record of 7:56.2 died still-born with the freshening wind.   And he was not helped by the fact that Geoff Turnbull (Gateshead) the former Scottish 1500m champion, who could have been counted on to push him hard, never even made it to the starting line and spent his time on the physiotherapist’s couch with a leg injury.   Muir at least ensured a respectable race.   He took the early pace then settled into the pack as Bingley’s Steve Binns pushed the pace along.   With two laps to go, Gary Nagel, trained at Gateshead by Brendan Foster’s former mentor Stan Long, looked set to spoil Muir’s script.   The Geordie had a three metre lead on Muir with 200 to go.   But the Shettleston Harrier, in classic fashion, came off Nagel’s shoulder entering the home straight, and with the change of pace that marks true class strode home to win comfortably in 8:02.7.   Nagel finished second in 8:02.3 and George Braidwood (Bellahouston) produced a spirited kick to outkick Binns and win in a personal best 8:04.7.   Down the field junior Robert Quinn (Kilbarchan) also clocked a lifetime best of 8:10.  

The Sharps, husband and wife Cameron and Carol, had to settle for second best.  Cameron, European 200 metres silver medallist, was held off by Ghanaian Olympic sprinter Ernie Obeng who won the 100m in 10.3.   Sharp (Shettleston) just out-dipped Buster Watson, a Los Angeles Olympian last year, both being timed at 10.4 in an assisting wind of 1.2 metres per second.   Gus McCuaig (EAC) was fourth in 10.5.    In the women’s 200m, the Olympic class of Joan Baptiste (RAF) saw her home comfortably ahead of Jayne Andrews (23.2 to 23.6) with Edinburgh Southern’s Kay Jeffrey third in 23.8.   Carol Sharp (McLaren GAC) reigning Scottish champion over 800m, saw a familiar sight among Britain’s top athletes this year – the back of Yvonne Murray.   The Edinburgh AC girl, who will bring her winnings this year to more than £5000 when she collects a cheque for £750 today, was a winner again.

She hit the front of the women’s 800m field after 120 metres and ran from the front unchallenged.   But Mrs Sharp had to come on strong in the home straight to overhaul Liz Lynch.   Miss Murray clocked 2:06.5, her second fastest time ever, Mrs Sharp 2:08.7 and Miss Lynch 2:09.1.   This brought another £100 to Miss Murray whose trust fund will get a further £750 today as Musselburgh’s Young Personality of the Year.  

Alan Wilson (Victoria Park) won the Glasgow Open 1500m in 3:58.9; Bob Davidson (Coatbridge Health & Strength) the weight over the bar with 13′ 6″ and Walter Weir (Central Region) the caber.   In the Heavyweight Tug of War, McAlpine’s defeated Ben Ledi.”

Of course not everyone was at Crown Point and not everyone wanted to be.   Under the headline “Proving class runs in the family” Doug covered the Scottish Junior, Youth and Senior Boys Championships at Meadowbank where the headline derived from the double victory by Glen Stewart in the 800 and 1500m events in the Boys age group, and the winning of the 100 metres in the same age group by George McNeill, son of the world renowned former professional sprinter.    There were other names on the results sheet which became familiar as the years rolled on – in the Youths age group Gerry McCann won the 800m (1:55.68), Sam Wallace the 1500 (4:05.98) and Alaister Russell the 3000m (8:52.29); in the Junior group, Elliot Bunney won the 100 and 200 metres (10.48 and 22.13), Brian Scally the 1500 (4:04.5), Tom Hanlon the steeplechase (5:54.54 – record) and Mel Fowler the long and triple jump double (7.01m and 14.20m).   At Milngavie Highland Games, Andy Daly broke his own course record for the road race with David McMeekin in second.   The Scottish Men’s League match was won by Edinburgh AC from Edinburgh Southern – both clubs dominated the league scene through most of the 80’s with Edinburgh AC having two teams in the five division league.

Many of the same names were visible in the Scottish Schools Championships at Crown Point.    Take a look at the results for the17-19 years age group.

Quite impressive, I think.   The Girls championships were also being held on that Saturday at Pitreavie.   Mary Anderson was far and away the top athlete here – two throws victories and a third in the 400m could have been three throws gold medals but for the fact that the rules only allowed her to compete in two throwing events.   She added a metre to the shot record with 13.65m and more than three metres to the javelin record with 46 metres exactly.   Her time for third place was 59.1seconds.  Apart from her performances, the Herald report commented that the standard was ‘worryingly low’ at these championships.

Under the heading ‘Sharp Is Fastest In Britain’, there was a report on both men’s and women’s GB Cup competitions at Grangemouth on Sunday.   Cameron Sharp won the 100m in 10.5 and the 200m in 21.0 which was the fastest in Britain up to that point in 1985.   Meanwhile, Carol Sharp won the women’s 1500m in 4:30.1.   Mary Anderson won the shot (14.41 pb), discus (39.80) and javelin (46.62m pb).   Jim Brown was almost as active as Mary Anderson in that he competed on both Saturday and Sunday, and won both events – Hamilton Sports 6 mile road race in 29:23 and the Bo’ness 9 mile road race in 44:16 which was a minute better than Terry Mitchell’s record for the course.   He was only 4 seconds ahead of Douglas Bain (Falkirk VH) who was also inside the old record.

In the Scottish championships at Meadowbank on 22nd June, Lynsey McDonald, who had really set the heather on fire with her performances at Moscow in 1980 only to succumb to illness and injury thereafter, showed that she was back in form when she ran won the 400m in 53.33 seconds from lane eight.   Inside the qualifying standard for the world student games in Japan it was a heartening sight for the spectators and selectors.   Others from 1970 to compete were Chris Haskett Price who won as an intermediate in 1969 won the inaugural women’s national 10,000, and Moira Walls who finished fifth in the high jump behind Jayne Barnetson’s 1.83m championship record.   The men’s 400m was a race to watch – won by Brian Whittle in a record 46.6 with Mark McMahon on 47.4, one tenth ahead of Martin Johnston.   Elliott Bunney won the 100m in 10.63 into a headwind of 1.19m a second, and became the first man to win Scottish schools, Scottish Junior and Scottish senior in three successive weeks.   Paul Forbes trailed newcomer Tom McKean through the first 400m of the 800 in 59.18, waited for his chance and was out kicked at the end.   The 1500 was almost a reply with the 1984 champion John Robson being out kicked by Alistair Currie, the 1984 top GB junior at 1500m and 3000m in a 55.4 second last lap.   Ann Purvis beat Carol Sharp in the 800m in 2:05.75 and in the men’s 5000m,  George Braidwood (14:01.17) defeated Robert Quinn (14:03.70 and Alex Gilmour (14:06.53) while in the marathon, Evan Cameron won in 2:22:40   from Colin Youngson (2:23:) and Graham Getty (2:24:13).   It was Youngson’s 10th championship marathon medal.

Tom McKean was the man who really came to the fore in 1985 as the article by Doug Gillon on the international meeting in Gateshead on 29th Jun indicated.   “The speed with which Tom McKean fulfilled a prophecy was almost as devastating as the burst of pace with which he cut down Steve Cram to win the 800 metres for Britain at Gateshead on Saturday.   UK Director of Coaching Frank Dick last week predicted a long and distinguished career for McKean who won his first full UK vest in the international against France and Czechoslovakia.   But even Dick was surprised – almost as stunned as Cram and his partisan Geordie support – as Lanatkshire labourer McKean dug in after a 54 second opening lap  to overhaul the world 1500m champion and Olympic silver medallist.   The Clyde Valley Scot clocked 1:47.25, a lifetime best, with Cram three yards adrift in 1:47.61.   “Tom is now ready to take on the very best,” said Dick afterwards. 

Cram, albeit tired after a flight from Oslo where he had set the third fastest 1500m time in history, had hit the front with 350 metres to go.   But McKean, the UK and Scottish 800m champion who is unbeaten over two laps in two years, remorselessly pursued the blond Geordie and outlasted him in the straight.   “I didn’t feel too tired and reckon I can go a lot faster given the right sort of race, said McKean, who with Zola Budd were named the athletes of the meeting.   Cram, a full time athlete who can command vast advertising fees and boasts a trust fund which now must be nearing six figures, is a stark contrast to McKean a £60 a week labourer with Motherwell District Council.

The 21 year old McKean could not afford to enter last year’s UK championships at Cwmbran and his first representative trip last month was only because of the UK title which he won in Antrim.   He got a trip to Madrid where he set a personal best of 1:47.6 which he has now lowered again.   Cram – who says he will need an operation later this year to resolve compartment syndrome which causes agonizing muscle pain –  was not the only superstar to be eclipsed.   Steve Ovett was outshone and outsprinted by former Scottish 800m champion Chris McGeorge  over 1500m. “   McGeorge’s time was 3:50.50.   Cameron Sharp, appearing as a guest in the 100m, ran 10.51 behind winner Linford Christie’s 10.42, And in lane one of the 200m he clocked 21.03, his fastest electronic timing since 1983.

Meanwhile in the international against Ireland and Catalonia in Dublin, Alistair Currie was second in the 1500m in 3:44.64, Brian Whittle won the 400m from Martin Johnston in 47.16, Paul Forbes and Stuart Paton were another 1-2 for Scotland (Paton won) in the 800m with 1:50.77 and Geoff Parsons won the high jump with 2.15m.   Edinburgh Southern Harriers finished seventh in the final British League match at Meadowbank wand were relegated to Division Two.   In the Division Two match in Leeds, Edinburgh AC could only finish fourth (nine of their top men were competing for Scotland in Dublin on match day) and failed to gain promotion.   McLaren Glasgow was a close third in their British League Divison Two match at Cosford.

Road racing was still going on apace and the Buckie Round Table  Half Marathon Charlie McIntyre of Banff Coasters won in 77:27 from Don Ritchie who the previous week had set a British best for 100 kilometres and this week ran 79:44 to be first vet as well as runner-up.   In the Lairig Ghru race, John Lamont of Aberdeen beat Dave Francis of Fife AC.

It was a very busy weekend with the trend towards bigger meetings outwith Scotland filling the headlines and domestic racing being down the column a bit.   The trend was noticeable throughout the 80’s but on this week end it was more noticeable than most – only one track meet (the Division One League Match at Meadowbank) in Scotland, a road race and a race through one of Scotland’s most daunting hill passes.

July started with  GB international Birmingham against East Germany and Tom McKean with some help in the form of advice about Wagenknecht the German, from Steve Ovett won the 800m in 1:47.11.   At home David McNeill of Lochaber won the Mamore Hill Race and John Mudie of Shettleston won the Riding of the Marches Half Marathon at Annan in 69:56.   Lawrie Spence won the 10000m road race and smashed his own record by 42 seconds when defeating Tommy Murray at West Kilbride..   At Carluke Highland Games, Ayr Seaforth won the SAAA 4 x 400m relay championship and Peter Carton won the 10 mile road race in 51:31, beating Charlie McDougall by 250 yards.

The SWAAA Junior championships at Grangemouth contested the headlines with the Scottish Veterans championships at Coatbridge on 13th July.   Mary Anderson, competing in the new Euro-Junior age group took the bigger print with her victories in shot (14.40m) and javelin (45.90) and second place in the discus (40.80m) – but when the trophies were to be presented, it was found that she had left the stadium!   Gail McDonald (McLaren Glasgow) won the 1500m by 13 seconds in 4:32.8 but had to be content with second in the 800m behind Linda Purdie (EAC) who won in 2:13.    Jayne Barnetson won both high jump (1.80m) and long jump (5.56m)   In the vets championship it was an Australian, Frank Turner, who won the 100m, 200m and 400m 11.7, 23.6 and 52.6 seconds.   Dick Hodelet had a very good double in the 800m and 5000m winning both  but slipping to second in the intermediate distance 1500m.   But the marathon scene being in full swing, the Caithness Marathon was also taking place on the Saturday and was won by Robin Thomas in 2:36 leading Hunters Bog Trotters to team victory with Dave Tayler and John McKay fourth and fifth.   Pamela Vorverk of Lochaber won the women’s race.  At the other end of the country, David Cavers won the Duns Law Hill Race by 150 yards from Graham Haddow of East Kilbride.

On Saturday 22nd July Scotland was competing in an international fixture against Wales, Catalonia and an English select at Cwmbran under the captainship of non-competing Allan Wells.   Gus McCuaig won the 100m however in 10.7 in a competition in which Scotland was second to England.   Other Scottish winners were Brian Whittle in the 400m in 47.5 seconds , Tom McKean in the 800m in  1:51.62, Ross Copestake in the 3000m in 8:12.3, Liz Lynch won the women’s 3000m in 9:13.4, women’s 100m hurdles Pat Rollo in 13.7 and Jayne Barnetson in the high jump in 1.82m.   Incidentally this victory by Tom McKean extended his winning streak to 34 successive races.   Meanwhile in the British veterans championships at Wolverhampton was winning two gold medals and one silver – the first places were in the 100m (13.3) and 400m (60.3) with the second being in the 200 (28.2).    He had just turned 60 on the Friday.   It was a busy weekend with the SWAAA pentathlon, the Inverness 10000m, the Irvine half marathon and the Irvine Triathlon also taking place.

At Inverness in the Turnbull Sports sponsored 10Kroad race, Simon Axon won from a field of 650 from Alan Wilson of Victoria Park in 30:11. Lynda Bain of Aberdeen won the women’s race and set a new best time for the distance of 33:27 when finishing thirteenth overall.     At Irvine, the leaders got lost and ran, it is estimated about 15 miles before Ray Curley and Robert Boreland won in 84 minutes.   In the pentathlon, Anglo Scot Valerie Walsh was third and Moira McBeath fourth.  There was also a preview of the match on Tuesday 23rd at the Dairy Crest Games in London.   There were several Scots at the meeting and all performed well.   Nat Muir won the 3000m in 7:51.46 with Colin Hume third in 7:53.06, Yvonne Murray was third in the Mile in 4:28.46, and Lynsey McDonald was third in the 400m in 53.79.   Tom McKean was in unusual territory when he raced the 1000m, won by Steve Cram (2:15.09), where he finished sixth in 2:18.91.   In the Sprinter competitions, Elliott Bunney won the Junior race in 10:59 and Cameron Sharp was third in the senior 100m in 10.46.

Yvonne Murray   was racing at Bislett on the last Saturday of the month and despite suffering mid-race stomach cramps set a new Scottish national and native record for 10000m track of 33:43.8; Lynsey McDonald raced in the 400m and was timed at 53.65 to win and record another time inside the qualifying mark for the World Student Games.   At the TSB Women’s Championships in Birmingham, Ann Purvis was second in the 800m to 2:02.41.   At Balgownie, Robert Cameron outsprinted Steve Doig in the 3000m to win in 8:28.1 to Doig’s 8:30.6 and Elspeth Turner won the women’s 1500m in 4:33.7.   In the League Match held in Glasgow, Cameron Sharp ran a swift 200m in 21.17 to win the 200m: he had already run faster but it enhanced his chances of being selected for the Europa Cup match in August.   In the Division Two contest the top athlete on display was George Braidwood of Bellahouston who won the 1500m in 3:50.28 and the 5000m in 14:37.71.   Billy Bland won the Ben Nevis Race from Peter Hall.

Unfortunately there were no Rangers Sports on the first Saturday of July, but there was the Strathallan Gathering in Bridge of Allan where Springburn’s Graham Crawford won the 1500m handicap and Jim Cooper won the 3000m handicap while Derek Easton won the 14 mile road race.   In Edinburgh, Mike Carrol won a hard fought race with Jim Brown (Clyde Valley) and Lindsay Robertson (EAC) to take the TSB 10 mile road race in 49:46.   Elliott Bunney retained the British junior 100m title in 10.39 seconds.   There had been five false starts before Bunney had the chance to win.   There was an international meeting in Budapest in which Cameron Sharp was seventh in the 200m in 20.95 seconds and Tom McKean was second in the 800m in 1:46.05.   At home, Alan Farningham won the Creag Dhu Hill Race at Newtonmore, Ann Curtis won the women’s race and Mel Edwards was first veteran.   Geoff Capes broke three ground records at Aboyne Highland Games – the games circuit has an attraction for English ‘heavies’ beyond the money aspect – John Savidge in the 50’s, Arthur Rowe in the 70’s and Geoff Capes in the 80’s were among the top international throws experts to try their hand in the Highlands.   Jayne Bartnetson enhanced her chance of selection for the Junior Europa Cup when she set a new high jump record in the inter-area match at Middlesborough, as did Mary Anderson with a 14.83m shot putt, despite having three no-throws in the discus.   On the track, Yvonne Murray won the 1500 with Karen Hutcheson winning the B race, and there was a Scots 1-2 in the 3000m where Elise Lyon won from Gail McDonald.   And Sandra Whittaker made a come-back after injury with a 12.4 100 metres in the GRE Cup match.

On 17th August Jim Brown won the Monklands Half Marathon in in 69:16, Sam Graves won the Ceres half-marathon in 76:01 and M Lindsay (Carnethy) won the Dalchully Hill Race at Laggan Bridge, but the big headlines were for the Europa Cup.   Here Tom McKean won the 800m in 1:49.11, and Nat Muir was in hot water with the selectors after not running in the 3000m.   On Thursday his car broke down and he missed the shuttle to London and missed the connection to Aeroflot; then when he did get on to a plane, it went to the end of the runway and turned back because of engine trouble.  Trouble with the tickets led to him phoning the BAAB who sent him a new ticket but then a personal problem arose and he couldn’t fly out.   There was talk of him being black-listed by the Board and never selected again but luckily that didn’t transpire.   The last home countries international at Meadowbank was held after sponsors Arthur Bell withdrew their support.  There had been some good performances there – Mary Anderson and Mitchell Smith won the women’s and men’s shot putt events, Jayne Barnetson won the high jump and Pat Clarke won the women’s 400m with 55.61 seconds.

With international fixtures or major track meets in England every weekend, the Scottish track and field scene was vastly different from the 70’s never mind the 60’s and the 50’s could have been on a different planet such were the conditions and athletes.   Was the scene any better at developing young athletes might be an interesting question to debate.

The top story on Monday 26th August was that Glasgow AC had won promotion to the first division of the GB women’s league.   The sponsorship received from the McLaren Group enabled them to fly Angela Bridgman back from Los Angeles at a cost of £3000 to compete.   They reckon that she repaid this by winning the B 200m in 25.02 seconds and finishing fourth in the 400m before flying back to the USA.   Sandra Whittaker possibly made her own way from East Kilbride to be first in the 100m (11.9) and 200m )23.8).   17 year old Gail McDonald won the 1500m and Elspeth Turner (after winning the Crieff Road Race the previous day) was second in the 800m and third in the 3000m.   Carol Sharp won the 800m in 2:08.6.   In Cologne Tom McKean won the 800m beating Barbosa (Cuba) and Ed Koech (Kenya) in 1:47.13 – but that was in the B race – breaking into the top tier against so many vested interests was not easy.   He was of course sponsored by Glen Henderson – everybody had a sponsor of some sort.   In the European Junior Championships at Cottbus, Germany, Elliott Bunney won the 100m and was part of the winning 4 x 100m relay team.   Tom  Hanlon was fourth in the final of the 2000m steeplechase5:39.3.

Back in Scotland, Cavan Woodward (Leamington) won the Two Bridges Road Race in 3:40:40, Graham Crawford on the Town and Country 10 miles from Crief town centre in 53:59 to defeat Frank Harper by 80 seconds and John Duffy won the Inverclyde Marathon in 2:32:44.