No apologies for returning to the 1970 Commonwealth and Empire Games in Edinburgh in 1970.   What Lachie did that early evening in Meadowbank did more for Scottish endurance running than anything I’ve ever seen before or since.   The reason for returning to it is that I found in a bundle of old magazines the Athletics Weekly coverage of the race before and after the event.     They reflected the widely held pre-race assumptions and the post race lamentations for Ron Clarke.    I simply reproduce them here.   First is Mel Watman’s preview on 18th July, 1970.

Given that Lachie has been written out – or rather omitted completely – from the above, we might all be excused for thinking he came from absolutely nowhere on the day of the race.   But wait a minute: look at the Commonwealth rankings for the race as reproduced in A.W. of the same date as Watman’s article.

Jerome Drayton, better known as a marathon runner, is at number one but then – whose name leads all the rest?   J Lachie Stewart and who follows him in third place?   Dick Wedlock.   They were 10 seconds (Lachie) and 9 (Dick) seconds ahead of Ron Clarke; 33 and 31 second ahead of Dick Taylor.   As for Stan Green’s predictions, Lachie was 85 second ahead of Roger Matthews and 6+ seconds slower than the man forecast to be third!    

Came the race and the report.   The report appeared in the AW of August 1st.

That’s a lot of information about Lachie Stewart and his career pre-1970, the only question that arises is about why it was not imparted in a separate report before the Games started.   After all, he was top British athlete at the time placed above everybody from England (3 of them) Wales (2 of them) and Northern Ireland (1).    It was similar to the attitude of a very famous BBC athletics commentator who commented at the AAA’s championships that “Stewart is said to have run 23:34 for the distance at the Scottish championships.”   He wasn’t said to have run it, he HAD run it – maybe the Scottish time keepers were not as good as the AAA’s ones.   Maybe it’s a chip on my shoulder but I still, after all those years, feel that he did not get the credit he deserved.   The testament to the SAAA selection race can be seen in the faces of Stewart and Wedlock after the race, seen in the photo below.