Author: Admin

Jim leading Rick Wohlhuter (in the USA vest)

There are not too many coaches who have raced internationally, taken on the best in the world and run in tough races in Britain and America with distinction.   Jim McLatchie is one.   We have looked at his training at home and now we have, in his own words, how he trained in the States after had had emigrated there.   We start with some of the training he did in Texas in the early 1960’s.

 Spring – Summer- USA- 1963

Training in Texas was a completely different as now I was having to deal with heat and humidity whereas in Scotland it was always cold, wet and windy. I arrived in Beaumont at the end of January which was not too bad for running which reminded me of our best days in Scotland. As the months progressed I had a tough time with the conditions. When it got too hot I trained around 9pm at night some days. Every morning around 6:30 am before classes I would jog to South Park High School and run for 30 minutes with a few strides in my bare feet. It was much cooler than in the afternoon which I enjoyed a great deal.

The fall was not too bad as it was much cooler and I got more running under my belt. The following is what I did when I beat Jim Ryun over a mile in Houston. Ryun went on to run in the Olympics and record 3min 51.1 sec for the mile.

Days From race
28 – Rest day
27 – 1 ½ miles of sprint jogs then 2×220 around 27 secs
26 – Warm up 6×220 ave 26 secs with 1 min rest/ jog 10 mins/440 – 53.5s
25 – 5 mile easy run
24 – Warm Up raced 880 in 1min 53.2sec cooled down
23 – 6 miles fartlek
22 – Easy run then 20×110 around bends jog back/ 5MR 440- 54.4s
21 – Rest day
20 – Warm up Time Trial ¾ mile – 3:04s/ 15 MR/ 220 – 25.3s/ 15MR/ 440-54.4s
19 – Easy run with 3 mile Fartlek
18 – Easy run with 3 mile Fartlek
17 – 6 mile run with 1 mile fartlek then 2×200 25-26/jog 440 between
16 – Travel to Brownswood, TX for Conference
15 – Temperature 107 bloody awful. Won mile in 4:23.7s and twenty minutes later had to run 880 where I finished 4th in 1:57s
14 – Travel back to Beaumont
13 – Easy 5 mile followed with 16×140 jogged 300 between/ easy 5 min then 2×220 around 27 sec
12 – Warm up – 10×220 around 30 with 220 jog between
11 – Warm up – 4x 440 around 60 with 110 jog between
10 – Easy 2 miles – 4×880 – 2:08s with 440 walk/jog between
9 – Rest day
8 – Warm up then ¾ mile Time Trial – 3min 3.3s (58/67/58.3) testing kick
7 – Easy run ran through 2 miles in 9min 41s
6 – 8x 220 29-30 with 220 jog between
5 – Easy 5 miles followed with 10×150 pick-ups jog back
4 – Jogged 3 miles with a few strides
3 – Rest day
2 – Rest Day
1 – Mile race led from start to finish first in 4min 7.9s (62,63/63/59.9)

The following week I finished first in the Texas National Championships in Dallas. I jogged easy most of the week with a few 150 and 220’s. Nothing strenuous. This time I held back until the last 660 and ran 4min 10.7s (65,67,60,58.7)

It is a very interesting block of training.   Many runners or coaches tell us in general principles what they did, but few are as open about what they do immediately before and after a big race.   Jim is to be commended for being so open.

Jim winning the Mile from pacemaker Graeme Grant at Westerlands, early 1960’s

Jim McLatchie was a first rate runner from the most unpromising of backgrounds.   From a small mining village in Ayrshire where there was no track, no real sports facilities of any kind and not very much flat,even ground to train on, he made himself into an uncompromising athlete who could run in almost any kind of race and acquit himself well.   He says the following of his training then in his own story:

Early in my career growing up in Muirkirk with no track. I did most of my running in the hills and for strength work I would run up a ‘slag bing.’ A slag bing was created from stones and dirt which was the residue from the coal dug underground. This ‘bing’ was over 200 feet tall and I would run to the summit wearing coal miner’s boots which weighed about four pounds. Each boot had steel heel and toe plates studs in the soles. I would run as many as twenty repetitions. Other days I would run in the hills and visit the local soccer pitch twice a week for speed work. It was a grass surface and I could get about 200 metres around the pitch.

When I moved to Glasgow I was able to train on a 440 yard cinder track and started working on pace. Along with track workouts. At lunch-time I ran on a golf course. Most of the time in my bare feet. There was nothing like feeling the grass as you ran.

I was probably running about 50-60 mile per week, but didn’t really count miles. Time on my legs was more important. Some days due to the weather I would do circuit training indoors. It was effort on many days to open the door and go for a run. We had no indoor facilities. So I was used to running in all weathers: rain, snow, slush and winds.

My schedule was as follows if I was not racing:

Sunday – Long easy run anywhere from 10 to 15 miles

Monday – Track workout

Tuesday – Easy run – if weather was bad in the winter I did circuit training

Wednesday – Track workout

Thursday – Easy run – if weather was bad in the winter I did circuit training

Friday – 3-4 mile – if racing – 30 min warm then strides

Saturday – Race or 1 hour easy

The race where Jim ran his 4:08.3:  Winner Mike Beresford, 23, Jim McLatchie, 7, and Bert McKay, 3, from Motherwell who was third.  Run on cinders.

Below is what I did for 28 days when I ran 4 min 8.3 secs

28 days from race – I ran most days at lunch time on the golf course       usually around 3 miles to loosen up – nice and easy

28 – Warm up/ 10×300 with 2 min rest/ jog 10 min 6×70 walk back

27 – 4×880 in 2:10 with 3 min rest Jog 10 mins/ 2x 440 –   60-62 with 3 min     rest

26 – Rest day

25 – Race – 3ml in 14:46 – warmed up and cooled down

24 – Easy run followed by 6 x 100 and 2 x 400 no times

23 – Rest Day

22 – Race on Grass Track ran ¾ mile in 3min 2.5 sec which I won

21 – Easy run with 6×220 with 1 min rest/ jogged 5 min/ 6×140 with 45 sec   rest between in the middle.

20 – Raced a 3000 meters steeplechase which I won in 9:21.7

19 – Easy 1 hour with 10 x 220 no time 1 min rest between

18 – Raced a Handicap mile won in 4min 03 with a mark off 30 which is 30 yards short of a mile

17 – Easy warm up – grass – 8×400 yards in 54-55 with 2 min rest

16 – Rest day

15 – Track Meet – 880 heats – 1min 52.9/ Final 1:53 off 10 yards – raced 870 yards

14 – Easy run with 6×100 with 1 min rest/ jog 5 min/ 6×140 JB

13 – Easy run with 2 miles fartlek

12 – Warmed up – ran easy mile in 4:13 – cooled down

11 – Lunch time – 20×200 with 45 sec rest/ evening 6×440 in 58 2MR

10 – 20×110 45 sec between (ran the bends on track)

9   – Rest day

8   – Warmed up easy 880 in 1min 57

7  – Rest Day

6 –  30 min easy with a few strides

5 – 3 miles fartlek then 4×220 around 30 with 220 jog

4 – Rest

3 – Rest day

2 – Scottish Championships heats – jogged mile in 4:25.8

1 – Scottish Champs Final – finished second in 4:8.3

Jim ran his 4:08.3 in 1962: in that year he also ran a 1:54.2 half mile, – in addition  a 9:17.0 two miles, a 14:30.5 three miles and  a steeplechase in 9:21.7.   Although he was concentrating on running the half- and the mile, the other distances indicate a strength in depth that many milers do not have: a strength that maybe came from running up pit bings in heavy boots!

His profile as an athlete can be found at    

http://www.scottishdistancerunninghistory.scot/jim-mclatchie/  .

A short quote from it tells us that 

“No track – did zig zags on the football field.   Also ran quarter mile straights on the railway line.   Line ran east/west and I used to run 15-20 seconds slower going west (windy as hell).   Scottish National Coach back then was an Englishman.   He used to write me some workouts like 10 x 440 with one minute rest.   I would mail him my times and he would tell me my pace was all to hell.   I told him he needed to come and see what I was training on as he didn’t believe I was doing 440 along a rail line.   He showed up in the village – couldn’t believe what I had to work with.    I did a lot of zig zag training plus runs up and down a coal bing, runs on the moors.   I only ran on the roads in winter when it got too dark to run up the bings.   Did a lot of weight training and circuit training.”   I asked if he ever went to Ayr to train at Dam Park.   This got the following reply: “Never went to Dam Park to train – took forever on the bus which only ran every hour.   Bus – Strathaven – Glasgow, every four hours.   If I had a race in the Glasgow area, I had to make sure I didn’t miss the bus.   It was an all day excursion some times to get to a Meet. ”  

So that’s the first instalment of Jim’s start in athletics.   It was also the first building block on the way to becoming a world class coach twenty years later.

Training with Jim McLatchie: 2   Training with Jim McLatchie:  3    Training with McLatchie:  4   

Training with McLatchie – the Mile: 5         Training with McLatchie – the Marathon: 6   

Training with McLatchie – the Steeplechase: 7

HAMPDEN PARK

The pre-amateur era.

Clydesdale Harriers (established on 4th May, 1885) was Scotland’s first open athletic club but it was not the first athletic club because there were University and Private School FP athletic clubs in existence before that, the SAAA Championships were first held in 1883.   Competitive athletics however go back well before that, indeed some extant highland gatherings claim to predate the first Scottish Championships.   As a kind of preamble to the beginning of the SAAA and the Victorian era of sport in general and athletics in particular, I will quote from “50 Years of Athletics” , published in 1933 to celebrate 50 years of the organisation, and the chapter ‘Athletics in the Beginning’ by Kenneth Whitton.   It reads

“Although Scotland’s records do not go as far back as the Tailtean Games in Ireland, yet what we have prove the love of athletics among the Picts, Scots and the gregarious Celts.   From the chief downwards, athletics was the joy of the Gael, indeed the chief was often the most accomplished.   At his door lay the ‘clachneart’, literally the stone of strength or the putting stone and on the arrival of a guest he was asked as a compliment to throw it.   The chief’s followers, and those of his guests engaged in all manly sports, and as the honour of the clan was at stake, it is surmised that in the strenuous contests more heads than records were broken.   The Fraser chiefs were noted athletes, and the father of the late Lord Lovat – an excellent sportsman – was an expert stone and hammer thrower.

In a manuscript lately come to light entitled: ‘Ane breve cronicle of the Erles of Ross’, an account is given of how an earldom was gained by prowess in wrestling.   At the coronation of Edward I there was among those attached to his court in London a famous French wrestler from Normandy who was considered invincible.   But during the gay doings, he was challenged by Farquhar Ross from the North of Scotland, a vassal to the Scottish king Alexander II, and to the amazement and delight of the Scottish king, his wife and a sister of Edward , and the Scottish guests, Farquhar overthrew and signally vanquished the unbeaten champion.   So delighted was King Alexander over his countryman’s ‘notabill vassalage’, as he called it,  that he conferred the Earldom of Ross upon him.   To celebrate his victory and to carry out a vow that he had made, Farquhar erected an abbey, now no longer in existence, but its successor in Kincardine, Ross-shire is still used as the Parish Church.  

At the great royal hunts which took place at Braemar and which often lasted for a fortnight, many chiefs with their followers took part.   Malcolm II started at one of these ‘hunts’ the first recorded ‘Games’ by offering as a prize a sword and a purse of gold to the first man to reach, in a race, the summit of Craig Choinneach.   Two McGregor brothers were favourites, but a third and younger brother, who was late in starting won after a terrific struggle.  

It was not however till 1832 that the first organised Braemar Gathering took place.   Queen Victoria was keenly interested in these sports, and in 1889 invited society to Balmoral.   Later the Duke of Fife gave the present Princess Royal Park where the meeting is now held.   The clansmen gather at the spot where the Jacobite standard was unfurled in 1715 – which event is commemorated in ‘The Standard on the Braes o’Mar’ – and march to the sports ground.

Since the year 1314 without a break, except during the Great War, the Ceres Games, founded to celebrate the return of the victorious Fife villagers from the Battle of Bannockburn, have been held annually.   It is remarkable that the name of the Fife agricultural village, Ceres, is that of the Latin goddess, Ceres, the protectress of agriculture and in whose honour great sports were instituted.

Carnwath in Lanarkshire holds annually a meeting of great antiquity.   The Red Hose race is the principal event, and local and popular tradition has it that in the event of the Carnwath estate becoming heir-less, the latest winner of the ‘Hose’ would become proprietor!

Under the shadow of the Duke of Argyll’s stately castle at Inveraray, a gathering of the western clans’ representative pipers, strong men and runners has been held for centuries.   Running was a feature of this meeting, for the chiefs of old encouraged their ‘gille-ruith’, or running footmen, to excel in the Geal-ruith, or running and leaping  games.

Among great athletes in Scotland, the two whose names were, and still are, in the mouths of everyone, were Captain Barclay of Ury and Donald Dinnie.   The former was a great and up-to-date land proprietor in Kincardineshire.   Sprung from an ancient and physically powerful family, he lived during the later part of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth.   Educated at Cambridge, he early joined the army and served as ADC to the GOC of the ill-fated Walcheren Expedition.   He was though of little more than average size, possessed of a great strength, speed and remarkable powers of endurance.   Of the latter his great feat of walking 1000 miles in 1000 hours – that is one mile for every hour, was a record to his stamina.   Others who tried this feat broke down at an early stage, but he continued for a period of 42 days and though he lost much weight was at the finish wonderfully fit.   He was a great runner, walker, wrestler and stone-thrower,  and thus resembled Dinnie, who was born in Aberdeenshire in 1837.   Strange to say, Dinnie’s best performances were done when he was approaching forty years of age, and when fifty eight years old was the recognised all-round champion of New Zealand.   Dinnie was undoubtedly the best athlete of his time, and in addition to being heavy-weight champion, excelled in wrestling, leaping, vaulting, running and dancing.

Over a century ago, the Borders had a remarkable man, Will o’Phaup, so called for his farm in the Ettrick valley.   Like Dinnie in the North his name was a household word.   His tombstone at Ettrick Kirk records that for feats of strength and agility, he was not excelled in the kingdom.  

In pre-amateur days Scotland was famous for its distance runners, and many feats of endurance are recorded in books dealing with origins and history of Scottish Highland Gatherings.”

  Having read through the above, you now know where the heading of ‘the pre-amateur era’ came from.   That is of course how the sport began, and we are now clearly in the post-amateur era.   The amateur era was clearly a diversion but it was also a period when sport in all its guises made great progress and wonderful performances were achieved.  Is it too mischievous to suggest that the standards are falling now that we are all ‘post-amateurs’???  

For a note of the Principal Sports Meetings at the very start of amateur athletics including those organised by the major football clubs, go to

Track and Field: The Sports Meetings

Ian finishing the Nigel Barge Road Race

Ian took up athletics as a Senior Man in 1963.   He had first got into athletics in his National Service days when as an aspiring football player he was drafted into the Battalion Athletics team in 1960 and in the Inter Battalion Sports he won the 5000 metres on grass in standard Army issue plimsolls.    After leaving the Army he still pursued his football dream “until I got fed up carrying other less fit team mates and retired from the sport”.   Having moved to Old Kilpatrick in 1963 he was looking out of the window one day and saw a group of runners going by.   He asked where they trained from, found out it was the Clydebank Public Baths at Bruce Street.   When he made his way there he met club captain Johnny B Maclachlan (who also lived in Old Kilpatrick) and caught the running bug.   He had already seen all the greats on television in the late 50’s and early 60’s.   His words: “I vividly remember Chris Chataway and Vladimir Kuts slogging out a very exciting 5000 metres.   Names like Gordon Pirie, Derek Ibbotson, Roger Bannister, Bruce Tulloh and many others appeared on the magic box bringing live athletics into the living room.”

As said above he joined the club first of all in 1963 and was a first team runner running well enough to win team medals without being spectacularly good or spectacularly bad.   Of that first period he says “I have many very happy memories of club training nights every Tuesday and Thursday down in the basement of the Baths.   There were three different running packs, slow, medium and fast, setting off at intervals with the route laid out on the notice board.   My favourite training run was up Kilbowie Road, along the Boulevard to Bowling AA Box and home along the low road which became a bit of a burn up!

 We were fortunate having these facilities (Bruce Street Baths) which were warmed by the lagged pipes but the ‘piece de resistance’ was the sing-song in the shower afterwards.   Frank Kielty, Pat Younger and Gerry Hearn gave us a rendering of many bothy ballads that made the rafters ring!”

 He goes on to say that another feature of these days was the inter club run at various other clubs’ headquarters.   On one trip to Greenock for a run with the Glenpark Harriers we had a few guys who didn’t turn up and another club didn’t show at all.   After the run it was customary  for the home club to provide a snack: at this one there was a more than ample supply of mince pies to go round and we all felt obliged to consume more than our fair share.   He finishes by saying he never wants to see another mince pie in his life!

 He was a good club runner in those days and his first ever race for the club – the County Relays at Garscube which the club won – saw him walk away with his first gold medal.   The following year when Ian Donald joined the club, Ian was a member of the team which won the Dunbartonshire Relays and gave the ‘other Ian’ his first gold for the club.   He ran well in most races and he turned out often for the club not only in championship and open races but also in inter club runs.  

We were very sorry when he emigrated with his family to Whyalla in Australia in 1966.  He still pursued his athletic activities as well as going back to playing football.   Joining the Whyalla Harriers Club, he rose to become club President.   Athletics were track motivated down under because of the warm weather and there were generally very few road   races which were concentrated in the big cities.   The main competitions in South Australia were called ‘Gift Meetings’ similar to our Highland Games where the Blue Ribbon event was usually the Mile where (unlike the UK) money incentives were the norm.   At the start of 1966 he was torn between ‘soccer’ and athletics and having decided on athletics he ran in the Commonwealth Marathon Trial.   Unplaced, he turned back to football.  Normally a forward he played wing half and when the captain and centre half was injured he substituted in the position.   He was so effective that he kept the position and led the team to the Northern Areas Soccer Association Cup.   He also played for Croatia and City Football Team while there.  He kept on running though and also kept in touch with the club back home.   He returned to Clydebank after only a few years in 1969.

When he returned his running had been transformed.  He enjoyed the cooler atmosphere and the road racing circuit that had been absent in Australia.   He was a now an outstanding athlete who had gained confidence while he was away and became one of a top squad of runners who served the club well throughout the late Sixties and into the Seventies.    Most of us remember him as a very good cross country runner but he was just as much a track and road runner and even dabbled in hill running with some success.   For instance, he ran in the Mamore Hill Race in July 1969 finishing in 1:52:18 as part of the winning team.   Ian also tackled the Big Ben (Ben Nevis) in September 1972 and finished in 3:00:54.

His best years were probably from 1969 to about 1973 and the best single year was possibly 1969/70.   His Cross Country Running in the four years after his return can be summarised as follows:

* In February 1972 there was a power workers strike and the country was restricted to three days work a week.   Depending on the job you were doing, you might not have been able to run on Saturday.   Ian came into this category. 

A YEAR IN THE LIFE …

His form on his return was good and he won so many trophies at the time that it might be appropriate to look at 1969 in a bit of detail.   On the Saturday before Christmas, 1968, he had the fastest time in the club Christmas Handicap being 41 seconds faster than I was and a minute and a half quicker than Phil Dolan.   1969 started with the classic Nigel Barge Road Race at Maryhill and he was twenty second of the 168 finishers – two places behind Ian Donald and two ahead of Douglas Gemmell and the team was third.   A week later was the club’s Six Mile Race for the Hannah Cup and he had second fastest time again behind Ian Donald.   The tables were turned on Ian next week when in the Midland District Championship Ian had what was maybe his best ever run in the event finishing fourth with Ian Donald twelfth and Douglas twentieth.   After the closely fought race the Scottish cross country captain Andy Brown of Motherwell said that had Ian run at a steadier pace throughout he would certainly have had a medal.  He followed this by a superb run in the Inter Counties at Cleland Estate, Motherwell, which he rates as possibly his best ever race, finishing second to International athlete John Linaker of Motherwell YMCA.   The ‘Glasgow Herald’ had ‘Linaker beat the improving Ian Leggett (Clydesdale) by 280 yards in 33:12’.    Ian Donald was twelfth in the race and Douglas twentieth.   He was second again a week later – to Ian in the club championship   But in the National Championships in Edinburgh two weeks later he turned the tables again finishing thirtieth – five places ahead of Ian – to be the club’s first finisher.  

On the roads his summer campaign started with fifteenth place in the Tom Scott 10 Miles Road race in 51:56.  A week later – 19^th April – he was second in the club three miles championship in 15:08 which was four seconds behind Ian.   Came the Clydebank to Helensburgh and he was fourth and first club finisher in 1:30:04.   Back to the ten miles distance the following week – this time in the SAAA Track Championship where he was eighth on the cinders of Scotstoun in 54:14.   He skipped the club 880 and One Mile championships and then ran in the Drymen to Scotstoun 15 Miles Road Race where he was seventh in a good field on a very hilly course.   He stayed on the road for his next race which was the 13+ miles at Airdrie Highland Games where he was second to Victoria Park’s Pat McLagan in 67:13.   A week later (14^th June) and he was third in the 14 Miles of the Babcock and Wilcox Road Race at

Renfrew in just over 79 minutes.   At the start of July the club was involved in an invitation 3000 metres race at the Glasgow Transport Sports Meeting.   Ian was fifth, nine seconds ahead of Douglas and thirteen ahead of Ian Donald.   Later in the month at the Gourock Highland Games (pictured above, left, leaving the ground) he was a good third in the 14 miles road race. His run in the very tough 14 mile Mamore Hill Race in July has already been mentioned.   The Mamore starts in Kinlochleven and has a mile and a half on the road before climbing on to the Lairig Mhor towards Fort William.   After climbing up to the approximately 2500 feet shoulder of the hill, the course drops to the road and finishes with seven miles on the tarmac.   The club has a good record in this race with Ian Donald, Bobby Shields and Phil Dolan all having broken the record at one time or another.  Ian Donald in 1967 was leading by a distance and  within the record when his legs  just  gave  out  on  him  with  the last two miles on the road to go

Behind Lachie Stewart and Dick Wedlock    but ahead of Allan Faulds in the SAAA 10K

. In August he ran in the long 10 miles at Kirkintilloch Highland Games to be again the club’s first finisher.   Three days later he ran the three miles in an inter club with Springburn Harriers where he won the three miles in 14:56 with Ian Donald second in 15:14 on an uneven and oddly shaped track.   Two nights later it was the club’s Six Miles Track Championship at Whitecrook and he won in 30:44.6 from Ian Donald in 31:04, Brian McAusland in 31:34 and Bobby Shields in 32:45.  (He had already won the club Three Miles championship in 15:15 on the cinders of Whitecrook.)    Three good quality races in six days!   Not satisfied with that he ran in the Largs to Irvine20 mile road race and finished eighth in a field of over 50 runners.   Winter started officially for the Harriers on 23^rd September when the McAndrew Trial was held in Clydebank.   Ian won this one by more than half a minute from Douglas with Ian a further eight seconds back.   This was on a Tuesday and on the Saturday a Two Mile Invitation team race was held on the cramped blaes track at Dumbarton FC at half time.   Ian was second to local hero Colin Martin who was in terrific form at this period.   A week later was the McAndrew Relay at Scotstoun and Ian was fastest club runner when he was fourth on the first stage in 14:27; Douglas was 14:30 to retain the position on the second stage before Phil Dolan dropped to tenth with 15:43 on third and Ian Donald pulled the club up to sixth with 14:28.   Two runners in the second team were faster than Phil – Brian McAusland in 14:39 for thirteenth on the first stage and Bobby Shields on 15:20 who dropped to eighteenth on the second stage.   In the County Relays the next week Ian was again fastest in 14:58 with Ian Donald 15:13 to be second fastest in the winning quartet.   Back on the roads     two weeks later for the club Sinclair Trophy 5 Miles Road  Race he was second to Douglas being almost half a minute down.

In the Midlands Relay at Bellshill on 1^st November, he was fourth on the first stage in 11:35 which was the fastest club time on the afternoon – 14 seconds ahead of Douglas.   A week later he was again first club finisher when he was eighth in the Glasgow University Road Race in 26:25.   This was at the time the last road race before the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay and Ian was asked to run the hard seven miles of the sixth stage.   Not only did he run it well but he picked up a place to be thirteenth at the handover.   Opposition on that stage included Lachie Stewart, Fergus Murray, Alistair Blamire and Eddie Knox which made it among the classiest that many could remember.  On 22^nd November he was one of the club’s quartet to contest the inaugural Allan Scally Relay organised by Shettleston Harriers at Baillieston.   Shettleston Harriers were winners with all their strongest runners out in this race, Springburn Harriers were second but the Clydesdale team was third with Ian Donald on the first stage fastest club man on 24:50 followed by Bobby Shields on the second stage in 25:39, young Phil Dolan third with 26:10 and Ian having a tussle with Edinburgh Southern Harriers’ Coyle all the way to the finish to give the club third place by two seconds.   Ian’s time was 25:11.   He says of this one: “Our prize was a hand operated trouser press each.   When the Christmas Handicap came round, there were four hand held trouser presses wrapped in Christmas paper in the sack.   I always wondered what happened to them.” The next outing was in the County Championships on 6^th December where he was fourth – one place behind Ian Donald and one ahead of Douglas Gemmell.   That was the end of his year – it had been an excellent twelve months with Ian leading the club contingent home on eighteen occasions.   It is fair to say too that at that time Scottish endurance running was on a high and the Clydesdale team was also very strong.   In 1969 Ian was probably the best and most consistent runner in the club. 

1970 started with Allan Faulds joining the club and this strengthened the club immensely but simultaneously made life harder for everybody else – in the best possible way.   Straight away he won the club championship on 7^th February and Ian was second a mere four seconds back.   The local press reported it as follows:

“Allan Faulds who joined us recently had his first race and proved his fitness by fighting off persistent pressure and challenges from Ian Leggett.   Even to the last few hundred yards the result was in doubt but Allan was strong enough to get in front to get clear to win by four seconds.”   Allan’s time was 43:47 and Ian’s 43:51.    Ian went on to be first counter in the County and District Championships but came the National Championships and Allan was first club man home when he was twenty seventh and Ian was four places adrift.    

His running between 1969 and 1972 in the County Relay and Championship  shows his form at this time  in close up.   He ran both in the relays and championships in 1969 being fastest club man in the winning relay team and finishing third in the Championship.  In January 1970 Ian led the County contingent home in the Inter Counties Cross Country Championship when he was eleventh.  In October, he was again in the winning relay team as second fastest club runner and then finished second in the Championship leading the team to second place.   A year later and he again in the winning relay team and was third in the Championship.   In ’72 he missed the relays and was eighth in the Championships and in ’73 was again in the winning relay team with fifth place in the championship.   Came 1974 and he was in the relay team that finished second and his thirteenth place in the Championships helped the team to second place.   His next appearance at the County Relays was in October 1977 when he was in the winning relay team with Doug Gemmell, Phil Dolan and Robert McWatt.   In the Championships that year he was thirteenth and out of the team medals.   That was his last run in any County event over the country before his move to Livingston.   He had run in seven County relay teams which won 5 gold medals and one silver, and in seven County Championship teams which won four gold and two silver after he returned from Australia.   An excellent record of quality runs for the club. 

Ian’s running and racing was always at a high level with good races and times.    If you are looking for the complete endurance runner, Ian is an obvious role model.   He ran ~

on the road at all distances up to the marathon;

on the track up to and including the 10, 000 metres;

on the hills  he raced the Mamore and Ben Nevis races;

all championships for which he was eligible – club, county, district and national;

over the country he was a member of Scottish representative and select teams that competed against other regions around Britain over the country, represented the West of Scotland in the inter area match and represented Dunbartonshire in the annual inter counties track fixture. 

He raced as much as any club member that I can remember and travelled all over Scotland to get to the races – local ones like the Balloch and the Helensburgh, Fort William and Kinlochleven for the big hill races, the middle distance ones like the Tom Scott at Motherwell, longer ones like Largs to Irvine, marathon races at Meadowbank and at Shettleston and many more. He sought out the competition – he didn’t shy away from it like so many.   But wherever he ran the quality was evident – for instance he ran in the last ever Marathon Club 12 Miles Road Race at Springburn winning it from Falkirk’s Willie Day: the next year the race was transformed into the Luddon Half Marathon.  

In the Edinburgh to Glasgow he ran the second stage in 1964 in his first ever race in the event and dropped seven places against runners who were too good for him at that point – he should probably never have been asked to run that stage.    He himself says of it: “Personally the most disappointing race of my life was my first Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay.   I didn’t realise what I was letting myself in for.   This leg was full of international runners and first class runners.  I finished in nineteenth place out of twenty.   I ran straight into the nearest tenement close at the finish and if it wasn’t for Frank Kielty I would have missed the changing bus.”   On his return from Australia he ran the long sixth stage in 1969 and then followed his best three years in the race.   His happiest memory of the race was 1970 when we finished sixth and won the medals for the most meritorious unplaced performance.   He ran on the third stage, had the sixth fastest time and remembers passing John Robson of Edinburgh Southern Harriers hanging over a fence at the A89 junction totally psyched out with other ESH members trying to get him back into the race; the next year he was seventh fastest on the fourth stage and in 1972 he ran into sixth place on the first stage.   This three year spell coincided with his best   years on the country at County, District and National level.  

In general he just did what he did best – running all over the country, doing his considerable best and enjoying it.  He says about persona best times: “I didn’t keep too close a note of my pb’s.   I know that in Australia my best half mile was 2:08 and mile was 4:38.    I ran a 33:33 10K at Westerlands – I think it was a West District Championship; on the road my best half marathon was at the Babcock and Wilcox Sports where I was pipped by Alistair Johnston in the last mile.   Both of us broke Andy Brown’s record for the course.   My best marathon was in Glasgow in 1984 where I ran twelfth, close to 2:30 and didn’t get a prize as first vet was Donald McGregor in eighth.

Although he never won the club cross country championship – the best ever club athlete not to have this honour – he did win several trophies. 

• The Dan MacDonald Cup which is awarded for points scored in County, District and National Relay and Championships was won in 1969 and 1970.   This was a hard one to win at a time when the club was so strong in the events in question;
• The Harold Wright Memorial Trophy awarded to the first senior to finish in the National Cross Country Championship was won in 1969 making Ian the first ever winner;
• The Willie Gardiner Quaich for the Outstanding Club Athlete was also won in 1969;
• The Hannah Cup for the fastest time in the club 6 mile cross country handicap race was won in 1970.
• The Dunbartonshire Cup for the first club runner to finish in the Balloch to Clydebank Road Race.

 Ian and his wife Cathie were a popular couple who came to all the club functions and were among a group with Ian and Helen Donald, David and Evelyn Bowman and Brian and Betty McAusland who attended Marathon club dinners every year.   It was a loss in every sense to the club when they moved to Livingston and Ian joined the local club in the late 70’s.   In 1981 when the World Veterans Road Running Championships were held in Glasgow he ran in the 10,000 metres on the Saturday and then turned out in the marathon the following morning.  He has kept on running and racing all over the country with many races for the Scottish Veterans in Championships and representative races all over the British Isles.  Despite starting later than many, he has had the longest competitive career of any member of the teams of the 1970’s.  Even today at almost 70 he is still racing well and regularly.

He says “I still enjoy competing in our sport immensely.   I owe a great debt to the boys of Clydesdale Harriers who set the standards and helped me on my road.   We had it good in our heyday without realising it and I raise a glass to the boys who are no longer with us and to the ones who still carry the famous ‘C’

 I agree with him that we did have it good in our heyday with good winter quarters and a very good training track in summer – would that the club had them again – but like everything else it is the company that made the wee bit extra difference.   The runners all got on well together, they trained together and there was great team spirit.   Ian had a lot to do with that with his sense of humour and reliability.   Any club would have benefited from his presence.   A final wee tale from Ian:

“The quirkiest race I ever ran was inside Barlinnie Prison.   It was an invitation event to raise funds for an HIV testing unit within the complex.   Rangers’ players such as Terry Butcher, Celtic players and others from the boxing and broadcasting world plus some mixed ability runners and privileged inmates made up the field.   We were met at the gate and taken to our changing facilities and the prison officer had great pride in telling us that these were the gallows and it was the last place that an execution had ever been performed.   Eventually we lined up at the start with the inmates conspicuous in their white T-shirts and black plimsolls.   The course was five laps round the cellblock and the Governor who was 6’6” tall and just as broad started the race.   No starting pistol here – just a burst paper bag.   Off went the inmates like the doors had been left open and paying for their lack of pace judgment on the first lap.   The rest of the inmates in their cells rattled their tin mugs against the bars: it was like a Japanese prisoner of war movie.   The result was irrelevant and after a shower in the gallows and a nice meal, I was more than relieved to hear the gates close behind me on the way home”.

(There is a review of Ian’s career up to and including the M70 age group at  http://www.scottishdistancerunninghistory.scot/ian-leggett/ )

Showing the colours in Australia

Sam Stevenson is the only Clydesdale Harrier ever to have run in an Olympic Games.   Andrew Hannah and A Ross Scott were timekeepers at the 1908 London Olympics, but he was the only man to have run in the Games.

His application for club membership was passed by the Committee on Friday 24^th October 1892 at the regular meeting at 164 Sauchiehall Street when he was living in Coatbridge and his career is an example of consistency and persistence rewarded.   Success was not by any means immediate.   The first record of him winning anything is in 1902 when he was first in the Novice Handicap: ie first across the line not fastest time.   Novice races were held until the early 1950’s in Scotland and were open to athletes who not won any championship race.  

The next references to him in club records or sporting press were in season 1903/04.   He began by winning the Two Miles Handicap in the Clydesdale Harriers Sports at the Partick Thistle ground at Meadowside Quay off 220 yards in 9:26.   Then in the Club 5 Miles Handicap he was third in the actual race behind Scottish internationalists James Reston and Robert Frew.   In the Scottish National Cross Country Championships at Scotstoun he was third and ran well in the English Championships at Haydock Park, Manchester.    The club handbook commented that he was “probably the most improved distance runner on the track” that summer.   He was club captain in 1904/05 and had a great record of success.   Club Champion at a time when the standard was very high, he was third in the National Cross Country Championships, first in the Five Miles Handicap and winner of the annual and highly esteemed Clydesdale Harriers Seven Miles Cross Country Handicap held from Scotstoun Showground.   At that time the Hannah Cup was won for the first runner in a points contest held over a series of races and Sam Stevenson won it in 1905.   On the track, he won the Two Miles in the Clydesdale Harriers Sports at Celtic Park ahead of A Aldred, the English Two Miles Champion but his best run had to be when he was second to Alfred Shrubb in the historic One Hour race at Ibrox Park on 5^th November.   In the SAAA Championships also held at Ibrox he was first in the Four Miles in 20:56.8 and in the Ten Miles in 53:31.4.  

By 1905/06 he was really running well.   When Alfred Shrubb ran the world’s best for one hour and ten miles at Ibrox in November 1905, Sam Stevenson was second and set a whole series of Scottish records at intermediate distances.   Still club captain he won the club championship and the Scottish Championships at Scotstoun, he won the club’s winter Two Miles Track race in 9:56.08, he was first in the Seven Miles at Scotstoun and again took the Hannah Cup.   On the track he won the SAAA Four Miles title in 20:41.4 at Powderhall in Edinburgh but was only second in the Ten Miles at Tynecastle.   1906/07 was a fallow time but he still managed to be club champion over the country and finish third in the national championships and in summer was second in the Four Miles to A Duncan.   He was of course a celebrity by now and like many other Scottish athletes was signed to advocate the benefits of various products.   For example in the programme for the Celtic Sports on 25^th May, 1907, he was quoted as follows: “I have no hesitation in stating that athletes will obtain great benefit from OXO.   From personal experience I can recommend it without the slightest reserve.”   In 1907/08 he was again club champion and was second in the SAAA One Mile which was won in 4:33.8.  (It was a peculiarity of the time that only the winner’s times were given, even in national championships.) 

In 1908/09 he had stepped down as club captain but was still a committee member.   The standard in the club was very high and he was only third in the championships behind A McPhee and Sam S Watt.   He was third in the two miles flat but came the international championship he was one of five Clydesdale Harriers in the Scottish team which was fourth in the team race from Hampden Park.

Before the Olympics at London in 1908 there were a series of qualifying races in Scotland and he won his way through to a place in the team.   For the only time ever there was a Five Miles event.  There were six Heats with only two to qualify from each Heat.   He was placed third in Heat Five in 26:17.       Two Heat winners were timed outside 27 minutes and only ten men actually turned out in the Final.   He had the sixth fastest Heat time in the Games but failed to make the Final!   He was also entered, as were all the British Five Milers in the famous Dorando Pietri marathon with its controversial finish.    Probably because he had never run the distance before he was the only GB athlete not to start the race.   

Some Statistics

International Appearances: Cross Country

1904:   Haydock Park, Manchester   36^th

1905:   Baldoyle Racecourse, Dublin   6^th

1906:   Caerleon Racecourse, Wales   10^th

Track

1905:   v Ireland   Powderhall   Four Miles   1^st   21:08.6

1906:   v Ireland   Belfast          Four Miles   1^st   20:53.0

1908:   v Ireland   Saughton      Four Miles    2^nd 20:46.8

Olympic Games    1908                  London          Five Miles    3H    26:17

Although he ran on after the Olympics he was not seen again as a competitor after the 1914-18 War.  So complete was his disappearance that I have been asked by English writers of marathon histories – most recently Neil Shuttleworth who wrote such a book with Ron Hill – whether he died in the conflict.   The answer to that is that he did not – he appeared in a Clydebank Press column of 28^th October 1932 where Tom Millar reported on a good inter-club run with Monkland Harriers at Clydebank the preceding Saturday and includes the sentence: “President Kirkland then called on Mr S Stevenson a one time stalwart of the club now with Monkland to present the prizes to the track winners throughout the summer.”    So there it is – mystery solved!   Whatever happened after the Great War he had set Scottish records, represented Scotland and Britain and raced some of the world’s greatest distance runners.  

Charles Pennycook not only had one of the longest active connections with the club of any of the founder members, but was a top class runner and Scottish Champion in the 1880’s and 90’s going on to be a senior office holder with the SAAA.    He had started his sporting career as a footballer in Dundee taking up athletics just before he moved to Glasgow and joining the Harriers.

If we go back to the first year when any competitive records were kept, 1887/88,   he was a member of Headquarters District Number Three which covered Kelvin, Maryhill and Milton in the North and West of the City.  He won three first prizes and three third place awards.   A year later and he was Vice Captain with Andrew Hannah as captain and that year he won the SAAA Mile Championship in 4:29.8 which was the first time that 4:30 had been bettered in the championship.   At the same meeting he was second in the 10 miles to Andrew Hannah.   Over the season he won 8 first prizes and four seconds.   The club at that time gave gold medals for setting records and he won two that year: at Queens Park Sports where he was timed at 4:31 and two fifths for the Mile plus another for Camelon Sports 1 Mile of 4:32 3/5^th (both times were off 15 yards in handicap races).   Over the country it was the time of the split with the SCCA and he was second in the SHU Inter Counties in 79:28.  

In 1889/90 he went one better and won the Scottish Harriers Union Cross Country Championship, the individual cross country championship of Scotland and the county cross country championship.    Colin Shields in his official history of the SCCU reported that “Charles Pennycook, despite losing a shoe two miles from the finish won by 21 seconds from Andrew Hannah.”   He was the subject of a pen portrait in ‘The Scottish Referee’ of 9^th June 1890 which ran more or less as follows.

“C Pennycook: Vice Captain, Clydesdale Harriers

 One Mile amateur champion of Scotland, he started as a half back in Strathmore FC, Dundee, before coming to Glasgow three years ago.   There was no superior half back in Perthshire.   At Our Boys FC Sports in Dundee he won the Mile off 50 yards.   The handicapper predicted that he would be the best in Scotland.   “Mr Pennycook knows that it is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success – they much oftener succeed by failure and knowing this he has always persevered until last year he gained highest honours and surprised himself and all his clubmates by winning the One Mile Championship in 4 minutes 29 and four fifth seconds.   In Cross Country he takes a foremost position and has placed to his credit in this year’s SHU 10 miles Championships.   25 years old, 5’9” and 12½ stone he is of reticent disposition.”

On the track that summer he took seven firsts, one second and two thirds.   In 1890/91 the summer prizes totalled seven: four first, one second and two thirds.   In 1891/92 there were eleven track awards (6 firsts, 2 seconds and 3 thirds) but the big one was winning the Scottish Cross Country Championship from Andrew Hannah.  Colin Shields commented on the race as follows: “Charles Pennycook interrupted his club mate Andrew Hannah’s bid for a hat trick of individual titles but continued Clydesdale’s domination of the individual race.  He scored a convincing victory over Hannah with Carment (Edinburgh) third.”    Now that the split was over he had beaten all the top runners from the top clubs in the country.  

His competitive activities seemed to stop then and from 1892/93 his membership continued although he was not on the Committee in any capacity.    Then in 1895/96 he was back on the Committee and was also the committee representative to the Dunbartonshire Section and for the first time he appeared on the Finance Committee.   After two years in these posts he was elected Vice President in 1897/98 while retaining the Finance Committee and Dumbartonshire Section representative positions.   These were held until 1898/99 when he disappeared from the Committee after a year as representative to the Airdrie Section.   In seasons 1900/01, 1901/02 and 1902/03 he held positions on the Finance Committee and as an auditor.   Coming off the Committee in season 1903/04 he remained as auditor until 1912/13. 

At the Coming of Age 21^st Anniversary Dinner in 1906 chaired by his friend Alexander Kennedy he proposed the toast of the NCCU of Scotland at the Grosvenor Restaurant in Glasgow.  Now on the SAAA Committee as a representative of Arthurlie FC he became President of that body in 1907/08.   The club had several representatives on the governing body at the time, each representing other clubs while still functioning as Clydesdale Harriers.   The work that he had done for the club was recognised when he was elected Honorary President in 1909/10 and held that post until 1912/1913 all the while acting as club auditor.  Honorary President is not to be confused with club President which is a working position in the club – the Honorary Presidency is just that, an honour bestowed by the club.    

After the war he maintained his connection with the club and was one of four founder members – MF Dickson, J Erskine and JC Lawson being the other three – to attend the first committee meeting after the war – the extract from the minutes of the time is above.  

At the 40^th Anniversary Dinner in 1925, Sir Alexander Kennedy referred to the work done by Charles Pennycook in bringing together all the available founders of the movement.  He continued to come around the club and he maintained his friendship with fellow pioneers such as Andrew Hannah and Sir Alexander Kennedy.  In 1928 when Kennedy was ill, and the club sent commiserations, Charles Pennycook replied on behalf of the family because of his long and continuing friendship with them.  

Unfortunately he did not live to see the 50^th Anniversary in 1935 when he would have been 65 years old.   In the club minutes of 22^nd September 1930, under the heading ‘Obituary’ the following appeared:

“Mr J Kirkland, President, referred to the loss the club had sustained through the death of Mr Charles Pennycook, a former President of the club and a Scottish one mile and ten miles champion.   It was agreed that a minute should be made of our regret at his passing and of our thanks for the many services that he had rendered the club.”  

I was told stories about Sir A McA Kennedy by one of the older members when I was writing the club history in the 1980’s: founder member from Dumbarton, President, great speaker, chairman, organiser, patron, etc, etc.   When he first appears in the club records he is referred to as Mr A McA Kennedy, the knighthood not being conferred upon him until 1921.   Born in Dumbarton in 1860 he was one of seven children of a master house joiner who rose to become president of the Ship Builders Federation and Chairman of Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Firm Ltd, Glasgow.

He is first mentioned in the club handbook of 1887/88 (ie for season ‘86/’87) as an ordinary member who had won no prizes anywhere for anything.   His organising talent must have been obvious for in season 1889/90 at the age of 29 he was president.   He must have been effective for by 1890/91 he was not only club president but also a member of the club football committee and a representative to the Scottish Cross Country Union.    After two years as president he reverted to being an ordinary member of the Dumbartonshire Section in 1891/92, 1892/93, 1893/94, 1894/95, 1895/96, 1896/97, 1897/98, 1898/99 and 1899/1900.   He is also listed as a patron of the County Section from 1898 before being elected as one of the Club Patrons (as distinct from the Dumbartonshire Section Patron) at the AGM in September 1926 and he held the position for several years thereafter.  Sir Alexander’s active participation in club affairs diminished as his business became more and more demanding (see below just how demanding!) but the link with the club was maintained.   The club Minute for 21/1/21 said “Congratulations to AM Kennedy:   A letter of congratulations was sent to AM Kennedy a former President of the club, on the occasion of his being knighted and Mr Lamond read Sir AM Kennedy’s reply.”

‘Who Was Who 1929 -1940’ listed his principal achievements as follows:

“Chairman of William Duxford & Sons, Ltd, Sunderland;

Chairman of Shipbuilders Investments Co Ltd;

Director of  Sea Insurance Co Ltd (Glasgow Branch);

Ex-President of the Shipbuilding Employers Federation;

Chairman of the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Ltd, Govan;

Member of Committee of Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, etc.

The “etc” is not mine – the WWW is responsible.

Starting from small beginnings he became a captain of industry.   His first job was as an apprentice in Archibald MacMillan & Sons Ltd which was a Dumbarton shipbuilding firm.    I quote from his obituary in ‘The Lennox Herald’ which contained much more detail:

 “He made rapid progress in his practical work as well as in his naval architecture studies and at the age of 19 obtained at the South Kensington Institute of Science a first class degree in naval architecture.   Three years later he secured a First Class Diploma with Honours in naval architecture and took fifth position among candidates from all over the United Kingdom.   Through successive and lightning promotions he became the General Manager of the Fairfield Company at the early age of 31 and five years later was appointed Director.   In 1904 at a time when it seemed probable that he would become Provost of Dumbarton, Sir Alexander crossed to the south side of the river to become a managing director of William Hamilton & Co, Ltd, Port Glasgow where he further enhanced his reputation as a shipbuilder of unusual ability………. At the end of the War he decided to retire from Messrs Hamilton’s but for some time thereafter he occupied positions of great responsibility in the industry.   The year 1919 marked the beginning of the most remarkable period of his outstanding career.   It was then that he accepted the post of managing director of the Northumberland Shipbuilding Co, Ltd, Howdon on Tyne, a concern which under his control rapidly became one of the most successful in British shipbuilding.   While retaining his position on the Tyne, he became managing director of the Fairfield Company on the Clyde and of William Duxford & Sons, Ltd, on the Wear.   In 1920 he rose to the highest office of the industry – President of the Shipbuilding Employers Federation – and in that capacity revealed wise and sound leadership in an exceedingly difficult period………He was a member of the Institution of Naval Architects and of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland.  For two years he was president of the Clyde Shipbuilders Association.   His services were utilised by Lloyd’s Register Technical Committee and the British Engineering Standards Association”   And so on and on.   The list of his achievements is both lengthy and impressive but there is one other paragraph that should maybe be noted: In his earlier days Sir Alexander was keenly interested in athletics and sport.   He was at one time president of the Scottish Football Association, President of the Clydesdale Harriers, member of the Executive Committee of the Scottish Amateur Athletic Association and hon secretary of the Dumbarton Arts Club.”   He was also a very active member of the local community in Dumbarton serving on the education committee in particular.    “The best public work of the deceased was done in the sphere of education.   His chairmanship of the School Board here is still remembered.   There was a council of three who practically directed the educational affairs of the town and that with no little success for a Burgh Board.   The new Academy was their scheme; and their administrative success was the system of technical or evening continuation instruction which was set up in Dumbarton linking the school with local industry.   His Majesty’s Inspector often commented on this side of the work in Dumbarton especially when it was merged into courses of study and correlated with the Technical College in Glasgow.”  

This was at the time when the Clyde really did lead the world in ship building with Denny of Dumbarton and John Brown’s of Clydebank among the leading pioneering yards.

 Clearly a man of energy, intelligence and vision and one that Clydesdale Harriers was lucky to have as a member and it is possible to see why he was president in 1890 at the age of 30. 

The Top Table at the Diamond Jubilee Dinner in 1935: John Kirkland, Sir A Kennedy and A Ross Scott in the Middle.

Fifteen years later he was Chairman at the club’s coming of age Dinner in March 1906 in the Large Saloon of the Grosvenor Hotel in Glasgow.   The menu of Whitstable Natives, Consommé a la Royale or Crème de la Reine, Fillet of Whiting aux Fines Herbes or Turbot au Gratin and Sweetbreads a la Clydesdale was served as well as to members past and present, to all club Presidents from 1890, President and Vice President of the SAAA, Secretary and Treasurer of the Cross Country Union, President of the Cyclists Union, Baillies and civic dignitaries from Glasgow and stars from the 21 years of the club’s history.

The link between club and industrialist was maintained and in an article entitled ‘First Harrier Club in Scotland – Clydesdale’s Claim to Fame’ in the ‘Evening Times of 29^th October 1929 the writer under the pseudonym of ‘Pistol’ said: “It was in January 1885 that the Clydesdale Harriers club was instituted.   It took its name from the Clydesdale Rowing Club.   Four years ago Clydesdale celebrated its 40^th Anniversary in the Bank Restaurant, Queen Street, Glasgow and on that momentous occasion Patron Sir A McA Kennedy a notable personality in the shipbuilding world occupied the Chair.   He referred to the efforts of Mr Charles Pennycook to bring together all the available founders of the movement.”  

We jump forward four years when it was clear that his relationship with Charles Pennycook must have been strong and continuing.   In the club minute for 2^nd April 1928 had the following entry: “It was reported that a former president, Sir A.M. Kennedy was seriously ill.   It was agreed to send a letter of sympathy.”     The minute for 28^th April had the following: “Sir A.M. Kennedy: The President had received  a letter from  Mr C. Pennycook thanking the club for the interest taken in Sir A.M. Kennedy’s health; the said gentleman being in the very best of health.”    The relationship was a continuing affair.

Having been Chairman at the twenty first anniversary and fortieth anniversary dinners, it was natural for him to be asked to be Chairman at the club’s 50^th Anniversary Dinner at the Grand Hotel in Glasgow.   It was a very big affair with many of the former champions present including Andrew Hannah, Jack Paterson and Sam Stevenson, officials like A Ross Scott, Presidents from the SAAA and NCCU and civic dignitaries such as  Provost Smart of Clydebank.    It was quite a record – President in 1890, Chairman at the 21^st Anniversary Dinner, Chairman at the 40^th Anniversary Dinner and at the 50^th as well.  

 The relationship with club was clearly encouraged on both sides over the years.   Having men such as Sir Alexander on the books in any capacity, the club was keeping in contact with significant figures in the Community who might or might not be useful at some point.  It also added to their belief in the importance of their Club.    His personal relationship with Chas. Pennycook seems to have been a continuing relationship and there is no reason to suppose that his friendship with characters such as Andrew Hannah and Willie Maley would have been any different.   From the club’s point of view the association with the great and the good was always to be welcomed.   When he died in 1939 it was recorded in the club Minute of 6^th February 1939 as follows: “Death of a Patron: We regret to minute the death of Sir A.M. Kennedy who had been Patron and Past President of the club.   A telegram of sympathy had been sent to Lady Kennedy.”

 It seems to me that he was more than just a Patron.

Hans Noble with David Bowman on the right.

Meeting of Clydesdale Harriers Committee held in Educational Rooms, Clydebank,  1^st February 1946.

Members Present: T Millar, T Tait, H King, C Middler, D MacDonald, D Bowman, D Scott, J Gray, J Shields, A MacMillan, d H Noble (Coach)

Cyril O’Boyle was not the first top class Irish athlete to run for Clydesdale Harriers – Hans Noble had that honour.   He was an Irish International cross country runner who came to Scotland to work on the ‘Empress of Britain’, a liner being built at John Brown’s Shipyard in the mid 1920’s, and immediately joined up with the club. 

He was clearly a class athlete and raced frequently for and within the club.   He probably joined the club in mid or late 1929 – the club minutes of the day were unique in that they only said that there were ’17 new members’ (27/11/28), 4 new members (9/1/28) and so on.  Normally the new members were named.  The report in the minute book of the time on the club championship in January 1929 reported “The event of the season from the club point of view was contested o’er the historic soil of Erskine (on this occasion a trifle muddier than usual) the distance being slightly less than the usual 7 miles.   H Noble proved a worthy winner in the excellent time of 40 minutes 35 seconds while W Chalk was second 12 seconds behind Noble and J McShane third in 4:32.   Truly as close a finish as might be desired.’   (The secretary at the time was often quite poetic in his reporting using words like o’er and ‘twas fairly often.)   The same minute had the following remarks from President McNamara further through: “Mr J McNamara paid tribute to the admirable team spirit and the conscientiousness displayed by H Noble in training.   The club was fortunate in having such a leader for their West District Team.”      The team was duly chosen and the minute for the meeting on 4^th March 1929 (below) had reports on both District and National Championships. 

“W.D. Championships

Clydesdale gained tenth position in this race which is one place better than last year.   The counting six were Noble 17^th, T McAuley 33^rd, S Davidson 78^th, W Scott 79^th, W Chalk 102^nd, J McShane 104^th.”

 “National Championships

Clydesdale fifteenth in this event.   This was quite a good performance in the circumstances when one considers the nature of the opposition and the fact that some of our best runners were not available.   Placings:   H Noble 29^th, W Scott 48^th, G McQuattie 86^th, J Gray 109^th, C Middler 110^th, M Logie 115^th.”

 Then in the Minute of 2^nd April 1929 under the Heading ‘Balloch – Clydebank’ is the report: “From the grande finale to the cross country season, H Noble again emerged the victor.   Not only did he win the race, he also established a new record for the course.   1.   H Noble  65:45;   2.   T McAuley   66:10;   3.   W Scott   67:07.”

 He had been elected to the Committee at the AGM in 1929 but when it came to the club committee meeting in January 1930, there were two vacancies to be filled.   They were caused by the departure of H Noble and J Sleeth.   They were both Irish and both were going home with the job at Brown’s done.   It was a blow to the club after the fine running he had been doing and the leadership that Hans had been said to have shown.  He went back home to Ireland and three years later in March 1933 he was selected to run for Ireland in the International Cross Country International in Caerleon in Wales.   He continued running and returned to Clydebank four and a half years after leaving.  

Back in Scotland to work on Job Number 534, which was to become the Queen Mary, he rejoined the club in September 1934 – it was the custom at the time for members leaving the District to resign from the club or be liable for the next year’s subscription.  Anyone leaving the District was required to give notice of this and resign their membership.   It seems a strange custom to us but that was the rule in most clubs at the time.   This time he stayed in Clydebank, worked as a draftsman in John Brown’s, ran for the club and became the official club coach.   He was welcomed with open arms.   The ‘Clydebank Press’ of 14^th September 1934 reported on the club AGM and started the report as follows: “There was a good attendance of the club at this important meeting.   President John Kirkland occupied the chair and in the course of his remarks he said it was pleasing to see so many old faces and gratifying to see the new.   He especially welcomed Hans Noble the ex club champion.”

 However if anyone was expecting him to race immediately at the top level, they were destined to be disappointed.   He turned out to start with in the odd inter club run almost immediately and there is a report of him running in one early in October.   However pressure of work prevented him from training as he would have liked and he was more active in advising other athletes and in Committee work until the winter of 1936/37.    He did not take part in club races or race in District or National Championships although he was mentioned as taking part in inter club runs and being ‘prominent’ in the pack on occasion.  

He was elected back on to the Committee at the AGM in September 1936 and at the first Committee Meeting was persuaded to go on to the Handicapping Committee as well.   Came the club championship in January 1937, Hans won from Charlie Middler with Tommy Sinclair in third place.   He then devoted most of his energies to coaching and, when he lost his place on the Committee at the 1937 AGM, Dan McDonald suggested that he be made a member of the Handicap Committee.   This was agreed to but he was ‘allowed’ to attend their meetings ‘in an advisory capacity.’   This is the first time that any club member is referred to as a coach: heretofore there had been many in charge of  club training but they had all been referred to as ‘trainers’ – Mr Stewart,   Mr Ballantine, Willie Wright and others had worked with varying degrees of success training the senior men.   They had also been masseurs and the club paid for their massage tables, flannels and even on occasion flesh gloves – the runners however had to provide their own massage oil.   They had been first aid men with the club supplying an ‘Ambulance Box’ for their use and had even been unqualified physiotherapists.   When Willie Wright began working with Duntocher Hibs FC he said that he would be willing to give treatment to any Clydesdale Harrier who needed it.   Hans, however, was the first to be described as ‘coach’.    He was first so described in the club minutes in 1936 and had the description applied after the war as well when his appearance at Committee Meetings was followed by the word ‘coach’ in brackets: note the extract at the start.   He ran, acted as coach and like all good Clydesdale Harriers recruited runners on behalf of the club.

He was reputed to be a very good coach and the word was next applied to Bobby Boyd who took over the post in 1947/48.   There is no note in the Minutes of his departure but he returned to Ireland at the end of the 1940’s and the club lost a good man, coach and role model for younger athletes.

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Bobby Boyd joined the club in season 1939-40 just as the war was starting and went on to be one of the best (and most unlucky) athletes ever to wear the club vest.   Winning races at county and district level, he would have run more than five Edinburgh to Glasgow Relays had it not been for the intervening war years and a series of injuries. 

One of four siblings Bobby was born in Duntocher in 1921 and his first sport was boxing.   He took it up as a hobby and as a means of self defence and although he never reached any great heights as a boxer he was often sparring partner to good class Scottish boxers, notably Tommy McGlinchy who fought the great Benny Lynch.   He always loved the country, hiking and camping and joined the Harriers just before war broke out.    The War started and every factory in the country was put on war production.    Sixty percent of all naval tonnage produced at the time came from the River Clyde and the Singer Sewing Machine factory had eighteen thousand workers turning out machine guns.     By trade at the time Bobby was a Die Sinker which was considered vital to the war effort and he could not initially get permission to join the military.   Eventually his persistence won the day and he was able to join the Air Force.    It was near the end of hostilities and the RAF did not need any more pilots but he became a navigator/bomb aimer.    Always clever he passed all the exams quickly enough but being stationed in Britain never saw action.    He did have a lot of time to train however and he represented his unit in various One Mile races.    At one point he was in charge of a group of German prisoners of war and saw to it that they all took part in his training regimen.    He developed a problem with the cartilage in his knee at this time and required operations.   In 1946 this was a serious operation and he spent time in Killearn Hospital during which one leg shrunk to little more than skin and bone.    Starting from his release from hospital he began a determined training regime and a year later was winning mile races again.   As his brother Jack says, “Intense training, focus and determination were to be Bobby’s approach all through his life.”  

By 1947 he felt ready to race again and had what was certainly his best season ever between May 1947 and March 1948.

At the start of season 1946-47 he was still injured and working mainly as a coach in the club.   In this capacity he had a tremendous thirst for knowledge and attended as many coaching seminars as he could.   The main runners were George White, Pat Younger, Eric Paton, Alex Hylan and David Bowman but when he was injury free his ability shone.   The ‘Clydebank Press’ report of 31^st May 1947 reported on the good results achieved by the runners under his guidance at the Bellahouston Harriers Sports at Hampden adding “To crown the afternoon Bobby himself ran a fine race to win the Mile.   The fine judgment of pace shown by our coach shows he has the capabilities of winning more races before the end of the season.”     The following week he won the same event at Shotts Highland Games, then he won the Mile at the Dunbartonshire County Championships on the Thursday (and was selected for the Inter Counties Championship in the event) and at Singer’s Sports on the Saturday he was third in the Mile off a handicap of only 50 yards.    This was three wins and a third in four races in three weeks!   Not content with that he won the Mile in the Inter Counties Championship at Helenvale Park, Glasgow.   In the Scottish Championships at Hampden, the ‘Press’ reported that he finished fifth out of 22 runners in the Mile.   A week later he was second at the Sports in Linlithgow where the track was notoriously bad.   In the club championships he won the Memorial Bowl for the club points contest with victory in the last event, the Three Miles: he had 30 points with Jim Young second on 28 and George White on 20.  

With the summer season finished, he was commended by the President, Andy McMillan, who referred to his fine example and coaching, and elected to the position of captain.   The winter season started with the trial for the McAndrew Relay and it was won by Bobby and George White.   The ‘Press’ noted that “Training is continuing under the guidance of Mr R Boyd who has commenced classes for exercises after the runs and is receiving a good response from the members.”   In December he showed his real ability in the Midland District Relay at Motherwell.   George White ran well enough to be fourth on the first stage, Doug Scott dropped to eleventh, Jackie Higginson came up a bit to tenth before Bobby pulled up to seventh place.   One well known runner is said to have remarked that “he came through them like skittles” on what was a short hilly course but the real surprise was his time – 12:51 gave him the fastest time of the day.   He was quicker than Andy Forbes, Emmett Farrell and all the other top runners on display.   The report by Eddie Taylor in the ‘Scots Athlete’ of January 1948 said “R Boyd, Clydesdale, astounded most spectators by returning fastest time against a top notch field but his club were not surprised and with a little stronger support for Boyd and G White, Clydesdale would be ‘shaking up’ the leaders.”

The next race was the Dunbartonshire Cross Country Championship at Milngavie in January which he won by 50 yards.   Incidentally the spacing of the races was more civilised than at present and was a lot kinder to the limbs.   One week later he won the club championship for the first time defeating George White by 600 yards.   Two weeks later in February the club travelled to Pollokshaws for the Midland Championship and Bobby won that one as well to be the first Clydesdale Harrier ever to do so.   This was a real turn up for the books given the standard of athlete competing.   The report in the ‘Scots Athlete’ of February 1948 read as follows: White and Boyd (Clydesdale) with Craig (Shettleston) led the field for the first lap, and on the second circuit being completed Craig was endeavouring to shake off the longer striding Boyd, followed by Kidd (Garscube), Lennie (Vale of Leven) and White leading a group close behind and it was most striking how Garscube and Maryhill team members were ‘packing’ well up, and their finishing places are a perfect illustration of teamwork ‘par excellence’.   At the finish Boyd, striding strongly through the tape proved a worthy winner.”   The team finished fifth with George White sixth individual.

Emmett Farrell’s National preview mentioned Bobby in the following terms: “I fancy the chances of the winner emerging from the following quartette:- R Boyd (Clydesdale), A McLean (Bellahouston), JC Flockhart and G Craig (Shettleston).    Boyd, a most stylish runner, and also very fast, has made a remarkable recovery from illness and has shown outstanding form all season over both short and long stretches.  This may be his year and he has an opportunity to prove that he has adequate experience and temperament for the big occasion……”   Unfortunately he could not make it a fourth championship win to go with the club, county and district championships.   He had a real off day in the race at Ayr and could only finish thirty third with George White fifteenth and the team finishing sixth.    Emmet Farrell himself won the race, just as he had done ten years previously.   The story behind the story is that Bobby was still employed as a die sinker working with his hands and had just completed an emergency 36 hour shift immediately before this race so that he had only arrived at the venue in time to warm up.   The ‘off day’ was easily explained!

That was the end of the cross country season and James Shields reported in the ‘Clydebank Press’ as follows:  “The past cross country season is the brightest the club has enjoyed in many years.   Credit for this must go to Bobby Boyd who has filled a very difficult dual role of club captain and coach.   In addition to this Bobby set a magnificent example by having the fastest time in the Midland Relay and winning the Dunbartonshire and Midland Championship.”

The following summer he retained the Memorial Bowl for the club points contest, he won the County Three Miles championship, was first man home in the 2½  miles Round the Loch Race at Linlithgow and was third in the Glasgow Police Sports Invitation One Mile Race.   He also ran at various other distances – eg at Ibrox he ran in the 880 yards and qualified for the Final where he was unplaced.   Injuries cropped up.   At one point the ‘Press’ report said that “The Two Miles Team were without the services of R Boyd who was incapacitated”, and at another his return from another lay off was mentioned.      The incapacitation referred to was that following a work accident he had an arm in plaster up to the elbow!

The ability did not go away but injuries started to take their toll.   Initially it was not too obvious.   He had the fourth fastest time in the McAndrew Relays in October 1948 and the team, minus George White, was seventh.   In the Dunbartonshire Championships he finished second to Alex Kidd of Garscube after a hard fought race and missed the Midlands Championships.   Came the National and Emmett Farrell was still predicting that he had a chance to make the Scottish team for the International Championship.   He listed the obvious ‘picks’ and then said “A Kidd and R Boyd: Both are enthusiastic and ambitious performers and both are real triers.   Last year they both, and particularly Boyd, had an off day on National Day.   Now freed from Midland worries they should do better this year.   Kidd recently beat Boyd decisively in the Dunbartonshire Championships but in relation to the National this is not conclusive proof of superiority.   Both have to break down the mental barrier of non-success in the National.   In other words previous success gives a runner confidence that he can repeat the performance.   Both have a chance even if it is an outside one.”   However in the National Championship at Ayr he was twenty fourth and, in the absence of George White, first club man home.   He even lost the club championship after only holding it for twelve months.   The race itself was held at Ayr Racecourse and, added to the extreme cold on the day, sleet fell for the entire duration of the race.   Alex Kidd was carried from the finish exhausted and maybe suffering from slight hypothermia if eye witness reports are accurate.   He was ill for a while afterwards.    Alex Hylan, running in the Youths race, caught pneumonia and ended up in a Co-op convalescent home across the Tweed from Abbotsford.

Came season 1949/50 and he was again easily the fastest in the club being 12 seconds ahead of White in the McAndrew Relay but he was a minute slower than the fastest time.   In the County Championships on 15^th October he was only the third quickest club runner behind White and Pat Younger.   He was still being described as a ‘classy runner’ but the injuries were taking a toll.   In the Midlands Relay at the end of October he was fastest club runner but a minute down on the top men.   The time table was letting him down; three races in a month are not the best treatment for any injury.   In the Midlands Championships in February 1950 he could only finish 68^th which was 36 places behind George White and only one ahead of Joe Duffy.   Came the National at Hamilton and given his season up to that point no one was tipping him for the Scottish Team.   He finished 61^st – one place ahead of David Bowman who would never have called himself a top cross country runner.   Bobby went on running for the club in cross country, track and road races but it was becoming clear that he would find it difficult to reach the heights of the 1947/48 season again.   

He won several of the most respected trophies in the club at a time when it was strong in middle and long distance events but none was after 1950:

The Semple Merit Award in 1948;

The Championship Challenge Cup in 1948 and 1949

The Memorial Bowl in 1947 and 1948

However unlike many top class athletes he did not walk away when injury caused him problems.   He ran whenever he could but crucially he remained club coach assisting many club runners to excellent performances: George White for instance spoke highly of Bobby’s contribution to his successes.   Jim Young came along to the club at the instigation of Hans Noble but immediately he was told to train with Bobby.   The same is true of many others.   When the club was third team in the National Cross Country Championship in 1955, a conscious decision was taken at the start of the winter season to train as a group on Mondays and Wednesdays as well as the usual club nights of Tuesday and Thursday with the Saturday run also in there.   The runners would meet at 8:00 or 8:30 pm after work and train as a group under the guidance of Bobby Boyd.   He played a big part in this club success.  

Clydesdale Harriers has had a great tradition of club runners taking part – often with great success – in the Ben Nevis Race; many of the major figures in the club contested the race including Pat Younger, Frank Kielty, David Bowman, Bobby and Jim Shields, and Ian Donald along with many who went for the run and the fun.   Bobby was among the first, if not the first, Clydesdale Harrier to take part in this supreme test.    He competed many times.   His daughter Elaine tells us that the last time they went to the Ben race, they got up at about 4:00 am to drive to Fort William.    The weather was wet and rainy and really bad.   After the race the car developed a problem that could not be fixed right away and there was not a room to be had in the Fort at that time of the year.   In the end they took a taxi from Fort William to Broughty Ferry where they were living.   She adds that his life was so full of sport that he spent most of his free time when not at work either running, golfing, watching athletics on TV, training people, swimming, etc.

Another initiative that he started was the long Sunday walk which had formerly been a major part of training but which had fallen by the wayside.   Where Jock Semple and the runners of the twenties had walked round the Three Lochs on one occasion and usually did some long Sunday walk, Bobby had Frank McKay, Jim Young, George White, Willie Howie, including at times his brother Jack Boyd and others go over the Moors to Carbeth and back.   Sometimes they walked over the Kilpatrick Hills and there was often a wee ‘burn up’ up Duncolm (the highest top in the hills) where Frank MacKay (“with his chunky powerful wee calves!”) was the man to beat!  One of the favourite walks started with them meeting up at the Hardgate Cross about 9:00 am.   They then headed off across the moors (there was no Faifley Housing Scheme at the time so it was straight on to the open country.   Then it was over Milngavie Golf Course and on to a farm where they bought milk and scones before returning home.    As well as adding to the general fitness level it helped build team spirit and identification with each other and the club.   Nowadays they would call it a bonding exercise!   At times when something important was coming up, this became Sunday training at Mountblow with the runners doing repetitions of distances up to 600 metres under his supervision.  

On a walk over the Moors:

Bobby, George Haddow, George White, Jim Young, Frank MacKay, Jackie Higginson

Wherever he was when away from Clydebank and the Harriers, he kept to his own fitness regime.   His daughter tells us that he always went for a ten mile run on Sundays – if possible in the hills.   In Dundee he ran in the Sidlaw Hills, in Largs when they were staying with her grandparents whose front garden had a view of the hills they would wait for him to get to the top and wave down to them, in Stonehaven he did ten one mile laps of Mineralwell Park which he had measured to be exactly one mile.    Like Dunky Wright, he didn’t see fitness as a duty but as a pleasure.

Like all the others at the time, he did what his club needed him to do.   He was a valued Committee Member and although he never held any of the three big offices of President, Secretary or Treasurer he did serve as club captain and his counsel was always well received.    He also encouraged others to come to Committee Meetings.   One club man said that when Bobby asked him to come along he wondered what he could contribute but he realised after not too long that he was able to work on the Committee.   Eventually that man became club president.  

Away from the club he had been a departmental manager in the huge Singer factory and had a short spell in the United States in the 1950’s.   While there he had the idea of running up the Empire State Building stairs, so he went along in his running gear, explained to the guard that he had run up Ben Nevis and what he wanted to do.   The guard just put his hand on his holster and said that he would have to pay like everyone else!      His daughter Elaine, now living in Australia, says he was equally dedicated to his work and could remember holidays being cut short because he was itching to get back to make sure that everything was OK.  

He returned and finally settling in Stonehaven near Aberdeen.   When he was there he started training the ATC lads in the park and fostered an interest in athletics with some of them going on to competitive sport.   The boys all loved him.   He was interested in all kinds of sport but golf became a favourite with him too.   He played every weekend and more often after he retired.   However the many years of bone grinding on bone after his cartilage had been removed had its effect and Bobby had to have a knee replaced.   The surgery went well and he assiduously exercised the knee until he could ride a bicycle.  He did this in place of running but with the same enthusiasm.    He lived at the top of a hill in Stonehaven and used to ride the bike down to the shop, pick up what he wanted and push the bike home up the hill with the shopping hanging on the cross bar.   His friends used to accuse him of using the bike as a Zimmer!   He had been diagnosed as having Parkinson’s disease at the age of 70.   This inevitably restricted his lifestyle but he had always possessed a good singing voice and he used it to sing ‘for the old folks’ in various groups, such as the Alzheimer’s patients, around Stonehaven while holding on to the back of a chair to disguise the tremors Parkinson’s inflicted on his hands.   He never felt sorry for himself – brother Jack tells of him saying on the phone that he was the luckiest guy in the world and meaning it.     He kept up the regular exercising and then when Jack found some exercises for people with Parkinson’s on the internet, Bobby immediately incorporated them into his exercise regime. It was there in Aberdeen that he died on 15^th September 2002 at the age of 81 of a massive stroke after battling the disease for almost 30 years.

Bobby at 73 years of age

Runner, coach and committee man, Bobby filled them all admirably.  Like many of the best men he always found time to contribute to the local community – look at the work with the ATC in Stonehaven for instance He was popular with all the local Dunbartonshire and Glasgow clubs and with the individual athletes in them but his tremendous influence on Clydesdale Harriers in the post war period was incalculable and he is still spoken of by all who knew him – and by some who only knew him by repute.

From the ‘Scots Athlete’ magazine of March, 1948

Douglas at the Jack Crawford Memorial Race

13^th January 1996

Douglas joined the club at the end of 1964 when a pupil at Clydebank High School.  He had run for the local Fontana Youth Club in the County Youth Sports and was approached by two senior Clydesdale  members and invited along to training.   He proved to be a very talented runner at all endurance events whether on the track, road or over the country where he was selected on several occasions to represent Scottish select teams.   This talent was seen initially in club championships where he won track and cross country titles as an Under 17 and Under 20 in the mid sixties.   The Dugald Cameron Shield for the Junior Men’s Championship was won in both 1965-66 and 1966-67 and it was not the first of the club’s coveted trophies he was to pick up.   He won a total of seven trophies on ten occasions over a ten year period when the club was very strong in his events.   There were of course many minor placings in these events as well.    It is however his career as a senior athlete that we will be examining here.

He had a good record in club championships at a time when the club had a large number of able and competitive athletes in his events.   He won the Sinclair Trophy for the road race championship in 1968 and 1969; the Harold Wright Cup for the first club runner home in the National in 1971 and the Dunbartonshire Cup for the first club runner in the Balloch-Clydebank 12 Miles Road Race; The Hannah Cup for fastest time in the cross country Handicap in 1973 and 1977; the Dan McDonald Cup for the highest points total in championship races (county, district and national championships and relays) in 1973 and 1977; the Semple Merit Award for the outstanding performance in the winter season in 1974 and the Challenge Cup for the club cross country championship in 1977.

Outwith championship races, Douglas ran in the Edinburgh – Glasgow Relay on no fewer than seventeen occasions, sixteen of them in succession, with the first being in 1965.   His career went from the early 60’s into the ‘80s with a comeback in the mid 90’s.   It would be impossible to cover every race, every year for that time so I would like to look at his record in championship races over the period.   This will include club championships as well as county, district and national relays and championships as well of course as the Edinburgh to Glasgow.   His medal haul was very impressive with gold, silver and bronze individual and team medals all in his display cabinet.   We can look at District Championships first, then County and then the Edinburgh – Glasgow in some detail and also look at one year to see the pattern of races.

In the District Championships it had long been an ambition of the club to win the Maley Trophy for the winning team – this was clearly stated before the 1914 War in the club handbook at a time when the club was winning almost everything it could in the country.   The ambition was achieved in 1973 and it was Douglas who led the team home with an excellent run finishing in fourth place.  Although he was actually fourth, he was awarded the third place medal since David McMeekin of Victoria Park who had been third was awarded the first Junior (Under 20) medal.   The pleasure for the club was increased because the huge trophy presented to the winning team had been donated by Willie Maley who won the Scottish 100 yards championship in 1906 in Clydesdale colours.   This was not of course his first run in the event – that had been some time earlier.   That was in 1966/67 in fact when the team was sixth and he was thirty ninth individual, second club counter behind Ian Donald who was in tenth place.   He did not contest the event the following year but then a year later was third counter behind Ian Leggett (fourth) and Ian Donald (twelfth) when he finished twentieth and gain his first medal in the event when the team was third.   Missing the 1969/70 event, he led the team into third place in 1970/71 when he was twenty sixth.   In 1971/72 the team was second and then in 1972/73 came the moment that the club had waited almost seventy years for.   The team was second again in ‘74/’75 but no awards were won for three years until 1979 when the team was second without his participation.   The race was won again in 1980 over the rolling countryside of the Park and Golf Course at Dalmuir in Clydebank and the team was Phil Dolan tenth, George Carlin fourteenth, Gary Millar fifteenth, Douglas McDonald seventeenth, Robert McWatt twenty ninth and John MacKay thirty seventh.    Gold, silver and bronze in the District Championships were his as was the honour of being the man to lead the club to its first ever team win in the event is a proud record.

  In the County Relays and Championships his record is even better.   In 1967/68 he was a member of the team that was second in the championships and the following year went one better with second team in the relays and winners in the championships.   In 69/70 it was first team in the relays and in the championships and this pattern was repeated the following year.   In 70/71 it was first in the relays and second in the championships and in 1971/72 there were two firsts.   Douglas was a fixture in all these teams and had bronze, four silver and five gold medals from the ten events.   Ian Leggett was also an ever present and Ian Donald only missed one race with Bobby Shields, Allan Faulds, Cyril O’Boyle and Pat Younger all sharing in the successes.   The run of successes for this extended period was unparalleled in the club’s history with the top four changing from time to time – initially it was Ian Donald, Ian Leggett and Douglas with Bobby Shields and Sandy MacNeil making up the team.   Then for the three years of Allan Faulds’ membership it was a settled quartet of Douglas, Phil Dolan, Allan Faulds and Ian Donald then when Allan left the district and Ian’s illness seriously affected his running Robert McWatt, George Carlin and Gary Millar came into the team but the one man who was in all the teams in all the races below was Douglas.   In 1976 he won the title over a frozen and rutted course at Braidfield Farm in Clydebank.   The team record in the ‘Gemmell Years’ was as follows – 16 gold medals, 5 silver medals and 1 bronze summarised in the table below.

In the National Championships he also progressed steadily – although no medals were won at this level there were some notable team performances with fifth in 1970 being the best.    In 1971 he was first club finisher when he was twenty sixth with Allan Faulds fortieth and Ian Donald fifty second.

A YEAR IN THE LIFE …

At this time the club was very strong and it might be appropriate to look at 1969 as a fairly typical year at this point.   He started the year with a good run in the Nigel Barge Road Race where the club was third behind Shettleston Harriers and Edinburgh Athletic Club.   Ian Donald was twentieth, Ian Leggett twenty second and Douglas twenty fourth in a field of 164 finishers over the tough traditional classic trail.   A week later in the club Hannah Cup Cross Country Handicap Race he finished second in 35:25 – the third fastest time of the day behind Ian Donald’s 34:01 and Ian Leggett’s 35:00 and then the following week the club was fifth in the Midland District Championship at Bellahouston with Douglas in twentieth position the third club finisher again behind Ian Leggett in fourth place and Ian Donald in twelfth.   By the time February came along he was third club man in the Inter Counties championship with Ian Leggett second, Ian Donald twelfth and Douglas twentieth – almost an exact re-run of the Midland District placings.   The club championships were held and again the finishing order was Ian Donald, Ian Leggett and Douglas in third place.   He was running extremely well but still finishing third behind two excellent athletes on almost every race.   He had a quiet period, missing the National Championships after injuring his back in a rather bizarre way – he injured it boarding the bus to the race which was held at Duddingston in Edinburgh.   He also missed the early season road races but in the club track Three Miles Championship the first three were Ian Donald in 15:04, Ian Leggett in 15:08 and Douglas Gemmell in 15:35.   In the 800 metres championship two weeks later the result was Douglas first, Ian Donald second and Sandy MacNeil third.   The first serious championships of the summer were the West District Championships at Westerlands in which he was sixth in 15:27.      At the start of July in the Glasgow Transport Sports he was second club counter in the 3000 metres team race in 8:59 behind Ian Leggett (8:50) and in front of Ian Donald (9:03).   At the end of the month he led the Two Miles team home in the Gourock Highland Games when he was eighth with Brian McAusland ninth and Phil Dolan twelfth.   Ian Leggett was third in the 14 miles road race at the same meeting and Ian Donald was winning the Half Ben Nevis Race at Fort William on the same afternoon.      At the start of August in the Strathallan Meeting he was third in the One Mile Handicap with Brian McAusland the only other club runner fifth.   Later in the month there was an inter club against Springburn Harriers at Bishopbriggs and Douglas won the One Mile from Junior International Cross Country runner Eddie Knox.  

These were all helping sharpen him up for the cross country season and he began by finishing second to Ian Leggett in the club trial to select the team for the McAndrew Relay but ahead of Ian Donald.   In the McAndrew Relay itself two weeks later he was a member of the first team which finished sixth and although third fastest he was much closer than before: Ian Leggett was fourth on the first stage in 14:27; Douglas held fourth on the second stage in 14:28, Phil Dolan dropped to tenth in 15:43 and Ian Donald pulled the team back to sixth with 14:30.   Three seconds covered the first three times.   Things were not so close the following week when the club won the County Relays.   Bobby Shields (who had been twenty seconds faster than Phil the previous week was promoted to the first team)  ran first in 16:01, Ian Leggett second in 14:58, Douglas Gemmell next in 15:30 and Ian Donald in 15:13 brought the team home.   At the end of October the club Sinclair Trophy race was held and Douglas proved the winner in 29:46 beating Ian Leggett by 29 seconds.   On the first of November the team went to Bellshill for the Midlands Relays and Douglas was second fastest club man in the team which placed fourth – Ian Leggett was fastest club man with Douglas two seconds quicker than Ian Donald.   The big race was as ever the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay on the third Sunday in November and Douglas ran a good second stage – usually reckoned to be the most difficult – to bring the team which finished eleventh up two places from the thirteenth of the first leg to eleventh.   In the County Championships at the start of December club runners were third, fourth and fifth with Ian Donald third, Ian Leggett fourth and Douglas fifth.

The second half of the winter season started with the Nigel Barge Road Race at Maryhill and Douglas was seventeenth in 23:33 with Brian McAusland (43^rd) and Pat Younger the only other club runners.   The club was strengthened quite dramatically in January 1970 when Allan Faulds joined.   Allan was the kind of runner who always joined the local club, always gave it 100% effort and brought real hardness and determination with him.   Just when everyone was expecting Ian Leggett or Douglas to win the championship because Ian Donald’s from had slipped a bit from the five years when he was virtually unbeatable in the club, along came Allan with his determination and he won the championship not just in 1970 but also in ’71 and ’72.

A measure of his quality over a long period could be had by looking at his performances in the Edinburgh to Glasgow over the eighteen year period when he raced in it.   The E-G, as it was known, was an eight stage relay which was entered by invitation only and was limited to the top twenty clubs in the country.   The toughest of eight tough stages were usually reckoned to be, in order, (1) the second six mile stage where all the big names were turned out by their clubs and was the most feared of all, (2) the seven mile sixth stage where the standard of runners was also high, (3) the fourth stage of five plus miles was also usually populated with athletes of a very high standard and (4) then the first stage had a huge amount of responsibility.  His speciality stage however was the second where he faced such as Olympians Fergus Murray and Ian Stewart, Commonwealth marathon winner Jim Alder, Commonwealth 10000 metres champion Lachie Stewart, Olympic fourth placer Frank Clement, four minute miler Lawrie Spence, and many other top men: he looked at home in their company and often ran faster than more celebrated athletes.    Douglas first turned out in the E-G in 1965 and was on the fourth stage where he was fourteenth fastest against some very good athletes.   In 1966 he was eleventh on the first stage and in 1967 he was again fourteenth fastest on the fourth stage.   Three races on two of the four toughest legs of the event.   This was a baptism of fire in the event.   If the fourth and first were difficult, he was rewarded with the awesome standard of the second stage in 1968 where he was the eleventh fastest time – this was running of the highest standard because he was self paced in the middle of nowhere and managed to pick up one place for the team.   The following year he again ran on the second stage and if it had been hard the year before, the standard was even higher this time but he picked up two places with the twelfth fastest time of the morning.    The next year was virtually a triumph for the club when they finished fifth and received the medals for the most meritorious unplaced performance and Douglas had the seventh fastest time on the stage surrounded by top international runners.   In 1971 the club was sixth and again Douglas took on the best on the second stage: it was a complement that he was asked to do this demanding stint year in and year out.   This time he was sixth fastest only one second behind Commonwealth Games Marathon winner Jim Alder and ahead of several established Scottish representative runners when he picked up four places. In 1972 he again contested the stage and was seventh fastest but this time he was 26 seconds up on Jim Alder.   Many of the faces on the stage changed with the years but for the fifth year Douglas was there finding out more about the stage and getting more out of himself every time. 1973 saw him again lining up at Maybury Cross for the second stage and again he was seventh fastest picking up three other clubs.   1974, another race but the same stage and this time he was eleventh fastest but still managed to pick up two places for the club.   In 1975 he was again the man for the hardest stage in any road relay in the country and this time picked up three places.   Eleventh time in 1976 was exactly the same time as Olympian Frank Clement and that was typical of the standard that Douglas was taking on year after year.  Two clubs were passed this time.    It is also a tribute to Douglas that he didn’t refuse the invitation to tackle it at any point: the club needed him to do it, he was good enough to run it and, more important, confident enough to do it.   He ran it again in 1978 for the eleventh time in a row, surely a record – I cannot find anyone in any club who has run it more often. He was sixteenth quickest on the stage.   In 1979 he had a break and turned out on the exposed fifth stage across the highest and windiest part of the course and picked up one place with eleventh fastest time.   Came 1980 and he had the undulating third stage – the shortest in the race at approximately four miles and had fourteenth time on the stage.   He missed 1981 but in 1982 he was again in the eight runners for the club and this time ran the difficult sixth stage – a long, winding downhill stretch through some of the most soul destroying country side in industrial Lanarkshire where the club had been looking for a good runner for some years.  There is no club in the country that could not have benefited from having Douglas in its ranks.   A summary of his performances is below: many are content to hold their place on a stage of the race; most would be content to hold their place on the second stage – Douglas only dropped one place on three occasions and against there is the year when he picked up four and another when he gained three places.   In eleven runs on this stage he made a total gain of 15 places for a net loss of only 3!

He was also good on the track and won club, County and District medals and titles there too.   In 1971 for instance he was ranked twenty fifth in Scotland for 3000 metres with his time of 8:39, twenty sixth in the 5000 metres with a best of 14:53.4 and twenty sixth in the 10000 metres with a best of 31:35.0 and in 1974 on the road was ranked eighteenth in the marathon with his first run over the distance in 2:29:02.    His road running as evidenced by the Edinburgh – Glasgow running and many excellent races on the road was also very good.   He competed with distinction in many road races such as the short 5+ Miles Dunky Wright Road Race, the middle range of Tom Scott 10 Miles and 12 miles of the Balloch – Clydebank 12 Miles and the Clydebank to Helensburgh 16 Miles as well as the long distance Strathallan Meeting 22 Miles and the marathon.    The Strathallan Meeting was one which was watched by Jock Semple of Clydesdale Harriers and the Boston Marathon who was home on holiday and Douglas acquitted himself well much to Jock’s delight.  In 1975 he did what most club members were doing at that time and ran in the Mamore Hill race where he finished fourth behind Phil Dolan’s second win in the race with Pat Younger and Bobby Shields, recovering from an eye injury, supporting from the sidelines.   He has personal best times of 8:39 for 3000 metres, 14:53.4 for 5000 metres, 31:16 for 10000 metres (both track times) and 2:29:02 for the marathon.

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In the 1980’s he was living and working in Edinburgh and following a series of injury problems disappeared from the racing scene for some time but Douglas always kept himself fit and made a comeback in the mid 1990’s.   The comeback started in 1994 when he ran in the club’s cross country handicap for the Hannah Cup and he finished fourth in the fifth fastest time on the day.   Soon afterwards he ran in the club championship where he was fourth and first veteran in the championship.       1995 was the first real racing season back and he was third in the club championships in December behind James Austin and John Hanratty.   In January 1996 in the County Championships, run in a snowstorm at Bearsden, he finished fourth and a member of the winning team – first veteran and first team made it two more Dunbartonshire gold to add to his collection.   First in the Hannah Cup in second fastest time behind James Austin and third and again first veteran in the club championships set him up for the National Championships where he was fifth club runner.   In the Scottish Veterans Cross Country Championship he was ninth, first M45 from any club and first Clydesdale runner to finish.   He ran and raced well over the summer running twice for the club’s track and field team – once over 5000 metres and once over 10000 metres.  

His 1996/97 cross country season began with the DAAA Relays at Maryhill in October where running in the second team he was part of a club clean sweep of the individual medals with Ian Murphy being fastest in the race, Graeme Reid fastest Junior and Douglas taking fastest veteran.   On to the National Relays at Irvine, he was fastest in the second team in a time (13:42) only two seconds slower than Graeme Reid in the first team.   This B Team was a veterans team which was second in their class and won silver for the effort.   Still in November the Harriers notes in the Clydebank Post started –

“It’s just as well that Clydesdale Harrier Douglas Gemmell is not an abstainer – for he came away from the Braid Hills Race with a crate of Greenmantle packed away in the boot of his car.   This was his prize for yet another win as a veteran.   This time over six miles he recorded 26:29 to take the race by only two seconds.”   At the end of the month he ran in the District Championships at Cumnock he was  twenty eighth and the club’s fourth counter behind Ian Murphy (fifth), James Austin ninth, Des Roache (tenth) and ahead of Derek Halpin (thirty second) and John Hanratty (sixty second).    The team finished third and Douglas had another medal to add to his Districts tally.      A week later and it was the club Hannah Cup being run for the hundredth time and Douglas was first veteran.

Came 1997 and in January Douglas was ninth in the Nigel Barge Road Race (pictured above at the start wearing number 210) taking the first Over 50 award, defeating all the Over 40’s as well in a time of 27:33.  One week later the club cross country championships were held over the traditional Braidfield Farm trail and Douglas won the title.   It was exactly twenty years since he had last done so and he defeated John McArthur by twelve seconds.  In the Dunbartonshire County Championships Clydesdale had the first five finishers and Douglas was seventh.   Having won the title with the first four, the silver was won by the second team: a silver medal was added to his collection along with the gold for the first veteran.  In February he tried out the indoor scene at the Scottish Vets 3000 metres championship and won the Over 50 class in a time of 9:32.8 from Bobby Young.   Having travelled to Perth for the National Cross Country Championships in good form he lost a contact lens on the way to the start and missed the race while he looked for it!   He made up for it when he contested the BVAF Indoor 3000 metres championships in Kelvin Hall and won his first British title in 9:27.   He went to the BVAF Cross Country Championships at Silksworth in Sunderland on 26^th March and finished second after a terrific race against strong favourite Brian O’Neill from Aldershot.   ‘Athletics Weekly’ described it thus:

“In the separate M50 race Brian O’Neill lived up to his tag as favourite but was pressed all the way by Dougie Gemmell.   The Aldershot man was 10 yards ahead by the end of the first circuit, but Gemmell closed up on the descents.   With O’Neill stronger going up the hills and the Scotsman better going down, it was a see-saw affair as the minor placings and older age group races became somewhat overshadowed.   The two leaders continued their battle until the final hill.   “I wanted it so much,” O’Neill said.   “I knew I could get away up the hills however he stuck in.”   The difference between the two at the finish was a mere four seconds: 34:04 to 34:08.   

The British Veterans Indoor Championship was next and he won that too in 9:27.  The Veterans Six Stage Road Relay at Torrance had two teams from Clydesdale Harriers competing and again Douglas was the star man with a superb run on the final stage. The season ended with the Six Stage Road Relays at Kirkintilloch where he seemed in well known territory from E-G days when he ran on the second stage for the first team, taking over in third from Kheredine Idessane and did well to limit the drop in places to four – the team finished a creditable fifth.  

April, May, June and July saw almost incessant racing.   In April it was back on to the roads and he was first Over 50 in the Scottish Vets 10 miles championship at Greenock in 56:53.  Next race was also a 10 miles – the Tom Scott Race and he was again first Over 50 in 54:17.    He ran in a track race for the club in a League Match at Greenock in a meeting that was abandoned immediately after the 5000 metres and times were not taken.   The comeback was going well!  In May at the Scottish Veterans McInnes Road Race at Coatbridge he was second and first Over 50 again.       Called to Track League duty he ran the 5000 metres and ran well before tackling the Polaroid 10K Series which consisted of only three races at this time.   In the first one at Helensburgh he was twenty third and first Over 50 in 33:42.   The next one was at Dumbarton and again he was first Over 50.   The Walter Ross Veterans Road Race resulted in third place and first Over 50 again 33:54.   In the final Polaroid Race he was again first Over 50 – this time in 33:45.   In July he took the age group award again in the Veterans 5K Road Race at Lochinch in 15:56 which was one minute upon the second runner.   And in the Veterans 7 Miles Road Race at Bannockburn he was again first in his class. Back on to the track the Scottish Veterans Over 50 5000 metres was won in 17:01 after winning the 1500 in 4:36.   After a bit of a rest he was in action again in August where he was timed at 10:01 for the ‘Runners are Smilers’ Two Miles Road Race: the fastest ever by a Scot Veteran.   In September he took part in the Andy Forbes Memorial Race for Veterans and was second and again first Over 50 in 33:42.   The times for 10K over the summer were wonderfully consistent with two at 33:42 and the slowest of the summer being 33:54.    He didn’t race again in September but this kind of running gets you noticed and he was selected for the match against the North of England in Cumberland.  Not content with one event he tackled three: he was second in the 800 in 2:16; first in the 1500 in 4:39 and third in the 5000 in 17:00.  

His winter campaign started with the Edinburgh Festival of Road Running in October where he repeated the win of the previous year in 35:07.  In the National Relays in October he ran in the B (veterans) team and picked up 14 places on the third stage indicating that he had lost none of his sharpness.      When the British rankings for summer were released, his name led all the rest at 5K with his 15:56 clocking from the Lochinch run.  In November he was off to Ballymena in Ireland for the annual Veterans International where he was ninth overall in 34:13 for 10K.   Also in November he ran in the Edinburgh University Braid Hills Six Miles Race and was for the second year in succession he was first veteran in 35:27 for the notoriously hilly course – and went home with four litres of St Andrew’s Ale.   In the District Championships in December he was second club counter (behind James Austin) in the team that finished third and got him another district medal when he was twenty seventh finisher.

Twenty first in the Nigel Barge race in 27:47 in January 1998 he took the first Over 50, he turned out in the Jack Crawford road race at Bishopbriggs where he finished twenty sixth and was again first Over 50.    A week later DAAA Champs he was still carrying the injury and finished twenty third – the previous year he had been seventh.   After resting it and trying various treatments he eventually had to miss the Scottish Veterans Championships in March due to the persistent hip injury.    As far as the comeback was concerned it was ‘The End’.

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In any assessment of Douglas’s career as a runner it has to be remembered that he was running and racing at a time when the standard in Scotland in his chosen events had never been higher.    Even bearing that in mind he has to go down as one of the best ever Clydesdale Harriers runners in my 50+ years in the club.   His record in the Edinburgh – Glasgow alone merits recognition and respect.    His twelve gold medals in the Dunbartonshire Championships are more than any other runner in my time in the club – the team changed around him but he was always there.    He was a bit unfortunate in the strength within the club at the time that he only won the one club cross country championship but some of that could maybe be put down to the nature of the course used for the race which did not particularly suit his style of running.   With five of the top twelve or thirteen men in the club in my time as his contemporaries, it was a good time to be a racer but a bad time to be looking for championship victories!   But his involvement and influence did not stop there.   He was a good club committee man and held several positions on the Committee including a stint as Captain.   He wrote the Harriers notes every week in the ‘Clydebank Press’ under the pseudonym of ‘Tortoise’.   And at a time when other clubs were approaching our top men, and when we lost runners such as Willie Reid to Edinburgh Southern Harriers and Alan Marshall to Shettleston as well as Bob and Ishbel Peel, top officials, to Shettleston Harriers Ladies, Douglas and Phil Dolan did so much for the club by simply staying as good club members and serving as role models for the younger athletes coming through that their worth cannot be over estimated.   He was running so well when he moved to Edinburgh and the standard of running displayed during his brief comeback makes you ask “What could he have done without the break?”   There is a good case to be made (but one that I personally don’t buy) that his second career was more successful than the first: County and District medals, a second club cross country championship, Scottish and British Indoor titles, Scottish international appearances and a British cross country championship silver medal.    Had that been his only career it was one to be proud of.   But there was more to Dougie than that:   as Clydesdale Harriers go – Douglas has to be one of the very best.