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Robert Burton

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Robert Burton

Robert Burton

Robert Burton’s name is often seen as RH Burton, but he was born Robert Burton in Hawick on 11th April 1885.   When he was a runner he lived in Tweedmouth and worked in the timber trade as a timber merchant’s clerk, later moving back to Hawick and taking over as head of the Tweed Saw Mills.   He was a member of both Teviotdale Harriers and Berwick Harriers.   “First Hundred” by John L Coltman writes that the Hawick Press described him in 1909 as “The best half-miler Scotland has yet produced, his strong finishes being a special feature of his running.”   …. “The climax of his illustrious career on the track was his selection for the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm.   However writing home he said, ‘I turned out in my heat in the 800m but could not do what was asked of me.’ ”     It also says “Six times between 1908 and 1912 he ran for Scotland in the half-mile, five of which were against Ireland, the other an Irish-American team; he won the Scottish half-mile championship in 1908, 1909 and 1910; and added to this as the Border quarter-mile championship for four successive years from 1910.”

Alex Wilson comments that he was certainly a top class runner and Scotland was fortunate at this point to have two excellent exponents of the event, James Soutter from Aberdeen being the other.   Their paths would cross often over the years and each would have his share of victories.   With the major statistics readily available via the standard history books, he should be better known than he is.

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Burton was born on 11th April in 1885 in Aberdeen     One of the first British athletes to experiment with using oxygen during training.

His first Scottish title was won in 1908.  In the ‘Glasgow Herald’ of 22nd June, 1908, the comment was made in the preview of the SAAA Championships on 27th June at Saughton that ‘there is a dearth of talent in the half-mile and mile events this season, more so than for some years, and it is therefore expected that John McGough will again have the honours to himself.‘   When it came to the event itself however, things were a bit different.   “Of the flat events, it is hard to sat which aroused the greatest interest ….. each contest was more exciting than the other.   John McGough through a weakened tendon Achilles had to stand down.   The half-mile was won by Burton in 2 min 02 sec.   Turnbull might have troubled the leader more had he made his effort earlier.”   The actual race report read:   “The holder who is suffering a strained tendon, acting on doctor’s orders, did not run.   GW Young, Bellahouston, was leading at the bell from Burton who went into second place 300 yards from home.   Responding to Young’s challenge, Burton was a winner all the way and won by six yards from Turnbull.   JM Bruce, Edinburgh University was third, close up, and just finished outside record time.   The winner ran practically untrained and is a grand natural runner.   He won the Berwick quarter-mile cup the last two years and has only to win it again this year to make it his own property.”  

As a result he was chosen for the international against Ireland on the evening of Saturday,11th July, along with Turnbull with Young as reserve.   He ran well enough to be second in a close finish: “A Turnbull (Clydesdale) made the running from Morphy until halfway down the back straight, when the Irish champion went to the front with the Scottish champion in close pursuit.   It was a neck0or-nothing race up the home straight with Morphy getting the verdict by inches.    1.   GM Morphy, Dublin University;   2.   R Burton, Berwick and District Harriers.   2:00.8.”

It is surprising that, in Olympic year with many Olympians from several nations competing at Rangers Sports on both Saturday afternoon and Monday evening meetings, there was no sign of Burton’s name among the prize winners or indeed any indication that he had competed there.   It may be that living in the south of the country, and being rather inexperienced in the sport he found it difficult to attend such meetings.

His second SAAA championship victory was on 26th June, 1909, at Ibrox in Glasgow where he won the 880 yards in  2:00.4.   He won the title by a yard from Adam Turnbull of Clydesdale Harriers and was selected for the international against Ireland on 17th July.   He had been badly spiked in the process of winning the championship and could only manage three days training before the match at Balls Bridge in Dublin on 17th July.   It was not a match in which the Scots covered themselves with glory, winning only 3 events out of the 11 contested, but Burton ‘showing rare judgment’ went one better than the previous year and beat Morphy of Ireland by two yards in 2:00.8.

1910 saw his third successive victory in the national 880 yards championship.   This was held on 25th June at Powderhall and Burton raced in both 440 yards and 880 yards.   The 880 was his fastest yet, the winning time being 1:59.6 – but it was the first time he and James Soutter had come up against each other in the championship.   Burton was also second to GRL Anderson in the quarter mile with George Dallas third, the winning time being 53 seconds.   The result of the half mile was that Burton and Soutter faced the Irish in the international held at Ibrox on 9th July.   Burton went faster still when he won from Soutter in second in 1:58.8.   He was again second to Anderson for a Scottish 1-2 in the 440 yards, won in 50.8.   Anderson was a student at Oxford who was both AAAand SAAA hurdling champion and although Burton was a 440/880 type of half-miler rather than a 880/Mile type he would always have a sharper finish than Burton.   The report on the half-mile read: “The first lap was practically a parade, though a very fast one, the time being 58 2-5th sec.   Hill led at half distance, Harrison following close on his heels.   It was in the second and concluding quarter that that the competitors collected their wits as well as their pace.   With 300 yards to go, Burton went to the front, of which he was robbed by Hill, whose lead in turn was only momentary as Soutter, with a fine turn of speed, shook off the Anglo-Irish runner.   Burton likewise disposed of Hill  and a great struggle between the two Scottish representatives ended with the champion winning by a foot, there being three yards between Soutter and Hill.”    In the quarter Burton was defeated by a single yard.   The big thing however was that the 880 yards time equalled the Scottish record.

Having equalled the record in July, he did even better on 13th August 1910 when  he broke the record with 1:58.4 at Celtic FC Sports.   Sometimes everything goes right and that Saturday at Celtic Park was just such a time.  ” The weather was charming, the huge crowd were in excellent spirits, the running was always interesting and often exciting.”   The report on the race read: “In the invitation half mile Burton, the SAAA champion, lowered native record from 1:58.8 to 1:58.4.   The race however was won by JC English (Manchester AC) in 1:57.2.   He had a concession of 20 yards and won by three from JH Rodger (West of Scotland Harriers), 12 yards, who from a time point of view acquitted himself with just a little less distinction than Burton.”    

Robert Burton, 1910    Robert Burton in 1910

Photographs from Alex Wilson

The SAAA Championships in 1911 took place on 24th June at Hampden, and the preview of the race read: The half-mile is expected to be the best race of the day.   R Burton, the holder, has been putting in a number of trials and no doubt will retain the honour.   Strong opposition, however, will come from JH Rodger (West of Scotland Harriers) and JT Soutter (Aberdeen University AC) , the latter of whom it will be remembered ran a great race at Powderhall last June with little or no training.   Soutter is a natural runner, as also is Rodger, while Burton as we all know has accomplished over the half mile what no other Scottish amateur has done.   Therefore with three such fine half-milers there is a great treat for lovers of pedestrianism at Hampden Park on Saturday first.”

The day came around, and we read that  “The half-mile was not the great race that had been expected.   It was handsomely won, however, by JT Soutter in 2:00.2.   Burton the holder did not run with the wisdom he sometimes displays or he would never have allowed Soutter to get so far ahead.   However he has been taught a salutary lesson from which he will doubtless profit.”    and the actual description of race said:    “MacDougall shot to the front first, and held a slight lead for the first quarter.    Then Soutter went away with full sail and won by nine yards, Burton at no time looking a winner.   Rodger was a poor third and Unkles and MacDougall had a little dust up all to themselves for fourth place.”      

 The rivals were both chosen for the Irish international at Balls Bridge, Dublin, on 9th July.  Before then however Soutter ran ‘ as he had never run before’ in the AAA’s championships returning a time of 1:57.1 .    Burton never raced in the AAA’s at any time in his career however and came into the international fresher than Soutter but without the morale boost that the Aberdonian must have had by the race in England.   The result was that as in the SAAA event, Soutter reversed the 1910 result, taking first place from Burton in second.   Winning time was 1:59.4, with Burton second.

1912 was Olympics year and the two rivals were among the best in Britain and both had excellent chances of selection.   On 18th Mau at Celtric Park, the West of Scotland meeting had eight events entitled Olympic Trials and one of these was the 800 metres and Burton and Soutter were both forward.   “There were only two out of the six who entered who finished.   George Dallas, who was  running well at the time, had the misfortune to get badly spiked, thus ruining any chance he had, while WM Crathie and KR Macdougall could not stand up against the breeze.   Soutter made the pace at the end of the first quarter.   Burton was close behind the Aberdonian and on entering the finishing stretch, both made their effort, the Hawick man excelling every step and  winning hands down in 1:59.6.”

The Scottish championships were held at Ibrox on 15th June and this time Soutter had the edge.   “JT Soutter of Aberdeen University was a double winner in the flat events.   He had of R Burton for once in tactics in the half mile, while in the quarter mile he ran the most ‘brainy’ race which stands to his credit.   Burton, it appears, had been off colour all week and it is just possible that Soutter on that account had an easier task than he might otherwise have had.   Nonetheless the Aberdonian had two very popular victories.”     “The first lap was covered at an easy going pace (60.8), and it was only when the back straight was reached that there was any running worth speaking of.   Macdougall shot out and at the pavilion was leading by several yards, but first Burton and then Soutter pulled in the West harrier and there was a keen race for the honours between these two.   Burton was in front 30 yards from home but Soutter, nerving himself for a supreme effort, passed the Berwick representative and won by a big yard in 2:01.8.”  

Both were chosen for the international with Ireland on 20th July, but more importantly, both were selected to run for Britain in the Olympic Games at Stockholm.   The heats of the 800m were on 6th July with the Final on 7th July: should a second round be required, it would be on the 7th with the final held over.   Similarly the 400m heats were on 12th July with the final on 13th unless a second round were required.   Soutter was chosen for both events and Burton for the 800m.

1912_Summer_Olympics_posterThere were 26 countries taking part, including Japan which was the first Asian country to take part.   The 800 metres heats were on the sixth and unfortunately Burton did not qualify from his Heat, won by Edmundson of the USA in 1:56.5.   Soutter won his Heat in 2:00.4.   but was eliminated in the semi-final.   Soutter did have the consolation of a medal in the 4 x 400m relay.

Having been selected for the Scoto-Irish International on 20th July at Powderhall, Burton returned and won the 800m in 2:05.2, defeating the Irishman R Hales ‘comfortably.   The meeting ended in a tie with both countries having five and a half points.   Had all the Scots Olympians been competing (Soutter was one of those who didn’t, having injured himself in Stockholm) it would have been a win for the home country.

Burton did not compete again in the National and his career was effectively at an end.   He was a Lieutenant in the Postal Services during WWI and died on June 14th 1950 in Berwick.   With three gold medals and three silver at the SAAA Championships, three wins and three seconds in the Irish international plus an Olympic selection, plus a Scottish record equalled and then beaten it had been a remarkable five years for Robert Burton.

From the Berwickshire News of June 20th, 1950

Early Days, Unusual Races!

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Having received some interesting stuff via email, I’ll put some of the more interesting races and events from the early days up here – it will be updated every time I get something new (?).   First off we have this

An article from the June 11th 1661 issue of Edinburgh’s Caledonian Mercury,):  “six brewster wives, great with childe, are to run from the Thicket Burn to the top of Arthur Seat,for a groaning cheese of one hundred pounds weight, and a budgell of Dunkel aquavitæ;   with a rumpkine of Brumswick mum for the second placed, set down by a Dutch midwife.  The next day after, sixteen fish-wives to trot from Muslburgh to the Cannon-cross (~7 miles) for twelve pair of lambs harrigals.”

‘Harrigals’ Harrigals refers in general to ‘entrails’; but reference to ‘pair’ of them suggests Lungs-and-Heart  or  ‘lungs and lichts’.  In other words, the main ingredient of haggis!

‘Thicket ‘Thicket Burn’, is ​probably the ‘Figgat Burn’, near Dunsappie Loch, bottom of Arthur’s Seat.

‘Brewster wives’, ‘Brewsters’ were publicans.These were their wives or possibly publicans themselves.

‘budgell’ is a bottle,  from the Gaelic ​ ‘Buideal.;

‘Dunkeld aquavitæ’ is of course whisky, presumably distilled and matured in Dunkeld.

‘rumpkine’ sounds like a measure, I don’t know how much. Possibly a quart?

‘Brunswick Mum’  for the runner-up. This might be Porter or ale, though why a ‘Dutch Midwife sets it down ’  I’ve no idea. Might  be related in to the pregnancies of the Brewster women?  Bit of a coincidence otherwise, – a midwife and six women  ’great with childe’.

‘groaning cheese of one hundred pounds weight’ was actually heavier than this appears.     Then, ‘one hundred pounds ‘ in Scotland equalled about  110 lbs Imperial.

Also then, the ‘lang Scots mile’ of 1976.5 yards was 216.5 yards longer than our current 1760 yards.  Hugh, I wondered if anyone had run a ‘Lang Scots Mile’ in under four minutes. So I tried to work it out, but reckoned that  El Guerrouj’s 3.43.1 – if he’d kept going at 7.8 yards/sec – would have taken him to about 1893 yards in 4 minutes, i.e. about  83 yards short.  I reckon we’ll need to wait until someone runs the mile in 3mins 33s, before we see the possibility of a 4 minute Scots Mile!!

By the way, the old Scots Pint (or ‘Joug’) was equal to nearly three English pints), so our drinking records would have appeared  rather a lot inferior to English ones!

Craig Sharp, who received the information from Peter Radford, sent it on to Hugh Barrow.   Word of these events, and others, is always welcome.

 

Hamish Telfer

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Hamish 1 TurinHamish, on right of GB University team,  en route to Turin for World Cross-Country Championship

Scotland has produced many very gifted coaches in recent years and the names of John Anderson, Frank Dick, Tom McNab and Tommy Boyle are exceptionally well known.    Hamish Telfer – Dr Hamish Telfer – is another very good and successful coach from north of the border and is well respected by his peers but is not all that well known in Scotland itself.   Like the others mentioned, he is well educated and is at home discussing the intricacies of coaching theory, like the others he is totally dedicated to sport and has spent countless hours working with athletes of all standards, like them he has worked extensively in the field of sports education and his expertise has helped performers in a wide range of sports.   These are all reasons why we should know a bit more about him.

Hamish Telfer was born on the south side of Glasgow in 1950 and brought up in Glasgow where he was educated first of all at Carolside Primary School, and then at Queens Park Senior Secondary School – another similarity because John Anderson had also been a pupil there.  He lived in the Clarkston, Whitecraigs and Giffnock areas until 1961.  Like all boys in Glasgow he played mainly  football, indeed for a short time he was attached to Queens Park Football Club where was a ball boy for the club and for the SFA.   But he was also interested in and involved in athletics, after a friend invited him to go along to the West of Scotland Harriers club.   He met Cameron McNeish, better known now as a noted outdoors man, hill walker and climber and they were coached by John Anderson.   Hamish says that Cameron was picked up by John who realised that they were a good team and therefore  included Hamish in the group.   They trained hard from  about the ages of 15/17 and he remembers a particular session in a snowstorm with Hugh Baillie, Dunky Middleton, Hugh Barrow and Bob Lawrie among others.   Both boys started ‘serious’ training about 16 with weights sessions at Springburn Sports Centre,  Sunday Grangemouth sessions and training after school.  While he did have a life outside of the sport, it was more about training and competing all over Scotland.  Did the usual Highland Games circuit of youth handicap races in addition to local and national championships and also went around the country with John as his ‘demonstrators’ for coaching courses

Cameron explains the beginnings:

“I first met Hamish when we both joined the West of Scotland Harriers circa 1964/65. The club was looked after by a lovely old gent by the name of Johnny Todd who took Hamish and I under his wing. 

West of Scotland Harriers was predominantly a cross country running club and although Hamish and I considered ourselves sprinters we were encouraged to become involved in everything that was going on at the club, no bad thing for youngsters. That included winter Saturdays at the Stannalane running track near the Rouken Glen where we went cross country running with some fine old timers whose names I’ve forgotten (Hamish will remember). Included in our group was another young athlete who went on to become a Scottish international 400 metre runner by the name of Ian Walker. Ian is now a fairly well known and established folk singer, and we all still keep in touch. 

Hamish and I have very fond memories of dank, wintry Saturday afternoons at Stannalane. We probably ran between 5 and 10 miles, mostly around the Barrhead waterworks, and on our return to the ‘pavilion’ – a basic wooden shack, we all had to share one shower to scrape all the cow shit off us! That was followed by a cup of tea and a tea biscuit for which we all donated, if I remember correctly, tuppence!

It was all very Alf Tupper’ish and we absolutely loved it. At that time Hamish showed some promise as a cross country runner and he and I used to finish reasonably highly in Under-15 cross country events, although the lads of Shettleston and Springburn Harriers usually dominated …. “

“We used to go for long runs together as lads. Although I was specifically training as a long jumper Hamish was always happy to do some sprints training with me and I was always willing to go for some long runs with him. We both simply loved athletics and we both loved training, even before we met John Anderson. We did a lot of sprints training on the grass in Queen’s Park, near to Hamish’s parents home in Langside.

As a long jumper Hamish was always happy to do some sprints training with me and I was always willing to go for some long runs with him. We both simply loved athletics and we both loved training, even before we met John Anderson. We did a lot of sprints training on the grass in Queen’s Park, near to Hamish’s parents home in Langside  …. “

“We met John Anderson at a schoolboys Easter training camp at Inverclyde. He took us under his wing and we often travelled out to Hamilton where John lived with his first wife Christine to help him collate training films and such like. On one later occasion, when we were both 17 I had bought a Honda motor bike but Hamish had splashed out on a wee scooter-type thing which barely went about 15-20mph. We both decided to go out to Hamilton to visit the Andersons on a particularly cold winter day. I got to Earnock about an hour before Hamish and when he appeared Christine had to take him into the house, place him in front of the fire, and thaw him out. I reckon he was suffering the first stages of hypothermia! 

Our weekends were entirely taken up with training – usually meeting Anderson somewhere and then going to the new all weather running track at Grangemouth Stadium. Later on that changed to Meadowbank in Edinburgh. We were in an excellent group of athletes that John coached that included Scottish shot put champion Moira Kerr, hurdler Lindy Carruthers (her mother was a coach with Maryhill Ladies, but more of that later) 400m runner David Jenkins (later became infamous as a drug cheat but we always called him Gwendoline – can’t really remember why…) the decathlete Stewart McCallum, middle distance runners Dunky Middleton and Graeme Grant. There were others but I can’t remember them now

Hamish and I were training partners to some noted Maryhill Ladies athletes such as Avril Beattie and we benefitted from the extra training opportunities that training with the girls of Maryhill Ladies brought (eg Friday evening indoor gym sessions). By now my parents had moved and I had left West of Scotland to join Bellahouston Harriers but Hamish remained very faithful to West of Scotland Harriers. But it was Maryhill Ladies where his coaching would eventually start.”

How does Hamish himself remember these early days?   He was  asked to complete the questionnaire.

Hamish the younger

Hamish with Diana Brown and Jeanetta McPherson at Bellahouston in the Maryhill coaching days

Name: Hamish Telfer

Club/s: West of Scotland Harriers (coached with Maryhill Ladies AC)

Date of Birth:    28th April 1950

Occupation:    University Lecturer

How did you get into the sport initially?  “Ran for my Primary School in the relay team; then secondary school then joined West of Scotland Harriers.”

Personal Bests?  “55.9 for 400m indoors at Cosford in 1967; 4m 12 for 1500 aged 18 – all very modest.”

Has any individual or group had a marked effect on either your attitude to the sport or your performances?

“I owe a great deal to the late John Todd of WSH and almost everything to John Anderson former Scottish National Coach who coached me from age 15 to 21.  Must thank the late Jimmy Campbell and also Frank Dick for getting me started in coaching.  Jimmy was a great inspiration.  Later in my career there were a number of individuals from other sports from whom I learned but I have a particular affection and respect for both Bill Walker and Peter Warden in athletics and the late Geoff Gleeson (former GB National Coach for Judo) –  all very wise and intelligent coaches.”

What do you consider your best ever performance as a runner?

 “Not many but being in the WSH team that placed 3rd in the Scottish Youth XC Champs; that 400m indoors at the age of 16 and possibly the struggle to break 3hrs at Marathon in later life.  As a coach – my first athlete Sandra Auld (nee Weider 100/LJ) with whom I made so many mistakes in coaching without realising; watching Lucy Elliott smash the English Schools 400mH record to win the Seniors and get her first England vest; Steve Watson win BUSA 10k track Champs; Rona Elliott(nee Livingston) over 400; Brenda Walker running at the Auckland Comm. Games in 1990; John and Suzanne Rigg over 400/800 and marathon respectively and probably all my athletes who always gave everything and why I had so much fun coaching. My contributions to coach education across the UK.  Oh …. and the 5 World Championship wins with my GB teams in the World University XC Champs. from 1992 to 2004.”

What did you do apart from running to relax?

“Worked; brought up my daughter after my wife died; coach education work both in England and Scotland; hill walking and trekking; music (all sorts); reading – Scottish political history; philosophy and ethics and now cycling and cycle touring and at the age of (almost) 65, triathlon training.”

What goals do you have that are still unachieved?

“Very few.  Probably to destroy all the other old gits in my first Tri and complete the Munros (only 20 odd to do).  Keep cycling all over Europe.”

Can you give details of your training?

“More to do with my coaching and principles.  Take care in developing the background for development; share your thoughts with your athletes on training and competition; develop a real ‘I can do anything’ mentality; immerse yourself and show them that you and them are a ‘team’ working to a common goal; have loads of fun; never be afraid to make mistakes and more importantly admit the cock ups; always remember that you will get to a point where the more you know – the more you know what you don’t know! Be reflective.”  

Do you have any thoughts on current training and/or racing theories that you would care to pass on?   

“I have always been a believer in good all round conditioning.  All my endurance athletes for example went through coordination drills and agility work (with varying degrees of gracefulness and competency!); winter background conditioning was a very clear emphasis with me as it laid the foundations; I used a lot of basic exercises using the upper body as well as trunk; on track I guess I was not so different from other coaches other than I spent huge amounts of time getting my athletes into the frame of mind that anything was possible and doing this through high intensity work, modifying volume and duration as I thought necessary.”

What changes would you like to see in the sport?

“More of the coach focused approach which we are ‘told’ about actually happening; more attention paid to supporting clubs; a recognition that our population of children coming in to the sport are qualitatively and certainly ‘quantitatively’ different!  It is now taking longer to get children and young people into a shape where they can even train competently.”

You also did some hill/mountain running.   How did that come about?

“That was entirely the fault of my mate Cameron McNeish.  We once did some local hill running as athletes because he thought it ‘would be a good idea’ (like his good idea to run to his aunty’s in Langbank and back from his house in Glasgow when we were schoolboys – 18 miles in one evening – I had rigor mortis for 2 weeks!).  Later, in our early 30s he phoned me out of the blue and asked me to partner him in the Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon.  While I died the death of a thousand dogs we did manage to win a sub category.  Run most of the Scottish hills for fun after that.”   

_____________________________________________Hamish 4 lecturing

Hamish as a young National Coach delivering a session at Crystal Palace in 1976

We should maybe go back to what happened to Hamish after Maryhill Harriers and into employment.   Cameron tells us that Hamish first thought about joining the police force, then decided to stay on at school and become a banker.  Hamish tells the tale.   “School and education eventually kicked in for me just as it was perhaps getting too late!  After a disastrous series of O grades (just 3!) I stayed on at school after getting rejected for the Police Cadets (lack of height) and did my Highers.  Cammie got in to the Police Cadets and I got enough Highers to get in to the Scottish School of PE at Jordanhill after a short spell in a bank as a bank apprentice.”

Hamish kept on competing and usually made the finals in the Scottish championships.   He stepped up to the 800/1500m just as he left school and during the 1968 Olympics while doing his Highers, he changed his body clock to be able to go to school, do his paper round, eat, sleep and do his homework AND be able to watch the Olympics on TV every night.   John had asked him to get the miles in before he came back from Mexico City so Hamish ran 1000 miles in three months because he thought it would be ‘a good thing,’    Unfortunately during his first year at Jordanhill he had a bad knee injury (in 1970 – his knee cap came out of joint), and John encouraged him to start coaching.   He also started hill walking with Cammie and developed a love of the outdoors and canoeing.   He even joined the Lomond Mountaineering Club and became their secretary for a while.   The coaching developed, he graduated from Jordanhill and by that time he had a group of athletes including Sandra Weider, Mary Ingram, Lynn Doran, Jeanetta McPherson and a few others.   He teamed up with Iain (Rab) Robertson and Jimmy Campbell at this point – a better pair of coaches you couldn’t find.    

 

Hamish T 1

It was hard work at Jordanhill  –  ‘and Hamish worked bloody hard’, says Cameron, to gain the qualification, and left with a Dip. Phys.Ed with a merit in Education.    During his last years at College, Hamish ‘consumed information as if there was no tomorrow’.   He did have time though to represent the College at Volleyball and Hockey: although he is rather dismissive of the standard he reached, he was given half colours.   Graduating in 1973, he decided not to teach in the Glasgow local authority but taught instead in St Columba’s High School in Greenock.   Those were the days when teachers on graduation ‘interviewed the local authorities’ before deciding on which one they would work for.   In my case I attended interviews with Glasgow, Dunbartonshire and Renfrewshire.   Hamish chose Renfrewshire – St Columba’s was a school with well over 2000 pupils and Hamish introduced several initiatives with varying degrees of success:

* Tried to start an outdoors club  –  failed;

* started a swimming and life saving club – succeeded;

* helped coach the school volleyball club;

* helped in the school Gilbert and Sullivan productions;  and

* worked as a part-time youth worker after school at the youth club

It is interesting in the twenty first century to note the range of activities being carried on in an ‘ordinary’ state secondary school.   These were not confined to Hamish’s school, many schools followed a broader curriculum than is possible now and it probably helped develop Hamish as a coach.   How so?   Well, he was mixing with the pupils in all sorts of contexts – as an instructor, as a partner and as a friend as well as in a teaching capacity.   There was a breadth of interaction that would have been difficult to replicate elsewhere.   Of course, he also kept the athletics coaching going and (another initiative) changed the school sports day from one where only about 40 kids out of 2,200+ took part, to one where over 160 took part.   This was done by making it ‘self competitive’ using the Thistle Award scheme.

But the one activity which had the biggest effect on his future was his activities in life saving.   He took the school life saving team through to the Scottish National Championships in two consecutive years.   Second time there he was asked if he would be interested in the role of National Development Officer for the BLSS – UK.   Having had an application for promotion within Renfrewshire rejected, he just went for it and became what was in effect the post of National Coach.   At the age of 24 he was the youngest National Coach in any sport in the UK.   The two aspects of the job that could have been improved upon were location (it was in England) and sport (it was not athletics).   Typical of Hamish, it was not to be the first time that he took on something that he knew only a little about and learned about it ‘on the job’. 

 Cameron McNeish again:.

“That got him involved in the whole national, and international, coaching structure and even when he was working as a life saving coach his heart was still in track and field. By this time he had his own squad of athletes and he dedicated a lot of time to them. I think John Anderson was his inspiration. Like Hamish, John wasn’t a gifted athlete but worked very hard as a coach. Hamish did the same. No-one worked harder than Hamish and he never asked his athletes to do anything he had never done. He knew what it was like to be sick by the side of the track, or to be so knackered he could hardly stand.”

He started with the RLSS on 1st January 1975 in England which meant that his athletics coaching had to stop.   It had been going well, he had got his Senior Coach Award at the age of 23 and had a very good squad indeed.   He stayed with the Life Saving until 1978 in the Midlands and North England and helped coach their GB squad for the World Championships held in London in 1976.   He left the job when he got married and took up a post a Liverpool University as a Lecturer in PE and got started back in athletics when Rona Livingston asked him  to coach her for a last try at making the Scottish team for the Commonwealth Games.   She was an ex-pat living in Liverpool and started to do well.   He quickly got a squad together and others joined in, including Donna and Bill Hartley, Ikem Billy and Rob Harrison.   He was himself noticed and picked up and taken into the official system in the North West of England by Carl Johnson and Peter Warden as well as by Frank Dick.   This led to him working in coach education for athletics and he began running the courses in the North West.

In 1981 he moved to Lancaster University and coached the University squads – the road racing team was particularly successful.   He also ‘discovered’ Lucy Elliott who was only 13 at the time and she was to become his first GB athlete.   He also dabbled in coaching hockey to such effect that the University team went up a league and he also coached the full Cumbria County squad.   His athletics squad was now up to 15 athletes at one time across a range of events.   Several of them were doing very well indeed – eg John Rigg, Brenda Walker, Steve Watson, Lucy Elliott and John Blackledge.

Drugs and doping were big issues in athletics at the time and suspicions about foreign athletes – particularly but by no means exclusively the East Europeans – were rife,  Hamish was one of the few British athletics people to get involved.  This was the time when David Jenkins was arrested in America and it became an even hotter topic as a result of that.   Hamish, along with the late Ron Pickering and two journalists from ‘The Times’, Pat Butcher and Peter Nichols, worked on an expose  of the British scene which was printed in ‘The Times’.  There was even a lengthy correspondence in the pages of ‘Athletics Weekly.’    This led to the Coni Inquiry which found that there was indeed an issue that needed to be dealt with.

After reading for a BA at the Open University and then an M Ed at the University of Liverpool, Hamish became really involved in top flight athletics.   I quote from ‘The Leisure Review’:

“Hamish consolidated his career at Lancaster within British track and field athletics, coaching a squad of athletes of which some 14 became British internationalists competing at World, European and Commonwealth Games levels. He was appointed GB Team Coach for the World Universities Cross Country Championships 7 times and the athletes he selected and worked with gained 5 world titles over this period in addition to numerous silvers and bronzes”

In 1991 he stopped coaching his personal squad when his wife died very young of cancer.   His priority immediately became his five year old daughter.   Despite his own unimaginable grief, he managed through his professional work to keep involved in coach education through research and courses which, being one offs were easier to juggle alongside his new family responsibilities.     At this time he kept contributing to Coach Education across all sports.   He worked for the National Coaching Foundation (which is now Sportscoach UK) and with the various Sports Councils.    We have already seen that he had been working at international level with life-saving and athletics, and in 1995/’96 he spread his wings a bit further when he was a Great Britain Team Coach (Coach Support) for Wild Water Canoeing (remember that he started out with football and he has also been involved with hockey).

There were also many published articles and papers on Coaching, more Coach Education materials as well as ‘academic type stuff’ on coaching practice and generally got involved through that avenue.   Academically he had seven main areas of interest and expertise – sport history, olympic studies, coaching practice, practice ethics, safeguarding and children’s values in sport.   There are many of these papers available which indicate the consistent quality of his work.   Even a cursory look over his publications on the internet provides extensive evidence of this.   Five minutes timed with a stopwatch produced this:

http://www.theleisurereview.co.uk/events/HamishTelfer2.pdf

http://sccu.uk.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/SCUK-Analysing-your-coaching-article.pdf

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-Hamish-Telfer/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A266239%2Cp_27%3AHamish%20Telfer

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=d4HFBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT151&lpg=PT151&dq=hamish+telfer&source=bl&ots=uPD6AqKzES&sig=uR8izpgPhR–D2nfpMxreH3sQbY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=M9IjVcTqCMyRsgGbiYJw&ved=0CCAQ6AEwADgU#v=onepage&q=hamish%20telfer&f=false

http://impact.ref.ac.uk/casestudiesapi/refservice.svc/GetCaseStudyPDF/21486

….  and there are pages more!

In 1991 he had been seconded to Charlotte Mason College in Cumbria as a lecturer in physical education for two years.   Then in 1993 he moved to be Senior Lecturer in Physical Education at St Martin’s College Lancaster (which later became the University of Cumbria) – he held this post until 2010.   At St Martin’s he was specifically tasked with setting up, with the existing two members of staff, a new Department of Physical Education and Sport, starting with a new degree in Sports Science, followed by degrees in Sports Studies, Coaching and Sport Development, the MA in Sport Coaching and Sport Development,  and a degree in Leisure and Tourism.   At this time he was also secretary and chair of the local branch of the University Lecturers Union and completed his PhD in 2006 at Stirling University.

This period saw more sporting honours for Hamish as his talents and work-rate were recognised.   For 12 years, from 1992 – 2004, he was Great Britain National Team Coach (Cross-Country) for the World Student Championships.  Of this period he says :  “The World Student Cross-Country was a terrific and privileged experience.   There was only one championship out of seven where we did not return with medals of some colour.   We won five World Titles between 1992 and 2004 (including an almost clean sweep of three out of the four in 1994) and a good number of silvers and bronzes.   I was able to really apply some of the coaching concepts I had developed with the athletes involved.   We clearly had the talent coming through as we were able to demonstrate.   What happened after they left us …… !!!!?”

What happened after 2004 for Hamish was that he felt that after twelve years he had done his bit and stepped down. 

Hamish 2 Eyes

Addressing the International Olympic Academy, Olympia, Greece, 2003

Back at home in Scotland he was voted by the Scottish coaches to be vice-chair on the Scottish Coaches Commission and this pleased him greatly.   The Coaches Commission worked hard but was ultimately unsuccessful – almost certainly for political reasons within the sport rather than through any failure on the part of the coaches involved.    For an overview of his coaching career and some reflections on the period maybe a look at the second half of the questionnaire would be useful.

This produced the following comments.

“Were there any significant inspirational figures who influenced your coaching practice?

“No question about John Anderson.   Also Jimmy Campbell and my young coaching mate Iain (Rab) Robertson who started around the same time as me.   Alex Naylor was also a magnificent example of an inspirational and hard working coach who always encouraged in between making sure I never got too big for my boots with that wonderful sense of humour.   Eddie Taylor also helped a lot.”

How far did your own running and competition influence your coaching theory and practice?

“John Anderson taught me about hard work and commitment.   That has shone through all my own coaching.   Never too bothered about whether an athlete was good or bad or had potential, but always hammered home that they had to work hard (at whatever level) or I wasn’t really interested.   Great believer that if you give everything you can then there will be no ‘what ifs’.”

How did you get involved in coaching at national level?

“Partly due to Peter Warden, Frank Dick and Carlton Johnson.    Also I had been a full-time GB National Coach in another sport and ‘returned’ to Track & Field.   Got coaching a group in Liverpol; got involved in Regional Coach Education as a staff member then as the lead co-ordinator.   Was involved with British University Sport where I met Malcolm Brown and we got on well (he asked me on to the Athletics Committee for moral support!); I had been to the Commonwealths in 1990 with an athlete and so in 1991 he asked me to work with him with the British Cross-Country team for the World Championships (I was already working with the English Students Team at Home Nations level).   Thereafter it was Malcolm Brown and myself until about 1998 and then Chris Coleman became my team manager until I left in 2004.”

What Scottish, GB or University teams have you been involved with?

“One Scottish Junior team, numerous English University representative teams, Isle of Man team for a Commonwealth Games, and numerous GB University teams (mainly cross-country but also some track & field teams from 1992 until 1994.”

What Scottish, British or University International teams have you been involved with?

“One Scottish Junior team, numerous English University representative teams, Isle of Man team for a Commonwealth Games and numerous GB University teams (mainly cross-country but also some Track & Field teams from 1992 until 2004).”

Are there any coaches that you particularly admire – either coaching at present or in the recent past?

“John Anderson, Frank Dick for his achievements in trying to make ‘coaching a greater priority within the governing body, Tom McNab for his wide ranging skills, intellect and native cunning, Malcolm Brown for his abilities to transfer his coaching skills into Triathlon so successfully, John Mills for his thoughtful approach to coaching within British cycling, the late but wonderful gentle Geoff Gleeson of British Judo who spent hours talking to me as a young and very inexperienced National Coach, Trevor Clark who helped me think about my coaching via his sport of hockey and Peter Warden with whom I had some fantastic fun coaching our respective squads.   I also had a lot of time for the late Patrick Duffy who tried to lead, develop and improve the structure of British coaching.   Bill Walker has always brought a quiet confidence to his work and there are other coaching colleagues over the years including my colleagues on the late lamented Scottish Coaches Commission (including that wee fireball Eric Simpson).   I will have left some out but all colleagues with whom I coached were part of how I thought and worked.”

Hamish retired in 2010 when he took ‘early retirement’ and has never been tempted back to coaching in athletics.   He has done his bit and like many of us might have problems with the new bureaucracy in the sport:    “I think I might commit homicide with various ‘professionals’ in the governing body at UK level.”   He still does ‘bits and pieces’ and is currently involved with a club based piece of work with athletics clubs in the north west of England re the state of ‘technical events’ where we still have a problem.   He is also still doing research work as what he calls a ‘semi retired’ academic.    (And it seems to me that he has set up another ploy when he asks “What happened after they left us? )

Let him have the final word  about life after coaching:

“Cammie McNeish and I have renewed our auld alliance with a vengeance by cycling. Done Lands End to John o’ Groats, France top to bottom, Ireland from bottom to top and this year we are about terrorise Spain.  A bit like Compo and Cleggy in lycra or an old married couple (take your pick). If you see us, then feed us cake – we respond well to that.”

I mean, the second last word – you can read what some of his colleagues and athletes think   at www.anentscottishrunning.com/hamish-telfers-friends/

The picture below of Hamish on his bike is from Cameron.

 Hamish on his bike

Hamish Telfer’s Friends …

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JA Portrait

This first one is from John Anderson: you will have noted from Hamish’s remarks in the profile that he has a deep respect and admiration for John – John thinks equally highly of Hamish.

“I met Hamish when as a schoolboy he came along with his friend Cameron McNeish who I was coaching.   Cammy was a gifted long jumper who excelled in schools athletics and beyond and who subsequently went on to gain national and international acclaim as a hill walker and mountaineer.

Hamish did not display any special talent as an athlete but what he did have was an overwhelming desire to be the very best that he could be.   I decided to see if I could harness this ferocious energy and hard work and develop his potential as a distance runner.   His level of success unfortunately sadly didn’t match his driving level of hard work.

Hamish Telfer brought to his endeavours a level of commitment rarely surpassed.   I have coached very many national and international athletes who achieved outstanding performances.   Hamish might not have had their talent but he certainly tried as hard as any of them.

Whilst Hamish might not have achieved his goals as an athlete, he took his passion to helping others and became an outstanding coach.   His zest for knowledge and his ongoing determination to be the very best coach he can be has proved fruitful.

As an athlete he gave it everything but failed to achieve the highest levels.   Fortunately that energy and passion for knowledge has been redirected and has meant that he has excelled as a coach.”

Hamish and CameronHamish (on the right) and Cameron McNeish

Photo from C McNeish

Cameron, Hamish’s long time friend says … 

I first met Hamish when we both joined the West of Scotland Harriers in circa 1964/65. The club was looked after by a lovely old gent by the name of Johnny Todd who took Hamish and I under his wing. 

West of Scotland Harriers was predominantly a cross country running club and although Hamish and I considered ourselves sprinters we were encouraged to become involved in everything that was going on at the club, no bad thing for youngsters. That included winter Saturdays at the Stannalane running track near the Rouken Glen where we went cross country running with some fine old timers whose names I’ve forgotten (Hamish will remember). Included in our group was another young athlete who went on to become a Scottish international 400 metre runner by the name of Ian Walker. Ian is now a fairly well known and established folk singer, and we all still keep in touch. 

Hamish and I have very fond memories of dank, wintry Saturday afternoons at Stannalane. We probably ran between 5 and 10 miles, mostly around the Barrhead waterworks, and on our return to the ‘pavilion’ – a basic wooden shack, we all had to share one shower to scrape all the cow shit off us! That was followed by a cup of tea and a tea biscuit for which we all donated, if I remember correctly, tuppence! 

It was all very Alf Tupper’ish and we absolutely loved it. At that time Hamish showed some promise as a cross country runner and he and I used to finish reasonably highly in Under-15 cross country events, although the lads of Shettleston and Springburn Harriers usually dominated. 

Despite our relative success we still considered ourselves sprinters and after the Tokyo Olympics we were both inspired by the gold medal performance of Lynn Davies of Wales. I went on to enjoy a long correspondence with Lynn which lasted several years and we eventually met at a Home Counties international in Leicester when I competed for Scotland and he for Wales. I seem to recall Hamish also corresponded briefly with Lynn but he came to know him better later in life at various coaching functions and events. 

I went on to become a reasonably decent long jumper and represented Scotland on a couple of occasions when I was Scottish Junior Champion. Hamish trained very hard but soon realised that he wasn’t going to make it as a sprinter or a long jumper, so he began a slow progression through the track events – as a middle distance runner, then a long distance runner and eventually as a marathon runner, sadly without any real success. I think he may have run just under the three hours for the marathon. 

We used to go for long runs together as lads. Although I was specifically training as a long jumper Hamish was always happy to do some sprints training with me and I was always willing to go for some long runs with him. We both simply loved athletics and we both loved training, even before we met John Anderson. We did a lot of sprints training on the grass in Queen’s Park, near to Hamish’s parents home in Langside. 

On one occasion, when we were 15, we ran from my parents home in Hillington in Glasgow, down to Bishopton to visit an aunt and uncle of mine. We had a cup of tea before running back again. It wasn’t a huge distance – about 15 miles, but on the way back Hamish literally seized up and my father had to go out in the car to collect him. 

But Hamish never allowed these things to get him down. He had grit and determination in abundance. Where I had some natural ability, which led me to ease off training when things became too hard, Hamish was motivated by sheer hard graft. Indeed, John Anderson used to tell people that Hamish was the least successful of all his athletes, but the hardest worker! 

We met John Anderson at a schoolboys Easter training camp at Inverclyde. He took us under his wing and we often travelled out to Hamilton where John lived with his first wife Christine to help him collate training films and such like. On one later occasion, when we were both 17 I had bought a Honda motor bike but Hamish had splashed out on a wee scooter-type thing which barely went about 15-20mph. We both decided to go out to Hamilton to visit the Andersons on a particularly cold winter day. I got to Earnock about an hour before Hamish and when he appeared Christine had to take him into the house, place him in front of the fire, and thaw him out. I reckon he was suffering the first stages of hypothermia! 

Our weekends were entirely taken up with training – usually meeting Anderson somewhere and then going to the new all weather running track at Grangemouth Stadium. Later on that changed to Meadowbank in Edinburgh. We were in an excellent group of athletes that John coached that included Scottish shot put champion Moira Kerr, hurdler Lindy Carruthers (her mother was a coach with Maryhill Ladies, but more of that later) 400m runner David Jenkins (later became infamous as a drug cheat but we always called him Gwendoline – can’t really remember why…) the decathlete Stewart McCallum, middle distance runners Duncy Middleton and Graeme Grant. There were others but I can’t remember them now.

 Hamish and I were training partners to some noted Maryhill Ladies athletes such as Avril Beattie and we benefitted from the extra training opportunities that training with the girls of Maryhill Ladies brought (eg Friday evening indoor gym sessions). By now my parents had moved and I had left West of Scotland to join Bellahouston Harriers but Hamish remained very faithful to West of Scotland Harriers. But it was Maryhill Ladies where his coaching would eventually start.”

 We both had various girlfriends who were athletes and so life was a lot of fun. However, that hasn’t gone unnoticed. I remember Alex Naylor from Shettleston Harrier, who rarely failed to call a spade a spade, telling us we were a pair of pansies because we liked to train with the girls. 

About this time Hamish had his sights on joining the Police Force. I wanted to be a PE teacher. I then decided I’d quite like to be a policeman too so we both applied to join the City of Glasgow Polics cadets. I was accepted but Hamish wasn’t – he was too wee! I think he was about an inch short. Instead he stayed on at school and eventually went to work with the Bank of Scotland – yes, Telfer was a banker, but not for long. By this time he had decided he wanted to be a PE teacher and applied to Jordanhill Training College. It wasn’t easy. Hamish wasn’t a naturally talented sportsman and he had to perform various gymnastic routines to get accepted onto the course. I think I’m right in saying he sought out his old schoolteacher and got him to teach him gymnastic routes, and he worked bloody hard at it to make sure he qualified. And he did.

 After Jordanhill he went to teach in a school in Greenock where he stayed for a while. He then applied for, and became, a National Life Saving Coach which really surprised me. I didn’t even know he could swim! 

But that got him involved in the whole national, and international, coaching structure and even when he was working as a life saving coach his heart was still in track and field. By this time he had his own squad of athletes and he dedicated a lot of time to them. I think John Anderson was his inspiration. Like Hamish, John wasn’t a gifted athlete but worked very hard as a coach. Hamish did the same. No-one worked harder than Hamish and he never asked his athletes to do anything he had never done. He knew what it was like to be sick by the side of the track, or to be so knackered he could hardly stand. 

After life-saving I think Hamish went into academia and although we never quite lost touch we didn’t see a lot of each other through the eighties, nineties and early years of the noughts. He married Gail, but she died when she was quite young with cancer. They had one child, Lyndsey, and Hamish, despite all his commitments, brought her up as a single father, and did a marvellous job too. Lyndsey is now married and living in London but they are still very close, as you could imagine.

 I went off to climb hills and mountains and make a living doing that while Hamish became more involved in academia and coaching track. He eventually became British Universities coach and worked with some good athletes, but I’m afraid my knowledge of those athletes is pretty hazy. Hamish did become very involved in the whole drugs in sport controversy though and worked closely with the late Ron Pickering in trying to expose it.”

[Hamish comments:

  I remember the incident with the moped … !!!!  I passed out as I tried to come in John’s back door and woke up with my head cradled on Christine’s lap in front of the fire.  John was getting a tad impatient to leave for Grangemouth so bundled me semi comatose into the back of his Saab and then when we got to Grangemeouth I then joined in the sessions for the day.  Such a caring approach !!!!!  No prisoners with Anderson and to a large extent this rubbed off on me. ]

HAMISH LEISURE REVIEWHamish

Picture from the Leisure Review

This next contribution is from  Eric Simpson who worked with Hamish on the Scottish Coaching Committee.

“The first time I came across Hamish was watching a documentary on television  about drug taking in the G.D.R.  I was stunned when asked if he suspected that there might be people in Britain taking drugs and the reply was YES. What was this someone with courage of his convictions to state was already known or should I say suspected. 

I then had the pleasure of meeting him the year after and  building up a friendship . A very astute and intelligent man  he always called a situation as he saw it and was part of a small group of people who was never afraid to point out  serious misgiving that many people had about the direction the sport was moving. A senior lecturer at Lancaster University  Hamish would  come under the description of a “character”  so few left in the sport today as he helped and supported so many student athletes through part of their development years.   
Hamish and I were asked at one point to rewrite the welfare policy for Scottish Athletics a role that we both were both well used to in our professional life. A very concise and erudite  person I was delighted to be associated with him in this project . Now retired Hamish has not retired from life and occasionally we are in contact with each other still trying to solve the ills of the world as you do.  I still have great pleasure in calling him a friend ,and long may it be so.”
WP_20150418_002
Sandra Weider in action
Picture from Sandra
And now …. let’s hear from some of his athletes.   One of Hamish’s very first athletes was Sandra Weider and she writes:
“I know athletics was really,  really important to me, I trained 4-6 days a week, including Christmas Day.   I seem to remember  that meant Hamish was out there too – he was a really hard taskmaster, so much of it was hard, never forgotten saying such as ‘run through the line’ and ‘you won’t melt’ .   No point in complaining about the rain, but lots of it was done on trust-  not just with the athletes but also my Dad with whom he had a bit of a behind-my-back allegiance, mainly never to tell my Mum that I’d worked so hard I’d just been sick again! I know my Dad, who was an ex-professional footballer & sprinter, thought a huge amount of Hamish from early in their relationship and that tells its own story.
 
Training sessions took place all over the place, a pretty wide geographical area – school training grounds, Giffnock/Newton Mearns area at Woodfarm & Eastwood, even Crookfur Pavillion which was near where Hamish had spent a summer job planting Christmas trees – cries of ‘Ye Gods’ ringing out all over as I did laps of hopping on one leg trying to strengthen muscles, Bellahouston on Wednesday nights during the winter, starting with a weights session then a gym fitness session before going out onto the track, and Sunday afternoons, with Scotstoun on a Monday, and winter Friday evenings spent indoor training in the West End at Westbourne school.
I remember he rigged up a film recording in a classroom one Friday at Westbourne, of Igor Terovanessian for me to watch, trying to teach me to do a hitch-kick or a hitch-hang.   That was pretty forward-thinking then.
The season was planned in advance, with our sessions also laid out & a training diary was kept & discussed. I trusted him implicitly and would have done pretty much anything he’d asked – usually not a question actually, more a statement! I was devastated when he moved to England and probably didn’t ever find the same commitment in a coach that I felt from him (I hope he feels suitably bad about that!)
I remember a lot of the time Hamish didn’t drive but that was maybe just as well because I also remember that he fell asleep at the wheel driving late at night at least twice!
Girlfriends were kept under wraps and I think he had plenty to deal with the Maryhill Ladies secretariat for seeing a scandal with his athletes behind every changing room door, shower curtain and trip to Birchfield! (I don’t think we helped much, wearing a lot of clothes around the place wasn’t a high priority!)
I was aware that Hamish wasn’t afraid to ask for advice from the likes of Jimmy Campbell and was also well-liked by other coaches such as Frank Dick, Alec Naylor and his friend Iain (Rab) Robertson
Hamish was able to read and encourage the best out of us and it is testament to his intellect, drive & personality that our relationship has continued to thrive over all these years.”
*
Rona Livingston was one of Scotland’s best sprinters for several years with a career that lasted from the late 1960s to 1983 and covered 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m as well as the 60m indoors.   Check out the rankings list at www.scotstats.net in the archive section.    She has this to say about Hamish.

I had one major influence on my running before Hamish and that was being coached by Dennis Watts MBE when I became as Rona Livingston the youngest girl to run for GB in 1968.   I met  Hamish when I was in my first year of teaching and the relationship developed into one of deep understanding and trust.   We achieved an International vest,  running for Scotland in many races, but unfortunately due to injury and two weeks off peaking, did not run in any major competitions. Hamish was happy that I did not know a session until we met at the track and on some occasions as to how many parts were scheduled for that day. He was brilliant at getting the most out of my running and making me perform another repetition when I was on my knees. A group of about six always met with Hamish on Sunday mornings at Formby on the sand dunes where a lot of very hard but enjoyable winter work took place. As we returned from the “Super Bowl” sand dune area there was always the four efforts up the steep dunes by the side of the path, Hamish shouting Arms Arms Arms – and all this for a finger of fudge from the shop on the way home. Hamish became a very good friend and got to know my family well. When I started training with Donna Hartley he was always glad to include her and one session in the winter doing back to back 60’s we had to clear the snow from a local cricket pitch in order to be able to train. Several years later the  grass was still brown on that area. Reliable and always very punctual, athletics was fun and easy with Hamish, he was easy to talk to about all sorts of subjects. Hamish told me that when I finished competing that it would take about two years to de-train and this was a very accurate and wise warning.    

It was always a pleasure to see Hamish and do his sessions.

A caring husband and loving father he will always be a good friend.
The last time we met was when I attended a conference in Nottingham with Hamish.   He arrived to pick me up and as we walked down the path, discovered the car 50 m down the road. Hamish had not put the hand brake on but we got there safely. I thank him for all his help, support, encouragement and friendship over the years. 

Hamish Adrian and Lynn

Adrian and Lynn Webb

Finally for now, from Adrian Webb, who is now a noted coach in his own right – read about his coaching in the interview with SAtephen Green in the Spring, 2015 issue of the BMC News.

My wife and I were introduced to Hamish through the advise of Mike Dooling while we members of Liverpool Harriers in the late 80s.    We were both in our early 20s and looking for a local coach to take us into the next level.  We met Hamish in a small dingy pub in Liverpool and became acquainted.   Little did we know at the time, but Hamish used to travel at least 2 times a week from Lancaster to Liverpool to deliver our sessions, hardly what I would say a local coach!

I’ve never met anyone quite like this man, sometimes funny, always expressive and never a dull moment when he’s around.   He certainly helped both Lynn and myself to progress in the few years I was involved with him and also an incredible help when we lost our first child Samantha with a Cot Death.    We went our separate ways after a few years due to ongoing injuries to start a family.

We now have a 20 year old Son who is National U23 800m champion and 16 year old Daughter who is Northern 800m indoor Champion, both are coached by Mum and Dad.

There is no doubt that Hamish was a massive influence in both our lives and I’m sure he is the reason he kept us in the sport in a Coaching role. We both Coach a group of athletes through the Liverpool Harriers base.

We didn’t have much to do with Hamish from 1990 through to 2015 apart from Christmas Cards and the odd email until he took up our invitation to attend a function we had planned….After all that time it was like only yesterday that we had spoken. Hamish for the past 25 years has always promised to Pop in when next passing, but never actually done so, but it would be no surprise if the next person at the door when the door bell rings is Hamish! 

Quite a character…..I believe he once gave a lecture standing on his head!

Danny Wilmoth

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DW Babcock 1958 half

[Not a valid template]Danny (22) at Babcock & Wilcox Sports

Danny Wilmoth is a fine example of the type of man that any club, in any sport, would be very fortunate to have in its ranks.   A tireless worker who always did what his club needs him to do and went on to serve his club and the sport at the highest levels of sport in the country.  

Danny, born on 9th January 1938, has an interesting story about starting in the sport which corroborates the tale told by Tom O’Reilly.   He says:  “I was brought up on a farm where my father was the ploughman at the Lumloch and we stayed in the farm bungalow.   When I was 14 years old, Tom O’Reilly came up to the farm and asked if we could shift some cows to another field on the Saturday as it was the Springburn Harriers cross-country championships.   The farmer told him to see me and I would do it for Springburn Harriers.   Tommy was always about on a Saturday morning and would let me know which fields if any he would require the following week.   He was always at me to come down to the club.   I finally agreed to do so.

When I arrived Tommy said, “You’re going to run in the club handicap tonight.”   I told him I’d never run before but he wouldn’t take no for an answer.   I started off with others – up through Auchinairn and was just holding on to two guys who were completely unknown to me and when I asked where the others had  gone, they just said that I had run the legs off them, they were all behind us.   We kept on until we came back to Auchinairn Road to the club house.   I got a bit cocky and ran away from the two guys to the clubhouse.    I never heard the end of it – everyone called me ‘the guy who can’t run’.    That was my entry as a Springburn Harrier in 1953.

DW 15 Xmas 53Danny in his first Christmas Handicap, 1953

  At that time, there were ten or twelve Saturdays in the winter (between October and March) when there were no races being held.   On these Saturdays, inter-club runs were often scheduled when two or three clubs met up to run in packs over the local territory.   Springburn was a popular venue – partly because of the trails they could offer but also because of the big plunge bath at the back of their clubhouse in Auchinairn Road.    Danny did his share of these runs and took part in all the championships too.   All clubs used all the talents of their members and Danny was a willing worker – very early on in his career he organised a whist drive in the club house along with Tom O’Reilly and Gary McKay to raise funds for the club.   On these occasions, tea and sandwiches were made for the players by several of the women members including Molly Ferguson.

Training at the time was mainly on Tuesday and Thursday nights.   Danny says that there was usually fast and slow packs:   “We would train over 6 miles on the roads.   Two packs.    The fast pack would give the slows 20 minutes start and try to catch them with a mile to go.   Regardless, with a mile to go it was every man for himself.   It was good fun as well as good training.   Everyone was wanting to know what pack they were in tonight: fast or slow.   There were usually about 20 in each pack during the winter months.”

The training clearly suited Danny and his performances in the two main winter events – the National Championships and the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay are noted below.   He joined the club in 1953 and his first real season was 1954/55.   The placings for the next ten years were :

National Championship                            Edinburgh to Glasgow

1954/55    Y   51st                                         Too young to run

1955/56     Y   29th   Team 1st                   Too Young to run.Stage 7.

1956/57     J   22nd   Team 3rd                  Stage 7.   Held 10th Position.

1957/58     J   57th                                        Stage 4.   Came from 14th to 10th.   5th fastest

1958/59     J   17th                                         Stage 3.   8th up to 7th

1959/60        –                                                 Did not run

1960/61     S   120th                                      Did not run.

1961/62     S   138th                                      Stage 1.   18th.

1962/63     S   105th                                      Stage 8.   17th up to 16th.

1963/64                                                           Stage 8.   Held 12th

1964/65                                                           Stage 8.   11th up to 9th.

He also ran in District relays and championships, county relays and championships and all the road races such as the McAndrew Relay and the Nigel Barge Race.     You will note of course that he never ever dropped a place on the fiercely competitive E-G relay.   Not many can say that.

Danny WJ

There were two years when he missed the E-G at the age of 21 and 22.   But almost everybody did at that time and that was because they were off doing their two years national service.   ie compulsory army service.

Danny was stationed at Newark for his time in khaki.  Newark was a training school and Danny was a Morse Code Instructor and did eight one-hour periods in the class room.   He worked with Gurkhas, whom he remembers as very keen to learn.   Being a good runner he was picked for the regimental athletics and cross country teams.   As with Springburn, he ran mainly half-mile and mile for the regiment.   Picked to run in Germany for the regiment 4 x half-mile team.   He recalls: “It was a beautiful cinder track in a beautiful stadium.   I ran the third leg where I took over a poor third and gradually worked up to third going in to the last lap.   I gave it everything and passed them all in the back straight and handed over easily 50 yards clear.   After the race we were presented with silver salvers.”      Danny also ran cross-country for the regiment and remembers when he was picked to run for the regimental cross-country team in the championships at Oxford.   He remembers that race well, because of a particular scalp he lifted that day.   The trail was mainly plough and the distance was all of nine miles.   A very tough course.   As he came in to the last 200 yards or so, the runner one place ahead was coming back fast.   One of the stewards called to Danny and said, “Go – that’s Herb Elliott!”   Danny got him and Elliott was out on his feet.    Elliott had of course retired from international athletics and was studying at Oxford.   His form had gone but that didn’t matter to anyone who passed him.   He was still Herb Elliott.   Danny says that the great man was a really friendly chap and easy to talk to and get on with.

DW West Champs 1962Danny at the front of the group: Midlands Championships, 1962

National Service was one thing that affected his career – the other was a major event that not only affected his running but altered his entire life.   There might have been doubts as to whether the Army was a good thing or a bad thing: there were no doubts at all about Molly’s effect on him.   They married in October 1960.    Molly, also a Springburn Harrier, which has been a mainstay of the sport in many capacities for several decades and her profile is at www.scottishdistancerunninghistory.co.uk/MOLLY%20WILMOTH.htm

Danny and MollyDanny and Molly

Danny’s track running with Springburn was also mainly half miles and miles and like all of us he ran at Highland Games, Sports meetings and District and National Championships.   His says of his track running:“I ran both events handicap races all summer.   I remember being entered for a half-mile at Edinburgh Highland Games and when I arrived they told me it was going to be a scratch race as there were not enough entries for a handicap.   I knew that there was to be a Two Mile Invitation for the runners who had broken the four minute mile the week before in England and when I went to change, they had a separate room for the Two Milers.   I met Gordon Pirie, Chris Chataway, John Disley and many others.   The Murrayfield track was five laps to the mile on grass. When the race came up, they started off going like trains and I struggled to hold on to Pirie who was last for four laps.   I could hear the crowd roaring at me not to get lapped.   I picked up, threw everything into it and crossed the line a foot ahead of Chataway, then struggled round the last lap.   Very tired, but very happy.”   A photo of Danny crossing the finishing line a foot ahead of Chataway would have been some memento!   These days are unfortunately gone, but it was a time when club runners could compete at the same ground, at the same time, and often in the same races as international track stars.   Herb Elliott, Chris Chataway, John Disley, Gordon Pirie running with a good class club runner – and Danny couldn’t be more emphatic that they were all really good guys who were easy to talk to.

DW Lanark Const 880 1955

 Danny at the Lanarkshire Constabulary Sports at Shawfield

Danny ran all over the country, week in, week out, mainly in handicaps, often in big football grounds, very often on grass but in inter-club and championship fixtures on grass.   The strangest was maybe the Lanarkshire Police Sports at Shawfield where there was regular dog-racing meetings and the runners ran on a grass track, inside the dog track!   You can see the dog track and its floodlights outside the marked athletic track in the photograph above.  He even took part in hill-races such as the gruelling Ben Nevis race where he ran well inside three hours for the course.

More recently Danny is better known as an official and organiser of quality.   The fact that he has been an athlete himself contributes to this success.   As an official he had worked at many, many events – all the cross-country championships, open races – anywhere that they ran a race, they needed an official and Danny filled as many of these positions as he could.   For example he was referee at the Lochaber Marathon in Fort William for many years.  After working his way through all the various committees – at club level, as a club representative on County, District and National Committees, Danny was elected President of the Scottish Cross-Country Union in 1991/92 – the second last President of the body before it was transformed into the Scottish Athletics Federation.  Danny was of course involved in numerous sub-committees over his time with the governing body and one of these was the selection committee where he was one of the four West District representatives.   This also involved acting as manager to Scottish international and representative teams and in November 1993 – a year after leaving office – he was in charge of a Scottish cross-country team competing in Turin.  He held this post for the last few years of the SCCU and first few of the SAF.  After stepping down Danny, who was now 40 years of age, joined the Scottish Veteran Harriers Club.   Technically he was second last President of the SCCU but in fact shortly after Robin Thomas took over that position, the body became the Scottish Athletics Federation and his reign was a short one.   Meanwhile Danny moved across to the Scottish Veteran Harriers Club and devoted his considerable energies to them.

DW SCCU Presidents medalDanny with the SCCU Presidents Chain of Office

One of the first things that happened was if he would become members secretary.   It wasn’t too difficult too difficult to persuade him – and then he discovered that there was a total of 999 members.   And in 1992 there were no computers, lap-tops or tablets and almost all phones were landlines.   Everything had to be done by mail.   It was, he says with a bit of understatement, a busy time.   Of course to be a good committee member it is not enough to just maintain the status quo – some initiative and imagination is required and Danny organised a race a month for veterans, sometimes more than one a month.   The big event with which he is associated is the Alloa to Bishopbriggs eight man relay, with each stage being between five and five and a half miles.   It was to be like the well established and much loved Edinburgh to Glasgow but for veteran runners only.   Unlike the E-G, it was not an invitation only race, any club with eight veteran runners could enter a team.   The story of the race is at www.scottishdistancerunninghistory.co.uk/ALLOA%20TO%20BISHOPBRIGGS.htm.      It started at the Town Hall in Alloa and finished at the Bishopbriggs Sports Centre.    Danny had a very good businessman friend from schooldays called Lex Gaston whom he asked to sponsor the race and medals were presented to the first three teams and to the fastest time on each stage.   A very popular race, there were at times 30 teams running.

Gaston RelayDanny with Ronnie MacDonald and Billy Black at the Alloa to Bishopbriggs

Then there were 5K and 10K road races from the Police Grounds at Lochinch where they managed to organise food and good post-race chat.

Although the main point of the SVHC was running and racing, there was a place for a good social life.   The President of the club at that time was Walter Ross of Garscube Harriers – I say Garscube Harriers and he will always be associated with the club, but like more and more veterans his club was being entered as ‘Scottish Veteran Harrier Club’.    The club grew as more and more members joined and more people were available to help organise events.   Danny’s connection with Lochinch enabled him to organise dances and sing-songs and other social events there.   Danny describes one of the most successful events: “I organised a Caribbean cruise from Glasgow.   We flew to Florida and on to a massive ship for two weeks in the Caribbean.   We had a crowd of 30 people.    They would run round the boat, everywhere the ship docked the vets were off running.   I also had a week in Benalmadena in Spain every year.” 

Back at home and there were still races to organise –  he organised a 4 x 4.5 mile relay at Strathclyde Park which is still going strong – proof of its popularity is the fact that there can be up to 40 teams at a time taking part.

A quick recap of the principal  events where his talents as an organiser were utilised:

Convener of the Scottish Championships

Convener of the Scottish Veterans Championships

Convener of the 5 Nations  International Cross-Country

Originator and Convener of the Veterans 8 Stage Relay

Even away from the athletics arena, he has been captain of the Campsie Golf Club and in that capacity he opened the new 18 hole golf club and organised one of the best attended Pro Am tournaments seen in the area in 1982 when Sports stars such as Crawford Fairbrother (athletics), Jim Watt (Boxing), Billy McNeill and Jim Baxter plus a host of other football players, media men such as Ian Archer, Cliff Hanley, Ron Marshall, showbiz people such as Paul Coia, the Alexander Brothers, Alistair Gillies and Larry Marshall were all there with many moe in attendance and the possibility of a car as a prize for a hole in one.   All organised by Danny.

President of the SVHC in 1993 and 1994, Danny spent 33 years in all on the Vets Committee and it is now more than five years since he was presented with a clock to mark the occasion.     That’s not the only or the biggest honour that he has for his time in the sport:  in 2004 he and Molly were presented with the Scottish athletics Joint Lifetime Award by Steve Cram on behalf of the organisation.

I mentioned the respect in which he is held by all in the sport, and this is typified by the following comments by very good Scottish runner, Colin Youngson who has this to say.

“My first contact with Big Danny was on 7th February, 1988, when I won my first Scottish Vets Cross-Country title over a course he had devised (and ‘measured’) in Clydebank.   Three laps.   The video showed: first lap, light snow; second lap, heavy, deep snow; third lap, most runners wearing tall ‘snow bunnets!’   I won in 39:14, so instead of 10K the course must have been over 7 miles.   Thanks, Danny!  

We got to know each other better down the years at championships, the annual International Five Nations Cross-Country International, and his brain-child, the  SVHC 8 man road relay.   In the latter Aberdeen AAC finished third in the Alloa-Bishopbriggs in 1990 but won in 1991 and again (Alloa-Twechar) in 1992.   Sadly this marvellous event was shunted off public roads on to private tarmac at Torrance, first eight man, then eventually a six stager.   Still a good well-attended event, all due to Danny’s imagination, determination and skills in motivating and organising.

My best run as a vet was as a new M45, in the Belfast International, where I won the age group easily but had to outkick a big English M40 for sixth place overall.   The late Bill McBrinn wrote in the SVHC newsletter: “It was eyeball stuff up the finishing straight with Danny Wilmoth going berserk shouting Colin home.”  

Danny was always a cheerful encouraging presence and, as an Aberdonian, I have only a slight idea of the tremendous amount of work he did as an official and organiser.   His wife Molly was always ready to chat, and worked very hard as an official too.   Without the Wilmoths, Scottish Veteran running would have been a pale shadow of itself.   Danny was never to be confused with a pale shadow!   He was the life and soul of the post race celebrations and no doubt at the annual January ‘training trip’ to Spain he organised as well.”

Thanks, Colin – a fitting testimonial to Danny and the work he and Molly have put in.

Extracts frm Danny’s race results book are  here

 

Clydesdale Harriers, 1890 – 1900

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1889 group

The notion behind this page is that it would maybe appropriate to look at the early days of the sport through the history of Clydesdale Harriers.   The intention is to publish, on a year by year basis, the club’s own annual reports as printed in the club annual handbooks and follow them up later with notes on some of the events as published in the ‘Glasgow Herald’ .   The club was founded on 4th May 1885 but we don’t have handbooks for the first three years and the Minute Book for the 1885 – 1892 period was destroyed in the Clydebank Blitz although the succeeding Books are still available.   I will start with the 1890 – 1900 period while trying to decide how best to tackle the first five years.   So – we start with the annual report for 1890 – ’91.   It will necessarily be a slow job so be patient!

1890 35,361890 37,381890 39,401890 41,42

A Hannah

Andrew Hannah

1891 – ’92

1891 36,371891 38,39*

1892 – ’93

Chas Pennycook

1892 34,35

1892 36,371892 38,39*

1893 – ’94

1893 H Barr

Hugh Barr

1893 40,411893 42,431893 44,45*

1894 – ’95

A Hannah 2

1894 38,39

1894 40,41

1894 42,43

95 30,31

1895 – ’96

95 26,27

95 28,29

95 30,31

1896 – ’97

96 26,27

96 28,2996 30,31

1897 – ’98

97 28,29

97 30,31

1888 – ’99

98 24,25

98 26,27

98 28,29

1889 – 90

99 14,15

99 16,17

99 18,19

Charles B Mein

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Charles B MeinCH Mein

CB Mein was a very good half-miler who won the SAAA 880 yards championship in 1925, with runner-up medals in 1922 and 1924 and a third place in 1923, he ran in the triangular international for both Ireland and Scotland, and set a Scottish record for the distance of 1:57.8 in 1925.   And that was all after service in the First World War.   A very interesting man whose career should be better known.    The following profile was done with much assistance from Alex Wilson. 

Charles Benjamin Mein was born in Newington, Edinburgh, on 12th March, 1898.   He was the second son of second son of Henry Renton Mein, draper, 7 Great King Street, Edinburgh and the grandson of Sir Robert Cranston, prominent Edinburgh Councillor and Brigadier General of The Royal Scots during WW1.   Like his contemporary and sometime rival Harry Maingay he was born into a fairly well-off family – the family owned  Renton’s Drapery, a large retail drapery business with premises in Princes Street (now, in 2015, the site of an H&M store) and he was educated at Stewart’s College before entering Trinity College, Dublin, in 1915.   This was right in the middle of the first war and he joined 12th Regiment Royal Scots Fusiliers as a 2nd Lieut. in early 1917.   Here he came under the command of his grandfather, who as Brigadier General Cranston was instrumental in forming the RSF.   He was promoted to Lieutentant in 1918.   Shortly after enlisting he saw frontline action as an infantryman at the Battle of Arras.    Alex Wilson, who provided much of the information for this profile sent this link to an account of the battle.

  www.theroyalscots.co.uk/page/arras-april-may-1917

Charles was shot and knocked unconscious on the final advance to Ypres in 1918. It was a lucky bullet though because it did not cause serious injury and he was invalided home.

The Royal Scots at Arras, 1917Royal Scots leaving the trenches at Arras, 1917.

Photograph from Alex Wilson

After the War, he resumed studies in Dublin.   He also resumed athletics and was named Captain of Dublin University Harriers AC.   In the first post-war inter-varsity meeting in Dublin Charles won the half mile and finished 3rd in mile.   In 1920 he won the Irish (I.A.A.A.) half mile championship.   The ‘Irish Times’ reported that “Mein, the Dublin University Harrier, created a rare surprise by outstaying the Birchfield Harrier in the half mile, which he won after a splendid finish“   In the first post-war triangular international at Crewe in 1920 he represented Ireland.   When he graduated from Dublin University with a B.A. in 1921, he became an F.F.A. (Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries) and lectured on actuarial mathematics at Edinburgh University.   He joined up with Edinburgh Harriers in 1921 and became one of their joint secretaries.   Sporting talent seemed to be a family trait: his younger brother Robert Stanley Mein also competed for Edinburgh Harriers and came third in the 1926 SAAA 440 yards championship.

In 1920 his athletics seemed to be split between Ireland and Scotland – three in Ireland up to the end of May and three in Scotland in July with a run for Ireland in the Triangular International at Crewe at the start of July.   The three races that he ran in in Ireland were all in Dublin – on 6th May he ran in a half mile, which he won in 2:05.2, and a Mile in which he was third in an estimated 4:55.0, then on 24th of the same month he won the IAAA half mile championship in 2:06.8.   This gained him selection for the three-way international at Crewe on 10th July in which he was unplaced.   His first race after coming to Scotland was in an 880 yards handicap on 17th July at Powderhall in which he was third in an estimated 2:01.0 off a 5 yard handicap.   A week later at Craiglockhart he was fourth in a handicap 880 yards, again from a 5 yard handicap mark.   And finally for 1920 at the Sports organised jointly by Hearts FC and Edinburgh Harriers, he was third.   The Glasgow Herald commented on this one that, “CB Mein of Dublin University was a competitor in the half mile, but again he had to be content with third place.”   The race was won by J Jackson of Edinburgh Southern Harriers off 52 yards.

In the national championships on 21st June 1921 he ran in the half-mile but was unplaced, but then for a man who seemed to like racing, he had not competed in any of the meetings held earlier in June, such as Queen’s Park FC, the West of Scotland meeting or the Heart of Midlothian meeting in Edinburgh.   He doesn’t seem to have competed seriously in 1921 – largely because of the importance placed on the final university examinations but by the following year he was clearly back to his best running.

In 1922 he won his first SAAA championship medal – a silver one – to go with his Irish gold.   One of the classic meetings in the athletics year was that of Queen’s Park FC and it seemed to be a favourite of Mein’s.  On 3rd June, 1922 he ran there and the report reported that Eric Liddell might have won the relay for Edinburgh but for the fine half mile by D McPhee for Glasgow who started 15 yards behind CB Mein of Edinburgh and finished was two yards in front, “the Edinburgh harrier being harassed by the strong adverse wind in the straight.”   Continuing his preparation for the championships, Mein ran in the 880 yards at the joint Hibernian FC and Edinburgh Harriers meeting on 17th June, finishing third off 25 yards, behind D McCrae (Maryhill, 42 yards), and T Flanagan (Shettleston, 52 yards).    In the championship the following week, held at Powderhall, Mein finished second to  Duncan McPhee in an estimated 2:03.6 and this earned him selection for the International at Hampden where, running for Scotland this time, he was again out of the medals.   The race was won by Edgar Mountain in 2:01.0 of England and the results included CB Mein and his fellow Scot JCS Ponsford among the four ‘also rans’.

 Back in action at the Rangers Sports on 5th August, off 22 yards he was third in the invitation half mile behind Morrison and McCrae of Maryhill (30 and 40 yards respectively) with the race being won in 1:54 4-5th sec.   There were three yards between first and second, and a similar distance between second and third.   There being no invitation half mile or relay, he was not present at the Celtic FC Sports the following week.   The season was to all intents and purposes finished.

In 1923 on 2nd June CB Mein was again in action at Hampden in the Queen’s Park Sports and running in the inter-city relay.   Edinburgh was beaten by Glasgow and Mein faced Duncan McPhee on the half mile. stage.   With Eric Liddell running only a furlong, the Edinburgh team was beaten by six yards.   On the Saturday before the championships (16th June), Mein turned out in the joint Hibernian FC and Edinburgh Harriers Sports in the 880 yards off 15 yards to Charlie Freshwater (Clydesdale Harriers, 35 yards) who won in 2:01 with Duncan McPhee out of the prizes.   In the championship itself, held at Parkhead, McPhee won in 2:01 from CS Brown with CB Mein in third place.    Mein’s time was estimated at 2:01.8 and all three were selected for the Irish International.   The following week, he favoured neither the Glasgow Police Sports nor the joint meeting in Edinburgh.   He did turn out in mid-July (11th) at West Meadows  in both 440 yards and 880 yards, winning both in times of 53.8 seconds and 2:06.0.

 The triangular contest between Scotland, Ireland and England was on the 14th July and although selected as half mile reserve he did not actually run.

1924 would be another good year for Mein and it was the year in which the Scottish Board of Control recognising his record over the half-mile distance, made him a scratch man for the purposes of handicap racing.   It maybe made life a bit more difficult for prize-winning purposes but was a mark of the progress that he had undoubtedly been making as a runner and of the esteem in which he was held.   He started the season at Daniel Stewart’s College Sports at Inverleith in Edinburgh by winning the open mile handicap in 4:37.4, running off 65 yards he had overtaken the field by the end of the second lap.   He also ran 2:04.8 half mile from scratch at the same meeting.     The Queen’s Park FC meeting was held on 7th June and the club had organised the ‘Olympic Trials’ as an addition to the programme – however they turned out to be almost a fiasco because of the “absence of such prominent runners as EH Liddell, WR Milligan, CB Mein, A Valentine and Duncan McPhee.”    

The SAAA Championships in 1924 were held on 14th June at Hampden Park.   Two of those named above as by-passing the race at Queen’s Park Sports lined up in the half-mile and the finishing order was 1.   D McCrae (2:00.8), 2.  CB Mein;  3.  WR Milligan.   Mein’s time was estimated at 2:2:01.4.   At the very end of June there was an 880 at West Meadows which he won in 2:05.0.   On 12th July, in a half-mile from scratch he was beaten by JF Donaldson (off 58 yards) in 2:01.5 at the Edinburgh Inter-Works Meeting at Craiglockhart.   Just four days later, he ran in the Mile Medley Relay at Inverleith as part of the winning team but the following day he was chosen as part of a Scottish team to meet Canada at Cappielow, the Greenock Morton FC ground.

Mein was part of a three man group of Scottish half milers who were sent to the AAA’s championships that year – Duncan McPhee and Donald Macrae being the others.   Mein ran 1:59.2 to finish second , three yards behind Cecil Griffiths, the holder, in the first of four heats but with only six going through to the final, the four heat winners and the two fastest losers, he  was unlucky not to make the final.   He did however get a AAA’s standard medal.

The other representative in the half-mile against Canada was Donald Macrae, and Mein was also listed as a reserve for the Medley Relay.   Mein represented Scotland in the half mile in international against the Canadians at Cappielow on 26.07.1924.    1924 was Olympic year and in consequence there was no Irish or triangular international but the Canadian match was a more than adequate substitute!   Scoring in the international was by the simple method of comparing the number of victories by each country.   Canada won by five events to four, but the outstanding Scot was Eric Liddell who ran in the 100, the 440 (which he won easily) and the relay.   Mein did his bit by winning the 880 yards from Macrae  in Second in 2:04.1 but Macrae was the chosen half-miler for the one mile relay  which was won by Scotland.   He finished off his season at a midweek meeting at Ibrox on 6th August where he was second in the 880 yards in an estimated 2:00.2 off 20 yards.

CB Mein winning a handicapMein winning the mile handicap at Stewart’s College in 1924

He started the 1925 season a bit later than usual with a double win at Goldenacre  on 2nd June – a 440 yards in 54.6 and an 880 yards in 2:14.5.   Neither of those would stretch him but he returned to serious competition at the end of that same week.   On 6th June, he returned to the QPFC Sports at Hampden as part of an Edinburgh team that not only won, but also set a new record for the mile medley relay.   The report read:   “Glasgow’s chance was hopeless here from the completion of the first section as CB Mein defeated RB McIntyre by three yards and FB Wardlaw and AF Clarke gave so little away in the two furlongs that Macrae, the Glasgow man, was asked to concede a yard to Liddell when the quarter was entered upon.   McIntyre’s failure was unexpected in view of his recent good form, but he had run previously in the invitation half which he won in comparatively slow time, and apparently this effort had taken too much out of him.   At least Mein had no difficulty in shaking off his challenge when the pair settled down to race.”    The winning time was 3:30.8 – 0.2 better than the previous best set by Edinburgh University in 1922.

But on 20th June, when the Glasgow Police Sports were a great success before a big crowd in good weather, Mein chose to run at Powderhall at an Edinburgh Southern Harriers Meeting, He set a new Scottish record.  “Further distinction was lent to the meeting by the creation of a new record, CB Mein cutting three-fifths off the previous best native time for the half-mile. ”     He ran 1:57.8 from scratch and finished second.    Alex Wilson comments: “Mein broke the Scottish native record jointly held by R Burton and J T Souttar. It stood until 16.08.1932 when it was broken by Bobby Graham and Walter Calderwood at Helenvale (both 1:55.8)”    Four days later  –  his third race in eight days – he won the East District half-mile championship, which was included in the programme of the Edinburgh Pharmacy Sports,  in 2:06.4 at Powderhall.    In the East District Relay Championships. Mein gave his side a good lead on the opening half mile leg in the mile relay, but with Eric Liddell on the final leg, EUAC romped home by six yards from Edinburgh Northern and Edinburgh Harriers.

Then just three days later – 27th June, 1925 – in the SAAA Championships at Hampden, he won the national title.   The ‘Glasgow Herald’ report read:

“In the half-mile Donald Macrae, the holder, was never prominent and the real fight was between CB Mein and RB McIntyre.   The west man set a pace at the bell which he was not able to maintain and passing the stand it was clear to see that Mein had the race in hand.   He passed the tape in 2 min 3-5th sec, six yards ahead of WH Graham, the Inter-University champion, who came  with a fine burst of speed in the finishing straight to deprive McIntyre of second place.   It was the best race Graham has done in public and he was timed as doing 2 min 2 sec.”   Mein and Graham were both selected for the triangular match on 12th July but they did not run well and were both unplaced.

His first race in July however was in the joint meeting with Heart of Midlothian where he won his heat of the half-mile (2:03.2) and then did not run in the final because ‘he did not feel well enough to run again’.   His last race of the year was the triangular contest on 12th July, mentioned above, and he missed subsequent meetings such as the Rangers Sports and the Celtic Sports that he had previously attended.

It had been a superb season for the man who served in the War, saw active service and collected an enemy bullet before he was 20 years old; who then resumed his studies, ran internationally for Ireland and Scotland, and who in 1925 set a Scottish record for the half mile, won the SAAA championship and won the international against Canada.

He had also crammed a series of races into a very short period that encompassed his record and title races, and 1926 was to see little if any let up from that furious competition.   He started on 2nd June at Inverleith in Edinburgh, as he had done two years earlier, by winning the half-mile in 2:10.4 before heading to Hampden on the 5th June for the Queen’s Park FC Sports.   Mein had dropped out of the inter-city relay due to stitch and he was ‘clearly defeated’ on the first stage of the relay by Tom Riddell who had been second in the invitation 880.   Three days later it was back to Goldenacre where he won the 440 and 880 in 53.5 seconds and 2:13.2   –  four races in seven days.   On 12th June he ran in the half-mile at Corstorphine Sports, making it five races in ten days, but perhaps unsurprisingly was unplaced in the handicap.

On On Tuesday, 15th June, the first Eastern District Championships were held at Powderhall and Mein was the winner of the half-mile again in 2:06.8.   A District title sounds good but there were only two runners forward for the 880 and Mein won ‘by fully 25 yards’.   But to use a modern expression, there was a new kid on the block in Edinburgh and Scotland as far as half-miling was concerned and that was Hugh Maingay who had arrived a Edinburgh University.   In the East District championship medley relay, Maingay was reported as having held his own with Mein on the opening leg, with  Edinburgh University AC winning comfortablyOn 23rd June, 1926, at the Edinburgh Pharmacy AC meeting, Mein gave Edinburgh Harriers a good lead on the opening leg over D McCrae (Motherwell) and H Maingay (EUAC) but it was not good enough and the University squad emerged triumphant with Maryhill Harriers second.   The SAAA Championships were held at the end of the week at Hampden on 26th June and Mein was entered in the half-mile.   The result was a win for WR SEagrove from Tom Riddell.   The defending champion, Mein, ‘was never concerned with the issue’ and actually gave up 20 yards from the finish.   The following Tuesday however, he ran in his club’s own meeting and won the half mile race in 2:05.0.

The meeting was a contest between his club, Edinburgh Harriers, and Edinburgh Southern Harriers, Edinburgh Northern Harriers and Heriot’s Cross-Country team.   Edinburgh Harriers was the oldest club in the capital, having been founded in 1885, second only to Clydesdale Harriers as Scotland’s first open athletics club, but it was not the only club in the area by a long chalk and in the long term Edinburgh Southern retained their identity longest as a separate club.   After a series of mergers, several clubs (Braidburn, Edinburgh Eastern and others) linked together to form Edinburgh AC in 1962.   In the twenty first century, both EAC and ESH linked up to form City of Edinburgh.   When Mein was running however the battle was between ESH and EH for strongest club in the city.

The selectors had chosen WR Seagrove and DG Love to represent Scotland in the half mile at the triangular contest 10th July, with Mein as reserve.  Seagrove finished second but neither Love nor Mein turned out – the second string for Scotland was the unplaced WH Graham.

1926 was Mein’s last season competitive season.  He had had a good career and done well in and for the sport but like many good athletes, he stayed on in the sport as an official.   This led to his ‘last season’ being not quite his last season.

The following year, on 4th June, acting as an official at the Queen’s Park FC meeting at Hampden Park, he stood in for the absent Hugh Maingay in the inter-city relay race.   The report spoke of the disappointment at the withdrawal of HC Maingay from the Edinburgh team, and said “CB Mein who sportingly stepped into the vacancy, was obviously not fit and accordingly quite unable to hold RB McIntyre who ran the half for Glasgow.”   He couldn’t have been too unfit as the race was only won by 12 yards.

What happened next?   Alex Wilson tells us that Mein subsequently moved south to York and took up an actuarial post at the Yorkshire Insurance Company, where he remained until his retirement.   He died in York in 1967 after a long battle with abdominal illness.

 

 

Queen’s Park Sports: 1926 – 30

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 Donald McLean, headshot

Maryhill’s Donald MacLean

The brief review of the Sports held on 5th June 1926 read:

The annual sports meeting of the Queen’s Park Football Club was held at Hampden Park, Glasgow on Saturday, afternoon in brilliant sunshine before an attendance of about 7000.   The feature of the meting was the fine running of TM Riddell who finished second in the invitation half-mile and defeated CB Mein in the inter-city relay race.   For the first time for several years, Glasgow was successful in this event.   The other invitation events were also productive of good racing.”

All well and good but a bit short on detail.   To take the above events in order, Riddell was running in the invitation half-mile which was a handicap race.   The race was won by L Campbell, Maryhill Harriers, who was off 52 yards and was timed at 1:52.6.   In the relay he clearly defeated CB Mein reigning SAAA Half-mile champion who had dropped out of the invitation race with a stitch.  Despite running well enough in the relay, Mein was six yards down on Riddell.   Unofficially timed at 1:57.4 for the distance it was clear that Riddell was in very good form.   Glasgow never lost the lead in the relay.   The other invitation events referred to were a 220 yards, where the first two places went to A Kennedy and A Fraser (both Edinburgh Northern), and the two miles team race which went to Caledonia AC.   This latter was a ‘club of champions’ formed by Dunky Wright – he had started his career with Clydesdale Harriers, moved to Shettleston Harriers, formed Caledonia which like all ‘clubs of champions’ had a short shelf-life, before finally joining Maryhill Harriers.   While it existed it was a good club and in this race they won by 4 points from Maryhill.   Individual positions were – 1.   WH Calderwood (Maryhill);  2.  F Stevenson (Monkland);  3.  C Freshwater (Caledonia);  4.  D Wright (Caledonia).   Freshwater was a Scottish international cross-country runner who joined Caledonia from Clydesdale Harriers.

The meeting on 4th June 1927 was not as lucky with the weather and, consequently, the attendance was down.   With heavy conditions underfoot and before a crowd of about 4000, the times were consequently not as good, but the Glasgow Herald commented, “The sport throughout was interesting.”   The highlight was apparently the running of RB Hoole who won the special   440 yards in 51.8 seconds by two yards.   His form prior to the meeting had not been good but he fought all the way to defeat RT Hollinger of Plebeian Harriers.   JD Hope, the champion,was ‘of a build not suited to the conditions, better suited to calm than storm’.

The two miles team race was a three mile team race – a seldom raced distance – in which Maryhill defeated Monkland by only one point, with the decision being taken on the position of the third man in each team.   The statement that It was all the more regrettable, therefore, that the race should have been marred by a series of incidents which were, to say the least, not creditable to the runners concerned.   It was all the more welcome that the winner, Donald McLean the Maryhill Harrier, was not in the trouble, and his win was decisive enough to suggest that he is a strong candidate for a title at the championships three weeks hence.”    Intriguing!

The other main event was the Mile medley relay which was won by Glasgow’s team of RB McIntyre, DD Burns, R McLean and JD Hope.   HC Maingay was not able to run in the half-mile for Edinburgh and CB Mein stepped into the team but was not properly fit and totally unable to hold McIntyre which made the task of the next three runners just too difficult.

D McPhee WoSH 1914Duncan McPhee

The following year was one where the first Saturday of June had two biggish meetings – an inter-university championship where the star of the show was Hugh Maingay, and the first of a series of inter-club matches organised by St Peter’s AC.   No meeting by Queen’s Park that weekend and the following week was one where all events were rained off except for the Singer’s Sports Gala at Clydebank and the Glasgow University OTC meeting.   There was also one at far away Hawick but nothing at Hampden.

1st June 1929 saw an attempt on the Scottish native record for two miles at the Queen’s Park FC Sports.   A special handicap had been set up for him to go for it with the talented WJ Gunn of Plebeian off 85 yards.   Gunn won in 9:32.2 with Suttie Smith, who started rather lethargically before getting into his rhythm, 2.6 seconds worse than the record of 9:31.   In the One Mile relay Beith Harriers defeated Maryhill Harriers.

*

In 1930, the event took place on 7th June and the report read

“GOOD TIMES REVISITED

The annual meeting of the Queen’s Park Football Club was held at Hampden Park on Saturday afternoon in fine weather and before 5000 spectators.   Performances and times were good throughout, Donald McLean, W McLaughlin and FW Brown putting up the outstanding efforts among the backmarkers.    McLean finished first in the Two Miles team race, McLaughlin was second in the 220 yards, and Brown third in the 100 yards.   James Crawford and R Hamilton, the Scottish short distance champions, took part in the sprint but did not survive their Heats.   In the High Jump, KM Smith cleared 5′ 8″ but did not get in the prize list.   At the close the prizes were presented by Mrs Logan, wife of Mr H Logan, ex-President of the club. “

That  short report shows already several differences from the present day – Imperial measurements rather than decimal, handicaps which are rare in the present day, prizes awarded publicly at the end of the meeting rather than being collected by the athlete but there is one similarity in the importance being attached to the prizes.   Results:

100 yards:    1.   AD Turner (Maryhill Harriers 4 yards);   2.   RM Rintoul (Shettleston Harriers 7.5);   3.   FW Brown (West of Scotland Harriers  2).   Winning Time: 10.0.   Won by a yard.

220 yards:   1.    W McRoberts (Maryhill 18 yards);   2.   W McLaughlin (Springburn Harriers 5);   3.   JJ Cameron (Glasgow Police AC 14).   22.6.   Won by inches.

880 yards:   1.   JR Donaldson (Edinburgh Northern 40 yards);   2.   J Mackell (Springburn 38);   3.   I Hamilton (Canon ASC 53).   1:58.0   Won by inches.

One Mile:   1.   SK Tombe (Plebeian Harriers  70 yards);   2.  ME Anderson (Shettleston Harriers  130);   3.   AC Montgomery (Springburn Harriers 123).  4:23.6.  Won by 5 yards.

Two Miles Team Race:   1.   Maryhill Harriers (D McLean 1, WH Calderwood 3, T Blakely 7);   2.   Plebeian Harriers (WJ Gunn 2, PJ Connolly 10, A Ingram 13).   e 9:39.6.   Won by 5 yards.

Road Race:   1.   D Wright (Maryhill Harriers) 1:15:13;   2.   D Robertson (Maryhill) 1:17:40;    3.   J Winnie (Hamilton Harriers)  1:19:03.   

There was also a 120 yards hurdles race, an inter-city relay, a high jump, an obstacle race and a 100 yards for Youths, as well as the almost obligatory 5-a-side football tournament which was won by Partick Thitsle who faced Celtic FC in the Final.