Admin – Page 64 – Anent Scottish Running

James P Shields

Posted on December 17, 2013 by Admin

“Jim was one of the four pillars of the club with Andy McMillan, Dan McDonald and John Morgan” (Alex Hylan)

Jim Shields in the centre

Jim is in the dead centre of this photograph taken in the late 1930’s in the basement of the Bruce Street Baths in Clydebank. behind and to the left of Little Johnny Morgan. Jim did not appear in many portrait pictures or photographs where he was the main focus, but he was always there and always in the background. Never a seeker of the limelight, he was one of the best and hardest workers in Scottish athletics at a time when it was blessed with hard working officials. He is included here partly because of that but also because his time in the sport covered the immediate pre-war period when numbers in all clubs were low and Committees had to work hard to keep the clubs going, and the post-war period when the sport was starting up again, and on through to the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh and beyond. His career is a kind of chronicle of the sport for that period.

Jim Shields joined Clydesdale Harriers in the 1930’s and was one of the men who kept the club ticking over during the hostilities. He started as an office bearer during the war when he was club assistant secretary in 1939, after the war he was treasurer from 1946, and finally secretary from 1967. You will note that both were serious working positions in the club and to my mind it was unfortunate that he did not ever occupy the position of club President. His brother Arthur was also an office bearer in the club

Jim was also one of the best and best known officials and administrators at National level in Scottish athletics. He officiated at local meetings, Championships, international fixtures and at the Commonwealth Games. As an administrator he would surely have been President of the SAAA had his job not sent him abroad when he was Vice President of the Scottish Amateur Athletics Association where he had also served on many sub committees. A lot of his correspondence, notebooks and some commemorative medals are included in the Clydesdale Harriers archive in the Clydebank Public Library which will soon be available to the public.

Having been a committee member before the war he first held high office in the club when he was elected secretary in 1944 and at the first post war AGM in September 1945 he read his first secretary’s report. In it he said “he thought the club was definitely round the corner on the way to a revival. There was now a membership of approximately 50 (excluding those in the services), about 18 of those being Juniors. Attendances at the track had been quite good and a lot more like normal times. We had managed to run a points competition for the Youths and the winner was Thomas Tait with 10 points ahead of Sam Wotherspoon on 9 points and two more on 8 points. As regards the season coming on he said the SCCA proposed a full programme of races and he hoped the club would manage to run some of the usual races and he hoped for a good turn out at training and at Saturday runs.” His career as an official would carry on from that point. More used to being treasurer he was elected to that post the following year.

Described by one of his contemporaries as ‘one who was always there, not much of a runner but always turned out to support the club’ and described by Alex Hylan as ‘a real nice man, Jim was always polite and helpful to the members.’ The club in this period were always thinking of ways to raise money and Alex, as Assistant Treasurer suggested that the club get a Co-operative Cheque Number. The Co-op had a system whereby regular shoppers had a number that they quoted when they made a purchase and received a receipt when they left the shop. At the end of the year, each member received a cash dividend depending on how much they spent and what the percentage was that year. Jim took it up with gusto. He would harangue the members to use the number for the benefit of the club. Jim Young apparently got into trouble with his Mum for using the Harriers number instead of the family number: they were short of cash too! The club made some money from the scheme though. Willie Wright bought all his training needs through the club number at the Co-op.

This picture taken just after the War shows Jim with a group of club members at Mountblow – Andy McMillan is at the left in the back row with John Morgan, who was in Burma during the War, standing on the right with Jim in the white shirt on the right of the back row. It is a remarkable photograph – taken on the spur of the moment with a simple box-camera immediately after the war with the sun shining, some of the men had been involved in the hostilities but the country had triumphed and spirits were high A contrast with the dreadful atmosphere after the first war.

Jim was the club representative on the new Dunbartonshire Amateur Athletic Association committee for many years but he was a regular and well-kent face on the National scene as well. He was the representative to the SAAA for several years and worked his way up to vice president and, as was the custom, would have been the next SAAA President when in 1961 he was sent by the Singer Factory to their plant in India. He had a very responsible position in Singer’s factory in Clydebank in the finance department. He was involved in the introduction of the Time and Motion Study System to the factory which was not a popular innovation at the time. When the Indian branch was opened up, Jim was the man who went and unfortunately missed out on the chance of the highest position in Scottish Athletics at the time. The ‘Clydebank Press’ reported “On Wednesday evening at the monthly committee meeting a little ceremony took place. Treasurer Jim Shields was present to say ‘au revoir’ to the club prior to his departure for India on behalf of the Singer Manufacturing Company for a period of possibly three years. President D Bowman in presenting him with a fountain pen as a token of esteem from club members said that Jim had served the club faithfully for 27 years. He was the perfect example of an enthusiastic club member, in his earlier days as an active club runner, for the past 17 years or so as first club secretary and then treasurer.

An additional job which he undertook was that of correspondent to the ‘Clydebank Press’ where readers will better know him as ‘The Whip’. Mr Shields in replying thanked him and the club and assured them that the Clydesdale Harriers would always take highest place in his affections. He also said that in his opinion we had one of the happiest clubs in the sport and as long as that spirit prevailed we would never fail.”

When he had successfully worked for the company in India and Iran, just like a multinational company, when he returned his job had been given to another and he was looking for work.

Jim was very quiet and never pushed himself forward but if we look at his record in it totality we get the following remarkable record of service to the club – and note that it does not include time spent as Assistant Treasurer or Assistant Secretary:

Year	Office	Year	Office
1939	Assistant Secretary	1957	Treasurer
1940	Secretary	1958	Treasurer
1941	Secretary	1959	Treasurer
1942	Secretary	1960	Treasurer
1943	Secretary	1961	Treasurer
1944	Secretary	1962	India
1945	Secretary	1963	India
1946	Treasurer	1964	India
1947	Treasurer	1965	India
1948	Treasurer	1966	India
1949	Treasurer	1967	India
1950	General Committee	1968	Secretary
1951	General Committee	1969	Secretary
1952	General Committee	1970	Secretary
1953	Treasurer	1971	Secretary
1954	Treasurer	1972	Secretary
1955	Treasurer	1973	Secretary
1956	Treasurer	1974+	General Committee

Almost immediately on his return he was warmly welcomed back into the club – and on to the Committee for second stint as Secretary. The lesson for all future Committee Members is maybe not to do a job too well or it’s yours for good! The War Time Committee went on to organise a series of top class events and James P Shields was involved with every one of them. When the SAAA held the international cross-country championships in Clydebank in 1969, Clydesdale Harriers was seriously involved and Jim was one of the men who helped make it so. But the club was also involved in bringing to Clydebank such events as the Scottish Schools championships, the British Schools Cross-Country Championship, the Scottish Women’s Cross-Country Championships and and the Scottish Veterans Cross-Country Championships. Jim was a lynch pin in the organisation of those.

On the track,he officiated at both Edinburgh Commonwealth Games, at several International and Invitation Meetings across Scotland and was at almost every track and field sports meeting or amateur highland games held in the country at one time or another – at many of them he was an annual fixture.

A good and conscientious club man and a superb administrator, the club was fortunate to have Jim as a member. Even after he ceased work on the Committee through illness he still came to several club races and there were also donations to the club for many years.

In the picture below, taken at Whitecrook in the 1970’s, Jim is on the right with Jimmy Young (left) and Frank Gemmell at Whitecrook running track. All three were top class officials at local and national level – Frank sorted out the cross-country trails for all the major races, including the 1969 international and officiated in the Games while Jim was club president when the Schools and other internationals came to Clydebank and also worked at the Commonwealth Games.

Two Bridges Results Booklet

Posted on December 15, 2013 by Admin

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Raymond Hutcheson

Posted on December 14, 2013 by Admin

Raymond on the right with his friend and fellow time-keeper Cecil McPherson

I first met Raymond at the SAAA Championships in 1966. We both got off the train at Grangemouth at the same time, and although we didn’t know each other we fell into conversation and made our way to the Stadium together. He had his haversack over his shoulder and I was to become familiar with the sight of Raymond with that rucksack over the years to come. We weren’t great friends, we met too seldom for that, but Raymond got on well with everybody and I was to find out in the course of many conversations of his mountaineering and hill-walking (he climbed the Munroes twice!) and railway walking – he was interested when I moved to Lochearnhead because of the many old railway lines up here. Born in 1930, he died in 2007 at the age of 77. What follows is a personal tribute from one of his closest friends and colleagues, Graham McDonald.

“My early memories of Raymond were about 1957 at Inter Club Meetings when Pitreavie AAC hosted many enjoyable friendly evening matches with Larbert AC, Tillicoultry & Hillfoots AC, St Modans AC as well as some of the Edinburgh clubs at the then very new cinder track at Pitreavie.

Raymond came through to do the timekeeping with Larbert AC where his friend Bert Allan tells me he had been a member since least 1948. Our club secretary was always pleased to see that Raymond had arrived because that solved the problem of having a good timekeeper.

However, I kept embarrassing him about one of the sprint relay races where there was a very close finish with Larbert just pipping Pitreavie. I was sure we must have beaten our club record but he had been so excited that his team won that he forgot to stop his watch on us. He kept apologising for many years.

Raymond did compete at club level for a while but became more interested in timekeeping. Although not an official SAAA timekeeper at the time, his enquiring mind soon had him questioning the accuracy of times being returned by official SAAA timekeepers at some meetings.

After he became an official SAAA timekeeper he was concerned that there were no tests or exams for timekeepers in Scotland. Raymond got himself down to England to find out how the AAA conducted their timekeepers’ tests under their timekeeping guru Harry Hathaway who had written the AAA guide to ‘Timekeeping’.

I well remember in Oct ’72 when I working down south and had been persuaded to take a timekeeping test at Motspur Park, Raymond arrived on the overnight sleeper to take the test. He had already done the test the previous year but he wanted to take it again to make sure he was keeping up to standard

With support of others, he was instrumental in starting training courses, and introducing testing and grading of timekeepers in Scotland. When timekeepers wanted to buy a good quality stopwatch, they were told by their colleagues ‘see Raymond’ and he would advise on the best watches available and arrange the purchase for them.

He was Chief Timekeeper at many on the major meetings in Scotland at Meadowbank and Kelvin Hall as well often being invited to officiate at Internationals at Crystal Palace. He officiated at the 1970 and 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.

He had become involved in organising the first Scottish Men’s T&F League in the ‘60s and tried to get a Scottish Inter Counties T&F Championships off the ground around the same time but he didn’t get much support for the latter it only lasted a couple of years.

One incident of controversy he was involved in was at Kelvin Hall when it was thought that Colin Jackson had broken the World Record for the 60m Hurdles and it was reported throughout the media. Raymond’s drive for accuracy made him re-check the photo-finish film several times which showed that Jackson had equalled the record, not broken it. BBC news bulletins later in the evening had to retract their earlier reports.

Raymond told me he received an irate phone call at home from Tony Ward after midnight.

When the early photofinish camera systems were introduced he became an expert in setting up and operating them. They were just ‘up his street ‘as it were. Being an Industrial Chemist with ICI in his working life and interested in photography he was in his element mixing up the chemicals in his white lab coat. However, the electrical connections in the system did not always work properly – not much change there – so Raymond was often heard to apply the high tech solution ‘gie it a dunt, Jim’ and that solved the problem.

One story he told against himself was when reading the time off the photo-finish film of a ladies race, he had lined up the cursor against the ladies knee until a colleague informed him where the ladies torso was. His excuse was that he was a bachelor!

The Two Bridges Race.

This was the Ultra 36 mile Road Race starting in Dunfermline’s Pittencrieff Park and routed through Fife , over Kincardine Bridge, Grangemouth, Bo’ness and back over the Forth Road Bridge finishing in Rosyth as the Civil Service Club.

This became a major annual event for Raymond. He was Chief Timekeeper from the time it started in 1968 till its untimely demise in 2005. He also measured the course each year on his bicycle to make sure check on any new road works which might have affected distances.

The map of the course given to his timekeepers gave the precise location of each point to the nearest lamp post or manhole cover.

For 38 years he organised his team of timekeepers and recorders and after each race produced a booklet of results with photographs which contained not only the finishing times of each runner but also their 5 & 10 mile splits, average pace/mile, marathon time, course record times and past winners. Every competitor and official was sent a copy.

The Two Bridges became a social event for his loyal team and the date was one of the first to be pencilled in the diary each year.

Quiet and unassuming he gained the respect of the athletes and his fellow officials. He was meticulous in every way. For instance, Colin Shields tells me that Raymond attended the Olympics in London in 1948 and he wrote down every performance of every event for every competitor including wind speeds.

Although the modern term carbon footprint would be an unfamiliar to him, he must have had one of the lowest. He travelled everywhere by public transport. Who can forget the bundle of timetables he would pull out of his rucksack.

Outside of athletics, he was an avid lover of the outdoor life and the Scottish Mountains.

The first weekend of every month was walking weekend. He had climbed all the Munro’s and later on had started walking and collating notes and details about the old abandoned railway lines.

The Sport of Athletics should be grateful for the personal dedication Raymond gave to it but for most of us I guess that the most important thing is that it was our privilege to have known him. We are all the poorer for his passing.”

That is Graham’s appreciation of and tribute to Raymond which gives a full account of his career as a timekeeper and of Raymond’s many interests. There was some extra information in the obituary in The Scotsman and I will quote some of it here. There will be some duplication, but I’ll try to keep it to a minimum.

“RAYMOND Hutcheson was a modest, unassuming Falkirk man who built a formidable reputation for his expertise, diligence and knowledge in a wide range of disciplines. His working life was spent at ICI Grangemouth, where he was an integral member of the lab team, working initially on research into dyes and pigments, and latterly on the testing, trials and development of new products.

As a teenager, Raymond’s interest in science led him to build a laboratory in the family home at Kersehill, Falkirk. There, he would conduct experiments and learned how to develop his own photographs, a skill which would later serve him well in his role as an athletics photo-finish expert.

Raymond had a passion for the outdoors. His love of the Scottish hills was deep, and at an early age he joined the Scotsman Mountaineering Club, which in time became the Ptarmigan MC, with Raymond variously acting as club secretary and archivist. He attained the status of Munroist in 1980 – an achievement all the more impressive since he never held a driving licence, travelling to the remotest corners of Scotland on foot, bicycle or public transport.

He was enthusiastic and knowledgeable about trains, and active in many train-related societies, including the Railway Ramblers, a hardy bunch whose aim is to locate and walk the routes of abandoned railway lines.

Raymond was also the first-call for road-race measurement duties, a thankless but nevertheless vital task, if race times and distances are to be accurate. He became a kenspeckle if not downright suspicious figure who was sometimes approached, or escorted, by the police in the wee small hours while undertaking these measurements on his bicycle, when the roads were quiet.

He insisted on using solid rubber tyres for this task, an uncomfortable option, but Raymond did not want his measurements compromised by inaccuracies, however minute, caused by pneumatic tyres contracting and expanding due to temperature changes.

He was chief timekeeper for the Two Bridges Ultra 36-mile road race from its inception until its demise in 2005. For 38 years he organised his team of timekeepers and recorders, and after each race he produced a booklet of results. Every competitor and official received a copy of this booklet.

In 2004 Raymond received a lifetime award for services to Scottish Athletics.

In conclusion an example of Raymond’s standing in Scottish Athletics. In the early 1980s the Tom Stillie Memorial Trophy was donated by the family of a long serving Borders official. It was to be awarded each year to the person considered to have contributed most to Scottish Athletics. The first recipient of the award was Alan Wells the Olympic 100 metres Champion. The following year it was awarded to Raymond Hutcheson.

I would like to add just a few comments of my own. The Two Bridges race was a genuine classic and it was a serious loss to Scottish athletics when it went. Runners came from all over the world – from the old world (with runners from several European countries running), from the new world (many good Americans took part too) as well as from the Antipodes and even Africa. They came from all over the British Isles and the runners from Tipton, Wakefield, Bolton and Leamington came among many others. It was also a social weekend and many lifelong friendships were made. Raymond and Graham were among those who made it so special. Raymond’s results booklet was a wonderful creation – most would never have attempted it, some might have done it for a few years, but Raymond did it year after year after year. He would remark to Graham after the race that he was away to wrap a wet towel round his head! I will put one up in its entirety as a separate Gallery accessible from the Galleries page here.

Raymond was also very approachable – there are officials who never reply to questions from runners or coaches during the afternoon, there are many more who are quite friendly and if approached in a civil manner will give them what information they can, some are notoriously irascible but Raymond was never like that. Helpful at all times – I took a new sprint coach up into the photo-finish box at Kelvin Hall so that he could see what went on there and ask for a copy of the photo of the finish of the last 60m race: the photo was produced very quickly and with a pleasant manner. That was always his way.

The 1975 Record Booklet can be seen via the Galleries page of this website.

Molly, Aileen, Helen and Barbara

Posted on December 12, 2013 by Admin

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Some E-G Pictures

Posted on December 8, 2013 by Admin

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John Morgan

Posted on December 2, 2013 by Admin

John Morgan standing on the right.

Johnny Morgan, who joined Clydesdale Harriers in season 1936/37, was always easy to recognise because of his very small stature. He maybe had to look up to Harry Fenion. However his contribution was immense at a time when many such as Andy McMillan, James P Shields and David Bowman were also making big contributions. John was one of the most respected men in the club when I signed up in 1957. Like so many good club men of whatever outfit, he did some running but his main contribution to the club was as an official, an organiser and a coach – he was also the recognised club starter. The club records for the period 1936 – 1939 have him turning out in only six races. In October 1936 he was eleventh of eleven in the club Novice Championships, in October 1937 it was the same position (11^th of 11), December 1937 he was twenty fourth of twenty four in the 5 Miles Handicap, on 25^th December 1937 he was sixteenth of thirty in the Christmas Handicap, a year later he was fourteenth of 21 in the Christmas Handicap and in February 1939 he was sixteenth of twenty in the Seven Mile Handicap. After the war started he was tenth of fourteen in the 1940 Christmas Handicap and that was his last race until he went into the Army in 1942. What he was to do for the club and for athletics generally after the War cannot be over-estimated.

John was club secretary from 1939/40 to 1942/43 and 1946/47 to 1950/51. The two spells in office were broken by his war time service in the Army. John served in Burma with the Chindits so must have seen a lot of the action. The Chindits were the Indian Division of the British Army in World War II and carried out guerrilla warfare on the Japanese in Burma (now Myanmar) under the command Brigadier General Orde Wingate. The name came from the mythical beast half lion/half eagle that was placed at the entrance to Burmese temples to scare away evil spirits. He also contracted malaria there and as is the case with the disease suffered off and on afterwards from recurrences. Many other local athletes also served in the Far East: one of these was Alex Kidd a member of Garscube Harriers and well known and respected throughout Scotland. He also came home suffering from malaria and although they made light of it, the disease had to be respected and showed itself from time to time. After one race on a particularly bad day at the Woodilee Mental Asylum (as it was called at that time) in Lenzie, the Changing Room became flooded because of a burst pipe. Alex was lying on a bench shivering and shaking and as the others all scrambled out with their clothes and gear leaving him there, he was saying, “it’s all right – it’s just the malaria!”

Although John joined the club as a runner he ran mainly in pack runs and inter club fixtures with no major trophies to his name. His racing record has already been detailed. His running after the War was seriously affected by the malaria but he used to turn out every now and then with Andy McMillan, James P Shields, Dan McDonald and Jim Murphy just for a run. In my time in the club he was best known as the official club starter and kept the two guns and ammunition at his house. He was an ever present at club fixtures and championships whether track, road or cross country

His big contribution to the club and to the sport was as an administrator and official. He attended a few committee meetings in the 1930’s before he was elected as club secretary a mere three years after joining the club. This was not simply because no one else was capable of doing the job or wanted to do the job – it was because he was recognised as being a good administrator. Came the war and he was elected as secretary to the war time committee whose job was to keep the club in good order until the cessation of hostilities. He worked well in the job and only left the committee when his Army Service took him off to Burma. This service left him as already noted with malaria and he had to take quinine for the rest of his life. One story is that when he said he would have to go home to have some quinine, the others remarked that he meant “Queen Anne” which was a type of whisky.

As soon as he was back home, it was not long before he was back on to the committee and his second spell in the hot seat was possibly his best. The club race results book opens a new page with the following:

SEASON 1946-47

In which it is hoped to carry out our full

Pre-war runs programme.

(John Morgan, Secy)

He was not only on the club committee but he was a member of the County Association and served on the Committee of the SAAA – the governing body of the sport in Scotland. He not only sat on the Committee of the Dunbartonshire AAA’s but was one of the pioneers of the organisation and the club representative in the setting up of the association. In addition to his committee work he did a lot of coaching and was the club’s official starter. He had two guns of his own and the ammunition was supplied by the club. The part he played in the organisation of the Clydesdale Harriers Youth Ballot Team Race when it started up in 1947 was such that the trophy awarded to the winner was named the Johnny Morgan Trophy and it is still in the club’s possession. The picture below is of Eddie Sinclair winning the Johnny Morgan Trophy.

Eddie Sinclair winning the Clydesdale Youth race, 1954

At that time he was always very helpful to the younger committee members and Alex Hylan said that he would come before the meetings and ask if he, in whatever capacity, needed any help in preparing for meetings. John also donated the Zetland Trophy for the Ladies Track Championship and named it after the Zetland Estate where his parents worked – the earldom of Zetland was created in 1838 for Laurence Dundas (of Port Dundas fame).

In the mid 1950’s the club had a quite superb Ladies Section with many first class athletes including not only Scottish but also British champions and international athletes. The section was led by Jean Struthers and John was the main coach. Then in the late 1950’s Tom and May Williamson formed a new club to be called Western AAC and it would be based at Kirklee in Glasgow. They attracted girls from all clubs and the effect on several clubs in Glasgow (Springburn Harriers Ladies, Bellahouston Harriers Ladies and Clydesdale for instance) was devastating. When one of the best runners in Bellahouston Harriers joined up with Western, she was asked by her regular training partners in Maryhill Harriers Ladies why she had not joined them if she was leaving Bellahouston. Her reply was that they had never asked her! Virtually all the Clydesdale Ladies left en bloc to join this attempt to form a ‘club of champions’. These outfits keep appearing – Sans Unkles’ and Dunky Wright’s Caledonia AC, the Robson brothers and their Edinburgh/Reebok/Leslie Deans/Mizuno Racing Club and so on – and seldom last long. The damage inflicted on other clubs is at times considerable. John Morgan was so upset that he gave up coaching on the spot and another coach had to be found. He stayed to work for the club at Committee level and as starter and timekeeper at club and county races.

Runner, committee man, coach, official club starter – and one of the first class group of men who kept the club functioning after the war. When he died in November 1967 the ‘Clydebank Press’ said: It is with deep regret that I have to announce the death of Mr John Morgan one of our older members. Johnny as he was known to young and old alike served the club well in many official positions since the War and although he was dogged by illness in recent years he still turned out as an official SAAA starter when needed. His services were not limited to Harriers activities as he was well known for the help he gave to local schools and Youth organisations and often at considerable expense to himself. We in the club will miss Johnny greatly and extend our deepest sympathy to his family.”

George McCrae

Posted on December 2, 2013 by Admin

George McCrae

Alastair Douglas (Victoria Park) was one of the best Scottish runners of his generation and he got in touch about one of his relatives who was a professional runner in the early 20th century. His name as a ped was George McCrae. Many, if not all professional runners used false names right up to fairly recent times: not as glamorous as in the 18th or 19th centuries when they used false names and had nicknames such as the Gateshead Clipper or Crowcatcher. Read on until the final paragraph where some information from Alex Wilson, a real student of the period, in included. Alastair continues with the story:

“George McCrae was a postman from Banknock who was one of the best distance runners of his time – he was running at the time of the First World War and the 1920’s and he held the title of World Professional 10 Mile champion. His real name was Gavin Sorbie and he was born in 1893. During the war he was working in the mines, which explained the fact that he was not overseas on war duty. He was a professional long distance runner, although a lot of the best distance runners were amateur. He used to compete in front of huge crowds although the crowd was sometimes there for a football match. People would place bets on the outcome of races between these ‘pedestrians’. He was the first Scottish winner of the Powderhall Marathon and was champion 6 times. Powderhall was a famous professional athletics meeting in Edinburgh and the ‘Marathon’ was actually a 10 or 15 mile track race. He also competed in many handicap events (usually from scratch) and in several head-to-head encounters, often over 10 miles, against other British or European long distance running stars.

Lining up against RE Cole of England at the start of a 10 miles championship at Powderhall Grounds on August 2nd, 1924. McCrae won in 52:39 to retain his title of “World Professional 10 Mile Champion”.

1918 was his best year in athletics. That year at Powderhall he broke the world professional 10 mile record (also breaking the 8 mile record during the same race.) The report on the race states that he would probably have broken the amateur record also if the financial inducements had been worthwhile! It was common practice in those days to take a competition name. Although most of the top runners of the day were amateur it sounds as if he was probably still one of the best distance runners in Britain, amateur or professional, at that time. His times are still respectable today. He ran his last race when he was about 30 and was forced to retire after an injury that I am sure he would have been treated for nowadays. Indeed he could have gone on in his 30’s to better his times. When he retired from athletics he became a football trainer with Heart of Midlothian FC and eventually died in 1971.”

Alastair also provided this link to a video clip which showed a brief glimpse of him winning the Powderhall Marathon in 1923 where he led from gun to tape beating Willie Kolehmainan of Finland (no relation to the 1912 Olympic champion) and Hans Holmer of the USA. His time was 1:20:30. www.britishpathe.com/video/powderhall-marathon/query/Edinburgh

George McCrae winning at Powderhall in 1915

There is a lot to interest us here including the reference to the fact that in 1918, after he set new world professional record, he could have broken the amateur record had the reward been high enough. ‘Peds’ went for the victory every time, after the money of course, the contest was the thing rather than the time hence the fact that in reports of many races no time was given. Reading about the amateur WG George racing the professional William Cummings from Paisley and other professional matches, once the opposition was broken, there was no need to push on too hard.. Alastair also mentions races where the principal attraction on the day was a football match. When I came in to the sport there were many athletics sports meetings at football grounds and they almost invariably included five a side football matches. In the very late 20th century, Frank Horwill of the BMC was claiming a first for having races held at half-time in big football matches.

Powderhall was a purely professional meeting and was the highlight of the year for most Scottish peds. All the best men turned out there and to win the championship there was a real mark of a man’s talent – George won six times! I well remember in the 1960’s many wanting a race between the Powderhall Champion Ricky Dunbar and the SAAA champion WM Campbell but it was not to be – amateurs could not race against pedestrians! In addition professionals used to on a ‘prep’ before the meeting. This often meant the runner going to stay with his coach or trainer for several weeks of concentrated preparation for the race: no food was consumed without the trainer having a spoonful first to ensure that it was cooked properly; it was bed at the same time every night (often as early as 9:00 pm); training two or three times a day and daily massage. It was said that a man after such a ‘prep’ had a glow about him when he removed his sweats or tracksuit; that he walked differently and had an air of confidence about him. There’s no evidence that McCrae did it but it is an indication of how seriously this meeting was taken.

Although this is a website dedicated to the amateur endurance athletes of Scotland, we have already a page dedicated to Paddy Cannon who was also a professional although slightly before McCrae’s time and it is felt that George McCrae is a worthy addition.. Finally, Alastair has been a VPAAC runner all his days, and although George was running before Victoria Park were, have a look at this picture

Alex Wilson from Fife, currently employed in Germany, who is writing a book about this period has this to say about George. “The Sorbies were a famous family of distance runners from Draffan and today Gavin, or George McCrae, is the best known of them. I believe that a Sorbie won the famous Red Hose Race in the mid 1800’s but I can’t say for sure. He was coached by his Dad who himself had apparently been quite a useful runner in his day. There are a couple of pictures of him in ‘Powderhall & Pedestrianism’ . He won the Powderhall Marathon for the first time in 1914 the distance then being 15 miles. The Evening News finally gave him a trophy to keep in 1919. His 10 mile world record of 50:55, set at Powderhall in 1918 was pretty amazing given the circumstances. He was lucky to have been in an essential occupation or he would have been running from bullets. He had a great race with John Lindsay in 1923, winning just yards from the finish. By 1926 the writing was on the wall and he was eclipsed among others by Allan Scally who never got anywhere near his times but who is better known today.” He went on to say, “Historically I’d put him down as the successor to William Cummings and Paddy Cannon and the last of the truly great Scottish professional distance runners. He had a very light frame and ran with a pitter-patter stride, a little reminiscent of Jm Dingwall. You can see that on the Pathe News film that Alastair recommended. He moved to Edinburgh and took up a coaching post with Hearts. Within a year of him taking up the reins, Hearts did the double against the Rangers in the League which back then was an amazing achievement. After George/Gavin quit running, his Dad emigrated to Canada and took up a coaching post there. After the War he ran a confectioner’s and tobacconist’s shop in Tynecastle with his son John.”

Michael Glen

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Admin

The professional running scene in Scotland threw up many excellent athletes who went unrecognised despite very good performances, usually on poor tracks of variable distances. Most of the better known ‘peds’ were sprinters such as Ricky Dunbar and George McNeill but many of the endurance runners were of a good standard – note how well Alastair Macfarlane performed when he switched codes in the late 1960’s. One of the very best was Michael Glen from Bathgate who would have been a top class runner in any era and in any company. I asked Alastair whether he had run against Michael and he replied:

“Indeed I did compete against him. I first competed at the professional games in 1965 when I was 19. At that time Michael was past his best but was something of a legend. He was holder of the World Professional Mile record at 4m 7s which he did on a grass track at Keswick on August 1st 1955. During my time as a professional Michael didn’t compete very often, I suppose because of his poor handicaps due to his reputation. He tended to run in scratch races and invitation short limit handicaps. I consider as one of my best ever races an invitation short limit mile handicap at Lauder in August 1968. I was off the back mark of 20yards and Michael was off 30. I was soon with him and we had a momentous struggle all the way to the tape as I won by a couple of yards. In July 1968 at Innerleithen, I paced Alan Simpson to a new Scottish record when he won the British Professional Mile Championship in 4m 9.2s. I took him to just beyond the half mile and I remember that Michael was furious with me afterwards for doing it! His brothers Jimmy, Eddie and Cornelious were all useful runners also. ” Clearly a top class athlete whose career deserves a closer look.

MICHAEL Glen was born in Bathgate in 1934 and still lives there in a street called Race Road. He comes from a family of runners and his brothers Jimmy, Eddie and Cornelius were all useful runners too. His running career began in 1944 when, aged 11, he won what was called a “boy’s marathon” at the Paulville Gala Day Sports at Bathgate and won a small amount of money. That made him a professional – it’s a story that was repeated many times in Scotland during the amateur era and many very good athletes were lost to the sport as a consequence. (Robert Reid could have been one lost who applied and got reintsatement as an amateur) The likes of Gus McCuaig and Alastair Macfarlane who were reinstated showed just some of the quality that was lost.

For 26 years, he competed the length of the country (but principally in the Borders and Lake District) in many, many of races on the track and also in some of the hill races that were fairly common in the professional meetings. He was undoubtedly the “king” of professional middle distance running. If we look at any of the records for the many Games he competed in, his name is studded all the way through. eg some of his performances in the records of the Jedburgh Meeting we get first in the Mile and in the two miles in 1955, first in the same two events in 1956 (two miles in 9:25.3 on a heavy grassy track) in 1956, won the British One Mile Championship in 1958 in 4:20.4. It should of course be noted that the nature of the tracks and the distance round them was almost always inferior to the 440 yard cinder tracks used by the amateurs. There were two results that emanated from his continued and high quality success. The first was that he became well known to althletics aficionados of both codes and the second was that he was marked man as far as the handicappers were concerned and was know to have started as much as 30 yards behind the scratch mark in handicap races so that there were occasions when his Mile time was for 1790 yards! A long Scots mile indeed.

Michael is third from the right in this group

What was his best ever run? Well, the article “Monarch of the Mile” by Jack Davidson in the “Scotsman” on 27th July, 2013 (an article worth reading in its entirety), says that “His “day of days” was at the Keswick Games in the Lake District when he set a new world and British professional mile record on grass. “That Bank Holiday meeting was a big event, part of the annual Keswick Show in Fitz Park in the town. Professional running was very popular in the Lake District and had a long tradition. There must have been over 20.000 people there that day – a great atmosphere!

“The grass track was just laid out for that event and had a slight rise towards the finishing line. I hadn’t set out specifically to beat the record but I’d been in good form. I was the backmarker off scratch conceding handicaps up to 250 yards to my 25 or so fellow competitors. I threaded my way through the field and crossed the line in 4min 7sec to set a new world and British record, beating the legendary Walter George’s mark of 4m 12sec set back in 1886.”

The obstacles posed by so many rivals and the deficiencies of a rudimentary grass track surely detracted from his performance?

“I reckon if it had been a proper track with a limited field of quality runners, including a pacemaker, I could have got the time down to about 4m 2 or 3sec.”

The top three Scotsmen in 1955 were 4:07.0, 4:07.8 and 4:13.2; in 1956 were 4:06.2, 4:07.6 and 4:08.6, in 1957 the men and their times were A Gordon (Achilles) 4:03.4, M Berisford (Sale) 4:04.8 and G Everett 4:05.3. That was the best of the decade which ended with 1959’s top three all timed at 4:06. Clearly not too far away. The GB Mile championship winning times were: 1954: Roger Bannister 4:07.6; 1955: Brian Hewson 4:05.4; 1956: Ken Wood 4:06.8; 1957: Brian Hewson 4:06.7; 1958: Graham Everett 4:06.4; 1959: Ken Wood 4:08.1. Even GB Championships were not too far away!

At about the same time, Ricky Dunbar was the top paid sprinter in the country and I remember another professional talking about the ‘preps’ tha the top runners had for major meetings, telling me that when Dunbar stripped off for a big race “he looked like Superman.” There was a suggestion that a head-to-head be arranged between Menzies Campbell and Dunbar to determine who was Scotland’s top sprinter and both men were ‘up for it’, as they say. The SAAA would not hear of it and that was that. Were similar challenges on for Glen? Whether or not there was, the answer would have been the same. As Davidson says in the article already quoted,

“I would have loved to have run against Bannister and in the Olympics but it was not to be. Discreet enquiries were made on my behalf after my Keswick record about me joining the amateurs, but the response was a curt “No”. You see, by then, I had been running as a professional for about 11 years.”

A local trainer, Jimmy Gibson, a friend of his dad, took him and some others under his wing and soon had them running at games across the country. As prizes were in cash, Michael and his young pals were all deemed professionals. In those days, there was a wide chasm separating the amateurs from the professionals, with the latter being unable to compete in big international events like the Olympics.

“I never really had any personal issues with the amateurs of the time. We trained in our groups and they trained in theirs. I knew some quite well, including Graeme Everett, the top Scottish amateur miler of the time. He was a fine lad. Another top amateur I got to know was the famous Gordon Pirie, who was also a smashing guy. He turned professional not long after the Rome Olympics and I actually ran against him – and beat him – at Jedburgh Games in 1962. We got talking about the amateur/ pro issue and, when I told him my level of winnings, he thought the “amateurs” did much better overall – first-class travel all over the world, all expenses paid and “bonuses” thrown in.”

So he went on doing what he enjoyed doing – all endurance runners, whatever their background, understand the compulsion to run. He ran in the Highland Gatherings in the North, on the Fife circuit, in some of the Midland events, at the Border Games and in the Lake District.

Brother John winning at Newtongrange in 1960

That was in the summer: what about the winter when Graham Everett and company were running in the short road relays and over the country? Another quote:

“In the winter, my main focus was on the Powderhall New Year events for which I would go on “special preparations” for six weeks at a time. In summer, on a good week, I could win up to about £60 or £70. Sometimes you’d also be paid petrol expenses and appearance money. It doesn’t sound much now, but then it was about two or three times a working man’s weekly wage. But competing and winning were the really important things for me. I just had to be the best, that was what drove me.

“I think I got that from my dad. He’d been a miner and instilled that will to win in me. My three brothers Neil, James and Edward, and my sister Mary were all good runners who had success at the games, but it was my will to win that made me better.”

“Special preparations” have been mentioned already and mean nothing to anyone not versed in the professional game. They were explained to me by a runner who had done several of them for Powderhall over the years. His version (and they were not all identical but followed the same general principal) lasted for two months when he went to live with his trainer. He trained twice or even three times a day, each session followed by a massage; there was a nap in the afternoon; his food would be specially prepared and tasted by the trainer before he was allowed to eat it; he would be in bed every night at 9:00 pm. The end point was to get the man to the starting line as ready to produce his very best as possible. (Any further information about the ‘preps’ would be well received) He won Powderhall twice.

I have spoken to several sources about Michael and they all say that he worked with Bernard Gallagher, the golfer, working on fitness training. In the late 1960’s Glen who had been self-coached formost of his career, begam a coaching career and in 1969 applied for and won a Churchill Fellowship Athletics Scholarship to travel to America to study coaching methods. The late 1960’s and into the 1970’s was a period when professional training methods were being looked at seriously by John Anderson and then Frank Dick and former professional athletes like Jimmy Bryce were being questioned about their methods and there is no doubt that professional training techniques were employed by Allan Wells on his way to Moscow in 1980. About the Churchill Scholarship he says, “That was a fantastic experience for three months in Los Angeles San Francisco and New York. I learned from top American coaches, including Olympic ones. Actually, at the end of my trip I was offered a coaching job in Los Angeles but family circumstances prevented me taking it.”

In 1969, he was invited down to the Guildhall in London where he was presented with the Churchill Fellowship Gold Medal by the Queen Mother. That completed a nice double for Michael as, in 1955, he had been presented to the Queen at Braemar Highland Games.

Brother Eddie winning Innerleithen Youths Mile in 1959

Michael, at 81 years old, had no active involvement in the sport, but still followed it closely. He was

Twice a winner at Powderhall,
winner of countless championships and races at Highland and Border Games,
14-times winner of the world’s oldest continuous foot race, the Red Hose at Carnwath, established by Royal Charter in 1508
and, of course, that Keswick race with his British record there still standing 58 years on.

During his career, the emphasis was on competing and winning, often as many as four track races and a hill race the same day. As a result, times suffered. There was no opportunity to “peak” to achieve a special time in one particular race, nor were there pacemakers to facilitate that nor tracks as good as the amateurs’.

His talent waBs recognised in 2014 when Glasgow hosted the Commonwealth Games and he was asked to carry the torch on its way to Glasgow – his stretch, needless to say, was through Bathgate.

He was undoubtedly a vey talented athlete who was the equal of most of the top middle distance men in the country and would almost certainly have been a Games competitor and track title holder as an amateur. Michael died on 27th June 2017 at the age of 84.

Strathallan Gathering

Posted on November 8, 2013 by Admin

Willie Day winning the road race at Strathallan in the 1970’s

The Strathallan Gathering is held in Bridge of Allan on the first Sunday in August. It is a meeting with a long and noble history and was a professional meeting until well into the twentieth century when it joined the amateur ranks. It is now back in the professional fold.

As an amateur athlete running in the 1960’s and 70’s, there were not that many Highland Games that I was able to run in if I were to retain my amateur status. The Strathallan Gathering was one though and it was always a great day out. The meeting, on a dedicated Games Field, with a wonderful stand (now sadly gone), before a very good crowd with genuine personalities as Chieftain and with a fair in the adjacent field and pony trotting after the Games had ended, was a real experience. I still go most years as a spectator but gone are the fireside rugs, cake stands and casserole sets as prizes and money prizes are good. As well as being easy for the Committee to organise and hand out, they are often most welcome to the athletes. Their permanent trophies for the various events are a good reminder of who has won what – they even have specific trophies for the younger age groups such as the Bastable Trophy for Under 17’s . The following historical appreciation is from the meeting programme.

“The Strathallan meeting in its present form has held a central place in traditional Scottish sport for 150 years. Before that its origin can be found in the sports gatherings of ordinary country folk when the Lairds met to play at, “Tilting at the ring” under a charter granted by James I in 1453. A link to the old Wappenschaws, (a kind of medieval “Home Guard” when every grown man had to show his weapons in good order), is tenuous, but what is certain is that by the early 19th century competitive sports were taking place here on a regular basis. William Litt of Cumbria wrote in 1823 of “The famous old school of wrestlers in Strathallan, Stirlingshire”.

There is no record of when The Country Archery and Rifle Club was founded but it was probably about 1825 and it also held sports competitions at its meetings. Their competitions became the Strathallan Highland Games and were organised by JA Henderson of Westerton from at least 1848 until 1858 when he died. Major General Sir James Alexander, K.C.B., became Laird of Westerton in 1863 and reorganised the games which have been held annually ever since then with the exception of the duration of the two World Wars.

Strathallan’s committee has a unique claim to fame, it is intimately connected with the birth of the modern cult of Body-building. In 1888 it was responsible for organising the Highland Gathering at the Glasgow International Exhibition and in 1889 at the Paris International Exhibition. When the Strathallan Committee and the highland games stars they had brought to Paris for the Exhibition arrived, they found to their surprise that the world’s first Body-building competition was about to be held. The competition was to be a team competition and had already attracted an entry of 300 strongmen, but nothing daunted, the Scots led by the famous wrestler Jimmy Esson of Aberdeen, entered and won. Sadly Jimmy Esson died of his wounds in A German Prisoner of War camp in 1916.

In 1999 the meeting reverted to its roots. Until 1956 it was a traditional games with money prizes, then from 1957 till 1998 it affiliated to the amateur sports organisations. A new era demands a new start and in 1999, the year of the first Scottish Parliament for almost 300 years, we once again affiliated to the Scottish Games Association to continue to promote for the benefit of the coming generations, the old traditional Scottish sports, dances and music.“

There have been many changes to the programme. For example at the urging of the Scottish Marathon Club in the 1950’s, it introduced a 20 miles road race that took runners along through Bridge of Allan straight out towards Alloa and over the hill at Sauchie to Tillicoultry, along the Hillfoots villages of Alva and Menstrie to Blairlogie, down to the main road again and back to the Games Park. Because of the low number of entries, the race was cut first to a half marathon, then to a 10K and finally it was dropped altogether. The Games always had novelty events which were very popular – parachute drops, police dog handlers giving a display, and so on. The programme is a varied one with field events not found everywhere such as the long jump, at times the triple jump too. Trophies are keenly fought for – eg the aforementioned Bastable Trophy for the Best Youth of the meeting for performances across all the events for U17’s. For many years there were only two events for this group – the 100 yards and the half mile – but there are now several more available, and all with good prize money.

It is a popular and well attended meeting with lots of stands displaying and selling local produce such as fruit, cheese alongside hand made jewellery and craft stands.

Highland Games

Posted on November 8, 2013 by Admin

Alastair Douglas (in yellow) running before the crowds at Cowal

The Highland Games and various Gatherings around Scotland are a large part of the Scottish athletics tradition, including as they do all areas of athletics excellence. Almost all of the top athletes in the country have at one time or another taken part in such an event and in fact the Edinburgh Highland Games of the post-war years featured many of the very best athletes from around the world. Before the Commonwealth Games in 1970 and 1986 in Edinburgh, many of the foreign athletes had a go at some of the highland games before or after the Commonwealth Games. The difficulties that arose when the amateur era began in the 1880’s and the governing body would not countenance any amateur competing for money. This led to many an anomaly and many an injustice (see the profile of Robert Reid ). Menzies Campbell was asked to race Ricky Dunbar who was the top ped of the time when they were both in their prime but the authorities would not wear that one either. Not all Games were professional though, many altering to embrace the amateur code and some like Strathallan have been professional, then amateur and are now basically open and offering good prize money. We are now in what is more or less a post-amateur athletics scene and it may be that eventually all athletics will be local but that’s a much bigger debate. As an introduction to the subject Shane Fenton has contributed the following piece as an introduction to the Highland Gatherings. The picture is of Graham Crawford racing in the 2 miles race at Blairgowrie.

Games in the Highlands of Scotland

It is reported in numerous books and Highland games programs, that King Malcolm Canmore, in the 11th century, summoned contestants to a foot race to the summit of Craig Choinnich (overlooking Braemar). Some have seen in this alleged event the origin of today’s modern Highland games^[2].

Following the repeal of the Act of Proscription, various Highland Societies, beginning in the 1780s, began to organize around attempts to retain or revive Highland traditions. It was these early efforts that eventually led to the Highland Games as we know them today.

This modern revival of the Highland games received an enormous boost with the visit of King George IV to Scotland in 1822, although events were held in the years just prior to that. In 1819, for example, the St. Fillans Society organized a full scale Highland games with piping, dancing, and athletics and the Northern Meeting Society’s Highland Games – the forerunner of The City of Inverness Highland Games – was first held in 1822.

In the 1840s, in Braemar, Games began as a fund raising effort by local artisans to support a “Friendly Society” and their charitable activities. Soon thereafter, Queen Victoria who, together with her consort Prince Albert, had made Balmoral Castle their special retreat, began to patronize the Games. The Queen first attended the Braemar Games in 1848 and the following year, they were moved to the grounds of the Castle itself. Later, in 1868, the first in a series of “Highland Memoirs” excerpted from Victoria’s Journals, would be published.

Together with the earlier 1822 event, Queen Victoria’s patronage of the Games constituted one of the most significant factors in the popularization of the Games and what some have called the Highlandification of Scotland.

Among better-known games in Scotland are the ones held at Braemar, Inverness, Cowal, Lonach, Ballater and Aboyne. The Aboyne games have been running since 1867 without a break apart from the two world wars.

In the latter part of the 19th century, the Highland games played a role in the development of the Olympic movement. As part of his efforts to organize the first games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin visited a number of athletic competitions in order to determine which sports should be included in the Olympic Games, to standardize rules, and to examine the technical aspects of running such a competition. Among the events he visited for this purpose were a Highland Games event organized in conjunction with the Paris Exhibition of 1889. That event, in addition to what we today would call track and field events, also contained wrestling, tug-of-war, cycling, as well as competition in piping and dancing.

Events

Heavy Events

In their original form many centuries ago, Highland games gatherings centered around athletic and sports competitions. Though other activities were always a part of the festivities, many today still consider that Highand athletics are what the games are all about – in short, that the athletics are the Games, and all the other activities are just entertainment. Regardless, it remains true today that the athletic competitions are at least an integral part of the events and one – the caber toss – has come to almost symbolize the Highland games.

Although quite a range of events can be a part of the Highland athletics competition, a few have become standard.

Caber toss: a long tapered wooden pole or log is stood upright and hoisted by the competitor who balances it vertically holding the smaller end in his hands. Then the competitor runs forward attempting to toss it in such a way that it turns end over end with first, the upper (larger) end striking the ground and then the smaller end, originally held by the athlete, following through and in turn striking the ground in the 12 o’clock position measured relative to the direction of the run. If successful, the athlete is said to have turned the caber. Cabers vary greatly in length and weight, both factors increasing the difficulty of a successful toss. Competitors are judged on how closely their throws approximate the ideal 12 o’clock toss.

Stone put: this event is similar to the modern-day shot put as seen in the Olympic Games. However, instead of a steel ball, a large stone, of variable weight, is used. There are also some differences from the Olympic shot put in allowable techniques. The Highland games stone put exists in two versions. One version, called the “Braemar stone”, uses a 20 to 26 pound stone for the men (13 to 18 pounds for women). It is a standing put in which no run up to the toeboard or “trig” is allowed. The other version, called the “Open Stone”, uses a 16 to 22 pound stone for the men (8 to 12 pounds for women). The athlete is allowed to use any throwing style, including a spin, provided that the stone is delivered with one hand.

Scottish hammer throw: this event is similar to the hammer throw as seen in modern-day track and field competitions, though with some differences. In the Scottish event, a round metal ball (weighing 16 or 22 lbs for the men or 12 or 16 lbs for women) is attached to the end of a shaft about 4 feet in length and made out of wood, bamboo, rattan, or plastic. With the feet in a fixed position, the hammer is whirled about one’s head and thrown for distance over either the right or left shoulder. If conditions and event rules permit, hammer throwers may use special equipment consisting of flat blades attached to the footwear which are used to dig into the turf to maintain their balance and resist the centrifugal forces of the implement as it is whirled about the head. This substantially increases the distance attainable in the throw.

Weight throw, also known as the weight for distance event. There are actually two separate events, one using a light (28 lb for men, or 14 lb for women) and the other a heavy (56 lb for men, 42 lb for masters men, and 28 lb for women) weight. The weights are made of metal and have a handle either directly attached to the weight or attached to the weight by means of a chain. The implement is thrown using one hand only, but otherwise using any technique. Usually a spinning technique is employed. The longest throw wins.

Weight over the bar, also know as weight for height. The athletes attempt to toss a 56 pound weight with an attached handle over a horizontal bar using only one hand.

Sheaf toss: A bundle of straw (the sheaf) weighing 20 pounds (9 kg) for the men and 10 pounds (4.5 kg) for the women and wrapped in a burlap bag is tossed vertically with a pitchfork over a raised bar much like that used in pole vaulting.

In the 19th century, the athletic competitions at Highland games events resembled more closely a track and field meet of modern times. Some of the games preserve this tradition by holding competitions is these events. This could include, in addition to standard track and field events, a tug-of-war, kilted mile run and other foot races, shinty (a game somewhat like field hockey and dating back to the 18th century or earlier), and the stone carry.

Many of the Heavy Events competitors in Scottish highland athletics are former high school and college track and field athletes who find the Scottish games are a good way to continue their competitive careers.