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Summit: Summer 2017: Men
Mens Results
Aberdeenshire Harriers Marathons, 1903-1933
1909 Aberdeen Marathon Trophy
The Association of Road Running Statisticians website (with the intentionally humorous online address of www.arrs.net) includes, along with a vast range of information, race histories, including that of the Aberdeen Marathon, which was run twelve times (1979 to 1990). (Click on Race Histories, then Marathon, then Scotland, then Aberdeen Marathon (or directly to: http://arrs.net/HP_AberdeenMa.htm
An appendix lists the results of the much earlier Aberdeenshire Harriers so-called marathons run annually from 1909 to 1913 and from 1920 to 1925. Then there was a gap until 1928. These events covered a number of distances (15 to 20 miles) and routes, starting from small towns such as Banchory, Inverurie and Oldmeldrum, but always finishing in the city of Aberdeen itself, often at Central Park, Kittybrewster. The only true marathon was the 1923 race, won with considerable difficulty by Duncan McLeod Wright (who later took part in three Olympic marathons), only 37 seconds in front of local athlete Jim Ronaldson.
The Aberdeen Marathon was conceived at the height of the first marathon boom inspired by the epic Marathon race at the Olympic Games of 1908 (which will forever be associated with the tragic figure of Dorando Pietri). The promoting club, Aberdeenshire Harriers, had, among other activities, been holding road races since their inception in 1888 so when marathon running became the “in” thing to do, they dived in with hungry enthusiasm.
A more in-depth explanation of how the event originated is given by the Aberdeen Daily Journal: “Enterprising and up-to-date in all matters pertaining to sport, Aberdeen caught up what may aptly be termed the “Marathon craze”, and with the conception of the idea by the Aberdeenshire Harriers Club, the management did not allow the grass to grow under their feet. The club is strong in numbers and strong in talent, and when the notion was first mooted at an “at home”, the members received the suggestion with such indications of hearty approval that those at the head of affairs immediately determined to carry out the bold suggestion. Mr. William Jamieson, the hon. president of the club, made the first practical move by presenting a handsome silver cup and gold medal to stimulate interest in the competition, and his lead was early and enthusiastically followed by other gentlemen interested in the club, with the result that there was soon an attractive list of awards to entice the best talent of the club to come forward. The club management evidently felt that it was incumbent upon them to do something of a similar nature, and hence the presentation of bronze medals for all competitors who showed ability to cover a long distance. With such inducements everything was in favour of the projected “marathon”, and the running members of the club evinced the greatest enthusiasm and readiness to carry out the idea. On due consideration regarding the question of a route, it was decided to fix upon Deeside. Banchory was ultimately selected as the starting point, so that a distance of 18 miles would be covered.”
The “Aberdeenshire Harriers’ Marathon” was, therefore, well short of the 26 miles 385 yards “standard” set at the Summer Olympics eight months earlier (a distance that would eventually be codified by the IAAF in 1921). But, at 18 miles, it was still very much a journey deep into uncharted territory for the club’s members, none of whom had ever raced beyond ten miles, a sentiment echoed by the Aberdeen Daily Journal, according to which “it was felt that the run from Banchory to Aberdeen would be quite sufficient as a severe test of the powers of endurance of the club members”. Moreover, it was a good deal longer than the vast majority of that year’s ubiqitous so-called marathons, such as the mere five-mile jaunt which constituted the “Marathon Race” at the Dalbeatie Gala.
1909 Aberdeen Marathon, Joe Munro
The first Aberdeenshire Harriers Marathon was decided on Saturday 23rd March 1909 when twenty intrepid members were bundled onto charabancs and taken to Banchory where they were given a rousing send-off by a crowd so large it must have accounted for about the entire population of the town and surrounding area. An exciting 18 mile race saw the lead switch back and forth several times before reaching its dramatic conclusion in Aberdeen, when Joe Munro wrested pole position from Jim Hall on Anderson Drive and opened up a good gap by the finish at the junction of St Andrew’s Street and George Street where he was besieged by clammering well-wishers. His winning time: 2hrs. 5mins. Jim Hall had to fight his his way through dense crowds to salvage second in 2hrs. 10mins. ahead of Walter Reid, who was third in 2hrs. 13mins. In the “do” held that evening at The Rest, Munro was awarded the “Marathon Cup” to keep for one year and a valuable gold medal donated by club benefactor William Jamieson. The second prize was a timepiece, the third a gold medal of lesser value and the fourth a medal with a gold centre, with all finishers (twelve in number) receiving a commemorative bronze medal.
1910 Aberdeen Marathon start
The second race for the Aberdeenshire Harriers’ Marathon Cup promotion was a toughish 16 miler from Inverurie to Central Park, Kittybrewster, held on Saturday 26th March 1910 in dry but windy conditions and contested by 22 members. The previous year’s winner, Joe Munro, was prominent until the 13th mile when he suddenly gave up owing to stomach cramp brought on, it was reckoned, by his ingesting dust (widespread paving of public roads did not begin until the 1920’s). Munro’s exit left the way clear for Jim Greig (a member of the ‘Shire since 1900), who won the 16 mile contest by about quarter a mile in a time of 1hr. 39mins. 35secs. George Davie (1.41.02) finished second and club captain Harry Russell took third (1.43.02) ahead of Walter Reid (1.45.00). ‘Shire trainer Tom Knowles expressed his satisfaction with the result and acknowledged that his men had “trained well” for the race. He had, it was reported, been making his charges do 13 or 14 miles on Tuesdays and shorter spins on Thursdays.
1910 Aberdeen Marathon Winner: Jim Greig
Variety being the spice of life, as they say, the ‘Shire once again chose a different route for the third edition of their now annual fixture, a distance of 18 miles from Oldmeldrum to Central Park, Aberdeen. The race was scheduled about a month later than previously, on Saturday 22nd April 1911, and started from the 18th milestone on the Aberdeen road, where 16 members set off at about 4 p.m. each accompanied by an official cyclist carrying refreshments not to mention a goodly retinue of spectator cyclists. The race marked a return to form for Joe Munro who reclaimed the Marathon Cup in a time of 1hr. 45mins. 15secs., albeit with great difficulty after being pressed hard all the way by talented 17-year-old novice Alick King (1.45.40). Jimmy Gray was a distant third in 1hr. 58mins. 45secs. and Walter Reid again finished fourth in 2hrs 1min. 14secs.
The fourth edition of the race on Saturday 27th April 1912 was again run from Banchory to Central Park, Aberdeen, but by adding a bit at the end the Aberdeenshire Harriers contrived to extend the course to 20 miles, making this the longest race yet. 16 of the 21 entrants faced the starter, a notable absentee being the previous year’s winner Joe Munro. This race marked the rise to ascendency of the runner Munro had beaten in 1911, Alick King. The youngester shrugged off windy and dusty conditions to win easily in 2hrs. 14mins 38secs., having belied his age and inexperience by holding back in the early stages before launching a decisive attack in the 14th mile. George Mackenzie, a recent new recruit, showed good judgement to take second in 2hrs. 21mins. 29secs. ahead of Jimmie Gray (2.26.49) and Harry Russell (2.27.25). Finishing down the order in 11th place was another Russell, Billy, who in 1924 was appointed trainer of Aberdeen Football Club.
Alick King
Two months after his win in the Aberdeenshire Harriers Marathon, Alick King was 7th in the Scottish Marathon Trial for the Stockholm Olympics at Glasgow. This is, incidentally, the only occasion on which the Scottish Amateur Athletics Association has ever held such a trial, which in any case turned out to be a rather pointless exercise because not even the winner was deemed worthy by the B.O.C. selectors in London.
Preparations for the fifth Aberdeenshire Harriers Marathon race got under way early in the year when the club organised a number of Saturday practice runs in which the members were divided into paced and whipped slow and fast packs, the fast packs regularly being led by Alick King. The club’s Marathon Race Committee voted at a meeting in January for the 16-mile course from Inverurie to Aberdeen, the second time the race had been run from the northern town since 1910. Whereas in former years the race had been confined to members of the Aberdeenshire Harriers, on this occasion the members of the fledgling Aberdeen Y.M.C.A. Harriers were invited to compete (on certain undisclosed conditions), and several took part. Altogether, 17 men faced the starter at Inverurie Town House on Saturday 5th April 1913. The weather was fine but a troublesome crosswind meant that runners had to contend throughout with clouds of dust raised by the attending army of cyclists. Alick King once again showed maturity beyond his years by holding back in the early stages (in fact he was still 400 yards behind the leader at 9 miles) before forging ahead in the 12th mile and running out an easy winner. His time of 1hr. 39mins. 54secs. was just 19 seconds outside Jim Greig’s course record set in better conditions. Fred Stewart was second in 1hr. 43mins. 26secs. and the ever-consistent Walter Reid third in 1hr. 43mins. 50secs. Jim Barron, 5th in a respectable time of 1hr. 45mins. 40secs, was the first Y.M.C.A. runner home. It is also worth noting that there was not a single retirement, all 17 starters taking receipt of the coveted Aberdeenshire Harriers Marathon finisher’s medal.
After Alick King’s second win in the Aberdeenshire Harriers Marathon the question of northern supremacy arose when King was challenged to a race by John Tosh the well-known professional from Arbroath. A 20 mile race for the “Championship of the North of Scotland” and a side stake was decided at Pittodrie Park, Aberdeen, on Saturday 6th September 1913, King emerging victorious in 2hrs. 10mins. 00.4secs. It is not clear if dabbling with professionalism would have affected Alick King’s amateur status because he emigrated to Canada shortly after, and all was forgotten.
The Aberdeenshire Harriers’ Marathon had to be cancelled in 1914 owing to the large number of their members that had emigrated, but Aberdeen Y.M.C.A. Harriers at least ensured some continuity by staging their own race on Saturday 18th April over a 16 ½ mile course from the club’s headquarters at Kepplestone to the Y.M.C.A. building in Union Street. The race was decided at Mannofield when Charles Howie, the club secretary, took the lead from Jim Barron, the club captain, and finished strongly to take custody of the Y.M.C.A. “Marathon” Cup for one year with a winning time of in 1hr. 57mins. Barron finished second in 2 hours exactly and Charlie Watt came third in 2hrs. 3mins., ten of the twelve starters (all Y.M.C.A.) completing the course.
Harrier activities were suspended completely throughout the war, which also took its toll on the membership of both the ‘Shire and the Y.M.C.A. clubs, whose casualities included marathoners James Gray, who was seriously wounded and lost an arm, and Jimmie Rice, who was shot in the neck.
There was good news for the Aberdeenshire Harriers when Alick King, who had served in the Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Force during the war and represented Canada in the Inter-Allied Games, returned to his native Aberdeen after the war. He was a prominent competitor in the Victory Sports held by Aberdeenshire Harriers at Pittodrie Park on 19th July 1919.
Having established their own Marathon races before the war, the Aberdeenshire Harriers and the Aberdeen Y.M.C.A. Harriers continued where they left off when they reformed after the war, with the result that, from 1920 to 1922, Aberdeen hosted not one, but two, marathons!
1920 Aberdeen YMCA Marathon: Oliver Coutts and Charlie Watt
The Y.M.C.A. race was held on 6th March 1920 when a field of 16 runners braved wretched weather during their 18 mile run from Banchory to Manofield. In a close-run race Oliver Coutts emerged triumphant in a time of 1hrs. 48mins., with Charlie Watt (1.48.30) and Alan Sutherland (1.49.10) filling the minor placings. At the prize-giving that evening Coutts took custody of the Y.M.C.A. “Marathon” Cup for the year, a gold medal and another prize valued at two guineas. Meanwhile Watt was presented with a silver medal with a gold centre, a palm stand and a Chinese vase, Sutherland taking home a silver medal and set of Army surplus hair brushes.
On 17th April 1920 the Aberdeenshire Harriers successfully revived their annual Marathon race after a seven-year hiatus. This was a bigger event that the rival Y.M.C.A. race, attracting 40 entries (of which 33 started) including several members of the Aberdeen City Police, who had been invited to compete. In the run-up to the event the ‘Shire membership had, said the Evening News, undergone “strenuous training such as long walks, distance road running and finishing up with skipping rope and punch-ball”. There had been large turnouts for the trice-weekly pack runs from the club’s King Street headquarters culminating in a 16 miler in the preceding week. Many handsome prizes had been forwarded by patrons of the club, and as a special inducement for everyone to accomplish the distance it had been arranged to have a special bronze medal engraved and awarded to those who finished. As had been the tradition since the inaugural race, the principal prize was the Marathon Cup, which was donated by hon. president William Jamieson. The route chosen for the 1920 race was, as in 1912, a distance of 20 miles from Banchory to Aberdeen. Keith Rennie, a sixteen year old boy, came close to causing a sensation by leading to within a mile of the finish, when he was overhauled by the experienced Charlie Watt, who, it will be noted, was a member of both the ‘Shire and Y.M.C.A. clubs! Watt won in a time of 2hrs. 17mins. 30 secs., thus missing the record set by Alick King in 1912 by about three minutes. Rennie (who collapsed after passing the finishing post and had to be carried off) was second in 2hrs. 19mins. 10secs. and Oliver Ward third in 2hrs. 28mins. 10secs. The runners who completed the course included two seasoned veterans of the first Aberdeen Marathon, Walter Reid and Jim Greig, who finished 8th and 12th respectively.
Aberdeen Marathon Medal, 1920
The third edition of the Aberdeen Y.M.C.A. Harriers Marathon Saturday 23rd April 1921 was contested by 10 members and run was over a 20 mile course starting and finishing at the Y.M.C.A. sports ground in Linksfield Road. On this occasion, unlike in the previous year, youth would prevail over experience, debutant Ted Lawson finishing in great style to deny Charlie Watt a successful defense of his title in the closing stages. His winning time of 2hrs. 14mins. 4secs. was good going considering the blustery conditions and the fact the he had only been with the club since the start of the season. Watt (2.16.30) settled for second ahead of another youngster, Daniel Gibb.
The Aberdeenshire Harriers’ race, held the following weekend, featured Alick King making a long-awaited comeback in their annual “Marathon”, which was run in unseasonably warm conditions over a 17 ¼ mile course starting and finishing Pittodrie Park where several thousand spectators at the Scottish League match between Aberdeen FC and Albion Rovers awaited the arrival of the runners. First man through the gate was the indefatiguable Alick King, who picked up seamlessly where he left off in 1913 with a commanding win which earned him a rousing ovation. He even had the time to complete the final two laps of the ground before the next runner put in an appearance. In addition to the usual array of handsome prizes a special bronze medal was presented to all who completed the course inside 2 hours 6 mins.
Results:
Alick King, 1hr. 55min. 4.6sec.;
Duncan 2.00.27;
Leslie Smith 2.04.15.6;
James Dey 2.06.06;
Walter Reid
The fourth and – as it transpires – last of the Aberdeen Y.M.C.A. Harriers’ Marathon races on 15th April 1922 was run over a 15 mile course from Kintore to Pittodrie. It featured a neck-and-neck battle between the holder Ted Lawson and Alan Sutherland which culminated in the most thrilling finish yet to any Aberdeen Marathon, Lawson prevailing by less than 10 yards in 1hr. 30min. 10secs. Jim Ronaldson finished a distant 3rd, with 11 of the 13 starters completing the course.
City rivals the ‘Shire held their eighth annual Marathon over a distance of 16 miles starting and finishing at Pittodrie Park on Monday 1st May 1922 when the runners encountered windy conditions and heavy roads to Belhelvie and back. The entire membership had been coached by Alick King and so it showed as the first 10 men all finished inside two hours. They were led home by pre-race favourite J. Duncan in a time of 1hr. 46min. 00.4sec., followed by Eddie Watson (1.46.43) and William Angus, with old hand Walter “Wattie” Reid finishing in 7th, one place ahead of an unfit Alick King.
In 1923, with the usual inter-club cross-country fixtures out of the way, the ‘Shire and the Y.M.C.A. Harriers joined forces to organise a Marathon race over the classic distance of 26 miles 385 yards from Fyvie Castle to Aberdeen in the hope that such a race might in the words of the Press and Journal “reveal obscure talent that could worthily uphold the country’s name in the competitions at the Olympiad”. Duncan “Dunky” McLeod Wright was not exactly an obscure talent. The previous month he had become the ten-mile cross country champion of Scotland and had competed in his fourth consecutive International Cross Country Championship race. The organising clubs provided all but three of the starting line-up of eleven runners. Wright was representing Clydesdale Harriers and the other two non-Aberdeen entrants – James Walker and David Ritchie – came from Dundee Thistle Harriers. There was great disappointment at the absence through injury of top local runner Alick King, so it was left to Ted Lawson, William Angus, Jim Ronaldson, Joe Tastard, Harry Russell, James Davidson, Reggie Jones and Walter Reid to carry the Aberdeen banner in this, Scotland’s first full-length amateur marathon. The race started at the gates of Fyvie Castle, some 26 miles north west of Aberdeen on a day in which the runners faced a stiff and cold headwind, not to mention heavy roads still sodden after recent rains. Wright set off at a brisk pace, having taken the ridiculous advice of his coach, Dick Vickers, to get away as fast as he could. At the halfway mark the pocket-sized Glaswegian (1hr. 20mins.) was over quarter of a mile ahead of his closest pursuer, Ted Lawson (1.21.55), who in turn was followed at intervals by Walker (1.25.32), Ritchie (1.26.16), Ronaldson (1.28.35), James Davidson (1.31.16) Angus (1.32.13) and Russell (1.32.35). On his arrival at the Parkhill feeding station at about 19 miles, Wright (2hrs. 4mins. 35secs.) was beginning to show signs of distress. Shivering with the cold, he asked for brandy and tea, but when informed by an apologetic marshal that no tea was available he settled for some brandy and ran on. The next to arrive at Parkhead was Jim Ronaldson, who had moved up into second place after the retirement of Lawson and Walker, but he was almost eight minutes behind the leader. The outcome looked to be a foregone conclusion until Wright began resorting to walking breaks, unlike Ronaldson, who by maintaining a steady trot began to make inroads on Wright’s seemingly unassailable lead. Excitement grew as the runners entered the city and it became obvious that Ronaldson was capable of catching the race favourite. Hundreds of people lined the streets and cheered on the local man as Wright’s lead was whittled down to 300 yards with little over a mile to go to the finish at Advocates’ Park. A final effort by Ronaldson along King Street reduced Wright’s slender advantage still further, but the Glaswegian dug deep and somehow held on to win by 150 yards. Inside the ground, both men were given a tremendous ovation by several thousand wildly cheering spectators. Wright’s winning time of 3hrs. 12mins. 12.4secs. was modest even by the standards of the day, but it provided him with some valuable lessons while giving an early indication of the steely resolve that would stand him in good stead for the rest of his successful career.
The full result was:
1 – Duncan McLeod Wright, Clydesdale Harriers, 3.13.12.4;
2 – James Ronaldson, Aberdeen Y.M.C.A. Harriers, 3.13.59.4;
3 – William Angus, Aberdeenshire Harriers, 3.51.10.2;
4 – Harry Russell, Aberdeenshire Harriers, 3.57.54.2;
5 – David Ritchie, Dundee Thistle Harriers, 4.00.58.6
Jim Ronaldson’s training was idiosyncratic. In preparation for the ‘marathon’, which was held in March, April or May, he would stop smoking and drinking on January 2nd and would run 16 or 17 miles three times a week until the race. Then after four months training, he would start smoking and drinking again!
Dunky Wright’s club, Clydesdale Harriers, was the most important in Scotland at the time. Training there concentrated on nightly pack road runs of five or six miles, with Friday off, followed by a race or a steady club run of anything between 7 and 15 miles over the country. Sundays might be the occasion for a seriously long hillwalk.
The Aberdeenshire Harriers Club celebrated the 10th running of their annual Marathon race on Saturday 3rd May 1924 when 12 members tackled a 15 mile course starting and finishing at the club’s headquarters in King’s Crescent and run in what were described as “extremely adverse weather conditions”. Wind and rain were against the competitors over the greater part of the course, while the ground was so heavy the cyclists had trouble keeping up with the runners! J. Duncan eventually ran out a clear winner in a time of 1hr. 35mins. 7.2secs. to take custody of the Marathon Cup for a second time ahead of William Angus (1.37.28.4). One of the remarkable features of the race was the success of veterans such as Harry Russell (3rd in 1hr. 38mins. 3.8secs) and Walter Reid (8th in 1hr. 48mins. 6secs.). 11of the 12 starters completed the course, all within the standard time of two hours, for which each received a special bronze medallion.
The 11th edition of the Aberdeenshire Harriers Marathon was staged on Saturday 9th May 1925 and run over a 16 mile route from Banchory to Mannofield, the course being by the North Deeside Road from the eighteenth to the second milestone. There were only six starters, the smallest number ever, but they included Alick King and the up-and-coming James Shearer, as well as nostalgic favourite Walter Reid and a good race for the Marathon Cup presented by W. Jamieson was expected. As usual, the conditions were awful, a torrential downpour and a headwind conspiring to make the race a “severe test of stamina”. From the start Shearer, an 18 year old of promise, took the lead, closely followed by King, now 31, who bided his time until a mile from the finish before unleashing a spurt which carried him to his fourth win since 1912. He finished 80 yards to the good in a time of 1hr. 48mins 33secs. to 1hr. 49mins 3secs for Shearer. H.T. Robertson followed a mile behind in 3rd and finished comfortably ahead of Walter Reid, whose remarkable record in this event now read:
1909 –3rd, 1910 – 4th, 1911 – 4th, 1912 – 12th, 1913 – 3rd, 1920 – 8th, 1921 – 6th, 1922 – 7th, 1924, 8th, 1925 – 4th.
The officials were: Starter – Mr. W. Jamieson; timekeeper – Mr. J.C. Watson; judges – Messrs. J.S. Gray, J. Smart and R. Duncan.
Despite the theory that these races were ‘annual marathons’, they do not seem to have taken place in 1926 and 1927. Perhaps the number of entrants became too small. James Shearer seems to have tried his luck as a professional athlete for a while. However the Aberdeenshire Harriers Club ran their 1928 ‘marathon’ race on Monday 7th May. The route was from Banchory to Mannofield in Aberdeen, by the North Deeside Road. There were twelve entries, all of them ‘first season men’ apart from James Shearer (a reinstated amateur, who had been second in the 1925 race over the same course). A bus took the competitors and officials from Gordon’s College to the start, outside the Burnett Arms Hotel.
At 11.15 a.m. the race commenced, with nine men taking part. The Aberdeen Press & Journal described events in their edition published on Wednesday 9th May. “W. Hall led from Banchory, followed closely by James Shearer and W. Stuart, who ran side by side until entering Culter, with W. Chapman fourth. Stuart gradually fell behind, allowing Hall and Shearer to maintain supremacy. Misfortune, however, befell W. Hall at Cults Square, where he fell over a stone on the road. This allowed James Shearer to take the lead. The placings then became – Shearer, Hall and Stuart, with Chapman and Sutherland close behind. This position remained until a mile from home, when Shearer increased his pace, and W. Stuart then passed Hall to run Shearer a close race to the finish. The winner’s time was 1 hour 48 minutes 30 and two-fifths seconds. Stuart’s time was 1.49.52. W. Hall did well to recover after his fall. The officials were: starter, Mr F.G. Glegg, hon. president; timekeeper, Mr J.S. Greig, SAAA; judges, Messrs W. Russell, sen, R. Duncan and W. Simpson.” The club’s bronze medallions were presented to competitors who finished within a specified time.
![1929 Aberdeenshire Harriers Marathon E[1].G. Marshall (cropped)](http://www.anentscottishrunning.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/1929-Aberdeenshire-Harriers-Marathon-E1.G.-Marshall-cropped.jpg)
Aberdeen Marathon in 1929: niote the starting point is the same as in the 1913 picture above
A fascinating article from a 1929 ‘Evening Express’ was written under the nom-de-plume of “Chuck”, who was clearly enthusiastic and knowledgeable about fitness. The headline is “With The Cyclists, Harriers and Walkers in Aberdeen and District” and the subheading is “Suggestion for Gymnastic League”.
He begins with some excellent advice for cyclists on the topic “How to Avoid Fatigue”. There is an analysis of problems with wrists, shoulders, back, chest and thighs, with ideas about how to relieve discomfort. One is led to expect, after 50 miles hard cycling, “a peculiar benumbed sensation over the heart”! No need to panic, however, since a change of position may be “as good as a rest”.
Chuck moves on rapidly to “Next Week’s Big Walk”, which mentions that “a splendid entry has been received for the North Eastern Harriers Association five-mile scratch walking race on Aberdeen Links”. The favourite was T. C. (Clarence) Andrews, who later won the Shire Harriers Three-Mile Walking Championship. Also rated was twenty-year-old E.(Ernest) G. Marshall of the Shire Harriers, who later finished second in the 3 mile race. Chuck reckoned that “these two lads are coming along very nicely in the walking game”.
Shamrock Athletic Club’s half-mile and quarter-mile open novice races are also mentioned; and the Wheelers Cycling Club Sunday morning two-mile handicap races. Chuck’s favoured cyclist was A. Cruden, who was described as “a rare good boy”. The journalist adds “These events are proving a great attraction to devotees of the early Sunday morning walking exercise. They walk out to the starting point on the Skene Road, view the race, then proceed on their way to where their fancy leads.”
Chuck ends his article with a rallying cry to make Aberdeen once again “one of the greatest gymnastic centres in the kingdom” by forming a Gymnastic League.
The overall impression given by Chuck’s writing is of Aberdeen and district athletes engaging in a range of “cross-training” in search of fitness, fun and competition. Surely such a philosophy should be welcome if reintroduced in the 21st century!
Indeed, the aforementioned young race-walker Ernie Marshall went on to demonstrate his versatility by completing two Shire Harriers running ‘marathons’: the 1929 17-mile Inverurie to Aberdeen; and the 1930 18-mile Oldmeldrum to Central Park, Kittybrewster, Aberdeen. In preparation for the challenge, he ran a club 7 mile road race on 16th February 1929, finishing first (from 15 starters) in 41.18.
Alexander Allan won both long-distance events. In between the last ‘marathon’ in 1925 and this one in1929, Aberdeenshire Harriers running section had moved their training accommodation to a hut in King’s Crescent. There the athletes had been overshadowed by the boxing fraternity, so that no long road races had been held from 1926-1928.
However in early 1929 James Greig, the 1910 record-holder for the 17mile Inverurie to Aberdeen route, generously offered to present a gold medal to any runner who could “smash his record” of 1.39.35. The winner would also become the holder of the William Jamieson silver challenge cup. At 2.30 p.m. prompt, on Saturday 20th April 1929, the race started and the route went from The Square, Inverurie, via Kintore, Blackburn, Bucksburn, Woodside, Anderson Road, and Clifton road, concluding with four laps of Central Park, Kittybrewster. The Bon-Accord Cycling club acted as clerks of the course, to ensure that there was “no pacing in the race”. However it was Alex Allan of Aberdeenshire Harriers, running “a faultless, well-timed race”, who easily broke the record with a finishing time of 1.38.28 and two-fifths seconds; and, not far behind, John McRobb also beat the previous best with 1.39.01. James Shearer was third (1.40.25.6). He was followed by Alex Sutherland (1.41.43); William T. Stuart (1.45.29); John Troup (1.46.04.4); young Ernie Marshall was seventh (1.46.55.6); Harry Chapman (1.55.58.8); Angus Allan (2.04.38); and finally, Robert Smith tenth (2.17.45). The only non-finisher was W. Hall. Medals were presented to those under the standard time of two hours. The presentation of the season’s prizes took place at the Shire Harriers Annual Whist Drive and Dance in the Bon-Accord Hotel, Market Street, Aberdeen on Friday 26th April.
A further report in the Evening Express, which certainly sounds as if it was written by Chuck, included the following. “I warned my readers Allan would be the surprise packet, and he did not belie my confidence in him. He ran a magnificent race throughout. To me it was an inspiring tribute to the school of young runners in the city. Alex Allan is one of the best boys I have ever seen on this particular course. He joined the ranks of the Shire only ten weeks ago and soon proved himself to be a chip off the old block, viz Jamie Allan, who was a fine runner years ago. Alex is only 22 years of age and a fine specimen of manhood. Thanks are also due to Dod Fraser, the club’s trainer who has worked so hard since taking charge this season. The club has prospered beyond my wildest dreams.”
The route for the Saturday 12th April 1930 Oldmeldrum to Aberdeen 18 mile ‘marathon’ was from the Square at Oldmeldrum via Dyce to the railway bridge. From there it continued to Bankhead and Woodside, along Anderson Road and Clifton Road and into the final four laps of Central Park at Kittybrewster. The ‘P and J’ account is as follows. “Nine runners faced the starter under ideal weather conditions, which prevailed until Dyce, when heavy rain fell until the finish of the race. The rain undoubtedly spoiled the efforts of Alex Allan to reduce Joe Munroe’s record of 1 hour 45 minutes 15 seconds, created in 1911, for up to this point in the race, Allan was going strongly, and high hopes were entertained of his putting up a new record. Right from the start, Allan forced a hot pace from W. Begg (also a race-walker) and J. McRobb. At Whiterashes only seven runners were on the road, Angus Allan and Alex Wallace dropping out near the Post Office. At Newmachar, Allan was leading by 300 yards from Begg, with McRobb in close attendance, the remainder being strung out. At half distance, Allan increased his lead to 600 yards from McRobb, who displaced Begg of his second place. At this point it was seen than Marshall, who had been lying well behind, was gaining rapidly on the leaders, forcing his way up to fourth position. Nearing the city, Allan still held the lead from McRobb, with Marshall running strongly into third place. Hall and Begg dropped out with leg trouble, thus reducing the field to five runners. Allan’s battle against the rain told its tale, and on entering the Central Park, he contented himself to keep going at a slow pace to complete the distance and win his second Marathon race. McRobb entered the Park in a similar way and, hanging onto his lead from Marshall, he too completed the distance. E.G. Marshall apparently had a big reserve in hand, for he ran the last mile in a very convincing manner.
The full results were:
1 Alex Allan, 1 hour 50 minutes 25 seconds
2 John McRobb, 1 hour 54 minutes 1.5 seconds
3 Ernie G. Marshall, 1 hour 56 minutes 36 seconds
4 Peter Burnett, 2 hours 3 minutes 51 seconds
5 Alex Gordon, 2 hours 4 minutes
(Medals were presented to all finishers, since they were faster than the standard time of 2 hours 15 minutes.)
Starter and timekeeper – Mr Fred J. Glegg; Judge – Mr Charles C. Russell. The Aberdeen Wheelers supplied the stewards, and accomplished their work in an admirable manner.”
On Saturday 18th April 1931 Jack McRobb exacted revenge on Alex Allan for previous defeats. “Ten runners faced the starter at the Aberdeenshire Harriers annual “Marathon” race (18 miles) from Oldmeldrum to Central Park, Kittybrewster. Weather conditions favoured the competitors, a heavy following wind greatly assisting the first four men to return good times. Alex Allan (winner of the last two races over the distance) set up a hot pace right from the pistol shot, and was closely followed by J. McRobb and H. Gordon. The first five miles saw Allan clinging to his lead by three yards from McRobb, Gordon having dropped back 150 yards in the rear. Nearing the ninth mile McRobb displaced Allan. H.Gordon was then making headway and on nearing Stoneywood passed Allan to occupy second place. Passing through Stoneywood McRobb held 250 yards lead from Gordon, and both were going strongly. Keen disappointment was expressed at this stage as Allan, owing to stomach trouble, retired from the race, leaving A.Gordon, who was gradually creeping up to take third position. Woodside was reached with McRobb holding on to his lead from the other two. Entering the Central Park, McRobb held his lead, but only with a super effort did he manage to stave off the apparently fresher H.Gordon, who tried hard to catch the leader, but failed to do so by about 110 yards. McRobb’s victory was highly popular, and he received a great ovation from the large crowd of spectators. Four men duly qualified for standard time badges, which were given to those who accomplished the distance in two hours.
Results:
Jack McRobb 1 hour 46 minutes 35 seconds;
Harry Gordon 1.46.53; Alex Gordon 1.48.03;
David Stewart 1.55.04; Frank Yeoman 2.24.45;
Arthur Mair 2.27.58; James Peter 3.18.15.
Frank Yeoman won the special prize for the youngest competitor to finish in the prize list. Starter and timekeeper: Mr Fred J. Glegg. Judges: Messrs J.S.Greig and J.K.Smart. Stewards of the course – Wheelers Cycling Club members.”
On Saturday 9th April 1932 there was a final Oldmeldrum to Aberdeen race. The ‘P and J’ reported as follows. “Eight men lined up for the start. A stiff wind was against the runners, and hopes for a record time being accomplished were not very bright. From the pistol shot last year’s winner Jack McRobb went to the front, closely followed by H.Gordon and James Shearer. After four miles had been covered, these three were running abreast. Passing through Newmachar the same order was maintained. Yeoman and Aitken dropped out hereabouts, leaving only six competitors. Nine miles was accomplished in 58 minutes by the leaders, McRobb, Shearer and Gordon, who were clinging together. A.Gordon was lying fourth about 400 yards in the rear. Andrew Raeper fell out with leg trouble at this point, leaving only five men on the road. At Stoneywood H.Gordon and McRobb had broken away from J.Shearer, both running strongly. At Persley McRobb opened up and shaking off Gordon took the lead. At Woodside McRobb increased his lead from Gordon by 200 yards. Entering the Central Park McRobb had a clear lead and finished the course just as Gordon appeared. McRobb’s victory was highly popular, considering the wind and showers of rain. He improved on his last year’s time by 13 seconds, failing to beat Joe Munroe’s record by 37 seconds. Only four finished the journey.
Results:
Jack McRobb 1 hour 46 minutes 13 and one-fifth seconds;
Harry Gordon 1.51.41 and two-fifths seconds;
James Shearer 1.56.50; Alex Gordon 1.58.14.
Officials: Starter and timekeeper, Mr F.J. Glegg; Judges Messrs J.S.Greig, C.C.Russell and J.K.Smart.”
On 1st May 1933 there was a final Aberdeenshire Harriers ‘marathon’. This time the sixteen-mile road race started and finished at Advocates’ Park. The route went out to Dyce and back again. The event was covered in detail in a newspaper report.
“Alexander Gordon, Aberdeenshire Harriers, sprang a big surprise in winning the open sixteen miles road race organised by his club at Aberdeen yesterday. His time – 1 hour 31 minutes 42 seconds – was a brilliant performance. Eleven competitors faced the starter in the enclosure at Advocates’ Park in ideal weather conditions. From the start, Gordon, Beattie, Clark, McRobb, Chapman (all of ‘Shire), Brown (YMCA) and Cumming (‘Varsity) went to the front in a bunch and kept together until near Scotstown Moor, when Gordon and McRobb pulled away. At Parkhill, Gordon and McRobb had a lead of 200 yards from Brown, with Clark and Chapman a similar distance in the rear. At Dyce, Gordon, running with perfect ease, came away strongly from McRobb, who appeared to be labouring. Brown also was feeling the gruelling effects of the hot pace, being third. Nearing Don Street, Woodside, Gordon held a 400 yard lead from Chapman, who had moved into second place. McRobb, still labouring, being third, with Clark fourth. Coming down St Machar Drive, McRobb collapsed and retired.
Entering Advocates’ Park, Gordon had a comfortable lead of over 500 yards, and finished the two laps before the second man appeared. Chapman came next, with Clark at this heels, and a thrilling duel took place between them, with Chapman gaining second place by about 20 yards. The first three home gained standard medals for accomplishing the distance in the time limit of 1 hour 35 minutes. Gordon’s victory was his best performance in five years participation in harrier activities.
Results.
1 Alex Gordon 1.31.42;
2 Harry Chapman 1.34.43;
3 Edward Clark 1.34.45;
4 Robert Forbes (Shamrock Sports Club) 1.35.4 and three-fifths seconds;
5 George Brown 1.36.46.
Starter and timekeeper – Mr Fred J Glegg; Judges – Messrs CC Russell and JS Greig.”
In 1934 there seems to have been no ‘marathon’, although there was a 16 mile Banchory to Aberdeen walking race (won by 1923 marathon finisher William Angus). Officials from Aberdeenshire Harriers helped with this event, which included a Women’s walking race, won by Miss Chrissie Webster of the Aberdeen Ladies’ Hiking and Athletic Club, who won by only seven seconds from Miss Ella Cumming.
Probably due to a lack of entrants, the Shire Harriers ‘marathons’ did not continue. However these reports give a real flavour of Aberdeen long-distance running at the time. Aberdeenshire Harriers continued to encourage the sport helping to organise a host of other promotions, including their annual seven-mile cross country championship, North-Eastern Harriers Association championships, the Round-the-Town 20 miles relay race, miscellaneous sports meetings, Xmas and New Year handicaps and inter-club cross-country matches against the YMCA, Aberdeen University Hare & Hounds and new rivals like Shamrock Sports Club.
The Night I Raced Ming!
Walter Menzies Campbell was without doubt one of Scotland’s greatest ever athletes. Multiple champion, British team captain, Olympian and record holder, he had it all. Des Yuill, former member of Maryhill and Cambuslang Harriers, SAAA official, noted administrator and known throughout Scottish athletics has a tale to tell abou the night he raced Ming. He says:
The idea that there is a book in every one of us is a fallacy. However it is thought that over the yearsmost people have experienced a single incident that is unique to them and well worthy of a story. I experenced one such incident – it was over 60 years ago, in June 1956. It was
THE NIGHT I RACED MING
“Ming lived in Glasgow’s West End and attended Hillhead High School. I also lived in Glasgow’s West End and attended Woodside Secondary School. The two schools were about one mile apart.
During the summer, an evening of football took place in the playground at Woodside and all were welcome. Ming used to play and was a fast raiding winger. However as the playground was only about twenty five yards long, he couldn’t raid very far. I also played and was a goalie.
One evening when Ming arrived, his jersey was adorned with rosettes. When asked, he explained that he had competed and won them that afternoon at Hillhead’s Sports at Hughenden. In doing so he had become Hillhead’s Junior Champion.
Two days earlier I had competed at Scotstoun in Woodside’s Sports and amassed sufficient points (no rosettes) to become Woodside’s Senior Champion.
As is the way with lads, a challenge race was arranged to take place at half time. The trail was agreed. We would run round the perimeter of Woodside starting from the gate in Woodlands Road, heading towards Charing Cross, a right turn into Eldon Street, right again into Park Road and right again to finish at the gate we had started from. This gate now leads to the Stand Comedy Club – well worth a visit if you haven’t alreeady done so.
Then someone had a great idea. As I was a couple of years older than Ming, I should give him a start. You couldn’t make this stuff up!
The time keeping was arranged. Someone had a wrist watch, so when the second hand reached twelve, he would shout go and Ming would go. When it moved on to five, he would shout go, and I would go. Raymond Hutcheson eat your heart out.
What we didn’t know at this stage was that in five seconds Ming would cover about 50 yards, and just about did. I set off more in hope than in expectation, but on reaching Eldon Street saw he was still well ahead. However when I turned into Park Road, I was encouraged to see that he was not that far along and moving in a very upright, prancing style. As a result I caught him, but seeing he was exhausted I stopped and we walked up to the finish.
Victory was never mentioned and rightly so. It was never a fair match. Ming was at least two years younger. We were running in a clockwise direction which, as a left hander, suited me and not Ming. He had also raced several times that afternoon.
In the years since, I have never mentioned this to a living oul. In the life Ming had led with success galore, he, I am sure he doesn’t remember anything about it
But
It is my unique single incident.
PS: We did finish the football!
Alex Wilson’s Gallery 4: All Round Endurance Runners
Some more photographs from Alex Wilson’s large collection. Some, a few, will be familiar to some of you already from Colin Shields’s centenary history of the SCCU, which is a marvellous book, but they were all sent to me by Alex.
Andrew Hannah and Stewart Duffus
JG McINTYRE
With trophies and trainer
With English champion, Bluett
Three of the trophies won in 1919
Second Prize in Paris Cross Country, 1923
Wounded near the end of WW1
JACKIE LAIDLAW
JP ‘Jackie’ Laidlaw at Shettleston in 1917
J SUTTIE SMITH
DONALD MCLEAN
Sandy Sutherland
Sandy Sutherland (right) with Hugh Barrow in 1961
There have been many journalists covering athletics in Scotland – most only cover one sport and that a domestic one. Fans with typewriters is the faintly pejorative description. Some names are well known – George Dallas was a first class reporter for the Glasgow Herald with a couple of decades in which no event went uncovered. Bill Melville is a good writer and genuine enthusiast and Ron Marshall held down the post at the Glasgow Herald for a while. But the two best known are Doug Gillon and Sandy Sutherland. Doug was a good class runner while Sandy was an international class shot and discus competitor.
AL ‘Sandy’ Sutherland would have been a remarkable athlete at any time. The best of his generation as a shot putter, he won national titles every year from 1959 as an Under 17 athlete through to 1963 inclusive and his versatility was such that he was highly ranked every year from 1959 through to 1982 over a range of events including Pole Vault. His background could not have been bettered as a cradle for athletic success.
First of all, Sandy Sutherland comes from a sporting family – his father was AJ, known as Alex James, Sutherland of Glynwood, Golspie, who was a former Ross County, Wick Academy and Brora Rangers footballer and his mother was Ella Sutherland (nee Coghill) who was twice Golspie Golf Club ladies champion. Sandy says: “My father was a footballer, played for Brora Rangers, Wick Academy and Ross County and was offered a trial for Aberdeen but turned it down as it was too far away from Golspie where he worked for the Sutherland County Council and he would have to be away from my mother! When I played football at Golspie Senior Secondary School, I can still hear the locals saying “oh you’re not as good a footballer as your father!!” But I could run faster – they stuck me on the wing.”
Sandy’s Dad – extreme right, back row
But the family sporting tradition goes further back yet. The Reverend David Lundie, minister in Tongue, was Sandy’s great grandfather and in 1871 he won the Scottish Universities’ shot putt title – exactly 100 years before Sandy won his second SAAA Shot Putt championship. An interesting sidelight – his best shot of 41 feet would have won the first Olympic shot putt in 1896 by which time he had unfortunately retired.
Second, he lived in a community where sport was important and regarded highly. He says: “I ran at the Sutherland Sheepdog Trials, the Sutherland Agricultural Show, The Lairg Crofters Show AND the Dornoch Games!! All had races for youngsters with CASH prizes and a great boost for pocket-money! I once dead-heated with a boy two years older than me in the under-12 100 yards at Dornoch and we won 6s 3p each! I could have been banned for life!! Didn’t know about that of course! I then went on to run in the Sutherland County Sports at Dornoch against 1st year boys though I was still in Primary 7 and beat them. Alex Dalrymple was responsible for my promotion!! He had just come to the county then from Glasgow after seeing war service with Bomber Command as a navigator. But I lost a big sprint challenge that same year when I was dragged somewhat reluctantly by the other kids to run in the playground against a GIRL.. one Anne McKenzie by name to prove who was the fastest sprinter in the Golspie Primary School! And she won!!” Sandy also won the North of Scotland 100 yards title at Bucht Park in Inverness as well as the 120 yards hurdles and set a North schools long jump record of 6.43m. And of course there were several shot putt records.
Third, there was the aforementioned Alex Dalrymple and his time at Golspie High School. “It was only when Alex started teaching me in secondary school that he turned my thoughts to the throws! “Every one wants to be a sprinter – let’s start a tradition in something else”!
He had several older boys learning to putt the shot, including Ian McPherson who went on to win the Scottish Senior Shot and Discus titles in 1963, ..and my first efforts weren’t great but when I reached 30ft in June 1956 Alex said to me: “I’ll start coaching you seriously if you can reach 35ft by the end of the summer holidays”!
Sandy at Goldenacre, 1961: his last competition there
Almost every day of that entire 6 weeks plus holiday I cycled on an old bike out to a grass bunker beside the shore on Golspie Golf Course and week by week I got better..actually getting over 35ft the day before we went back to school!
“I don’t believe it” was his comment on the first day back and not only was I able to prove I could do this but I reached 36ft during the first PE class!
All through that winter I toiled in all weathers with Dalrymple supervising and when the snow came we took a pail of hot water out and two shots, one to use and the other to keep in the hot water, changing them round during the session. I can still see him with a towel round his head! The following June I was runner-up to Grigor Purvis (Duns HS) for the under-15 Scottish Schools title, reaching 43ft 11.5 ins! Had I reached 2 ins further I would have won and set a new age group record.
I was due to move up to the 15-17 age group in 1958 and trained with the 10lb shot that winter but in the Spring we heard that the SSAA had changed the age group dates back a month and so my birthday on 21/4/43 made me just eligible again for under-15. The 4k shot seemed so light by then and I broke the record … by 10 feet! (54 feet 1.5 if I remember correctly. The rest as they say is history. I broke the 15-17 record in two successive years, the second time also breaking the discus record and in my final year in school broke the over-17 record at Goldenacre for the 12lb shot with 55 feet.
I was awarded the Eric Liddell Memorial Trophy two years in a row, the second time sharing it with 440 yards runner Lenny Ross from Hyndland Secondary in Glasgow.”
With the Eric Liddell Memorial Trophy in 1961
Also in picture: David Paterson Golspie HS, double hurdles winner, and Karlyn Ross of Paisley GS, HJ champion
Sandy is lavish in his praise of Alex Dalrymple whose trophy is still competed for at the Scottish Schools Champs for the best throwing performance – this was the 50th year of its presentation which was down to Sandy as he raised the money from former athletes, friends, colleagues and admirers when Alex, by then Warden of Glenmore Lodge, died of cancer at the far too early age of 39.
Leaving Golspie High School, he went on to study economics and psychology at Glasgow University and thereby hangs another tale. He had applied for both Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities. The Scottish Schools Championships were held in Glasgow in 1961 and while there he met Sir Hector Hetherington, Principal of Glasgow University. In the course of a brief conversation he said that he was going to Edinburgh University because they had accepted his application. “We’ll have to see about that!” Next week he had his acceptance from Glasgow. It paid off handsomely for the University: Sandy won the Scottish Universities shot putt in 1962, 1963 and 1965, and the discus in in 1963. In 1962 he not only won the Universities shot, but also (at the same meeting) the Scottish Junior and Senior titles at the same meeting.
Weight training at Glasgow University’s Stevenson Building
There were also international fixtures and invitation meetings. One of the pioneering events was an indoor fixture at Wembley:
“In March 1963, Scottish athletes took part in a never-to-be-repeated event at the Empire Pool & Sports Arena, Wembley, London where there was an international indoor event incorporating a match between England and a combined team of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Among those in the combined team were George Wenk & Hugh Barrow (880y), Alan Black (1M), Alex Kilpatrick & Pat Mackenzie (HJ), David Stevenson & Norrie Foster (PV), Sandy Sutherland (SP), Georgena Buchanan (440y) & Helen Caldwell in the high jump. This combined might went down 51-93 in the men’s events and 15-40 in the women’s match, the scores perhaps a clue as to why the event did not become a regular fixture. Scotland’s first indoor match in their own right came 6 years later, at Cosford in March 1969.”
As well as excelling in athletics, he won the Scottish Universities mid-heavy and Scottish Junior mid-heavy titles in weight lifting. The University’s registrar when his application was accepted was an athletics supporter and enthusiast called George Richardson, a man who possibly never did the University athletics constituency a bigger favour. After graduation Sandy went back for a post-grad certificate in social studies which enabled him to become President of GUAC: that same year Ming Campbell was President of the University Union.
On leaving the University, he went to London to work for the Universities Athletic Union in London – assistant secretary for a salary of £950 pa – and joined the Anglo-Scots club which was a good club at the time and was well-represented at SAAA Championships. Influenced by his friend Tommy Robertson, he also joined Wimbledon AC. Sandy has also had a massive involvement with basketball – he tells us that he got involved with the sport when he was in London with the UAU: the office was in Woburn Square and above the British Universities Sports Federation HQ and his interest in the sport dates from that.
Signed Programme for Schools International in Cardiff in 1961
It is easy to get carried away with admiration of the man’s achievements, but it is instructive to see just what they were.
Sandy’s competitive record reads as follows:
1959: Youth. SAAA Shot 1st; SSAA (Group B) Shot 1st; Discus 1st.
1960: Youth: SAAA Shot 1st; SSAA (B) Shot 1st; Discus 1st.
1961: Junior: SAAA Shot 1st; Discus 1st; Senior SAAA Shot 2nd; SSAA Shot 1st.
1962: Senior SAAA Shot 1st; Junior SAAA 1st. Scottish Universities Shot 1st; West District Championship: Shot 1st; Discus 1st.
1963: Senior SAAA Shot 2nd. Scottish Universities Shot 1st; Discus 1st; West District Shot 1st; Discus 1st; SAAA Decathlon 2nd..
1965: SAAA Shot 2nd; Scottish Universities Shot 1st; SAAA Decathlon 2nd.
1966: SAAA Shot Putt 2nd; West District Championships Discus 1st (Competing for Ayr Seaforth).
1968: SAAA Shot 2nd; SAAA Discus 3rd.
1969: Senior SAAA Shot 2nd; Senior SAAA Discus 2nd; East District Championships Shot 1st (Competing for Edinburgh Southern Harriers);
1970 East District Championships Shot 1st.
1971: Senior SAAA Shot 1st.
For performance statistics, in the national rankings, Sandy was ranked nationally every year from 1959 to 1982 including such events as Long Jump, Javelin and Hammer as well as Shot and Discus. So versatile was he that he was also ranked in the decathlon in 1965, 1966, 1968, 1971 and 1972 with a best score of 5217 points in 1966 and a best place of 6th in 1965. His best performances were as follows:
Shot: 15.16m 1970
Discus: 45.56m 1970
Hammer: 43.32m 1879
Long Jump: 6.48m 1960
Decathlon: 5217 pts 1966
Sandy’s contemporaries as an athlete included such well-known names as Hugh Barrow, Fergus Murray, Jim Craig, Sandy Robertson and others. Those who competed in the Schools International of 1961 have kept in touch and their most recent get-together was in 2011. They were a good and gregarious group, and Sandy invited them up to Golspie for a game of golf – and the photograph at the top of the page was taken then. Among the throwers, Laurie Bryce, Doug Edmunds, Mike Lindsay, Chris Black, Alex Black – all top class in their events – were his rivals.
1961 SSAA team: Sandy five from the right in the back row.
As well as being selected for international matches, Sandy competed for the Atalanta Club. Atalanta was a kind of Scottish equivalent of the Achilles Club in England and was made up of the best athletes from the four ancient Scottish universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews. Established in the 1920’s it took part in challenge matches until its demise in the early 1970s. Sandy competed with distinction for them For instance in July 1962 against SAAA he won the shot (45′ 8″) and at Iffley Road in 1963 against Oxford and Loughborough Colleges, he won the shot with 47.0,
However, he went to South Africa at the invitation of a relative, about which more later) and while there continued to compete. He says:
“To begin with I competed as I went along before ending in Jo’burg and won provincial titles in shot and discus in Natal, Border, Eastern Cape and Southern Transvaal but then encountered the mighty Booysen brothers David (60ft + shot) and Hannes (55ft+) and the huge discus-thrower John Van Reenen (6ft 7ins) and way over 60 metres, 200 ft in the discus!
I went over 49ft for the first time with the shot and eventually reached a PB of 49ft 8ins, which I never really bettered when I came back in June 1968. Frustrated with my lack of progress I also flirted with the decathlon and competed in the SA Champs in Bloemfontein but did not improve on the total I managed at Westerlands when I had finished 2nd to Norrie Foster when he set a British record there (in 1965) of 6,701 pts.
I had a great 1st 3 events of including 47ft + in shot and even managed a 55.3 secs 400 in my first serious 400m going from side to side of my lane coming up the straight after going through 300m level with Norrie! Never again I vowed..and I didn’t..run as fast!
So journalism took precedence on coming back to Blighty and I turned down a job with the Daily Sketch whose sports editor Bob Findlay was a Scot (of course!) to take one at the Scotsman where Willie Kemp was the sports ed.
It was the time of Mexico Olympics as I think I’ve said! About the same time I met up with a hurdler, sprinter, pentathlete at Edinburgh Southern Harriers who went on to become my wife in September 1969. (6/9/69) Liz Toulalan won the Scotsman Trophy for the Scottish pentathlon Champ that year and the following, thanks to coach John Anderson, reached the final of the CG 100 metres..the rest of that is history …she can claim to have represented GB in more events than any other female athlete..100, 200, 4 x 100, 4 x 400, 60m hurdles, 100 hurdles, 400 hurdles and setting a Commonwealth record in the latter at Meadowbank in 1977 in beating the Russians!”
Arnold Black, statistician, reckons that as well as representing GB in six events, Liz competed for Scotland in eight events: the six listed above plus the 400m flat and 80m hurdles!
If you ask Sandy what, out of all those hundreds of performances, what were his best, he will tell you that the two performances he was most proud of were taking second behind Alan Carter in the AAA Junior shot in London in 1961 with his last round throw, and beating Doug Edmunds for the Scottish Universities title in St Andrews, in 1965, also with his last throw! He adds, “by that time Doug was consistently better than me!”
Over a decade later than either of these performances, in 1979, Sandy was a good bet for the Scottish shot putt championships but because he wanted to cover the meeting for BBC radio and the rules then forbade anyone competing in and reporting on the same meeting, he withdrew his entry. The championship was won by George Loney, a worthy winner it has to be said, to take his only title.
Doug Gillon: The Games
Gillon ~ or Rasputin?
Doug in the course of his journalistic career covered 34 years of the history of Scottish athletics and it would be a foolish and negligent historian of Scottish athletics who did not make use of this treasure trove of information. It should not however be assumed that this did not happen without a lot of hard work and sleepless nights. Sure, it was fun and he enjoyed doing it, easy it was not. The information below had to be specifically requested and it tells tales that we would not otherwise hear.
How long before the event do you know that you are going? One has to accredit with organisations like the British Olympic Association, IAAF, Commonwealth Games Federation/CGS Scotland months in advance (a process of around 18 in the case of the British Olympic Association for Olympics)
The first step in this process is the sports ed/editor convincing management the paper can afford it. They often baulked at it, and it was almost invariably a fight, but usually not involving me, rather others going in to bat for me. So when it was agreed I should go, it was always on very tight budgets – can we do this on the cheap? And despite agreements with NUJ chapel, re upgrades for flights lasting more than four hours, I have yet to experience one!
They always attempted to get hotels on the cheap, but were obliged to use media hotels at events, because the transport system is linked to them. There were constant rows about this: “You can get a cheaper hotel in Sydney.”
Despite it apparently being a doddle, there were huge financial and time pressures. The sports desk secy and I would spend hours finding the cheapest options before a package was agreed. Meanwhile trying to do the normal day’s work.
What sort of preparation did you need to do beforehand? One builds up dossiers and background on competitors as part of one’s normal daily routine, but that would broaden and intensify before major events – particularly multi-sport events, eg I would not spend too much time normally on judo or fencing, for example, but pre OG or CG, that would change. The work-load became silly, but I knew I’d need all the facts at my fingertips when deadlines loomed, and some unknown (not necessarily British) had won Olympic gold.
I can imagine there were problems with communications? The advent of computers reduced costs (by removing hours spent dictating copy and replacing it with a one-second call to transmit data). In Moscow, for example, one would queue to use a phone for up to an hour. An apparatchik would call your name and a phone box number, and you would be connected. It might take 30 mins to dictate 1000 words, longer if foreign names were involved. People monitored your calls. You could tell from the hollow echo on lines, and more pertinently that if one dictated something contentious or regime-critical, they would censor you by pulling the plug, and you’d have to start the queuing process again. On one occasion, when I was trying to send a report on a gay rights demo in Red Square, the line was disconnected five or six times. I placed a call to our communications people and got instructions on how to use a teleprinter. There was a battery of them lying unused. You had to hand your copy to the telex operator, and they could then vet it, but they were mostly unused because everyone wanted to phone, discus things with the sports ed, etc. I was able to commandeer one printer and batter out the rest of the story before they knew what I was doing. It may have helped that I had a bushy black beard then, and looked like Rasputin. One security guard look at my accreditation photo and burst out laughing, bellowing: “Rasputin! Rasputin!”
Post lap tops, it became easier, although initially the weight of kit to be carried was incredible. And still fraught, even though less time was spent on the phone. The kit included a big pair of acoustic muffs into which you attached around the earpiece and mouthpiece of the phone. This transmitted fine from one’s hotel room, but in a stadium with 80,000 to 100,000 people, the noise corrupted the signal. So we learned to snaffle two bath towels from the hotel, and wrap them round the muffs and phone, to deaden the noise. Then we discovered that if you went into the phone wiring, and connected the cables, perhaps using crocodile clips, you could eliminate the muffs.
Comms links got steadily better, so that the likes of Sydney, Bejing, Delhi, Melbourne, London etc, were relatively simple, and the advent of the Internet speeded research. But beware the curse of unreliable Wiki.
The problem with Sydney is that it’s UK plus 10 hours ie 10pm in Sydney is noon the same day in Glasgow.
I’d go around all day in Sydney from event to event, swimming in the morning (expecting Brits to be eliminated) and track at night. You would shoe-horn in other events wherever a Scot or Brit was in action – lots of home-work to check who was on where and when, and the travel logistics. I’d go around all day watching events and hoovering up interviews (ie in the mixed zone where competitors leave the poolside or track, or in the judo hall or boxing, etc, and batter quotes into my laptop, transcribing in transit (buses, trains, taxis). When the live action finished, around 10pm, I’d phone the desk, tell them what the headline Scottish/UK stories were, and we’d agree a schedule of reports with word counts. Because I could file until almost 8am (Sydney) the following morning (10pm UK), there were days when I would write and file 6000-ish words of considered writing. That’s the equivalent of six page leads (c800 each) and 3-5 sidebars of 250-400 words. (In Beijing it was more, because blogs had arrived). This means that some days the only sleep I got was at my work station between filing by 8am and being in my press seat at whatever was first venue of the day, usually by 10am.
What actual reporting problems were associated with the different time zones? It’s no use reporting from Beijing that Usain Bolt broke the world 100m record here tonight to take the Olympic title in a time of 9.69 seconds. By the time the Herald is on the breakfast table perhaps 10 hours after the race, everyone has seen the race several times, and heard the factual news. It’s no use talking about the margin and manner of his win, arms up 20 metres out, and easing off, etc
The report has to be analytical, eg:
“Usain Bolt’s remarkable Olympic 100m title last night in Beijing, shaving 0.3 sec from his own world record with 9.69sec, cements his place in the pantheon of global sprinting. Of the 10 fastest times in history four are his, yet he has run the distance only 13 times. Five of the quickest 10 belong to his Jamaican compatriot, former world record-holder Asafa Powell, but Bolt, with his classic lightning pose, heralds a new era. Few would bet against the 200m world best, and the 4 x 100m record, falling to him in the coming days.
Yet Bolt, with his long levers, was second slowest out of the blocks (0.165).
Three men broke 10.00 in the quarters, seven in the semis, and six in the final where 10.01 and 10.03 were the fastest times ever recorded for the last two places.
Powell was eclipsed with 9.95 in fifth, again buckling under pressure. Yet Bolt dropped his arms at 80 metres, appearing to ease off before raising them at the line”.
Text book, it was not.
… Then proceed to analyse him, and take in the quotes from his coach and team management which would not be available until later in the evening, and consequently missing from immediate live reports.
So there’s a lot of research which has to be teed up in advance. And with the volume of copy required, even with the extra time available, there’s no time to relax. Most meals are snatched sandwiches and constant coffees, and plenty water.
With perhaps 12 first-round heats in the 100, and all the Brits and potential finalists to be covered, I’d be up and down six or eight flights from high in the stand to the mixed zone just for the opening day of the 100. And all the time one is trying to keep tabs on the Scot in the modern pentathlon, or the two Scots in the coxless pairs, or whatever.
You need to know exactly who is in action, where, and when, and what their chances are. Can you afford not to be there? What are the priorities?
Still with time differences: The problems are very different West of the UK, eg LA, Atlanta, Victoria, Montreal, Edmonton.
In Los Angeles, the 3000m started at 2.50 UK time. I had to dictate a run of the race piece on Decker v Budd as it happened (in the same way as one would do a Saturday evening paper football report) and then add a paragraph of intro saying who had won, and their time (from the finish clock), and be off the line by 3.00 – my ultimate deadline, or it would not make the paper. Given it was won in 8.35, that gave 125 seconds to dictate the intro on top, that Puica had won from Wendy Sly, and stitch in that Decker had been carried off in tears by her fiance, and that Budd had placed seventh. And hopefully make it all read seamlessly.
We were, I believe the only UK morning paper with a live report on the race. As much adrenaline as one wants for a day at the office, but hugely rewarding and professionally satisfying!
In London or Glasgow, one is in real time, so the amount of copy one can file daily is reduced – no more than 2500-3000 per day, and some of that might be a preview feature party composed in advance. [In overseas locations you also try to have features part researched and written in advance.]
Accommodation, facilities, contacts – what difficulties could be encountered when you arrived? Accommodation was just standard and often very spartan but over-priced hotel rooms. The Kuala Lumpur press hotel rented rooms by the hour until shortly before our arrival! At least the sheets had been changed, and the walls painted.
Food was generally OK, but often snatched on the hoof. One had an advance and reclaimed costs against receipts on return. There was a modest per diem for taxis, phone charges, food, occasional translation costs, but all had to be receipted and accounted for.
One is very much reliant on personal contacts, and building trust. In the mixed zone, one is separated from athletes by a chest -high barrier, and the athlete naturally will immediately go to a known face. It’s an ill-disciplined scrum, and the noise is intense. If you are not close enough to get your recorder under his/her nose, you will have nothing, and though one can pick up on quotes from colleagues later, if the deadline is tight you have missed it. (one would not share quotes from an exclusive interview).
After the Games start, what are the problems with access to individuals, work space, etc? The BOA and CGS increasingly want to control the media. Unless you have a relationship with a competitor, coach, or official, you can’t get past that. I prided myself on having an unrivaled contacts book (ie phone numbers and addresses), and a decent memory. Knowing the names of wives, children, parents (and their phone numbers), coaches & even family pets, is a huge asset. Likewise the background of injuries, allergies, previous competitive history – highs and lows. Often, not always, one would keep little electronic files on athletes. In the old days you’d have an envelope full of press cuttings on the bigger celebs, so that if asked for an 800-word feature on somebody, you could deliver.
Knowing team managers and coaches was also important.
Building trust and confidence is vital, and sometimes that is obtained by not publishing. To me, it was worth sacrificing one racey story (not necessarily in the public interest) because it would gain you much more in the future. But I would never be party to covering up doping, cheating, etc.
Press work rooms were generally large, well equipped, with conference rooms for big interviews which might have 300 journalists, 30+ TV stations, and several dozen radio ones.
As stated above, occasionally (eg Beijing and Sydney) I sometimes did not get to bed.
I was fortunate that my desk would tell me “You’re the expert. Just go where you think the story is.” In my early career, they’d perhaps ask me for a feature on Olga Korbut, or Ron Clarke.
How do local conditions affect you? Humidity and heat in Atlanta, etc? You just have to get on with the job, whatever the heat or humidity, make sure you drink plenty fluids. I usually kept my watch on UK time, to remind me of deadlines. There’s never time to acquire a hangover, which would in any event have been a very dangerous indulgence. The ultimate sin for a journalist is failing to hit deadline.
Bureaucracy could drive you mad: queuing three time for a sandwich or bottle of water in the likes of Moscow of Delhi.
Often I would be asked to pass on a message to athletes by their family or coaches, especially pre-mobile. I’d often let them use my phone in the stadium to call home in the days before mobiles.
What particular memories do you have of separate Games? Every major Games is memorable in its own way. For many athletes (most of whom only do one OG or CG) it is often the defining experience of their lives. I count myself exceptionally privileged to have been part of that. I guess they are defining moments of mine. Curiously, like competitors, hacks also appear to rise to the championship challenge. Almost all of the awards I have been lucky enough to win, and many of the winning works of others, have been filed from major events, or linked to them. It was once pointed out to me that there were fewer Scottish journalists at the Olympics than there were Scottish athletes, and more GB Olympic competitors than there were GB journos. It was very competitive in journalism to get to the OG.
Are the Commonwealth Games really different from the others – ie ‘The Friendly Games’?The 1970 CG stand out, not just because they were my first, but because we did so well, and with athletes I knew or had competed with (Alder, Lachie, McCafferty, Ian Stewart, etc). It was a unique experience, wonderfully well-organised, even by today’s standards. ’86 was desperate by comparison, due to the boycott. Melbourne and KL were outstanding, and Glasgow 2014 is right up there. There is a different, less frantic, gentler, attitude to the CG. They are friendlier, I guess.
Every Olympics has had something special, highlight moments, the bleak and the brilliant, from the 1972 Munich massacre and ’96 Centennial Park bombing (Atlanta was my least favourite Olympics, and very badly organised) to watching Wells and Hoy, both of whom I knew well, win gold. The contrast between Moscow and LA, ideologically and indeed in every respect, made both magically fascinating. Barcelona, more for the Spanish culture than our results, I really enjoyed. Seoul for similar reasons. Sydney was the best, until matched by the GB success of London.
I actually enjoyed the World and Euro Athletics Champs more than almost OG and CG – able to focus without distraction on the sport that meant most to me.
I twice served as an assistant to the Press Liaison chap at Meadowbank, taking messages from the Press box to the control room and vice versa. It was most revealing and altered my opinion of some of the gentlemen of the Press. I would in all good faith take a Press release up to them in the box and among the generally civil greetings there would almost always be someone who would say something like “This is no good to me! What I want to know is …. ” Apart from the content it was at times said in a most unfriendly, condescending fashion. Guys like Doug, Sandy Sutherland and Bill Melville have always been a pleasure to deal with. It is easy to believe Doug when he says:
“I did say I’d been privileged to do the job, and I meant it. Our sport is full of people who do it for love and glorious obsession, without reward – like yourself and Colin, and so many others.
I look at guys like Keino, born in a mud hut, and he and his wife giving their lives and almost everything they have, to fostering some 400 children. He has a depth of humanity that puts us all to shame. I was never more pleased than when the builders of the Glasgow 2014 village presented him with a £10k cheque for his charity, after reading a piece I’d written about him.
I was just a very lucky boy, blessed to be in the right place at the right time, and to be paid for having so much fun.”
Aye, and Scottish athletics was lucky that you happened to be in the right place at the right time too!
Now read what his friends have to say here
Doug Gillon
Doug at Work
Doug Gillon started out as a runner, a pretty good runner, before becoming one of Scotland’s best and most respected athletics journalists. He attended three, four or ten times more Olympics than any athlete did, he covered more sports than any other journalist that I can think of has done, and still managed to keep his allegiance to his roots in the country’s athletics. It is appropriate though to start where he started – and Colin Youngson covers his career as a runner.
Eric Fisher (born 1946) became a good cross-country and marathon runner and a very good coach, as well as being a key figure on the Edinburgh Boys Brigade scene. He first got into the sport through Sunday School picnics where all the races were short sprints which he could never win. He wanted longer distance races, as did another youngster by the name of Douglas F. Gillon (born on the 12th of July 1946) the subject of this profile. These picnics were all held at Dalkeith Country Park and when such races were introduced, these two used to beat everybody else easily.
Later on, in 1966, Eric Fisher became involved properly in the sport when he was 19 years old and Claude Jones of Edinburgh AC who worked in Ferranti’s asked if there were any runners in the factory who were not involved in the sport. Eric was pointed out to him and he was invited along. The first night there he was involved in a 2.5 mile race: it was a handicap race but all athletes started at the same time. He saw one guy he knew and told the handicapper he could beat him. It turned out that it was Doug Gillon (again) who had been attending George Watson’s College and was ranked number 3 in the United Kingdom for the steeplechase in his age group. Eric kept up with them for about 100 yards, fell away and finished between two and three minutes behind them. That wasn’t bad for a youngster on his first night though.
Doug Gillon features in the Scottish Athletics Yearbook which lists statistics from the 1965 season. With a time of 4.24.2 for 1500 metres Steeplechase, he was fastest Junior in Scotland, in front of his EAC team-mate John Fairgrieve. Doug produced this time in the Schools International fixture in Brighton on the 24th of July, when he was narrowly beaten into second place after a bold front-running bid for victory. He had earned selection for the Scottish team by becoming Scottish Schools champion by winning the 1500m Steeplechase title at Meadowbank. His time that day, 2.25.7, was only 0.3 of a second slower than Alistair Blamire’s record, set in 1964. This was after Doug had finished third in the Schools mile at Goldenacre. The race was won by Jack MacFie of Daniel Stewart’s, who went on to finish third in the Brighton international mile. Doug and Jack trained together; and Jack was to run well for Edinburgh University, Scottish Universities, EAC and Victoria Park. His most successful event was probably 880 yards. He won many contests with a strong sprint finish and had a best time of 1.53.3.
(A really unusual feat was when Jack MacFie broke the outright record for racing up umpteen steps to the top of London’s Post Office Tower! This challenge took place in April 1968, shortly after Edinburgh University had won both the British Universities Cross Country and Scottish National XC team titles. He clocked a rapid 4 minutes 46 seconds and was 2nd to go up in the EU team of 6: Hugh Stevenson, Jack MacFie, Ian Hathorn, Andy McKean, John Exley and Ken Fife. All the EU runners were better than London University’s best. As an extra guest for EU, Sheila Duncan set a women’s record.)
Doug Gillon also made the 1965 Scottish Senior lists with 10 minutes 10 seconds for the gruelling 3000m Steeplechase.
In November 1965, Doug made the EAC team for the prestigious Edinburgh to Glasgow Road Relay – and what a successful debut it was. Doug took over from the great Jim Alder in 4th place on the 7th Stage and managed to hold this position. Although EAC ended up 5th after the final 8th Stage, they were presented with the Most Improved team medals.
There was further improvement for Doug in 1966: 9.46.0 for 3000m Steeplechase, run in London (14th in the Scottish rankings). This was to be his fastest ever in this event.
The Scottish Universities Track Championships took place at Westerlands in Glasgow on June 3rd 1967. Spectators watched Doug Gillon racing around indefatigably completing several events for the new Heriot-Watt University, a team that was short of numbers. The Scottish Association of Track Statisticians Archive makes clear about two of his best runs that summer: 58.1 for the 440 yards Hurdles (8th in the Scottish rankings) and 10 minutes 0.2 seconds in the 3000m Steeplechase, when he won at Grangemouth on 6th August (14th).
In the 1967 E to G, Doug ran Stage 7 once more and improved his team’s position from 7th to 6th, which turned out to be their place at the finish.
In Summer 1968 Doug ended up 21st in the Scottish rankings for 3000m Steeplechase with 10.11.6. After he left university, his journalistic career took precedence.
Hugh Stevenson has been a member of Victoria Park AAC for many years. In his day a talented hurdler, who won the SAAA Junior 120 yards Hurdles title in 1965, he is notorious for satirical ‘imitations’ of athletics friends and foes. Doug Gillon featured frequently in Hugo’s humorous repertoire as ‘The Expert’, and was treated with fond derision as Gillon became Scotland’s finest Athletics Journalist. Doug’s friends at VP also included ‘The Doc’ (John Baird), ‘Jake the Snake’ (Jack MacFie) and ‘The Boss’ (Roddie Campbell).
Then in 1977, racing for Victoria Park AAC, Doug Gillon produced a surprise personal best time of 57.19 for 400 metres Hurdles (16th in the Scottish Rankings). (Many years later, Doug was awarded Life Membership of VPAAC, for services to athletics journalism.)
Doug Gillon himself emailed a colourful series of memories from these early days. Inevitably these are much more entertaining than the previous paragraphs, which had to be sourced mainly from cold statistics!
“ I was born in Edinburgh on 12.7.1946, and attended George Watson’s College in Edinburgh where I tried almost every sport imaginable: athletics, rugby, squash, badminton, cricket in which I represented the school; learned to ski at Aviemore, and canoe in Loch Lomond and the Hebrides. I dabbled enthusiastically in basketball, hockey and volleyball, plus football (which we had to arrange for ourselves, being a “rugby school”). And tennis and golf at which I was abysmal. In fact not even as good as that.
I was obsessed with sport from an early age and remember beating Eric Fisher who was in the same Sunday school class, probably before we were 10. It was a cross-country race of, of maybe .75 of a mile. I recall winning in a sprint finish (first race I ever won) I’m not sure if it was from Eric. Later, he trained for cross-country with the BB, and always beat me comfortably, as did another BB lad who gave Eric some competition. His name (McMahon, I think, but Eric could confirm) never featured in athletics in future, and whenever I recalled these days in the future, I always considered him a talent lost to the sport. Especially once Eric developed in the marathon.
In the coronation summer of 1953 I remember reading the report of the first ascent of Everest. I was six and transfixed. I still have the newspaper with its souvenir pictures . . . Hillary, an alien figure against an impossibly blue sky. And who had taken this photograph, I remember thinking. Tensing, of course, but perhaps this was the first evidence of an enquiring sporting mind. The next was being summoned by my father to hear news of Bannister, Brasher and Chataway, and the first sub four-minute mile. And I recall creeping out of bed at 3.00am on a spring morning in 1955, to tune in to Eamonn Andrews’ boxing commentary on the Don Cockell v Rocky Marciano world heavyweight title fight. Cockell got his head boxed off in nine rounds. I devoured every line of all the newspaper reports. I wanted to know all about these icons. Reading about them inspired me, and while doing the greatest job in the world, I’ve since been privileged to meet and interview many of them, including Chataway, Brasher, and Bannister.
From an early age I had a dream . . . that I might be a good enough athlete to represent my country, to go to the Commonwealth Games, and perhaps even the Olympics. Well, it didn’t quite work out like that. There were a few injuries, the pre-lottery dilemma of carving a career, paying a mortgage, and raising a family. Not to mention insufficient talent. But life took odd twists which resulted in me covering 11 Olympics. Thanks primarily to having defied my parents’ wishes that I study law – a decision that caused a fair bit of domestic aggro.
My father was a public relations consultant, involved in the then fledgling sport sponsorship industry. Many early such events in Scotland were his creation, including the first national awards dinner (Usher Vaux). This brought him into routine contact with the likes of Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart, because his clients sponsored motor racing at Charterhall when these future F1 champions were young drivers. Winnie Shaw, Bobby Macgregor, Harvey Smith, Dick McTaggart, Ming Campbell, and a host of other celebrities were household topics of conversation. My dad brought home their autographs, and even that of Muhammad Ali.
So sporting excellence was a step closer for me than just reading about it in the papers. My old man was on first-name terms with them. Yet when I announced that I wanted to write about sport rather than read law, he went ape. There was a lecture about sports writers, with whom he worked daily: how advancement relied on luck, and not necessarily talent, that there were many very good journalists earning a pittance on local papers, because they’d never had a lucky break. It was a hard-drinking, cynical and unpleasant profession. But he let slip some Damon Runyonesque tales about Scotland’s sports scribes, which only whetted my ambition.
My eclectic sports participation meant I did no real athletics until I was 17. I discovered latent cardiovascular fitness by chance, thanks to a knee ligament injury sustained at rugby. I ran every day to recover strength (straight lines, no side-stepping), and was persuaded to do some track races. I discovered the long-standing school mile record was in reach, and beat it with 4:24.1 on a five-lap-to-the-mile grass track at Myreside. I was briefly coached by John Anderson whose rep sessions at Meadowbank (in some illustrious company) frequently made me ill. I’d have run over broken glass for him, but quickly learned he could cause a row in an empty house. I retain the greatest regard and affection for him – a truly iconic coach, and we remain friends. I’d never have become a journalist but for John and the life lessons which I did not even realise I was learning until decades later.
I joined Edinburgh AC, and recall running a mile, 3k chase, and six miles “for the point” in one evening during a club match at Ayr. It was my first ‘chase and first time over a water jump. Not for the last time, I fell in, but managed to finish, in second or third, I think.
Barrier technique was clearly lacking; as were facilities. So having decided to do the #chase at the Scottish schools, I took the wooden bench seats from the Myreside stand, and stacked them three-feet high on the track, to practise hurdling, knowing that if I hit these benches I would go down, to focus the mind. So just like the real thing.
I also recall a 3k chase at Westerlands (Aug ’65, I think) in which Lachie Stewart and John Linaker had a ding-dong battle. Approaching the bell, I heard them closing on me and just managed to avoid the humiliation of beng lapped as Lachie broke the Scottish record.
EAC clubmates Jack MacFie, John Fairgrieve and I took 1, 2, 3 in the mile at the 1965 Scottish Schools Championships at Goldenacre. It seems significant, looking back, that we’d done regular very competitive weekly track rep sessions (eg 10×400, 6×600) together at Ford’s Road. As Goldenacre had no waterjump, the schools steeplechase (1500m) was held over to the Scottish Junior champs the following weekend, on cinders at Meadowbank. I won relatively unchallenged and was disappointed to learn I’d missed the national record by less than a second. I was told that medalling in both mile and 1500m SC was a first. I was more interested in it getting me selected for Scottish Schools.
At Brighton I had a lead of 50 metres in the Schools International, but got caught right on the line by a guy called Barry Davies who was unbeaten in Britain that year. He later became a cyclo-cross international, I believe.
There was no coach, and no advice at Brighton. I was then selected for an SAAA Junior team against the Army, a 2k chase, at Pitreavie. I managed to slip right under the water jump barrier for total immersion while warming up, but won the race in the same time as the runner-up. Definitely fuelled by how I’d felt when I lost on the line at Brighton.
I briefly worked in London as an executive officer with HM Customs & Excise, sharing a flat with Northern Ireland 800m internationalist Les Jones, later to become GB athletics team manager. When Les died, sadly most prematurely, I found myself shoulder to shoulder with Linford Christie, carrying one end of the coffin at his funeral in Portadown.
I joined Thames Valley where Ron Roddan was a young sprint coach. Did sessions with John Bicourt among others, and sometimes with a group which included Lillian Board.
I took a sabbatical from C&E to study for a BA in Commerce at Heriot Watt University where Adrian Weatherhead was then star athlete and Bill Walker the leading coaching light, team manager, and factotum. I recall a uni cross-country at Caird Park where Adrian was leading by about 100 yards when he shot off course. I had to resist the temptation not to shout him back (I was second) but we were team mates, after all! And he won comfortably. But the general standard of athletics was so poor that I won the 400h, 880, mile, and 3 miles in one afternoon at the University championships. My times were so dire that I carefully expunged them from my memory.
There were a few false starts before I became a journalist. I wrote the odd snippet for the school magazine at Watson’s. Malcolm Rifkind was a classmate, and before he moved at a young age, so was Mike McLean (800m CG 1970). Peter Burgess, who later won three Scottish decathlon titles, was also a contemporary and we were in the same team at the Schools international in Brighton (he did LJ then). So were my mates Jack MacFie and John Fairgrieve.
England’s World Cup win in 1966 quite spoiled my day. I’d hitched overnight from London, got a lift from Edinburgh to Ayr, and won the Land o’ Burns steeplechase. Then came off the track to learn England, drawing 2-2 when I lined up, had won. I took silver in the Civil Service 3k SC in 9.46. Can’t recall who won. Weeks later, I fell on an escalator, damaging ankle ligaments which took months to heal in my early time at Uni. This caused me to drop the ‘chase and try various events including 400 hurdles, with little success. Eilidh Doyle would have beaten me by nearly 30 metres! I guess in league matches over the years I tried every event bar the pole vault, “just for the point”.
Scotland’s big athletics hero was Jim Alder who had won the marathon at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Kingston (and was to fight his way to silver in the 1970 Edinburgh CG). Jim was a cult figure, hard as nails. The Victor’s fictional comic strip hero, Alf Tupper, aka Tough of the Track, was a wimp by comparison.
I’d run in the same Edinburgh-to-Glasgow team as Jim (my most terrifying moment as a young athlete was Jim Alder handing me the baton in the lead, at Airdrie War Memorial). I knew all his backround. I was in awe of him, of course, but he was friendly and gave advice. No arrogance, although he was among the best in the world. I could not help comparing him with some of the very one-dimensional footballers I queued to speak to outside Ibrox or Parkhead after reporting Old Firm matches. And Lachie Stewart was from the same cloth.”
Doug later added the following reminiscences:
“AT EAC a large group would go out on Sunday mornings. For me, those peaked briefly at a max of around 2 hours 10min which, eyeballs out for me, would be no more than 19-20 miles. These would be hilly: from Fords Road, out to Colinton, Redford, Balerno, and past the reservoirs. Finlay Steele was the top junior (around 51mins, I think in the Tom Scott in 1964 or 65). I recall finishing second junior to him on a very hot day on the Law to Motherwell course. I only just broke the hour but was well out of my comfort zone – completely wasted.
Bert Carse (later emigrated to Western Australia) would slaughter everyone bar Finlay on these Sunday runs. They started very friendly, everyone chatting. Silence would gradually descend, and then the boot would go in, and we’d fragment into little competitive groups.
Carse was the class act over three miles on the track, and Neil Donnachie, Bob Greenoak, and Barry Craighead were still competing for the club. Barry, who was then a joiner, would often give me a lift home in his van, which I recall once contained a coffin, or panels thereof!
I enjoyed handicap races at Highland Games, and on reflection they taught pace-judgement which sometimes seems lacking today, as a consequence of the decline of HG.
When I joined the Sunday Post (1968) I went out at lunchtimes, jogging from Port Dundas to Westerlands where I’d join a few others in a track rep session, then jog back. Lachie was often training there, and I recall Myra Nimmo too, training in the early 70s, prior to the ’76 Olympics where she did the long jump.
My training was indiscriminate, lacking structure as well as motivation because I could not race. Athletics contests in the late 60s were almost always on Saturdays – and I worked on Saturdays, focusing on my career, which caused me to abandon competitive aspirations. With a young family, serious commitment to training would have been a huge indulgence – unfair to my long-suffering wife, Mary. My job was disruptive enough to normal family life and she was hugely supportive of my work.
Nevertheless, I did attempt to keep in some shape. I’d go down to VP on Tuesday evenings. Jack MacFie put me to shame, travelling every week from Edinburgh despite being a GP. Our sessions were always competitive, whether track reps or round the Scotstoun area, or along The Boulevard. I’d also attempt to go out from home, perhaps once a week, and perhaps twice from the office at lunchtime but would only run a total of about 35 miles per week.
I’d various trails ranging from two to a maximum of seven miles, such as out to Mugdock reservoir or round Dougalston.
League athletics opened some Sunday options in the mid ’70s, and briefly rekindled competiive juices. They did so again with the marathon boom in the early ’80s. I got quite fit prior to the Glasgow marathon in either ’81 or ’82, while working for the Sunday Standard, going out every day through Glasgow Green for about 35-40 mins and also from home. I got up to around 60mpw then. On marathon day I promised to run with Bobby Watson (Airdrie manager) in the early stages, until he settled down. I left him about five miles, and stupidly got sucked into the race. I reached 19 miles in a couple of minutes over two hours, and was really chuffed – felt I should break three hours. Within two miles I’d strained my groin. I dragged my right leg to the finish – passed by Bobby in Pollok Park! I finished in 3:45. I never ran another marathon, and about three years there was a Damascene moment: my 11-year-old son, Gregor, beat me over two miles when we jogged on holiday in Cornwall.
I continued to jog two or three times a week into my 60s, but the knees are now paying for all those times I stepped over the door and onto the road or pavement. If I knew then what I know now, a lot more would have been done on grass. The last five years I have been able to do little more vigorous than a walk.”
It is important that we started with Doug as a runner and club man because it indicates that he knows the sport from the inside, is happy with the participants, and is, indeed, happy to be a participant. How can one who mixes with The Boss, The Doc and Jake the Snake ever be accused of being out of touch? Now read on for Doug’s journalistic career.
Iain Robertson’s friends say …
As we said, Iain knew when to stop: too many athletes and coaches would be ‘lost’ if they left the sport. Indeed there are courses for the ‘de-training’ of athletes when they retire and the same could be true of coaches. Iain is proof that there is a good life to be had after athletics. But what he did in the sport and for the sport has not been forgotten and below some of the people who worked for him and with him look back at Iain as a coach as well as a friend.
Val Smith winning the WAAA Junior 100m in 1973
I first joined Maryhill Ladies Athletic Club as as twelve year old in 1972. Coached by Ian Robertson (Rab), the next year I gained success in winning most domestic titles for my age group, culminating in the British Junior 100 metres title at Kirby in 1973.
Training was always enjoyable and varied – club sessions at Scotstoun on Monday and Wednesday nights, all day sessions at Bellahouston on a Sunday, starting with weight training, then a track session, finishing with hill runs-both uphill for strength and stamina and downhill for leg speed and acceleration. Winter training included Friday nights in the gym at Westbourne, with circuit training and gym work, followed by hill runs on the pavements outside! The club regularly had a day out to Prestwick, where I remember running along the beach dragging a tyre behind my back for resistance training, and also running up hill dunes. Co-ordination drills, hopping, bounding up sets of stairs were also common in training, along with running with weighted jackets.
Training was meticulously planned by Iain well in advance, and we all kept training diaries which were regularly discussed.
Iain was highly intelligent and extremely knowledgeable about the latest training techniques, and was very innovative for his time.
I remember competing at Cosford in the British Indoor Championships 60 metres in 1975, where I was using a one-handed start, pioneered by my namesake, the Olympic 100 metre Champion, Valery Borzov. I won my heat, and there was a rumour afterwards that I may be disqualified, as the officials were not sure if this start was legal, as they had not seen it used before in this country. Luckily I was allowed to progress, and I won a silver medal! Eventually the one-handed start became quite popular, before the current IAAF ruling of a down start with both hands in contact with the track!
It was not long before Iain was coaching a very talented squad of athletes. He turned up at training one night wearing a red hooded sweatshirt with the words ‘Rab’s Rockets’ printed on the back, so from then on, the squad was known as Rab’s Rockets!
His commitment and contribution to his athletes was second to none, and he was always well respected by his peers. He encouraged the best from his athletes, and was an extremely dynamic and motivational coach. It was an absolute privilege to be coached by him.
Angela Bridgeman Baxter
I first joined Rab’s training group when I was about 13 years old. I came to Glasgow AC when Western AC joined with the women who trained with Maryhill and we all started training at Scotstoun. Up until that point athletics was a fun hobby for me and I didn’t know another level existed really. I am not sure how it happened but I ended up in Rab’s group and soon realized that this was serious business and that he was a very knowledgeable coach. We did drills and technique runs and he explained how to do them and more importantly why. He kept detailed records and had a yearly periodized plan and he was very interested in the whole person. He was meticulous and organized. He had us monitor all of our vitals like sleep/food we ate and daily pulse rate while recommending vitamins for us to take. I coached for several years and this knowledge and approach served me well.
Val Smith and others were the older athletes in the group were all successful and I soon found out why. We trained very hard. Rab had a no nonsense approach at the club although we did have fun. He would also meet us on other days once we reached the level where we needed to train more which came with more sacrifice of his time. There was no elitism in that anyone who came to the group was welcomed. Most did not stay long as the hard training weeded people out. I believe he came from a soccer background which a lot of the coaches did. He would always come with a sheet of notepaper with the session on it and there was many butterflies in the stomach as we waited to hear what we would be running that night. He rarely told us ahead of time what we would be doing. Then as we tired he would urge us to “get the finger out”(laughs) His dedication to the sport and his athletes was amazing. When we would go to meetings he would mostly be found in the press box announcing! He travelled to Brisbane in 1982 to support the Scottish team and myself and Sandra Whittaker who were competing. He arranged for us to run around Celtic park before a big game so we could get used to big crowds before going to Brisbane! He thought of it all. I probably did not have the intense competitive drive that matched his expertise and coaching and I was somewhat injury prone which limited my progression.
I have read the bios of some of the other Scottish coaches on this site and I think Iain walks alongside all of the great ones- Frank Dick, John Anderson and others. He was more than a “just a coach” he was a mentor and good friend. I basically grew up under his influence. I learned many lessons from him that have helped me be successful in my life.
Sandra Whittaker was a quite superb athlete whose running, especially in the 1983 world championships in Helsinki, the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the 1986 Commonwealth Games, was right up there with the best in the wold. She has this to say about Iain.
When I joined Glasgow Athletic Club I was fortunate enough to be placed in the sprints training group which Iain Robertson coached.
Within the first year Iain had quickly recognised my potential and approached my parents to ask if they could bring me to training more than once a week as he said he felt he could really make something of me. After discussion, my parents committed to taking me out to Scotstoun 3 times a week and Bellahouston 1 day a week. This was the start of great things to come.
Iain was the most committed coach I had the pleasure of training with. He put everything into every single person who was in our training group regardless of ability.
His training methods, I feel, were well advanced of the time and many other coaches from other clubs followed his training schedules with their athletes.
Our training programmes were very challenging, but with Iain’s support and encouragement we got through them, sometimes on our knees by the end of a session. Iain also travelled the country and beyond to competitions abroad, paying his own way, to make sure he provided the support I needed, one of these being the Olympic Games where I needed all the support I could get. Always a man to go above and beyond. It was here that I broke the Scottish Record and ran 22.98 seconds which stood for 34 years until 2 years ago. He was the proudest coach at that time.
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Alastair Shaw adds to what he says in the profile: “Although quick with the quips, and not always suffering fools gladly, Iain had a great moral sense and an understanding that coaches don’t just work on physical improvements with athletes but, wittingly or unwittingly, also set a role model for them. In that regard you might want to speak to Leslie Roy. Partly for stories from the many club trips down south when Ian was club Team Manager and she still an active athlete, and partly as I suspect she may have learnt quite a bit from him about how to go about team management.”
Lynne MacDougall
Lynne MacDougall has this to add:
“Three things I remember vividly about Rab: One was his passion and dedication to the club. He was at every UK league match. He would distribute a small piece of paper with the time of your event to each girl in the bus before the match started. This would be followed by a motivational speech to entreat you to perform your best. The bus was silent as we all listened intently. I am sure that most of us did get PBs in these matches!
The second was his approach to his training group. At the time I was in the club he had a really talented group, including Sandra Whittaker, Yvonne Anderson and Angela Bridgeman. They all worked very hard on that Scotstoun track which was just ash at the time, but also seemed to have a lot of fun.
The third was his sense of fun and humour. He was very serious and professional in his approach to coaching but also loved to kid on the athletes and of course we enjoyed the banter as well. “
Alex Wilson’s Gallery 3: Distance Runners
There are so many pictures of the distance runners that it will take several pages to show them all. We start with a wonderful runner, a Garscube Harrier who was based in England and ran for Birchfield Harriers and the Army: Sergeant RR Sutherland.
PETER ADDISON
JOHN PATERSON
1930 ICCU Cross Country Race: Evanston beats Sutherland to the line
Lanark, 1939: Archie Craig, Emmett Farrell, Allwell, Archie Dow and Willie Sutherland
Allwell, Farrell and Dow
Carstairs in 1938
1937 Scottish ICCU Team
