Author: Admin
Athletics in the Beginning.
Although Scotland’s records do not go as far back as the Tailtean Games in Ireland, yet what we have prove the love of athletics among the Picts, Scots and the gregarious Celts. From the chief downwards, athletics was the joy of the Gael, indeed the chief was often the most accomplished. At his door lay the ‘clachneart’, literally the stone of strength or the putting stone and on the arrival of a guest he was asked as a compliment to throw it. The chief’s followers, and those of his guests engaged in all manly sports, and as the honour of the clan was at stake, it is surmised that in the strenuous contests more heads than records were broken. The Fraser chiefs were noted athletes, and the father of the late Lord Lovat – an excellent sportsman – was an expert stone and hammer thrower.
In a manuscript lately come to light entitled: ‘Ane breve cronicle of the Erles of Ross’, an account is given of how an earldom was gained by prowess in wrestling. At the coronation of Edward I there was among those attached to his court in London a famous French wrestler from Normandy who was considered invincible. But during the gay doings, he was challenged by Farquhar Ross from the North of Scotland, a vassal to the Scottish king Alexander II, and to the amazement and delight of the Scottish king, his wife and a sister of Edward , and the Scottish guests, Farquhar overthrew and signally vanquished the unbeaten champion. So delighted was King Alexander over his countryman’s ‘notabill vassalage’, as he called it, that he conferred the Earldom of Ross upon him. To celebrate his victory and to carry out a vow that he had made, Farquhar erected an abbey, now no longer in existence, but its successor in Kincardine, Ross-shire is still used as the Parish Church.
At the great royal hunts which took place at Braemar and which often lasted for a fortnight, many chiefs with their followers took part. Malcolm II started at one of these ‘hunts’ the first recorded ‘Games’ by offering as a prize a sword and a purse of gold to the first man to reach, in a race, the summit of Craig Choinneach. Two McGregor brothers were favourites, but a third and younger brother, who was late in starting won after a terrific struggle.
It was not however till 1832 that the first organised Braemar Gathering took place. Queen Victoria was keenly interested in these sports, and in 1889 invited society to Balmoral. Later the Duke of Fife gave the present Princess Royal Park where the meeting is now held. The clansmen gather at the spot where the Jacobite standard was unfurled in 1715 – which event is commemorated in ‘The Standard on the Braes o’Mar’ – and march to the sports ground.
Since the year 1314 without a break, except during the Great War, the Ceres Games, founded to celebrate the return of the victorious Fife villagers from the Battle of Bannockburn, have been held annually. It is remarkable that the name of the Fife agricultural village, Ceres, is that of the Latin goddess, Ceres, the protectress of agriculture and in whose honour great sports were instituted.
Carnwath in Lanarkshire holds annually a meeting of great antiquity. The Red Hose race is the principal event, and local and popular tradition has it that in the event of the Carnwath estate becoming heir-less, the latest winner of the ‘Hose’ would become proprietor!
Under the shadow of the Duke of Argyll’s stately castle at Inveraray, a gathering of the western clans’ representative pipers, strong men and runners has been held for centuries. Running was a feature of this meeting, for the chiefs of old encouraged their ‘gille-ruith’, or running footmen, to excel in the Geal-ruith, or running and leaping games.
Among great athletes in Scotland, the two whose names were, and still are, in the mouths of everyone, were Captain Barclay of Ury and Donald Dinnie. The former was a great and up-to-date land proprietor in Kincardineshire. Sprung from an ancient and physically powerful family, he lived during the later part of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth. Educated at Cambridge, he early joined the army and served as ADC to the GOC of the ill-fated Walcheren Expedition. He was though of little more than average size, possessed of a great strength, speed and remarkable powers of endurance. Of the latter his great feat of walking 1000 miles in 1000 hours – that is one mile for every hour, was a record to his stamina. Others who tried this feat broke down at an early stage, but he continued for a period of 42 days and though he lost much weight was at the finish wonderfully fit. He was a great runner, walker, wrestler and stone-thrower, and thus resembled Dinnie, who was born in Aberdeenshire in 1837. Strange to say, Dinnie’s best performances were done when he was approaching forty years of age, and when fifty eight years old was the recognised all-round champion of New Zealand. Dinnie was undoubtedly the best athlete of his time, and in addition to being heavy-weight champion, excelled in wrestling, leaping, vaulting, running and dancing.
Over a century ago, the Borders had a remarkable man, Will o’Phaup, so called for his farm in the Ettrick valley. Like Dinnie in the North his name was a household word. His tombstone at Ettrick Kirk records that for feats of strength and agility, he was not excelled in the kingdom.
In pre-amateur days Scotland was famous for its distance runners, and many feats of endurance are recorded in books dealing with origins and history of Scottish Highland Gatherings.”
David Scott Duncan: An Appreciation
David Scott Duncan who, for many years prior to his death was looked upon as the “father” of amateur athletics in Scotland, was born in Monkton House, Inveresk, where his father had farmed for many years. After a short term in Musselburgh Grammar School, he became a pupil in the Royal High School, Ednburgh, where he remained until he left for the University with a view to qualifying for a legal career.
While in the RHS, he was looked on as a sound scholar, and left with a very good grounding in Latin, Greek, English and French. He was proxime accessit for the India Prize, and in this competition he was awarded a soecial prize on account of the high standard reached.
While at school he competed successfully at the annual sports; but it was not until 1880 that he took up distance running seriously. During the following eleven years he won over 150 prizes, and in addition to winning the Scottish Mile Championship five times, he was runner-up three times and held for a short time the records for the two and three miles. He competed in the AAA Championships and, while never a winner, did faster time at Stamford Bridge than he had ever done in Scotland. His record for the mile race (4 min 28 sec) stood for some years.
After a short business career in Leith he became the Scottish representative of the Field and continued in this capacity till the Great War. He was a born journalist; his marvellous memory and intimate acquaintance with all branches of sport gave him a pre-eminent place in the journalistic world; indeed it could be truly said of him that in these islands for many years he stood without a peer in all round knowledge of athletics.
Two years after the founding of the SAAA he took over from Mr AS Paterson, Advocate – a distance runner of distinction – the duties of Secretary, and for the long period of forty years guided the destinies of the Association. His legal training, scholarship and , above all, his retentive memory fitted him in a high degree for the duties of Secretary, and whether in furthering the athletic contest with Ireland, or in conference with sister countries he worthily upheld the interests of his own.
He was a golfer of more than average ability, being a “scratch” player when he captained the RHS Golf Club, indeed, his method drew, on one occasion from a champion golfer and a friend of his own, the remark “Man, David, if you hit the ball on the back swing, you would be the longest driver in Britain!” For a time he was the captain of the Royal Musselburgh Golf Club. In the royal burgh by the sea members of the club still recal his eloquence, fine diction and humour when he presided at their annual dinner.
The Golfing Annual, of which he was editor, stands as a memorial to his research and hard work. In laying the foundation of this work he met most of the great golfers of his time, many of whom became his fast friends. But he was at hs best during the visits toIreland with the Scottish international team, and while always anxious for a Scottish win, never failed to congratulate an Irish opponent on a brilliant performance. As a time keeper and judge, he excelled, and one recalls his indignation when in 1908 at the Olympic Games in London and apparently pre-arranged attempt to shoulder Captain Halswell off the track in the memorable 400 metres race was made, and failed. It is no secret that in this race, which Duncan judged, it was he who broke the tape when he saw the foul, and “no race” was unanimously declared.
The sentiments of the writer, who met “DSD” for the first time in 1883, and those of his numerous friends, were well stated by an eminent member of the SRU: “He was one of the whitest men I ever knew.”
KW
Foreword
FOREWORD
In writing the foreword to Fifty Years of Amateur Athletics in Scotland, I am conscious of the value of the work both as a record of past endeavour and as a guide to future policy.
Our first introduction to athletics is generally gained at school, and it is interesting to remark the extraordinary progress that has been made in cultivating that fertile ground since the inception of the Scottish Amateur Athletic Association in 1883. At the present moment organised games and sports are as much an accepted feature of school curriculum as are arithmetic or history, and are generally admitted to be of equal importance.
There are those who consider that undue stress is laid upon the physical side of scholastic life, but for myself I cannot admit it. The average boy is full of a superabundance of energy which must find an outlet. If that energy be directed into a proper channel, it can be made a vital factor in the building of the boy’s character. If it be not so directed, it will find an egress in ways altogether undesirable. The Victorians visualised high spirits as a waste product, which must be eliminated by disciplined suppression. Our modern view teaches that boyish energy is a by-product of infinite value which can be used with results altogether beneficial, and that games and athletics supply that anchor-hold, that definite background during the critical period of adolescence without which the majority of us would give Satan a congenial task in finding “mischief still for idle hands to do”.
It is difficult to realise the extent to which sport I its many branches has influenced the character of the British nation. They have given to us, in my view, a balanced judgment, a complete immunity to panic, and a good humoured tolerance which must surely be the despair of the agitator and the revolutionary.
I hold that at the moment Great Britain is the only country where a natural democracy exists. Democracy demands a common meeting ground, a community of interest. Sport provides that, and I know of nothing that could take its place.
If we value flattery, then we may claim that the world has accorded us the sincerest form by imitating our methods, by accepting our standards and our valuations with an enthusiasm that we can only marvel at. What the effect on the diverse mentalities of other races than our own will be, we can only surmise, for national character is not formed in a generation. Perhaps the lessons they learned from sport will differ from those we have absorbed. However that may be, I feel they cannot be bad, but, on the contrary, must be good and beneficial in the highest degree. This book contains a record of Scotland’s contribution to the world of amateur athletics – and indeed it is not a small one. In it are names honourably known far beyond the Scottish borders, names of men in every walk of life, wh have upheld the high traditions of our race on the athletic field.
We can look in retrospect on that first meeting under Scottish Amateur Athletic Association rules, held in 1883, and trace the rapid growth and development in everything pertaining to the sport until the present day.
We cannot compare the champions of old with the present day athlete – and who wants to? Their times may have been greater and their distances less, but the conditions under which they competed were inferior in every respect. Let us, then, leave them that niche they ever hold in the memory f their countrymen; for their hearts were in the right place, which, indeed, is all that matters. In achieving the position that it holds today, the Scottish Amateur Athletic Association has had no easy road to travel, and all praise is due to those who have guided its destinies along the thorny path of control.
The Editors of this publication have earned the thanks of all Scottish sportsmen for their meticulous care in chronicling events of so great an interest, and for leaving us a record of the traditional and characteristic athletics of our country, and of those who gained fame in the fields of high endeavour.
IAIN COLQUHOUN
EDITOR’S NOTE
It has been truly written that “of the making of many books there is no end”, and in issuing this volume in commemoration of fifty years of activity in the administration and development of amateur athletics in Scotland, the Scottish Amateur Athletic Association adds itself to the increasing numbers of those who desire through the medium of the printed page to mark an important epoch in their life-story.
Owing to the loss of the minute books of the earliest years of the Association it is not possible to give a complete narrative of its origin; nevertheless an endeavour has been made to present a coherent story of its fifty years of existence. The Editors beg to acknowledge with gratitude the contributions made to this publication by Messrs W Reid (“Diogenes”), JK Ballantyne of Walkerburn, W Maley and WA Whitton, Inverness. Further acknowledgement is also gratefully made to athletic club officials and others for facilities given by them for the reproduction of many of the illustrations.
Especial thanks are also due to Messrs J Gilbert, T Jack, and J McCulloch (All ex-Presidents of the SAAA) for their valuable contribution to the compilation of the statistical section.
To those whose privilege irt is to gaze down through the mists of the past years this book may help to illumine the memories of their youth, whilst to those whose vision is directed towards the future may it prove a real inspiration to carry on a service so ably begun and to sustain a tradition so worthily created by their predecessors.
Kenneth Whitton
David A Jamieson
Joint Editors