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Anna Poulton
Anna Poulton
There are many families known for a tradition in the sport – the Hasketts and the Gunstones in Dundee, the Martins in Dumbarton and so on. Anna Poulton came from such a background. Her father John McClurg was one of the best known and respected in the sport. He worked with his own club, he was on the SAAA Committee (as representative of the National Association of YMCA’s)and several sub-committees and was one of Britain’s best timekeepers. I knew him as a member of the SAAA General Committee in the late 70’s – he was first elected to the Committee in 1960 and when I was elected in 1977, he was John McClurg, BEM. He was a Grade 1 Track Judge as well as a timekeeper known the length and breadth of Britain.,and also the man in Scotland involved in grading timekeepers and was an Honorary Member of the SAAA. He had been President in 1968 as the representative for Motherwell YMCA.
His daughter Anna followed in his footsteps. One of the really nice things about their officiating career is this. In 1970, John was Chief timekeeper at the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games while Anna (by now Anna Poulton), along with Duncan McSwein, George Dallas and Raymond Hutcheson, was one of his team of timekeepers. At the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Anna was Chief Timekeeper and among her team, which included Duncan McSwein, was John McClurg. They had each been chief timekeeper at a commonwealth games and they had each worked under the other as a timekeeper at a commonwealth games. It must have been a source of great satisfaction to both of them.
Anna married John Poulton – one of the regulars in the great Motherwell YMCA team of the 1960’s. His first run in the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay was in 1958, his last was in 1966 – many of the top runners defected to Law and District in 1967 – and he won team medals of every colour as one of the squad. He also won gold over the country including in the National.
The best single account of her career in the sport came in a blog that she wrote for the Scottish Athletics website on 12th January 2010, and I reproduce it here.
Most Saturdays you would have found my father, my husband and myself at some athletic event or other, my father officiating, my husband competing and me being unable to run (pregnant) until, one Saturday, I was handed a watch and told to do “something useful.”
That was in 1964 and I have been doing “something useful” (with a watch) ever since. To be graded at that time you had to have three watches: one 1/10th of a second for sprints, one to 1/5th for 880 yards upwards on the track, and then a time of day chronograph for any races out with the Stadium. These watches had to be sent to the National Physical Laboratory in London to be tested as per the set rules of the day. I think that’s why all “older” timekeepers are round shouldered, bearing the burden of all these watches.
Several years prior to the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, a meeting was held of all officials – the SAAA East/West/North and Borders, plus SWAAA – at which a committee was formed with one representative from each area, plus a representative from each discipline. This was the beginning of the original Training Committee. Sub committees were then raised for each discipline to raise the standard of all officials for the Games.
A number of “trial runs” were made at Meadowbank prior to the Games. At the time it was discovered that the seats which were to be used by the Timekeepers had all been sold to the public! That was eventually corrected and all 28 timekeepers had seats, although unfortunately the seats were next to a passageway used constantly by the public, and you can imagine the “fun” we had trying to see the starters. My father was the Chief Timekeeper. (Photo finish was in its infancy then, and manual timekeeping was the main – hence 28 timekeepers.)
Going on to the 1986 Commonwealth Games where I was Chief Timekeeper with JO Scott, you can imagine the laugh we had when it was discovered that the seats for the timekeepers had again been sold to the public. This time there were only 15 timekeepers (photo finish had started by then) and we were given a raised dais in front of the stand.
Back then, it was thought that timekeepers would be redundant by today, but we’re still required. So a message to all you budding timekeepers – get to the training courses – you’re still required – there are very few meetings at local and international level where the photo finish has worked 100 per cent. What would we do for Cross Country, Road Races etc if we had no manual timekeepers???
I’ve officiated at athletics events including
* local schools,
* local clubs,
* District Championships,
* National Championships,
* Disability Championships,
* UKA meetings,
* Internationals,
* Europa Cup,
* two Commonwealth Games,
* World Championship Cross Country
* and local road races up to Championships,
but give me my “wellies,” a waterproof suit, and stopwatch (only one required now!) and I’m happy, no matter where it is, what level it is, and how bad the weather is!
I have separated out the different meetings just to emphasise the range of work undertaken. Anna was a pleasure to work with – when I did the basic Timekeepers course, we were all given specific advice and were told to bring our sense of humour to every meeting. We smiled politely and went on our way. It soon became evident that it was a necessity when we met the conditions encountered by all track officials. Anna always had her sense of humour but was probably the most professional official I ever worked with – a hard call to make given the number of quality men and women we have officiating at our meetings. Anna died on 29th December 2013.
Tom McNab
Many coaches, but by no means all, have been competing athletes in their day but even fewer have been national champions or set national records. Tom McNab has been national champion for triple jump five times and also set a national record for the event. He has worked with many top class international athletes and his career has expanded far beyond the usual. A lot of the information has come from his own website, from athletics publications or from people who have worked with him.
Born on 16th December 1933, he was educated at Whitehill Secondary School and then trained as a PE teacher at Jordanhill College in Glasgow. After National Service in the RAF where he reached the rank of Flying Officer he became a Physical Education teacher. He taught from 1958 to 1962 before becoming National Athletics Coach in England. By the age of 18 he had represented Glasgow at football and led the Scottish Senior triple jump rankings and it is as a triple jumper that he was first known in Scotland. He won the SAAA Junior (Under 20) title in 1952, the first year in which it was held, with a distance of 14.01 metres. By SAAA Centenary year of 1982 it had only been surpassed twice – in 1957 when JR Waters cleared 14.07m and in 1976 when I Tomlinson leapt 14.67m. The story behind that success was told by John Keddie in “Scottish Athletics” – the official centenary history of the SAAA. “So slow was British officialdom to promote this event that there was no triple jump in the programme of events of the AAA Junior Championship (instituted in 1931) until 1950, nor in the SAAA Junior championships until two years later. In fact the inaugural SAAA triple jump saw the emergence of an excellent jumper in Thomas McNab. A member of Shettleston Harriers, McNab won the event with forty five feet eleven and three quarters inches, then considered an outstanding performance for a junior athlete. This distance proved to be a foot further than that achieved by the winner of the senior championships held five weeks earlier”.
After that victory, he was awarded the FJ Glegg Memorial Trophy which is awarded annually ‘to the competitor who is adjudged by the General Committee to have accomplished the best performance or performances in the Scottish Junior Championships’ jointly with CM Campbell. In the AAA’s Junior championship at the end of July, he was unlucky to foul his last three jumps and finish fourth – only to see the victor jump the same distance as he himself had cleared at Meadowbank.
Keddie described the triple jump battle between McNab and his clubmate R McG Stephen at the SAAA Championships:
“At the Senior Championships the young Shettleston Harrier had placed third behind a team-mate, Robert McGhie Stephen who had himself been a good Junior having placed second in the AAA Junior triple jump in 1951. He and McNab had a bit of a ding-dong running battle in the SAAA event, Stephen winning in 1953 and 1955, and McNab in 1954 and 1956 (and also winning in 1958 and 1962). Both were in superb form at the 1954 meeting with McNab just out-distancing his colleague 47’7 1/2″ to 47′ 4″. A too strong following wind nullified these performances for record purposes.”
His winning performances were 14.51m in 1954, albeit with the following wind mentioned above, 13.90m in 1956, 14.30m in 1958 and 14.48 metres in 1962.
McNab also had a decathlon points total of 4156 in 1960 which placed him eighth in Scotland, a long jump best of 6.56m and a best discus throw of 36.45 in 1962. He also set a Scottish record in the triple jump of 47’10” (14.58m) in Glasgow in 1958 which was reported in the ‘Glasgow Herald’.
SCOTTISH RECORD AT SCOTSTOUN
Hop, Step and Jump
A new Scottish Hop, Step and Jump record was made in the Victoria Park AAC v Glasgow University athletics match at Scotstoun. Tom McNab (Victoria Park) with a hop, step and jump of 47 feet 10 inches beat by eight inches the record made nine years ago by AS Lindsay.
There was one wee hiccup for him on the way – he was photographed at an unpermitted meeting at Nethybridge in 1956 (he won £5) and barred until late 1957 but it was only a hiccup and nothing more serious. It says more about the SAAA at that time than it says about Tom.
He was probably unlucky not to be selected for any Empire Games – Scotland only sent one triple jumper to the Games in 1954 and in 1958 and none at all in 1950. He would not have been outclassed and his 47’10” in ’58 would have seen him in the top half of the field. He did make the Commonwealth Games in a great year for Scottish Athletics – 1970 – but as a team coach for England.
Tom competed regularly in championships and open meetings and his record in the West District Championships was just as good as in the Nationals with three in four years in 1959, 1960 and 1962 with the one in 1961 being won by John Addo who was Ghanaian. When he won in 1959, the ‘Glasgow Herald report read: “T McNab (Shettleston Harriers) cleared the splendid distance of 48′ 11″ in the hop, step and jump – 1 ft 1 in further than the record he set up at the same meeting a year ago.” But there was no mention of Tom in the 1958 event result as published! At this period too, he was assisting Simon Pearson with the publishing of the Annual Ranking lists – it’s one way of ensuring that your best marks are included, I suppose – but it’s a lot of work and it was pioneering work in the country at the time.
Good as he was as a competitor, McNab is better known as an outstanding coach and writer of technical books. Eric Simpson who came under his spell as a coach says,
“Tom Mc Nab is one of the forgotten heroes of Scottish and British athletics. Like his partner in crime John Anderson he built up an education and coaching expertise that was the envy of the world. Then the professionalism of the sport began and people like Tom were sidelined basically because they were too knowledgeable and they did not suffer fools gladly.
I have great pleasure in seeing Tom every year at the A.A.A.s U20/ u23 Championships and it is always a worthwhile experience. A man of principles and immense knowledge he always gives of his time and expertise and we always have “fun”. A great sense of humour and a biting satire if he needs to. He is one of the dying breed of “great” coaches who inspire and give so much of their time and knowledge to the sport. So much so that the phrase of ” a prophet in his own land is not honoured” jumps to mind – probably the same for John. ”
Maybe Eric’s ‘forgotten’ is exaggerating things a bit but his name is less well known in athletic circles north of the border than it should be. There are some more comments about Tom at the end of this profile by another friend and colleague, Hamish Telfer, another top class coach working south of the border.
He began coaching with Norrie Foster at Shettleston while he was still competing in 1956. Tom had become a PE teacher and says “Even when I was an athlete, I always wanted to find out how I could help other athletes. I remember convincing my club to have pole vault equipment. Once the pole vault equipment was installed the athletics club wanted to know where the pole vaulters were. I tried to explain that just because they had the equipment didn’t mean that they would automatically have pole vaulters. There was a tall skinny child at the club called Norman Foster (below) and I got him to vault. He was a friend and just an ordinary guy who I got into pole vaulting. I coached and trained him. I didn’t know what I was doing it was a bit like the blind leading the blind, however he ended up representing Scotland in the Commonwealth games in Jamaica in 1966.”
Norman was indeed a really topclass talent. His pole vault career is summed up in Keddie’s book. “Norman Foster (23rd July, 1944) eventually developed into one of Britain’s best decathletes, but in 1963 had won the AAA Junior poole vault title with 13’0″ (3.96m). Foster joined the select band of Scottish vaulters to clear 14’6″ (4.42m) when he cleared exactly that height in 1967.” Foster was seventh in the Jamaica Commonwealth Games in 1966 with 13’6″. Keddie also covers Norman’s decathlon career, saying Among the first of a new generation to take up the event was Norman Foster who as a schoolboy at Uddingston Grammar School had his first taste of decathlon in 1961. As an outstanding pole vaulter, he had the physique and mobility to tackle the decathlon. In 1963 he placed third in the SAAA event but the following year won the title with a total (5633) which was recognised as a national record. The same season he was an excellent fourth in the AAA Championship (5752) but it was in 1965 that Foster made a real breakthrough. “
A real class act, Foster totalled 6763 in the SAAA Decathlon (new points table) and in a nail biting AAA’s championship he won with 6840 – a UK record. Injury seriously affected his competition although he was third in the AAA’s twice and won the SAAA event three times.
Coaching was difficult after Tom moved south but the link was maintained for a period although the friendship has lasted for over half a century – Norrie and his wife went to the Pitlochry Theatre to see him when his wife, Jenny Lee, was acting in ‘The Steamie’ at the end of 2013.
Coaching progress thereafter was rapid. Hugh Barrow won the AAA Junior Mile title in 1963 and was also awarded the trophy for the best athlete in the meeting. The trophy was presented to him by Tom McNab who had been invited up from England to lecture to coaches at Strathclyde University. Tom had by this time in 1963 become National Athletics Coach for England: a post he was to hold for almost 15 years. Almost immediately he had a high degree of success with the English Triple Jumper Fred Alsop who was fourth in the 1964 Olympic Games. Alsop cleared 16.46 metres and his fourth place was eight higher than his performance in the 1960 Games. Alsop was of course only the first of many. Another who had great success in an event that Tom himself had taken part in was Peter Gabbet. A good athlete from the start, the notable decathlete worked with Tom after he took up the event and the entry in Wikipedia says
In a 1971 interview with Dave Cocksedge, asked when he first got hooked on the decathlon, Gabbet said, “It was training under Tom McNab and getting inspired by him that helped the most. I began to see the possibilities for myself; realised I had a good top class decathlon in me if I worked hard enough for it.” Four decathlons in 1967 confirmed Gabbett’s work ethic and enthusiasm. In May he competed twice in two weeks showing some improvement in the technical events if not the total score. In July he won the AAA Championship at Hurlingham (11.1 6.63 11.75 1.80 50.2 16.3 36.64 3.00 44.92 4:40.4) with a new personal best score of 6,533 points, and in September he went to Liege in Belgium for his first international meet where he further improved his best in finishing fourth (11.0 7.10 9.27 1.83 49.7 16.2 34.14 3.00 48.62 4:36.2) with 6,562 points.
1968 was an Olympic year, so the target for Gabbett and McNab as they headed into winter training is the Olympic qualifying mark of 7,200 points, the race for which turned into something of an adventure. Indoor marks of 7.1s for 60 metres and 8.6s for 60 metre hurdles are hardly sparkling by the standard of specialist sprinters, but were a new direction for UK decathletes. The outdoor season kicked off with an encouraging 7.20m long jump at Oxford in March, after which Gabbett suffered a stress-fracture in his foot. Then in July he went to Crystal Palace for his first decathlon of the season. A 10.8s 100m and a fine 7.35m long jump set up the first day nicely, and after a “fiery” 48.7s 400m in which he “demolished” 400 metre specialist John Hemery, Gabbett ended day one on 3,901 points, easily the best by a British athlete. Below par for the first two events on the next day, both Jim Smith and Dave Travis the javelin specialist closed in on Gabbett, but a determined personal best 3.40m in the pole vault put him not just back in the lead but back on schedule. A “pathetic” javelin throw of 42.91m ended hopes of achieving the Olympic qualifying mark, but all three leaders had hopes of achieving 7,000 points as they lined up for the final event. Travis tried gallantly but could not stay with the nimbler athlete and Gabbett’s 5.7s lead at the tape was sufficient for his first National Record (10.8 7.35 11.78 1.83 48.7 15.7 35.91 3.40 42.91 4:25.2) of 7,082 points. Travis also passed 7,000 points and third placed Jim Smith was only 22 points shy of the mark. With two decathletes over 7,000 points, respected athletics journalist Mel Watman said that British decathlon had, “come of age”.
For the rest of the article go to the Wiki entry for Peter Gabbet at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Gabbett .
Like all good men in any walk of life, Tom was never still. While working as hard as any National Coach he still found time to write and organise. His fertile imagination came up with two schemes almost immediately after he went south. In 1966 he created a National Junior Decathlon Programme, one of the products of which was Daley Thomson. He also created the Five Star Awards as an incentive scheme for children in schools and clubs. It was a wonderful scheme – Frank Dick subsequently created a similar scheme in Scotland known as the Thistle Awards. Those taking part were required to do both track and field events with certificates and badges in various colours to indicate the level of achievement. Participants could win multiple awards and it was usual to see track suits smothered with the badges at championship meetings. It was a pity when the scheme was discontinued some decades later – but it was so highly thought of that several clubs continue to use the scoring tables with only slight modification for club awards. Later in his career he devised the Ten Step Award, sponsored in Scotland by IBM, for Under 12’s.
He also did a lot of writing in 1966 – his excellent book ‘Modern Schools Athletics’ became a standard text for coaches at school and at club level. It was very good and I had just bought a copy when I travelled to Gourock Highland Games and it was nicked from the dressing-room while I was competing! He also had two coaching manuals for the AAA series of instructional booklets on Triple Jump and Decathlon. He went on to write many, many books on training technique such as ‘Roots of Training Technique’. By 1968 he had written with his friend Peter Lovesey the first ever British athletics bibliography with over 1000 books included therein. One year later he won a Churchill Scholarship to go to the USA to study American athletics literature. It was in 1968 too that he and Tony Ward travelled to Poland to see how their athletic league worked before the British National Athletic League was formed.
There were many, many articles for Athletics Weekly and other athletics and coaching magazines over the years as well as lecturing, talking to groups large and small and he was one of the best ever, hands-on, British coaches. This was recognised in 2001 when he received the Dyson Award. This is awarded to “individuals who have made a sustained and significant contribution to the development and management of coaching and individual coaches in the UK”. This award was named after Geoff Dyson, the first chief national athletics coach, who died in 1981. He is one of only three GB coaches to have gained this award, the others being Maeve Kyle and Frank Dick. This sat nicely with the Winston Churchill Fellowship award that he had received in 1967.
A prolific writer, the www.goodreads.com website lists many of his books – Field Events by Tom McNab; Modern Schools Athletics by Tom McNab; Speed by Tom McNab; The Complete Book of Track & Field by Tom McNab; Blooms of Dublin by Tom McNab; The Complete Book of Athletics by Tom McNab; An Athletics Compendium by Tom McNab; Combined Events by David Lease and Tom McNab; The Guide to British Track and Field Literature by Peter Lovesey and Tom McNab + the fiction noted below.
Although listed on the Dyson Awards as ‘Tom McNab, Athletics’ he is not a one sport man. If we just look at his career this is clearly the case. The National Athletics Coach post lasted from 1963 to 1977. He was of course an Olympic Coach between 1972 and 1976. As early as 1970, he was working with the Chelsea FC team that won the FA Cup. There was a year in Dubai in 1977 before being approached by the British Bobsleigh Association to prepare the 1980 Lake Placid Olympic team. The aim was to improve the team’s starting-times and Tom transformed training-methods and brought athletes into the squad. This resulted in Great Britain becoming 5th fastest starters in Lake Placid, a massive improvement. What was next? Director of Sport at TV-AM is what was next. In 1983-4 he worked with Peter Jay, Michael Parkinson and David Frost to bring into being ‘TV-am’, Britain’s first commercial breakfast television station. He then became Fitness Advisor to the Rugby Football Union between 1987 and 1992 which included working with the English rugby team that was second in the 1992 Rugby World Cup. He was co-author with Rex Hazeldine of ‘The RFU Guide to Fitness for Rugby’ in 1998. In 1997, he was appointed Performance Director to the British Bobsleigh Association.
This all suggests that he was finished with athletics – far from it. In 1990 he moved back into athletics and formed a three hundred member athletics club in his home town, St. Albans. For more information on this one have a look at http://www.stalbans-athletics.org.uk/history.html In 1992, and 1994, he was a British Coach of the Year. In 1993 he returned to competitive athletics in hammer at the age of sixty, winning medals at national level. Came the millennium and Tom was back into athletics coaching with a vengeance, and from 2005 working for a while with Greg Rutherford whom he helped become the best Junior Long Jumper in the world. He was at the same time a World Class adviser for UK Sport and in 2004 wrote the McNab Report on English amateur boxing. This was implemented and helped lead to British boxing’s most successful Olympics ever in 2008. In 2011, together with Alan Launder and John Anderson, he took part in a ‘Coaching Legends’ weekend in Cornwall which was a great success. He is currently listed on the Power of 10 website as coaching a group of six young London athletes – John Otugade of Shaftesbury Barnet (U20 sprinter), Teepee Princewill of Harrow (U15 TJ), and four from Enfield & Haringey – Lawrence Davis (U20 TJ), Ibitoye Ibikunle (U20 TJ), Bradley Pike (U23) and Efe Uwaifo (U20 TJ). All are highly ranked but you can look them up on www.powerof10.info .
Hamish Telfer, yet another Scot who worked as a national coach in England, met and worked with Tom. Like Eric, Norrie and others the friendship still maintains. He has this to say.
“Although I knew about Tom I didn’t meet him until I became a National Coach in 1976 (I worked as the National Officer for the Royal Life Saving Society for 3 years). He introduced himself to me at a the annual conference of BANC (British Association of National Coaches) of which I was a member. He discovered I had been coached by John and as a very young National Coach he took me under his wing a bit (I was the youngest National Coach in any sport at that time). We chatted on and off, but lost touch a bit until UK Sport through its ‘education’ arm Sportscoach UK decided in the wake of BANC opening its doors to all coaches and then merging its interests with Sportscoach UK (SCUK), to open its doors more widely to be a voice of all coaches. Tom and myself were voted on to the main committee by our peers to speak on ‘things coaching’ and in effect to get a professional association for coaches off the ground. Anderson was voted in as chair. This was a pretty high level group involving many good quality coaches from across a range of sports (eg. John Shedden from skiing, Hugh Mantle for canoe slalom, John Lyle etc etc.); a broad church but all with mutual respect for each other.
It was a disaster from the start. It was clear that SCUK had an agenda. To cut a long story short, the coaches association crashed and burned and although Tom like the rest of us did his best, there is now no organisation in the UK that speaks for coaches. I can’t recall when Tom left British Athletics, but he went on to advise the British Bobsled team for a winter Olympics (or two) and also had a hand in conditioning some of the better rugby union teams of the day.
Parallel to all this was Tom’s then embryonic interest in writing. He published a series of novels as I’m sure you know including ‘Flanigan’s Run’ (for which he sold the film rights). He was probably better known for his work on the film ‘Chariots of Fire’ based on his (almost) encyclopaedic knowledge of the history of track and field athletics especially the old Peds., their trainers and training methods. Some of this was filmed at Bebbington Oval on the Wirral and some of my athletes were extras, including one poor sod who had to fall in a race (cinder track) so was greased up so the cinders didn’t graze him too much. Sadly, there was more than one take of the scene and he came out of it with yards of skin missing from his arms and legs. Not a good look!
Latterly Tom has taken to writing for radio and for theatre both of which he has enjoyed some success. Not all of his work in these mediums have been to do with sport, but I went down to see his theatre production of Jesse Owens and the Berlin Games in London in 2012 and we met up over a coffee. It was a bit disconcerting sitting next to Goebels however.
Apart from that we phone each other intermittently when we don’t bump into each other in Sauchiehall Street (when he roundly abused me for cycling Lands End to John o’ Groats). “
Tom is also very well known for his career away from the sports arena – as technical director for the film ‘Chariots of Fire’ and for the three top class books – ‘Flanagan’s Run’, 1982,about the trans-continental footrace, ‘Rings of Sand’, 1984, ‘The Fast Men’, 1986, described as the first sports-western novel. The film was excellent and as technical director he was responsible for making the visual aspects of the athletics training and racing as realistic as possible – teaching actors to look like runners, showing sprint drills and races to best effect and generally add to the film rather than these sections being the boring bits of the movie as could so easily have been the case. ‘Flanagan’s Run’ was my own favourite, probably because I had been given a couple of Arthur Newton’s books and had read about the races across America beforehand. I don’t think I was alone because it was translated into at least 16 languages and Tom won the Scottish Novelist of the Year Award. There were also several radio plays including ‘The Great Bunion Derby’ and ‘Winning’ which featured Brian Cox.
He was still involved in athletics of course – in 1976 he had become an official IOC historian and contributed to Lord Killanin’s book called ‘The Olympic Games’ and in 2002, in collaboration with Andrew Huxtable and Peter Lovesey, he produced for the British Library The Compendium Of Athletics Literature, a scholarly work covering over 1300 books on athletics. As a freelance journalist his work has appeared in The Independent, the Times, the Observer and the Telegraph.
Tom takes a full part in activities in St Alban’s where he now lives – an article in his local paper said:
“Impressively active at 77, Tom limits his coaching to young players nowadays. But he won national hammer titles at 60 and was still playing rugby for Old Albanians veterans at 66. Today hes a regular visitor to the Nuffield Health gym in Highfield Park Drive and plays twice a week at Townsend Tennis Club in the Oldies section run by Alison Asplin, another of those dedicated volunteers.” (Tom had only taken up tennis at the age of 46, and says “It’s not about the age, it’s about levels of energy. I was a late developer in most ways – when you are older you have a background of effective thought. There is no point in having past experiences whilst you are here if they don’t have an impact on the way you act. You stop growing when you stop thinking.” )
Having seen his last play – “1936″ – about the Berlin Olympics fill theatres in the West End in 2012 Tom is already working on his next project.
After a competitive career that would have filled any reasonable athlete with some pride, Tom went on to become an award winning coach in several sports, had a successful career as coach and writer of technical manuals, as a novelist and playwright and currently working on a novel of his play ‘1936′ and on a campaign to bring back Village Sports to the nation.
I would suggest looking up some of his articles online – maybe start with the one quoted above about his start in coaching at http://phenomenalhealthstyle.tv/2012/09/30/conscious-coaching-olympic-coach-and-playwright-tom-mcnab-share-his-olympic-life-lessons-from-sports/#.UvOXqvl_vxQ
Or one on stretching from AW republished by the West of Scotland Sprint Squad at
https://sites.google.com/site/vpcogsprint/news/lessismorebytommcnab
or maybe the thought provoking one which he wrote for Peak Performance which can be found at
or better still look at this one from 2012
http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/olympics-legacy-london-2012-1093
There are lots of examples of his writing on the internet including some remarks on bee pollen from the 1970’s, comments on the training of Captain Barclay as well as many technical and non-technical ones on all aspects of the sport. Look them up, read what the man has to say!
The Arrochar Alps
The scary plunge down to the Dam
I have twice been an official at the Arrochar Alps hill race – stationed each time with my friend Scott Govan just below Ben Narnain where the runners – or some of them – headed for the tramway. A lot of them avoided it by picking their own way down the fairly steep grassy slope, a lot by flying down the hill steering by the seat of their pants (sometimes literally for short stretches). It was exhilarating just to watch them and know that I could never, ever have done that. A couple of years later Scott and I went back and did it as a two day hill walk. We left the car at about Ardlui and walked up over the small hills to the top of Ben Vorlich and then followed the route to the finish. Thoroughly enjoyed it. But it took us two days when the leader was saying it could be done in under 3 hours.
* * * * *
Gifford Kerr’s excellent ‘Guide to the Hill Races of Scotland’ had this to say about the race.
Arrochar Alps
OS Map: 56 INVERARAY & LOCH LOMOND
Category: A L
Climb: 7900 feet Distance: 13 Miles
Start: GR 298053 STRONAFYNE FARM, ARROCHAR, and FINISH
Checkpoints:
1. GR 295123 BEN VORLICH (M) 941m Tr
2. GR 289111 SLOY DAM
3. GR 278098 BEN VANE (M) 916 m
4. GR 255085 BEN IME (M) 1011 Tr
5. GR 272067 BEN NARNAIN (M) 926 Tr
Terrain: Generally rough going. Care to be taken on descent of Ben Vorlich and Ben Narnain due to steepness of ground and outcrops of rock. Last Mile flagged.
Notes: Navigational Skills essential.
* * * * *
It is described on the Scottish Hill Racing website as follows:
“This race was created in 1987 by Andy Dytch and Bobby Shields. In 1988 it was used as a Scottish Championship race – where Alan Farningham (who had already won the championship) climbed The Cobbler at the end by mistake, instead of Beinn Narnain. In 1989 it was used as a British Championship race in very bad weather. The terrain is steep, wild and rough with complex navigation in places.
The race was run in 1990, 1991 and finally 1992 – won by Colin Valentine on a shortened course due to bad weather – before being abandoned for 15 years.” The description comes from ‘Race You To The Top’ by Suse Coon, published in 1989.
Bobby Shields himself wrote the report on the 1987 race which appeared in The Scottish Hill Runner of January 1988. It read –
Before giving a report on the race, can I just say a big thank you to everyone who supported the event and an especially big THANK YOU to all the ‘backroom boys’ (and girls) as without their help the race could not have taken place. I think it is safe to say that despite being a tough course, everyone participating enjoyed the event.
There were 97 official starts, plus two very late entries!! Namely Peter Brooks, Lochaber AC, and Tim Jordan, Carnethy, who started 10 and 15 minutes respectively behind the main field. However, as can be seen from the results, they made up ground to finish well. I should point out that the mysterious Kim shown on the results sheet is not some femme fatale but Tim Jordan – I think the computer blew a fuse when it heard Tim had started so far behind the others!
Out of the 99 starters, we had 86 finishers, and I suspect that the main reason for those 13 ‘drop outs’ was that they had heard my father-in-law, who piped them off, was going to pipe them home. However this did not deter Billy Bland, who finished so quickly that Angus did not have time to tune up! (Maybe there was method in Billy’s madness.) I suppose I could issue all runners with ear plugs next year! Billy’s time of 3 hours 7 minutes 39 seconds was not only the inaugural course record but also the vet’s record and, wait for it, he reckons that it could be done in less than 3 hours but that’s only if people allow him to look at their maps!!
The first ‘true Scot’ home was Denis Bell of HELP in 3:31:39 – just goes to show what peanut butter sandwiches can do for you. Well done, Denis. But the first Scottish club home was Westerlands, represented by Mark Rigby, who finished in 3:21:16.
Lochaber AC were first team in 12th, 13th and 34th positions. The respective times of John McRae, Ronnie Campbell and David O’Neil were 3:45:25, 3:46:25 and 4:08:33. This is the official result, and in spite of the fact that some unknown club called Carnethy (who are obviously new to the game and don’t get many prizes) insisted that they were due the team prize because their runners finished in 9th, 22nd and 23rd. With great difficulty they prised what was left of the team prize from the Lochaber boys (needless to say it was liquid) However once there was an opportunity to peruse the computer print-out, it was found that the runner whom they said had finished in 9th position was in fact running for some club called ‘unattached’. This person (I won’t mention names, just give initials) JBF has been running hill races for years so should know how to complete the entry form correctly. It is the responsibility of the runner to ensure he/she complete the entry form correctly and not for the organisers to remember who runs for whom. I can only suggest that the SHRA organises a course on ‘How to Complete Entries’. The excuse of this nameless person (JBF) was that he was rushed and as he was registered as number 27, and we had 20 pre-entries, he must have been the first to enter. So come on, Carnethy, you are not that desperate for prizes are you!?! If you took the team trophies as well as the liquid I think the least you can do is give the trophies back to Lochaber.
There were only four ladies competing this year but I hope we see more next year and the first lady home was Christine Menhennet of Bellahouston in 4:09:26. Well done, Christine.
Looking at the results, it was interesting to see that over 25% of the entrants were from South of the Border and I have been pondering whether this was due to the challenge of surviving the Arrochar Midges or of bagging 4 Munroes.
Overall the race appeared a success. However, as with all things there is always room for improvement, and whilst I have noted areas where improvements could be made, I would be glad of any feedback from the runners themselves.
Looking forward to seeing you all again next year at Arrochar and at a medium race which I am Christine Menhennet Bellahouston 4:09:26.
*
After 1992 it was abandoned until Westerlands CCC gave it the kiss of life in 2007.
Now it also has its own website at www.arrocharalpshillrace.co.uk and is 22 km in distance with 2400m of ascent. There are a few check points on the route but between them, the runners are left to their own devices. Where does it go?
The race headquarters are in the Arrochar Community Hall and the race begins a short way up the road at the start of the track leading to Succoth Farm. The trail goes up Glen Loin to the bridge over Inveruglas Water where the runners head up a hydro road in the direction of Sloy Dam. A small cairn is where runners can choose to go up the track to Ben Vorlich or go straight on to the Dam where they turn right and go up diretissima to the top and Ben Vorlich’s summit cairn before turning and heading back down to the Dam. Across the Dam and then followe the road for a bit until it doubles back then start off up more steep grassy slopes to the summit of Ben Vane. Down Ben Vane and get to the tops of Ben Ime and Ben Narnain before heading down to the finish on unmarked tracks. Over the top of Ben Narnain and then head for the tramway down the hill – that’s in theory but when we were there, runners took the route they fancied most down to the bottom where the way to the finish was marked with tape.
The down hill bit at the end was kind of scary – hardly anyone was running – the people at the front were leaping and bounding as fast as they could go covering huge chunks of ground with each mammoth stride. I remember sitting at the foot of the scree at the top of Dumgoyne one year and a couple of old codgers came up well down the field, chatting away. But when they came down what a change! They were flying, almost literally it seemed to me: here were to genuine athletes doing what they did best and had done probably for decades – lots of runners were skirting the scree but they were revelling in it. Wonderful to see – all the more so since I could not conceive of myself executing such a descent any more than I could play the violin to concert hall standard. That was how many of the Arrochar Alps runners went down and I could only look and wonder. Further down the field I could identify with those edging down crablike trying not to fall or slip a bit but they thing is that they slipped and slid much, much more than the leaders did.
Chris Upson tells me that the current men’s and women’s course records were set in 2012 when the race was a British Championships counter (see http://www.scottishhillracing.co.uk/RaceDetails.aspx?RaceID=RA-0202 ) .
Jasmin Paris sliced off more than 16 minutes from her 2011 time, when she was the first lady to dip under 4 hours with 3:58. In 2012, Ben Bardsley (also of Borrowdale Fell Runners) lowered Billy Bland’s record by 20 seconds over a fractionally longer course.
Bobby Shields
Bobby in the Ben Nevis Race.
Although Bobby Shields ran on the track and the roads as well as over the country he really loved the hills and raced on them all over the country from the Kilpatricks in Clydebank to England, Wales and Ireland. The Ben Nevis race is one of the most gruelling in the United Kingdom but if Bobby was a specialist in hill running, he was a specialist’s specialist in the Ben Race! He was placed in the top ten eleven times. He was 1st 1967, 2nd in 66, 3rd in 65, 73 and 74, 4th in 65, 5th in 70, 6th in 68, 7th in 81, 8th in 69 and 71 and eleventh in 64! Furthermore his eleventh in 1964 gave him twelve first eleven places in twelve years! Evidence enough of his ability and durability on the hills.
He had been a club member since the late 1950’s and within Clydesdale Harriers he won numerous club trophies:
- The JD Semple Junior Cup in 1961, 1962 and 1963 for the Under 17 Club Champion,
- the Dugald Cameron Shield in 1964/65 as Under 20 Club Champion, the Semple Merit Award in 1964/65 for the outstanding performance during the winter season,
- the Sinclair Trophy in 1967/68 presented for the Club Road Racing Championship over 5+ Miles,
- the Willie Gardiner Quaich in 1967/68 for the most outstanding performance during the summer season and
- the Hannah Cup in 1969/70 (shared with Ian Leggett) and 1970/71 for the fastest time in the club cross country handicap race.
So we know he was an excellent hill runner and a good enough club man to win trophies in all age groups over a ten year period when the club was particularly strong in his events. But it was on the hills that he really excelled.
The Early Years
Between November 1958 and September 59 Bobby was one of six very good boys to join the club – Andy McMillan, Billy McLaughlin, Iain Cooke, Ian Logie and Bobby’s twin brother Jim were the others – who made up a quite outstanding group of athletes who won team and individual races all over Scotland. Andy left to attend to his studies and became a minister; Iain turned to sprinting and then became a doctor before leaving the sport; Billy left, came back in the mid sixties, left, came back in the seventies and left again, Ian Logie took up pole vaulting with success before retiring from the sport at the end of the 60’s and brother Jim took up pole vaulting, emigrated to Canada before returning and having a very successful career as a hill runner and tri-athlete. But Bobby stuck to the running and concentrated on hill running with huge success.
Having won the Under 17 Championship three times in succession and the Under 20 Championship he was ready to run in the Senior team. This was almost exactly at the same time as Ian Donald joined the club from Shettleston and despite the age gap they would both form part of Harriers teams until 1977. They both had an interest in the hills and mountains and Ian had a great influence on Bobby.
The Hills and Fells
Right from the start however he was like many a Harrier before him in love with the hills – hill walking, hill climbing and mountaineering and of course hill running. He took to the Ben Nevis – probably the most difficult hill race in the country – immediately. Ian Donald had run his first Ben Race in 1959 when already a Senior athlete. Bobby’s first race was in 1964 and he finished eleventh, then in 1965 he was third, in 1966 second and then he won it in 1967. His record is detailed below
|
Year |
Place |
Year |
Place |
Year |
Place |
|
1964 |
11th |
1972 |
4th |
1981 |
7th |
|
1965 |
3rd |
1973 |
3rd |
1982 |
6th |
|
1966 |
2nd |
1974 |
3rd |
1984 |
8th |
|
1967 |
1st |
1975 |
123rd |
1985 |
333rd |
|
1968 |
6th |
1976 |
150th |
1986 |
370th |
|
1969 |
8th |
1977 |
5th |
1987 |
318th |
|
1970 |
5th |
1978 |
91st |
1988 |
329th |
|
1971 |
8th |
1979 |
11th |
1989 |
275th |
His best time for the event is an astonishing 1:31:58! He did of course run in almost every hill every hill event in Scotland and we can’t cover them all over a 25 year period but some of the highlights can be listed.
* Mel Edwards of Aberdeen was a good friend and rival who recalls the results between the two of them in the Cairngorm Hill Race in which Bobby won three times (1972, 1974 and 1979 when he set a record of 1:12:15), was second once (1981) and third twice (1974 and 1980). The 1979 race was particularly memorable with Bobby winning in 1:12:15 from Ronnie Campbell in 1:12:19 and Mel in 1:12:22 – three runners covered by seven seconds after such a long and hard race. He also set records almost everywhere he ran – the Maidens of Mamore is another example of that.
* On 21st August 1976 the one off Maidens of Mamore race was held over Na Gruagaichean and Binnean Mor. Bobby won in 1:43:40 with Ronnie Campbell second in 1:45:51 and twin brother Jim Shields third in 1:52:24. Clydesdale Harrier and good friend of Bobby’s Ian Donald was eighth in 2:03:44.
He was well known all over the British Isles for his prowess on the hills having raced in England and Wales and completed many feats of hill running endurance with the best runners of all time on the fells of England and mountains of Ireland. He also ran for several different clubs on the hills and fells – eight of his Ben races were in the colours of Lochaber AC, for instance, and he represented Kendal AC in England and Lagan Valley in Ireland
When the British Fell Runner of the Year competition was started in 1972 Bobby led the competition right up to the very last race when Dave Cannon from Cumbria snatched it from him. The competition involves selecting a prescribed number of races from three different categories which include short, medium and long races and adding the points so gained. On another occasion Bobby shared first place. Dave particularly remembered finishing third in the Ben Nevis in 1973 beaten by Bobby and Harry Walker, another noted English Fell Runner and winner of the race.
Not only a runner, he has also been responsible for two races that are among the most serious tests of strength in any hill runner’s calendar. The race over the 95 mile West Highland Way is now established in the athletics calendar but few realise that it came about as the result of a personal challenge between Bobby and his friend Duncan Watson in 1987 – two of Scotland’s best ever long distance hill runners. It is now in 2007 an almost over subscribed event.
He also created the Arrochar Alps Hill Race with fellow Clydesdale Harrier Andy Dytch in 1987. This one covered 21 kilometres, took in four Munros – Ben Vorlich, Ben Vane, Ben Ime and Ben Narnain – with a total ascent of 2400 metres and was used as a British Championship race in 1988.
As A Road and Cross Country Runner
Bobby was a good club man and from his earliest days had run in County, District and National Relays and Championships, the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay as well as in open races and the ‘classics’ such as the Nigel Barge at New Year and the Balloch to Clydebank.
In the CountyChampionships he won medals from the mid sixties when he was part of an outstanding group of Clydesdale runners including Ian Donald, Douglas Gemmell, Ian Leggett and Allan Faulds. He was also a member of teams that won medals of all colours in the Midland and then Western District Championships. The Edinburgh to Glasgow eight stage relay was the Blue Riband of the Scottish winter scene. Bobby ran in seventeen Edinburgh to Glasgow Relays between 1963 and 1982 including an unbroken streak of fifteen (1963, 64, 65, 66, 67. 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77 + 81, 82) races running six different stages with only the second and third escaping his attentions. Even during his busiest hill running years, he still turned out in the E-G for the club, as well as many races such as County and District Championships.
As a mountaineer
Early on Bobby developed his love for the mountains and was a regular with the club’s hill walking and climbing group with Allan Sharp, David Panton, Pat Younger and Frank Kielty of the old guard plus Jackie Girvan and Hugh Hoole. The picture below shows how young he was when he started, the heights he reached and the rope indicates that it was not the tourist track up either!
They climbed all over Scotland and every one of them had run in the Ben Nevis race as well. On a trip to the Alps in the late 1960’s a group of Pat, Allan, Jackie, Hugh, David Panton and Hugh Hoole were leaving in an old Volkswagen bus with a 1200 cc engine that Pat had got from somewhere when Bobby came running down the street with his bags, got in and made the party up to eight. With their bags, it meant that the VW was carrying about the weight of fourteen or so fully grown men on a 1200 cc engine!
His competitive career went from the mid 1960’s right through to the 1990’s. He was a member of some of the very best club teams winning medals on the track, over the country and on the roads all over Scotland although his great talent was for hill and fell running with many firsts to his credit. As a race organiser he was responsible for many serious endurance challenges and it is good to see the Arrochar Alps restored to its place on the calendar after five years. At club level he was a Committee member for several years and acted as club captain.
Hugh Stevenson
Hugh Stevenson is well known by sight to everybody whose club takes part in the Scottish Athletics League where he has been Treasurer for over 30 years, He is always in the control room, usually as an announcer but he always helps out elsewhere if required. At one point in the 1980’s he was announcing but taking time off to run in the sprint hurdles for his club, Victoria Park AAC, before returning to the announcer’s chair. Well liked and respected, Mike Clerihew who has worked with him on the League committee says, “he was a great person to work with on the committee and a fine, extremely knowledgeable commentator at league and many other meetings.” One of the best of club men, Hugh is well known all over Scotland. He deserves to be better known, so we should maybe start by looking at his athletics career chronologically. Much of the information below came from his club mate and athletics journalist Doug Gillon.
He was educated at Daniel Stewart’s College in Edinburgh before it amalgamated with Melville College, Edinburgh College of Art and then at Edinburgh University where he gained an honours degree in fine art. A regular member of the University athletic club, he captained Edinburgh University AC in 1968. He has however spent all his working life at Kelvingrove in Glasgow in the Museum and Art Gallery where he became curator of British Art. He also competed for Edinburgh AC, Octavians, Red Star Belgrade, Edinburgh Southern Harriers and Victoria Park. Frequently his job involved international travel, as chaperone to works of art being exhibited abroad. He also studied for a year in Belgrade where he became fluent in Serb (of which more later).
Hugh (right) running in Bislett in 1967
He competed in the hurdles in the Schools International in 1964 and as a schoolboy was ranked nationally in both high jump and sprint hurdles. He was a very decent and stylish 110m hurdler, adept at (very exaggeratedly) aping the style of contemporaries. His main events as an athlete were the sprint and one-lap hurdles races although he competed well in both high and long jumps. How good was he then? He was ranked at one time or another in all four events. His winning time of 14.9w in the SAAA 120 yards hurdles in 1965 stood as a Championship Best Performance until the distance switched as metric. He was eight times in the top ten and his personal best performances were:
120 yds Hurdles: 15.2 (1966, ranked 5th); 440 yds Hurdles: 56.7 (1967, ranked 5th); 110 m Hurdles: 15.6 (1969, 8th); 400m Hurdles: 55.9 (1969, 9th); LJ: 6.60m (1966, 12th); HJ: 1.78m (1965, 11th)
Away from the track, Hugh is also reliably reported to be an excellent vocal mimic, if not in the Rory Bremner class. Beside his gift for art, he lampooned many of his friends and colleagues. Some of his cartoons, as well as his paintings, hang on the walls of friends.
He studied in Belgrade and joined the Red Star athletic club while he was there. As a result, he was Yugoslav team attaché for the European Indoor Champs in Glasgow (1990) on account of his fluency (having studied in Belgrade). He made such an impression that he was promised free accommodation if he went to the European outdoor champs and helped them that summer in Split. However, the country was on the brink of civil war and in some disarray. Hugh’s billet in the Croatian coastal town was not forthcoming, but he managed to share with a friend. Attempting to repay hospitality with beer, he stood at the bar, but was studiously ignored for at least 10 minutes. When asked by another guest what one had to do to get served, the barman said words to the effect that he was not serving that “Serb b*sta**”. Hugh’s accent was so perfect, he had passed as a Serbian native. Suffice to say, war broke out inside a year.
Despite his history of athletics involvement including Edinburgh and Belgrade, he has been and is a loyal member of VPAAC since 1972. He is the type of unsung volunteer without whom the sport would not survive. His soup teas after the Edinburgh to Glasgow were famous and he also holds open house after the McAndrew Relay hosted by his club. The entertainment at both of these inevitably included his performance using his excellent powers as raconteur and mimic. Always witty and mischievous but never spiteful.
He is reported by all who know him to be very gregarious, with passions for real ale and cycling. A member of CAMRA his knowledge of pubs around Scotland is said to be prodigious and he has recently made a beer tour of Belgium by coach. The comments by some of his friends and club mates make interesting reading. Alistair Johnston meets him regularly on a Tuesday night at The Three Judges, at Partick Cross – one of the best real ale pubs in Scotland. He says that Hugh is an expert (among many other things) in real ale and pubs in general and cycles many miles since his recent retirement around local areas visiting their hostelries. This is a thread that keeps coming through when Hugh is mentioned although Colin Young gives a slightly different perspective on this fact later. Alistair, Hugh, Albie Smith, Dave McMeekin (and various guests from athletics from time to time) of course talk a lot about their running days and how the standard has fallen and how good we were in comparison!!
Hugh also now travels to Europe a lot – particularly to the likes of Bosnia and Croatia (where he spent time as a student) and other ex-communist USSR countries – he also speaks some of their languages! He visits their museums and art galleries, etc – at home he worked for forty years at Kelvingrove Art Galleries as an art curator. He did’nt like to talk about his work and when he did it was usually something negative about the management! However, he must have been well thought-of in his field because he appeared occasionally in TV documentaries – it was always a bit of a shock, says Alistair, seeing him on screen wearing a jacket and tie and speaking eloquently about Scottish artists, history or whatever, compared to the ragged, beer-swigging eccentric (slightly exaggerated) we see at The Three Judges! He can still be seen in this capacity on youtube in fact.
He is still very friendly with many of his ex Edinburgh University athletic pals – Alistair Blamire, Dave Logue, Iain Hathorn, Jack McFie, etc – whom he meets regularly including going with them to big athletic meetings abroad and rugby internationals at Murrayfield. .
A former member of the club and still at heart very much a Vicky Parker, Colin Young re-inforces the convivial Hugh Stevenson image and says –
“My main memory is going with Hugh and several others – Ian Binnie is the only one I can recall – to some of the interesting pubs in Glasgow after training. The Old Toll Bar at Paisley road Toll and Kai Johansens stick in my mind. This was due to Hugh’s interest in the architecture and stained glass had nothing to do with beer – the rounds were not expensive being mostly shandy! My own interest in art and antiquities was building up at the time so it was good to be with somebody like Hugh.
I was on and off the committee a few times in my later spell with VP and would guess that Hugh was too – but I am not sure! It was only relatively recently – in the last few years- that I learned from a casual conversation on a coaching course that Hugh was still very much involved with VP! “
A man of many sports, we are told by Jim Preacher of a rugby playing incident:
In 1988 on an I.A.D.S. tour to Dublin Hugh was persuaded to don his rugby boots as the team were a man short in a match against Guinness RFC. He was asked to play on the wing but told nothing was expected of him and that should he receive the ball he should boot it into touch.
We were up against it and eventually won a line out after fifteen minutes of play. We spun the ball through the three quarters where it ended up with Hugh. His brain went back twenty years and he tucked the ball under his arm and took off down the wing. I was yelling “kick it ! kick it out ! ” but Hugh ran into the covering Guinness back row, each one build like a keg of the product.
A crack pierced the air. Hugh had broken his shoulder in his first touch of a rugby ball for some years. He was taken to hospital, patched up and returned to join us in the bar where he led both teams in a rendition of Limericks that lasted over twenty minutes. The old theatre expression ” the show must go on” sprung to mind.
But Hugh always had style and class – long-time friend Alistair Blamire comments
Re the stylish Hugh, he always won the “Style Prize” at the University Sports. We often make reference to this when we see someone showing a bit of “class” in any walk of life, whether lampooning them (in the Hugh way…) or giving them a stamp of approval.
Athletics in Yugoslavia
There have been several references to Hugh’s stay in Belgrade but he himself wrote an article for a VPAAC magazine in June 1972. Colin Young, the editor of the magazine, sent me a copy and I reprint it here.
ATHLETICS IN YUGOSLAVIA
During a stay of nine months in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, 1969-70, I indulged in some athletics with the Red Star club. Members will have heard of this club in connection with European Football, but as in so many continental countries, the club is multi-sport with sections catering for football, swimming, basketball, athletics, etc.
When I was there, Red Star (Crvena Zvezda in Serbo-Croat) had a large incomplete stadium accommodating 100,000 spectators, one reserve football pitch, one blaes training area, and a ramshackle, pre-fabricated changing hut of immediate post-war vintage. The athletics stripping room and its lukewarm spray were shared by the men and the women but not simultaneously. Immediately after I left Yugoslovakia everything changed. A tartan track was laid(one of seven put down by a German firm in July-August 1970) and I imagine the changing facilities were transferred to a more suitable site in the main stadium. So much for my luck.
The athletics section of the club was immensely strong with many high quality athletes including several national record-holders. In 1970 they were the Yugoslav Club Champions, and they would certainly win the British League Championship. If you look at the following list of best performers competing for them in 1970, you will understand why.
10.3, 20.9, 49.0, 1:51.0, 3:46.0, 13:35.0, 27:58.0, 8:52.0, 14.9, 51.8, 7’0″, 13′, 26′, 50′, 62′, 170′, 180′, 235′ and they could put out two sprint relay teams clocking 42.3. With 56.4, I was the fourth fastest in the club in the 400m Hurdles.
Despite the impression given by my description of their dismal changing rooms, Red Star seemed to have plenty of money, enough to lay a tartan athletics track, pay for full time coaches, kit out their members, run training camps in distant localities and also to subsidise the diets of the “heavies” (to augment the usual Yugoslav diet of beans, yoghurt and sour cabbage) and to distribute direct “grants” to their very best athletes.
Dane Korica, who competed against David Bedford at last year’s British Games and later came fourth in both the 5000m and 10000m in Helsinki, received about £20 per month from the club – the same amount as he earned in his job as a motor mechanic. This is quite normal and the Yugoslavs were amazed, almosty disbelieving, when I informed them that the likes of Olympic champion David Hemery got no “grants”. Was their disbelief justified, I would note that I was accused of lying when I told them that in Scotland we had tp pay for our own kit, club membership, travelling expenses and 7/6 per event to enter our own championships.
I trained in the stable of “Chika (uncle) Atsa”, a small refined gentleman who was coach to the national team in throwing events. I found myself among a small group consisting of some first class sprinters (10.5 men) , another 400m hurdler with whom I had great verbal battles, all in good fun, and an assortment of aspiring middle-distance runners, distance runners turned hammer throwers, sprinters turned javelin throwers, and some rather promising girls.
There was a measure of rivalry between the various coaches and their charges.
As to the aspiring athletes mentioned above, I grieved for them, as they trained all winter with us in the nearby parks and in the national Army stadium, venue of the 1962 European Championships, and got no cmpetition when the summer came around. Only the very best athletes are adequately catered for in Yugoslavia. There are no inter-club matches where the less gifted can get a run out. The season for me was as follows:
6th & 13th May – Belgrade clubs meting; 26th & 27th May – Republic of Serbia Clubs Championships (best twelve in the republic in previous local meetings to compete); 30th & 31st June – Yugoslav Clubs Championships(best twelve from republic championship to compete). There were also, after I left, another Yugoslav championship (slightly different from above) and an individual championship. Add to these an international meeting in Belgrade , from which I had to withdraw because of illness, and you will see that the average competent athlete (stop flattering yourself boy!) can expect a total of six races a year. So despite the amount of money poured into the sport. domestic competition is in a poor state.
Victoria Park club members may take heart from the fact that athletics in Yugoslavia where some deal of money is available, is in a worse-off state than athletics in Scotland about whose shortcomings I could preach at length. But I’ll keep the preaching to another article and hope in the meantime that the vagaries of Red Star, Belgrade, have provided interest and amusement.
Hugh wrote that in 1972 and it is of real interest to note that in 1969 the athletes in Yugoslavia were being paid – it is even more eye-opening to see how little competition was available to the athletes.
Colin Donnelly
Colin Donnelly was born in 1959 and has excelled in two branches of long-distance athletics: cross-country and, especially, hill running. An internet debate about who is Britain’s best-ever fell-runner comments: “Colin Donnelly had (and still has) the speed and endurance to set even more records. He has more or less soloed every long-distance challenge there is, without support or route advice. If he was better organised, he could have achieved more than anyone else. Perhaps that is the way the great man likes things to be: out there on his own, doing things his own way”. While I agree that Colin has always been a very unusual individual, he has also been an exemplary team-man for his only cross-country club – Cambuslang Harriers.
According to the club history, Colin Donnelly joined around 1976 as “a novice runner with lots of raw talent”. He ran for them in the Scottish CC Relay in 1977 and in 1978. I well remember the latter occasion, at Beach Park, Irvine. Despite the distance being too short for me, somehow I had squeezed into the talent-loaded ESH team and Allister Hutton had handed me a seventeen second lead. Young Colin scorched after older Colin and very nearly caught up before his impetuousness and my stamina took effect. As I edged clear again, before handing over to the flying Ian Elliot who ensured victory, the bellowed insults of a Cambuslang ‘supporter’ rained down on the poor tired youngster. He still gained three seconds and handed over second, although his team was eventually edged out of third. Not surprisingly after such an unfair ear-bashing, Donnelly avoided this event thereafter; but his record in the National CC was to be truly amazing.
Around the same time, Colin Donnelly studied at Aberdeen University and once or twice I kept him company on a training run. Apparently he ran sixty miles per week, as hard as he could. When I suggested that a few slower recovery sessions might be a good idea, he ignored the suggestion completely. He also turned up on a trip to the Isle of Man Easter Running Festival. No doubt he ran well, but what I remember is his total innocence about the probable effects of beer-drinking on an inexperienced young fellow! However before very long he became a mature, disciplined, teak-hard competitor.
Colin’s first appearance in the Scottish Junior CC National was in 1979, when he finished a respectable 20th. His debut in the Senior National took place in 1981, when he was third counter for Cambuslang in 29thplace. No sign of what was to come!
For several years, Colin was in the RAF and based in Wales, where he made a considerable mark on the hill-running world, as will be described later. Consequently it was 1987 before he featured once more in the Senior National for Cambuslang Harriers – a team which was to dominate the event utterly for the next twenty years.
Perhaps the quickest way of communicating details of Cambuslang’s fantastic run of success is a simple list. 1987: Colin 12th, team bronze. 1988: 6th, team gold. 1989: 12th, team gold. 1990: 15th, team gold. 1991: 5th, team gold. 1993: 8th, team gold. 1994: 9th, team gold. 1995: 8th, team gold. 1996: 22nd, team silver. 1997: 24th, team gold. 1998: 11th, team gold. 1999: 7th, team gold. 2000: 11th, team gold. 2001: 17th, team silver. 2002: 11th, team silver. 2003: 16th, team gold. 2004: 21st, team gold. And finally, at the age of 48 in 2008: 20th, team gold. Colin Donnelly amassed a total of no less than 14 team gold medals (plus three silver and one bronze) during a period in which Cambuslang Harriers won 16 titles. Has anyone ever shown such consistent team spirit and excellence?
Not surprisingly, Colin continues to run very well indeed as a veteran. In Scottish age-group cross-country championships he won M40 titles in 2000 and 2001; M45 in 2007 and 2008; M50 in 2010; and (of course) a number of team gold medals. Perhaps his finest race as a ‘Master’ was a superb win (M40) for Scotland in the 1999 Five Nations Home Countries CC International at Grenville College, Bideford, Devon.
However Colin Donnelly’s main claim to fame isn’t cross-country at all! He burst onto the hill-running scene with victory in the Ben Nevis Race in 1979 – the youngest man to win this famous event. He won it again in 1986; and lost to Gary Devine by only five seconds in 1988. In the interim Colin Donnelly had dominated fell-running, especially near his home in Wales, where he set many records, some of which have never been beaten, for example the Welsh 3000s (26 miles from the top of Snowdon to Foel Fras, including some 13,000 feet of ascent and fourteen summits). In 1988, when he was a local Eryri Harrier, Colin’s time was an astounding four hours 19 minutes.
Colin Donnelly’s hill race victories are countless, but include the Snowdon Race, Cader Idris (6 wins), Buckden Pike, Shelf Moor, Carnethy, Kentmere Horseshoe and the Manx Mountain Marathon (31.5 miles, 8000m ascent).
Colin Donnelly was British Fell-Running Champion three times in the late 1980s. In the WMRA World Mountain Running Trophy, he represented Scotland in eighteen successive races between 1985 and 2002 (plus another one in 2004): an almost unbelievable record. Colin’s greatest run, which displayed exceptional descending skills, secured a silver medal in the 1989 men’s individual short race at Chatillon-en-Diois, France. In addition, he was in the Scottish team (Tommy Murray, Bobby Quinn, Colin Donnelly and Graeme Bartlett) that won silver medals in 1995 (Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh).
On the 22nd of September 2001, in Ustron, Poland, Colin Donnelly won the M40 Masters World Mountain Running Championship by an enormous margin of 91 seconds. In 2002 (Innsbruck, Austria) he was third; and in 2005 (Keswick, England) second M45 to Dave Neill of England.
Colin Donnelly shows no sign of retiring or even slowing down much. He is based in Lochaber and in 2011 ran eight hill races. This year (2013)he had competed twice by mid-January. He is a truly remarkable runner and it seems likely that there are many triumphs to come
Stuc a Chroin
Many years before moving to Lochearnhead in 1996, I came up to walk on the hills – a friend and I walked from Brig o’Turk up over Ben Ledi, to Strathyre, over Ben Sheann to Balquihidder and then over to Loch Katrine before returning to the start. My wife and I and various friends walked the Glen Ogle Trail quite often too. It’s an area we like very much. So when the Stuc a Chroin race started in 1988, we would come up, if there was no track league match that required our presence, to spectate. We would walk up to the point where the trail drops down into Glen Ample, sit with our picnics and watch the runners come over the top and , leaving rucksacks and backpacks of all sorts, head down into the glen. An excellent viewpoint. Or we would walk into Glen Ample from the carpark south of Strathyre and have our picnic watching the runners come down one side and head up the other. Or we’d just wander up and down the track encouraging the runners. It’s a wonderful course, albeit one that I would never have attempted to run. I have walked to the top starting from the car park at Bracklynn Falls in Callander, via Braeleny Farm
The race itself is described on the website (www/stucachroin5000,org.uk ) as follows:
The race starts and finishes at the outskirts of the village of Strathyre beside the A84 at the South entrance to the village. (grid ref. 561167) The route follows a track uphill behind the start area & joins the forest road after about 500 yards in a South direction. After about 2 miles the edge of the forest is reached (grid ref 577145). Turn left in a N.E. direction – rough ground – no path – follow edge of forest to (grid ref 583160) cross Meal Mor (550m) to point (grid ref 585160) overlooking Glen Ample. Down the hill to cross the hill-walkers’ path through Glen Ample (350m) grid ref 591160).
The climb up a steep heather slope to the top of Beinn Each (grid ref 603158) is a bit more testing until you reach the summit at 811 metres. From Beinn Each the route follows a hill walkers path along an undulating ridge to Bealach nan Caber (grid ref 603165) (Cross-over Point) then follows the same path for a scramble to Stuc a’ Chroin (972m)(grid ref 617175) via Bealach Glas (grid ref 606171).
The Return: An ascent to Bealach nan Cabar (Cross-over Point), down long grass slopes to cross Glen Ample path (grid ref 591158) then follow the forest track to the welcoming crowds to return to Strathyre.
It is often included in the British Fell Running Championship and is classed as a long race. It is very hard beginning as it does with the short, steep climb up from the start at Strathyre to the forestry road which takes you up almost to the drop into the glen. The wee bit over tussocky grass before you can see over the edge is also pretty steep before the different challenge altogether of the drop down. As a walker I used to hate the rocky scramble up to the to and hated the coming back down even more.
A well supported race, there are usually a lot of English athletes taking part because of the nature of the event – and possibly as a recce for the following years. The campsite south of the village is usually jam packed as are the local B&B’s and hotels – this year (2014) will be more difficult because two of the hotels, the Munro and the Ben Sheann, are closed which means two restaurants and bars fewer as well. Two sets of toilets fewer too! It is also well supported by the locals who turn out to welcome the athletes home at the end.
It’s a great day, a wonderful event and deservedly popular with all connected with it. This is maybe more remarkable because it is one of very few hill races throughout the British Isles which is not organised by a running club or combination of clubs. Organised entirely by local volunteers it is a model for all other races.