Author: Admin
Some Tributes …
Lynne McDougall
John Anderson has had many athletes pass through his hands and they almost universally have good memories and entertaining tales to tell, Some of these tributes are set out here – appreciations of help given and friendships made and maintained. I await more which will be added once I have seen them. First of all there is Dave Hislop who has known John since the early 1970’s. Dave ran for Edinburgh AC and Birchfield Harrierss with pb’s of 53.08 for 400m Hurdles and 49.25 for 400m flat. He ran for Scotland no fewer than 10 times between 1978 and 2004. Details of his career can be found at
http://www.scotstats.com/sats/uploads/ARCHIVE%202013/Final%20Profile-Men%20G-L.pdf
He says:
John Anderson -A Few Words! Perhaps a contradiction of terms but here goes…
I have had the privilege of knowing John for some 40 years during which time he has fulfilled a number of role in respect of me and my family ranging from coach, friend, employer, mentor, confidant, advisor, godfather to our son to mention but a few. He is undoubtedly one of the few people I know who is capable of carrying out all of the above and more…
Without his influence there is no way I would have achieved what I achieved in my sporting career or my professional career. John is the type of person who gives people the skills to enhance their life it is then up to them to take these opportunities.
The sheer number of international athletes John has coached not to mention those who may not have attained international level but who reached heights that they would not have achieved without John’s guidance, speaks for his prowess as a coach.
I could write a book on the experiences, as could the hundreds if not thousands of others, I have shared with him over the years and still continue to do so but this is not the purpose of these words.
I would like to take this opportunity to publicly recognise the impact John Anderson has made on not only my life but the lives of my wife, Kay and son, Jordan. The world of athletics has certainly benefitted from his input to the Nth degree.
To finish then I would just like to say a massive thank you John for all you have done for me and my family and also from those who have been fortunate enough to have been part of John’s life.”
It’s a sound testimonial to John’s ability to inspire and educate in a way that is not narrowly focused on sporting success, but to go a wee bit further than that – or maybe a big bit further!
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Second up is Lynne MacDougall whose career is documented at www.scottishdistancerunninghistory.co.uk in the section entitled The Milers.
“I first met John in Portugal at an International Athletes’ Club training camp in the spring of 1983. John had organised a paarlauf session on the cross country course for the endurance athletes there. As usual he was very enthusiastic about the session and turned it into a bit of an event. He has a very loud voice and used it to effect to encourage all of the athletes to work hard! John certainly made an impression on me that day.
At that time my coach, Ronnie Kane had just died and I was looking around for a new coach. Jimmy Campbell got in touch with John and asked if he might take me on.
John lived in Coventry with his wife Dorothy and I used to travel down to stay with them so that I could train with his group, which at that time included Dave Moorcroft, Judy Livermore, Eugene Gilkes, John Graham and the Australian 1500m runner Pat Scammell. I have heard critics of John say he only worked with ‘stars’ who came to him fully formed, but that is nonsense as he worked with many people from when they were young and unknown and also with many club athletes who were never going to become international athletes. However, he expected all of his athletes to be committed to training and to take a professional approach to their athletics whatever their standard. He and Dorothy opened their house to athletes and it was always full of people dropping in for advice or staying over to train. Dorothy is a wonderful lady who went out of her way to look after all of the athletes and make them feel welcome. I was just 18 when I first met Dorothy and being looked after like this when I was away from home meant a lot to me.
With John’s guidance I began to get on track with my training after having lost my way a bit after Ronnie’s death. In my view, John’s training is based around principles of specificity and speed endurance. There is no periodisation in the strictest sense, but training in the winter and competition seasons are different as in the winter the emphasis is on training and in the summer on competition. Typical sessions included 4x600m with 5 mins recovery; 8x300m with 3 mins recovery; 150/300m x6 with the same distance jog recovery; 10x400m and 4x1000m for 5k runners. I also did 10mile runs and ‘stepping stones’: runs which are runs where you run 1mile at, say, 6min per mile followed by a mile at 6.30min per mile for 4 or 6 miles. I also did 20min fast runs.
With this training schedule and the support from the group I made a lot of progress over the winter of 1983. John’s encouragement was a significant factor in this. He was always very positive and encouraging of his athletes and has a great belief in them. My belief in myself did not always match John’s and I guess this was the one difficulty we had in our relationship. But I think that the training system works very well and I based my training around it when I was coaching for a short time with good results.
In 1984 I took around 10 seconds off my pb for 1500m and made the Olympic team. I remember the Olympic Trials in Gateshead well. It was the first time my parents and sister met John. My 18 year old sister did not have a ticket, but this was no problem for John. He liked to play a game with himself involving getting into every stadium he ever visited free. He put his arm round my sister and walked her into the stadium talking intently but every once in a while shouting out hello to passers by. As he expected no one checked whether they had tickets or accreditation because he looked like he was perfectly entitled to walk through the entrance. Alison got one of the best seats in the stand!
John was one of the British team’s coaches in LA, with specific responsibility for multi-events. As a 19 year old it was great to have my coach in the Olympic village with me. One day I went with John and two of the decathletes in the team for a stroll in Venice Beach. Venice attracts a weird and wonderful crowd of people and it was probably one of the few occasions I spent with John where he was one of the least flamboyant characters around!
Mostly, though John was the centre of attention! Gradually all of his athletes got used to this and it was just what they expected of John. I saw this quality being used to great effect though a number of times. One night we were at a charity event part of which involved an auction. The bidding was very sluggish and items were being sold for very small amounts. ‘Watch this’ John said to me getting up and taking over the mike from a timid announcer. In the next 20 mins John got the whole room so enthused that the bids tripled in value. The crowning moment was when he convinced someone to pay £250 for a photograph of two gladiators from the show he was working on at the time! This anecdote highlights some important aspects of John’s character and why he has had such an impact on many athletes and coaches lives: he sees opportunities when others might not, he does not think something is ever a lost cause, he is willing to pull out all of the stops to make things happen and he keeps on going until they do.
John is also fearless. He made much of his upbringing in the tough and mean streets of Glasgow (which was firmly tongue in cheek to those of us actually from Glasgow!) to develop a certain reputation. However I did see this toughness on one occasion when we were on a training camp in Spain. One of the girls in our group came running in and told us there were thieves in one of the athletes’ rooms. John was out of the door faster than Usain Bolt heading to the room which was in another building. He single handedly grabbed the two thieves and held them both against a wall until the police arrived! The police also took John down to the station to investigate this citizen’s arrest as the thieves complained about his treatment! However he was released a short time after and the athletes got all of their stuff back.
I continued to work with John all through the 1980s at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh and Auckland where he was an England Team coach. I stopped competing for a time in the early 1990s but then in 1995 I decided to start training again more seriously. I had a couple of people who helped me but eventually I got in touch with John again. He was living in Dunfermline and so I was able to see him again regularly. As I was older it was a different sort of relationship. It was more about chatting through ideas. It was great to have John and Dorothy’s support again and to know there were other people I could turn to when I had problems. John helped me train for the 5000m and I had a fairly successful season in 1997.
My track career did not end very well. I dropped out of the AAA’s 5000m and I felt that I was done with running. However, I started to run more on the roads and began to enjoy it again. Once again I went to speak to John about coaching. As I said earlier he does not give up on lost causes and suggested I train for the marathon! Despite having no background in distance running (I had never even done a half marathon) and my not exactly successful career to date he believed I could make the Olympic team!
Training for the marathon involved longer runs, but was still built a lot on ‘speedwork’. For example I did the ‘stepping stones’ sessions – but they were 9 miles long; a common session was 5miles fast/five steady/five fast; track sessions were about 10km in length; long runs were about 15miles to 20miles once a week.
In the end I ran 3 marathons. I did not get the Olympic qualifying time but was selected for the 2002 Commonwealth Games. However, I developed a back injury and could get no-one to treat it effectively. I felt I had lost too much training and gave up my place in the team. I think John was disappointed about this decision as he believed I could have competed. I retired soon after.
I will be ever grateful for the time John gave me and his support over the years. I am glad that through this profile a wider group of people will get to know about and develop a better appreciation of John’s contribution to athletics. ”
Hamish Telfer
Early in his career he coached Hamish Telfer and his friend Cameron McNeish. Cameron went on to become famous as a climber and hill-walker with many books and publications to his name and Hamish became a top class coach in his own right. If you want a review of his career go to
http://www.theleisurereview.co.uk/events/HamishTelfer2.pdf
Hamish sent some of his recollections of his time with John and they are presented below, just as he worded them.
“I understand John was born and brought up in Govanhill, Glasgow. He attended Queens Park Senior Secondary School which was then in Battlefield before its move to Toryglen. I think he may have a sister but I am uncertain. I also understand that he was a fairly competent all-rounder at sport while at school and represented Scottish Schoolboys playing alongside Ally MacLeod. I believe he played centre forward. He may also have played for amateur Scotland. He was also a reasonable gymnast.
He attended the Scottish School of Physical Education at Jordanhill College, Glasgow. I am uncertain as to how many schools he may have taught at, but I certainly remember him telling me he taught at a pretty tough east end school in Glasgow where, to instil some discipline into his charges, he started a gymnastic club which went on to do well at either the full Nationals or the School nationals (possibly winning something). It was at this time in his career that his ambitions coincided with track and field athletics and he got involved as you know with Maryhill Ladies (in all its various early forms). I recall him telling me that in order to realise the ambition of getting to the top of the pile in about 5 years he had a simple dictum. If a parent brought their kid to be coached, they had to do something for the club. John had worked out very early on that he couldn’t get to grips with coaching if he was also the club secy., treasurer, dogsbody etc . He seemed quite ruthless in this demand, as I remember him telling me that there were a number of times that parents took kids elsewhere and he had to watch undoubted talent prosper at other clubs when he would have wished they were with him and his team of coaches. It was around this time that he applied for and got the Scottish National Coach’s job. Maryhill went on to develop and prosper further under the fantastic Jimmy Campbell (as did my own coaching career). [NB: Jimmy had been brought into the sport by John when he was coaching his daughter Mary at Maryhill Ladies AC]
I can’t remember exactly when I first met John but I suspect it was about the time I was 15 (1965). I trained with Cameron McNeish and we were good friends. Cameron was a sprinter long jumper as was I, but he was much better and it was in Cameron that John took an interest. We were members of the now (sadly) defunct West of Scotland Harriers (who also had Ian Walker make it to a Scottish vest at 400 – now a folk singer) and he took over Cameron’s coaching form the coach at the club who was John Todd. In doing so, he also took on me. Much later in my life on one of the occasions when I asked John why he took on a ‘good’ but not really talented athlete, he responded by telling me that apart from the fact that he knew I was a committed athlete (more of that later), he knew that to split up the training partnership could be detrimental to both of us. Cameron and I thus joined John’s ‘National Squad’ at a very tender age. This being the case, I remember John sitting us both down and ‘telling it like it was’ with regards to conduct. If we even sniffed any alcohol (John was, and I think still is, an abstainer), we were out on our ears. Same applied to smoking. We even got lectured about manners and conduct to others, especially women as well as our appearance. We were left somewhat traumatised by the experience but left in no doubt who was boss. I think he did this as he recognised we were very young and he certainly didn’t want anything getting out of hand. Application and hard work also had to be applied to school too.
He was very strong in his views about egos. He encouraged us to believe in ourselves and to feel that there was nothing we couldn’t achieve with hard work and application but he had no truck for big heads (although he did coach David Jenkins which, given David’s ability to appear grandiose on numerous occasions, seemed slightly at odds). He had numerous ways in which he could deflate athletes who believed their own hype and I saw it in action on a number of occasions. I later found out, much to my embarrassment, that my mother, concerned that I was spending considerable amounts of time seemingly with a stranger, sought him out ( I have no idea how) and grilled him. He told me later in life that he could now see the funny side of it but at the time my mother who was a small, slight woman of only 4’10’’, really put him on the spot, especially with regards to training interfering with my school work.
As soon as we joined the squad our training patterns changed under John’s direction. He arranged for us to train with Maryhill Ladies mainly in the winter and I well remember the Friday night sessions at Westbourne School (Madge Carruthers was head of PE there). In addition there were the (mainly winter) sessions at the (newish) Grangemouth Stadium. He also encouraged us to train with the better women sprinters in his charge, and I spent some considerable time training with Avril Beattie and in effect acting as her training partner. She worked in a bank I think, but would get changed at work and meet me near the Queens Park and we would do rep sessions in the park at least once a week in the dark and having to climb over railings to get in and out again. Cameron and I also trained with Anne Wilson (a PE teacher) who was a Scottish International at sprints and LJ. Anne was terrific fun and was the instigator of mischief as well as all of us getting T-shirts bearing the legend ‘Nohj Squad’ (she always addressed John as Nhoj and got away with it). The squad took great pride in its identity and identification with John. Some of the other names I remember were Hugh Baillie, Bob Lawrie, Dunky Middleton, Stuart McCallum, both Jenkins brothers, Lindy Carruthers, Moira Kerr (with whom I did weight training twice weekly at Springburn Sports Centre). There were undoubtedly others but I am uncertain whether they were the core group or simply joined us: Fergus the steeplechaser from Edinburgh Uni, Dougie Edmondson, Lawrie Bryce, McPherson another thrower, Hugh Barrow, Ruth Watt, Adrian thingymabob who was a miler/1500, John Lyle etc etc. My memory needs jogging as to who was around at the time.
John held sessions at Springburn Sports Centre every Tuesday in the winter which was a combination of weights and conditioning. They were hard graft! I remember one occasion when John was called away to the phone at the start of the conditioning session and we wondered what to do as more than 10 mins had elapsed and he hadn’t returned. We decided to carry on (Dunky Middleton was one of the ones in the session so it was a mixture of senior and youth athletes). When John came back 50 mins later we were still going! Knackered but still going. Cameron and I would walk from our schools in the south side of Glasgow to get to these sessions as we only had enough money for a fare one way, so decided to get the bus for the homeward journey. We called in to my Gran’s flat in Springburn often after the session where she would feed us both with bacon and eggs.
John also used Cameron and myself as ‘athlete demonstrators’ on coaching courses both during the week and at weekends and have particular recollections of him picking me up and taking me to Ayr, Inverclyde and various places around Glasgow and Edinburgh. Quite exciting for a young, impressionable athlete. One of the reasons that he was able to do that was he had a firm belief in all-round conditioning for all his young athletes (not the case with the Seniors who he took on). All youngsters in his squad had to master all decathlon events and when the Scottish Schools Easter Athletics Course was under his control, part of the week was dedicated to two days of decathlon competition. This was part of his philosophy that although we start out in one event we may of course end up in another.
Other anecdotes stand out. Cameron and I used to sing in the showers at Grangemouth and this started something of duel between the women in the next changing room who could hear us and the rest of the male squad. It became a standard feature of sessions for a while as to which changing room could outdo the other and John would join in although not so good with the falsetto part in The Righteous Brothers ‘You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling’.
Three other incidents stand out.
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When Cameron and I were about 18 or so, we bought motorbikes to help us get around to training. This made it easier to get to John’s house too. We often went over to his place at Hamilton to help him splice films for his Specto analyser which he used on coaching courses. This allowed us unparalleled access to his knowledge and to quiz him and to see repeated footage of the likes of Eddy Ottoz going over hurdles. This was without question where I started to chart my career path, as I realised I had a thirst for this and indeed, something of an aptitude. John must have been a bit sick of never being able to get away from us but never complained and his then wife Christine (who was a lovely young woman) must have felt we were like contraceptives. In one particular incident however, I remember going to John’s to get picked up to go to Grangemouth early one Sunday morning. It was in the depths of one the coldest winter spells and it was well under zero in temperature and i was on my small 50cc motorbike. By the time I had got to John’s from south side Glasgow to Hamilton I was more than a bit cold. I got off the bike (just) and made it to his back door and then must have collapsed against the door with hypothermia. I remember nothing until coming round laid flat out in front of the fire in the front room with my head on Christine’s lap. While she was concerned, John wasn’t! He got me up as quick as he could, bundled me into his car (a Volvo after his little VW beetle) and with the heaters in his red Volvo going full blast, we made it to Grangemouth where his only concession was to ‘allow me’ to miss the morning track session substituting it for a 10 mile run (to warm me up again) and then into the afternoon track session.
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John took Cameron and myself down to Cosford to run indoors when we were about 16 or 17. While I can remember one visit entailed staying at the student halls in Loughborough sleeping on the floor of the rooms of the likes of Mike McKean, Mike Varah and co., I also remember one trip undertaken in dense fog either on the way there or back. On the trip with the freezing fog ……. John asked Cammie and me to get all our clothes on; everything we could put on that we had. Perplexed we obeyed. He then put me in the back with Cammie and then he instructed us to open the windows (one of us on each side) and lean out a bit and give him instructions as to when he might either cross the white line or hit the verge so he could drive a bit faster. I remember these trips usually entailed us getting to John’s the night before to sleep over in order to get up at something like 3am to set off. My life with John always seemed to have theme of ‘cold’.
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On which note – John was proud of a particularly vicious session he used to inflict on us called 20 second runs. Usually reserved for the Grangemouth sessions, it was indiscriminate in its(his) ability to reduce quality athletes to crawling about the track barfing up what was left in their stomachs. I remember Hugh Baillie being left prostrate on more than one occasion as was Bob Lawrie. The one that sticks in my mind was the session he sprung on us on Christmas Eve one year (which happened to fall on a Sunday, hence Grangemeouth). Thinking we would have one of his fun sessions of a continuous relay with all events involved for fun, he sprung the 20 second run session on us. It was also snowing very heavily. I still have memories of crawling on to the infield after ‘hitting my mark’ and seeing a pair of snow covered feet in front of me and hearing him bark ‘make or not?’ When I responded ‘only just’, he simply bawled, ‘go again’ and moved on to the next victim. We never saw him through the snow in that sheepskin trade mark jacket of his, but we heard him. We were wearing vests and shorts!
Cammie had left athletics by the time he was about 20 as by then he was in the Police Force and the shifts were difficult to fit in and he had also met his future wife and got married at 21. I got a bad injury at PE College and stopped competing in 1970 too. However without a doubt John, for all his faults (and he had many – temper, pig headedness, obstinate, argumentative) was a wonderful influence on me and I owe virtually everything in my career to John’s influence. Indeed it was interesting to hear some people remark that I was a mini version of John when I taught and coached. I would not have had the career I did without John’s help and encouragement.
Later on when I left PE teaching in Scotland in 1975 to take up the post of National Technical Officer (National Coach) for the Royal Life Saving Society, I was then the youngest full time National Coach in any sport in Great Britain. I have since been a GB team coach in Wild Water Canoeing (don’t ask) and also back in my own sport of athletics for cross country. At the top in 3 sports and much of it down to John and his grounding in confidence, learning, knowledge and hard work.
My final ‘memory’ was of the only time John paid me a real complement (this from a man who once described my start from the gun as ‘like watching milk turn’ in terms of ‘response’!) and in true Anderson fashion it came when it mattered; in front of my peers. I was heavily involved in the British Association of National Coaches in the middle part of my career and was one of the ones charged with considering moving the Association forward from its rather elite membership of past and present National Coaches to meet the demands of widening audience of coaches who needed a ‘Coaches Association’ to get their voices heard (we are still waiting!). We invited John as a speaker to our annual conference one year. At this point John and I had not been in contact for some time. We briefly chatted before his session before he went on to talk to the assembled National Coaches from all sports. The talk was about the ‘coach athlete relationship’ or something along those lines. There were just over 100 in the room.
He started his session by saying ‘There is someone in this room who epitomises what a hard working, committed athlete is. Without such athletes, coaches such as yourselves cannot achieve the highest levels of success since talent alone seldom, in my view, is enough without the ability to work hard. That person is Hamish Telfer.’ I can remember it almost verbatim and was quite overwhelmed as I knew it was not in his nature to say things like this. In typical John fashion he had his punch line however. He continued by saying (I suspect in order to lighten the moment) something like … ‘Without a doubt he was the hardest working athlete I have ever coached but unfortunately for Hamish he possessed not a grain of natural talent.’ I still felt quite chuffed but do remember when the laughter died down saying ‘and it’s taken you 20 years to tell me I was crap then Anderson?’
Despite the flaws he inspires fierce loyalty and when I talked to Cameron that is what he remembers too. “
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Finally, Eric Simpson from Fife paid a wonderful tribute to John and I simply quote it in its entirety.
John and I first met when I did my Senior Coaches in London a few years ago at least 25 years ago. There were 5/6 of us on the course and from the 1st minute John and I hit it off. There are so many stories but relevant to John ,from the beginning I realised that with John you either loved him or hated him a bit of the MARMITE man. I loved him because I always felt he was honest , he called it as he saw it, it might not be politically correct but hell great athletes and coaches are not made by being P.C.
I always considered John my mentor and if I needed help he would always be there on the end of the phone he was working in London at the time. I managed to get through to him in his office one day and he started laughing because he wanted to know how I had conned his secretary into putting the call through. John was the reason I got my chance to work with the G.B. squad in Birmingham and plans were in place for me to be developed in this area. Then as usual politics got in the way and I think it was B.A.F. went “tits up” I still was invited to work with Adrian Thomas on the G.B. Junior squad and this gave me a great insight into the working of the sport at the top end. Again John was always there in the back ground.. When Katie Skorupska came on the scene John was the catalyst in getting her sponsorship with Nike, in his house one day (he had moved to Dunfermline by this time,) telling the Nike rep on the phone that he had better get her now because a year down the line he would get no where. He duly said o.k. a pair of trainers just because it was John . A year later she had a “gold” card with Nike and all that entailed.
Johns 65th Birthday party when he turned up at his house in Dunfermline totally oblivious the people waiting to greet him, some of the top people in the country administrators , athletes and coaches.
John can be an abrasive character but he doesn’t suffer fools gladly. The 1st Senior international that Kt was picked for at 17 caused all sorts of fuss. John was adamant she was going to run and I know he forced it through selection , He had approached me at Birmingham the week before and asked if I thought that Katie was ready for a 5k I said it was planned for at least one that year, and how did I feel about her running the international. I think people were hoping that it would blow up in his face instead she ran brilliantly to win it and set a mark for the seniors to beat, which they did not. John and I crossed sword occasionally but my respect for him never waned and I missed him badly when he moved back South but will always consider one of the major influences in my life, John never gave you the answer as a young coach , he told you were to go and find it then come back and discuss it with him. I have used this technique with the young coaches that I mentor now and tell them how lucky I was to have John as my guide. I travelled a round trip of over 1000 miles to see John when he lived in London , I learned more in the seven hours I spent with him than I had learned in the previous seven years , an inspiration and a great person in my eyes. Like few of the coaches now gone we will NOT see his like again because John is very much a ONE OFF: get him and TOM McNAB together and you will have a master class in Bloody minded , single minded fantastic coaches who don’t care for niceties, but get the job done and the people who matter, the athletes, hold in the highest regard.
I have more stories but this is turning into a novel. I would be grateful if you could forward Johns e mail A wee story to finish which shows the man. One day at Meadowbank during a meeting John is walking across the track carrying a bag………” Hi John, is that you been relegated to carrying the bag” sharp as a tack he replies “Aye, Eric but I’m the BEST bag carrier” Brilliant this is the man to a tee only the best was good enough.
Back to John Anderson
John Anderson
Everybody in Scotland knows John Anderson, everybody in Britain and many further afield know John Anderson – or knows something about him. John Anderson, along with such as Wilf Paish, Frank Dick and Harry Wilson, is one of the really great British coaches of the twentieth century and probably of all time. Everyone knows about him – coach of athletes who have competed in Commonwealth, European and Olympic Games as well as World championships indoor and out, coach on several GB Olympic teams, fitness trainer and referee on the Gladiators TV programme, coach to famous athletes such as Dave Moorcroft, Judy Livermore, Sheila Carey, John Graham, Liz McColgan, Lynne McDougall and so on. Impossible not to know he is a Scot and a Glaswegian, he is immensely practical, down to earth, immensely knowledgeable and always prepared to share the knowledge with those willing to listen. It was interesting talking to him, reading what I could find and listening to interviews about his career. A brief summary of his career appears in Wikipedia and reads:
“John Anderson (born 28 November 1932 or 1933) is a former British television personality best known as referee and official trainer on the UK TV show, Gladiators. He has previously worked as a teacher and as a coach for Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games athletes, including Commonwealth Games champion and former World Record Holder David Moorcroft. John was National Coach for the Amateur Athletics Association of England and subsequently the first full time National Coach in Scotland. He was coach to an Olympian at every Olympics from 1964 to 2000 and has coached 5 world record holders and 170 GB Internationals in every event.
In 2008, John briefly resumed his role as referee on the newly revived Gladiators before being replaced by John Coyle after just one series. Anderson went on to become mentor and coach for a number of recent international athletes, including Great British athlete William Sharman, who he helped transform from a decathlete to a world class sprint hurdler, and continues to coach at a local and regional level.”
A very brief entry and, important as Gladiators was, in the context of his athletics coaching, it is not the high point. He tells me he was born in 1931. His fascinating career deserves to be looked at in some detail, from his start in athletics to date. (NB: John only did one series after 2008 because he turned down the renewal because he felt it was changing in a way that he did not approve of.)
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As a young man, John wanted to teach and was passionate about all kinds of sport. He represented Scotland as a schoolboy footballer. This was in the 1950’s when there was no formal coach education structure available in the country. The only way in to sport as a career was to train as a physical education teacher and there were only two options available to him on that front – Jordanhill College in Scotland or Loughborough in England. Jordanhill College is now of course part of Strathclyde University in Glasgow. John went to Jordanhill and subsequently did a degree at the Open University and went into teaching in Junior Secondary School the east end of Glasgow. Progress as a coach was then down to self study and self motivation – he read voraciously, mainly in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. He was interested in all sports and went on the FA football coaching course at Loughborough. He did so well that he became the first home Scot to gain the prestigious Full FA Coaching Certificate. It should be noted that at that time only 4 were awarded every year and none had ever been awarded to a ‘home Scot.’ When he came back home with the qualification, football clubs didn’t want to know. There was no desire to use his qualification from those in the sport in Scotland where the clubs all seemed content to do what they had always been doing. He went on teaching and covered such sports as gymnastics and swimming as well as football. He reckons that these helped his future coaching of athletes – all experiences are useful and teach the interested coach, it raised his awareness of the coaching process and taught him how to motivate all kinds of people in different sports, and much more.
He had been a pupil at Queen’s Park Secondary School at the same time as Ally MacLeod. They became firm friends and played together for the Scotland Schools team then when John was National Coach, Ally was manager of the Scottish football team. At a personal level, John was best man when Ally was married.
John only came into athletics by purest chance. He was a member of Victoria Park in the West of Glasgow where he trained for the sprints, but says he really wasn’t much of a runner. Nor was there very much coaching going on at the club – like other clubs at the time there was no proper coach but older and senior members advised the others on what they knew about. Then at school one afternoon the principal PE teacher asked him to take the senior girls for relay practice. There were annual sports for the Junior Secondaries in the area (he taught in Calder Street, St Mark’s JS and Dennistoun JS) and their school was always invited into the meeting. (At that time secondary education in Scotland was divided into Junior and Senior Secondary Schools, with the pupils being segregated at the age of 12) To teach relays, he needed a track and he made a rough track on the ash football field for this team of 14/15 year olds. Came the sports, they won the relay and several other medals: they enjoyed it and he did too but he still thought of himself as a football coach. The girls then asked him if they could carry on with athletics when they left school. He looked around and the only option was Maryhill Harriers Athletic Club and he took them there – the only transport being his own small car. After a few weeks, Tom Williamson at the club asked him to help – after all he was a PE teacher! Then Tom and May Williamson set up their own club, Glasgow Western LAC and John was left with the rump of a club, only half a dozen girls who wanted to keep going. And so Maryhill Ladies AC was set up – you can read about the club and its progress at
http://scottishdistancerunninghistory.co.uk/Maryhill%20Ladies%20AC.htm
Many in Scottish athletics have stories about John at this time – for instance Helen Donald tells of the time she was running in the WAAA’s championships at Crystal Palace and, coming off the last bend in third place was encouraged by John, who was there with his Maryhill athletes, roaring her on and wearing his kilt! Anyway, Maryhill Ladies AC took off and his initial goal of ‘best club in Scotland in three years’ was achieved – use the link and see how well they did.
Never a man to stand still and let inertia govern his conduct as so many do, he contacted his colleagues in other schools and asked them to send along any talented girls that they had and, while they were at it, to send along their parents as well! They were all used and the parents who were helping with the coaching and training of the girls, used to attend classes that he held at his Mum’s house on Sundays He always wanted to know more, and attended a summer school at Loughborough College. In an attempt to test himself, he decided to take all the Senior Coach awards that were available. This was a mammoth undertaking and I cannot imagine any coach doing it today: in fact I have only ever heard of John and Wilf attempting it. He did this – as did Wilf Paish – and then when he heard that new post had been created, that of a peripatetic national coach in England and Wales, he applied. He was given the job and travelled the length and breadth of England and Wales coaching and working with coaches. He even collected some athletes who had no access to coaching or who needed help. This was when there was no national TV, no emails, no mobile phones and communication sometimes took a long time. There was in many clubs no scientific basis for what they were doing – they were doing what their predecessors had done for donkey’s years. He didn’t like that idea. So he started reading again – back to the Mitchell Library, and he wrote to people and sometimes there was a long time for a reply because he was dependent on the postal service.
Then he discovered Geoff Dyson’s book, “The Mechanics Of Athletics” with its scientific approach to the body, information that wouldn’t change , that was scientifically and mathematically based. As he says, his coaching went from being hopeful to being scientific. Later he found Tim Noakes and his work was also assimilated into the training process. Already a voracious reader, he continued to be so despite the increasing levels of success that his athletes had. If he was going to coach somebody then he had to have a scientific basis for what he was going to do or he would not do it. That has not changed – all training has to have a scientific underpinning.
It was at this point that he was asked to do some coaching with the Glasgow High Kelvinside RFC by a rugby friend who was also into athletics. John did some work with them but it was mainly sprints and speed development. The sessions are still remembered by some of those who took part – one chap recalls doing pre-season training on the big pitch at Old Anniesland. Rumour hath it that they disagreed over what constituted a warm-up! The sessions were hard work as Kenny Hamilton, now director of rugby at Glasgow Hawks recalls “3!… 2!…. 1! – I remember him well. A fair amount of resistance-running – possibly the first I experienced which used tyres. I seem to remember a conversation about stretching He was very enthusiastic about stretching muscles – a comparatively foreign concept in rugby circles in those days. He was delivering a talk some place and was asked about how long each stretch should be held for ……. “8 seconds he replied” This then became a bit of a standard but he quietly admitted that there was absolutely no science behind it! However, I can confirm that we were all bloody fit that year, except Cammy!” Cammy Little who was a very good rugby player (he was one of Glasgow’s first contracted players and also played for the Barbarians) says he missed the sessions as it was summer and he played cricket: an old tactic that worked a treat!! John says he was not really a rugby man but it’s funny how these things go around: he is now living near Leicester and since the Chief Exec is a friend he goes along to see the Tigers play and in 2012 even went to Twickenhan to see the Scottish match. He also admits that he has done some work with the Leicester Academy boys and focused on sprinting.
Hugh Barrow and Duncan Middleton training with Cameron McNeish in the foreground
The only thing that he reckons might be queried is whether his interpretation of what their (Dyson and company’s) work had been, was fair. In response to that he can only look at the results of his work with various athletes. With 5 world record holders and 170 GB internationals then there can be a fair assumption that his interpretations have been appropriate. He always measures every coach on the basis of their output. Not if they have only ever had one outstanding athlete – anybody might have an outstanding talent simply by chance – but have there been improvements in all of the athletes that they have coached. John always had talented athletes who came to him who were improved further by his insights and methods. Among those in Scotland to benefit from his coaching were Leslie Watson, Moira Kerr, Duncan Middleton, Graeme Grant, Hugh Barrow, Hamish Telfer (a notable coach in his own right), Craig Douglas, Lindy Carruthers, and the sisters Alix and Jinty Jamieson. The set-up in Glasgow at the time was interesting in that coaches co-operated with each other and Tom Williamson and John worked together on some of the same athletes.
Of the five commonly agreed parameters used to measure an athlete, he feels that Speed is the key. Not who is fastest over 100 metres or whatever, but who has most speed in their event. A marathon runner needs stamina but once he has that then he needs speed for his race distance. This informed everything that he did with his athletes thereafter – if you are in doubt, have a look at some of the sessions noted here and found at the links. If you want to see an example of what John did with John Graham, sub 2:10 marathon man, then look at the profile at http://scottishdistancerunninghistory.co.uk/John%20Graham.htm . Here was a man, John Graham, who had all the stamina required, the move was then to develop the speed necessary to be at the very top of his chosen event. There are also comments on his training methods in the Lynne MacDougall profile at
http://www.scottishdistancerunninghistory.co.uk/Lynne%20McDougall.htm
Graeme Grant
John’s first big national post was as noted above the National Coach in England and then came the post of National Coach in Scotland which he held from 1965 until 1970. Very active, he covered every aspect of the sport in every part of the country. He was the only National Coach that I knew of who even worked with Scottish Schools squad days (the Scottish Schools tend to have their own event coaches for squad days) and was also the man responsible for organising the Annual National Coaching Convention. This was a superb innovation and brought world class coaches from all over the athletics world to speak and talk with Scottish, and indeed British, coaches on their own turf. Every aspect of the sport was covered – technical aspects, fitness and conditioning, physiological testing – and star athletes were often present too. At the end of the conference, all the papers presented were issued to those in attendance in spiral bound booklet form for further study and for dissemination within the clubs across the land. Wherever he was, he was approachable. The coaches were all on side. He also spoke to other conferences and at one he met the Rangers FC manager Jock Wallace. Many years later when Jock was manager at Leicester City FC and John was in Nuneaton, he asked John to come and work with him as a fitness coach. He was also approached for advice by a young player called Gary Lineker. He turned the job offer down but it is one of these intriguing questions – “But what if he hadn’t/”
Then he had the sessions with athletes. For instance the lunchtime sessions at Glasgow University’s ground at Westerlands were legendary with many of the very best in the country training there. The half milers Mike McLean, Graeme Grant and Dick Hodelet were there as was Hugh Barrow from Victoria Park; distance men such as Lachie Stewart were also attendees at the lunchtime training. Runners really went out of their way to attend. The routine, as described by Hugh Barrow, was:
Blue train from town; Warm-up jog out pavilion across grass; about 40 minutes max eyeballs out reps [8 300s or (6 600s) or …] ;
No warm down shower; Back on blue train to office. It was there that I first spoke to John – I had gone along to see what this session that was spoken of was about and like everybody else was very impressed.
Hugh, who had been coached for the previous eight years by Johnny Stirling at Victoria Park, switched coaches and began to train with John from 1966. He had been AAA’s Junior One Mile champion, and was the world 16 year old mile record holder which was only broken by Jim Ryun and trained as noted with some of the best half-milers the country has produced under John’s guidance at Westerlands at lunchtime, as well as at the club. John travelled a lot – unlike some National coaches. I once formulated the theory that one particular national coach’s car always broke down at Ingliston – and a lot of his communication was done by letter. An example of this is a letter sent to Hugh in 1970, reproduced below.
The second half with the more personal correspondence is omitted but this does show the detail that he sent the runners, even at that relatively early stage in his career. His first ever GB runner came from this period: it was Hugh Baillie of Bellahouston Harriers who had that distinction when he ran in the 4 x 440 yards relay.
I mentioned earlier that he worked with the Scottish Schools on their squad training days and he brought the very best of coaches with him. For instance to one such day that he was organising at Scotstoun, he had Alex Naylor, Eddie Taylor, Sandy Ewen and professional runner Michael Glen, plus from England and from the ranks of the best athletes, there were Vic Mitchell, Mike Lindsay, Peter Warden and Menzies Campbell with athletes such as Graeme Grant, Hugh Barrow, Sandy Robertson and Don Halliday as ‘coaching assistants.’ That is by any standards a remarkable line-up. To have it for Schools athletes shows the priority given to appropriate development of young athletes.
John left the post of National Coach in 1970 to become Direction of Physical Education at Heriot-Watt University. The job came up and it was a case of ‘take it or leave it.’ Always up for a new challenge, John took it on and his successor as National Coach was Frank Dick. The year of course was Commonwealth Games year and Willie Robertson (a well-known Highland Games ‘heavy’ athlete) has this tale: He had entered the Kinlochleven Highland Games in 1970. After deciding to go and throw at these Games he came to the conclusion that it would be good to do some walking in the Highlands at the same time. So he set off up the West Highland Way and recalls what happened as follows: “Great weather, made good progress. I camped at the top of Glencoe and I was flooded out during the night. It rained non-stop for three days. I was forced to take bed and breakfast in Kinlochleven and abandon the tent. Day of the Games, it was still raining. Realised the whole trip was a mistake. Then along came a coach with a large part of the Australian track and field team in it. They were a great set of lads. A couple took part in the heavy events. Their chaperon was John Anderson. Had a great time and cadged a lift home. The coach passed my home village of Kirkliston.”
John’s coaching career was really taking off and when I checked some figures with John he confirmed that he had indeed coached over 170 GB athletes as Wiki had said. A look at some of them would be very informative.
John with David and Linda Moorcroft, 1982
The athlete with which he is most associated in the minds of many is David Moorcroft. On a visit to see Sheila Carey at Coventry he had been asked to have a look at the young boys training and one of them was David Moorcroft. The coach and physiotherapist at Coventry Godiva was Mick Crosfield who had to leave to concentrate on his business. John had a phone call from Bob Moorcroft, David’s Dad, who asked if he would provide schedules for David to work to but John thought that he would have to know the athlete better. He was then invited to stay with the Moorcroft family when he next went to see Sheila. His involvement with David started in 1966. It was a partnership which would lead to a world record for 5000m in 1982 and even a vets world record for the Mile of 4:02 in 1993. David was a wonderful athlete and great role model for any athlete. I heard him saying at a small seminar at Meadowbank in the mid 1990’s lthat they worked together so well and for so long that you could sit them in different dressing rooms, ask them to write a schedule for the next year and they would come up with almost identical programmes. You can read of David’s association with John and his progress in the British Milers Club magazine for Spring 1999 at
When David started to work on his running with John as coach, John was already coaching another Coventry runner who was very good indeed but whose name seems to have fallen from view. She was Sheila Carey – a top class 800/1500/3000m runner who competed in two Olympics (1968 and 1972 in Munich where she set a new GB record for the 1500m), helped set a world 4 x 400m relay record at the Edinburgh Games in 1970. John had met her at a training camp in Font Romeu when he was there with a GB team. One afternoon he decided to take the men, for whom he was mainly responsible, up higher to a plateau where they could do some training. He saw a woman climbing up with them – she was Sheila Taylor and then, on the way home, she asked John if he would coach her. He was living in Hamilton at the time, she was in Coventry. She was quite clear and determined and so the partnership was formed. She ran in the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games in 1970 where she was one of the fallers at the end of the women’s 800m and was unplaced.
The story of the selection for Mexico in 1972 is interesting. The selection for the Olympics was the AAA’s Championship. Sheila wasn’t well on the day and failed to qualify. The first two were selected and John had a phone call the following week. he was told that there was to be a run-off for the third 800m place between Ann Smith, trained by Gordon Pirie in New Zealand and the third placer in the AAA’s. Sheila would be part of rest of the field. John had other plans and on the day of the race he told her that she was going to win and go to the Olympics. Tactics were simple – John would wait at a particular spot on the trackside and when he shouted to her to go, she was to really go for it all the way to the finish. She responded really well, left the other two in her wake and won. She went to Mexico. It is a little known fact that John spent some time coaching blind athletes, and Sheila went on to teach in a school for the blind where she also became involved in coaching blind athletes. Still running as a V65, see her recent profile at http://www.thepowerof10.info/athletes/profile.aspx?athleteid=1967 , Sheila was one of the Olympic torch-bearers in Warwick in 2012.
All the way through the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s, John was coaching some of the best athletes in the country – and by the country, I mean Britain. The decade started with Sheila Carey doing very well and David Moorcroft was outstanding. David competed in three Olympic Games (1976, 1980 and 1984); in 1978 he won Gold in the Commonwealth 1500m and four weeks later, was third in the Europeans. You can get the whole story of his career and training at the BMC link above. In 1982, however, came his finest moment. He broke the existing world record for the 5000m with 13:01.44 and he did so without the use of pace makers: at the Bislett Games in Oslo he simply ran away from the field. There’s a nice video clip of the last 1000m at
It was the last time that world record was broken by someone other and African. He also won gold in Brisbane at the Commonwealth Games and set a British and European 3000m record of 7:32.39.
* Liz McColgan won silver at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul
* John Graham trained with him from 1982 to 1987 which included a second in Rotterdam in 1985 in 2:09:58, 2:10:57 when finishing fifth in New York in 1983 and two Commonwealth Games fourth places.
* Judy Simpson won bronze in the 1986 European Games pentathlon and competed in three Olympic Games in 1982, 1986 and 1990, although her top achievement was winning gold in the Commonwealth Games at Edinburgh in 1986..
* Glasgow’s Lynne MacDougall ran in the Olympic 1500m Final in Los Angeles 1984 the high spot of a career of top class running including European Indoor Championships in 1984 and 1990, Commonwealth Games in 1986 and 1990, and with a range of personal bests ranging from 2:01.1 for 800m in 1984 right up to 2:36:29 for the marathon in 2002.
* David Jenkins 4 x 400 silver in Olympics in 1972,silver in Europeans in 1974, USA 400m champion in 1975, Commonwealth gold in 1978. His 1971 victory in the European Championships at the age of 19 was quite superb.
* David Wilson: Hurdler and High Jumper who took part in the 1972 Olympics as a sprint hurdler, in the 1970 Commonewealth Games as a high jumper and in the European indoors as a high jumper. He had personal bests of HJ 2:05, LJ 6.90, TJ 13.15, PV 3.30, Discus 36.64, 60mH 7.9, 110H 14.0 but never competed in a decathlon as far as I can discover.
* He coached John Robson for a time and there were so many more, one of the most interesting being
* David Bedford who asked John to coach him. David had just run in the European Championships in Helsinki where, after leading right up to the last lap, he was destroyed by a 54 second last lap by Juha Vaatainen and then finished sixth. Video of the last two laps can be found on youtube at this link – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfm_lTSOjhI . John had been there with David Jenkins and they met there. The following week John came along to Meadowbank to do his coaching when he saw this tall, thin chap in red socks jogging round the track. Recognising him, he asked what he was doing there and Bedford replied that he was what had brought him – he wanted John to coach him. They reached an agreement and worked together for many years. When he came up to Edinburgh David stayed with one of John’s runners, Dave Hislop and the partnership worked both athletically and socially.
With over 170 GB athletes, there were obviously many, many more but you get the quality of the coaching from that sample. Women’s heptathlon to men’s marathon via sprints, hurdles and high jump. And with hurdler William Sharman he is still in 2013 producing champions! From Maryhill in 1960 to London in 2013 the span is heading to 55 years.If the figure in Wikipedia of 170 GB internationals is correct, it must be more than any other coach ever.
John with Liz McColgan after the Seoul 10000m in which she was second
John’s credentials as a coach are undeniable – but how well were they recognised by the administrators of the sport? Well, at the start of his career, coaches were regarded as ‘add-ons’ to the team as opposed to administrators who were essential. Coaches were taken to Games but as extras who had to be taken rather than as essential parts of the competitive team. The result was that he went to the 1968 and 1972 Games as an official consultant; he was attached to the team as a coach in 1976 and again in 1980 he was ‘attached’ to the UK team, and he was an official attachment to the team in 1984 and 1988, and again in 1992. So – seven Games as part of the team, regardless of the title bestowed by the powers that were. But he was properly recognised when in 1988 he was inducted into the UK Coaching Hall of Fame and he also received the Mussabini Medal. The Hall of Fame is almost self-explanatory but the Mussabini Medal (named of course after Sam Mussabini who coached Harold Abrahams to Olympic gold. I quote from Wikipedia:
The Mussabini Medal celebrated “the contribution of coaches of UK performers who have achieved outstanding success on the world stage.” Along with the Mussabini Medal, there also existed The Dyson Award, for “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.
The Mussabini Medal was introduced in conjunction with the launch of the Coaching Hall of Fame. The medal and associated awards were launched to raise the profile of coaches, and increase the financial backing to enhance the profession, still seen at the time as a largely amateur vocation in spite of Mussabini’s pioneering example. Speaking at the inaugural presentation the patron of the Foundation the Princess Royal stated that “Coaching and the work of individual coaches lies at the heart of sport, Yet all too often the role and contribution of the coach remains unrecognised and unacknowledged.”
Quite an honour.
That would be more than enough for any man, but there was so much more to John than that. For instance, he was an agent with connections all over the athletics world and used these connections to the benefit of his, and other, athletes. He was also influential in the promotion of events. The Princes Street Mile races in Edinburgh for instance –
in the early 1990’s utilised John’s expertise in persuading world class competitors to take part for the first race of the series. Runners that he persuaded to come along included Fermin Cacho, Steve Cram, Jens Peter Herold, William Tanui, David Kibet, Jim Spivey for the Men’s Mile and Hasib Boulmerka, Ellie van Langen, Kirsty Wade, Doina Melinte, Yvonne Murray and Sonia O’Sullivan for the women’s race. A quality not really equalled in any of the following years. Then there were the training days, squad training sessions and many other occasions when his help was requested. And then of course there was ‘The Gladiators.’
He was even at one point an agent getting the appropriate races for his athletes. This was at the time when he was coaching Liz McColgan. It was difficult at times getting the appropriate races to fit into their carefully planned programmes, and some of the agents were out for themselves rather than for the athletes, so he offered to act as their agent, free of charge, and find them the appropriate competition. It did work rather well for his charges.
Then there was ‘the day job’. After the Heriot Watt Director of Physical Education, he moved to Nuneaton as Deputy Chief Liaison and Recreation Officer where he soon moved up to be Chief Leisure and Recreation Officer before finally ending up as Director of Leisure Services in London with a staff of 600 to supervise.
He was never still. And he thrived on it. Many coaches only ever have one national standard athlete or one Olympian in their charge, many very good coaches never have either but John held down a series of demanding jobs while coaching athletes to the highest honours and performing the many other associated functions noted above.
He was at that time working in the South of England and he received a phone call from a TV company who were going to do a Game Show programme involving big, strong muscle men and they needed somebody who was an expert in tests and measurements. He was invited to come to Woolwich Barracks in London to help sort them out. If they passed the tests then they were to report to the producer. When he reported there were lots of muscles on display. All the men were body builders but none of the women were – they were all dancers, gymnasts and so on. He sorted them out and the word ‘Gladiators’ never came up and he didn’t know what he was sorting them out for. The producer was Nigel Lithgoe, treated with all due deference by everybody but John was curious to see how they were going to be selected for the actual show. He then encouraged Nigel to include one big guy in particular. Originally doubtful, he did include the ‘big guy’ as a reserve. The big guy turned out to be Wolf (pictured above)who became the most popular of them all. John was then invited to come down as Director of Training. He went down knowing nothing about the show and then Nigel asked him to be referee as well. John accepted the job and that was the start of it. The show was an instant and mammoth hit. John had no small part to play in it: his “Gladiators ready” and famous countdown 3-2-1 were so successful that they were copied by the American version which was the original and biggest Gladiator show. Another favourite member of the team was Nightshade – one of his own athletes, heptathlete Judy Simpson – mentioned above. There is a profile of him in his role as Gladiators referee at
The two comments below the article read as follows: “Back in the 90′s hey day of Gladiators, I was a working at the Pizza Express in Brindley Place, Birmingham, next door to the NIA where Gladiators was filmed. For several weeks every year, the paths outside were thronged with foam handed punters, and we often saw the Gladiators themselves walking past. Wolf even belied his image and would wave and smile at the kids. But the man himself, John Anderson was a regular customer. He would always come in by himself, and sit at table 13 and order two garlic breads for starters, and then a pizza. He was a really nice guy, and would happily sign autographs for the kids. Probably the nicest minor celebrity I met while working there, although it could be a tie between him and Bob Holness.” was the first and the second contrasts this with his on-screen appearance and reputation. It reads “The wimp ref Sky employed was awful. We nicknamed him ‘dad ref’ because ‘Gladiators Ready!?’ sounded more like ‘dinners ready.’ ” which clearly indicates that John was just a bit tougher than the US original!
There was even a set of toy gladiators produced with a six inch John Anderson figure: a toy firm called Character Options made and sold sets of the Gladiator characters – and of course there had to be one of John as well.
And the script read: ‘One of the Gladiators 6″ Action Figures to collect from the hit show on Sky1. This pack contains John Anderson 6″ action figure with Whistle and Stopwatch. “Contender READY”, “Gladiator READY” are words that can only be uttered by one man. John Anderson is the man behind the whistle, in charge of keeping the Gladiators and contenders in check as well as preparing them for the challenges they face!’
Manufactured by Character Options
Into the twenty first century and John was still operating at a very high level indeed: a couple of examples. As part of the ‘Flying Coaches’ with other coaches and athletes such as Paul Evans for instance. What were the Flying Coaches? They explain their set up like this –
“Who are the Flying Coaches?
A range of coaches have been identified on the basis of their experience and expertise in technical events. The Flying Coach Programme has seen the likes of former Chicago Marathon winner Paul Evans and World Champion coach John Anderson visiting clubs. Coaches interested in becoming ‘Flying Coaches’ should contact their area Club and Coach Support Officer to register interest.
What might a Flying Coach visit involve?While it is expected that the focus of the majority of Flying Coach visits will be the technical development of coaches, clubs are encouraged to address other areas of coach development using the Flying Coach scheme, such as:
- Strength & Conditioning
- Fundamental Movement Skills
- Planning and Periodisation
- Communication Skills
- Sport Psychology
Flying Coach Programme: Disability
Wheelchair Racing: An introduction to basic push technique, chair set up and training programmes.
Seated throws: Advice and guidance on seated throws, including throwing frames, tie downs and fixings.
Coaching blind or visually impaired athletes: Advice and guidance on supporting blind or visually impaired athletes, to include guide running and competition pathways.
Coaching deaf or hearing impaired athletes: Advice and guidance on coaching deaf and hearing impaired athletes. To include information on effective communication, technology, Deaf UK Athletics and competition pathways.
Coaching athletes with a learning disability: Advice and guidance on coaching athletes with a learning disability. To include information on Mencap, Special Olympics and competition pathways.
Other impairment specific visits: Advice and guidance on coaching athletes with a specific impairment (Cerebral Palsy, amputees etc). To include information on National Disability Sports Organisations and competition pathways.
So it is not an easy option to follow for the coach – the last section is interesting with our prior knowledge of his work with blind athletes.
John in Cornwall, 2011
In August 2011 for instance he travelled to Cornwall with Tom McNab and Alan Launder to work with the local Cornwall AC for what seems to have been really successful event. There are links at the Cornwall site to two of John’s PowerPoint presentations. The first is called “Most can run, many can race, few win!” and the second is entitled “Preparation/Rehearsal for Sprints”. While they are incomplete without John’s presentation, the headings are enough to make most people think a bit. You can get them at
http://www.cornwallac.org.uk/content/NewsDetails.asp?ID=551
– the links are just below the first picture of the three coaches!
As we said above he is still coaching a small number of top class athletes but he is not yet easing himself into retirement as a coach.
Success at the level he has enjoyed didn’t alter the fact that he was a coach who worked with athletes of all abilities. With his personality and ability he would have been a success in any walk of life: we are fortunate that he chose athletics.
Tributes to John are many but I have some on a separate page which you can reach from this link. Below is the latest photograph we have of John – received in May 2018
There is an excellent article on John on the Playing Pasts website at
Robert Anderson
When it comes to hard working clubmen, Cambuslang’s Robert Anderson has few equals. The living embodiment of the “You do what your club needs you to do” philosophy, he has served as athlete, official, administrator, recruiting sergeant and anything else that required some action. I was told once when I asked where a new club member had come from that Big Robert had signed him up when he was on holiday in the Highlands, and the information was quickly followed by “Don’t laugh, we’ve got three members in Barra from the time he went there!” As a runner he was very good but as Percy Cerutty once said of one of his stars, “He might run faster, but he doesn’t run harder than me.” Robert always ran hard, none of the stars who ran for the club ever ran harder. And yet despite all the stories, he remains friendly and affable – the only time he ever ignores anyone is when Cambuslang is racing and he has a man to shout on. He was profiled in a magazine in the 1980’s but I didn’t recognise the picture painted. The following profile is a tribute to an excellent club man and a lot of help was receibed from Dave Cooney, Cambuslang Harriers team manager for over two decades (and counting!).
Born on 12th February, 1947, Robert joined the club in 1963 at the age of fifteen and has had 50 years in the club. Given what has been said above it might be best to look at his involvement in the various areas in which he has functioned.
AS A RUNNER
It should be noted that Robert worked for many years delivering coal for the family business, even on a Saturday morning before competing later in the day – hardly the ideal preparation. It did however make him stronger than almost all of the opposition. His first individual medal was in 1965 when he was second in the Midland District Youths Cross-Country Championship. The first six were Eddie Knox of Springburn, Robert, Colin Martin of Dumbarton, R Colvin of Springburn, Alistair Johnstone of Victoria Park and Martin Mahon of Shettleston. He was in very good company indeed! He went on in the same season to be ninth in the Youths National. Eddie Knox won that one too with John Fairgrieve (EAC) second and Colin Martin third. Finishing in the top ten was nevertheless a noteworthy achievement with several good runners left behind – eg Alistair Johnston was twelfth n this one. Probably needless to say but he won the Cambuslang Youth championship that year and also won the Junior title. In fact his run of club senior titles took in Senior victories in 1968, ’70, ‘ 71, ’72 and ’73. He continued running in the National – and County and District Championships until the 1990’s and then went on to run in the veterans championships. The 60’s were a good decade for Robert and he also competed on the hills well enough to win the tough Ben Lomond Race 1967 and 1968. On the track he ran 6 Miles in 31:43.0 to be ranked 25th Scot in 1968.
Of course the biggest event for endurance runners in winter, other than the national, was the Edinburgh to Glasgow eight man relay. Robert ran in this for the first time in 1970 when the club ran an incomplete team, turning out on the hard sixth stage. The club missed out in ’71 but were back in ’72 when their twelfth place was good enough to win them the medals for the Most Meritorious unplaced performance. Robert ran on the sixth stage again. He ran on the eighth stage in ’73 pulling the team up one place. Back on the long stage again in ’74, he kept the club in 17th position with another solid run. ’75 saw him again on the sixth stage but in ’76 Robert was on the third stage where he picked up one place. The talk that day was all of John Robson who, when running the third stage stopped altogether and reportedly threw away the baton. No fear of that with Robert who would always do his very best for the club. In ’77 he was again on the final stage for the team which finished eleventh. In ’78 the team finished sixth and Robert was on the seventh leg for a team which was getting stronger all the time with Rod Stone, Colin Donnelly and the Rimmer brothers wearing the colours. ’79 saw the team further strengthened by the addition of Eddie Stewart and improvement to fifth – it was Robert on the seventh stage who picked up from sixth to fifth. Missing ’80, when the team was second, and ’81, he was back on E-G duty in ’82 when the team, minus the Rimmers and Rod Stone but with Eddie Stewart and new man Alex Gilmour formed the backbone, Robert ran the final stage to bring the club home in tenth. That was to be his final run for the club in the Edinburgh to Glasgow but it had a noble stint on behalf of the club.
On the country in the 70’s he was a member of the first Cambuslang team to win a District team medal when they were third in 1976 behind Shettleston and Victoria Park and two years later he won the Lanarkshire County 10 Mile Road Running Championship.
So he was adept at cross-country and road running, then there was track running where in the 1980’s he returned to the Scottish ranking lists for the first time since that 6 miles in 1968. This time it was in the steeplechase where h recorded times of 9:59.1 in 1980, 9:54.1 in ’81 and 9:53.1 in 1982. The ’80’s were in general another good decade for Robert. In 1981 he was a member of the team that took bronze in the Scottish 4 man cross-country championship running first in a team with Lynch, Stone and Stewart. Incidentally the Young Athletes team of Sam Wallace, Pat Morris and David McShane won their race. Becoming a vet in February 1987, he was a member of the Cambuslang team that was second in the Scottish vets cross-country championships in 1988 and again in 1989. Unfortunately from 1990 he suffered increasingly from niggles and injuries that curtailed what running and training he could do. They were beginning to take their toll and although he kept on running an turning out for the club, his last notable race was when he was National M65 cross-country championships in 2013. It was a long career as a runner an he is probably not finished with the vets scene even yet … the latest open race result I have seen is for the Cairnpapple Hill Race in 2012 when he was first M65 and 35th overall.
Robert, third from the left, unusually for him, in the background
AS A COACH
It used to be a common thing to go to any club on a training night and see older runners standing with a group of younger athletes getting practical advice from his experience. It’s not such a common sight any more and the sport is the poorer for it. Robert was an excellent role model for youngsters – he had run on the road, over the country, up and down the hills and on the track, all with some success. How does he rate as a coach? Well, first and foremost he is dependable. It does not matter if an athlete misses a session, or even two, over the winter. If a coach misses one it is a cardinal sin. Robert would be an ever present. Mike Johnston of course is currently top man and there is a great deal of assistance from Owen Reid and Jim Orr.
His approach is said by a clubmate to be a demanding one but he leads by example. His two maxims are “There is no such thing as pain” and “You can always find time to train if you want to.” The first is maybe a bit overstated but there is no doubt about the truth of the second. Has he been successful? Over the years he has helped to coach and mentor many Scottish individual and team medallists and has contributed greatly to the national success which Cambuslang has enjoyed since 1979 when the Under 13 team won bronze medals in the Scottish Cross-Country Championships. Let’s just list them:
U13 Boys Scottish Cross Country Champions 1992 -96 (runner up by 1 point in 97), 98 – 2000, 2006 and 2013 when his grandson Drew Pollock was a counting member.
U15 Boys Scottish Cross Country Champions 1979, 1992 – 96, 2002, 2005 and 2008.
U17 Boys Scottish Cross Country Champions 1982-85, 1991 -93, 1995 and 96, 2003 and 09.
U20 Boys Scottish Cross Country Champions 1983-85, 1987, 2000, 2002 and 03 and 2013
Senior Men Cross Country Champions 1998 -1995, 1997-2000, 2003 and 2004, 2006 and 2008.
AT Mays Trophy for the Best Male Club at the Scottish Cross Country Championships
Inaugural winners in 1989, 1991- 97, 1999-2006, 2012 and 2013.
Cambuslang has won the trophy on 18 out of 25 occasions.
That is quite a formidable list of medals. Although others did their share of the work, Robert is almost certainly the main driving force.
AS A RECRUITING OFFICER
Robert is famous as a recruiting sergeant for his club. Always on the lookout for new members, he will often just stop runners in the street and ask them if they are interested in joining Cambuslang. Over the years he has been responsible for attracting many new athletes to the club – names such as David Cooney (team manager now for well over a decade), the best known duo in the club of Alex Gilmour and Eddie Stewart, Scottish internationalist Jim Orr who was better than he himself thought he was, hill runner Colin Donnelly, the brothers Joe and Kevin Kealy and Mark McBeth. Involved in the local primary and secondary schools, he was quick to latch on to the new phenomenon of parkruns and now gives out club leaflets at these events held in Glasgow every Saturday morning.
AS A COMMITTEE MEMBER
Inevitably a clubman such as Robert has done more than his share at Committee level and in organising social events, away weekend training expeditions, club relays, Christmas handicaps. He even has a role that not many know about as a GROUNDSMAN, mapping out and maintaining two grass tracks in the summer nights on the rugby pitches at the club since there are no local track facilities available.
Robert on the left at a team mate’s wedding
It was mentioned above that in May 1988 “Scotland’s Runner” published a club profile of Cambuslang Harriers and included in it was a pen portrait of Robert Anderson. This extract says a lot about him.
“He lives, eats, breathes and drinks the sport. As a promising youngster in the club in the 1960’s he would spend a hard morning carrying coal sacks up closes on a Saturday morning, finishing work well after one o’clock, before rushing off to a race at a time when Cambuslang had little hopes of any real success. Like many traditional harriers, he is now suffering the injurious effects of more than 25 years in the sport – many of them spent pounding the pavements in inadequate footwear, something that many youngsters tend to forget in these days of hi-tech footwear.
‘I still manage about 35 miles a week. More than that and I seem to get injured. Who knows, maybe next year … ?’ he says wistfully. But despite the seemingly constant injuries, he has managed a run every day this year.
Anderson never gives up. A current Member of Parliament (and Cambuslang Harrier) claims that Robert gave him the hardest run of his life. It was the day after the Mamore Hill race when a Cambuslang pack, under Robert Anderson’s guidance decided to do a 90 minute run through the mountains. Robert had the watch. But, being a ruthless coach, he stopped the watch each time any of the hungover lads was compelled to visit the bushes. Unfortunately, being hungover himself, he got the timing wrong. All too soon Robert was starting the watch whenever anyone had a call of nature and stopping it whenever the pack actually started running. A massive commitment to the Scottish mountains had been made before the dreadful truth emerged … the denouement involved two hours more than scheduled and a chest high fording of a mountain current. They still talk about it at Cambuslang (in hushed tones) with the sort of admiring horror that every true harrier reserves for those killing days when, somehow against all the odds, you make it home.
Yet the Robert Andersons of this world claim that it was all part of their master plan to take the club on to winning the Scottish Senior Cross-Country title four years later. Without them, our sport would drop dead.”
To finish with a heartfelt tribute, John Wilson who has known Robert for decades and remembers when he first started at the club pays him this compliment:
I joined the club as a boy in the 60’s. Though this period the club’s fortunes waxed and waned as football was the predominant sport in the area and a constant drain on younger members. Often it was Robert’s due diligence alone (chasing everyone up, making travel arrangements and even paying fares to get kids to events!) that kept the club going and being represented at events.
The older stalwarts were invariably injured (Andy Fleming, Willie Kelly) and Gordon Eadie tended to train on his own. For most of the decade Robert did not have consistent club competition or training partners at his level. Charlie Jarvie was about the same as Robert but he and others moved away, Davie Lang and George Skinner made guest appearances on some club nights but in the main Robert was left to train with boys, youths and juniors.
To get some quality training Robert started to attend the Tuesday session at Shettleston Harriers (which was often a fast 10 mile with Bill Scally, Henry Summerhill, Dick Wedlock). Our own club nights were Monday and Thursday and on one miserable winter’s night I went to the club and I was the only one there! We had had several weeks of numbers dropping off and the fear was the club would just simply fold. On the Wednesday Robert told me he was thinking of joining Shettleston.
Firstly had he joined Shettleston Harriers (this was around 1969/70) with the undoubted step up in high quality training, Robert would have fulfilled his potential and become an even better runner and secondly , in my view, Cambuslang Harriers would have ceased as a club as the members had dispersed and Robert was the main driving force to get people out at club nights and into running events. (As well as driving the training sessions)
Following his decision not to join Shettleston, Robert seemed to launch himself into an out and out recruitment mode targeting lapsed members, schools, and anyone he saw running in the area. Obviously he kept this practice going. In those days there was nothing to suggest Cambuslang Harriers would ever attain the success it has done. Robert was the driving force at the clubs most critical time and there is no doubt he sacrificed his own running development to ensure the continuity of Cambuslang Harriers.
I asked Robert to complete the questionnaire – unusual for this section – because I felt he would add a lot to the profile himself. The replies are below
Name: Robert Anderson
Club: Ronhill Cambuslang
Date of Birth: 12:02:1947
Occupation: Owner/Driver HGV (Retired.)
Personal Best Times: 800m 2:00; 1500m 4:04; 3000m 8:42; 5000m 15:27; 10000m 32:25
How did you get involved in the sport initially: School sports.
Has any individual or group had a marked influence on either your attitude to the sport or your performances? First Coach – Andy Fleming
Can you describe your general attitude to the sport? I love the sport but find young ones now do not want to put enough time or work into it.
What do you consider your best ever performances? 28th October 1967 in the Midland District Relays. I ran on the third leg and brought the team from eleventh to fourth – 33 seconds faster than Gordon Eadie who was going really well at the time.
What goals did you have that remain unachieved? Since the late 1960s, my ambitions have all been club based. I do not think there is anything left to win. We have had individual champions in every age group (male) and have won every team title. I would like to go back to proper coaching but no one is at present prepared to take the kids coming in the door. My wins with your help as coach:
Junior Men (Under 20): 1983, ’84, ’85, ’87. Youth (Under 17): 1982, ’83, ’84, ’85. Junior Boys (Under 13): 1992, ’93, ’94, ’95, ’96, (1997 second by one point to Law), ’98, ’99
***
Thanks, Robert – a lot of the Scottish athletics fraternity would agree heartily with your comments about the present generation and their attitudes. I reckon this is true of new athletes in all age groups. Keep up the good work!
.
James P Shields
“Jim was one of the four pillars of the club with Andy McMillan, Dan McDonald and John Morgan” (Alex Hylan)
Jim Shields in the centre
Jim is in the dead centre of this photograph taken in the late 1930’s in the basement of the Bruce Street Baths in Clydebank. behind and to the left of Little Johnny Morgan. Jim did not appear in many portrait pictures or photographs where he was the main focus, but he was always there and always in the background. Never a seeker of the limelight, he was one of the best and hardest workers in Scottish athletics at a time when it was blessed with hard working officials. He is included here partly because of that but also because his time in the sport covered the immediate pre-war period when numbers in all clubs were low and Committees had to work hard to keep the clubs going, and the post-war period when the sport was starting up again, and on through to the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh and beyond. His career is a kind of chronicle of the sport for that period.
Jim Shields joined Clydesdale Harriers in the 1930’s and was one of the men who kept the club ticking over during the hostilities. He started as an office bearer during the war when he was club assistant secretary in 1939, after the war he was treasurer from 1946, and finally secretary from 1967. You will note that both were serious working positions in the club and to my mind it was unfortunate that he did not ever occupy the position of club President. His brother Arthur was also an office bearer in the club
Jim was also one of the best and best known officials and administrators at National level in Scottish athletics. He officiated at local meetings, Championships, international fixtures and at the Commonwealth Games. As an administrator he would surely have been President of the SAAA had his job not sent him abroad when he was Vice President of the Scottish Amateur Athletics Association where he had also served on many sub committees. A lot of his correspondence, notebooks and some commemorative medals are included in the Clydesdale Harriers archive in the Clydebank Public Library which will soon be available to the public.
Having been a committee member before the war he first held high office in the club when he was elected secretary in 1944 and at the first post war AGM in September 1945 he read his first secretary’s report. In it he said “he thought the club was definitely round the corner on the way to a revival. There was now a membership of approximately 50 (excluding those in the services), about 18 of those being Juniors. Attendances at the track had been quite good and a lot more like normal times. We had managed to run a points competition for the Youths and the winner was Thomas Tait with 10 points ahead of Sam Wotherspoon on 9 points and two more on 8 points. As regards the season coming on he said the SCCA proposed a full programme of races and he hoped the club would manage to run some of the usual races and he hoped for a good turn out at training and at Saturday runs.” His career as an official would carry on from that point. More used to being treasurer he was elected to that post the following year.
Described by one of his contemporaries as ‘one who was always there, not much of a runner but always turned out to support the club’ and described by Alex Hylan as ‘a real nice man, Jim was always polite and helpful to the members.’ The club in this period were always thinking of ways to raise money and Alex, as Assistant Treasurer suggested that the club get a Co-operative Cheque Number. The Co-op had a system whereby regular shoppers had a number that they quoted when they made a purchase and received a receipt when they left the shop. At the end of the year, each member received a cash dividend depending on how much they spent and what the percentage was that year. Jim took it up with gusto. He would harangue the members to use the number for the benefit of the club. Jim Young apparently got into trouble with his Mum for using the Harriers number instead of the family number: they were short of cash too! The club made some money from the scheme though. Willie Wright bought all his training needs through the club number at the Co-op.
This picture taken just after the War shows Jim with a group of club members at Mountblow – Andy McMillan is at the left in the back row with John Morgan, who was in Burma during the War, standing on the right with Jim in the white shirt on the right of the back row. It is a remarkable photograph – taken on the spur of the moment with a simple box-camera immediately after the war with the sun shining, some of the men had been involved in the hostilities but the country had triumphed and spirits were high A contrast with the dreadful atmosphere after the first war.
Jim was the club representative on the new Dunbartonshire Amateur Athletic Association committee for many years but he was a regular and well-kent face on the National scene as well. He was the representative to the SAAA for several years and worked his way up to vice president and, as was the custom, would have been the next SAAA President when in 1961 he was sent by the Singer Factory to their plant in India. He had a very responsible position in Singer’s factory in Clydebank in the finance department. He was involved in the introduction of the Time and Motion Study System to the factory which was not a popular innovation at the time. When the Indian branch was opened up, Jim was the man who went and unfortunately missed out on the chance of the highest position in Scottish Athletics at the time. The ‘Clydebank Press’ reported “On Wednesday evening at the monthly committee meeting a little ceremony took place. Treasurer Jim Shields was present to say ‘au revoir’ to the club prior to his departure for India on behalf of the Singer Manufacturing Company for a period of possibly three years. President D Bowman in presenting him with a fountain pen as a token of esteem from club members said that Jim had served the club faithfully for 27 years. He was the perfect example of an enthusiastic club member, in his earlier days as an active club runner, for the past 17 years or so as first club secretary and then treasurer.
An additional job which he undertook was that of correspondent to the ‘Clydebank Press’ where readers will better know him as ‘The Whip’. Mr Shields in replying thanked him and the club and assured them that the Clydesdale Harriers would always take highest place in his affections. He also said that in his opinion we had one of the happiest clubs in the sport and as long as that spirit prevailed we would never fail.”
When he had successfully worked for the company in India and Iran, just like a multinational company, when he returned his job had been given to another and he was looking for work.
Jim was very quiet and never pushed himself forward but if we look at his record in it totality we get the following remarkable record of service to the club – and note that it does not include time spent as Assistant Treasurer or Assistant Secretary:
|
Year |
Office |
Year |
Office |
|
1939 |
Assistant Secretary |
1957 |
Treasurer |
|
1940 |
Secretary |
1958 |
Treasurer |
|
1941 |
Secretary |
1959 |
Treasurer |
|
1942 |
Secretary |
1960 |
Treasurer |
|
1943 |
Secretary |
1961 |
Treasurer |
|
1944 |
Secretary |
1962 |
India |
|
1945 |
Secretary |
1963 |
India |
|
1946 |
Treasurer |
1964 |
India |
|
1947 |
Treasurer |
1965 |
India |
|
1948 |
Treasurer |
1966 |
India |
|
1949 |
Treasurer |
1967 |
India |
|
1950 |
General Committee |
1968 |
Secretary |
|
1951 |
General Committee |
1969 |
Secretary |
|
1952 |
General Committee |
1970 |
Secretary |
|
1953 |
Treasurer |
1971 |
Secretary |
|
1954 |
Treasurer |
1972 |
Secretary |
|
1955 |
Treasurer |
1973 |
Secretary |
|
1956 |
Treasurer |
1974+ |
General Committee |
Almost immediately on his return he was warmly welcomed back into the club – and on to the Committee for second stint as Secretary. The lesson for all future Committee Members is maybe not to do a job too well or it’s yours for good! The War Time Committee went on to organise a series of top class events and James P Shields was involved with every one of them. When the SAAA held the international cross-country championships in Clydebank in 1969, Clydesdale Harriers was seriously involved and Jim was one of the men who helped make it so. But the club was also involved in bringing to Clydebank such events as the Scottish Schools championships, the British Schools Cross-Country Championship, the Scottish Women’s Cross-Country Championships and and the Scottish Veterans Cross-Country Championships. Jim was a lynch pin in the organisation of those.
On the track,he officiated at both Edinburgh Commonwealth Games, at several International and Invitation Meetings across Scotland and was at almost every track and field sports meeting or amateur highland games held in the country at one time or another – at many of them he was an annual fixture.
A good and conscientious club man and a superb administrator, the club was fortunate to have Jim as a member. Even after he ceased work on the Committee through illness he still came to several club races and there were also donations to the club for many years.
In the picture below, taken at Whitecrook in the 1970’s, Jim is on the right with Jimmy Young (left) and Frank Gemmell at Whitecrook running track. All three were top class officials at local and national level – Frank sorted out the cross-country trails for all the major races, including the 1969 international and officiated in the Games while Jim was club president when the Schools and other internationals came to Clydebank and also worked at the Commonwealth Games.
Raymond Hutcheson
Raymond on the right with his friend and fellow time-keeper Cecil McPherson
I first met Raymond at the SAAA Championships in 1966. We both got off the train at Grangemouth at the same time, and although we didn’t know each other we fell into conversation and made our way to the Stadium together. He had his haversack over his shoulder and I was to become familiar with the sight of Raymond with that rucksack over the years to come. We weren’t great friends, we met too seldom for that, but Raymond got on well with everybody and I was to find out in the course of many conversations of his mountaineering and hill-walking (he climbed the Munroes twice!) and railway walking – he was interested when I moved to Lochearnhead because of the many old railway lines up here. Born in 1930, he died in 2007 at the age of 77. What follows is a personal tribute from one of his closest friends and colleagues, Graham McDonald.
“My early memories of Raymond were about 1957 at Inter Club Meetings when Pitreavie AAC hosted many enjoyable friendly evening matches with Larbert AC, Tillicoultry & Hillfoots AC, St Modans AC as well as some of the Edinburgh clubs at the then very new cinder track at Pitreavie.
Raymond came through to do the timekeeping with Larbert AC where his friend Bert Allan tells me he had been a member since least 1948. Our club secretary was always pleased to see that Raymond had arrived because that solved the problem of having a good timekeeper.
However, I kept embarrassing him about one of the sprint relay races where there was a very close finish with Larbert just pipping Pitreavie. I was sure we must have beaten our club record but he had been so excited that his team won that he forgot to stop his watch on us. He kept apologising for many years.
Raymond did compete at club level for a while but became more interested in timekeeping. Although not an official SAAA timekeeper at the time, his enquiring mind soon had him questioning the accuracy of times being returned by official SAAA timekeepers at some meetings.
After he became an official SAAA timekeeper he was concerned that there were no tests or exams for timekeepers in Scotland. Raymond got himself down to England to find out how the AAA conducted their timekeepers’ tests under their timekeeping guru Harry Hathaway who had written the AAA guide to ‘Timekeeping’.
I well remember in Oct ’72 when I working down south and had been persuaded to take a timekeeping test at Motspur Park, Raymond arrived on the overnight sleeper to take the test. He had already done the test the previous year but he wanted to take it again to make sure he was keeping up to standard
With support of others, he was instrumental in starting training courses, and introducing testing and grading of timekeepers in Scotland. When timekeepers wanted to buy a good quality stopwatch, they were told by their colleagues ‘see Raymond’ and he would advise on the best watches available and arrange the purchase for them.
He was Chief Timekeeper at many on the major meetings in Scotland at Meadowbank and Kelvin Hall as well often being invited to officiate at Internationals at Crystal Palace. He officiated at the 1970 and 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.
He had become involved in organising the first Scottish Men’s T&F League in the ‘60s and tried to get a Scottish Inter Counties T&F Championships off the ground around the same time but he didn’t get much support for the latter it only lasted a couple of years.
One incident of controversy he was involved in was at Kelvin Hall when it was thought that Colin Jackson had broken the World Record for the 60m Hurdles and it was reported throughout the media. Raymond’s drive for accuracy made him re-check the photo-finish film several times which showed that Jackson had equalled the record, not broken it. BBC news bulletins later in the evening had to retract their earlier reports.
Raymond told me he received an irate phone call at home from Tony Ward after midnight.
When the early photofinish camera systems were introduced he became an expert in setting up and operating them. They were just ‘up his street ‘as it were. Being an Industrial Chemist with ICI in his working life and interested in photography he was in his element mixing up the chemicals in his white lab coat. However, the electrical connections in the system did not always work properly – not much change there – so Raymond was often heard to apply the high tech solution ‘gie it a dunt, Jim’ and that solved the problem.
One story he told against himself was when reading the time off the photo-finish film of a ladies race, he had lined up the cursor against the ladies knee until a colleague informed him where the ladies torso was. His excuse was that he was a bachelor!
The Two Bridges Race.
This was the Ultra 36 mile Road Race starting in Dunfermline’s Pittencrieff Park and routed through Fife , over Kincardine Bridge, Grangemouth, Bo’ness and back over the Forth Road Bridge finishing in Rosyth as the Civil Service Club.
This became a major annual event for Raymond. He was Chief Timekeeper from the time it started in 1968 till its untimely demise in 2005. He also measured the course each year on his bicycle to make sure check on any new road works which might have affected distances.
The map of the course given to his timekeepers gave the precise location of each point to the nearest lamp post or manhole cover.
For 38 years he organised his team of timekeepers and recorders and after each race produced a booklet of results with photographs which contained not only the finishing times of each runner but also their 5 & 10 mile splits, average pace/mile, marathon time, course record times and past winners. Every competitor and official was sent a copy.
The Two Bridges became a social event for his loyal team and the date was one of the first to be pencilled in the diary each year.
Quiet and unassuming he gained the respect of the athletes and his fellow officials. He was meticulous in every way. For instance, Colin Shields tells me that Raymond attended the Olympics in London in 1948 and he wrote down every performance of every event for every competitor including wind speeds.
Although the modern term carbon footprint would be an unfamiliar to him, he must have had one of the lowest. He travelled everywhere by public transport. Who can forget the bundle of timetables he would pull out of his rucksack.
Outside of athletics, he was an avid lover of the outdoor life and the Scottish Mountains.
The first weekend of every month was walking weekend. He had climbed all the Munro’s and later on had started walking and collating notes and details about the old abandoned railway lines.
The Sport of Athletics should be grateful for the personal dedication Raymond gave to it but for most of us I guess that the most important thing is that it was our privilege to have known him. We are all the poorer for his passing.”
That is Graham’s appreciation of and tribute to Raymond which gives a full account of his career as a timekeeper and of Raymond’s many interests. There was some extra information in the obituary in The Scotsman and I will quote some of it here. There will be some duplication, but I’ll try to keep it to a minimum.
“RAYMOND Hutcheson was a modest, unassuming Falkirk man who built a formidable reputation for his expertise, diligence and knowledge in a wide range of disciplines. His working life was spent at ICI Grangemouth, where he was an integral member of the lab team, working initially on research into dyes and pigments, and latterly on the testing, trials and development of new products.
As a teenager, Raymond’s interest in science led him to build a laboratory in the family home at Kersehill, Falkirk. There, he would conduct experiments and learned how to develop his own photographs, a skill which would later serve him well in his role as an athletics photo-finish expert.
As a teenager, Raymond’s interest in science led him to build a laboratory in the family home at Kersehill, Falkirk. There, he would conduct experiments and learned how to develop his own photographs, a skill which would later serve him well in his role as an athletics photo-finish expert.
Raymond had a passion for the outdoors. His love of the Scottish hills was deep, and at an early age he joined the Scotsman Mountaineering Club, which in time became the Ptarmigan MC, with Raymond variously acting as club secretary and archivist. He attained the status of Munroist in 1980 – an achievement all the more impressive since he never held a driving licence, travelling to the remotest corners of Scotland on foot, bicycle or public transport.
He was enthusiastic and knowledgeable about trains, and active in many train-related societies, including the Railway Ramblers, a hardy bunch whose aim is to locate and walk the routes of abandoned railway lines.
Raymond was also the first-call for road-race measurement duties, a thankless but nevertheless vital task, if race times and distances are to be accurate. He became a kenspeckle if not downright suspicious figure who was sometimes approached, or escorted, by the police in the wee small hours while undertaking these measurements on his bicycle, when the roads were quiet.
He insisted on using solid rubber tyres for this task, an uncomfortable option, but Raymond did not want his measurements compromised by inaccuracies, however minute, caused by pneumatic tyres contracting and expanding due to temperature changes.
He was chief timekeeper for the Two Bridges Ultra 36-mile road race from its inception until its demise in 2005. For 38 years he organised his team of timekeepers and recorders, and after each race he produced a booklet of results. Every competitor and official received a copy of this booklet.
In 2004 Raymond received a lifetime award for services to Scottish Athletics.
In conclusion an example of Raymond’s standing in Scottish Athletics. In the early 1980s the Tom Stillie Memorial Trophy was donated by the family of a long serving Borders official. It was to be awarded each year to the person considered to have contributed most to Scottish Athletics. The first recipient of the award was Alan Wells the Olympic 100 metres Champion. The following year it was awarded to Raymond Hutcheson.
I would like to add just a few comments of my own. The Two Bridges race was a genuine classic and it was a serious loss to Scottish athletics when it went. Runners came from all over the world – from the old world (with runners from several European countries running), from the new world (many good Americans took part too) as well as from the Antipodes and even Africa. They came from all over the British Isles and the runners from Tipton, Wakefield, Bolton and Leamington came among many others. It was also a social weekend and many lifelong friendships were made. Raymond and Graham were among those who made it so special. Raymond’s results booklet was a wonderful creation – most would never have attempted it, some might have done it for a few years, but Raymond did it year after year after year. He would remark to Graham after the race that he was away to wrap a wet towel round his head! I will put one up in its entirety as a separate Gallery accessible from the Galleries page here.
Raymond was also very approachable – there are officials who never reply to questions from runners or coaches during the afternoon, there are many more who are quite friendly and if approached in a civil manner will give them what information they can, some are notoriously irascible but Raymond was never like that. Helpful at all times – I took a new sprint coach up into the photo-finish box at Kelvin Hall so that he could see what went on there and ask for a copy of the photo of the finish of the last 60m race: the photo was produced very quickly and with a pleasant manner. That was always his way.
The 1975 Record Booklet can be seen via the Galleries page of this website.
John Morgan
John Morgan standing on the right.
Johnny Morgan, who joined Clydesdale Harriers in season 1936/37, was always easy to recognise because of his very small stature. He maybe had to look up to Harry Fenion. However his contribution was immense at a time when many such as Andy McMillan, James P Shields and David Bowman were also making big contributions. John was one of the most respected men in the club when I signed up in 1957. Like so many good club men of whatever outfit, he did some running but his main contribution to the club was as an official, an organiser and a coach – he was also the recognised club starter. The club records for the period 1936 – 1939 have him turning out in only six races. In October 1936 he was eleventh of eleven in the club Novice Championships, in October 1937 it was the same position (11th of 11), December 1937 he was twenty fourth of twenty four in the 5 Miles Handicap, on 25th December 1937 he was sixteenth of thirty in the Christmas Handicap, a year later he was fourteenth of 21 in the Christmas Handicap and in February 1939 he was sixteenth of twenty in the Seven Mile Handicap. After the war started he was tenth of fourteen in the 1940 Christmas Handicap and that was his last race until he went into the Army in 1942. What he was to do for the club and for athletics generally after the War cannot be over-estimated.
John was club secretary from 1939/40 to 1942/43 and 1946/47 to 1950/51. The two spells in office were broken by his war time service in the Army. John served in Burma with the Chindits so must have seen a lot of the action. The Chindits were the Indian Division of the British Army in World War II and carried out guerrilla warfare on the Japanese in Burma (now Myanmar) under the command Brigadier General Orde Wingate. The name came from the mythical beast half lion/half eagle that was placed at the entrance to Burmese temples to scare away evil spirits. He also contracted malaria there and as is the case with the disease suffered off and on afterwards from recurrences. Many other local athletes also served in the Far East: one of these was Alex Kidd a member of Garscube Harriers and well known and respected throughout Scotland. He also came home suffering from malaria and although they made light of it, the disease had to be respected and showed itself from time to time. After one race on a particularly bad day at the Woodilee Mental Asylum (as it was called at that time) in Lenzie, the Changing Room became flooded because of a burst pipe. Alex was lying on a bench shivering and shaking and as the others all scrambled out with their clothes and gear leaving him there, he was saying, “it’s all right – it’s just the malaria!”
Although John joined the club as a runner he ran mainly in pack runs and inter club fixtures with no major trophies to his name. His racing record has already been detailed. His running after the War was seriously affected by the malaria but he used to turn out every now and then with Andy McMillan, James P Shields, Dan McDonald and Jim Murphy just for a run. In my time in the club he was best known as the official club starter and kept the two guns and ammunition at his house. He was an ever present at club fixtures and championships whether track, road or cross country
His big contribution to the club and to the sport was as an administrator and official. He attended a few committee meetings in the 1930’s before he was elected as club secretary a mere three years after joining the club. This was not simply because no one else was capable of doing the job or wanted to do the job – it was because he was recognised as being a good administrator. Came the war and he was elected as secretary to the war time committee whose job was to keep the club in good order until the cessation of hostilities. He worked well in the job and only left the committee when his Army Service took him off to Burma. This service left him as already noted with malaria and he had to take quinine for the rest of his life. One story is that when he said he would have to go home to have some quinine, the others remarked that he meant “Queen Anne” which was a type of whisky.
As soon as he was back home, it was not long before he was back on to the committee and his second spell in the hot seat was possibly his best. The club race results book opens a new page with the following:
SEASON 1946-47
In which it is hoped to carry out our full
Pre-war runs programme.
(John Morgan, Secy)
He was not only on the club committee but he was a member of the County Association and served on the Committee of the SAAA – the governing body of the sport in Scotland. He not only sat on the Committee of the Dunbartonshire AAA’s but was one of the pioneers of the organisation and the club representative in the setting up of the association. In addition to his committee work he did a lot of coaching and was the club’s official starter. He had two guns of his own and the ammunition was supplied by the club. The part he played in the organisation of the Clydesdale Harriers Youth Ballot Team Race when it started up in 1947 was such that the trophy awarded to the winner was named the Johnny Morgan Trophy and it is still in the club’s possession. The picture below is of Eddie Sinclair winning the Johnny Morgan Trophy.
Eddie Sinclair winning the Clydesdale Youth race, 1954
At that time he was always very helpful to the younger committee members and Alex Hylan said that he would come before the meetings and ask if he, in whatever capacity, needed any help in preparing for meetings. John also donated the Zetland Trophy for the Ladies Track Championship and named it after the Zetland Estate where his parents worked – the earldom of Zetland was created in 1838 for Laurence Dundas (of Port Dundas fame).
In the mid 1950’s the club had a quite superb Ladies Section with many first class athletes including not only Scottish but also British champions and international athletes. The section was led by Jean Struthers and John was the main coach. Then in the late 1950’s Tom and May Williamson formed a new club to be called Western AAC and it would be based at Kirklee in Glasgow. They attracted girls from all clubs and the effect on several clubs in Glasgow (Springburn Harriers Ladies, Bellahouston Harriers Ladies and Clydesdale for instance) was devastating. When one of the best runners in Bellahouston Harriers joined up with Western, she was asked by her regular training partners in Maryhill Harriers Ladies why she had not joined them if she was leaving Bellahouston. Her reply was that they had never asked her! Virtually all the Clydesdale Ladies left en bloc to join this attempt to form a ‘club of champions’. These outfits keep appearing – Sans Unkles’ and Dunky Wright’s Caledonia AC, the Robson brothers and their Edinburgh/Reebok/Leslie Deans/Mizuno Racing Club and so on – and seldom last long. The damage inflicted on other clubs is at times considerable. John Morgan was so upset that he gave up coaching on the spot and another coach had to be found. He stayed to work for the club at Committee level and as starter and timekeeper at club and county races.
Runner, committee man, coach, official club starter – and one of the first class group of men who kept the club functioning after the war. When he died in November 1967 the ‘Clydebank Press’ said: It is with deep regret that I have to announce the death of Mr John Morgan one of our older members. Johnny as he was known to young and old alike served the club well in many official positions since the War and although he was dogged by illness in recent years he still turned out as an official SAAA starter when needed. His services were not limited to Harriers activities as he was well known for the help he gave to local schools and Youth organisations and often at considerable expense to himself. We in the club will miss Johnny greatly and extend our deepest sympathy to his family.”