A (very personal) history of Barnet and District AC

In early 2017 the club magazine Editor wrote to me, saying: “I'd like there to be some things in the next issue relating to the club's 50 anniversary/history etc. Would you be able/willing to contribute something?” Without hesitation I said yes, and here it is. I have chosen to write three parallel intertwined stories. They are the main points in the development of the club in the early years, illustrated with some results and reports from those days from the relevant club magazines, and interspersed with some observations on my own short career once I arrived on the scene (thankfully for you that was not until 1982!).

There are thousands of results and reports, and I have tried to select items of interest and/or relevance. I have tried to not dwell on, or comment too often on, the ‘but things were different/better in them days’ aspect of athletics. I leave you to interpret the content as you wish. Considerable license has been taken in editing down mag reports to their core detail. STEVE CHILTON (with thanks to Brian Fowler and all the club magazine editors)

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Early days

Barnet and District AC was formed in 1967, after a merger of Hampstead Harriers with Barnet AC. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find copies of the club mags from the years before 1974, so the first 6 years are something of a mystery (I copied all Brian Strong’s club mags from 1973 onwards a while ago, at the time I was editor, as he was editor for many of the early years).

In order to get the story of the very early days (and before) I asked Brian Fowler to pick up the story for us. This next bit is his recollection of the formation of the club.

[There are other points in the story where he has provided information I did not have at hand, and they will be displayed in the same style as this.]

Earlier there had been a club called New Barnet A.C., which was founded in 1904. It became dormant during the Second World War and for a few years after that. The efforts of athletes who had enjoyed successful careers prior to the war led to the re-birth of the Club. Some of these were W.J. Pop Randall, a formidable cross country runner in his day, along with Bill Nankevill (a miler), Sid Francis (an excellent sprinter), Harry Hatt, Ernie Davis and our own Derek Wood. Derek joined New Barnet AC on 13th Feb 1953, having been at that time first claim to Surrey AC. Pop Randall, who had lost much of his right arm in the war, was very much my inspiration as a 14 year old. He was a timekeeper, holding his clipboard in the stump of the damaged arm. He would run out with the youngsters over the cross country course at Tudor Sports Ground [photo] and into Hadley Wood.

It was early in 1954 that the decision was taken to expand the catchment area by changing the Club name from New Barnet A.C. to Barnet Athletic Club. Pop’s son, Stan Randall, became Club CC Captain and another son, Bill, in due course became Club Secretary of Barnet & District AC.

My own introduction to the Club occurred when I was a member of the local Scout Group. Our group had never won the coveted Scouts cross country title, so our young leader decided that should change, so for several weeks he organised four of us on training runs before Scout group night. In the Championships, held at Tudor Sports Ground and organised by members of Barnet A.C., our team of 4 placed in the first 4 places. The District Scoutmaster, Jack Campion, who was a Vice-President of the Club invited us to join the club. Three of us took up the offer and Jack paid our first year’s subscription of 2/6d (12.5p). One dropped out after a few months, one stayed for a year or so, whilst I am a member 63 years on having joined in April 1954.

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My first track race with my club came a few weeks later, when Derek Wood and Ernie Davis came knocking on my door, saying I was needed for a track match at Stirling Corner. I turned up on the day and was entered into the u15 220 yards. I raced hard against a lad two lanes out from me and narrowly won. My pleasure was short-lived, because both myself and the lad who I narrowly beat were berated by Stan Randall. Neither of us knew that we were club mates, as neither of us yet had a club vest, it was the first time I had met Ted Spirito, who became a friend. Apparently we should have been saving our strength for the next race. Fortunately it didn’t turn me off athletics!

In that time our home track was a grass field behind Livingstone School in New Barnet, there we would mark out the track with whitewash. I can recall doing that task along with Derek Wood as a 17 year old, by which time I was Club Captain.

At the AGM in about 1958 it was proposed that Harry Hatt be replaced by Pop Randall as President. The then Secretary Ernie Davis opposed the move as there was still a whole ream of letterhead paper with the President’s name on it! But Pop did become President later.

In order to embrace the move towards more formal matches and sophisticated training the Club moved to Bethune Park [photo], a facility that we shared with Hampstead Harriers. Although some track matches were held at Oakhill Park, where there was at the time a marked out grass track used by schools and a long jump pit. At that time in order to get in more competition I was a member of both Barnet & Hampstead. Bethune was a four lane cinder track of 440 yards, which was later changed to . It became very mushy when it rained.

It was in 1966 that first discussions took place on the possibility of a merger between the two clubs and the special general meeting to achieve the merger took place on 12th December 1966 at The Black Bull Pub in Whetstone. It was very democratically organised, as it allowed for Fred Burton of Hampstead Harriers and Don Vanhegan of Barnet AC to propose the merging of the two clubs to form a new club to be known as Barnet & District A.C. It was further proposed by Bill Randall (Barnet) and Tom Holton (Hampstead) that the rules having been circulated be adopted. There was a further proposal by Joyce Smith & Brian Fowler that the club take over all existing fixtures as from 15th January 1967. And finally it was proposed by John Taylor (Barnet) and Daphne James (Hampstead) that all rights of Life Members of both clubs be carried into the new club. Fred Burton became President, and there were Joint Secretaries in Geoff Adams and Bill Randall, with Dave Oakley as Treasurer, and I became Fixture Secretary.

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And so to the early days of the present club

What some current members may not be aware of is that in the 1970s Barnet was one of the leading club’s in women’s athletics, being led home at many races by Joyce Smith, and other international standard runners.

The following results from the March 1974 mag illustrate the point:

Southern Counties, 2nd Feb at Hendon

With the last day of the on the television, the temptation to watch must have proved too strong for many, for there were only 63 finishers in the Senior race. Joyce was the individual winner for the sixth year running. With only 19 points we were comfortable team winners, defeating our old rivals Aldershot.

1 Joyce Smith 16-18, 2 Carol Gould 17-05, 7 Kay Barnett 17-52, 9 Margaret Beacham 18-21, 49 Barbara Nelson 21-39. Teams: 1 Barnet 19, 2 Aldershot 43, 3 Hillingdon 85

National, 23rd Feb at Leicester

Yes our Senior girls have done it again. They are National Team Champions for the third time, in 1967 at Blackburn, 1969 at Aldershot, and now in 1974 at Leicester. But there might easily have been no team medals at all for our girls, because a week previously Joyce was a very doubtful starter. She was worried about some trouble with her leg and she had done practically no training for a fortnight. In contrast to last year’s appalling conditions at Rawtenstall, Lancs, when Joyce won and Carol was fourth, conditions today were ideal.

2 Carol Gould 20-06, 3 Joyce Smith 20-07, 14 Kay Barnett 20-55, 31 Margaret Beacham 21-40, 112 Barbara Nelson 24-32. Teams: 1 Barnet 50, 2 Cambridge 92, 3 Stretford 109

It could be said that the ladies overshadowed the men at this time. As an indicator: the Senior men were 7th overall in the Chingford League at the end of that season, and at the National (at , with admittedly ‘a sadly depleted team’) the club was 98th out of 100 complete teams, with Ian Nuckey leading the team home in 585th place.

The next newsletter noted that the men had its ‘most successful season in the nine year history of the club’. The shining light in the club was a Junior, as the magazine noted:

Guy McCallum had a splendid season. Guy won the Middlesex junior , represented Southern Counties in a junior inter-regional match and broke every senior Club Record from 800m to 5000m. He is still a junior next year when more outstanding performances can be expected.

Guy’s Senior CR of 8-07.9 from then is still is unbeaten, as are his 1500m and records also set that year, all as an u20. In the same issue a future Club Record holder was showing his maturity. Paul Strong was an under 13 at the time, and had written to well-known athletes for their advice on training. He wrote first to , whose coach Stan Long replied (reported in part here, having guessed Paul was 14 to 15 years old, and suggesting he join a club):

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I believe the only way to success is to work hard but intelligently. You should do a variety of training, including track work, distance running and hill running. Always do an easy day after a hard one, e.g. 12 hill runs with jog recovery, then next day an easy 8 . My group do on average 50 miles per week with a 12 on Sunday.

Tough Northern teenagers then! He also got a more measured response directly from Steve Ovett:

Enjoy your athletics. When I was 13 I was still doing high jump, and I did everything I felt like doing; some sprinting, long jumping and even some shot putting. So, Paul, what I am trying to say is this – don’t worry too much about training hard and improving your times; this will come naturally as you grow. When in a few years’ time I hear that you’ve run 100m in 10.9 and high jumped 6’ 6”, then I would say it was time to get down to some hard work!

Paul did follow a long-term development path, setting and u17 5000m Club Record of 16-03.0 in 1976, which still stands today. He really blossomed when he went to University, setting the Senior Club Record for 800m at that time.

The cover of the October 1975 mag had the stag image on it for the first time.

The Stag Logo was taken from the Herts emblem. It first appeared on green and yellow ties the club colours of New Barnet and then Barnet AC. It later appeared on the navy blue ties of Barnet & District AC, and was adopted as the centrepiece for New Barnet, Barnet and then Barnet & District medals.

Then in December of that year came the bombshell. It was noted in a letter from three high profile Senior lady members that, ‘at the Club’s November committee meeting we requested, with approval of other senior lady club members, that the ladies section should break away completely from the men’s section.’ This was agreed and took effect in 1976, with Barnet Ladies AC being formed. Elsewhere it was reported that it was also:

…. because of differences of opinion with the men over subscriptions. The ladies are unable to compete as often as they liked because of other commitments and thought the proposed subs increase was unfair.

By 1975 there was a tug of war going on as many of the Ladies, such as Joyce Smith and Linda Elmore, were married to Shaftesbury Harrier members. Joyce, as an international, was attracting some good quality runners into the Club – such as Carol Gould etc. They were training at Copthall, rather than Bethune, and there was some disharmony with the male officials. They had a meeting and a good number decided to leave and form Barnet Ladies A.C. Those that remained – including my Cathy, Brenda Harvey, Maureen Shirley etc had their loyalties with BADAC. But the Southern Women’s Committee would not allow Barnet & District to have a Ladies section because Barnet Ladies had taken the name Barnet. I argued the case against the formidable ladies on that Southern committee initially, but to no avail. So we formed Hadley A.C. in parallel to Barnet & District. Hadley AC competed as a Club for about 2 years in County competitions, until I finally won the case and they became Barnet & District Ladies section following the dissolution of Hadley AC.

The September 1976 mag had a page and a bit covering Guy McCallum’s latest exploits, commenting on his ‘emergence as a national figure’. The highlights were qualifying as fastest loser for the Junior AAA 1500m and yet coming 5th in a new CR of 3-47.4, ‘the fourth fastest time this season by a British Junior’. A week later he became the Junior AAA 3000m champion in 8-07.85. This was ‘the fastest time by a British Junior for 3 years and only about 6 seconds outside the European Record (held by David Black) and 8.5 seconds outside the World Junior Record’. Athletics Weekly (AW) reported it thus:

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Guy McCallum, whose personal best for the distance had been an unexceptional 8-34 prior to a spectacular breakthrough to 8-12 on Jul 21st, moved well away over the last kilometre to score by 30m in an excellent time just under 8-08 (4-04 plus 4-04). He has turned down a scholarship to Villanova (USA) and will be entering Reading University instead.

Guy McCallum had his first training run with me as an 8 year old - from Tudor Sports Ground. He was a prodigious talent. It may have been his father Doug who steered him towards Reading University, where he was able to pursue the courses that eventually led to his business career with Reebok and then other Sports Specialities. He too was training by then with coaches at Copthall and his dad was time-keeping with Shaftesbury.

Guy eventually moved across to Shaftesbury. The same issue of the mag reported the Club 10,000m championships at Bethune Park track, saying rather cheekily that all 12 runners ‘all finished faster than Haiti’s competitor in the heats the previous week’. For the record the results were:

Bob Bradbury 31-01.6, John Street 32-40.2, Gerry Elmore (guest) 33-31.9, Barry Dabrowski 33-54.4, Ted Nolan 34-26.6, Ian Nuckey 34-36.2, Jim Southey (Junior) 35-24.0, John Atkinson 36-25.4, Malcolm Smith (u17) 36- 35.8, John Scott (u17) 38-02.4, Brian Strong 39-40.2, Michael Foster-Curtis (u17) 41-49.6.

As someone who (later) trained and coached on the cinder track at Bethune, and once (and only once!) ran a track 10,000m I would have liked to have watched, but not run in, that event. Bob Bradbury, who won that 10,000m was also tearing up the cross country courses for the club at this time. The report of the 1977 National cross country champs at Parliament Hill records the, ‘top class run by Bob Bradbury, who became the first runner since the club was formed to finish in the first 50 in the National’. The Senior team was 74th, the same position as 2 years previously but this time out of 145 clubs compared to 107 previously. Later that spring Bob Bradbury came 7th in the Finchley 20 in a pretty nifty 1-44-12.

In 1977 Harry Hicks succeeded Bill Randall as President of the club, and John Atkinson wrote a short profile of him, which included this on his selection for the Olympics, having also noted his 4th place in the National in 1950 (when he competed as a Hampstead Harrier):

Harry decided to aim for the – not just any marathon, but the Olympic marathon. His buildup over three years took him to many parts of the country, including the Newcastle to Morpeth New Year Race and winning, among others, such races as the Wigmore 15 and the Finchley 20 two years running. In 1956 it was announced that selection would be based mainly on the Poly Marathon from Windsor to Chiswick. In this Harry finished third, but incredibly he and Arthur Keily of Derby were so close that they were given the same time – 2 hrs 22-37.2. The two were therefore asked to race again in the AAA Marathon in Port Sunlight and take their chance with all the other competitors for the remaining place in the GB team. Harry romped away with the race and so set off for . The race was run in a heatwave with shade temperatures in the 90s. Harry never gave up although greatly bothered by the heat. The other two British runners dropped out. Harry finished in 15th place and thus attained this high honour for himself and for the club.

Harry Hicks ran in the 1956 Olympic Marathon (1st Brit in 15th place 2-39-55) as a Hampstead Harrier. Joyce Smith was also an Olympian. In 1972 at as Team Captain she competed in 1500m, at the time the longest distance that women could run in the Olympics. She was eliminated in Heat 3, with a time 4-11.27. At that time she was a member of Barnet & District. In 1984 she competed at the Olympics in the Marathon, 11th 2-32-48, but by then was a member of Barnet Ladies AC.

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Meanwhile, back in 1977, the club’s youngster were putting in some great cross country performances, with good numbers in all four age groups. Just as an example the following was the report of the fourth North West League race of the season, at Welwyn (with just team scoring athletes listed here):

A double team victory in the two youngest age groups – the Colts once again winning their section, whilst the Minors beat London Irish, who fielded a full- strength team, for the first time this season to pull their opponents back to four points. Richard Ede suffered his first defeat in the league this winter, but only at the hands of team-mate Robert Webster.

Minors: 2 John Webster 10-37, 3 Jamie Harris 10-38, 7 Jonathan Milleret 10-50, 9 Huw Cuckson 11-03 Colts: 1 Robert Webster 12-09, 2 Richard Ede 12-11, 5 Brendan Kavanagh 12-39, 6 Barry Mason 12-46 Boys: 9 Adrian Mason 13-39, 14 Stephen Nunn 14-20, 16 Douglas Ritchie 14-26, 19 Eric Fowler 14-41 Youths: 9 Brian Kingett 19-50, 11 Steven Lowe 20-27

Those four age categories are now u11, u13, u15, and u17 respectively. At that stage of the season Barnet were 2nd to London Irish in the Minors, leading the Colts, 2nd to Shaftesbury in the Boys, and 2nd to Verlea in the Youths section of the league. All four age groups held the same positions at the end of the season, but we won the overall trophy from Shaftesbury, by just 4 points.

In the November 1978 club mag there was a result showing five club members having run the Harlow Marathon, two and half years before the was established. The first two were faster than our fastest member in the 2017 London. Our runners were: 26 Barry Dabrowski 2-33- 45, 40 Steve Allen 2-39-51, 153 Ted Kimber 2-59-10, 242 John Atkinson 3-32- 26, 249 Dave Allen 3-37-30.

One of the big events in the club calendar was the Barnet Festival of Road Running, at Oakhill Park. This consisted of a series of young athletes’ road relay races, a Youths (u17) road race, and also the 3 lap Hampstead 10m road race. The relays were well attended and a good standard. In 1979 the club fielded 5 Colts (u13) teams in the relay, with the first team of Richard Ede, Andrew Neatham, Robert Webster and Daniel Taylor coming 6th, and the others 16th, 20th, 23rd and 24th. The Boys (u15) team of Brendan Kavanagh, Eric Fowler, Adrian Mason and Mark Edwards coming 7th, and the B team 13th. In the Youths race the results were: 14 John Scott 15-37, 22 Paul Strong 16-07, 29 Mel Parker 16- 34, 43 Steven Lowe 18-01, 45 Stephen Nunn 18-26, with the team 5th. In the tough Hampstead 10 (three times up the hills of Parkside Gardens and Monkfrith Way) Barry Dabrowski led the club home in 56-21, with John Street on 57-01, Derek Wood 57-38, John Fulcher 60-07, John Fuller 61-33, Brian Gilbert 62-15, Joe Cox 66-45 and Brian Strong 68-56.

The Barnet Festival of Running first held in 1956, as a Boys 4 x 2 mile relay staged in Oakhill Park. It was in an era when top quality racing for boys was rare so it became very popular, attracting not just local Clubs but also Luton United (Tony Simmons setting a course record that stayed for a long time). Hercules & Wimbledon and Mitcham AC were also prominent. By about 1960 a Youths Road Race had been added and it had become a Festival, with Bill Randall acting as Race Secretary.

The Hampstead Ten was a race inherited from Hampstead Harriers. It had originally been held in Hampstead, but lapsed for many years. When first revived it was held from a Race HQ at a school near to Bethune Park. I can recall Cathy, Brenda Atkinson etc were involved - producing gallons of tea and buttering buns, so must have been about 1963. Following the tragic death of Fred Burton it was re- named as The Fred Burton Ten.

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The new clubhouse

The strength of the young athletes, relative to the Seniors, was starkly shown at the first race of the 1979 Chingford League season, at the famous Eastway cycle course (which was bulldozed as part of the 2012 Olympic Park development). The Seniors, who ran a 3 lap 5km race, finished 6th out of 8 teams, with the scoring six led in by John Scott (18th in 16-07), followed by 25 Steve Allen 16-22, 32 Dave Reed 16-37, 37 Ian Nuckey 16-46, 56 Adrian Mason 17-17 and 61 Nigel Marven 17-30. In the 2 lap/2 mile Boys race the club had the first 6 places and a perfect scoring team. They were Richard Ede 11-30, Andrew Neatham 11-37, Daniel Taylor 11-41, Mark Gann 12-18, Barry Mason 12-34, and Ralph Bailey 12-53 (who was still an u13).

Richard Ede and Ralph Bailey were both having excellent winters. In the Inter-Counties cross country that year at Shrewsbury, Ralph came 33rd in the u13 race, and Richard came 38th in the u15 race.

In 1981 Victoria Hall [photo] in Barnet became the club headquarters, as noted in the club mag:

After two or three years of debate within the club and with officers of Barnet Council and the Sports Council our ambition to have our own club headquarters has moved ahead in recent months. Shortly before Easter the keys to Victoria Hall were given to Brian Fowler by the Education Department, who were anxious to see the empty property put to good use and to avoid further deterioration.

The first use made of the hall was as reception hall for our visitors from Tramore AC and for subsequent social evenings during their stay. Training sessions have been held at the hall on Thursday evenings and with the start of the winter season our Sunday morning sessions now are held at Victoria Hall instead of our former winter quarters at Tudor Sports Ground.

I negotiated the lease on Victoria Hall for the Club in 1981. It was formerly a Civil Defence HQ and was pretty derelict. Our home base for Cross Country at that time was Tudor Sports Ground, as it had been earlier for New Barnet & Barnet AC. Hampstead Harriers formerly used Brook Farm.

The mention of Tramore AC highlights a first for the club – an exchange visit. Through his connections in John Rowe arranged the visit from the Tramore club to Barnet in 1981, and a return visit was arranged for 1982, which many of the club took advantage of. The exchanges lasted for 4 years and were a huge fun, although a lot of work for the organisers on both sides.

The first Tramore visit to Barnet occurred at Easter 1981. We had just finished replacing broken windows and got Victoria Hall cleaned up, but with loads still to do. Around the previous Christmas Maurice Kavanagh (father of Brendan) had mentioned casually about some athletes from Ireland who might be coming over for some athletics. He asked if I could find them some events if they came and I said “Yes”. Weeks went by and I asked him if they were coming. “I think so, I’ll find out” was more or

8 less the reply. About 10 days before Easter I asked again. “Oh! Yes there’s about 30 of them coming by coach on Good Friday. Can you find them somewhere to stay?”

They actually came by train into Paddington, where we had a fleet of cars to ferry them to Victoria Hall. I had enlisted Joe Cox into the meet and greet, and he had got some of the lads billeted with some of his school pupils (from St Thomas More School). I had persuaded club members to take the rest, and the officials and mums and dads. Happily Highgate Harriers had an Easter Open Track meeting so I arranged for them all to compete in that meeting, where the athletes were amazed at the track, the competition and the arrangements.

On the following day (Sun) we had a Barnet & District versus Tramore football match in Victoria Park, refereed by Dave Allen, and then a slap up tea in the clubhouse. So in 1982 a party from Barnet led by myself and John Rowe went to Tramore. I could write a book about that one weekend and think I still have the local paper that praised my sprinting that snatched victory for Barnet in the 23 x 1 lap relay!

Tramore came back here in ‘83 and we went there in ’84, but that was the last year. The Tramore President, and rock of the club, sadly died of cancer. Contacts remained for many years and I still correspond with the lady who was appointed to host me. She told me that she was overawed to be hosting the President of Barnet. At nearly midnight on that first visit we were still dining on a large meal. Our arrival had been delayed by choppy seas, delays in docking and then a cow on the train line!

An indication of the ideas and ambitions within the club is illustrated by this announcement in the same magazine:

On Tuesday Feb 9th there will be a film/lecture evening presented by BAAB National Coach Gordon Adams, which will feature the 1980 Olympics on some unique colour slides taken in .

The club mag also listed 25 new members that had joined since the last issue, which included myself. The only member on that list who is still an active athlete for the club is Andy Cunningham, although past member and long- term friend of the club Mike Earthy was also on the joiners list. That year I had done the very first London marathon in 3-05, with no training mates or advice from anyone, and felt it was time to join a club, having come to running late - from a football background. The first result for me that was noted in the mag was on 3rd Nov 1981 when I went straight in to running 5k in the dark at Eastway. Finishing 6th scorer for the club in 17-10, I had beaten the aforementioned Mike Earthy by 11 seconds. I was in the scoring team, I was an athlete! Mike went on to be a training mate for a good few years, churning out many ‘marathon miles’ with me, and going on to be one of the club’s finest distance runners.

In the next issue of the mag was another new members list, which included the Neville Brothers, presumably joining to unwind from their parallel career as soul/funk recording artists. The magazine at this time was ‘edited’ by Richard Ede and Andy Neatham, which may account for the consistently juvenile ‘gossip’ pieces that popped up everywhere. Just a couple to give you a feel for it:

At the disco there was a passionate outbreak of passion between Mel Parker and the Senior Team Manager [who I believe may have been female!]

It is rumoured that Peter Orchard has started legal proceedings against his hairdresser.

Brendan Kavanagh’s run of bad performances came to an end at last when he was spotted in a passionate embrace during the last dance.

Mel Parker says that if we print anything about him he is leaving the club. Tickets to the farewell party available on application.

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New young magazine editors

I don’t know who gave them responsibility for editing the club mag (well I do actually!) but Richard and Andy were both Youths (u17) at the time, so quite a responsibility for two youngsters. They were certainly not neglecting their running though, coached as they were by Brian Fowler at the time. The National Cross Country that year was in Leeds, and Richard had a brilliant run to gain a headline of ‘one of the best, that’s Ede’ in the Barnet Press. He come 7th over the 4 mile course, including Hill 60, with Mike Earthy (235), Andy Neatham (304), and Barry Mason (445) closing in our u17 team. It was obviously not the strongest Senior team we have ever sent to a National, as I note that I was second scorer in 1079th place.

Richard Ede and Ralph Bailey were among the many athletes that I coached. Richard was taken on by Dave Wilson a few months prior to placing 4th in the Southern CC. The whole period between 1976 and 1981 was blessed with some great talent, mostly coached by me. We could field two teams both placing in the top three in the Biggleswade Relays, Ampthill Cross Country etc, of almost equal talent. They included Adrian Mason, Brendan Kavanagh, Ralph, Richard, Eric Fowler, Andy Neatham, Barry Mason, John and Steve Allen, Geoff Wilson etc. In track and field we were in Premier Division of the National Young Athletes League and won scores of county cross country medals.

The November 1982 club mag (now edited by George Neville) noted that the AGM had ‘agreed that our club vest colour should be changed to a more distinctive design and at a subsequent committee meeting a sub-committee was appointed to pursue this’. As is the way with these things it took a time to finally agree the change, but it did result in a move from the blue and red hoop design (which one A Neatham has been known to wear still!) to the first version of the red and blue halved vest (on a more modern lightweight material from Ron Hill).

Over time the club has become very strong in the Vets section, with many excellent team and individual performances. Perhaps the first, and greatest, individual wasDerek Wood. He was at his peak as a Vet at this time, as reported in a mag article entitled ‘Derek Wood –Super-Vet’:

We are proud to record the recent achievements of Derek Wood, who has just completed two eventful months which have seen him conquer the best over-50 athletes in the world. In September he travelled to to compete in the World Vets Champs. Not satisfied with winning the over-50 10,000m in 33m 58s, the next day he competed in the marathon on a course waterlogged by a typhoon, finishing first over-50 in 2hrs 42m 34s. Then in October he competed in the New York Marathon finishing in his best ever time of 2hrs 33m 20s which was by far the best over-50 performance, being over 15 minutes ahead of the next over-50 runner. He is the proud possessor of a large cup which he keeps.

This was also the time of The Sunday Times Fun Run and of James Fixx’s inspirational Complete Book of Running. Recognising the rise of fun running, Brian Fowler wrote a piece for the magazine proposing a ‘Fun Run-Jog Section’:

Everyone in the club who runs does so presumably because they enjoy it. Everyone is therefore effectively a ‘fun runner’. There are, as I am sure you have noticed, many people running around the streets and parks today who have become aware of the fact that running aids fitness and better health.

It would surely, therefore, be in the very best interest of our club to encourage ‘fun runners and joggers’ to join us. Eventually the jogger section could be self-administered but in the first instance the initiative must come from our existing members. From several people must come the commitment to welcome, encourage, advise and initially to organise. Will YOU do it or will YOU help?

To the best of my recall, despite the club making something of an effort, it didn’t amount to much. [Nips across to the web to see when Trent Park Trotters was founded!]

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In the December 1982 mag there was an update on life from Paul Strong, who was now at University, an environment that really suited him and in my view ‘made’ him as a runner. In an article entitled ‘Durham – where’s that?’ he mentions reaching the 1500m final in both the English Universities and British Universities Champs. Here is a bit of his take on university (athletic) life:

For me the most serious side of academic life is to be a member of the renowned Durham University “bog-trotters” who have grown into a feared force in university circles, which is only just, seeing as we are situated within the hotbed of athletic activity of the North East. Here the enthusiasm for running in particular is incredibly fervent, which can be witnessed at Gateshead stadium every Tuesday evening: the turnout of all ages surpasses Copthall even on the coldest nights. The amount of commitment and will to succeed are especially evident when one trains regularly with the likes of McLeod, Coleby, Turnbull, and Foster, and their attitude to the sport both during sessions and in the after-sessions in the Old Ford pub cannot fail to leave some sort of impression.

It won’t surprise those that know me well to find out that in the same issue I compiled an all-time best performance list for the club for the marathon distance. Yes indeed, I had improved my marathon time in the ‘82 London to 2-49-44 to land myself in 12th place on the list. London had started dominating that list, but the aforementioned New York for Derek Wood, plus Dave Wilson’s 2-38-48 in Frankfurt that year stand out, as well as three earlier ones by members who got their PBs at the Harlow. And who is this down in 33rd place with a 3-16-00 from Birmingham in 1981? Richard Ede? Yes, the lad had run the Birmingham People’s Marathon at an age that may well not be allowed nowadays.

Moving on to the Xmas 1983 mag we see evidence of a wider interest in running from your reporter, and other club members. In September, 14 club members travelled to Brockwell Park in South London to run in the Twosome Ten. It was a race where male and female teams of two ran 5 miles each (at the same time as I recall) with positions being determined by your combined time. It was not necessary to be related but Moira and I raced against Brian and Cathy Fowler, but they took us apart by a combined time of almost 4 minutes. I don’t believe that event is held anymore.

There is also a long report from the Paris to Versailles 10 mile road race in October, which another 14 members had attended. Despite international standard runners at the head it had a totally chaotic start, which harshly someone said was ‘not unusual in France’, and was won by Emile Puttemans in 50-08, from and Bernie Ford. No positons were given but three of our youngsters were first in: Richard Ede in 56-20, Andrew Neatham in 59-15, and Adrian Mason in 59-20.

There was also a two and a half page report on ‘What I did on my holiday – The Tour of Tameside’. In 1983 I had been doing a lot of great marathon training with Howard Aiken and we duly both did new PBs of 2-46-11 and 2-47-45 respectively. I was however looking for new endurance challenges. The Tour of Tameside, six races in seven days with a total of 52 miles, seemed an appropriate next step, so another training partner (Frank Bennett of Haringey AC) and a friend who lived nearby and who put us up, signed up for it. The event was conceived and organised by Ron Hill, and the first race started from just outside his shop in Hyde. It went: Sun 7m road race, Mon 6 mile fell race, Tue 11m road race, Wed off, Thu half marathon, Fri 6m cross country, Sat 9m canal towpath race. I see from my report that on the day off I went up to the Lakes and walked up Fairfield with a friend (some recovery day that was). I will spare you the details. Suffice it to say that I claimed six Club Records! What was it like doing back to back races? Here are the concluding remarks from my report:

I collected my medal, as much liquid as I could lay my hands on and collapsed on the pavement to slake my thirst and free my blistered feet from the torture garment that entrapped them (my previously trouble-free Nike Elite’s had let me down the last couple of days). Post-race euphoria was counteracted

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by the most drained bodily feeling I have ever known – much worse this double marathon in stages at near flat out pace than any of my , or even a 40 mile race I did (which was obviously done at considerably slower pace throughout). I was not much fun at the bun fight in Hyde Town Hall afterwards as I was too tired to queue for the (free) Chesters beer and food supplied by the sponsors.

Our host had a party in the evening, at which I was also not much fun (by now adding a groin strain to my fatigue and blisters as distractions), at which some Stockport AC lads revealed that some of them were doing the Warburton ‘20’ on the next day, and some more were doing a fell race. For me it was an early night and a week off from training.

The 1984 County Champs showed that the ladies side of the club was beginning to pick up. Although not setting the world of athletics alight, Cathy Fowler, Brenda Harvey, Moira Chilton (who apparently ‘didn’t enjoy it at all at the time, but is looking forward to the next time’), and captain Sylvia Jarvis completed a Senior team, probably for the first time since the split off of Barnet Ladies eight years previously.

Editor George Neville had by now got quite a few people to contribute longer pieces to the club mag, which may (or may not) have pleased the readers. One such was in the Spring 1984 mag, and was introduced in the editorial with, ‘finally thanks to all those who have contributed literary masterpieces, especially Zac for his amazing poem’. This page long effort was like an Icelandic saga, and basically described a training evening, with digs at various club members, whom you may or may not recognise in these fairly random ‘highlight’ stanzas that I have selected, complete with grammatical and spelling errors from the original, as I feel it adds to the mood of the piece:

Here’s a tail of guts and booze, Heroes Wimps and bloody fools One Thursday evening cold and wet, the usual place where they all met General Fowler a Man of Vision, told the news of His decision to launch a scheme brave and bold, to build a team worth their weight in gold Athletes determined strong and fast, who would never know the position last

So now we reach the hardest part, with what you’ve got is where you start “Now go for a jog and keep it steady, the speed will come when you are ready” The General’s words wise and calm, have the effect of a fire alarm Out the door into the chill, through moans and groans towards Beech Hill Across the mud and through the gate, passed Phil Cunningham once again late

Lunatic Leslie the youngest “has-been” that Barnet & District has ever seen He’s run with the Best, and raced with the Devil, but tonight couldn’t cope with Jim & George Neville The Terrible Twins though 2 years apart, obviously trouble from the very start That left Loonie Leslie heathing in pain, He then keeled over and started sniffing the drain

Statistician Steve doesn’t win many prizes, but on Handycap Day He’s full of surprises He can Kill any Runner with the wave of His pen, Statistician Steve is Everyones friend Once Captain Bevan made Steve a reserve, Captain Bevan had one hell of a nerve In the next Handycap He was last man to run, now Captain Bevan just runs for Fun

The leading pack were now miles ahead, 6 in the group the rest left for dead King Richard was up front with Bailey the Kid, Brendan, Mud and Bones were in with a bid The friendly banter could not disguise the lengthening stride and the bulging eyes

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And so, Brendan and Bones ‘lacked the will to stay’, and despite Mickey Mud’s best efforts, The King and The Kid were first back to the clubhouse. The Thursday evening runs were THE tough session of the week in those days.

In the same issue was an article entitled Impressions of a Newcomer, by Howard Aiken who had only recently joined the club. His sometimes wicked sense of humour shows throughout, starting as it does: ‘My wife blames it all on and Roger Marven.’ He goes on to describe several profile veteran members of the club, making (possibly) libellous comments on their training techniques, including keen racer Joe Cox, who: ‘they told me, doesn’t do any training. I now know why – two races on a Saturday, one on Sunday and a Tuesday evening race at Eastway not to mention the odd 4 x 100 metres relay can’t leave much time, let alone energy, for training.’ But Howard wasn’t too proud to hide an early schoolboy error, after asking John Atkinson for advice. Before the Hillingdon 5 John advised ‘there will be lots of runners in the road so you’ll be better off running on the pavement’. Howard’s comeback, which I can even now imagine him saying, as quick as a flash, was: ‘I can only assume that he hadn’t noticed all the old ladies, children, prams, and dogs on the pavement’. But Howard’s real mistake was following John’s pre-race advice to jog, stretch and ‘use embrocation rubbed into the calves and thighs’. Can you see where this is going?! Howard recounted that half an hour before the London Marathon he had:

Jogged around and got warm and did the stretching exercises. A little later I put a measure of Deep Heat cream onto each hand and massaged it into my legs. With hindsight I realise that I probably used too much cream and probably left a fair amount on my hands. As we started to line up I was feeling good and ready to go. With only a couple of minutes to go what with the excitement and everything I had an overwhelming urge to relieve myself. So taking matters into both hands I joined the other 17,999 competitors watering the flower beds in Greenwich Park. Almost immediately I was aware of a warm feeling developing. Very soon after that the gun went and I was off like a rocket – due in no small measure to searing heat in my ‘groin’. I must have done a personal best for the first five miles! This excellent start was just what I needed and I managed to break 3 hours for the first time. Some days later, out of curiosity, I carefully studied the instructions on the Deep Heat packet. They included the words: ‘massage the cream gently but firmly. Take care to avoid the eyes and OTHER SENSITIVE AREAS’.

An interesting event took place on Sunday 23 September 1984, as the club took part in a 25 x 1 mile relay at Crystal Palace. I can’t reveal much about it as the club mag ‘typist’ (one Mad Mud Mikey if you know your nicknames) decided ‘not to type all the members who took part in this relay on grounds of my health as there were fifty members who ran on the day.’ So two full teams of Barnet runners then. He does record that, ‘Ralph Bailey couldn’t count up to four and tried to do the takeover one lap to early. As he’s flying around on what he thought was his last lap someone had to run down the track to tell him to run more lap. The look on his face told how he felt!’

The very next Sunday 17 club members took part in what at the time was a Running Institution – the Sunday Times National Fun Run. This was a 4km mass event that took place in Hyde Park every year with runners setting off in huge waves in different age bands – imagine a sort of London Mini Marathon for adult and vet runners. Although a fun run there was a definite kudos to be achieved from getting a high position in your age band. The following achieved top 30 positions (in effect in the country, mind) – which just gives me a chance to mention what a good runner my wife was!

Laurie Forster 1st in 50-59 age band, Dave Spencer 2nd in 34-36, Kirsty Johnson 4th 23-24, Steve Chilton 9th 34-36, Neil Sutherland 15th 25-26, Zac 17th 25-26, and Moira Chilton 27th 25-26 age band.

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The Spring 1985 club mag reported some great results by the club’s teams, and your author in particular, who was having his ‘annus mirabilis’. In big training for the next marathon it all kicked off in the last month of 1984, leading the 15 club members home in the Nene Valley ‘Nine’ with a 54-09 PB. The report notes:

A big number of Barnet runners went to race this well-known course. It has the reputation of producing quite a lot of PBs and so is known to a lot of runners as the Nene Valley ‘9’ when it is supposed to be a ‘10’ [mile road race]. Looking at some of the times I tend to believe this. Best run of the day came from one Steve Chilton. He beat his PB by quite a bit and the following Thursday he had updated the club all- time 10 mile list just to show his name a little higher up the rankings.

At the head of that list are some proper good 10 mile times, including a leading time of 50-31 from Richard Ede, Adrian Mason in second with 51-30, and Tony Reavely third with 53-00 from back in 1967. Oh, and the author of that report one place behind me (in 10th place) with his 54-10 from Stevenage earlier in the year.

Later in the mag Mike Earthy commented, in a review of the season:

I think one of the best ever seasons both in club performances and individual ways. The club had its best ever Chingford League, winning the final two Eastways. In the County Champs both Junior and Senior titles went to the club. Some excellent individual places with Mike Earthy finishing in the highest position ever by a member of the club in the North of the Thames CC [7th]. Adrian Mason ran some fine races all through the season and ending with the record at Eastway [15-12]. Ralph Bailey running so well at the season’s end in the National Champs, and then a couple of weeks later running 6th in the English Schools. I could go on for ever. Well done to everyone that has survived this season and special thanks to team manager Richard Bevan for standing around in all the mud and rain.

There were indeed great performances in the County Champs. The Juniors at Watford:

….. dominated the race around Cassiobury Park. Right from the gun five Barnet runners formed a wall which no one could pass for a mile. Once that rush had ended Richard Ede and Ralph Bailey moved away from everybody else and were never bothered again. Ralph being the polite person he is let Richard go through the funnel at the end to win. Mike Earthy didn’t have a good run and with a couple of people behind him with a couple of miles to go he decided to ‘ for home’. Dave Price ran a good race to finish the team.

1 Richard Ede 25-21, 2 Ralph Bailey 25-26, 4 Mike Earthy 26-35, 6 Dave Price 26-53, 12 Dave Candy 27- 53, 15 Brendan Kavanagh 28-56, 16 Mark Gann 29-57. Teams: 1 Barnet 13pts, 2 Verlea 34pts

By a quirk of the way things were done at the time, the Juniors were able to run in the Senior Champs as well, as they were held a month apart, with the Senior race being held at Monks Well, Welwyn. I remember well the excitement about us being ‘in with a chance’ of a Senior men’s team win.

On a bitterly cold day, Barnet came with all guns blazing. ‘We’re going all out to win the Herts Senior’ was the cry in the pub on Thursday. Richard Ede on his last outing before flying off to the States was going to give it everything. As was most of the other members running. The best ever team that Barnet had got together turned up to run. Nigel Marven looked as though he had fallen out of bed just to run the race! All this pumped the blood into a fighting spirit that managed to win the club its second Herts title.

There was good runs from almost everyone with the club getting their first five members in the top ten. Then there was a long pause and a lot of Verlea runners before Nigel Marven finished the team off. That night some members of the club decided to celebrate the win by getting drunk in a pub. The people that turned up all had one thing in common. They weren’t in the scoring six! [yeh right]

3 Richard Ede 40-28, 4 Adrian Mason 40-43, 5 Mike Earthy 40-49, 6 Ralph Bailey 41-00, 9 Jim Shearly 41- 25, 23 Nigel Marven 43-25. Teams: 1 Barnet 50pts, 2 Verlea 60 pts, 3 Watford 73 pts

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Some raw weather conditions

There were another 26 club members also running in that County Champs race. And as it happens there was no need to panic about Nigel and his position, as with a 10 point buffer any of the next three would have still sealed it (Dave Wilson was 25th, Zac 30th and Dave Candy 31st).

The winter had two of the most amazing conditions for a cross country race I had ever raced in (although I think the depth of snow reported in this first one may be an exaggeration!).

The Southerns were held at Trent Park and on a day when apparently:

…..every other meeting to be held outside was cancelled due to a bit of snow. Some of the best runners in the Southern Counties turned up to run in seven inches of snow that fell during the night. To say that most didn’t really want to run was of course a bit of an understatement. Ralph summed up the feelings of most people around by asking someone to tell him if any member of the junior team drops out as he would join them as we wouldn’t have a team to finish.

Mike Earthy just about ran himself into the ground in a vain attempt to get into the top thirty. Ploughing through the snow after a bad start (I was frozen to the ground for a second) he managed to get through to a good position and only lost 5 places going along the avenue of trees at the end of the race. John Leslie had an even worse start as he wasn’t even on the starting line when the gun went off! He was waiting until the last possible minute before taking off the last few layers of clothing. He didn’t quite time it right and was climbing over a fence when the gun went off.

The Juniors ran well for 12th team with Mike 33rd, Ralph 77th, Dave Candy 86th and John’s position unrecorded. The Seniors were led home by Adrian Mason in 113th place for 29th team. This is probably too much information, but it was so cold that I had shrunk by the end of the race. The course finished by running up between the trees towards the café, crossed over the road (by where Trent Park races often start), round the pond and back down the grass field to near the old tennis courts. Helly Hansen used to make underwear with what can only be described as a ‘reinforced front patch’ for protecting your interests in extreme cold. Despite wearing a pair of these, that depressing run past the finish line and up and down the last two straights nearly ruined any prospects of me starting a family.

We all have our favourite ‘you should have run the whatsit race, it was the muddiest EVER’ story. Well mine is that year’s National at Milton Keynes. After the snow at the Southerns this was a real cross country pasting. Not an especially strong team performance, with a scoring team of Adrian Mason (340), Jim Shearly (546), myself (850 but pleased to beat) Zac (952), Richard Pownall (who liked it so much he moved there, in 1109) and Alan Harvey (1132) finishing 108th. A mention for Ralph Bailey in the Juniors who came 41st. But it was the conditions that we had to run in that were so memorable, as described by Mike Earthy in his inimitable style:

After odd rumours about where it was going to be held the people who decide these things thought that as everything else seems to be moving there that they would join in the rush and move the whole thing to Milton Keynes. This seemed to bring ideas to people’s mind that it was going to be another Newark course (flat and fast). Once we had walked through six inches of combined water and mud just to get to the start most minds thought that it was going to be a little tough. Once the youths finished all ideas that it was an easy course were thrown into the mud. They came back covered in the stuff and had only run 3 miles. Well done to all the Seniors. It was bad enough doing it all once but to go through all that twice would kill me, and it will because I’ll be there next year as I am one of the men now!

This particular issue of the club was a really good read, evidenced by how many extracts are included here. I could have included a report on the (frankly dangerous) 7.5 mile Beer Run that John Rowe organised, or something from the nonsense poem (by Zac?) ‘Escape from the Land of Earthie’. Or a

15 piece I wrote (somewhat presumptuously you might argue) entitled ‘On training, peaking and racing’. I also had started fell running by now and submitted a report on my efforts in the Ras Beca and Three Shires fell races, in an article entitled ‘The ups and downs of fell racing’. [Is that article, and indeed the puny punny title, some kind of precursor to the book writing that came ‘out of nowhere’ nearly 3 decades later?]

The March-Aug 1985 club mag carried a note that ‘many people have criticised it, justifiably so, on the grounds that club members need to be regularly informed about what is going on in the club’. It carried many results over the summer season on both track and roads, together with a report of a John Rowe-organised trip to the London Beer Festival, and a piece on joining the club by Steve Harris.

On a personal level I was still in my purple patch, and a (perhaps overly) keen racer at that time, and over a range of events to boot. In the build-up to the marathon I ran 1-58-16 at the Worthing 20m and a 33-18 10k in Battersea Park, both in March and both PBs. I also see that just two weeks after the London Marathon I did a 16-03.6 PB in the 5000m in a Southern league match, then 4 weeks later a 1- 14-53 PB at the Leighton Buzzard half marathon, followed 5 weeks later by a two-day mountain marathon in the Lakes.

The club’s marathon running was in good shape at this time, with some serious training groups meeting on Sundays at the Victoria Park clubhouse, for long runs out in to the lanes of Hertfordshire or up to the top of Hampstead Heath and back. The report on the London Marathon noted that:

Despite the difficulties of the entry system, we managed to field 30 athletes – 9 of whom were first time marathoners. Pride of place must go to Laurie Forster for coming home first for Barnet in 2-34-32, a time that was later confirmed as British record for the O55 age category. Completing the AAA scoring team were Steve Chilton and Barry Dabrowski – the former knocking 8m 47s off his best, and the latter re-emerging to show his liking for the London course (having recorded a 2-35 previously in 1981). A measure of the improving standards of marathoning in our club is the fact that for the years of 81, 83, 84 and 85 we have had respectively 6, 8, 9 and now 17 sub-3hrs performances in the London: and have had cumulative team times (3 man AAAs teams) of 8-18-04, 7-49-58, 8-07-05 and now 7-46-17.

I think it would be good to list those results achieved at London on 21 April 1985:

Laurie Forster (who was 478th) 2-34-32, Steve Chilton 2-34-53, Barry Dabrowski 2-36-53, Derek Wood 2- 39-11, Dave Rollison 2-40-25, Ian Burks 2-43-57, Dave Fereday 2-44-12, Howard Loveridge 2-44-15, Derek Surrey 2-46-30, Howard Aiken 2-47-02, Nigel Marven 2-48-11, John Fulcher 2-49-54, Ted Kimber 2-53-54, Jim Southey 2-56-06, John Fuller 2-56-30, Tony Hamilton 2-59-13, Brian Glover 2-59-58, Bob Kirsop 3-09-32, Brian Gilbert 3-14-40, Joe Cox 3-16-14, Richard Strong 3-17-51, Paul Levine 3-31-25, Brian Strong 3-34-04, Jose Kimber 3-36-00, Steve Harris 3-50-01, Bill Waldren 3-55-05, Jack Stancombe 4-01-08, Maureen Shirley 4-02-43, Roger Fusedale 4-07-50, Sue Barrow 4-09-47

The next club mag was published in December 1985, and was the first issue edited by myself. I think I got the job because the committee probably thought it would take up my time and possibly stop me from writing so many articles for publication. Little did they know! My editorial noted ‘the official opening of our new clubhouse extension [basically a men’s shower block, with the ladies having sadly inferior showers inside the main building] on Saturday 20th November 1985. This happy occasion sees the fulfilment of the seemingly never-ending story of fund-raising and other work by members of the club’. The club’s Vets section were also competing at a high standard at this time, and I also recorded that ‘there have been several notable athletic performances in the past few weeks, in particular by our Veterans. They have had a clean sweep in the Chingford League Vets section, winning the relay, Trent Park cross country, and the two Eastway fixtures.’

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So, what is the new editor doing?

A few results from that club mag will give a feel for the club and its performances. Andy Cunningham was running well and also team managing the men’s track team, who despite some great performances in the middle/long distances struggled overall in Division 2. Just as an example at the Herts 10k track champs at Watford in July we had 10 competitors from the club in a race that Mike Earthy came 3rd in, with a time of 32-11.2. At Eastway in October Adrian Mason came second to take 1 sec off his own club record with 15-11. At the Chingford League cross country at Trent Park Adrian was second behind Enfield’s Seamus Kerr with Mike Earthy 3rd, but we only managed 3rd A Team, plus 2nd B and 1st Vets. In September I ran the Lake District Mountain Trial fell race (over 20 miles) in 6-33-08, and a month later John Fulcher topped that by completing The London to (53.25 miles) road race in 7-10-39.

The strength of the club’s middle/long distance running can be seen from the club records set that year: Andy Cunningham set a Senior 400m record at 51.1, Dave Candy a Junior S/C one of 9-40.1, Dave Price the Junior 400mH at 61.1, and most impressively Ralph Bailey the Junior 800m at 1-55.9. That 800m time is part of a fantastic set of 6 runners under 2 mins for 800m that year. They were: Andy Cunningham 1-55.5, Ralph Bailey 1-55.9, Mark Allen 1-57.2, Brendan Kavanagh 1-58.8, Dave Spencer 1-59.4 and Paul Strong 1-59.4. [Two years previously Paul Strong had set the club record of the time of 1-54.8.]

This ramble through the back copies of the club mag has taken us through the first 18 years of Barnet and District AC’s existence. Perhaps the next issue can take us a further 15 years to the end of the millennium. The memories are becoming even closer to home for me. Suffice it to say that I edited the club mag for the next 25 years ….. and also that I never really ran well again after that annus of 1985.

My second club magazine as editor carried a longish Editorial in which I thanked Mike Earthy for his ‘pithy reports’; Joan Filaitis for ‘translating various illegible scrawls into typescript’; George Neville for duplicating; to the contributors and to Moira ‘for helping with folding and stapling in our front room’. I had a word-processor, but it was still pretty much an amateur production with, as yet, no photographs included.

The was a report inside on a Development Forum that had been held at the club, to talk about ‘development of the club’. Reading it now gives a sense that plus ca change. It covered coaching, clubhouse use, training sessions, socials, parents’ responsibilities and rotas – all things which were discussed in our coaches meeting earlier this month. It is worth noting that our main track sessions at this time still took place at Bethune – on the very rough cinder track there. A note in the mag said that ‘the ground staff at Bethune Park will be continuing with pre-season preparation as soon as weather permits. We aim to make Tuesday April 8th our first summer session at Bethune’. So, the next time any of you think about complaining about perceived poor facilities at Allianz Park track these days, just remember the situation we used to be in.

Over the years several races have bitten the dust for various reasons. One I liked, but which was particularly dangerous, being run on a Tuesday night in the busy streets of Loughton, was the Physical Shield Relay, consisting of two legs of 3.2 miles and two of 1.6 miles. This particular year (1986) a young Barnet men’s team of Mike Earthy (17-03), Ralph Bailey (17-04), Dave Price (8-27) and Dave Candy (8-35) swept to victory, taking the lead on leg one and never losing it. We finished 4 more

17 teams in 6th, 10th, 14th and 15th, with a women’s team just behind that in 17th overall. Times were Brenda Harvey (22-38), Cathy Fowler (25-25), Alison Reeve 12-14, and Moira Chilton (11-23).

You could always rely on Zac to write something ‘stimulating’ and he did in this issue, contributing a piece entitled: Every injury is avoidable. This is an edited down version of his thesis:

Be it high mileage or high intensity, or both, your body given time will adjust to meet the demand. If you do not give it the time it requires you will get injured. Injuries do not remain the same. They get worse or they get better, however slowly. A major part of athletic achievement has got to be injury prevention. In most cases where application to training is not a problem, injury prevention must be the priority.

Everyone gets niggles. Niggles are a blessing. They are a warning sign to an injury. You can ignore them, and they may go away, or they may develop into an injury. Say 4 times out of 5 the niggle will disappear.

There is a reason behind every niggle. The next time you get a niggle, ask yourself why? Increased mileage? New terrain? Have you introduced hills or trackwork? Have you cut out hills or trackwork? New shoes? Old shoes? Reduced stretching? Lack of sleep? Change of diet? Too much to drink? Too much competition? Just ask yourself why does your foot/shin/knee/hip hurt? If you say “I am just unlucky” you are defeated from the start.

In my soon to be glorious running career I have had just one real injury – shin splints. I know how I got them. I started my track training (3 sessions) and raced 6 times, in 9 days. I too was once a fool. The injury lasted for over 18 months, including periods when I could hardly walk.

Eventually I visited a physio. He said, “don’t run, come back next week, that will be £10”. I thanked him and left. I did this for two more weeks with exactly the same result. The following Friday week I returned. I said, “my shins are much better”. He said, “don’t run, come back next week, that will be £10. A week later I said, “my shins are no pain to me at all”. He said, “that will be £10. I thanked him and left. This confirms my theory that money in the bank gives you shin splints.

The article had a second part, entitled: An athlete with talent who relies entirely on hard work will beat an athlete without work-rate who relies entirely on talent. I will spare you this rambling argument, which he never really got anywhere, as Zac noted in the last sentence: ‘I’m sorry that I didn’t finish this article, but then again, I suppose neither did a lot of you’.

In this magazine were the track and field Club Record lists for all the age groups. Showing that the ladies section was just beginning to embrace the idea of summer competition, there were just 6 records listed for the u11 girls, and 6 more for the u13 girls (none for u15 or u17s). For the Senior Ladies there were also just six – 100m, 400m and LJ for Janina Hadala; HJ and DT for Anne Paice, and the 4x100m for Aly Fowler, Trish Candy, Moira Chilton and Janina Hadala.

Zac in coaching mode

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As may have been noted earlier in this history, 1985 was a good year for marathons in the club. The mag noted that Don Shelley had compiled a UK Club Marathon ranking list – in which he accumulated each club’s best 10 marathons of 1985. The top 5 were as follows:

1. Sunderland H & AC 24-01-30 (ave 2-24-09) 2. Newcastle (Staffs) AC 25-15-53 3. Les Croupiers RC 25-40-43 4. Potteries Marathon AC 25-47-21 5. Barnet & District AC 26-51-49 (ave 2-41-11)

Now, just think about that a moment. We had 10 marathoners that year with an average of 2 hrs 41 mins, led (as I recall) by Laurie Forster’s 2-34-32 in London.

The forthcoming events listed in the June 1986 mag included a series of lectures/presentations on: coaching (Brian Fowler), Triathlon (Steve Trew) and Physiotherapy (Frank Westell). The listing also noted that on Sunday 31st August we would be hosting the first Barnet Closed Biathlon Champs. This, and the Trew lecture, were partly in response to several club members being interested in taking up triathlon, which was going through its first ‘boom’. Interestingly the biathlon was put on then as it was a spare date due to ‘the M25 road race planned for this date having had to be cancelled – due to insurmountable problems with both the Dept of Transport and the Contractors. This was when the M25 Potters Bar section was just being constructed and we had spent a lot of time and energy setting up an out and back 10k on the finished, and nearly ready to open, carriageway. Another one to ponder on when you next go around that section of the M25.

Brian Fowler also gave a longish update on ‘The Clubhouse Saga’, which has already been pretty well covered in this history, but it summarised things for members to make them aware of changes and to seek commitment from members on upkeep and further developments. Brian concludes:

Having read this article I am sure you will appreciate all that has gone into the provision of the Clubhouse for you. Some of the people who worked so hard to raise funds are no longer with the club, others are no longer active athletes.

You may be a fairly new member – you may not know of the need for funds or of practical help. You may be an old member who feel that you have done enough. Young or old – new member or old -we can all keep the club and the clubhouse a fit place by taking an interest and being aware.

There is also a short piece on coaching in the club, which noted that ‘seven club members recently attended an Assistant Club Coach training weekend at Bedford’. It listed those seven and the events they intended to cover, and asked athletes to contact them if they wanted coaching/advice. I note that of those seven coaches there are only Steve Harris and myself coaching for the club now, admittedly 31 years later.

Instruction booklet from my first coaching course that year

The National was in Newcastle, one of the longer trips we have as a club, which started with some of the athletes missing the train to get to the train to go North. According to Pete Orchard on this occasion, ‘a very enjoyable day was had by all I am sure, and to round it all off we had one of the lowest points totals the club has had in recent years for the National. The additional £10 taxi fare at the beginning of the day no longer seemed important. What was important was a great comradeship which again came to the fore and showed what athletics is all about’. The team was Adrian Mason (244), Andy Cunningham (369), Steve Lowe (590), Zac (772), Steve Nunn (1075), Pete Orchard (1090), with Steve Chilton (1167) and Dave Candy (1591) backing them up

19 as they took 89th place in a race won by Tim Hutchings. In a footnote was a list of National best places in last 13 years, noting that it was the first time we had cracked the top 90 teams in the last 8 years, and that Adrian’s position was our best since Bob Bradbury (44th in 1977, and 159th in 1978).

There were frequent jokes/quotes sprinkled around these magazines, most of which won’t mean much out of their era and context, but I do rather like this one for some reason: Overheard as Mike Earthy warmed down at Battersea track after a Southern League match, “He looks just like ”.

By now Brian Fowler was in his stride, mentoring the new coaches that he had encouraged to take the Assistant Club Coach course, and was spreading good practice. He wrote a longish article in the September 1986 magazine that nicely spelled out his coaching philosophy. In it he commented on how a coach/athlete relationship might start:

In general, an athlete will ask a coach for specific assistance. This may be in the form of advice, given as and when required or it may be that the coach will undertake to plan and organise the whole regime of the athlete’s training with a long-term objective in mind. In this approach it will be necessary to review every aspect of the athlete’s lifestyle. Previous achievements are considered along with injury and illness history, diet, weight and a multitude of other factors. The coach will generally by then know the athlete better than he knows himself. A schedule of activity can then be planned which will hopefully begin to realise the athlete’s ambitions. The athlete who approaches a coach for a schedule for a race in three weeks’ time is regrettably viewing the coach as a mystic or the possessor of a magic wand.

Around this time we had a relatively strong men’s track and field team and on 24 May won a Southern League match at Kingston, apparently a significant achievement! Mike Earthy’s match report highlighted the fact that we had 13 individual wins in the match, including our traditional distance strength – winning A and B string doubles in the 1500, 5000 and Steeplechase. You can get a feel for the occasion from this snippet from the report:

I am at the moment running a competition to find the member of the club who has run the slowest first 400 in a 1500m race [and still won]. Steve Lowe is stilling winning from earlier in the season, but Andy Cunningham and Chris Emerson got close to it by recording 80 seconds for their first lap.

We didn’t know we were doing so well due to the fact that there was no results and points totals during the afternoon. Of course, we knew we were doing well because of all the first places. All we would like to know is, would we have won if there had been a hammer and discus competition? There was none as there was no cage at this newly fitted-out track.

Deep in the results for the club was a run by Andy Cunningham in the Southern Counties Champs at Crystal Palace, where he ran the 800m to set a Senior CR of 1-53.76, which still stands to this day.

The young athletes team was also strong at the time, thanks to a large extent to the work of team managers Bill Waldren and Terry Wraith. Just one example of this strength is a full page of results from the EYAL at Watford in June, where we were second to a strong Hertford and Ware team by just 30 points. The girls age groups were gaining in strength and the team was massively boosted by the u15 boys and u13 boys performances. The u15 boys had an unbelievable 24 first places and 1 second place in their 25 events, while the u13 boys had an impressive 12 firsts in their 19 events. All-round good performances, but with two athletes in particular beginning their careers at this time before going on to greater things – Trevor Hill and Matt Treasarden.

Matthew Treasarden at the Highams Park YA Relay

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Good performances all round

The summer 1986 season for the men had been tough, with a fourth place, 3 thirds, a second and the aforementioned win. Mike Earthy and Chris Emerson appeared in every fixture, and possibly the most impressive individual performance was Andy Cunningham’s treble at Walton – winning the 800 and 500m A races, and beating the CR in winning the B string 400m hurdles (in 59.8). As well as Andy’s two records, he also set a Senior 1000m CR of 2-35.5, and John Watts set a Junior 400m CR of 52.3. For the YAs there was a promotion for the Boys in the Dunlop YAL and a near miss on promotion for the combined team in the EYAL. CRs were set by Jason Waldren u17 mile in 4-40.3; Matthew Treasarden u15 1000m (2-46.3) and mile (4-50.2); David Trickey u13 200m (27.6); and Matthew Pearce 80mH (15.6).

Eighteen athletes competed in the first club biathlon, which was won by Dave Price. The course was a 12-mile bike ride, up to Potters Bar roundabout and back via the Ridgeway, followed by a 5.5 mile run on the road handicap course (up Hadley Road). This was intended to give equal weight to the bike and run, with fastest times around 30 minutes. Dave was fastest on both bike and run, taking 31-37 for the bike and 30-14 for the run. Although subsequently folk have run under 30 for that section, no-one has ever combined it with a fast enough bike ride to beat the hour in total. If you want a real laugh search out the YouTube video of the event at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYAWVwdz7KM

The report on the second Eastway 5k race of the season started with, ‘Ralph’s back, Ad’s flying. This is getting stupid’. At the first Eastway Ralph Bailey had turned up and ran in 15th in 15-42, having returned from his summer on a farm as part of his Vet training and not trained much. A few weeks later and he was ready for business. Mike Earthy’s report continues:

The normal couple of hundred Seniors wandered down to the start and then we were on our way. It was a very strong field. Haringey seemed to have an endless supply of runners at the moment, you can’t seem to get away from them. At the front, Ralph and Adrian were giving each other a tight race and holding nothing back. The break was made and the two of them and Seamus Kerr of Enfield were on their own. He went on to win but such was the pace that he ran a PB, being chased by two Barnet members! Ralph got the better of Adrian and smashed the club record out of this world. The first Barnet man under 15 minutes for the course and now the first to be record holder for both the Boys and Seniors. To say the least Adrian was a bit peed off with Ralph, but he can’t complain about his time [14- 58 to Ralph’s 14-55].

A further indication of club strength was the end of season 800m Senior rankings, which showed Andy Cunningham top with his 1-53.76 CR, followed by Mark Allen (1-55.8), Paul Strong (1-57.7), Steve Lowe (1-58.4), and Dave Spencer (1-59.1).

For the first time the March 1987 had a photo on it (left). The health of the club was shown by the numbers running in the various handicap races: 11 u13s and 11 u17s in the road handicaps in November, and 35 in the Senior race which was won by Paul Connor from Bob Sherlock (who once turned up in his dumper truck to drop something off at my house and said fecking more times than you could imagine possible in one conversation!); and 13 youngsters in the Boxing Day handicap, with 46 Seniors, with Brenda Atkinson winning from Martyn Rowe and Brian Fowler.

A further flavour of the season is shown by our men’s team placing in various races: North of the Thames (15th), London Champs (18th), Fraternity Cup (9th), Herts Champs (3rd), Southerns (no team result, but apparently Jack Stancombe was on funnel

21 duty and asked Julian Goater as he finished if he was raising money for charity!), North of the Thames (9th), National (84th).

In the Chingford League the men finished 2nd in both the overall and B tables to a very strong Haringey side, and won the Vets section. The report on the February Eastway races recorded that:

In the Boys race Matthew Treasarden was so determined to break Ralph Bailey’s club record [for the 2 lap, 2-mile event] that he set off at a cracking pace and was timed at under 5 minutes for the first lap. He slowed measurably but held on to win the race in a brilliant new record of 10-22. He also had a clean sweep in Chingford League fixtures to win the title.

In order to mildly celebrate these successes [2nd, 2nd, 1st, noted above], the Steve’s Harris and Chilton, Jim Shearly and Dave Mangnall decided to go for a drink on the way home. “I know a good pub we can go to”, says the Captain, directing the Chauffeur to one in Blackhorse Road. This turns out to be closed for alterations! So, they head for a pub at the Angel that “sells a good pint”. A gleaming handpump greats the thirst travellers as they enter. “Four pints of Best Bitter, please”, croaks Dave. “Sorry, we’re waiting for them to remove that pump”, says the barmaid cheerfully. “Oh well, four pints of the cheapest then”, says Dave. Captain’s credibility is now at an all-time low.

In a precursor to things to come I wrote a review for the mag of Bill Smith’s fell running classic ‘Stud marks on the summit’. This is now out of print and a collector’s item, which commands ridiculous prices if ever it comes up on eBay or similar. I rather like this description that comes from the book: “The runners and their supporters would get up to all sorts of pranks in an effort to win a race. One example concerns identical twin brothers, one of whom would run halfway and disappear into the shippen [barn]. His twin would then emerge and complete the ascent to the Pike while he rested. On the descent they would swap places again at the shippen.”

The June 1987 mag carried a long report on the Tramore AC exchange. This year the Irish club members came to us and some fine shenanigans ensued. Modesty permits me from saying whose team won the welly throwing competition, which took place in Victoria Park after the three football matches. As well as this there were huge turnouts at a cross country race put on in Hadley Woods, and at the Feltham Easter road races, to which we took our visitors.

Meanwhile Adrian Mason was eating up the roads in his quest to claim as many club records a s possible. In this period he did so at 10 miles - 49-42 in Woking - and at 10 km - 30-25 in the Kodak AAAs champs. This latter race was televised and it was great to have a Barnet vest highly visible, alongside Charlie Spedding at one point. Adrian sliced 2 seconds off Richard Ede’s previous club record.

Junior Jason Waldren showing good form at start of a Southern League 400m early in the season

We were still hosting the Hampstead 10 at this point too, and the report noted:

The warmest April day for 40 years greeted the runners at the start of the Club’s Hampstead 10-mile road race. A smaller field than usual set off over this tough 3 lap course. The interest at the sharp end was in whether Adria Mason could achieve his first major road win, or whether Andy Beattie would retain his title. After two laps they were running together, and looking like they might finish that way. However, on the last of the 9 hills Adrian was dropped and Andy stretched out to win by nearly a minute [51-34 to 52-32]. Andy Cunningham ran well for 6th place (56-06), and in the process joined that select band whose PB has been set on this tough course.

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Although coming last in a Southern League fixture at Tooting in August 1987, we still had some impressive track performances, with doubles in the 800, 1500 and Steeplechase (with your author winning the B ‘chase in a race good track effort). The report starts with an expose on our inept organisation on the day:

A certain amount of panic arose when the meeting started before the team manager got there – stuck in a traffic jam, with the numbers, declaration sheets, etc. AS ex-team manager, and arguably the most responsible person there, Chairman Andy delegated people to events until Zac got there.

The highlight of the afternoon was the 800m, where Mark Allen (with a PB of 1-54 under his belt from a week before) was paired with Steve ‘Legurts’ Lowe. The race went at a reasonable pace with Mark tucking in behind a Colchester runner, with Steve tucked in behind him. The cynics amongst us predicted various distances for Steve to ‘blow up’ at, but he just hung on in there. Coming off the last bend Mark moved smoothly into the lead, only to see Steve flash past at the start of the straight. The expression on Mark’s face was a picture to behold – “he can’t do this to me” he said were his thoughts, as we had a laugh about it later on. As it was, it was so well timed that he just couldn’t respond.

The Golden Stag Mile races had a predecessor in the Clubhouse Miles, which first took place on 30 July 1987. Thirty athletes competed in a series of road miles on laps of the footpath around Victoria Park, behind the clubhouse in East Barnet. The fastest Senior was Mark Allen in 4-35, Vet Derek Wood in 5- 14, Lady Kirsty Johnstone in 5-40, and young athlete Matthew Treasarden in 4-52 (to Jason Waldren’s 4-54). It was considered a success and the event continued for a number of years.

Richard Ede had meanwhile gone to University of Kentucky on a scholarship and was clocking some great results. In his first year he ran a 14-05 track race, and in the second year won the Southern Conference cross country championship, and All-American status. He earned high praise from Coach Weber, who said he was “definitely one of the best runners I’ve coached”.

The December 1987 club magazine front cover highlight four of the club’s young athletes. I was the Boys under 15 4x100m relay team of (clockwise), Tom Sauka, Ben Levine, Adrian Carroll, and James Bond. None of them still run for the club, although I did bump into, and have a chat with, Tom Sauka at the Midweek Road Race League at St Albans this week. He most be a v45 now and is happily running 10ks for Fairlands Valley Spartans and talking boldly about going fell running.

Another sign of the passage of time is in my ‘notes from the editor’, where I commented: a little less time than normal has been spent on this issue, due to a certain domestic upheaval – we are pleased to announce that Martyn Luke Chilton was born, at 6.5 pounds, at 8-40pm on 12th November, right in the middle of a committee meeting (not actually IN the meeting, you understand!). Mother and baby are well, father is still in a state of shock.

It is funny to think that, as we have just celebrated 50 years of the club, at this time we were celebrating 21 years of the club. The upcoming celebrations were duly noted as follows:

The first [event] will be a Young Athletes Disco at the Clubhouse on Friday 15th January. On Friday 29th January there will be a Club Social for the older members at the Clubhouse. Book your tickets early as this will be a real ‘Burfday party’. Throughout the year there will be an on-going series of ‘team’ events, which will comprise dart and table tennis tournaments, athletic competitions and a ‘Superstars’ event, and much much more. Each team will be captained by one of the Club’s notable personalities.

23

Turnouts seemed to be good in this year, with (for example) 15 competing in the second Club Biathlon (won by Dave Price, from Mike Earthy); three and a half pages being required for all the Club T&F Champs results; and us completing four complete teams in the season-opening St Albans Relay.

Looking back through the results there are sometimes ones that are no longer run. Some ere long-time favourites that just stopped, and others were short-lived ones that burned bright for a while. In the latter category was the Nescafe National Womens 10, which was organised to encourage female road running, and was held from Copthall Stadium [Allianz as is]. It had a fun run attached, in which some of the club’s finest YAs at the time were running. Maureen Shirley’s report notes:

With 10 mins to go no-one was sure what the distance was. Our entrants had assumed that the course would be the same 3 miles as previously, but rumours were abounding that the distance was only 1 mile. Enquiries at the registration desk drew a blank, and none of the officials (including the race organiser) seemed to know. The DJ called them to the start, and said the race would be less than a mile – just follow the lead motorcyclist. Off our runners went to the start, Steve C having told them what times he expected. The DJ played ‘La Bamba’ and for a moment I thought Tasha and Denise might think they were at a disco and start dancing instead of running. They disappeared into the distance, no-one knowing quite where to, and we all waited for them to return. Over 8 minutes elapsed and we concluded the course must be longer than a mile.

In the end young Andy Tappin (pictured, in a track race earlier in the year) came in second, and Denise Lomasney was 2nd girl, and 7th overall. Maureen Shirley was the only Barnet lady in the 10 miler in a field of over 300 ladies, who were led home by Paula Fudge in 55-08. Maureen commented that: ‘although initially disappointed with my time [77-46] I realised that all in all it had been a pleasant afternoon ….. I’d had lots of support all round the course’.

The headline for the Chingford League report on the Trent Park fixture of 17th October was stark and simple. It just said: “AT …… LAST!!”, with Mike Earthy’s article going on to explain how we had won both individual and team firsts on this occasion:

Well, he’s done it, and my god he’d tried beforehand, but Adrian Mason recorded his first Chingford League win in all the years he’s been competing. He’d finished second so often that it looked as though he’d never do it. But grit and determination forced him away from everyone, and he just cruised to his first win. Well done Ade! What’s it like not being able to ‘tuck in’ behind everyone else for 5 miles. The conditions were pretty terrible due to the winds the day before and all the rain during the week. Steve Chilton and Steve Harris were out on the course marking and both were doing great impersonations of lumberjacks trying to clear branches which had fallen on the course, thus making it safer to run. They couldn’t move the tree that had fallen at the bottom of the gravel path, and this made the run down and up a little interesting as runners approached from both sides.

The magazine also carried a report on that year’s London Marathon from Noel Robinson [photo], that detailed his ups and downs on the course, and ended rather poetically: ‘After crossing the line on Westminster Bridge I collected my medal and wrapped myself in the Mars Space Blanket. We turned behind County Hall where the wind whipped up strong and there were no more cheers. There were runners, only runners. All quiet, reserved, serene. We had done it! We cheered for ourselves inwardly. All our personal battles had been won.’

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Already by 1987 I was trying to influence other club members to try fell running, and arranged a trip for Adrian M, Mike E and a couple of others to do the Lantern Pike race in the Peaks. Steve Harris noted in his report that: ‘there is a great camaraderie among these fell runners., although overtaking in the finish funnel is accepted practice’.

The 1987 T&F Rankings were published in the mag and noted two Senior Records had been set that year: Martin Allen’s 50.8 400m, and Andy Cunningham’s 400mH time of 59.0 – both which still stand.

In the March 1988 mag there were listed the forthcoming events. A flavour of the time is shown by the advertised vital fund-raising Jumble Sale; Exchange Trip to Tramore, Beer Race; and Disco at the Clubhouse. There was a strong recruitment drive going on - grandly entitled Recruit 88 (aiming to get 88 new members during the year, to revive what had become a static membership).

Some individual results were: Derek Wood’s double of v55 marathon (with 2-40-30) and 10k cross country Golds at the World Vets Champs in Melbourne, Australia; Adrian Mason’s new Club Record in the Half Marathon at the Watford Half (in 1-06-57); and his win in the much-missed (by me anyway) Club 7m Cross Country Champs, that used the part of Hadley Woods east of the railway line and was a very tough run.

Mike Earthy wrote a longish report on the National Cross Country which had been in Newark and attended by quite a strong team of 7 runners, lead home by Adrian in 108th place. We had all travelled up in a couple of cars and Mike concluded that, ‘it was a great day out which brought out the main advantage of being a small club. A team all together on the biggest day of the winter season, having a lot of fun and doing quite well [71st team]. Thanks to Janina for carrying all our stuff from start to finish, and to Richard Pownall for finding a great pub’.

There was also an article entitled ‘The Sunday Run;’ by someone called Toni Chelvets, which neatly summed up some of the action that takes place on the long Sunday runs that many athletic clubs routinely have. I give you just a taster. You would need to know the usual suspects that lurk behind the monikers used by the author. But if you don’t know them you hopefully will still get the feel of it:

The Veteran, who is a Very Keen Trainor, had a fartlek session on his schedule, and proceeded to fartlek every now and again. Unfortunately, his coach was running the other way on one of his recoveries, so he had to do another burst quickly to show his dedication. This just goes to show that if you are going to be so keen as to have a coach – then you should choose one who doesn’t run any more.

Going into the country across Cattlegate Brook, the Young Blades were showing. This started producing gaps in the field – one of which was neatly bisected by a train. The testing now started in earnest as the pace gradually increased. Those That Know What is Coming eased away from Those That Don’t. Mind you, it would have been worth hanging around to see what the New Boy made of the first of the real mud.

The 1988 London Marathon was run in conditions that those that ran it this year will empathise with. First two home for Barnet were Tony Levitt in 2-49-41 and the ever-consistent Howard Aiken in 2-53- 19. The report notes that, ‘what appeared to be a good day dawned for the London Marathon. However, as the race progressed it became obvious from the way some people were suffering that the high humidity was taking its toll’.

On 22 May we had a great day out at the AAA National Vets Road Relay Champs, with a v40 team of 8 (in 59th place), and two v50 teams of 6. The A team brought home Gold. ‘A brilliant last leg by Derek Wood brought home the first ever Barnet and District AC AAA Championship title. The team ran steadily over the 2 mile 1524 yards course in the earlier stages, with Roger Marven handing over to Derek in 4th place. Derek ran a storming leg to bring us up to 2nd with a few hundred yards to go, then hit the front to bring the team home by 5 seconds, from Bingley’.

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Women on the up

The September 1988 club mag deservedly highlighted Kirsty Johnstone’s recent successes, with her starring on the cover. She was recently crowned County 10m Champion, and had won all the races in the summer Cheshunt League (the forerunner to the current Midweek Road Race League).

The next issue (Dec 1988) showed a Senior Ladies Track and Field Ranking List for the season. This was showing evidence of an increasing interest in ladies track and field competition, even though it showed only 8 entries in that year’s list!

At the time the club had a formal Development Plan, in which Point 4 was: Apply to enter Southern Womens Track and Field League. It was hoped to enter the league in summer 1990, when several of the present YAs move up to the Junior/Senior Ranks. The league also had U17 events.

The ‘Whats Going On?’ column in the mag noted an ongoing problem, and also a new race development. At the time we trained at Bethune Park in Barnet, which had a cinder track. It was noted that it, ‘was flooded by a burst water main last summer. Unfortunately, Barnet Council have not been able (or seen fit) to repair the track, and say there is no money to do it at present. We have made representations to the Officers of the Council and are awaiting a reply’.

It was also reported that we would be promoting a new road race. ‘The Club has arranged an event sponsored by Estate Agents Blade and Co in aid of NSPCC. WE have agreed that entry fees will be divided equally between the Club and NSPCC, and proceeds from catering will be ours. The event will be a 10km road race, plus a 3km fun run, from our Clubhouse on May 1st (at 10-30am). We hope to make this an annual event.’

As we have seen Andy Tappin was making a name for himself in the u13 age group (called Colts at this time). On 28 Jan 1989 I wrote that he came 31st in the Inter-Counties x/c race at Shrewsbury:

Andy Tappin continued his recent run of good form, having a brilliant run in the Inter-Counties, after just scraping in to the Herts team – due to being under the weather on the day of the County Champs race at Cassiobury (where he finished 12th). He was 1st Herts scorer in what is virtually the ‘National’ for the Colts age group.

In another surprising report (remember this was 30 years ago) I stated that, ‘the Club’s three athletes selected for county squads for the English School Cross Country Champs (including 12 year old Andy Tappin) have had to sign a declaration form to the effect that they agree to take a drugs test if selected at the event’.

Two of the Club’s athletes went to extremes to get a different running experience in. Firstly, Howard Aiken competed in the 21st Karrimor 2-Day Mountain Marathon in the Cheviot Hills, concluding that he:

…. really did experience a sense of achievement. Over the two days we had covered about 50km through wild and beautiful country and hadn’t seen a car or any of the other accoutrements of modern living in all that time. We had climbed about 1800 metres, hadn’t got lost, in spite of fog, and carried everything needed for an overnight camp stop. It was much tougher than I had expected but that only added to the sense of achievement at having successfully completed it.

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The other was John Fulcher, who completed 120 miles 440 yards, in coming 8th in the Solihull 24 Hour Track Race. His report included this description of two of the issues faced when doing such an event. ‘During the night my forearms had started to ache due to the arms being constantly held in a running position; fortunately massaging each arm as I continued to run eventually gave complete relief. Two applications of Vaseline under the arms and legs were sufficient to prevent chafing, and surprisingly I only had to stop once to remove a shoe to shake out a stone. I had not one sore spot or blister on my feet’.

At the end of the 21st year of the Club’s existence lists of Top 10 Senior Mens performances ever were produced. The most remarkable thing is the amazing range and consistency of performances it showed that Andy Cunningham had achieved. Over the range of 20 T&F events that we competed in he appears in the Top 10 all-time list in 11 of the events: 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, 10000, steeplechase, 400mH, triple jump, hammer and javelin.

The winter of 1988/9 was one of good performances, from the young athletes in particular. It is appropriate I think at this point to acknowledge the time and commitment that the club’s coaches and officials give to supporting the young athletes in the Club. These three on the left (Steve Harris, John Mould and Mick Tappin) gave immeasurable amounts of their time and kills to developing YAs, in their roles as coaches, team managers and advocates over the years. Thanks guys.

At the back end of the winter season comes the English Schools X/C Champs, which can be the absolute pinnacle of a young athlete’s achievement. This year it was held (for the only time I can recall) in Hertfordshire and I went along to watch, along with the mum of one of our best YAs, who I was also coaching. My report takes up the story:

Denise Lomasney was the Club’s proud representative in the English School race, running for Middlesex Schools Senior Girls team. Over a muddy course that had cut up a lot by the time of her race, she ran well to finish 5th counter for Middlesex [183rd overall]. The tannoy announcement that ‘Lomasney of Middlesex is in the lead’ caused her mum surprise, and some amusement to the Barnet officials at the finish [the announcer had read the number wrong by one digit in the programme, it was Middlesex’s Sharon Murphy who was actually leading]. Denise did not hear it herself, and said that it was probably just as well as she would probably have had to stop from laughter.

Just two weeks later and the Seniors were running in the ECCU National X/C Relay at Mansfield, having been invited as we finished in the top 25 in the Southern X/C Champs. The team of Adrian Mason, Mike Earthy, Zac and Andy Cunningham came a very creditable 28th in this high quality race. Mike commented that it was ‘nice to rub shoulders with these blokes instead of seeing their names every week in AW’.

The strength of the YAs was shown by their team winning the first EYAL match of the season at St Albans, with best performance awards going to Liz Copeman and Ed Shiers (both u13s); 6 of the clubs YAs helping the Borough of Barnet team win the London Mini-Marathon overall; and then nine different boys and girls winning medals across the events at the Herts County T&F Champs. Add to this the fact that Tom Sauka (2nd in the u15 LJ) and Peter O’Sullivan (3rd in the u20 HJ with 1-95) wo medals at the Southern Champs shows that the young athletes section was developing talent nicely.

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Two very small footnotes also appeared: One, a letter to the Editor from Sir Arthur Gold CBE conveying to Howard Aiken his ‘thanks and congratulations on his article on The Karrimor [quoted above] ….. It epitomises our sport – participation for personal satisfaction’. Secondly, John Rowe recorded the fact that the first NSPCC 10k was very well received, and had raised around £3,000 for the NSPCC funds.

In the September 1989 Club Magazine it was announced that: “Following a questionnaire canvas of the active female members of the club, and after extensive discussions in (and out of) Committee, it has been decided that the Club should fill it’s one glaring omission in it’s competitive athletics structure – and provide competition for Senior Ladies in track and field.” Yep, we were going to enter the Southern Women’s T&F League for the next summer season.

This development was partly in response to some excellent performances by the female young athletes in the club, whom we realised needed good competition as they matured (the SWTFL had under 17 events as well as Seniors). This progress was evidenced by the list of club records set during the summer season [above], which include ten set by five of our young female athletes.

Brilliant Senior Men’s performances were also being delivered across various events. In the Southern Champs 800m heats at Crystal Palace Andy Cunningham ran a scintillating 1-56.66, with Mark Allen just behind in 1-58.04. Meanwhile Adrian Mason knocked out a 68-51 effort at the Great North Run two days later.

For the Vets Derek Wood was in great form. He was one of five club members competing in the World Vets Champs in Eugene, Oregon – bringing home a bronze medal in the O/55 marathon, with his 2-46- 59 time.

Such was the Vets strength in the club at this time that we were invited to be part of a 24-Hour Relay at Cosford stadium, which would be an attempt on the O/50s World Record, which was held by Lion Gate Road Runners (USA) at 245 miles 553 yards. Each member of the 10-man team ran a track mile, then ‘rested’ for the best part of an hour whilst the others ran, before coming back again, and so on for 24 hours. The ten Barnet runners were: Derek Wood, Dave Fereday, Laurie Forster, Brian Glover, Chas Brett, Bob Belmore, Dave Richards, Bob Kirsop, Bryan Parkes and Joe Cox. Their average mile times varied from Derek’s 5-37 to Bob Belmore’s 6-52. In the event the record was not surpassed, with Cambridge Harriers winning with a British and European Record of 236m 77y, with Barnet second with 232m 1360y.

Seeing the Girls Summer Points Trophy results for that year really takes me back, as the top 6 listed were athletes I had worked with as a coach to a greater or lesser degree. The winner was Tasha Shirley, followed by Liz Copeman, Denise Lomasney, Marie Papadopoulos, Kathy Ryan and Eleanor Mould. In particular, I remember some brilliant sessions we did together at the old Bethune Park

28 cinder track. I am still in touch with a couple of them all these years later. I met one (who shall remain nameless – but you know who you are) recently for a catch-up and she recalled that on one occasion I had said to her that she ‘might consider buying a sports bra’. She then reminded me of something I had forgotten, which was that they ALL turned up for the next training session with their new sports bras!

In the December 1989 magazine there was a piece discussing whether the fixture list was too crowded and suggesting a coaches and team managers meeting to try to make the situation better.

There was still room for reports of random off-club events that had taken place though. In October there had been a Littlewoods 2.5 mile event, as Tony Blacker reported: ‘While the majority of the club were over at Eastway I was racing Steve Cram from Putney Bridge to Craven Cottage, and yes I beat him! I had better point out that this was not an official race. Crammie and I (plus others) were going to see Fulham play Sunderland in the Littlewoods Cup.’

In the same issue John Atkinson claimed a Club Record for the Cardiff 10km, which was a good standard race of the time. He claimed that he ‘overtook international runner Susan Tooby on the motorway (going there), but she did beat me in the actual race’.

John also provide a report of a less successful trip to a race, this time the AAAs Vets at Barnsley, on 19 November of that year:

SECOND TIME LUCKY: a party of 12 travelled to the race. Last year our minibus broke down near Northampton and we did not make it to the race. This year most of us decided to travel on the Saturday to be sure of arriving and of being fresh for the race on Sunday. Some of the freshness disappeared as the road outside the hotel was being resurfaced overnight, making sleep difficult. However, we warmed up for the 11-30am start, lined up and were awaiting the gun when an announcement was made that due to the fog the race was to be put off for half an hour. This was on the instruction of the police. Again, we warmed up only for a further announcement being made to say a further try would be made to start at 12-45. By this time we were feeling cold, fed-up and past racing. The race was finally cancelled. Anyone fancy it next year?!

At the back end of the magazine was a note that, ‘at the committee meeting of 26th October 1989 the Committee regretfully accepted the resignation of Adrian Mason, who will however remain as a 2nd claim member’. I thought his 14 years with the club deserved noting, and as magazine editor I wrote a two-page profile of him, from which two extracts are reproduced here. It listed his best performance at various events, such as his 49-42 at the 1987 Woking 10. Interestingly, despite some stellar performances, his only Club Record came as an under 17, in the somewhat obscure 2000m – with a time of 6-26.8. His best position on the Senior all-time lists was his 14-49.6 for 2nd place on the club 5000m list.

Here is a flavour of that profile, edited down:

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Adrian started, as I am sure he’d agree, as a mediocre runner, often being beaten by his brother Barry, and many other young athletes in the club. He gradually developed, and is a role model for all young athletes, demonstrating the potential that can be achieved by persistent application of training – eventually you will improve. [Then lists performances]

All in all, an outstanding contribution to the club over the last 14 years. What is even more impressive is that he has been such a good club member, serving for several years as Treasurer, but more importantly being ever willing to run in the club’s competitive fixtures. This is shown by his sequence of victories in events such as the Club cross country champs, and the Club 7m cross country race, plus his frequent high showings in the winter points trophy.

Adrian will still be around on some training and race occasions. He plans to join Highgate Harriers, in order to be competing at the national level in teams of a higher standard than Barnet can raise – a shrewd move judging by some team performances by his new club in some of the recent road and country fixtures.

The March 1990 magazine noted that the 1989 AGM passed a resolution ‘to allow the Committee to investigate the sub-letting of our main hall as a Day Nursery as this would afford the Club a regular and lucrative income’. To cut a long story short, after a lot of work this eventually took place and was a financial lifesaver for the club, despite a sometimes strained relationship with the tenants.

Meanwhile over on the country the Fraternity Cup took place as usual at the beginning of December. According to the report: ‘Zac was in the unusual position of not only finishing a race but leading the rest/best of the club home, over a dry Trent Park course. He was overheard asking a spectating Adrian Mason how he should cope with being the club’s no 1 runner!’

Zac [photo] got his comeuppance a week later at the County Champs at Cassiobury Park. ‘The rutted course didn’t stop Adrian Mason from winning [running as 2nd claim], just holding on to the lead on the long slog home. Andy Cunningham sat and waited and ran well, dragging Jim Shearly and Mike Earthy along. Dave Wilson ran his ever-consistent self, but Dave Candy had problems on the uneven surface and didn’t finish as high as expected.’ Although he was running, there is no mention of Zac in the report.

One of the races lost to our calendar that I regret no longing being there is the ‘Club 7’ cross country race, which usually took place in early January. It was basically the same course as the club cross country (3 laps of Hadley Wood) with the extra added bonus of the muddy field and wooded area over the bridge down to Jack’s Lake, and a hidden handicap within the race. It often had invited guest runners to add to the occasion. I will leave mud-loving Mike Earthy to describe this year’s event in his inimitable rambling style:

A small field [of 28] assembled, boosted by guests from Trent Park and Haringey. After a wet week the course was like its good only days, if not better because of the drainage works around Jack’s Lake. Into the mud and field we went, with Mike pulling away with only a Haringey runner in tow. He didn’t know what was coming, soon the mud and Baker’s Hill were taking their toll. Phil [Cunningham] turned up late but worked his way through the field, but I suspect that he ran up the road! Louise Rowe won the award for cleanest finisher. She seemed to tip toe over the mud and even managed to keep her white kit clean. After numerous attempts Mike at last won the Club 7 Cup. He almost managed to win the sealed handicap, only losing by 4 seconds to Dave Fereday – a great credit to Steve Chilton to finish everyone so close together in his last handicap.

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A range of magazine contributions

In the March 1990 club mag Liz Copeman wrote a longish report on her run as an under 13 in the Inter-Counties Championships, which was at Blaise Castle, Bristol. Her report finished: ‘The downhill got the better of me and I slipped over but got up quickly and got on with the race because I was so relieved to be able to see the finish. It was a long finish of about 400 metres, but I managed to find a sprint and finished as fourth scorer for Herts, which I was really pleased with. As our race was the first we had to wait a long time for the rest of the team to finish their races – but when the day finally ended we set off for home with a coach full of exhausted people.’

Showing a real sense of adventure Paul Strong and 5 Barnet clubmates headed down to for the Nos Galen race at Mountain Ash on the evening of 30 December. They got to the end to find organisational chaos:

A queue of runners a hundred yards back down the road, much like the National. Steve [Lowe] can’t be bothered to wait in the cold and jogs back to retrieve his gear. The rest of us wait patiently to have our numbers checked, by which time Phil [Cunningham] has jumped the queue to chat with me, moving up 15 places after finishing running! The recorders don’t seem to know what is going on. Was Mike’s [Earthy] run good enough to earn him a Nos Galen vest for finishing in the first 100? Maybe we will never know.

This edition of the magazine seemed to have a streak of different, and interesting, contributors to it. Richard Pownall had recently taken to Orienteering and wrote a paean to the sport entitled, ‘Have compass – will get lost’. In it he proposed a Barnet and District AC Orienteering Champs, so any that take part in this year’s version – on the brand-new coloured orienteering-style map of Hadley Wood – will have him to thank for enjoying (or otherwise!) the event.

The recent spate of photo-decorated front covers to the club magazine came to a temporary halt for the June 1990 issue, but it did show some of the highlights of the results achieved in the months concerned [illustration left].

There was a report on the aforementioned athletic club orienteering championships, which Richard Pownall had instigated and duly won, to no-one’s surprise. He also wrote the report, which noted that: ‘half a dozen brave souls turned out on a sunny Sunday morning to explore the parts of Epping Forest normally known only to the squirrel. Steve Chilton puffs up late looking harassed and muttering something about babies and/or in-laws.’ But best of all was the statement that Mike Earthy had got so lost and taken so long to complete the 7.7km course that he prompted the article’s subtitle, which was: ‘Mike Earthy completes race at 27 minutes per mile!’

Anyone who has done the Orion 15 on a ‘wet year’ might enjoy this extract from John Mould’s report of that year’s event, where he came 150th out 329 runners, to Mike Earthy’s solid 11th place, having dropped back from his earlier 4th place as he suffered in the heat.

Having heard from various sources how tough this race is supposed to be, I decided to give it a go as part of my marathon training, and then write a graphic report along the lines of “it was hell …. etc”. As it turned out, it was a bit of a doddle, just like a Thursday jaunt round Trent Park, and so you have been spared the gory details. I’ll try again next year, although if the global warming theories are correct the Orion 15 may never be the same again.

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The month of April 1990 was remarkable personally for possibly the only two wins I had in my whole running career. Actually, neither of them were proper race wins, but there you go. Firstly, I ran in the Walthamstow O/35 road race, coming 8th - but significantly being first Barnet man home of the 11 oldies entered, and I NEVER led the team home normally. Secondly in my first handicap race since resigning as club handicapper I won the sealed handicap within the club 10km champs, by 2 seconds. I must have been on a bit of a streak of form as I see I finished 3rd behind Ralph Bailey and Mike Earthy, and ahead of Andy Cunningham and Paul Strong. OK, enough already, I can feel the Editor thinking, ‘but what about the rest of the club, Steve?’

Well, on 5 May the men’s team won a Southern League fixture at Woking, with the 10 athletes filling every event on the programme. Our regular reporter notes that: ‘it was a roasting day. [Team manager] Zac’s first error was making the meeting time too early – thinking we were going to Worthing on the south coast! It was a track that makes Bethune look normal – the straights were only 80m long and there was hardly any shade, and that disappeared as the afternoon wore on. If you missed this one you might have trouble getting in to this winning team!’

I also miss the road races we used to organise, including the Hampstead 10 and the NSPCC 10k. The latter was held from the old clubhouse, and it had a fun run as well, plus the Spurs road show, and celebrities attending. This year somehow we got Spurs captain Gary Mabbutt to come and he was brilliant. He ran the fun run and presented the main prizes, gave a speech and was still going strong playing soccer games with the kids at the end. The fun run was won by Andy Tappin, with Highgate’s Adrian Mason winning the 10k in 31-44.

The Sept 1990 club magazine noted another ‘convincing’ Southern League win, this time at Bracknell. The afternoon’s events had begun well with a double victory in the Pole Vault (what?!) by Mark Gann and Tim Copeman. But who would be a team manager, though? As usual the team became stretched, and tired, as the afternoon wore on, and we tried to fill all events. The report notes that: ‘so fragile were some of the team looking at one stage of the afternoon that Zac chose a 4x100 relay team consisting of himself, Tim Copeman, Mike Earthy and Steve Chilton, in order to protect his 4x400m runners from over-doing it. However, sense prevailed and 3 of the 4x400 squad agreed to double up and run the relay with young Ryan Loton [who had already done 5 events]. The ploy worked as the ‘one lappers’ sprinted to 4th place, and still managed 2nd in their own event.’

There quite often used to be unusual social events, and as part of the Shaftesbury centenary celebrations Phil Cunningham organised a cricket match between themselves and Barnet and District. I just wish there was space for Mike Earthy’s full report, but will give you a flavour:

Gill Nunn opened the batting, wearing cricket pads and a cycling helmet, and amazed everyone by scoring one run. Two more of the Nunn clan batted bravely, facing a storm of bodyline underarm bowling. Dave Candy turned up on his bike and was slung in to bat, before being bowled out by one that cut back. Barnet were thus all out for 129. After the tea/beer break Shaftesbury batted. We were a bit thin on the ground for fielders as two of our batsmen had gone off to a wedding. Meanwhile Shaftesbury’s team was getting bigger, with Dave Bedford turning up. The umpires (they had provided) didn’t know the rules. Shaftesbury were hitting everything to the girls and running like hell, but we ran some out. New batsmen put everything behind the ball and it was left to Dave Bedford to score the final two runs. Overall an excellent afternoon’s fun.

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Zac also wrote a 4-page profile of his Southern League team; from which I have selected some people you may know. They are written in a way only Zac could and hopefully no-one was offended at the time, or is now (all profiles are edited down). Steve Chilton is club statistician, and philosopher. He’s run a 2-36 marathon and was showing his best form for years in 1990 until he sadly got injured jumping into a pond. He’s had two babies recently. [The photo is the said ‘pond’ incident. I had borrowed Zac’s spikes to do the chase. All he cared was to get them back off me! I was carried away on the starter’s mobile steps] Mike Earthy took over from Adrian Mason as A-string runner. He’s put a little weight on over the years, but it doesn’t seem to have slowed him down. I once dropped him from a sprint relay team and I don’t think he will ever forgive me, but I don’t really care. Adrian Mason – see Highgate Harriers club magazine. Steve Nunn thinks he’d be a good sprinter. If the day comes when he has to support his words with deeds he’s guaranteed to be ill, hence they call him B-ill. Mel Parker lives in Liverpool at present. He is a useful team man. His girlfriend looks so much like him that I am sure its his sister. He says she’s not, but he would say that wouldn’t he. Richard Pownall once said to me that, “I’d love to see the day I can’t get in the team”. Unfortunately, he missed it because he wasn’t picked. There was an announcement in the March 1991 club mag: ‘The club’s first training weekend, organised by Zac, will be a chance to get some serious training (and serious socialising!) done before the track season starts. It is to be held at , , over the weekend of 13/14 April. There will be an easy session on Saturday morning, a hard session on Saturday afternoon – taken by the club’s 6 coaches who will be in attendance and geared to specific events – and a Sunday morning parlauf or relays session.’

On the racing font, the London Cross Country Champs at Parliament Hill has always been a race we have concentrated on and we certainly put the runners out this year. For the ladies Kirsty Johnstone came in 17th, with Gill Nunn 36th, Denise Lomasney 50th [pictured on the mag cover, left], Brenda Harvey 51st, Maureen Shirley 65th and Sharon Keegan 77th. This secured us 10th team place in a race won by London Olympiads. For the men Mike Earthy led the team home in 26th, closely followed by Neil Carty in 29th and Andy Cunningham in 66th. The report notes that, ‘the conditions made for a fast race, and a quick start meant that Zac was still changing into his kit and missed the start. Barnet were 8th but finished five teams which was quite pleasing.’

The club champs were held in Hadley Woods in this era and ‘our intrepid reporter’ noted that, ‘for the first time in a few years there was a question mark hanging over who would win the Senior race. New member Neil Carty has fitted well into the club and had been showing gradually improved form. Neil

33 and Mike [Earthy] had a close fought battle around a sticky Hadley Woods, and it was only on the last climb that Mike was able to open up a small enough gap to secure a win.’ Neil Carty ran for us for a few years while in London then returned home to Ireland where he soon became one of their leading fell and mountain runners.

There was a memorial race held for Neil Sutherland held in Regents Park on 15 December, as Ted Kimber reported: ‘A year ago we learnt of the death of Neil Sutherland, a club member who was working in at the time. He had worked at “Runners’ Need”, the running shop near Regents Park, for a while, and his friends and colleagues there decided to commemorate his name with a trophy to be competed for as near to the anniversary of his death as possible.’

The Southern Cross Country Champs that year were at Havant, and once again ‘Mad Mud Mike’ provided the report, after leading the team home in 155th place, and into 50th team place:

After all the wind and rain of the last week it was touch and go whether we would need snorkels or spikes. Brian Strong had told us that most of the course on Friday was under a foot of water, but thankfully it was down to a reasonable 6 inches on race day. The start was a horrible straight run of at least a mile before the first bend. It spread the field out, and by the third lap had turned to mud and become energy sapping. Andy Tappin’s [Boys u15] race was starting as we turned up and to our surprise we could clearly see a Barnet vest leading! Andy may have gone off a bit too fast, as he went past he had dropped to 7th or 8th, but had saved himself for the one short hill and gained back two places to finish an excellent 6th place. The Senior race had near enough 1000 finishers and Neil [Carty] couldn’t believe the size of the field. Wait till the National!

There some issues with the Middlesex Schools race that year. After the race had to be cancelled twice because of the snow the organisers were in a quandary about picking a team for the English Schools. So, a selection race was put on – in half-term – and only those with previously known form were invited to run. Denise Lomasney was one of those invited and took her opportunity with aplomb. She joined Andy Tappin, who was already selected for Herts Schools, in going to Taunton to run in the English Schools Champs. The race itself was poorly organised with start times brought forward, and races under-distance. Frustrated at not being given adequate warm-up time she vented her frustration on the course, showing great presence of mind in leap-frogging a competitor felled by the ice just in front of her, and ran herself into the team for the third year in a row – a most enviable record.

There was also a report of a Ladies Night Out, boldly held the night before the Club cross country champs. ‘After some initial misgivings about arranging a dinner for a group of “hens” whose ages ranged from sixteen to sixty-five, sixteen of us eventually sat down to eat at the Rising Sun in Whetstone, and had a good squawk! Maureen valiantly tried to recruit new members from the bar and waitress staff but with no luck. Perhaps if she tried the ones under twenty stone she would have had more luck, or could it be that they saw what running had done to us and it put them off!’

Proving that he was a man ahead of his time, Brian Glover competed in the first World Trail Champs on 23/24 June 1990. It was incorporated in the 80-mile South Downs Way Run. Brian wrote a detailed report for the club mag that included:

It is not easy, or safe, to find your way across the South Downs in pitch darkness as there are no paths or landmarks. Therefore, I slowed down until two other runners caught me up. It turned out that they had both completed the race before several times and thus knew the route. I joined them and the three of us went on together sharing torches and encouraging each other in what had now become a difficult and cold environment. We finally came down off the Downs into Eastbourne at about 1-40am. We knew we only had one mile to the finish and a quick conflab determined that we wanted to run over the line together. The sight of three men who had already covered 79 miles trying to rise a gallop over the last mile must have been quite funny to watch. We found we had finished in 16 hrs 51 mins in 256th place out of 505 finishers. This was some three hours slower than I had hoped for.

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The first club training weekend

The clubs over 60 team were cover stars in June 1991, having won the National Vets Road Relays. John Atkinson wrote: ‘Congratulations are due to our over 60 team who retained the AAAs Road Relay Championship title which they won last year at Aldershot. This year’s race was held on Saturday 10 May at Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield over a testing three mile course. Derek Wood, now of age, replaced Tom Horne (who is currently in Hong Kong) and put up the fastest time of the day which was a course record for the over 60s of 18m 03s. Bob Belmore had a fine run on the first leg finishing in third place. Laurie [Forster] took over and gained the lead which was further consolidated by Derek.’

He also noted that the over 50s team ran well to finish in 24th place although missing Mike Sawyer (recovering from an operation) and Ted Kimber (who had a muscle strain), and that the over 40s didn’t finish a team.

Earlier in the season the English Schools had taken place at Taunton on 2 March. Denise Lomasney reported: ‘When I saw the course I thought I’d have an easy run! Andy [Tappin] had a terrific run, coming 191st in his race, and I was pleased with my run, having finished 200th out of 324. I was very tempted to walk near the end, but with Mick and Sheila Tappin having strategically placed themselves halfway up “the mountain” and with my mum and dad at the top, cheering madly in between puffs on their cigarettes, I didn’t have a chance to. As we all trudged back to the car park in the torrential rain I suddenly remembered that this was my last English Schools race, and that I would never have to run it again, and I smiled the whole way home.’

The club’s Senior Men’s section was strong at this time and were out in strength at the Stevenage 10 on 24 Mar. Our ‘man on the spot’ reported:

A small but powerful group of runners entered this, the Herts 10m Champs. It had been missing off the fixture list for a couple of years, but was back on and even on the old course. Yes, the one with Six Hills Way at 7 miles. Barnet again cleaned up on the trophy front. With Jim Shearly sneaking in front of Mike and Neil, Barnet won 1st team and the Herts Champs. Neil broke the trophy as soon as he touched it! Results: 7 Jim Shearly 54-59, 8 Mike Earthy 55-00, 11 Neil Carty 55-29.

The London marathon that year had 15 Barnet runners taking part. First for us was ever-consistent Howard Aiken, coming home in 2-46-23. First lady was Maggie Govender (although technically running for Haringey at the time) in 3-15-57. An honourable mention for Jim Neville, who squeezed under the three-hour barrier with his exquisitely timed 2-59-45.

The composition of our Southern League men’s team was different then. On 4 May at the Watford fixture the highlight was Peter O’Sullivan winning the high jump in a Club Record 1-97. Showing strength in previously unheard of areas we had ‘A’ string first place finishes in the pole vault (Mark Gann in 3-10), the 110mH (Mark Gann again in 20.7), and the 400m (Andy Martin in 53.3).

Distance running strength was there too, as evidenced by our results in the NSPPCC 10km from the clubhouse, which this year we had 32 runners competing in. This was a road race that we hosted for several years, that the club put a lot of energy into hosting. The report notes that: ‘The races were a

35 great success, getting coverage in the local press and BBC TV Sports News. We should congratulate ourselves on the professional way in which we organise events such as this. On this occasion under the guidance of hard-working John Rowe and his team.’ The first few finishers for us were: 2 Ralph Bailey 33-54, 4 Neil Carty 34-06, 5 Dave Price 34-23, 12 Steve Lowe 36-52.

At the Herts County Champs at Watford we had four athletes collect Gold medals: Kathryn Ryan in the Girls 100m and 200m; Ben Corp in the Youths high jump; Peter O’Sullivan in the Junior Mens high jump; and Mike Earthy in the Senior steeplechase.

As mentioned, the club held a training weekend at Bognor Regis (Butlin’s) from April 12-14th and five different people wrote about it in the mag. I have cherry picked a very small amount from each, which I hope will give a flavour of the event, and the different approaches to it.

First, there is Marie Papadopoulos and Michelle Bacon, with their take on the early part of the weekend: ‘Twenty chalets were booked. By around 11pm everyone had arrived, including Dave Candy – who had ridden all the way on his bike! Everyone made the most of the first night, boogying away in Manhattans Nightclub. How some people got back to the chalets was a mystery. What a night. None of the youngsters got any sleep.’

Then 3-year-old Mharianne Strong took up the story (although I suspect it was written by her parents, through her eyes): ‘Dad said he’d hurt his back, so he couldn’t do the training, but he managed to play snooker. Mum wasn’t fit enough to run and had to settle for aerobics, but she’s got no sense of rhythm. So much for the training weekend for them; it seems like I had all the fun! On Saturday morning we went swimming and on Saturday afternoon everyone went off for a run. I cried and cried as I wanted to go too, so I just ran up and down outside the chalets. I still had enough energy to play later on, though. A tiring day was rounded off in the Chinese restaurant with the Shearlys. I found it difficult using chopsticks to eat my chips!’

Denise Lomasney spent most of her report telling tales on the other young athlete’s behaviour over the weekend, whom she was probably leading astray anyway. Despite this she noted that: ‘For the rest of the day we were like zombies, but still managed to do the training sessions, swimming and a workout before starting over. Anyway, it was a great weekend. Despite all going home physically drained and exhausted, it was thoroughly enjoyed by all.’

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One or two of the arrangements with Butlin’s weren’t too smooth and Zac’s article humorously summed some of the problems up: ‘I had been promised that the rules, that no keys were to be issued prior to 4pm, would be broken for me because we were such a large party. On arrival I explained this to a nice lady whose job it was to deal with people like me. She said she had 34 large parties, so forget it. The best laid plans. At 3pm I took my place in the “large parties” queue. I was 2nd. I stood there with my 85p cornetto. “Can I have a lick”, called out an attractive red coat from behind the counter. “Come off it, I don’t know where you’ve been”. She looked so hurt. She wasn’t familiar with my sense of humour. “Treat them mean, keep them keen”, was possibly the worst bit of advice I was ever given.’

‘Half an hour later I was still queuing when John Rowe, Steve Chilton and Mike Earthy rocked up, with very long faces. With his minders Earthy and Chilton stood behind him, the President asked, “how long?”. “Half an hour”, I said. He nodded to his minders and they all walked off. I wiped the sweat from my brow.’

Later Zac returned to reception to continue sorting the chalets out. ‘I plonked myself on a seat near the pool tables. I quickly gave out keys to those present, and suddenly I was alone again. “Do you want a game of pool?”. I looked up, there was a kid, he couldn’t have been older than 10, holding a snooker cue. “You break”, I said. I thrashed him. As I was potting the black and winning the game Dave Wilson and Laurie Forster arrived. It gave the brat time to scarper before handing over my winnings. I picked up the paperwork and went to my chalet. Steve Chilton and Steve Harris were having a bath together. Not enough hot water apparently. I assured them I wasn’t so petty as to mention it in the club magazine.’ His piece went on in this manner, highlighting some of the other shenanigans. Interestingly, none of the reports actually explained what training had taken place.

There seemed to be an inordinately large amount of injuries written about in this particular issue of the club magazine. Paul Strong wrote a long piece about contracting glandular fever and how it had put him back for ages, and really affected his ability to train and recover his performance levels. I wrote a piece on what to do if you get injured, listing some support services that I was familiar with. Finally, John Rowe commented on his own rehab from a series of injuries over the past 10 years. He concluded with the following sound advice: ‘Most injuries I believe are 70% state of mind. So, look around until you find someone you believe in. Have faith in someone who does not tell you to give up the sport, but also does not tell you to go for a 10-mile run that evening.’

The cover of the September 1991 club mag had a picture of some of our athletes at the Brugge International 10/25km races [left: John Atkinson, Jim Neville, Brenda Atkinson, John Shirley, Maureen Shirley, Mick Tappin and Steve Harris]. This was a popular event with our Vets at the time.

It also noted: ‘the club has just received notification of an award of £400 from the SCAA Development Committee to help establish the post of Schools Liaison Officer. The committee is being asked to support this development – possibly by attaching a small honorarium to the post. The idea is for the individual appointed to the post to establish closer links with the schools in our catchment area, to work with the Sports Staff in providing appropriate athletics for their pupils (perhaps by sending our coaching staff to the schools) and ultimately to increase significantly the numbers of youngsters coming in to the club.’

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The club vest saga

The club mag also noted a proposal to be lodged at the 1991 AGM by Zac. This was: ‘that all members, joining the club for the first time on or after this AGM, on payment of subscriptions be automatically, and without additional charge, provided with a club vest.’ There was also a note from Richard Bevan (a team manager at the team) about confusion with the existing club colours. ‘The Club Colours in the present rules consist of a royal blue vest with red hoops and red shorts, with second colours for use in races of 20k and over consisting of a vest with a red top and blue bottom with the name across the chest. We have drifted into a position where many, if not most, of our athletes are wearing the second colours, particularly the ladies and for summer fixtures.’ Another proposal was planned for the AGM to resolve the situation. The results of the AGM motions will be revealed in due course.

The entry into the Southern Women’s League was certainly bringing the standard of performances up dramatically. In the fixture at Mike End on 1 June four Club Records were set: Kirsty Mullinger (Senior 200m in 30.8), Denise Copeman (Senior 100mH in 20.8), Mary Mitchell (Senior LJ in 4-29, and Kathy Ryan (u13 200m in 28.6). Three weeks later at Horsham another six were set: Mary Mitchell bringing the Senior 200m down to 28.8, Marie Papadopoulos setting a Senior 400mH record of 80.8, and four more in the YAs section – Kathy Ryan (u13m 100m in 13.8, and 200m in 28.3) and Anita Klendjian (u15 200m in 29.5, and 75mH in 13.9).

The third midweek league race (our home match) on 13 June showed the current Senior Men’s strength in depth, with 7 in the first 11, and all under 35 minutes. They were: 1 Andy Pritchard 32-45, 3 Neil Carty 32-53, 4 Dave Price 33-11, 6 Mike Earthy 34-02, 7 Andy Neatham 34-11, 9 Jim Shearly 34- 36, and 11 Dave Candy 34-51. Despite that performance we hadn’t put the teams out well enough in the earlier fixtures and were relegated to Division 2 at the end of the season by a mere 1 point, to which Neil Carty responded, ‘I hear the pubs are better in that division.’

It is a personal history so indulge me if I report on the Club Biathlon that August, on the old course from the Victoria Park clubhouse. The event had become quite established by now and 12 club members competed, with another 6 making up composite teams (doing one discipline each), and also 8 guests who had heard about it and rocked up to try their hand at the running and cycling combo. Dave Reed won the event from John Shirley, with Alan Wiseman (of Trent Park) in third. The club mag listed the all-time best performances in the three categories, which went as follows:

Run: 1 Mike Earthy 29-09 (1987), 2 Jim Shearly 28-52 (1989), 3 Dave Price 28-58 (1987), 4 Steve Chilton 30-05 (1987), 5 John Shirley 30-09 (1987), 6 Dave Wilson 31-09 (1986) Cycle: 1 Dave Candy 30-52 (1990), 2 Dave Price 31-37 (1986), 3 Dave Reed 33-48 (1991), 4 Jim Shearly 34-33 (1988), 5 Mike Earthy 35-00 (1988), 6 John Shirley 35-56 (1987) Overall: 1 Dave Price 61-40 (1987), 2 Dave Candy 61-49 (1990), 3 Mike Earthy 64-22 (1987), 4 John Shirley 65-45 (1987), 5 Dave Reed 66-21 (1991), 6 Steve Chilton 66-40 (1987). Postscript: One interesting observation is that (at that time) the event was done run first in even years and cycle first in odd years. All but one of the fastest runs came in a year where the athletes had run after the cycle, and four of the fastest cycles came in years where they had already run beforehand. Discuss. The December 1991 had a particularly dull cover (illustrated below). I have no idea what the circumstances were but noted inside was: ‘Apologies for the fact that the layout and cover are not up to the usual standard, but it is caused by circumstances beyond my control’. Looking at the date and time of year I suspect it was a coded message for: ‘Sorry, I have just had another son.’

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Some the excellent results in this period were illustrated on that magazine cover, as was the way at the time.

Inside it was reported that the club colours were changed at the AGM, and that the rules now stated:

“Club colours shall be royal blue and red. The Club uniform shall consist of a vest with a red top and blue bottom, with the Club name in letters across the chest, and red shorts. The second colours, which may be worn in cross country and road races, are royal blue vest with red hoops and red shorts.”

It was also noted that: “This December will see the ratification of the Sub-lease between our Club Trustees, Barnet Property Services and the Early Years Nursery. This marks the completion of three years of consistent work from the initial investigations, obtaining planning permission, finding reliable tenants that satisfied our criteria and that of Barnet Social Services, not to mention all the committee meetings, letters, telephone calls, headaches and anguish.”

If memory serves that owed a huge amount to John Rowe and Brian Fowler, and in effect gave the club a sound financial position and negated the need to continually run jumble sales and the like to raise the money to allow the club to function.

Two results from the magazine coverage were: John Atkinson’s 2nd v50 place the Ashbourne Half Marathon in 1-34-00. He commented that it was ‘the hardest half marathon I have ever taken part in. At about 8 miles there was a hill a mile long and about as high! I hereby claim a club record.’ Nearer home, Mike Earthy had a cool third place at the first Chingford League race, the Eastway 5k in 15-42, which he commented on, as was his wont: ‘A very windy night to start the Chingford League season off. Many Barnet runners turned up, but despite their best efforts couldn’t finish at the sharper end of the field. A steady start had a big group heading for the first bend. As there wasn’t a moon tonight it was pitch dark and anyone’s guess as to where the bend actually was.’ Oh, how I remember running from the light of the clubhouse area to stumble round that first bend on that course.

Steve Nunn running the North of the Thames in November 1991.

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The road handicaps that year had 34 Senior runners (and 18 youngsters). In the Senior 5.5mile race there was, ‘a well-deserved win by 2nd claim member Andy Neatham, who is obviously back into running with a vengeance after several years out of the sport. His time of 28-23 was the fourth fastest ever, behind Adrian Mason (27-13), Richard Ede (27-51) and Mike Earthy (28-13).’ Maggie Govender was the fastest lady, but almost a minute shy of Kirsty Johnstone’s ladies record.

There was also a report of the Worcestershire Beacon Fell Race, which your reporter ran in that October:

Don’t make a comeback in a fell race! It does all sorts of horrible things to your quads, stomach and ego. I accepted this invite to race whilst unfit and was not much fitter come the day. The ascent was up the sharp end of the “hill”, and to give some idea of the severity the course went for a while up a road. Moira and some friends were travelling up the road by car to watch at the top and had to get pout and push the car as it couldn’t make it whilst they were in it!

Two new young talents were emerging for the club. In the first North West London League fixture at Hemel Hempstead Neil Chamberlain won the u11s race, and Craig Goddard was close behind in 5th place.

John Rowe wrote a piece for the magazine entitled ‘If you go down in the woods today’, and edited down version of which follows:

It is 8-30am Sunday 23 November, and Steve Harris, Dave Wilson and I are running from the clubhouse armed with secateurs and scythe. We ran via the Lime Path (members of the public giving us a wide berth) to the Glade. Where we set about clearing the cross-country course. We encountered a major problem at the rear of the woods. A large tree was down, and it would have to be removed. A JCB was only a handy 30 metres away and as Steve could drive such things Dave and he went to investigate. I his behind a bush. They concluded it was a no go, mainly because Steve would have to exceed his high jump PB to reach the cabin.

Eventually Steve Chilton arrived (being locked out of work by belligerent Middlesex Polytechnic students) with handsaw and bemused children in tow and removed the offending tree. He also spotted the President of the club showing two newer members the course on a training run – so watch out for Roy and Maggie in the club champs!

The magazine ends with a short piece by Paul Strong on ‘Sunday morning training runs’, which I feel used to a stronger tradition with the club then than it is now: The run (of 8 to 15 miles) usually takes in an interesting piece of local scenery, whether it be Trent Park on a beautiful sunny morning or the more polluted parts of Dollis Brook on a grey mid-December day. Usually the slow jaunt is around the local countryside but if it is too wet it will be on the roads so that Howard doesn’t get his feet wet. If anyone can think of a more pleasant way of spending most of Sunday morning, I’d be interested to hear your suggestions.’ I certainly can’t, but I did so many of them over many different routes. Now if I drive round the M25 I can recall bridges or underpasses where these long runs used to take us out into the countryside.

Paul Strong running cross country

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New young talents

The cover of the March 1992 club magazine had a picture of young Neil Chamberlain, and a list of impressive performances by a series of the club’s young athletes. This section of the club was particularly strong at this time, as will be seen. It was greatly helped by our involvement in the emerging Sportshall Athletics idea – indoor scaled-down athletics for younger athletes that the governing body was heavily promoting then.

What it did highlight was how poor the availability of decent sized sports halls was in the local area. The best we had were the QE Centre and Ashmole Centre, both of which were too small really to hold events. It was noted in the magazine that, ‘we have struck up a good relationship with the council’s Barnet Recreation Group though and have agreed a shared organisation of one [event] to take place at the end of the summer season’.

The photo below shows Maggie Govender warming up a group of Sportshall athletes, with varying degrees of success and interest shown by the athletes.

There was also a note in club mag about a fund-raising initiative in the club which was one of the best wheezes we had. Under a title ‘Personal pegs for posterity’, Steve Harris wrote:

Let us remember your association with the club. Have your own spot in the changing room. Make a donation to the club which is recognised. The cost of an engraved Peg Plaque is still only £20, so choose one of the few numbers left. One which may have a special significance for you – the year you started running, the number of your first house, your normal pulse rate.

I remember getting one and never using it, as it wasn’t placed where I always sat when using the changing room! I did sometimes use Steve Cram’s peg though, which appeared because someone in the club [Roger Marven?] knew him well enough to ask him for the money.

There was also a note about the upcoming ‘Training and Social weekend’, being organised by Kirsty Johnstone. It grandly noted that it was to be at, ‘Butlins Funcoast World in , which has been

41 declared a ‘Listed Building’ by the English National Heritage Board, which ranks it alongside Buckingham Palace in architectural and historical importance!’.

Meanwhile we were having some fun at races, starting with the Herts County champs at St Albans on 14 December, as Mike Earthy noted:

What a day! After the cold weather during the week the fog came to haunt us. On a new course which incorporated 3 laps – one small, one large, one medium – there were runners all over the place. One of the marshals sent one group in the wrong direction and they sort of ran one medium one large and one small or even – oh I don’t know it was a total foul up. Most laughed the race off, and the results stood. Neil Carty, flown over from Ireland at great expense, proved money well spent by coming home 11th. Mike Earthy, after a week off got around in 19th, with a trio of Barnet runners close behind [Mel, Steve L, Steve N]. Paul Strong closed the team for 3rd overall, but when was the last time Adrian mason didn’t get in the scoring team in the Herts! [He was part of the mis-directed group who did extra distance- Ed]

It was also noted that there was, ‘an outstanding run by young Neil Chamberlain in his first County Champs, retaining in the process his unbeaten streak this winter. He went into an early lead and never looked back – you couldn’t see anything in the fog anyway! WE were very close to being winning team, coming a close third to Old Gaytonians and Verlea.’ The other u11 runners in the team were Craig Goddard in 11th, Nick Broyd 11th, and Alex Norman in 24th. The NSPCC May Day 10k

Another event that we had a great deal of success with, and fun, was the NSPCC May Day 10k, which we hosted from the clubhouse. It was coordinated, with huge enthusiasm and a big team, by John Rowe. He noted in the race report for this year that, ‘this May Bank Holiday event was a great success, with a record number of competitors and the bonus of lovely weather which helped to make it a real family occasion. My thanks to all those whose time and help were invaluable. As well as the financial benefits the race was become a popular event in the running calendar – all to the good of the club.’

We used to get some good celebrities to come along and present prizes. This year it was Gary Mabbutt, and on another occasion local boy John Motson, who also used to run in the event. Unfortunately, it was decided that the roads that we were using were becoming too dangerous and the event was only held a couple more years after that.

The first few club runners that year were: winner Andy Neatham in 32-35, 3 Andy Pritchard 33-20, 4 Mel Parker 33-44, 10 Jim Shearly 35-49, 11 Andy Tappin 36-35. First female from the club was Kirsty Johnstone in 46-32, followed by Denise Lomasney in 49-12 and Gill Nunn in 51-09.

Andy Neatham was obviously running well at that time, but not for Barnet actually. Earlier that spring he came second in the Eastway (Chingford League) 5k race in 15-22, closing followed by Mel Parker 15-53, Ralph Bailey 16-10, Andy Tappin 16-23, Dave Candy 16-23, Jim Shearly 16-37 and John Shirley 17-14. Those last six took the club into 4th place in the race.

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Summer of ‘92

By the summer of 1992 we had now been competing in the Women’s Southern League on the track for a while, and were able to field almost complete teams in the Senior/u17 and u15 categories for these events as the following report from a match at Tooting Beck on 23 May shows:

From the two second places in the first event (400mH) to the rousing finale in the 4x400m relay, this was the club’s best ever performance in the three seasons we have been in the league. The following statistics tell the tale: the most points ever, only one event not filled (B 3000m), and 6 club records (+ 8 other PBs). The recent influx of newcomers to the young athletes’ ranks was evidenced by the numbers of non-scoring performances (14) [including future superstar Denise Gayle doing a non-scoring LJ]. For the Seniors Michelle Bacon was involved in three of the CRs, setting new Senior marks in the 200m and HJ before being an important part of the winning 4x400m team. Mary Mitchell was also in the relay team and set a new LJ CR and produced a PB in the 100m. Marian Ryan brought the relay home successfully, after Marie Papadopoulos had forged into the lead on leg 3, and also produced stunning home straight finishes to take second places in both the 800 and 400. For the under 15s Eleanor Mould won the hurdles, came second in the HJ and PB’d in the 200, whilst Maureen Daly had the distinction of winning two of her field events – one of which was part of a double in the DT with Helen Martin. Of the newcomers, Vanessa Leigh showed excellent speed in the 200, and the diminutive Furey sisters good potential in the 1500.

This team was built on a great crop of youngsters that we had got together from Barnet schools, plus the start of an influx of youngsters from St Thomas Moore school, through Noel Robinson and Joe Cox who both taught there. This photo show some of the club’s young athletes who were representing Barnet at the London Youth Games that year. Front: Tim Copeman, Andy Tappin, Adrian Carroll. Back: Michelle Bacon, Marie Papadopoulos, Liz Copeman.

Strangely, the same day as the women were doing so well, the club’s men’s team had a nightmare turn out for their match at Horsham, which was certainly NOT a reflection of the club’s strength at the time. Tony Blacker, was one of three athletes, along with Dave Harris and Graham White, who did turn up, and he reported the occasion thus: ‘A sadly (badly) depleted team travelled to Horsham for this Division 5 fixture. When you read the results, you can draw your own conclusions. As for the rest of the Senior Men, where were you?! The only events we failed to cover were the two relays (for obvious reasons). Dave also did the pole vault but failed to register a height.’

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Butlins training weekend

The weekend duly took place, and once again the magazine didn’t even mention the training, but I think this ‘edited down highlights’ of a piece written by Sharon Keegan will give a feel for what it was like, especially if sharing with three teenagers:

The plan was for myself to pick up Denise, Tasha and Marian from Denise’s house. Unfortunately, I was working. However, I was going to see if I could get off early. After a bit of pleading and giving the old sob story, I managed to leave the ward at 1-30. I didn’t bother to change; I just went before someone changed their mind.

Off I went to the address Steve Harris had given me, knocked on the door in my midwife’s uniform (complete with bag) and asked for Denise Lomasney. The woman who answered looked a little startled and sent me down the road to the correct house. I could feel her eyes following me, as she wondered what on earth Denise had been getting up to! I found the girls at Denise’s, sitting down to lunch and not even packed.

I was showered and ready when Denise decides to iron her kit. Packing the car was like the Krypton Factor. We all had one main bag each, but it was all the Sainsbury carriers that caused the problems, and it wasn’t even food. Denise’s dad insisted on checking the car over. Finally, we were ready. By the time we reached Barnet High Street the sweets, crisps, biscuits and drinks were out.

We finally arrive at Skegness and I must admit unpacking was easier than packing. The other girls, obviously oblivious to the cost of running a home, packed the metre with 50p pieces, and in no time all the lights were on, plus the hot water and fan heater.

That night I was unable to keep up with the rest. I left them at the disco, but they soon followed me home. When they came in, I thought great some sleep now. I’d been up since six then had a skin full trying to keep up – but to my horror it wasn’t to be, as in walked Andy Tappin and Tim Copeman. I packed my bed up, wearing my dressing gown and carrying my quilt I promptly went to Louise Rowe’s chalet, where I spent the night. I arrived back in the morning to an even messier tip, with bodies everywhere amidst the wine bottles. I couldn’t believe it was going to get worse …….

It did. Having been on many such weekends, both formally with the club and informally with friends and training groups, I can honestly say that lot (several of whom I am still very close friends with) were no different to other young athletes when placed in such circumstances. I can’t remember any serious misbehaviour and see it as something of a rite of passage. A preliminary to going to University, and just one step to take on the path to becoming a ‘grown-up’.

A measure of the club’s young athlete strength at this time was that we held a separate under 11s track championships, at Bethune Park track, each summer. This year’s highlights were two Club Records: by Craig Goddard (23.4 in the 150m, aged 9) and Paul Holmes (5-08 in the Standing Triple Jump). Also held in July were the Clubhouse Mile races, in Victoria Park (where the current HQ has recently been built). In the under 11 race there were 17 competitors, led home by David Theobald in 6-43, with future star Layla Hall first u11 girl (and third overall) in 6-56. Craig Goddard and Layla Hall

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It would be great if there were space to repeat some of the long race reports to give a flavour of some of the races the club’s athletes attended. In the Sept 1992 club mag there is a great long one from Mike Earthy about the 20th Batavieren Race in Holland. This is a ‘relay of around 100 miles. Most of the course is run in Holland with a very small section in Germany. Each team is made up of 25 people of which 7 must be women. The distances are from 3km up to 11km. The race starts at midnight on the Friday and ends at around 5pm on the Saturday.’ Mike and Ralph Bailey were running for Richard Pownall’s University Old Boys team, and his report is an entertaining read.

Scoring a victory in a very different race were three BADAC members: Gill Hanson, Kirsty Johnstone and Gill Nunn. They had a ‘sensational win in the Lee Triathlon relay’. The event consisted of 4- mile canoe section (Gill H), an 8-mile cycle (Kirsty) and a 5-mile run (Gill N). They won in a combined time of 1hr 49 min 6 secs.

In August 1992 there was a report from John Atkinson on the 1st World Vets 10k Road Running Champs, held from the NEC in Birmingham, in which the club had 24 competitors. 45 year old John Shirley led the club home in 172nd place, in a time of 35-56. I see from the results that I came in one place ahead of Jim Neville in 38-12, whom I seem to recall having agreed to pace round. Highest finishing age group position goes to 71 year old Jack Stancombe, finishing in 12th in the World. It is also interesting to now recall that this means that I managed to run in World Champs on both the road and the fells (the latter of which came much later, probably my last serious competitive race, in Keswick in 2005).

Paul Connor joined the club at around this point as he recalls: “I discovered the club quite by accident one evening whilst out running. Going past the clubhouse I ventured in, to be greeted by the sight of Jim Neville mopping out the changing rooms. He invited me to come along the following week, and bring a bucket and wellies.” In an amusing report in the mag he goes on to detail three funny things that happened to him around his running, including, this from the Folkestone 10m:

With very little time to spare I ran into the changing rooms, opened my bag and tipped the kit out onto the floor for a quick change. To my horror what I had emptied out in front of a packed room was in fact a pink leotard, a pair of tights, frilly knockers and a bra! My daughter has the same bag as me and I had brought the wrong one. With help from a couple of other runners (at least I think the believed me!) I ran in borrowed kit. To my short lived delight I crossed the line in a PB only to learn that the course was 600 metres short, and to finally cap the day, I had locked my keys in my car in the pre-race haste.

Steve Chilton

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