The Relays

Now that the short relays are over for another year and with only the Scally Relay at Shettleston still to come, it is maybe appropriate to have a look back at the last month. First of all, the young athletes have performed well - better than they have done as a group for some years. It is partly down to the efforts of Phil and the training done but also and mainly because of the running done by the actual athletes. The West Districts were good and the Dunbartonshires even better with the girls having second team and the boys teams being second third and fourth.

The Senior Women have several good athletes and the second place in the County Champs a real credit to the club and to themselves. It is a pity however that they turn out so seldom - they could surpruise themselves and many in other clubs if they did so. The West Districts at Irvine was a missed opportunity: it was a brilliant afternoon, on a basically flat and fast trail but only one lady turned out. The Senior Men are turning into a useful group of runners. Paul Carroll and Ian Robertson are pretty evenly matched and Gary Dick - if he can get regular training and racing done - could really shake them up. Phil also says good things about Gerry Montgomery as a team member. James Austin only ran in the one relay missing the Districts because of illness and having to visit a daughter in England in the weekend of the National Relays. Prasad only ran in the one event - the wet and mucky Nationals. This is largely because of his first sport being cycling and there were cycling events on the other Saturdays. Nevertheless it should be possible to get both James and Prasad competing more during the winter than they have in October. First, James will not be visiting every weekend and Prasad will not be cycling. The thing is Cliff Brown's old obsession of communication.

In the beginning - the 1880's/90's - the club had sections and every section had two reps on the general committee to assist info going to the central committee; in addition the central committee had a rep responsible for alll the members in a particular area. In short, the committe had contact with every runner. If they could not contact them in any other way, they sent postcards! This could not continue but the function of the committee in this respect devolved to the captain. This was still the situation well into the 1990's.

The captain was responsible for the racing team. He selected the teams, made sure the runners all knew where and when they were expected to race and phoned round on the Friday night to anyone he hadn't seen that day. I feel that the senior men need such a captain - Gus filled the role admirably last year. The captain needn't be a runner of course - we could have a non running captain. With proper communication a team of Paul, Ian, Gary, Gerry, Prasad, James,John Kennedy and company might well be a reality. Contact should also be kept with good runners who are not currently competing for whatever reason - Mark Rudzinski and Graeme Reid spring to mind. The men's team could be really good were they to work in a cohesive manner with a single team manager or captain responsible for getting the runners out.