A Number and Three Questions

First the number. Selecting a year, I'll pick 1990 because the build up from 1986 was well under way and although it was to get better after 1990 there were other factors at play - the influx of athletes from Lochgilphead, the fruits of David Gibson's pole vaulting coaching were showing and so on. So in 1990 we had 108 club members, almost all from Clydebank and the surrounding area, competing for the club in Track and Field alone. There were 31 in the Senior Men's League, 35 in the boys' Young Athletes League and a massive 42 in the Women's League covering the four age groups - Juniors, Girls, Inters and Seniors. 108 competing in Track and Field.
The first question: any other reason for picking 1990? Well yes. It was just before we were turfed off Whitecrook track and after that it was downhill all the way to the present situation. Next year we should get a Clydebank based facility with our own track and with a bit of effort we could get back to the days of 1990. It will of course all club members training from the same venue and building up the team spirit again. Were there any particular aspects of big numbers taking part? I would suggest that in the first place there were several good coaches in the club who worked together well. Bobby Bell with the hammer throwers and shot putters came to Whitecrook for 6:00 pm so that they were finished before the track men arrived. Bill Hislop had the sprinters in action every Tuesday and was responsible for the rugby input with David Ross and his friends - we even had Matt Duncan, the British Lion, training at Whitecrook a couple of times. I had most of my youngsters training there - Peter McNicol from Faifley, Barry O'Donnell from Hardgate and so on were all there. Third question: with these numbers there must have been some recruitment going on? There certainly was - with the dreadful Clydebank AC picking up numbers right, left and centre we had to do something to get our own teams together. Scott Govan was a teacher in Boclair Academy and we built up a good relationship with the school and held coaching classes there once a month all year round. I lived in Killearn and there was a steadt flow of youngsters at my door asking to come to the Harriers - we had a couple of members from there and they talked the club up. I could have filled a minibis every week had it been available. But the biggest source was the club members themselves - John MacLachlan sent Lachie Carter down, he brought Craig McDaid, Colin and Sheena Lyle had both boys coming along to compete, David and Agnes Gibson had their children coming - and every child that came ended up bring another. At one point we asked every athlete to bring one friend. Not EVERY one did, but enough did to increase the numbers significantly.
More anon but next time I might say a word about the seniors at that same point in time.