Officials

I have just noted the replies to the blog on the Parkrun from Marie and Christine. I totally agree with them that all events need officials, stewards, trail markers and helpers generally and it is great to see them doing it. It has been a wee disappointment that the club has not had as many officials as in the past and that we have not always had our quota of helpers at things like County Championships. This is not of course limited to Clydesdale Harriers - all or most clubs have more difficulties providing the workers at events.
I'm still going through James P Shields's papers and this week it was a collection of Athletics Weekly magazines for 1975 and 1976 but more important from the point of view of this discussion there was about 20 or 21 annual SAAA Yearbooks to look at. The SAAA and SWAAA provided different yearbooks and they contained as well as a list of Committee and Sub Committee members, the rules of competition, the laws of the sport, a comprehensive list of coaches with their events, their qualifications and their addresses (and a note that they should always be offered their travelling expenses by the athletes) as well as a list of officials, with their grades and their addreses and telephone numbers. There is no equivalent publication nowadays - the downfall came when they were not encouraged to put in addresses and telephone numbers of individual officials or coaches and the final nail went in when the sport became more professional. The last book I looked at yesterday was for 1982 and the club had four graded officials - David Bowman who was a Grade 1 for Track judging, Throws and jumps; Frank Gemmell who was a Grade 1 Throws Judge; Willie Howie who had a Grade 1 Track Judging qualification and Jim Shields who was like David Grade 1 for all three disciplines. They didn't of course stick to their disciplines - they worked as marksmen, officials or athletes assembly officials and had many other roles. In the 60's men like Johnny Morgan (who was an official starter) and Andy McMillan also were graded officials, in the 70's Bob and Ishbel Peel were both employed in the centre of the arena, in the 80's and 90's Isobel and Scott Govan plus Carole Baillie officiated at summer and winter events as field events officials and in recent years Raymond Farrell and I were timekeepers. That's quite a lot but is only a faction of club members who were prepared to steward, dish out numbers and so on at club, county and district level. The question - to Scottish athletics as well as CH - is "Where have all the officials gone?" For a start the club is required to provide two (only two) for the DAAA Championships on 28th November.
And thanks to Christine and Marie for the work done at the Parkrun!