How Things Change!

It is always difficult for new members of any club in any sport to realise that things were not always as they are now, or that they can change dramatically in future. In the process of ruthlessly clearing out the back bedroom - athletes training diaries, race programmes, maps of cross country trails, race results sheets, etc - I came across a couple of items that struck me as evidence of this.
Newer members might not even think back to 1998 - which is relatively recent. I have already shown a list of track league teams, but as recently as 1998, the Men's League Structure was as follows:
Division One: Aberdeen, Pitreavie, City of Edinburgh, Falkirk Vics, Fife, Shettleston, Law and - (newly promoted after being demoted to Div Two the previous year) - Clydesdale. Division Two had Scottish Borders, Inverness, Cambuslang, Kilmarnock, Kilbarchan, Perth Strathtay, Incerclyde and Corstorphine. Division Three had Dundee Hawks, East Kilbride, Ayr Seaforth, Irvine, Arbroath, Kirkintilloch, Cumbernauld and Central AC. Then in the Fourth Division were (the newly relegated) Victoria Park, Harmeny, Lochgelly (now DWF), Black Isle, Lasswade, Maryhill, Penicuik, Garscube and Whitemoss.

The other piece of paper comes from 1991 and is a race entry list for a club open Under 13 race. Clydebank HS had entered 9 runners, St Columba's had entered 7 athletes, St Andrew's 4 and Braidfield had 2.

It is as well to remember that the pendulum can swing back in our favour as far as men's and other leagues are concerned - you will note how many clubs are no longer involved in the League and how many are now defunct. Reasons? Partly there are fewer people of any age coming into the sport and this should be a spur to a recruiting campaign rather than an acceptance of a poor situation, lack of a local facility and with a bit of initiative this can be turned around once the track becomes available, hopefully in September this year. While on the subject, the track is at last a venue where all club members can come together with the attendant benefits. The sad tale of the drop in numbers of local schools entering athletes and supporting cross country is depressing. It should be remembered of course that we were in contact with all local schools at the time and I'm not sure when or why this stopped - to be sure it has to start up again. It should also be remembered that we put on the annual races for all younger age groups, first of all on the roads in competition for the John Morgan Trophy and then on the country. If we don't put on the races, we can't ask the schools to support them and we don't have the excuse to go into the schools in the first place.
Times change - they can change dramatically for the better as well as in the other direction!

Young Athletes League

The young athletes were out at the Scottish Young Athletes League match at Wishaw on Sunday and the team spirit was remarkable and there were several very good performances with victories on track and in the field events. Detailed results will be posted when we have them but there was no shortage of officials on the day either. Phil is doing a good job of organising the teams - that's three teams he is managing for the club right now - the Senior Men, the Central and South of Scotland League and the SYAL.

Phil will be getting some help on the coaching front soon from Donna Campbell for track and field, and Peter Halpin for track. Coaching young athletes is a difficult job - even schools are sometimes a bit confused at what they want! For instance it is usually easy to get results in the short term by simply drilling the children rather than coaching them. A local PE teacher who was heavily into athletics and a Grade Four coach used to get great results with his Under 12 teams in the Scottish Schools Cross Country championships but if you look at the programme even today his teams won less as they went up the age groups. A different local teacher in the 1980's said two things - he wanted the children to have a healthy lifestyle, enjoy athletics and keep it as a lifetime sport but he also said he wanted results NOW.

An American College coach went to ludicrous lengths to get victories for the College. He got a big squad together and then had them lap the track at 85 seconds a lap (their racing speed). When they were more than ten metres off the back of the pack, they came off the track until the next lap when they jumped back in. It was drilling in the race pace on five days out of seven. And his teams won lots of team prizes but none of the athletes had an individual career worth talking about. And of course there were injuries ................ overuse injuries ........lots of them!

But I'm away from the meeting on Sunday. It was good to see the boys and girls getting on so well together: when Andrew was hurtling towards the finish battling for first place, there were lots of team mates out shouting him on; when Roisin ran so well in the 1500 metres, it was great to see (and hear!) the support. And so it went on all afternoon.
Roll on Dumfries!!!

CSS League

The club's first venture into the Central and South of Scotland League was on Sunday at Grangemouth. The league brings together all age groups (U13, U15, U17, Senior and Veteran), both male and female in a selection of events. For instance there were 100 metres, 400 metres, 800 metres, 3000 metres and relays in all age groups. We managed to cover most events on the track and all athletes - from the opening 3000 metres for Seniors where Ian Robertson and David Brown were third in both A and B string events, right through to the relays where the Senior 4 x 100 metres relay won their race - did their very best. It was refreshing to see both boys and girls competing together in club vests for the first time in over 10 years: in the recent past the boys have been in their own vests and the girls were in West Dunbarton colours. It was disappointing that none of the club committee were able to come and see the young athletes perform: the committee is there to serve all the club and members would know better what is required of this age group were there to be a member who came along to see them compete and even speak to them. The next match in this league is at Dumfries and numbers going plus parents might well require a club bus. The next league match of any sort is next Sunday when there is a SYAL league match at Wishaw.

CSS League

Phil was talking last year about entering a Clydesdale Harriers team in the CSS League next summer. The Central and South of Scotland League caters for boys and girls as well as Senior Men and Women with selected events for all age groups. There were some difficulties last year with girls not getting the events they were best suited for in the YAL because selection for the Girls team was not really in our own hands and while there is no move to withdraw from the YAL, the CSSL is a step to address the problem. It will mean the boys of all ages and Senior Men competing together and the Girls and Junior/Senior Women competing as a team. The Men's League is at a separate venue from the YAL and there is an artificial divide between the Under 17 Men and the Juniors and Seniors which makes the move up an age group more difficult than it need be. Donald is tackling it by giving Under 17's a run in the Guest 100 and the relays as well as putting them into the Jumping events where there is no standard.
The last time that there was a team in the Women's League was in the late 1980's/early 1990's when it worked very well. This League has all women's age groups taking part from Under 13 to Seniors and CoG used Sandra Branney a couple of times last season. The results for us all those years ago were amazing with young athletes like Julie Bain, Nadia Hashemi and Caroline Evans progressing and thriving in the competition. The very young Seniors like Ann Murray and Lynn Hardware were the real leading athletes and the senior women road runners took part in the other track events: it was wonderful to see Marjorie Small and Hylda Stewart taking part in 1500's and 3000's and Shelagh King was a super example taking part in things like 400 metres hurdles. I have already mentioned the Sunday when her times were not good because she had raced the Ben Nevis race the day before.

The standard in the CSSL is not at all on a par with that of the Women's League or even the Men's League but it pulls the club, men and women, together and can only help morale. The women of the 60's were excellent - but there was no women's league then for them and there was a distinct lack of seniors. I don't know what stage Phil's negotiations are at but I can only wish him the vey best of luck. It is his baby and I have no part in it but if asked to be an official and it's not raining, I'll be available!

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.

Women's League

The ladies team was very good and took part in the League for three years before members departing and not being replaced made it unfair on those still competing to put them in with too few athletes to compete. The key to their success I think was the turn out and attitude of the Seniors. The team was organised and managed by Emily Hardware whose daughter Lynn was one of the top runners in the club and Agnes Gibson whose husband David was a pole vault coach and her son Steven and daughter Heather competed for the club. They did an excellent job of getting all members, from Under 13 to Senior together. To take one year as an example, there were no fewer than 16 Senior athletes turned out for the club. Almost all were road runners who did not train for or on the track. The most versatile was Shelagh King whose enthusiasm was really infectious. In 1990 she ran at one meeting or another 200 metres, 400 metres, 1500 metres, 100 metres hurdles, 400 metres hurdles, and also covered the shot and sicus plus the 4 x 400 relay! The main athletes who were track and field oriented were Ann Murray (100, 200, 400, LJ, 4 x 100 and 4 x 400), Lynn Hardware (100, 200, 100 metre hurdles, HJ and discus.) Other road runners were Marjorie Small, Lesley Small and Hylda Stewart. It was a great time and we could be as good again with the right spirit.
If Phil manages to enter a team in the CSS League next year, he will need senior athletes to compete alongside the younger ones and with the new track coming available as well, it could be a great 'coming together' of the club. Come on ladies, you have a winter to get organised - with luck he could have Jolene, Donna and Natalie competing as the mainstays of the senior squad but they will need back up, especially over the 1500 and 3000 metres events.

Leagues - Men's and Women's

The club's progress in the various track and field leagues, like that of any club, goes in cycles. One of the real high points for the club was the period from about 1987 to 1997. The Women's League set up had complete teams consisting of Under 13's, Under 15's Under 17's, Under 20's and Seniors. It was a better ste up than the Men's Leagues where the Senior Men's League met separately from the Young Athletes League and there was no direct progression to the Senior ranks. Infact many good athletes in all clubs disappeared at the point where they were expected to mae the transition. As far as the Women's League team was concerned, the spirit was first class. At the bottom end there were many highly ranked Under 13's and Under 15's with such as Kezban Acar (her father was Turkish), Nadia Hashemi (Egyptian parentage), Julie Bain and Heather Gibson while at the Senior end all the women took part - Shelagh King did the 400 metres hurdles regularly (on one occasion she ran the Ben Nevis n the Saturday and did the league on the Sunday), Marjorie Small, Hylda Stewart and company were always there. The two real stars were Lynn Hardware and Ann Murray however who were always big points winners in the Senior events. They competed until there were several key departures which made continuation very difficult - Nadia went to live in Leeds, Kezban also moved, Hylday was a hotel manager and her work took her away and so on. I'll do a separate blog about them some time soon.
The men and boys had a real fight on their hands at this point due to the short lived but genuine rivalry with Clydebank AC. The Senior Men climbed from 27th or 28th in Scotland in 1986 to 7th in 1994 (VPAAC were in the teens) and many were Scottish internationalists - field events athletes like Lachie Carter (hammer and shot), Craig McDaid (long jump and sprints), Tommy Carlin (javelin) brought great honour to the club. As for the young athletes - well they did us proud. The lowest point was 1986 when with a team of three Under 13's, two Under 15's and one Under 17 we were sixth of seven teams in the YAL. Despite a lot of pressure Lachie Carter, who was the sole Under 17, refused to leave and helped build that team and then the senior team. Progression was good however and by 1989 we used 18 Under 13's, 17 Under 15's and 14 Under 17's. Remarkable progression. It should be pointed out that we had our own training venue in Clydebank at the time and everybody helped out. I'll come back to this one soon and see what we can learn for next year when we have our own track in Clydebank once more.