South of the Thames Cross Country 1903

Looking forward to the South of the Thames Senior Cross Country race at Beckenham Place Park this weekend. My club, Kent AC,  won this race last year for the first time since 1907.  The club were a dominant force in cross country at the time, thanks in particular to their star runner Albert Aldridge. He won the South of the Thames in 1902 and 1903, with the club finishing in second place on both occasions. Here's a report and some pictures from the 1903 race, which was won by Herne Hill Harriers. A few points to note: cross country at this time still featured the old hare and hounds paperchase method of marking the course, with trail layers running ahead and scattering slips of paper for the runners to follow; courses often had hurdles such as fences to overcome (in this race, one runner was reported to have been severely injured on such a hurdle); and one lesson that still applies - make sure you get there on time.

'THE SOUTH OF THE THAMES AT BROMLEY COMMON. VICTORY OF THE HERNE HILL HARRIERS' (Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News,14 February 1903)

'The ill-fortune which proverbially follows the Kent Athletic Club, at Championship time, pursued them hotly on Saturday. Scarcely had the team men recovered from the shock of hearing that H. W. Churchman was in hospital awaiting an operation, than they found themselves minus another good man in R. E. Guest. He arrived on the scene, at Oakley Park. Bromley too late to compete. Then, when the 175 runners, representing fifteen clubs, were well on their way, H. Stent injured himself so severely on a hurdle that he collapsed completely.

Finally, the Kent A.C. lost the Championship by 22 points. Last year they lost by 1 point only. They had the satisfaction, however, in both years of supplying in A. Aldridge the first man home. He beat the big field a bit more than comfortably in 41 mins. 52 3/5 secs- good running for seven and a half miles of varied going, with obstacles en route. Next to Aldridge came the Reading runner, D. G. Harris, who did wonderfully well for a man thirty-one years of age. He cut out the work for F. James, of the Herne Hill Harriers, with such determination that the latter's finishing powers were rendered less dangerous than usual. James came in third, and easily beat the Eastbourne athlete and Sussex ex-Champion, B. Sewell.

Team honours went to the Herne Hill Harriers, who were similarly successful two years ago. They ran well on Saturday to win, as they did, with their second best man, J. S. Raynor, dropping out from exhaustion, brought on by running several miles from the wrong station, at which he had alighted. F. Appleby, who has relinquished athletics, for a time, in favour of study, and A. B. Starck, who is far from well, were also absentees. The leading clubs and their points were Herne Hill, 115; Kent, 137; Reading, 142; Eastbourne, 210; Epsom, 212; and Morden, 215. The forward running of P. A. Casserley, of the last-named club, was a great surprise'.

The trail layers

South of the Thames Cross Country Championships 2015: 7.5 miles at Somerhill

The 2015 South of the Thames Cross Country Championships took place on Saturday 19th December, hosted by Tonbridge Athletic Club in the grounds of the schools at Somerhill, outside of the town.

242 runners completed the tough 7.5 mile course, with the men's and women's races taking place together. The men's winner was Kent A.C.'s John Gilbert in 42:29. For much of the race he was neck and neck with Tonbridge's Max Nicholls, the 19-year-old Team GB junior mountain runner, but Gilbert pulled away on the last lap and Brighton and Hove's Stephen Ferroni squeezed past Nicholls on one of the final hills to take the silver ahead of Nicholls in third place.

Amy Clements (Kent AC) won the women's gold in 50:40, twenty seconds ahead of Nicole Taylor (Tonbridge AC), with Sammi Amend (Belgrave Harriers) in third. In the veterans categories Kent AC's Chris Greenwood and Cath Stibbs won the M40 and W40 medals, Tunbridge Wells Harriers' Alex Howey and Dulwich Runners' Clare Elms won the M50 and W50, with the M60 and W60 won by Michael Thompson (Tunbridge Wells Harriers) and Maggie Statham (Holland Sports AC) respectively.

In the men's team competition the big prize  - in every sense of the word  - was the Dewar Championship Shield for the six-to-score (i.e. team with the lowest combined points for their first six finishers wins, with one point for winner, 2 points for second place etc). Kent AC won by a six point margin from Tonbridge, with Belgrave Harriers in third. In the 12-to-score competition, positions were reversed with Tonbridge AC first, Kent AC second, and Brighton and Hove AC third.

Kent AC's winning men's team - Neil Phillips (8th place), Chris Greenwood (4th),  John Gilbert (1st), Ken Pike (manager/coach), Owen Hind (9th)m Ben Harding (18th) James Connor (12th).

Detail from the Dewar Challenge Shield, presented to the South of Thames Cross Country Association by whisky magnate and MP Thomas Dewar (1864-1930). Note the image of runners heading towards a gate.

The women's race was won by Dulwich Harriers, with Kent AC in second place and Belgrave Harriers in third position.

Kent AC women scorers  with their silver medals: Cath Stibbs (7th place), Amy Clements (1st) , Kate Williams (26th), Sarah Young (31st), Victoria Buck (20th), Teresa Murphy (14th).

The course

The map and the territory

The course, which had been very well laid out by Tonbridge AC, was essentially set on one side of a large hill in the grounds of Somerhill House. Built in the 17th century, the building and its estate have a rich history including a period as a World War Two prisoner of war camp and a link to the wonderful stained glass windows by Marc Chagall in the neighbouring village of Tudeley. Since the 1990s Somerhill has been the home to several independent schools.

Somerhill was painted by JMW Turner in 1811, and the hill shown in the painting was the one we ran up, down and across at the weekend, with three significant ascents on each of the three laps. The ground was soft, and fairly muddy/slippery in places. A few tumbled and most were fairly drained by the end - I know I was, coming down with a cold I considered getting round without stopping an achievement in itself.

I bet Turner didn't run up that hill nine times in an hour

Film of the race from Tonbridge Athletic Club

History

Kent AC (my club) have been doing really well in cross country in recent years,  winning the men's Surrey League and men's and women's races at last month's South of the Thames Team Race (a shorter race previously known as the South of Thames Junior race).  But the club have not won the South of Thames Championship since 1907, when the team came first in the race held at Bromley. J. Keywood won the race for Kent AC that day, followed by R.H. Backshall (Eastbourne) and J.S. Satch (Kent AC) in third place.

Kent AC's Albert Aldridge, one of the country's top distance runners of the period, won the South of the Thames in 1902, though on that occasion the club finished second to Brighton and County Harriers. The location again was Bromley - 'Mr A C Norman's park' - which as today's Norman Park Recreation Ground hosts Bromley parkrun and the running track used by Blackheath and Bromley Harriers.

See also:

South of the Thames Team Race 2015 at Polesden Lacey

Report of 2014 South of the Thames on Wimbledon Common 

Running in The Railway Children

The Railway Children - both  Edith Nesbit's 1906 novel  and the 1970 film adaption of it - feature a paperchase/hare and hounds race in the north of England. As mentioned here before such races, where a 'hare' runs ahead scattering a trail of paper and is chased by the 'hounds', were important in the early history of organised cross country running in the 19th century - hence many clubs retaining the name 'harriers' to this day.

In the story, the hare leads the hounds down a railway tunnel where one of them trips and is injured, narrowly escaping being hit by a train. But it all end's well, as the children look after him and in return the boy's grandfather helps secure the release of their father from prison. 

 '"Let me pass, please." It was the hare—a big-boned, loose-limbed boy, with dark hair lying flat on a very damp forehead. The bag of torn paper under his arm was fastened across one shoulder by a strap. The children stood back. The hare ran along the line, and the workmen leaned on their picks to watch him. He ran on steadily and disappeared into the mouth of the tunnel...

And now, following the track of the hare by the little white blots of scattered paper, came the hounds. There were thirty of them, and they all came down the steep, ladder-like steps by ones and twos and threes and sixes and sevens. Bobbie and Phyllis and Peter counted them as they passed. The foremost ones hesitated a moment at the foot of the ladder, then their eyes caught the gleam of scattered whiteness along the line and they turned towards the tunnel, and, by ones and twos and threes and sixes and sevens, disappeared in the dark mouth of it. The last one, in a red jersey, seemed to be extinguished by the darkness like a candle that is blown out' (E.Nesbit, The Railway Children - full text here).

The author (and socialist) E.Nesbit lived in various places in South East London from the 1870s until the First World War including Blackheath, Lewisham (Elswick Road), Lee, and Well Hall in Eltham. I wonder whether she ever saw Lewisham Hare and Hounds in action, the predecessors of today's Kent Athletic Club? They were formed in 1888 and certainly ran paperchases in the period when Nesbit was living in the area.

More running related literature:

Jack Kerouac running down a mountain

'These forms who hasten by' - runners on the Pilgrims Way, 1920s

'You just had to run' - Karl Ove Knausgaard

Morrissey - List of the Lost

Burns Night Running Thoughts

A Midsummer Night's Running

Running to Paradise - W B Yeats

The Sky of a Saturday Morning - John Updike

The Road is a Strange Country - Rebecca Solnit

The Runner - W H Auden

Once a Runner - John L Parker jr

Louisa May Alcott - 'A Joy to Run'

Wardown parkrun... and 150 years of running in Luton

I grew up in Luton in Bedfordshire, so was delighted when I heard that a parkrun was starting in the town's Wardown Park in 2015. I went along for the first time in that May on only its sixth event and it  it already felt like a long established event, with nearly 200 people taking part and a friendly community emerging.

All parkruns have the same format, but they also reflect the unique character not only of their courses but of their local running communities. Wardown parkrun that weekend included nearly 50 runners from the main local clubs - Luton AC, Stopsley Striders and Dunstable Road Runners. A feature of the run too was a preponderance of strong young runners up front - five of the top ten finishers were under twenty years old, led by Rhys Lewis (Luton AC) in 17:40.

The start of Wardown parkrun, 30 May 2015

I have run there a few times since, and returned in May 2025 ten years after my first visit to find it still very much in good health.

The 5k course, mostly on tarmac, takes in three and a half laps of the lake in the park, along well-shaded tree-lined paths. No real hills, but a short slope near the finish that you come up four times. People meet up by the bandstand for the briefing, before walking down together to the start by the lake at the South West end of the park (New Bedford Road side).  The finish is up by the Museum.

A short history of running in Luton

Wardown parkrun is the latest development in a history of organised running in the town stretching back at least 150 years.

A Luton Athletic Society and Cricket Club was in existence by 1873, when the committee of the club announced that they had secured what was to become known as Dallow Road recreation ground for its use  (1). The club held an athletics meet there  in October 1873 with various track and field events (2). By the times of its 1888 athletic fete, cycling had been added to the programme (3).

Luton Times, 28 June 1873

There was also a 'Luton Hare and Hounds club', reported  in March 1875 to have run 'between 9 and 10 miles' cross country from Luton to Caddington and Kenworth and over Dunstable Downs (4).

Amateurism was a big deal in this period, with controversy over the extent of awarding prizes rather than cash to get around the rules prohibiting payment. It was presumably in this context that in 1892, Luton was expelled from the Amateur Athletics Association  'for not complying with an order re. under value prize' (5).

I assume relations must have been repaired, because in 1894 J. Daffern of the AAA was a handicapper at the club's Whit-Monday sports day. The Luton Times reported that  'The annual Athletic Sports of the Luton Athletic and Cycling Club, took place on the Dallow Lane ground, in the most delightful weather, on Monday afternoon. The many attractions offered drew together an enormous crowd numbering, it was estimated, at least five thousand persons, the largest number which has ever assembled to witness the sports of this club'. A mixture of running and cycling races drew competitors from around the country, and the event also featured a failed balloon launch and music from the Red Cross Band -  'In the evening the band played for dancing, which was largely indulged in by those present' (6).

The following Whit Monday (1895) the same event was held at Luton Town Football Ground, with a crowd of 3,000. This time the balloon ascent went smoothly.  There were Half Mile and One Mile races, the former won by C S Montague of Finchley Harriers (7). By 1899, however, the Whit Monday sports meeting had dwindled. 'Meager weather' may have been one factor in  the event at the football ground attracting less than 1,000, many of them children. The races failed to attract runners from outside the town, and the organisers made a financial loss (8).

There seems to have been a decline in athletics at this point, but a new Luton Athletic Club was launched at a meeting on 21 July 1908, held at the Central Cafe, in Cheapside: 'The need for a well-managed athletic club in the town has been keenly felt for years past. At last a move has been made (the suggestion coming principally from the employees of the Vauxhall and West Hydraulic Engineering Company)'. The club was offered the use of the Vauxhall ground in Kimpton Road. The meeting decided that  'The club is limited to amateurs, and the colours are the cardinal shirt and white knickers' (9).

A.J. Harman was elected captain at that first meeting and in the following year, in March 1909, he won what was said to be the first Marathon race in the town over 'a course of nearly 20 miles' which started in Park-square and proceeded 'via Dunstable, Houghton Regis, Sundon, Streatley and back along New Bedford Road' (at this time the Marathon distance hadn't been completely standardised). Ten of the twelve runners finished, greeted by 'a tremendous crowd' (10).

Shortly afterwards, the new club's first meet took place on a grass track laid out on People's Park, with races ranging from 100 yards to the mile. The crowd of up to 1500 in May 1909  'proved an exceedingly unwieldy handful for the perspiring committee of eight, with the assistance of one policeman' (11).

The club seems to have been renamed as Luton United Harriers and Cycling Club by the following year, perhaps as a result of a merger, with what was reported in July 1910 as  'the newly formed Luton United Harriers and Cycling Club' holding races at People's Park with 'Over 6,000 people... assembled round the track' (12). The club's Headquarters in this period were at All Saints Institute, Beech Hill, from where its cross country races sometimes started and finished (13).

People's Park is on a slope so less than ideal for athletics, and so Luton United Harriers explored other alternatives. In 1912, it  held a sports day at Stockwood Park, with running, cycling and some novelty events such as egg & spoon and sack races (14). The club also organised a one mile race at the town's American Skating Rink (15- not sure where this was in the town).

The club also lobbied the Council for the use of Wardown Park, a former private estate acquired by the Council in 1904 for development as a town centre park. After being refused permission to hold a sports day and gala  in 1911 (16) , the club applied again and a successful event was held at the Wardown Park cricket ground in May 1913 (17).

In the summer before the First World War, Luton United Harriers  (with Luton Town Football Supporters Club) held another  Whitsun Tuesday sports day in Wardown Park, where the competitors included Willie Applegarth who 'showed marvellous sprinting powers and he was warmly applauded for his success' (18). Applegarth, who ran for Polytechnic Harriers, was one of the world's fastest runners at this point having equalled the world 100m record and set the world 200 yards record.

The large industrial firms that were growing in the town in this period also entered into athletics, with their own sports clubs and grounds. In 1914 the sports day of Kent's Athletic Club included a mile relay race for local engineering firms with teams from Kent's, Vauxhall, Davis and Waterlow's ('Artisans' Athletics', Luton Times, 17 July 1914).

The war took its toll on the club, as with all parts of society. For instance, Private Alfred Smith (58 New Street), a moulder by trade and 'trainer of the Luton United Harriers', was shot dead in 1915 (19). Military personnel from all over the world were based in camps in the Luton area during the conflict, and the cricket ground in Wardown Park was used for Regimental Sports Days for the Royal Field Artillery based at Biscot. These were held in 1916, 1917 and 1918 and races including other military units from the town, munitions workers and nurses. The 1916 event included a cross country race starting at Wardown and heading 'to the "Three Horseshoes" Leagrave, and then to Stopsley, returning by the same route. The distance was 8000 yards' (Luton News, 26 July 1916)

Regimental Sports at Wardown, 1918
(from Luton World War One- great war stories)

Athletics revived after the war and by the mid-1920s a permanent grass track had been provided at Wardown Park. The Midland Counties AAA championships were staged in 'the new sports ground at Wardown Park' in June 1928 (20). Luton United Harriers also acquired “Oxford Hall”, 2 Union Street as their headquarters in 1926 (21).

Bedfordshire Times, 15 June 1928

Women's athletics was taking off in this period. The club's first recorded female athlete, noted in 1925, was Ena Smith (Luton A.C. History).  The first ever women's national cross country championship was held at Luton Hoo Park in 1927 ('Modern Amazons Plucky Running', Western Daily Press, 14 February 1927). National cross country championships have taken place in Luton, usually at Stopsley, on a number of occasions since - including the first combined men's and women's champs in 1995. Paula Radcliffe, who  ran for Bedford and County AC, won the 1996 national students cross country champs in Luton.

By the mid-1930s, Luton United Harriers seemed to have been joined by another (new?) Luton Athletic Club. There was a Luton and District Athletic League, with four teams competing for the Walker Cup - Luton AC, Luton United Harriers, Bedford and County AC and RAF Cardington. The last match before the Second World War took place at Wardown in July 1939, with Luton AC winning the League (22). Another Luton team, Luton and District Athenians, is mentioned as competing against both in the 1934 Beds Cross Country Championship (23). The three Luton teams merged as Luton United Athletic Club in 1962/3 (24)

Wardown Park Sports Ground - where grass track was laid out in mid-1920s
(my school, Icknield High, held its sports days there in the 1970s, I believe I once ran the 800m there)

In 1952 the Bedfordshire County AAA Championships were held at Wardown, watched by '2000 people... basking in brilliant sunshine' (25). By this point though there was increasing discontent at the lack of an all-weather track in the town.  'No cinders yet for Luton's cinderella of sport', N.S. Paul noted in the Luton News on 1 July 1954, criticising the Council: 'it is a disgrace that Bedfordshre has no track or arena fit for international events...only a grass track in Wardown - when not debarred by other events going on there'.

In the post-Second World War period, Vauxhalls became increasingly important in athletics, as the company also dominated the town as its major employer. The 'first full-scale athletic meeting held at Vauxhall Motors' new ground' in 1953, included a crowd of 6,000 with a funfair and trick motor cycling as well as athletics. Teams competing in races included Vauxhall Motors Recreation Club, Luton United AC, Skefco AC (another local workplace team) and others from further afield (26).

Vauxhall sports  ground c.1980, with running track at top of picture
(my dad worked in the building at bottom when it was the engineering/design centre)

The annual Vauxhall sports day were largely based around athletics and and cycling in the 1950s but throughout the 1960s grew to a huge event, the Vauxhall Spectacular, with races supplemented with celebrity appearances, car shows, show jumping, fairground rides and more. I remember going to them as a kid, as my dad worked there. They came to an end in the mid-1980s, as the firm began to wind down its presence in the town - car production ceased in 2002. In 1998, the Vauxhall athletics club merged with Luton United to form the current Luton A.C. Some of the former Vauxhall Recreation facilities have survived as Venue 360. One of the last great triumphs of the Vauxhall Motors Athletic Club came in 1990 when a team broke the world record for a relay run from John O'Groats to Land's End.

Vauxhall Mirror, 21 June 1990
from Bedfordshire County Council Archives

An all weather track was opened at Stockwood Park in 1977, where it remains having been resurfaced a couple of times since. Luton AC's clubhouse is there too. In Luton's adjoining town, Dunstable Road Runners was formed in 1983. Another local club, Stopsley Striders, was formed in 1982 by Tony Simmons - a former Luton United runner who won a silver medal in the 10,000m in the 1974 European Championships, and set a world half marathon record  in Welwyn Garden City in 1978 of 62 minutes 47 seconds. 

Another Lutonian distance runner was Ian Thompson.  Born in Birkenhead, his family moved to Luton where he attended and ran for Luton Grammar School and Luton United. Thompson won Gold in the marathon at the 1974 Commonwealth Games, his time of 2:08:34 still being a championship record.

 

Thompson in the lead in a 1964 race at Luton Grammar School

No Luton running history is complete without mentioning its footnote in the history of the London Marathon. In the 1970s and 1980s, long distance running legend David Bedford owned the Mad Hatter nightclub in Luton (a place I sometimes frequented). As mentioned in the 2015 London Marathon magazine, 'On a Saturday night in 1981, future London Marathon race director and former 10,000m world record holder Dave Bedford was in the Mad Hatter, the nightclub he then owned in Luton. Several beers down, he accepted a bet of £250 that he could not complete the following morning’s inaugural London Marathon. Four piña coladas, a phone call to race co-founder Chris Brasher, a king prawn curry and another pint later, Bedford finally got to bed at 04:45. Just 75 minutes later he awoke and headed to the start. Despite being spotted on BBC TV looking less than his usual vigorous self, Bedford completed the race before falling asleep in a pub'.

And on 18 April 2015, parkrun came to Luton. Long may it last.

The finish line at Luton Wardown parkrun, 17 May 2025.

[post updated May 2025]

Sources:

(1) Luton Times, 28 June 1873.
(2) Luton Times, 11 October 1873.
(3) Bedfordshire Times, 4 August 1888.
(4) Luton Times, 20 March 1875.
(5) Manchester Courier, 19 December 1892.
(6) Luton Times and Advertiser, 18 May 1894.
(7) Bedfordshire Times, 7 June 1895.
(8) Bedfordshire Advertiser, 26 May 1899.
(9) Beds Advertiser 24 July 1908/
(10) Beds Advertiser, 19 March 1909.
(11) Beds Advertiser, 2 June 1909.
(12) Luton Times, 29 July 1910.
(13) Luton Times, 15 November 1912.
(14) Luton Times, 31 May 1912.
(15) Luton Times, 1 Nov 1912.
(16) Luton Times, 29 March 1912.
(17) Luton Times. 16 May 1913.
(18) Beds Advertiser,5 June 1914.
(19) Luton Times, 3 September 1915.
(20) Bedfordshire Times. 25 May 1928.
(21)  Luton Athletic Club History 
(22) Bedfordshire Times, 28 July 1939.
(23) Bedfordshire Times, 26 January 1934.
(24)   Luton Athletic Club History
(25) Bedfordshire Times, 23 May 1952.
(26) Luton News, 25 June 1953.

See also: 1970s Luton schools cross country at Stopsley, including programme for 1975 Luton United AC races.

Alec Nelson from 1890s Goldsmiths to Olympic Coach

I am currently a part time student at Goldsmiths College (University of London) in New Cross. Goldsmiths doesn't have an active athletics club at the moment - keen runners there tend to gravitate instead to the local Kent Athletic Club- but it does have a long history of athletics involvement.

What was originally Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute was founded by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths (one of the City of London's livery companies) in 1896 for 'the promotion of technical skill, knowledge, health and general well-being among men and women of the industrial, working and artisan classes'. In 1903 it was transferred to the management of the University of London.

There seems to have been an athletics club from early on, and one of its first prominent runners was Alec Nelson (1871-1944). A report of an 1897 1,000 yards race, organised by Finchley Harriers, records that 'A. Nelson, of the Goldsmiths Institute Athletic Club, rushed to the front. Travelling at a great rate he gained a lead of eight yards in the first furlong' but having 'misjudged the pace... was done with a hundred and fifty yards from home' (1).

(Pall Mall Gazette, 6 September 1897)

The following year 'The South London Harriers held their Autumn meeting at the Oval on September 17th, when there was an attendance of about 3000. The 1000 yards Invitation Scratch Race brought out a field of thirteen, and A. Nelson, Goldsmiths' Institute, won easily from J. Binks of Wandle, C. Pearce of Northampton, being third. Time, 2 min 15 sec, which is claimed to be a grass record for the distance' (2). 

Nelson went on to become a professional runner from, winning a professional half-mile championship in 1905 (3). An article from this period bemoaning the dearth of professional athletes in England, mentions  'Another candidate is Alec Nelson, the old Goldsmiths' Institute runner, but he has no pretensions to be regarded as a distance champion, a mile being almost his limit as a class man' (4).

When his own running career came to an end, Nelson took up coaching. He was a professional coach at Cambridge University 1908-1913, and also coached British athletes for the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm (5). 

In the First World War he served in the Friends Ambulance Unit in Italy and France - this was a voluntary service founded by Quakers and mostly staffed by conscientious objectors. Nelson worked alongside FAU founder Philip Noel-Baker (6), later Labour MP and disarmament campaigner. Baker had been President of the Cambridge University Athletic Club from 1910 to 1912 (7), which is presumably how the two first met. As Ian Stone (8) has demonstrated, the long term friendship with Baker was an important factor in Nelson’s career. After the war both became involved again in athletics. Baker was captain of the British track team for the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp and won silver medal in the 1500m (9), while Nelson returned to coaching at Cambridge. .

Nelson was well known enough by 1919 to be mentioned in an article in the Times arguing for more 'Money and Trainers' to improve Britain's prospects at the following year's Olympics. 'The Olympic Games: British Need of Organization' by Lieut. Col. A.N.S. Strode-Jackson (winner of the 1500m at Stockholm Olympics) 'We want immediately a fund of £100,000... With this money we could engage a supervising trainer of the stamp of Alfred Shrub and Alec Nelson for athletics' (10).

As well as coaching Cambridge University Athletics Club athletics coach from 1920 to 1939, Nelson coached the Achilles Club (11), founded for ex-Cambridge and Oxford athletes. Another engagement, in 1928, was in the capital: 'Alec Nelson the well known trainer for the Cambridge University A.C. has been appointed by the University of London Athletic Union as coach of the athletic team' (12) .

As well as Philip Noel-Baker, Nelson is known (13) to have coached athletes including Harold Abrahams of Chariots of Fire fame (winner of the 100m at 1924 Paris Olympics), Douglas Lowe (winner of 800m at Paris and in 1928 in Amsterdam), Henry Stallard, Lord Burghley, and G.M. Butler. He also coached Irish athletes Patrick O'Callaghan, Bob Tisdall and Eamon Fitzgerald to prepare for the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles (14) – O’Callaghan went on to win gold in the hammer throw (15), Tisdall gold the 400m hurdles (16) while the injured Fitzgerald narrowly missed out on a medal in the triple jump (17).

Nelson was the author of an influential textbook, Practical Athletics, first published in 1924 with a  2nd edition in 1930. Copies of these appear on ebay from time to time.

Nelson's death in 1944 was marked by a short obituary in The Times:

Times, 12 January 1944

Bibliography/Sources:

1. Pall Mall Gazette, 6 September 1897
2. The Press (NZ) 16 November 1898.
3. The Times, 12 January 1944.
4. Sydney Sportsman, 2 May 1906.
5. The Times, 12 January 1944;  Day, D. (2011), 'Massaging the Amateur Ethos: Professional coaches at Stockholm 1912', a presentation given at the 'Sports and Coaching: Pasts and Futures' conference. Manchester Metropolitan Universty, June 2011. http://www.ipr.mmu.ac.uk/conference/podcast-presentations/Dave_Day_Professional_Coaches_at_Stockholm_in_1912.pdf
6. Stone, I. (2010), 'Alec Nelson: professional runner and athletics coach', a presentation given at the ‘Sporting Lives’ Symposium, Wychwood Park, Cheshire, December 2010. http://www.ipr.mmu.ac.uk/conference/.../Ian-Stone-on-Alec-Nelson.pptx
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Noel-Baker,_Baron_Noel-Baker
8. Stone, I. (2010), 'Alec Nelson: professional runner and athletics coach', a presentation given at the ‘Sporting Lives’ Symposium, Wychwood Park, Cheshire, 4th December, 2010.
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Noel-Baker,_Baron_Noel-Baker
10. The Times, 29 Sept. 1919.
11. The Times, 12 January 1944.
12. The Times 19 March 1928.
13. The Times, 12 January 1944.
14. http://www.achilles.org/ftp/annual/2002-4.pdf
15. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_O%27Callaghan
16. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Tisdall
17. http://www.independent.ie/regionals/kerryman/sport/other-sports/remembering-a-true-olympian-27366907.htm

Ian Stone of Durham University is researching Stone's career. His powerpoint presentation (see ref. 6 above) is available online and includes photographs of Nelson.  I believe that there is also an article based on this but I have not yet seen it: Stone, I. (2012). Alec Nelson: Professional Runner, Athletics Coach and Entrepreneur-Client. In Sporting Lives, special issue of ‘Sport in History'. Day, D. Routledge. 103-133).

Herbert Cowper Scard (1865-1931): Lewisham and Blackheath Cross Country Champion

Today sees the final races of the 2014-15 Surrey Cross Country League, sore foot permitting I hope to run at Richmond Park in a Kent A.C. vest later. So as part of my continuing research into the history of running in my part of South London, I thought I would write about a previous cross country champion and founder of my club - Herbert Cowper Scard. An obituary notice from 1931 sets the scene:

'Sportsman Solicitor: Death of Former Athletic Champion

Mr Herbert Cowper Scard, a solicitor who had practiced at Greenwich and Woolwich police courts for many years, died at the age of 65. In the late eighties and nineties Mr Scard was regarded as one of the finest cross-country runners of his day. He was champion of the Lewisham Hare and Hounds in 1888-89-90-92-95, and 96, and also held the Order of Merit of the Blackheath Harriers as their champion in 1889, and possessed scores of other trophies. Mr Scard was also associated with the Kent Athletic Club' (Straits Times, Singapore, 29 May 1931)

According to geni.com, Scard was born on July 8 1865 in Enfield and died April 9 1931 at 23 Blackheath Road, Greenwich.

Scard seems to have started out running for Blackheath Harriers. In 1888, he 'ran grandly and did the fastest time' in the club's Four and Three-Quarter Miles Members' Race at Blackheath (Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper, 18 November 1888), and he ran for the club in the National Cross Country Championship at Kempton Park Racecourse in 1889 (Manchester Courier, 4 March 1889).  Between 1888 and 1892 he won the Blackheath Harriers Cross-Country Challenge Cup four times.

In 1892, 'A Members' Two Mile Handicap produced a splendid struggle between two men, H C Scard 50 yds start, beating F Stephens 230 yds, by half a yard in 9 min 53 1/5 sec' at Blackheath Harriers' annual athletic meeting. This took place at Catford Bridge with 'a large and fashionable attendance' (York Herald, 18 July 1892). The following year he is reported to have run for Blackheath Harriers in the One Mile handicap in the the Spartan Harriers athletics and cycling meeting at Invicta Athletic grounds, Plumstead: 

Scard also seems to have run with Lewisham Hare and Hounds from its foundation, judging by the obituary reference to him being their champion in 1888, the year the club was founded. In 1895 he came joint first in a Lewisham Hare and Hounds 'paper-chase over eight miles of stiff country' with 30 other runners: 

See also mention of London races organised by Southwark Harriers (at Wimbledon), Allenbury's A.C. (at Lower Clapton), Polytechnic Harriers (at Pinner), Earlsfield Harriers, Columbia Harriers (at Walthamstow) and Herne Hill Harriers (at Streatham).

I have come across reports of Scard winning the One Mile Handicap at Colfe's Grammar School Sports in Catford (Lloyds Weekly Newspaper, 19 April 1896), and the same distance race at Stamford Bridge at a London Athletic Club event (London Daily News, 13 April 1896). Shortly after, in another London Athletic Club Spring Meeting at Stamford Bridge, he came second in the 1.5 Miles handicap. He was listed as running for 'Lewisham H.H', showing that the latter was not just a cross country club but was now taking part in track athletics events (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 18 May 1896). In 1897, he ran in the first Inter-County Cross Country race at Wembley Park: 

Scard was also for a time Vice-Captain of the Goldsmiths Institute Athletic Club. He is listed as such as in 'A Handbook to the Goldsmiths Company's Technical and Recreative Institute 1896-87',  with the team Captain being Alec Nelson - later a notable athletics coach as discussed here previously.

In 1898, Scard won the Lewisham Hare and Hounds Four and a Quarter Miles handicap at Ladywell, followed by W.W.Lamb and H. Larkins (Lloyds Weekly Newspaper, 27 February 1898). Later that same year, Lewisham Hare and Hounds merged with West Kent Harriers to form Kent Athletic Club, which remains based in the Lewisham area at Ladywell track to this day. Scard must have been actively involved in the merger, as according to club historian Len Reilly, he was Kent A.C.'s first treasurer. 

In 1900, Scard ran for Kent A.C. in the Printing and Allied Trade Sports meeting 'held at Herne Hill grounds in the presence of about 3,000 spectators'.This was at what is now known as the Herne Hill Velodrome - as was often in the case at that period, cycling and running races were held as part of the same event. Scard came 2nd in the One Mile Handicap behind A.H. Lye (Herne Hill Harriers) and ahead of Kent A.C.'s A.E. Godsall:

Scard continued to be involved in the club after he had passed his peak as a runner. A 1908 notice for Kent Athletic Club advises that:

'The next evening meeting will be held at the Ladywell recreation grounds on Tuesday next, 26th inst., commencing 7.30 p m. The following events are down for decision - 109-yards and 1 mile handicaps and entries with fees, close on Saturday next... Members may train any evening at above grounds... and intending members may obtain full particulars from Mr. H. C. Scard, 30, Blackheath road, and Mr. A.J. Jennings, 19, Blythe vale, Catford who attend at Ladywell on Tuesday and Thursday evenings' (Kentish Mail Greenwich And Deptford Observer, 22 May 1908).

Over a hundred years later, Kent A.C. are still to be found at Ladywell on Tuesday nights, and not doing too badly in cross country either.

[updated 19 June 2015, with information about Goldsmiths link]

Notes on the history of Kent Athletics (1908)

This overview of athletics in Kent was included in the 'Victoria History of the County of Kent', edited by William Page (1908). This section was written by Frank Bonnett. At that time, much of what is now South East London - where I live - would have been regarded as Kent. Hence this summary includes mentions of the still very active South London running clubs, Herne Hill Harriers, Cambridge Harriers, Blackheath Harriers  (now Blackheath & Bromley Harriers) and Kent Athletic Club (my club - actually  Lewisham-based, rather than being a 'Kent county' club). The latter evidently  'won the last of the South-of-the-Thames races (1907) with a team of young and promising stayers', and are still running in the same competition more than a hundred years later.

'The historian who sets himself the task of recording the story of Kent athletics finds at once that he has to deal with a county possessing peculiarities of its own with regard to this branch of sport; indeed, in one particular respect, Kent stands almost, if not quite, in a class by itself. Other counties have their amateur and their professional side of athletics, but in Kent the latter feature predominates to a much greater extent than can be found, probably, in any other part of the kingdom. Athletic sports, promoted under the laws and regulations of  the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA), are comparatively few and far between, whereas meetings of the unregistered type are numerous in almost every part of the county.

The athlete who indulges in sport for sport's sake, which, as all must admit, is the healthiest form of recreation for mind and body that can be devised, would expect to find that in this part of England as elsewhere amateur gatherings held under the auspices of the A.A.A. were on the increase; but such unfortunately is not the case. It is to be noticed, indeed, that a number of meetings which were once of the unregistered type, and whose promoters tried the experiment of holding their sports under the aegis of the 'Three A's'  found the cost of the undertaking, including the payment of permit fees and the employment of official handicappers, far greater than they could bear, and they have long since reverted to the old order of things.

The tendency to follow this example still exists. It seems likely that in the near future many more clubs will adopt the unregistered principle, while there appears to be little likelihood of new clubs coming forward to fill the gaps caused by these secessions from the ranks of pure amateurism. One cannot but regret this state of affairs, for strictly amateur athletics should everywhere form a part of the curriculum of the youth of England.

Other meetings of the long ago in the county of Kent, though still promoted under the laws of the Amateur Athletic Association, have either become less exclusive as regards the rules which govern them, or have gradually drifted into the hands of men with good ideas of sport but possessed of broader minds on the subject of amateurism and  more democratic in their views. Belonging to this latter class of sports are those held at Belvedere, which meeting may be regarded as the successor to the old Erith and Belvedere fixture. No more popular gathering than this last within easy reach of London ever existed. In its palmy days in the early 'eighties it was loyally supported by the members of the London Athletic Club and similar bodies ; but the character of the meeting has changed considerably since then, although it is still popular...

Real athletics never flourished to any considerable extent in Kent, albeit as the county in which some important cycling contests have been decided under the auspices of the National Cyclists' Union, it has been rather famous in the past. To find anything of downright historical interest in Kentish field sports, apart from the fact that good men from other districts came to the county meetings, one has to come to the very modern times of 1887 to note that a Lewisham resident (but a Birmingham born man), J. H. Adams, carried off the 50 miles Ordinary Bicycle Championship of the N.C.U. at Birmingham. F. J. Osmond, S. F. Edge, and P. F. Wood, old cycle and tricycle champions, had their Kentish club and residential connexions, and the Crystal Palace itself has long been a home of cycle-racing. In 1892 the Heme Hill track was chosen for the N.C.U.'s chief races, and the Catford ground was used in 1896. A winner of a N.C.U. medal for the tandem championship in 1898 was F. Burnand of Catford, who partnered E. J. Callingham, a Surrey resident.

The Blackheath Harriers and Heme Hill Harriers are chiefly Kentish men, and while the former is rather an exclusive society, the latter can be said to have turned out some very useful runners within the past
decade. For instance the 15 miles amateur record holder, Fred J. Appleby, is a member of the H.H.H., and the ex-Irish mile and four miles champion, J. N. Deakin, bears the ' hoops ' of that club, as does F. H. Hulford, who has won the 4 miles A.A.A. championship. The quarter-mile champion of England in 1903, Chas. McLachlan, wore the colours of  the Heme Hill contingent, which is so well looked after by Mr. Chas. Otway (Camberwell), their honorary secretary. The Blackheath Harriers have boasted a capital half-miler in B. J. Blunden, who has held English honours at that distance, and A. Healey, a fellow member, who ran second in the hurdle race at Athens, has won several Northern Counties championships by reason of his birth qualification.

Another club, the Kent A.C., brought into prominence A. Aldridge, a stayer who won Southern, National, and International honours on the flat and across country, though he always had to play second fiddle, when they met, to the Sussex wonder, Alfred Shrubb.  In the South-of-the-Thames Cross-Country championships Kentish clubs always figure  prominently, and they won the last of the South-of-the-Thames races (1907) with a team of young and promising stayers.

Another club, the Cambridge Harriers, which to all intents and purposes is a London institution, belies its name so far as its membership is concerned, for most of its members are drawn from the county of Kent. The club was established in 1890.

Other athletic clubs within the county which hold their meetings under the laws of the Amateur Athletic Association are the Erith Harriers ; Swanley C.M. and A.C.; Cray Valley C.M. and A.C ; Sittingbourne C.C; Dover CC ; Bexley W.M.C ; and Foots Cray C.C.

In addition to the sports meetings promoted by these clubs, numerous gatherings are held annually, or at irregular intervals, in various parts of the county. Some are unregistered meetings mainly supported by amateur athletes, while others are avowedly of the professional order. Between these two kinds of meetings there is in reality a far greater difference than is recognized by the ruling body of the sport. But that Association tars both with the same brush and looks upon the unregistered meeting as disdainfully as it considers the purely professional undertaking. A hard and fast line must, however, be drawn somewhere, and severe as the regulations of the A.A.A. may appear to be in some instances, there is no doubt that their action is entirely in accordance with the best interests of those amateurs who are loyal to the provisions made by the laws of the predominant body.

Canterbury, Gravesend A.C, Northfleet Institute, Cliffe-at-Hoo, Rainham, Ramsgate, Birchington-on-Sea, Maidstone, Kent County Constabulary, Ashford United, Smeeth, Charing, Headcorn, High Halden, Chatham, Sittingbourne, Bexley Heath, and Orpington all hold sports every year - some of them in connexion with local flower shows - but it is impossible to say which of these are registered, unregistered or professional meetings, even if it were advisable to state the fact.

For a long time past, and indeed through-out the whole of its athletic career, although perhaps never more so than at the present time, Kent has been an unsettled county in the matter of its athletic principles, and the meeting that is registered to-day is more than likely to be unregistered, or even admittedly professional, tomorrow'.

I was  interested in the discussion of amateurism (covered here previously). A lot of athletics history gives the impression that at this time, running was either 'amateur' or 'professional', whereas it seems there was a big grey area in between of  'unregistered' athletics involving people who perhaps just didn't want the cost and hassle of complying with AAA regulations.

Friday Photos (15): Magic Lantern slides of London running, 1909

Before the cinema there was the magic lantern show, featuring the public projection of slides.  Lucerna is an archive of  magic lantern images, including some interesting early 20th century London running shots from Walter Tyler Ltd., based in Waterloo Road

This first one is of the start of a 10 mile Amateur Athletics Association race at Stamford Bridge on 17 April 1909:

'Poly. Sports, Stamford Bridge - Yeatman winner of 440 yards race':

According to a report in the Daily Mail, 15 May1909, 'In an international contest at Stamford Bridge the Polytechnic Club beat the Stade Francais by three points to one' with 'J.R. Yeatman (Polytechnic)' winning the quarter-mile in a time 52.4 seconds.

Final one, from April 1909 is entitled 'South London Harriers finish of 100 yards final, Connolly (no.25) wins'.

Previously in Friday photo series:

New York High School Runners 1970s

Lilian Board, 1948-1970
Running in Tel Aviv 1942
Alan Turing the Runner

Marilyn Monroe the Runner
Tom Longboat, Canadian First Nations Marathon Runner
Runners in Space: an image from Munich 1972 on NASA's Voyager spacecraft

Jim Peters collapses in Vancouver 1954

Anita Neil - Britain's first female Black Olympian?

Running in the Streets of New Cross 1953

Running tracks from space

Running with Madonna

Ron Hill

1930s photos from Margate (Kent) and White City (London)

Friday Photos (5): Tom Longboat (1887-1949): Canadian First Nations Marathon Runner

These photos are of Tom Longboat (1887-1949), the Canadian/First Nations long distance runner.

As summarised by Deseronto Archives: 'One of the most famous Canadian athletes of 1908 was Tom Longboat, a marathon runner with a string of successful races to his name. He was born in 1887 to Onondaga parents in the Six Nations of the Grand River Indian Reserve. His first major race victory was at the 1906 Around the Bay Race in Hamilton, Ontario. In 1907 he won the Boston Marathon and the following year he went to London, England, to run in the Olympic Games'. After leading for much of the 1908 London Olympic Marathon, he collapsed and did not finish. Like many runners of that time his career was bedevilled by the division between 'amateur' and 'professional' athletics, and it has even been suggested that his 1908 run might have been sabotaged by his own manager trying to fix the race for gambling interests. In 1979 a street was named after him in Toronto.

In a reversal of the Olympic outcome, Longboat won a professional track marathon race in February 1909  at New York's Madison Square Garden, beating English runner Alfred Shrubb who collapsed near the end of the race. It was big news - taking up most of the front page of the Montreal Gazette the next day (extract below from the paper, 6 February 1909):

'Tom Longboat, the Canadian Indian, tonight won the Marathon race at Madison Square Garden from Alfred Shrubb, the English long distance runner. Shrubb, after leading all the way many laps ahead, collapsed in the fifth lap of the twenty-fifth mile and could not resume running, while the Indian, who never tried to follow Shrubb's early fast pace, continued to the end'

Previously in this series:

New York High School Runners 1970s

Running in Tel Aviv 1942

Alan Turing the Runner

Marilyn Monroe the Runner