A summer night at the Old Roan Club

After a hot July evening Assembly League race around Sutcliffe Park this week, hosted by Cambridge Harriers,  a drink was definitely in order and we were lucky enough to be able to enjoy the hospitality of the Old Roan Club just across the road from the park on Kidbrooke Park Road SE3.  The playing fields here are owned by the John Roan foundation linked to the John Roan secondary school in Greenwich - rare and very welcome to see a state-funded school having access to such good facilities in an area where private schools seem to have more than their fair share of such spaces. It is home to the Old Roan Cricket Club which dates back to 1930 and Old Roan Football Club founded in 1907.

I love places like this and have come to really appreciate these oases which have been kept going for many decades, often by volunteers. In London in particular you have to marvel how any green space has been preserved against developers. 

Old Roan has all the classic ingredients - a pavilion with very reasonably priced beer, a trophy cabinet, and playing fields complete with a running track painted on the grass, and of course a cat that thinks it owns the place. It was a lovely place to watch the sun go down after running three laps round the park, my first time back out in a Kent AC vest for a while.

That Summer Feeling - 'when you run for love, not because you oughtta'

On one of the hottest nights of the year a couple of hundred people meet up to run round a sun baked patch of ground in north London. It's the Assembly League race on Tottenham marshes - 'marsh' may conjure up images of moisture and soft ground but this is more like the dry grasslands of the tropical savannah. To add to the discomfort most of us do not realise until the last lap that what was supposed to be a roughly 5K race is actually an extra 800m long. A finish line of lungs gasping for breath and dry throats in urgent need of water or something stronger, the sting of our own salt in our eyes. Still once the immediate pain recedes we remember that we are happy to be here, a pleasant stroll back along the canal and somewhere a pub is calling… ah that summer feeling.

Jonathan Richman's song of that name reminds us of some of the joys of summer – ‘the cool of the pond, the smell of the lawn', sun, water, ripening fields, desire… yes and running not as a duty but as a pleasure: “when you run for love not because you oughta”. OK not everybody enjoys running in the heat, but compared with dragging yourself out of bed on a cold, wet morning for a training run there's no contest is there?

But he also reminds us that that summer feeling can include a strong current of melancholy. Summers don’t last for ever, holidays end, passionate moments can be fleeting. We will always be drawn back to the memories of summers past and Richman suggests that even in the midst of these pleasures we are aware that one day we will be looking back on them with longing: "that summer feeling is gonna haunt you one day in your life".

Nostalgia plays tricks with us too, the summer glow can make us misremember, even terrible school days can seem okay: “Some things look good before and some things never were... You pick these things apart, they're not that appealing”.

There’s nothing wrong with that summer feeling. It’s one of life’s great pleasures but it can become pathological if we are not careful. If we don’t want our summer reminiscences to be tortured by regret we need to seize the moment – “if you wait until you’re older, a sad resentment will smolder one-day“. So run while you can, even if it means a long journey to the other side of the city for a poor time, summer's always almost gone!

The best version of 'That Summer Feeling' is on the 1992 Jonathan Richman album, 'I, Jonathan' (unfortunately currently unavailable on Spotify) 

Assembly League, Tottenham Marshes, 5 July 2018: The race was won by Adam Kirk-Smith (Eton Manor) for the men and Amy Clements (Kent AC) for the women. Around 30 of us made the journey from SE London to run for Kent AC and won both the men's and women's team races (based on four to score).

Previous Go Feet music-related running posts\;

Sampha and Future Islands

Norman Cook/Fatboy Slim at Brighton Half

Emma Jackson (ex-Kenickie) and Johny Brown (Band of Holy Joy) at Great North Run

Gilles Peterson at New York Marathon

Dexys Midnight Runners, Running

Running with Madonna

Joe Strummer: Marathon Runner

Morrissey and Marr: The Running Smiths

Viv Albertine (The Slits) on Running

Stuart Murdoch/Belle & Sebastian

Billy McKenzie/The Associates
Northern Soul and Running as the New Raving

Record Sleeve Athletics:

Musique - Keep on Jumpin'

4-Play - Olympic Rap

Sergio Mendes - Olympia

Giorgo Moroder - Reach Out

Skids - Days in Europa
Three Degrees - The Runner

Blackbyrds - Action

Santana - Marathon

Joan Armatrading - Track Record & Roxy Music - Flesh and Blood

Carl Lewis

BBC Sporting Sound Effects

Athletics in Beckenham, 1881

The last race of this year's Assembly League will be hosted as usual by Beckenham Running Club this week. While the 5k road race takes place on local streets, runners meet up and change at the cricket club ground on Foxgrove Road where the club is based, and most of the runners do a circuit or two of the cricket ground to warm up before racing.

Beckenham Cricket Club has been based at Foxgrove Road since 1867, and has been associated with other sports too since the early days. It gave birth to a tennis club in 1879, and judging by the following report, athletics was also part of its early activities.

 

In June 1881, Beckenham Cricket Club held its 'annual athletic meeting',  an event that featured both running and cycling races, as well as  entertainment from 'The band of the 11th Hussars (Prince Albert's Own'). The running races ranged from the 'hundred yards' to the Mile.

The 120 Yard Hurdles featured competitors from clubs including Beckenham Cricket Club, Private Banks Cricket Club, London Athletic Club, Arundel Athletic Club and Crystal Palace School of Engineering. Interesting that while clubs dedicated to particular sports existed by this time, the exclusive specialisation of athletes was not as developed as it later became - as is shown by a cricket club organising a running and cycling event, with cricket, football, running and cycling club members taking part.

The Mile Race (Open) featured 22 runners, with T. Shore of London Athletic Club acting as the Handicapper. Races were routinely handicapped in this period, with runners being given a head start according to their form and ability.  So the winner, J.E. Dixon (Spartan Harriers), had a 130 yard start while H.B. Burrows, South London Harriers was given a 50 yard start. It was 'A well contested-race, though the  winner led throughout, and won by ten yards'. Third placed H.D. Thomas (Blackheath Harriers) finished three  yards behind 2nd place, having  started at scratch (i.e with no head start). The winning time was given as 'four minutes, 24 and one-fifth seconds'.

The Challenge Cup 'was presented by His Highness the late Rajah of  Kolapore' to 'Mr A M Inglis, who had gained the highest number of marks in the club events', including winning the half-mile and the high jump. Other prizes were awarded by Lady Inglis (his mother) - Julia, Lady Inglis (born Julia Thesiger), lived in Beckenham after returning from India and wrote a book about her experiences in the Siege of Lucknow. Her son Alfred later played cricket for MCC and, on one occasion, Kent.

The cycling race included cyclists from clubs including Brixton Ramblers, LAC, Dewsbury BC, Crichton BC, London BC and Wanderers BC (in that period it seems that clubs were generally known as Bicycling Clubs - hence BC- rather than Cycling Clubs as they soon became known).

It was announced by Mr Percy Bicknell at the end that the rumour that  the club was about to give up the ground was untrue - in fact 'the ground had been secured for a period of 10 years'. Thanks to the efforts of these Victorian sporting pioneers, cricketers, footballers, tennis players, runners and others are still using these facilities more than a century later.

Source: The Beckenham Journal, 1st July 1881

(there are bound copies of this journal in Bromley reference library)

Assembly League on Greenwich Olympian Way

253 runners (from 13 clubs) took part in the fourth of this season's Assembly League races, in north Greenwich on 2 July. It was a hot evening for a run along the river Thames on the Greenwich peninsula on a flat course that was about 60m short of 5k.

Kent AC athletes John Gilbert and Amy Clements finished first amongst the men and women respectively, and the club also won in both the men's A team and B team. Dulwich Runners won the women's A team, and Victoria Park Harriers the women's B team. That pretty much reflects the league placings with two races remaining - Kent AC in front for the men, Dulwich Runners for the women. Top three finishers/times:

Men

1. John Gilbert (Kent AC) - 15:11

2. Dave Morgan (Serpentine) - 15:21

3. Rob Jackaman (Cambridge Harriers) - 15:29

Women

1. Amy Clements (Kent AC) - 16:52

2. Clare Elms (Dulwich Runners) - 17:25

3. Alex Gounelas (Eton Manor) - 17:41

(full results here)

The route took us along the Olympian Way, which lets face it is as near as most of us are going to get to being Olympians. I assume the path, which runs along the riverside around the 02 arena, was so named in 2012 when the 02 was the North Greenwich Arena in the London Olympics, hosting basketball and gymnastics.

As the excellent Greenwich Peninsula History site demonstrates, this area was once known as Greenwich Marsh, and was the site of gas works and heavy industry before the arrival of the Millennium Dome (now the 02). There are still some traces left of old north Greenwich, one of the best of which is the Pilot Inn where many of the runners retired for a drink after the race.

Kent AC down by the riverside

All over Battersea, some hope and some despair - Assembly League Race 3

The third of this season's Assembly League races was held in London's Battersea Park last Thursday (4th June 2015), hosted by Serpentine Running Club. 318 runners from 13 clubs took part on one of the hottest days of the year so far - with heat, pollen and London air quality there were plenty of dry throats and coughs by the end.

Johh Franklin (Serpentine) was first in 15:24, followed by Chris Greenwood (Kent AC - 15:29) and Richard Kowenicki (London Stock Exchange - 15:30). Amy Clements (Kent AC) was the women's winner in 17:07- making it three out of three for her this season - with Martha Lloyd second (Victoria Park Harriers, 17:47)  and Clare Elms (Dulwich Runners, 17:58) in third place. In the club placings, Serpentine came first in both  men's A-team and B-team, while Kent AC  cleaned up in women's A-team and B-team. A-team scores are based on positions of each club's first four finishers (so Serpentine runners finished in 1st, 4th, 6th and 10th place = 21 points) with the club with lowest points winning. B-team is the same, but for the next four finishers from each club. Final results are now available here  (see also the Assembly League facebook group).

With three races still to go - Greenwich peninsula, Victoria Park, Beckenham - Lewisham's Kent AC are still ahead in all team competitions but by no means secure. Plenty still to run for.

Runners gather at the bandstand last week

The 5k course started at the bandstand in the centre of the park, before heading on a circuit and half of the park. There aren't many parks in this country where a run takes you past a Buddhist peace pagoda, but of course Battersea has one, built by monks, nuns and followers of the Japanese Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist Order as part of the 1984 Greater London Council (GLC) Peace Year - shortly before the GLC was abolished and the park handed over to be run by Wandsworth Council. In fact I saw The Pogues play in the park in July 1985 in one of the great farewell free festivals organised in the last days of the GLC.

Battersea Park was opened next to the River Thames in 1858 and has a long sporting pedigree. The first football match played under Football Association rules took place there in January 1864. The park was regularly used by London Olympiades Athletics Club, one of the first women's athletics clubs in Britain (founded in 1921). In fact the first women's mile race in the UK was organised by Olympiades in Battersea Park in 1932 (source), in a period when many athletics officials thought women weren't capable of running such long distances!

Margery Bennett throws the discus in a London Olympiades meeting in Battersea Park, August 1939, with a barrage balloon in the background (Leeds Mercury 15 August 1939)

The women pictured below were taking part in a May 1931 trial in the park to select athletes to run in Florence later that year.

View image | gettyimages.com

Today the park hosts the Battersea Park Millennium Arena, with its eight lane running track, as well as other sporting facilities.

(the title of this post - 'All over Battersea, some hope and some despair' is a line from Morrissey's 1992 song, 'You're the One for Me Fatty', the video for which was filmed in the park).

Obligatory picture of some of the Kent AC runners in Battersea Park last week

See previously:

Assembly League in Victoria Park, May 2015
Staying Out for the Summer - Start of 2015 Assembly League in Beckenham, April 2015
The Assembly League 2014 finale in Beckenham (includes history of League)

Running London: Victoria Park with 1. Chris McDougall and 2. 314 Assembly League Runners

I've had a couple of good runs at East London's Victoria Park in the past two weeks, one of London's great running parks.

Last night Chris McDougall was in town. The author of the influential 'Born to Run' is promoting his new book, 'Natural Born Heroes', and 'Like the Wind' magazine with Run Dem Crew arranged for a group of us to go for a run/chat with him. We met up at the Proud Archivist canalside bar in Haggerston, and ran along the Regents Canal followed by a circuit of the park.

Chris McDougall by the Proud Archivist in Haggerston

We stopped for a photo in one of these two alcoves - originally part of the old London Bridge, they were moved to the park in 1860 after the bridge was demolished (there's also one at Guys Hospital).

Chris McDougall (centre) in Victoria Park - thought I'd fly the flag for the club with Kent AC vest
(photo from Like the Wind on twitter)

After the run we headed back to the Proud Archivist for food, drink and Chris in conversation with Run Dem Crew's Charlie Dark and Simon Freeman, editor of Like the Wind (new issue just out by the way).  Looking forward to reading Chris's new book, its starting point is how anti-Nazi resistance fighters in Second World War Crete managed to survive while hiding out, leading on to discussion of human agility, parkour, fat burning running and much more besides.

Chris commented how much he had enjoyed running along the canal and into the park, where despite having to constantly dodge cyclists, walkers and bargees, runners get to see a never ending panorama of humanity.

 There always seems to be runners heading up and down the canal paths and into the park. Even though I live on the other side of London, I count myself  amongst them. Earlier in the year in London Marathon training a group of us regularly headed from South London, through the Greenwich foot tunnel, across the Isle of Dogs and up the canal path, pausing in Victoria Park before running home. 

And of course the park is home to a lively running club - Victoria Park Harriers and Tower Hamlets Athletics Club (VPHTH). It was thanks to them that I found myself racing at the park a couple of weeks ago.

The Assembly League in Victoria Park

The second of this year's Assembly League races was held in Victoria Park on Thursday 7th May, with 314 runners from 13 clubs completing the 3.5 mile course (see here for some Assembly League history/background).

The race was won by Chris Greenwood (Kent AC) in 17:40, followed by Mark Hall (Kent AC) in 17:50 and Alan Barnes (Stock Exchange) in 17:55. In the women's competition the winner was Amy Clements (Kent AC) in 19.22, with Clare Elms (Dulwich Runners) runner up in 20:21 and Sarah Pemberton (Serpentine) third in 20:37.

In the team competition, first three teams were as follows:

- Men's team: 1. Kent; 2. Stock Exchange; 3. VPHTH

- Men's B-team: 1. Kent; 2. VPHTH; 3. Serpentine

- Women's team: Joint first: Dulwich and Kent; 3. VPTH

- Women's B-team: 1. Kent; 2. Dulwich 3. VPTH

So after two races, Kent are leading in both men's competitions, while Kent and Dulwich are neck and neck in points in the two women's competitions (full results here)

Park and politics

It was General Election night, so perhaps appropriate to be in this historic park where Chartist and Suffragettes once assembled. Clashes at a Chartist meeting in 1848 led to claims in the House of Commons that 'certain outrages were committed on peaceable, loyal, and unoffending individuals' by the police. Suffragette protests included a 'Women's May Day' demonstration in 1913, which saw Sylvia Pankhurst arrested in Victoria Park. The Park was also the scene of the famous 1978 Rock Against Racism 'Carnival Against the Nazis' with The Clash and Steel Pulse - not to mention the scene of me dancing under a disco ball and watching Goldfrapp and Flaming Lips at the Lovebox festival thirty years later.

But for the duration of the race at least, politics and indeed  music was off the agenda. We met up at the Victoria Park Harriers clubhouse in the park, near to the start. The 3.5 mile course consisted of a short 1 mile loop, followed by 2.5 mile 'figure-of-8'. Obviously that did make the second lap feel a bit on the long side! But we all got there eventually... and back to the clubhouse and its well stocked bar. Next Assembly League race is at Battersea Park on June 4th. 

See previously: Staying out for the summer - start of 2015 Assembly League in Beckenham

Some of the Kent AC contingent in Victoria Park

Staying Out for the Summer - Start of 2015 Assembly League

It felt like the start of the summer season proper last week (April 9th) with a warm Thursday evening for the first fixture of the Assembly League in Beckenham. The League involves 13 London/Kent clubs in a series of six 3 to 3.5 mile road races between April and September. 2015 marks the 40th year of the competition (for a bit more history see here).

(see route at Map My Run)

After meeting up at Beckenham Cricket Club (the home of Beckenham Running Club), 237 men and women runners headed from the start in Foxgrove Avenue on a course that circumnavigates Beckenham Place Park on surrounding roads/pavements. The three mile route heads up and over Crab Hill in the first mile, then remains fairly flat until near the end. After the two mile point at Downham McDonalds on Bromley Road it turns back westwards, entering Beckenham Place Park from the Beckenham Hill Road entrance with the last third of a mile a long upward slope towards the finish by the old Beckenham Place mansion. On this occasion the final stretch was accompanied by a magnificent sunset.

The Mansion in 1805 - the 2015 finish line is near to those cows!

The race was won by Pete Tucker (Ravensbourne) in 15:18, with Kent AC's Amy Clements coming first among the women runners in 16:41 (Amy won three of last season's six races in the winning Kent AC team). It was a good start for Kent AC all round, coming first in both the men's A & B teams, and the women's A team. Overall we had 40 runners taking part, a great turn out. In addition the club's oldest member, Ron Hale, was on hand to buy drinks in the bar afterwards to mark his recent 90th birthday.

Next stop in the Assembly League is Victoria Park on May 7th.

Full results here

See previously: The Assembly League 2014 Finale in Beckenham

The Assembly League 2014 finale in Beckenham

The final race of the summer's Assembly League was hosted by Beckenham Running Club on Thursday September 4th, with 212 runners from 15 clubs taking part in a 3 mile road run starting out by Beckenham Cricket Club (in whose bar we celebrated the end of the season afterwards). First finisher for the men was Paul Martelletti of Victoria Park Harriers (15:01), with Amy Clements of Kent Athletic Club coming in first amongst the women in 17:10. Paul and Amy also won their respective senior competitions for the 2014 season, which consisted of six runs between April and September - three in Beckenham, two in East London's Victoria Park, and one in Battersea Park.

It was a similar result in the club competition, with Victoria Park Harriers winning the league for the men and Kent Athletic Club for the women - the latter for the first time, a sign of the growing strength of the South East London club whose men's team came third overall.

Kent AC women smiling  after their victory, with coach Adrian Musson
(photo form @ronnie_haydon on twitter)

Looking at the shield it seems that the women's competition has been won 17 out of 20 times by Dulwich Runners.

According to the Cambridge Harriers site, the Assembly League was 'set up in the mid 1970s as competition between the London Business houses, such as the banks, stock-exchange, Post Office and major local employers (many since closed) such as Molins and Johnson & Phillips at Deptford', the latter two engineering firms who at one time had big factories in South London. As industries have vanished from London along with their sports clubs, the League has shifted to consisting largely of established running clubs from the London/Kent area. Teams from Stock Exchange Athletics Club and Lloyds keep up the workplace running tradition, with other teams taking part including Cambridge Harriers, Kent AC, Eton Manor, Dulwich Runners,  Serpentine Running Club, Dartford Road Runners, Victoria Park Harriers, Petts Wood Runners, Beckenham Running Club, Eton Manor Athletics Club, Ravensbourne School, Ravens City of London Running Club and Aquila.

This was my first race since joining Kent AC, and while I don't think my time/position made any difference to the overall result it was a good run, even if the long hill leading up to the finish line in Beckenham Place Park seemed to go on forever. Good too to explore the Beckenham streets of Enid Blyton and David Bowie! (the latter once lived more or less opposite Beckenham Cricket Club on Foxgrove Road)

Assembly League 2014 overall results here