Secretary's Report to AGM 2007
As I address you this year I am reminded of Harold Macmillan’s speech where he said:
“The wind of change is blowing through this continent, whether we like it or not …”
If you substitute the word club for continent, you would be close to summarising where Belgrave Harriers are at in Autumn 2007. Some are afraid of change, and like to keep things as they are. But all successful organizations are flexible, and able to adapt with the changing times. We must be flexible too, because although our future is still bright and exciting, there are a number of issues we urgently need to address, to save ourselves becoming just another local athletics club, as opposed to one of the leading clubs in Britain.
More of this later, but first I must sadly record the deaths of three esteemed members this past year:
Jim Mote died on 20th June 2007. He had joined Belgrave Harriers when the club amalgamated with Surrey AC in 1982. His Surrey AC Vice President status was converted into a Life Membership and he ran the Young Athletes section until the late eighties.
Geoff Pearson passed away on 10th July, 2007. He was fourth scorer, in 21st position, in our winning National Cross Country team at Leamington Spa in 1946. He was enormously proud of running for Belgrave Harriers and many of our more senior members will have fond memories of running with Geoff across Wimbledon Common and into Richmond Park on Saturday afternoons.
Just recently we have heard of the death of Bill Weller. He was a key man in our road running teams in the '70s - one of Gordon Biscoe's lads whose teams featured highly in National Road Relays. Bill came close to international status at the marathon distance.
It has been another busy year in which although we have not enjoyed the success we are used to thus far this century, there are encouraging signs that this is just a temporary blip, and we have kicked off the new autumn/winter season in splendid style.
Starting with last season’s road and country endeavours, it is to be reported that that four major road relays, are all, for now, out of our hands as we placed 3rd, 4th, 2nd and 3rd in the Southern and National 6 and 12 stages. All the races were exciting though and Belgrave can be proud that whenever we are defeated, we go down fighting. The most exciting race was the Southern 12-stage where the final stage runners went out separated by 4 seconds. As in 2006, we endured a rather torrid day at the National 12-stage as lady luck was against us again. The club’s four finest runners were ill, well-below par, nursing an injury, and away. That’s worth at least five minutes. We lost to a strong Leeds outfit, but were happy with our bronze. We performed quietly in the Surrey cross-country League, only managing 3rd again, but there was a rousing victory in the last match of the winter, and the team manager and captain are determined to mount a real challenge for this trophy in the months ahead.
There were two major highlights in December and January. First up, a dominating performance at the South of the Thames Championships, where we packed 6 men inside the top 25, and won the 12-to score race as well. For the Belles, although she was not backed up by a team, Chrissie Wellington won the women’s race. We supplied the individual winner in Phil Wicks, a minute and a half up on David Anderson. Wicksy then produced a sensational run at the boggy morass that was Lloyd Park for the Surreys, and won by two-and-a-half minutes. An eagerly awaited showdown with double Southern champ Huw Lobb loomed at the SEAA race at Holkham Hall, and it did not disappoint, as the two treated the hilly 9-mile course like a 1500-metre race and duelled back and forth for 45 thrilling minutes, before Phil’s strength was just too much and he prevailed by 16 seconds. Phil was backed up by a team of engine room boys, who ran well for us to finish 6th.
We had a raft of drop-outs in the fortnight before the National at Sunderland, and two in the race itself, and so were relieved that we finished the minimum quota of six runners to place 17th. Simon Jones won the Parker bowl in 71st.
The new road and country season began this past weekend and it was heady stuff. A terrific race with SLH at the Surrey road relay saw us prevail by just 24 seconds, and the following day we were crowned National half-marathon champions with a dominant performance at Bristol. Phil Wicks was delighted to win the AAA championships, narrowly edging out Tony Lambert. Such a euphoric start to the season has us dreaming that this could be one of the best in our history. We certainly have the momentum and the man-power, all we need now is the continued appetite.
Sarah Murphy and Catherine Bryson dominated the women’s cross-country season, but they were sadly our only performers at the Southerns and the National. However, they were backed up by a fine squad to comfortably take the Surrey League over Ranelagh. And they did the double over Ranelagh by taking the Surrey County Championships by a margin of just 14 points. The lady Belles were quiet in the road relays, although ended encouragingly with a gutsy top-ten finish at the National 6-stage, with Birhan Dagne placing 3rd on the opening stage.
In track and field, our defence of the British League was rather haphazard, and we actually came into the last match of the season in danger of relegation. That we narrowly stayed up was a source of real satisfaction and we hope to be back competing for the title again next year. The new-fangled 10-in-100 cup competition failed to capture the imagination of our athletes and we did not make the final. We took a young and talented team to Albufeira, Portugal, for the European Champion Clubs Cup and although they ended up propping up the premier group of seven teams, in the face of extremely fierce competition several athletes secured pb’s and we took heart-warming wins in the 4 by 100 relay and sprint hurdles. We have decided to re-enter the Southern League after a few years out. This means that the long climb back from division 4 has begun, but it is a challenge we shall look to tackle with relish. In the UK Women’s league the managers struggled to find athletes willing to travel to Wigan for match one, which got us off to a very slow start, but at least we hung on to our spot in division two.
Our first summer of triathlon saw some encouraging performances, and we ‘cashed’ in the London League in 9th place. Our race walkers continue to perform regularly in races up and down the country, and it should be noted that Maureen Noel won the National 50k champs in July.
Some individual notes for the statisticians:
Goldie Sayers - Javelin throw of 65.05 - British and Belgrave Record – to win the Loughborough International.
Michelle Carey - 57.10 400mH in IAAF World Champs.
Eva Massey - Shot Putt of 16.63m - N. Ireland and Belgrave Record – when winning UK Champs.
Louise Cooper - 9:21:38 100k in Edinburgh.
Philips Idowu 17.56 Triple Jump to win European Indoor Championship, and 17.09 to place 6th in IAAF World Championship.
David Gillick 45.23 400m at Berne Switzerland.
William Sharman 13.68 110m Hurdles in Oslo, individual winner in the Euro Clubs.
David Gillick 45.52 400m to win European Indoor Championships.
Samson Oni 2.28m high jump - 1st UK Challenge final.
Neil Speaight 3:38.33 1500m at Sheffield.
Chris Lambert 20.71 200m at Biberach, Germany, and a 10.36 for the 100.
Graeme Oudney 1:47.77 800m at Manchester.
Gerbrand Grobler 80.27 javelin in Dessau, Germany.
A couple of miscellaneous notes: We continue to help out where we can in the Surrey area, and our 5k in August and the relay at the weekend were both well-attended and ran very smoothly. Gordon Biscoe has been elected President of the South of England AA. We successfully raised funds for our impressive new Honours Board, which has been completed. We haven't had an official unveiling ceremony but its detail is well worth study when you have the time.
So what of these winds of change? It may surprise you to know that there are 27 separate parts of this athletics club, which require specific attention. They are: track sprints, track distance running, field throws, field jumps. Quadruple that number to include the women and juniors. Four sections of road running, four of cross-country, race-walking and triathlon.
Basically, it’d be nice if we had someone different in charge of all of these 27 sectors. But of course we don’t. In fact the number is around six or seven! Is it any wonder that we often find ourselves stretched so thin? For many reasons, the golden age of being a volunteer is fading fast, as people's lives are busier and more hectic. We have not reached crisis point yet, and we still have tremendous things to offer British athletics, but must accept the old adage that if you go around trying to please everyone, you end up pleasing no-one. The time perhaps has come to consider doing three or four things really well, rather than eight or nine things quite well… The two areas where we are most fragile are our youths sections, and track and field. As things stand, we hope to keep them, but our limited resources are at breaking point, and although next summer we shall definitely appear in the British League, the future after that is murky. My personal view is that we should strive to hang on to things as they are until the London Olympics, since an interest in athletics could well blossom in the coming years. But the facts are clear: several of our club administrators have notched up over 40 years of club service, and they can’t go on forever. An urgent injection of fresh blood is required to run the club in its present state.
Thank you.
William Cockerell, Hon Gen Sec., Weds 12 Sept, 2007
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.