Category Archives: Track & field

The Days of the Spartan Dinner Dances

08 Friday May 2020

Posted by in Jersey, Track & field, Writing

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Times past, I was quite heavily involved with my local athletics club, Jersey Spartan AC. Shortly after I became Secretary in about 1999, one of the things I pushed for at committee was an upgrade to the club’s annual ‘bash’. So we decided on an Annual Dinner Dance, the sort of affair that even then was going out of fashion.

But they were great, and continued for a dozen or so years. The club members, their partners and families enjoyed the opportunity to dress up. Some were unrecognisable from the sweaty articles in scanty clothing that we were accustomed to seeing.

Bruce Tulloh book

One of the keys to the successes of those evenings were the invited Guest Speakers. I have to say that I had a hand in securing most of these guests. And each and every one had represented Great Britain (or Ireland in one instance) in at least one Olympic Games, including two gold medalists. Here, for the record, is the list in approximate order in which they came to Jersey, with their Olympic credentials.

  • Myrtle Augee – Seoul 1988 shot putt 17th, Barcelona 1992 shot putt 14th.
  • Sonia O’Sullivan – Barcelona 1992 3000m 4th, Atlanta 1996 5000m DNF & 1500m heats, Sydney 2000 5000m 2nd & 10000m 6th.
  • Mary Peters – Tokyo 1964 pentathlon 4th, Mexico 1968 pentathlon 9th, Munich 1972 1st.
  • David Hemery – Mexico 1968 400m hurdles 1st, Munich 1972 400m hurdles 3rd & 4 x 400m relay 2nd.
  • Bruce Tulloh (RIP) – Rome 1960 1500m heats.
  • David Moorcroft – Montreal 1976 1500m 7th, Moscow 1980 5000m semi-finals, Los Angels 1984 5000m 14th.
  • Christina Boxer – Moscow 1980 800m semi-final, Los Angeles 1984 1500m 6th, Seoul 1988 1500m 4th.
  • Dalton Grant – 1988 Seoul high jump 7th, 1992 Barcelona high jump 29th, Atlanta 1996 high jump 19th.
  • Chris Tomlinson – Athens 2004 long jump 5th, Beijing 2008 long jump 27th, London 2012 long jump 6th.
  • Katharine Merry – Atlanta 1996 200m 19th, Sydney 2000 400m 3rd.
  • Colin Campbell (Jersey’s own) – Mexico 1968 400m heats, 1972 Munich 800m heats.
ChristinaBoxer

Christina Boxer

In most cases these great athletes travelled to Jersey for expenses only. On a number of occasions I was honoured to meet and talk with them over dinner the night before the function. Each brought their own individual charm to the proceedings and we, as a club, were unfailingly impressed with their willingness to reach out and give up their time for the furtherance of athletics.

Happy days indeed, but I think the days of the Dinner Dance are now over.

FB Fields of Dreams

29 Friday Sep 2017

Posted by in Jersey local history, Track & field, Writing

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With acknowledgement to Jersey Heritage and Mike Bisson’s excellent Jerripedia.

The FB Fields has been home from home to me since I arrived in Jersey in 1977. Within weeks I had played my first game of cricket there. This morning I set out (unsuccessfully) to do a little intervals session on the athletics track. But, with the exception of one other jogger, the several acres were deserted.

FBNetball1940

Netball at the FB Fields in 1940

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Same scene this morning – the netball girls are long gone.

We know that the previously uncultivated land in the south of the Island was used as a playing fields as long ago as the mid 1800s. The coming of the Jersey Eastern Railway in 1873 made the fields more accessible and, in 1896, a new station – Grève d’Azette – was opened adjacent to the fields.

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This section of granite wall is all that remains of Grève d’Azette station.

Enter Jesse Boot of Boots the Chemists fame, who had earlier met and married local girl Florence Rowe whilst convalescing in Jersey. The couple retired to live in Jersey in 1920 and became involved in philanthropic schemes. They bought land in the St Clement area, financed the building of 22 tradesmen’s cottages, and in 1928 gifted the playing fields land to the States of Jersey as trustee, to be used in perpetuity for recreational purposes. They became officially known as the FB Fields.

FB 1945Allotments

FB Fields in 1945. Top left the scarred football pitches, below them the Boots’ FB Cottages and – to the right of the cottages – the wartime allotments where the athletics track is now situated. Running west to east is the still-visible railway track, disused since 1929.

During the Occupation years the land on which the athletics track is now situated was used as much-needed allotments.

Countless sports have been played there, and most locals will remember it from school sports days and the like. In 1987 the all-weather athletics track was installed, and, in the late 1990s, a superb table tennis centre.

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The gloomy and deserted athletics track this morning.

Most of the time the fields are sadly underused. Yet, thanks to the foresight of the Boots, this prime land is protected forever from the rapacious gaze of property developers.

Keep calm, deep breaths…

06 Sunday Jan 2013

Posted by in Coaching, Running, Track & field, Writing

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I nearly did it again. Did what? I nearly gave the ‘go ahead and print’ order for Tess of Portelet Manor. Thankfully however I called for yet another soft-copy proof.

With growing horror I’d marked up the previous, hard copy, proof with sticky flags. It was full of typeset errors where a word break at the end of a line led to white space after the penultimate word on that line. Advised that the corrections had been put through I was confident enough to give the print order – but I didn’t. Just as well. This latest proof has no fewer than 36 similar errors, plus a handful of typos which I’m sure I’ve identified before.

So it’s back to the printers, asking if they can give me a price for finally cleaning the thing up. It’s as well I like the story I’ve written as I can now recite it off by heart.

Do other writers end up tearing their hair out like this months after submitting their work, light of heart? How many times do you have to proof-read your work before printing?angry face

Meanwhile I’ve tentatively set off on my fourth novel. Hardly for the mass market this one. It will focus on real, modern-day slavery, alternating between the misery and cruelty bestowed on the slaves and trying to dissect and examine the money chain which enables the trade to happen. I wonder how readable I can make this! Not easy but I’m going to try.

And I’m also going to have a shot at a volume of short stories. This is a different discipline entirely and something I’m trying to learn as I go along. I’ve got a couple in the can which is, at least, a start.

And in other news my new Jersey Joggers group meet for the first time on 14th January. I have about 30 indications of interest, which is great. A big attendance will bring a number of little problems, but nothing that can’t be overcome. jogging cartoonIn addition I’ve just taken on a wider-ranging role in coaching the youngest members of Jersey Spartan AC, at least temporarily. I love coaching so it’s no real hardship.

And I’ve got to find time for tackling modules 6 – 23 of the course which will give me my higher qualification in throwing i.e. shot putt, discus etc.

All of which is a bit introspective and uninteresting for readers – my apologies. But I suppose it’s my version of looking ahead to 2013 and what’s on my plate. Now if someone would just do my full-time job (I get to keep the salary) then I’d be fine.

Now I have a week’s break, using up some of my 2012 leave entitlement backlog. The first thing I need to do is to catch up with my favourite bloggers, sadly neglected recently. I get so much enjoyment and inspiration from them that I’m looking forward to that.

Young Crusaders going strong

26 Saturday Nov 2011

Posted by in Coaching, Crusaders AC, Ireland, Track & field

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I don’t suppose I’ll ever stop going on about the day me and fellow coach Moira forlornly put a few cones out and opened up the long jump pit at a very damp Irishtown Stadium in Dublin. It was late summer 2008 and very few young athletes had been tempted to come along and train that summer. Crusaders, a club with a fine history, had never had a junior section and our efforts were amounting to very little. This dreary Open Day was looking like another waste of our time when…from seemingly nowhere a couple of dozen local youngsters appeared, running and jumping around. Rather startled we organised a couple of groups and had a brilliant hour or two with them. Now three years on Crusaders have a very strong junior section and they have produced their third Newsletter which is attached below. I am very proud of them all

Junior Cru News Issue 3 (Final) (1)

Back to Irishtown August ’11

31 Wednesday Aug 2011

Posted by in Coaching, Ireland, Track & field

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It was great to meet up with everyone at Irishtown Stadium again. Crusaders are going great guns and there’s some very good work going on in that part of the world. Mike McGovern, head coach of the adult runners, tells me that Crusaders are now the second largest club in Dublin, second only (I’m guessing) to DSD. He recalls not so long ago when, in his words, there was only tumbleweed on the track!

Yesterday (Tuesday) there were about 30-40 runners training under Mike and the coaches, looking as if they were doing a baseline time trial of 3000m or so. These didn’t include a number of Crusaders elite track and hill runners but did feature Sharon, mum of juniors Kevin and James, who has only recently taken up running and who has been doing really well.

Happily many of the original junior Cru, recruited in late summer 2008, are still around. All around 10 feet taller than when I last saw them they are testament to the very good work being done by Maria Hetherington and Paul Francis, brother of ex-Irish rugby international Neil. Moira, the fellow coach with whom I worked in those formative days, has struggled with illness recently but was back in harness yesterday and it was good to meet her again.

On Saturday I led a shot session and yesterday evening both discus and shot with Alix, Beth and Rhona. Alix is our star thrower and has medalled at age group level in the All-Irelands. I am fretting somewhat that she is not presently throwing to her considerable potential. However I’m assured that Olympian Phil Conway (and new WR holder for M60 shot) and top coach Dave Sweeney have their beady eyes on her. I have high hopes for Beth, a strong young athlete who yesterday took to throwing like a duck to water.

Elsewhere a group of 15-20 were getting stuck in to various activities – even high jump for the smallies, the weather remaining very kind. The hard winter work will soon start.

So, sad goodbyes once again but what else is there to do?

Island Games next up, but what follows?

22 Wednesday Jun 2011

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Island Games time again.  There’s no arguing with the strength of the athletics team representing Jersey travelling to the Isle of Wight.  I have to say that the outlook at senior level looked bleak as we lost the inter-insular pretty badly last September, but Andrew has built up a nice squad in the last nine months.  We’ll come back with a stack of medals but it will be the performances that I’ll be most interested in.  Interesting to watch the relay squads practise their baton work. It’s getting slick and not once have I seen the thing hit the deck.  If club athletes can do it why on earth since time immemorial have GB relay runners looked like they’ve got soap on their hands?

I sorta wish I was going, but I’m not a good spectator.  I did that in the Isle of Man in 2001 and I didn’t particularly enjoy it.  Two years later in Guernsey I did some officiating so became part of the event.  Anyway I hope all the athletes do themselves justice.

I still have a sinking feeling about the sport at the younger levels though. Numbers at the track are crap, the middle-distance group apart.  We did a bit of club leafleting at the recent primary schools’ championships and, as a direct consequence, the Minis on Sunday had their biggest turnout of the year.  I’m trying to get the moribund Jersey Athletics Association to observe their constitution and meet – the schools’ associations need this desperately – but there remains inertia on that front.

Shortly hitting the shelves will be Athletics in Jersey, a history.  Chris Lake has done most of the research and writing with a few more of us chipping in.  I think it’s a cracking book, readable with great images.  I’ll be banging on much more about this once it comes out.  If there’s a common thread throughout the book it’s one of high points followed by decline and fall.  The falls come very quickly when drive and initiative are lost.  This is the feeling I get right now – I hope I’m wrong.

Track weekend

12 Sunday Jun 2011

Posted by in Coaching, Running, Track & field

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Apologies to those who might follow this as a running blog.  My running continues to be very low key.  I dragged my ass out for a couple of short morning runs this week.  My group of five enthusiastic Couch to 5k students are into week six (of nine) this coming week.  But other than that I’m afraid that there’s nothing to report.

This weekend was pretty much wall-to-wall track and field, starting with the Diamond League in New York on Friday evening.  Did you watch it?  The weather was disastrous – heavy rain, windy and cold.  The athletes tried to put on a show but, for the most part, it looked a bit like a British League meeting.  The technical events – pole vault, high jump, triple jump were just survival of the fittest.  The blue riband 100m for men descended into farce with three DQs, one of which was a travesty.  Mullings beat Gay on the dip with the time irrelevant. The middle distance events were better and I was happy to see the Irish trio of Britton, Reilly and Cragg showing up very well, the girls with PBs and Cragg with an SB.

So onto Saturday morning and the more prosaic setting of the FB Fields, Jersey. Spartan’s technical officials’ education appears to have been approximately nil in recent years.  The nice little cadre of qualified and reliable officials we once had have, naturally enough, mostly disappeared.  In some desperation I had arranged to deliver a basic timekeeping course together with our one competent timekeeper Carl Prosser (I am rubbish) with the assistance of Jim Evans with his Starter’s gun.  Happily we had ten or so attendees, including three from the schools.  A half-hour theory was followed by a practical exercise where three young athletes (thank you William, Florence and Olivia) were timed in ‘pretend’ races and were measured against Carl’s master watch.  We gave feedback in between the races so that the trainee timekeepers could adjust their technique appropriately.  In all a very worthwhile couple of hours which will stand the sport in good stead.

A quick spot of breakfast and back to the track where it was great to meet the elite British hammer thrower Mick Jones.  His students consisted of club record holder Donny Rocket and the experienced Catarina Hallden together with young athletes Ed, Will, Yuri and Josh.  Mick’s input immediately had a positive effect on the two experienced athletes.  I raised my eyebrows when Mick got all the youngsters immediately onto a turn and release – I’ll do that in future rather than insist on swings and standing throws.  Two and a half solid hours of focused practise will have done the athletes a power of good.

And it was straight back into it this morning, Sunday.  The New York-type weather had reached Jersey and we simply had to cancel the Minis session.  Mick Jones reappeared and set up an indoor routine for the hammer throwers, the idea to reinforce the foot movements involved in the event; also specific weight-swinging drills to strengthen both muscles and muscle memory.  Great stuff Mick and I hope we see you again before long.

No rest for the wicked.  The history book Athletics in Jersey is almost ready to go to press.  However it needed another proof-read which took most of the afternoon.  Happily my name will be one of those on the cover though Chris Lake has done the majority of the work.  If the book upsets people (probable) I can blame him but I’ll also accept any little piece of praise that there might be 🙂

The ex-runner…?

04 Saturday Jun 2011

Posted by in Running, Track & field

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A year ago today I was in my spiritual home of Cork City, strolling out along the Lee estuary at Monkstown and generally relaxing ahead of the Cork Marathon on the Monday.  Today I’m virtually an ex-runner.  There does come a time for most people of course when they fade away off the running scene – this must be especially true for those of us who weren’t really runners in the first place.  It’s only recently I realised that good, older runners like Sam O’Hare and Richard Sowerby no longer feature in races.  The legend that is Barbara Parker hasn’t raced for a year or two now, but I suspect that is more a question of cumulative injuries rather than age.

The only running I’ve done this week is to take my present small Couch to 5k group out on Tuesday and Thursday; and this morning about an hour of gentle jogging with occasional strides down at the almost-deserted track.  At least there’s an excuse for an empty track with both men and women ‘playing away’ in the British League this weekend.  The men have to schlepp up to Glasgow via Edinburgh, but the women have a comparatively easy hop over to Kingston upon Thames.  Both squads are short due to exam commitments, but it’s nice to see Kathryn Rothwell named.  Kath hasn’t been training since Christmas but hopefully she’ll come back again at some stage.

In the clubhouse Michele Leerson was going through the old boxes of medals to see what could be salvaged for the forthcoming club championships; she and one or two others are determined to bring this day back to the excellent event it once was before people lost interest.  Also I’m delighted that there are plans for Spartans to have a desk at various forthcoming schools meetings with information, leaflets etc.  The schools are a natural hunting ground for young members and we’ve been ignoring them even though they’re on our doorstep.  No other sport would miss these opportunities.  There is only a small window in the summer term that the schools do track & field and the youngsters are enthused.  We need to capture that enthusiasm.  It’s the sort of initiative that gives me a little hope for the future.

Sadly a mooted trip by Crusaders to the club championships hasn’t materialised this year, but perhaps next.

Congratulations…

20 Friday May 2011

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… to Shadine Duquemin.  No sooner has big brother Zane won his first senior England vest than Shadine is selected to represent Great Britain U20s at the Loughborough International meeting this weekend.  In both cases it’s a case of hard work and dedication – not always in great supply amongst young athletes, well and truly paying off.