Belgrave Harriers celebrated Bill’s 100th birthday in style with a great party at Belgrave Hall on January 15th 2017 where Bill and his wife Sheena were the guests of honour.
They were photographed in front of a 100th birthday cake and they were interviewed by TV and newspaper reporters.
Among almost 100 guests were South of England president John Gebbels, Surrey President Pete Mulholland, Surrey Chairman Tom Pollak and three other Belgrave Olympians Snowy Brooks, Pascar Owor (Uganda) and John Bicourt.
There was a half-page report of the event in the Daily Mirror on January 16th and coverage of the celebrations on ITN London through January 16th.
We regret to report the passing of former Surrey president Pam Davies, winner of the English women’s cross country title a record-equalling four successive times. She died in a North London hospital after a short illness, aged 82.
She took up athletics in 1953 when she was a student at Leicester University after she discovered there were races further than 100 yards. She began at 880 yards and was the Women’s AAA national one mile champion in 1963. After finishing runner-up in the English women’s cross country championship in 1964, she won the event in 1965, 1966, 1967 and 1968, only the second runner to win the title four consecutive occasions. Diane Leather (1953 to 1956) was the first runner to achieve the feat. She also represented England three times in the international championship.
Although she achieved further success on the track she admitted cross country running was her favourite event.
She was a regular competitor in the Surrey Championships between 1961 and 1973 winning the one mile title four times in 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1968 and the county senior women's cross country title in 1960, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965,1966 and 1967.
She and her late husband John were the 20th century Bow Street runners as they frequently trained from their home in Bow Street where they had two sons. She was also a full-time teacher as head of science at a South London school. She lived the last few years of her life at the Highbury development in North London to be near one of her sons.
After retiring from competitive athletics in the 1980’s she continued to support the sport as a qualified official. She was elected Surrey president in 2001 and from 2002 to 2013 she was assistant secretary taking the minutes of executive committee meetings. Profile.
(5) UK INDOOR COMBINED EVENTS, EIS, SHEFFIELD, 11/12TH FEBRARY 2017
Running in the Seville Marathon on 17th February 2017 Lily Partridge's time of 2:32:10 beat the previous best time of 2:33:07 set by Nicole McCracken in the 1990 London Marathon.
(7) SURREY COUNTY INDOOR TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS, DWLC, CARSHALTON, 18/19 FEBRUARY 2017
Pippa Earley's winning time of 8.41 in the Under-17 Women's 60m Hurdles was a UK Indoor Record (the previous record was set by Helen Worsey in 1998). Jade Ive improved the County Record for the Senior Women's Pole Vault which she had set at last week's National Championships with her winning vault of 4.36m.
(9) ENGLISH NATIONAL CROSS-COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS, NOTTINGHAM, 25 FEBRUARY 2017
Congratulations to the following Surrey athletes who finished in the top 3 places:-
U13 Boys - 1st Jaden Kennedy (Herne Hill Harriers)
U15 Girls- 2nd Charlotte Alexander (Herne Hill Harriers)
U17 Women - 3rd Alex Brown (Herne Hill Harriers)
(10) EUROPEAN INDOOR TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS, BELGRADE, SERBIA, 3/5 MARCH 2017
3 Surrey athletes were selected for the GB & NI team:-
60m - Theo Etienne (Hercules Wimbledon)
HJ - Morgan Lake (Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow)
4x400m - Mary Iheke (Enfield & Haringey)
(11) SOUTH-EAST REGION INTER-COUNTY SPORTSHALL, BURGESS HILL, 4TH MARCH 2017
Headlines from Paul Andrews:- SURREY U13 GIRLS 1ST PLACE GOLD MEDALS
SURREY U13 BOYS 3RD PLACE BRONZE MEDALS
SURREY U15 GIRLS 1ST PLACE GOLD MEDALS
SURREY U15 BOYS 2ND PLACE SILVER MEDALS
Well done to absolutely everyone involved especially the team managers Laura, Graham, Fran and Natalie
(plus Patricia who was there to assist with kit etc).
Full info results to follow on website when available.
Two teams may be more (once top scorers calculated from all regionals) through to the National Finals at The City of Manchester Stadium on April 22nd/23rd.
(12) EA U17/U15 INDOOR COMBINED EVENTS, EIS, SHEFFIELD, 11TH/12TH MARCH 2017
Pippa Earley (Kingston AC & Polytechnic H) set a new UK Indoor Record for the U17 Womens Pentathlon with her winning total of 3952 points. This is her second UK record this winter having previously broken the 60m Hurdles record at the Surrey Championships in February.
GREAT DAY FOR SURREY.
In the team placings - Under-13 Boys, Under-17 Women & Senior Women were FIRST and the Senior Men were SECOND. The Under-13 Girls, Under-15 Girls, Under-15 Boys & Under-20 Women were FOURTH.
There were individual victories for Jaden Kennedy (U13B) & Claudia Lance Jones (U17W). Alex Brown was 2nd in the U17W. Andy Maud was 3rd in the SM. Ethan Scott (U13B) & Julia Tomczak (U17W) were 4th. Phoebe Law (SW) & Phil Wicks (SM) were 5th.
The winning Under-17 Women team
of Claudia Lance Jones, Alexandra Brown, Julia Tomczak & Katie Hopkins.
An obituary for Ed Whitlock who died on 13th March 2017 was published in The Times on 16th March 2017. It mentions that he was the first person over 70 to finish a marathon in under 3 hours when at the age of 72 he ran 2hrs 59mins 9secs; a time he improved a year later to 2hrs 54mins 49secs. In October 2016 at the age of 85 he ran the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 3hrs 56min 33secs!
He was born in South London and, although our records for the immediate post-war years are limited, they show that he finished 4th in the 1948 Surrey Youths Cross-Country Championship representing Surbiton Grammar School. By 1949 he had joined Walton AC and he finished 2nd in the Surrey Junior Mens One Mile championship and then in 1951 he was 7th in the Surrey Junior Mens Cross-Country Championship.
In 1952 he emigrated to Canada where his athletics career ceased until he took it up again in 1975 when his 14-year old son wanted to attempt a marathon. Subsequently Ed set many age group records from the Mile to the Marathon and was the World Masters Champion for 1500m in 1979. His last race was in December 2016 when he came back to London to run in a cross-country event that he had previously won as a schoolboy. Profile.
(15) ENGLISH SCHOOLS CROSS-COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS, NORWICH, 18TH MARCH 2017
We show below the Surrey athletes who finished in the top six places. The schools county they were representing is shown in brackets:-
Junior Boys: 4th Harley Norman (Surrey); 5th Jaden Kennedy (London).
Inter Girls: 2nd Claudia Lance Jones (Surrey); 3rd Charlotte Alexander (Surrey).
Senior Girls: 3rd Julia Tomczak (London), 6th Niamh Brown (Surrey).
