LOUGHTON LINESNEW SERIES: Number 6, October, 2018

YOUNG LOUGHTON GOES ON THE RAMPAGE....

The Chingford League got off to its 2018-2019 start on the 2nd October at Hog Hill in an extraordinary way; in the combined Under-13 and Under-11 race, eighteen of the thirty-seven finishers were from Loughton! This is how they did:

Under 11 Boys 4 Jayan Hard 7:31 6 Rowan Howe 7:58 8 Luca Domiguez 8:22 9 James Isherwood 8:27 10 Henry Brown 8:41 11 Jake Katyal 9:25 12 Joshua Thomas 9:43 13 Luke Wickham 9:49 14 Byron Gipson 10:52

Team Position 2

Under 11 Girls 2 Lottie Palmer 8:00 4 Elizabeth Knapman 8:24 6 Monica Wickham 8:59 8 Elizabeth Thomas 10:30 9 Connie Stubbs 10:58

Team Position 2

Under 13 Boys 5 Bruno Stubbs 7:16 7 William Scrutton 8:17

Team Position 4

Under 13 Girls 4 Leela Katyal 7:43 6 Camilla Klyepcha 8:38

Team Position 4

Under 15 Boys 5 Thomas Medhurst 23:48

Team Position 2

Under 15 Girls 4 Ella Palmer 26:28

Team Position 2

With the lights of London in the background, our young squad takes a photo-call(Picture by courtesy of Gavin Harper)

….AND SO DO THE SENIORS

Another remarkable turn-out, this time by the older members of the squad, with the ladies especially out in force:Men

106 John Stubbs 23:05114 Richard Berry 23:43137 Jim Harrison 26:06

Women 22 Lorna Gaffney 23:11 60 Sharon Palmer 26:38

73 Joanna Wickham 27:32 75 Amanda Gibbins 27:38 78 Melanie Peddle 27:54 80 Jean Hobbs 28:00 87 Amie Harrison 29:49 90 Caroline Gipson 30:29 95 Michaela Davis 31:56

Team positions not available

It’s a long time since we had thirty-two out in a Chingford League match – quite possibly not since the days when the Editor sometimes made the B team (if he was suddenly inspired and the decent runners had sick notes).

WHAT YOUR COMMITTEE DID

The Club Committee had its regular meeting on the 8th October at the Loughton Club.

Apart from routine items and matters mentioned elsewhere in this edition, the following matters were dealt with.

The Southern Athletic League It was agreed that there was not enough enthusiasm within the Club to support our membership of the League and, sadly, it was agreed that we should withdraw from the League for the 2019 season. There is, of course, no reason why we should not re-join at some future time if the situation improves. It was recognised that this would deprive some members of

competition and the Committee agreed to consider putting on events on one or more of our free Summer Saturdays.

The Eastern Masters’ A.C. League The future structure of the League is not yet clear and we agreed to await further developments.(On both these points, it was noted that Loughton over-fulfilled its obligations to provide officials and that, to a great extent, it was “subsidising” those clubs that sometimes provided none at all.)

Forthcoming Events Volunteers were needed to help with our two home events of the winter – the Inter-Club Veterans’ Match on the 3rd November and the Ware Cup

on the 8th December. Club Chairman David Hobbs will be issuing a separate circular, but please make a note now of these two important dates and let Michaela Davis (michaelajdavis@gmail.com) know if you can help.

CoachingThe Committee had a report on Coaching from Mary Knapman, Gavin Harper and Richard Berry, the essence of which was to carry the summer’s initiatives through the winter, retaining the interest and commitment of the “Tuesday Evening Youngsters” and their parents, who are becoming actively involved in the training sessions and competed alongside the juniors at Hog Hill. (See our headline story in this Edition.) A proposal was made to obtain suitable vests or t-shirts for the young athletes and to sell them on at cost price. The Committee enthusiastically supported the ideas in the report and all the young athletes and parents involved will be told

individually about the arrangements. One problem is a shortage of coaches/supervisors for the winter sessions, but that is being urgently worked on. Look out for updates and requests to assist.

MembershipOne new member – Caroline Ford – was elected; welcome to the Club!

FinancesTreasurer Brian Chapman reported that our financial situation continues to be fairly solvent; this is always a quiet part of the year, financially speaking.

The Committee will next meet on the 19th November, when it will be agreeing subscription rates for 2019 and fixing the date of the Annual General Meeting, which will probably be in March.

OUR PARK RUNNERS

Readers may know that they have an Editor who was brought up in the days of typewriters and slide-rules (younger members may wish to look those up in a dictionary) and he is grateful to Jon Whitehouse for pointing him in the direction of how to find out what parkrunning Loughtonians have been up to, so we’ll do our best to keep an eye on it! For each runner, the format will be (time/overall position/gender position). To begin at the beginning (or, at least, the start of August):4th August, Roding Valley Richard Berry (22:41/15/14): Michaela Davis (29:43/53/16) Haverhill Bruno Stubbs (27:06/30/27): Constance Stubbs (36:28/51/14): John Stubbs (36:29/52/38)11th August, Roding Valley Michaela Davis (30:18/58/15) Haverhill Bruno Stubbs (26:04/24/20): Constance Stubbs (36:34/64/26): John Stubbs (36:35/65/39)18th August, Haverhill John Stubbs (22:15/15/14) Hasenheide (Berlin) Richard Berry (22:12/23/22)25th August, Roding Valley Richard Berry (23:27/20/19): Michaela Davis (28:59/60/11) Deborah Davies (43:20/109/35) Gunpowder Jim Whiffin (31:45/142/82) Haverhill John Stubbs (22:32/15/15)

1st September, Sizewell Helen Real-Slavicky (30:25/59/18)8th September, Roding Valley Michaela Davis (29:53/106/25) Deborah Davies (34:39/143/50) Gladstone Stuart Slavicky (23:36/50/44) Haverhill Bruno Stubbs (23:25/30/28) Constance Stubbs (33:34/107/37) John Stubbs (33:35/108/71)15th September, Roding Valley Alexandra Rolfe (27:46/59/13) Michaela Davis (29:48/75/21) Deborah Davies (34:24/111/40) Hove Promenade Jon Whitehouse (19:47/15/15 Haverhill Bruno Stubbs (23:48/17/16) Constance Stubbs (36:40/71/30) John Stubbs (36:41/73/42) Walmer and Deal Seafront Rioch O’Gorman (24:25/68/59)22nd September, Roding Valley Deborah Davies (33:45) Haverhill Constance Stubbs (34:57/60/25): John Stubbs (34:58/61/36)29th

September, Roding Valley Michaela Davis (30:13/82/28): Deborah Davies (32::50/105/45) Haverhill Bruno Stubbs (24:35/20/20)6th October, Roding Valley MichaelaDavis (29:13/75/25)

SOUTHERN ATHLETIC LEAGUE

The season ended with a trip round a bit of the M25 for Dacorum and Tring’s promotion. Not surprisingly our team of five finished sixth out of six, despite the sterling efforts of those who did take part. Our gallant squad was:Michaela Davis 800m A 3:43·4 SP A 6th 4·91 DT B 6th

13·66 HT B 6th 14·61 JT B 6th 7·40Barbara Higgins SP B 6th 4·83 DT A 6th 13·92 HT A 6th

16·96 JT A 6th 10·94Jean Hobbs 800m A 5th 3:53·1Jo Ryan 100m A 1st 12·2 200m A 1st 25·4Jon Whitehouse 1500m A 6th 5:13·1 5000m A 6th 19:48·8

We finished the season in position twenty three (out of twenty three) with five league points, although we had 232 match points against the 212 of twenty-second-placers

Chiltern Harriers/Bedford & County “B” Team; they just pipped us with six league points. Basildon, Dacorum & Tring and Woodford Green with Essex Ladies are promoted to Division 2.

There was an interesting occurrence in the Women’s Steeplechase. The ground staff had some difficulty in adjusting the height of the water-jump barrier, as a result of which the starter set the runners off before it was ready. The track referee had noticed and ran across to try to prevent the start, but it was too late. As soon as he saw her, the starter fired again and the competitors, who had covered about fifty metres, all stopped and went back for another go; they took it all in good part, but it must have been just about the latest recall ever.

LOUGHTON AT LARGE

Loughton went to Spain for its hols this year – at any rate, three of us – the exclusive “we”. that is – went to Málaga for the World Masters’ Championships, Rob Sargent to run and John Borgars and Melanie Peddle to walk.

Rob, M60), had a Season’s best of 52:32 for twelfth place in the 10k, another of 25:47·32 in seventeenth in the 5000m and 53:43 in the 8k Cross-country.

John unfortunately fell foul of the judges in the 20k walk but, doing what he claims was his slowest-ever time, still shared in the British team’s silver medal.

Melanie, with a P.B. of 2:10:28 (which puts her eleventh in the British senior rankings), finished twelfth in the 20k and was second scorer in the British gold-medal team. She, too, claimed a personal worst in the 10k; it seems to have been very hot.

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

As we reported in the August number, our Ladies sailed into the League Final at Milton Keynes on the 23 rd

September. We had only seven competitors, but it says a lot that they covered everything except the 35-49 3000m, 300m hurdles and the 35-49 relay; what a day’s work! This is what our gallant band did:W35-49100m: 7 Michaela Davis 17·1; 200m 7 Michaela Davis 36·1; 400m 8 Michaela Davis 98·9; 800m 5 Melanie Peddle 3:52·1; 1500m 6 Melanie Peddle 7:31·6; HT(4kg) 4 Michaela Davis 13·65; SP (4kg) 7 Michaela Davis 5·33; JT (600g) 8 Michaela Davis 7·06; DT (1kg) 4 Michaela Davis 14·41; LJ 5 Michaela Davis 2·96; TJ 6 Barbara Higgins 5·44; HJ 6 Michaela Davis 1·03W50-59100m 7 Christine Salvary 17·5; 200m 5 Christine Salvary 35·9; 400m 6 Jean Hobbs 120·3; 800m 7 Michaela Davis 3:53·9; 1500m 8 Jean Hobbs 7:58·3; 3000m 8 Melanie Peddle 16:04·0; HT (3kg) 4 Barbara Higgins 20·33; SP (3kg) 7 Barbara Higgins 6·10; JT (500g) 7 Barbara

Higgins 10·83; DT (1kg) 4 Pam Ackland-Snow 14·11; LJ 6 Christine Salvary 2·85; TJ 6 Michaela Davis 6·04; HJ 3 Emily McMahon 1·12W60+100m 1 Emily McMahon 16·5; 200m 2 Barbara Higgins 38·9; 800m 5 Jean Hobbs 4:10·6; 3000m 4 Jean Hobbs 15:43·5; HT (3kg) 3 Pam Ackland-Snow 20·04; SP (3kg) 3 Pam Ackland-Snow 5·54; JT (500g) 2 Pam Ackland-Snow 12·16; LJ 1 Emily McMahon 3·40; TJ 1 Christine Salvary 6·63; W50-59 Relay (400,200,200,400) 4 Loughton A.C. 4:30·72000m Walk (all ages as A & B strings; A 1 Melanie Peddle 11:11·3; B 2 Pam Ackland-Snow 16:16·3

An interesting statistic: During the EMAC season, our ladies between them ran 39,000m (about 24·2 miles – a couple of miles short of a marathon), jumped – sideways and upwards – 82m, threw various heavy things 392m and walked 1400m (just under 9 miles); a good summer’s work!

E.M.A.C. CHAMPIONSHIPSGaron Park, Southend-on-Sea, 13th August, 2018

Our attendance at the Championships was rather slim but, although the meeting was open to all veterans, not just E.M.A.C. members, so was everybody else’s. For once, it was warm and sunny at Southend! We had a sprinkling of stalwarts there, though, keeping up Loughton’s profile. Athlete by athlete, this was our achievement:Barbara Higgins (W60) 100m 2nd 17·5 200m 1st 37·7 HT 2nd 21·79Emily McMahon HJ 1st 1·15Melanie Peddle (W45) 2000mWalk 1st 11:07·3 (outright winner of the mixed ages/both sexes race)

Cliff Warren (M55) 400m 3rd 63·8 LJ 1st 5·00 TJ 1st

10·27A highly successful day by the seaside: four athletes

collecting five gold medals, two silvers and a bronze!

Older members will recall our former club-mate Terry Casey – there we go again with the nostalgia! – now removed to the remoter wilds of Essex, who was also competing in the M75 group at 200m (2nd in 48·3) and 400m (2nd in 112·8). He sends his regards to his old club-mates.

FIXTURE CHANGES

There have been a couple of changes to the Essex League venues shown in the August Loughton Lines:27th October is now at Southend (was at Cambridge)

15th December is now at Cambridge (was formerly “tbc”)The normal times apply: Women 12:00 noon; Men 12:45 p.m. in each case.

STATISTICS TIME!

Here are the Club rankings in this season’s Southern Athletic League matches; please note that, as the date of

the match was changed, we were unable to attend the event on the 20th May.

Event Men Women100m John McCabe 13·50 14th April Joanne Ryan 12·6 18th August

Amie Harrison 15·20 14th AprilMichaela Davis 18·2 14th July

200m John McCabe 28·0 14th July Joanne Ryan 25·4 18th AugustAmie Harrison 31·07 14th AprilMichaela Davis 40·90 14th JulyPam Ackland-Snow 72·1 14th July

400m John McCabe 54·60 14th April Amie Harrison 72·15 14th April800m — Jean Hobbs 3:51·01 14th April

Pat Barclay 4:19·3 14th July1500m Jon Whitehouse 5:13·1 18th August Pat Barclay 8:26·8 15th July3000m — Jean Hobbs 15:34·0 18th August5000m Jon Whitehouse 18:36·2 23rd June Jean Hobbs 27:27·4 14th July400m Hurdles Jim Harrison 78·5 23rd June Amie Harrison 82·47 14th AprilJavelin Jim Harrison 29·15 14th April Pam Ackland-Snow 12·24 14th JulyShor Jim Harrison 7·88 14th April Michaela Davis 5·11 14th April

Barbara Higgins 4·91 14th AprilPam Ackland-Snow 4·87 14th July

Discus — Michaela Davis 15·19 14th AprilBarbara Higgins 14·04 14th AprilJean Hobbs 7·44 14th July

Hammer Jim Harrison 18·25 14th April Barbara Higgins 16·33 14th AprilMichaela Davis 16·04 14th AprilPam Ackland-Snow 15·23 14th July

We were unable to field competitors for these events: Men: 800m, 3000m,110m Hurdles, Discus Both sexes: Steeplechase, Relays, Pole Vault, High Jump, Long Jump, Triple Jump

The points table for the Newman Trophy is as follows:

14th April 20th May 23rd June 14th July 18th August TotalMenJim Harrison 7 — 7 — — 14John McCabe 4 — 2 6 — 12Jon Whitehouse — — 5 — 2 7Total 11 0 14 6 2 33

WomenMichaela Davis 12 — 12 15 8 47Jen Hobbs 5 — 6 9 5 25Barbara Higgins 11 — — — 4 15Joanne Ryan — — — — 12 12Pam Ackland-Snow — — — 12 — 12Amie Harrison 7 — 1 — — 8Pat Barclay — — — 6 — 5Total 35 0 19 41 29 174

Officials 20 — 20 20 15 75

The following Club records were set during the Summer:W45 HT Pam Ackland-Snow 18·77 EMAC League 4th JulyW60 200m Christine Salvary 35·8 EMAC Final 23rd SeptemberW60 TJ Christine Salvary 6·63 EMAC Final 23rd September

WALK THIS WAY

Melanie was our representative at the Vets’ A.C. 5 mile walk in Battersea Park on the 7th August, finishing as first woman and second overall with 49:03 in a temperature described by the organisers as “abnormally high.”

It was a case of making the best of it at the Woodford Tuesday Walk on the 21st August. With John injured, Peter with an aching back (wimp!) and Mary away on holiday, it was left to Melanie Peddle and Françoise Fernandez to fly the Loughton flag. Melanie, was third overall and first woman in 16:53·5 and Françoise thirteenth (and fifth woman) 22:22·7; even in a depleted condition, the team finished third, behind Ilford and Bexley. Françoise’s time puts her second in the national W65 rankings for 2018 and Melanie’s (conveniently achieved one week after she entered the age group) puts her first in the W50 list. Mary Knapman leads the W35 figures.

The season finished on the 4th September, with Melanie first lady (and fourth overall) in 17:16·4, with

Françoise retiring. For the series as a whole, Melanie was second (first lady), John twentieth, Mary twenty-third (seventh lady). Françoise twenty-fifth (ninth lady) and Peter twenty-sixth (first, he says, if you hold the table upside-down); as a team we finished second (168 points) to Ilford (218) and ahead of Bexley (128); our “B” team – also known as “Peter” – was fifteenth with 16 points; as he says, if you hold the table upside-down….

At the Enfield League One Hour race on the 22nd

September, Melanie was third lady (seventh overall) with 9,833m, thus winning the Essex Championship, (and lapping the Essex men’s winner twice!) while John, still under the influence of a muscle pulled in Málaga, finished eighteenth with 8,522m. Peter and I shivered with our judging paraphernalia.

GOLDEN OLDIES – IF THEY’LL EXCUSE THE EXPRESSION!

Some excellent performances In the National Vets’ Champs (Oh, alright, then – The British Masters’ Athletic Federation Championships) in Birmingham on the 25th and 26th August: Steve Warren won the M55 long jump with 4·97m (just 3 centimetres short of his season’s best) and the triple jump with 9·79m, while Emily McMahon managed to set a season’s best of 66·94 to take the W65 300m hurdles title and won the long jump with 3·51. Two competitors, four golds!

To make the journey entirely worthwhile, Cliff also did the 400m in 63·05 for fifth place; well, it’s a long way to go just to be in the air for about two seconds, even if you do it twice!

We are grateful for this news to our old friend and club-mate Terry Casey (see the E.M.A.C. Championships item above), who himself won bronze in the M75 400m with 1:47·35.

WHY WASN’T THERE A VATICAN TEAM IN BERLIN, THEN?

An old report that we came across referred to a rather out-of-the-way activity of Pope Pius X: “Under his auspices, the Vatican Gardens and the Belvedere Court were used in October, 1905, for a monster set of athletic sports, for which the Pope himself presented many medals, which he attended in person and at which he presented the prizes. On this subject he says: ‘People should love sport. It does good both to their souls and to their bodies. It makes us also feel young to see them run, jump and enjoy themselves. Everything pertaining to training tends to the elimination of dissipation in all its forms and gradually builds up the moral nature.’”

On the other hand he declared that tango dancing was immoral and not permitted for Catholics. Apparently, his words went unheeded, so he denounced it as “the dullest thing imaginable”, saying that, “If a sinner were compelled to dance the tango as a penance he would be treated harshly,” and recommending the Venetian furiana dance instead.

It may not have been so surprising, after all that the Pope should be well-disposed towards sport; the Church (of England) Times remarked that “he has been an athlete himself, and a member of the Alpine Club.”

THE ATHLETIC ACHIEVEMENT OF THE YEAR

I expect most of you have a favourite performance set in 2018.

Mine is the running of 124,410 km (77.310 miles) in 24 hours by 85-year-old Geoff Oliver from Hinckley AC. It was a world age best.

He produced that result on a wet track at Tooting Bec in September. He also set various intermediate records. Among them was that for 100 km, which he passed in 18:02:26.

I mention that time, because it is the longest distance analysed in my Age Graded running tables. It equates to 10:01:48 by a runner at his peak. This may not look to be a great performance in relation to the absolute World best, which is 6:10:20 by a fellow Brit, Don Ritchie, in 1975, but that was "only" in a 100-km race.

Not many of you will know his name, but I remember him from the 1970s crop of great ultradistance runners we had in the UK, among them Don Ritchie. His name had not appeared in any relatively recent Veteran results, so I assumed he had either retired or died.

Not many people of his age can even run that far in a month, let alone in a day, so I think it is safe to say that his record will be very long lived!

YOU CALL THAT BAD?

If you thought that our final record in the Southern Athletic League was a bit on the dismal side, it might make you feel better to contemplate the performance of Fort William in the Scottish Highland Football League. In the season 2017-2018, they played 34 matches, won none, drew 5 and lost 29, with 31 goals against 184. They started this season in equally fine style, losing the first six of their matches by an aggregate score of 56-4. [Their first match of the season had actually been in the North of Scotland Cup, Round 1, when they were beaten (at home) by Inverness Caledonian Thistle 16-0.]

To cap it all, for playing an unregistered player three times they have been docked nine League Points; docked from what, one may ask?

To be fair to them, they then hit a purple patch, drawing 1-1 against Strathspey Thistle, but it left them drained, because their next match was an 11-0 defeat by Cove Rangers.

They’re looking to the future, though; they have an Under-17 team that lost six of its first seven matches this season by a total of 46-8.

As we go to press, the senior team has played twelve matches (one draw and eleven defeats) for a goal aggregate of 9-89, a league position of 18th out of 18 and a league points score of -8.

Perhaps we’re not that bad, after all!

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO….

…making the ground staff work?

It has been noticed from time to time that some athletic track ground staff are occasionally a little languid in carrying out their duties; in fact, we mentioned it in our August edition.

At the Madison Square Garden track in New York in the early twentieth century, there was good cause for them to look lively.

The four-lane track was one-tenth of a mile (176 yards) on which there were 220 yard hurdle races, over ten flights, making the full race distance 1·25 laps, with 20 yards to the first hurdle, 20 yards between flights and a 20 yard run-in. This means that, as a description at the time puts it, “After the start the following nine changes have to be made quickly during the running of the race. Put in 9 th

and take out 1st and 2nd hurdle on lane one. Take out 1st

hurdle in lanes two and three. Put in the 10th hurdle in each lane.” It should be noted, moreover, that these were not your flimsy light tubing hurdles used nowadays but pieces

of very solid woodwork of the type useful for keeping farm livestock out of the vegetables; for “occasional” rural meetings they were generally knocked up by the local carpenter. This is how they looked; if you hit one of them, reaching the finishing-line would have been a bit unlikely, although reaching the hospital would have been a distinctly possible result.

CHUMMINESS CORNER

Many happy returns to our birthday celebrants in October and November: Richard Berry, Emilie Buckley, Ray Crick, Ellie George, Gavin Harper, Jim Harrison, Gwen Harwood, Anne Heeks, Barbara Higgins, Gary

Hooper, Stephen Luton, Tony Maycraft, Fiona Petersen, Jo Ryan, Christine Salvary, Jon Whitehouse, Pauline Wilson, and, if you’re allowed to wish it to yourself, The Editor.

THERE AT LAST!

[Our “Perfect Start” this month is from College Athletics by M.C.Murray, published in New York in 1894 (as is the shot of the sturdy hurdles) and “Finishing – Showing the Throw at the Tape” is from How to Become an Athlete – For Beginners by James E. Sullivan (New York, 1914)]

THE CONTRIBUTORS

George Pauline The Editor Richardson Wilson as he used to be

Contributions please to Peter.Cassidy@btinternet.com, Hufflers, Heard’s Lane, Shenfield, BRENTWOOD, CM15 0SF

When the Editor was in a song and dance act on the music halls (I may be misremembering this) we always used to say “Leave ‘em Laughing,” so here’s a quote noted by George in a newspaper:“It was an alright painting, but it was no Andy Walsall” and: