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The Road Running & Cross Country Archive

Cross country and road running has a long and rich tradition in Scotland and this website is the start, by the Road Running & Cross Country Commission, towards establishing a complete record of the medallists and if possible results of Scottish Championships.

While the Archive is comprehensive it is also incomplete and may always be so, as some of the early results appear to be lost. Electronic results, as we know them now, only began in 1993, although the reconstruction of the Edinburgh to Glasgow results was done earlier in electronic form.

Much of the narrative on this site will change as our history is uncovered. In particular it has proved difficult to obtain results of the Women's Championships and we know that there are other Championships that we have not yet mentioned.

There are no doubt many events/moments/incidents that may lay claim to be the beginning of Cross Country running in Scotland. The History of the Glasgow Academical Club 1866-1966 gives an account of a paper chase in 1872 which played a major part in the birth of both international rugby and soccer. Paricipants Arthur and Chalmers both played in the first international rugby match in 1871 and Chalmers also was invited to trial for the first soccer international in 1872.

In 1870 the Alexandra Park Club in Glasgow formed a harriers section. However it was not until 1885 and the formation of Clydesdale Harriers that a club devoted itself to cross country running.

The first male Scottish Cross Country Championship was held at Lanark Racecourse on 27th March 1886 when it was organised by the SAAA Sub-Committee of Management for National Championships. The Daily Record of 13th December 1930 reports that 13 teams had entered for the first Scottish Women's Cross Country championship at Bothwell with the start next to the Uddingston cricket ground with tea and prizes in the Labour Exchange.

International Events

The 1st International Cross Country Championship was held at Hamilton Racecourse on 23rd March 1903. It was created by the International Cross Country Union (ICCU) and continued until 1972.

The championship began its life as contest between the four Home Nations of the United Kingdom. The event became increasingly international over its history, beginning with the admittance of the first non-UK country in 1907 (France), the addition of several other Continental European countries in the 1920s, and then the introduction of Tunisia in 1958 which saw an African team compete for the first time.

The event lasted from 1903 to 1972. At the 1971 ICCU Congress members decided to transfer organisation of the event to the I.A.A.F. leading to the first World Cross Country Championships in 1973.

Scotland last competed as a separate nation in 1987.

In 2008, Geoff Wightman, the then CEO of Scottish Athletics invited the 4 Home Nations to send teams to a pre–World Championship event to be held at Holyrood Pk in Edinburgh the day before the World Championships themselves – 28th March. The event is now rotated amongst the 4 UK nations. The details of the Home International Cross Country can be found from the menu on the left.

The London Mini Marathon

In 1998 a team of boys from George Heriots School, as Edinburgh Schools Champions, represented the City of Edinburgh at the London Mini Marathon. Since 2001 Scottish District or National teams have taken part. The results and photographs can be found here. It makes interesting reading especially observing the emergence of future champions.

Books

There is a number of great books on the history of our sport that make excellent reading along with this website. The most detailed is without doubt Colin Shield's centenary history of the Scottish Cross Country Union entitled "Runs will take place - Whatever the Weather". It covers men's Cross Country running from 1890 to 1990 with a chapter on the Edinburgh to Glasgow Road Relay.

Brian McAusland's website has two gems. Fifty Years of Athletics: the 50th anniversary of the SAAA official history can be found here. The Universe is Mine: autobiography John Emeeet Farrell can be found here.

John Keddie's "Scottish Athletics 1883-1983: The Official Centenary Publication of the Scottish Amateur Athletic Association" provides an historical survey the marathon. Much more information on the marathon is available in "The Scottish Marathon Championship 1946-2000 and The Women's Championship 1983-2000" by Fraser Clyne and Colin Youngson which covers almost every detail of the marathon in that period including anecdotes that would only be known to competitors.

John Cairney's "An East End Odyssey" details the first 100 years of Shettleston Harriers (1904-2004) with impressive statistics compiled by John Mackay. The "History of Edinburgh Southern Harriers", compiled by Ken Smart, has many stories of the first 99 years of the club (1897 - 1996). Ironically this centenary book was published just as the club amalgamated with other Edinburgh clubs to become the City of Edinburgh AC.

The Scots Athlete was a post-war publication edited by Walter Ross. We are fortunate to have a complete scanned set on the Archive.

Scotland's Runner, edited by Allan Campbell, Doug Gillon and Stewart McIntosh was issued from July 1986 until September 1993 . It provides a unique record of our sport at that time. Again we are fortunate to have a complete scanned set on the Archive.

Special mention should be made of the Scottish Athletics Yearbook published annually by the Scottish Association of Track Statisticians. While specialising in Track & Field it also gives coverage to road and cross country running. Even although the yearbook will no longer be published in paper form, the work continues in electronic form at http://www.scotstats.com/sats/.

A number of Club Handbooks from before the 1st World War have been donated to the Archive. Brian McAusland provided a number of Clydesdale Harriers Handbooks. Clydesdale were the 1st Cross Country Club in Scotland and the handbooks show a model of a Gentleman's Club with club rooms in Dundas Street, Glasgow with smokers and a constitution that includes one black ball in three to exclude an applicant. At one time the Club records almost 1,000 members. The Shettleston Handbook for 1913-14 belonged to David Morrison, a Past President and Honorary President of the Club. It was not originally his however as he was only born in December 1913. The Handbooks can be found here.

Jim Flockhart's 1937 Scrapbook

On the 20th March, 1937, Jimmy Flockhart, Shettleston Harriers won the International Cross Country Union (I.C.C.U.) Championship at the Hippodrome, Brussels. He was presented with the trophy by King Leopold of Belguim. The I.C.C.U Championship was the forerunner of the IAAF World Championship. John Mackay uncovered Jimmy's 1937 scrapbook and Alan Potts did a careful job of scanning it. The Scrapbook can be found here. It makes very interesting reading.

Web Sites

There are now many websites in Scottish Athletics that support clubs and others activities within the sport. Of particular note is Brian McAusland's two web sites. The first deals with runners, clubs and events from 1945 onwards and can be found here, while the second one has profiles of runners from the 1880's to 1945 plus profiles of coaches, officials and clubmen along with some early history of the sport and can be found here. The author describes it as kind of idiosyncratic and rambling but it includes information about the E-G, the Scotish Marathon Club, Marathon Stars, particular races, etc. It gives a snapshot of Scottish endurance running and the characters within it over many years that may otherwise be lost.

Age Groups

Throughout the history of our sport the age categories have changed as have the dates in the year from which the age is calculated. For example in 1950, a Junior man was defined as 18-21 until 1966 when it was redefined as 17-20 years. Also the early age groups were calculated from the 1st April at the end of the season, until 1987 when this was changed to 1st January during the season. In 1990 the age groups were changed again to 1st September at the start of the season and the modern terms of U13, U15, U17 and U20 used.

For our classification the following names a synonymous (U13, Junior Boy), (U15, Senior Boy), (U17, Youth) and (U20, Junior) respectively even although they are not always exactly the same age group.

In the Women's age groups the categories used are (Minors, U11), (Girls, U13), (Juniors, U15), and (Intermediates, U17).

The Masters age groups were originally over 40 for Men and over 35 for Women taken on the day of the race. In 2006 an over 35 category was introduced for Men by the IAAF and SAL followed suit in its championships. Under direction of the IAAF the age categories were revised again to over 40 for both Men and Women, on the day of the race, and this was introduced from 1st April 2010. Following a further IAAF ruling in 2011 the categories were revised to over 35 both Men and Women, on the day of the race, and this was introduced from 1st April 2012.

From 1/10/2013, after consulting the Clubs, the RR&CC Commission decided to discontinue Championships for Masters F35 and M35. This is not a change to IAAF rule IAAF Rule 141-1 but a decision not to hold a particular championship.

The Districts

Contributions

We hope that many athletics enthusiasts will enjoy the contents of this website. If you have won a Scottish Championship medal you should be in here. By publishing the data in its incomplete form we also hope that anyone with missing data will be inspired to contribute results. All contributions will be acknowledged.

If you have missing results, data or corrections that you wish to contribute, please contact Ron Morrison with details.

Acknowledgements

So far the following people have contributed to the data and construction of this Archive.

Robert Andreson
Hugh Barrow
Charles Bannerman
Mike Bateman
Tom Bennett
Robert Benyon
Ally Birse
Arnold Black
Colin Borland
Julie Boyle
Tommy Boyle
Jim Burns
Paul Caban
David Cairns
Steven Callan
Sandy Cameron
Robert Cameron
Victor Cammack
Malcolm Christie
Kenny Clements
John Clementson
Fraser Clyne
Ian Clifton
Christopher Colmer
Alan Coltman
Gordon Colvin
Gary Condie
Marjory Cook
David Cooney
Graham Crawford
Margaret Daly
Willie Day
Neil Donachie
Alistair Douglas
Willie Drysdale
Graham Dunn
Walter Eadie
John Fairgrieve
David Fairweather
Eric Fisher
Catherine Fong
Charles Forbes
Peter Fox
Stuart Gibson
Thomas Gillespie
Des Gilmore
Billy Glasgow
Gail Greenwood
Douglas Gunstone
Eleanor Gunstone
John Hamilton
Dave Hamlin
Sandra Hardacre
Bobby Hill
Ross Houston
Barbara Howie
Brian Howie
Anne–Marie Hughes
Stuart Irvine
James Irvive
Alex Jackson
Peter Jackson
Mike Johnston
Kevin Johnson
Enid Johnstone
Alex Karhu
Andrew Laird
Louis Lawrie
Ally Love
Elaine Mackay
John Mackay
Mark MacDermot
Jock Macdonald
Lynne MacDougall
Don Macgregor
David Marshall
Brian McAusland
Graham McDonald
John McDonald
Alex McEwan
Derek McGinley
Paul McIntyre
Jim McKechnie
Ian McKenzie
Margaret McLaren
Peter McLaughlin
Lindsay McMahon
Aileen McManus
Rod McLeod
Billy Minto
Colin Miller
Alice Mongielo
David Morrison
Ian Morrison
Ron Morrison
Gerry Moss
Henry Muchamore
Paul Norman
Chris O'Brien
John Pentecost
Kenneth Phillips
Alan Potts
Ben Queenan
Kevin Queenan
Neil Renton
Joyce Rammell
Alan Reid
John Rodger
Andrew Ronald
Leslie Roy
Denis Shepherd
Colin Shields
Willie Sharp
Neil Short
Carol Sim
Edward Sinclair
Joe Small
Arthur Smith
Kirk Smith
Cameron Spence
Ronnie Stevenson
Hugh Stevenson
Claire Stewart (née Gemmill)
Lachlan Stewart
James Sykes
Robin Sykes
Dave Taylor
Hamish Telfer
Robin Thomas
Carol–anne Thomson (née Bartley)
Greg Walker
Jane Waterhouse
John Wands
Graham Williamson
Alex Wilson
Jean Youden
Colin Youngson