It’s difficult in a world stalked by evil to think clearly about our athletic and race walking hopes and aspirations. Nevertheless let me wish all the club’s members and our wider readership the very best for the coming year. In the traditional turn of phrase, let ‘peace and goodwill’ abound. It’s much needed. Hopefully Marilyn Taylor’s watercolour, a ‘Winter Landscape’ conveys a sense of how beautiful the world can be. In fact it’s actually an image of a path along which I regularly trained back in the day, certainly fifty years ago.

CLOCKINGS FOR THE JANUARY VIRTUAL 5 KILOMETRES TO BE RECEIVED BY JANUARY 31st. ANECDOTES AND PHOTOS ONCE AGAIN WELCOMED.

It seemed a nice idea to open with a flashback to fifty years ago. In his first race walking column of 1955 the legendary Alf McSweeney, the very first editor of the Race Walking Record in 1941, gave his thoughts on the possibility of fast times in a forthcoming National 10 miles championships to be held in Southport, “the fashionable Lancashire seaside resort”.

This excerpt is taken from the remarkable treasure trove, that is the Athletics Weekly Archive at https://athleticsweekly.com/aw-archive-membership/. For a measly £3.99 a month you gain access to copies of AW going back to 1945. Treat yourself!

In fact the National at Southport was shrouded in controversy with Lo Allen and Dick Holland of Sheffield being disqualified whilst in the leading places. Nevertheless with Roland Hardy and Albert Johnson at the helm, Sheffield still won the team title. Alf McSweeney’s report contains a closing gem of a paragraph.

LWC positions: 15. Terry Hardie 82:29; 39. Dick Smith 85:49; 46 T.N.Daly 87:13; 79 John Grocott 91:35; 80 T.W.Mills 91:53; 81 J.Percival 92:10; 88 Frank O’Neill 92:55; 95 Sid Smith 95:21; 98 Vic Murray 96:47; 100 Dick Ditchfield 97:13; 111 Fred Pearce 101:58; 112 Cliff Royle 102:40; Sam Shoebottom 104:38; 118 H. Frith 106:52

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JOHN PAYN

Dave Evans reports:

John is residing in a care home in Adlington, Chorley and just recently Steven Wilde has visited to check on his well-being . It seems he is in good heart although his former race-walking life is a memory. It seems John has endeavoured to use a wheeled version of a zimmer style contraption to race up and down some of the corridors, much to the disdain of the care home staff. The spirit of competition has not left the Payn household and it’s very comforting to realise that our centurion has retained his ability to set new goals. We don’t know just how constraining the care home environment is and when you were once the oldest person to gain centurion status the urge to pursue any target must be foremost in your mind. We all wish John the very best and grateful thanks to Steven for checking in with John before Christmas. Merry Christmas to John and all of our club members and guest visitors.

John Crahan adds the following anecdote:

I have many fond memories of John ,including walking with him on the old Macclesfield course. He stopped with me for 2 laps before explaining he had not been well and wanted to walk with someone who could carry him to the finish. He left me on the last lap at the Garden Centre and beat me by nearly four minutes
With sincere best wishes for Christmas and the New Year to all members and friends

It strikes me that we are long overdue a post celebrating John’s achievements as a Veteran and a Master’s competitor. I’ll put my mind to it.

JULIAN HOPKINS

Julian, a former National coach, is still in the Aintree University Hospital following his dramatic stroke in late October. His progress is uneven but his spirits bolstered by the large number of supportive messages from across the race walking world. Only a week ago he was visited by Roger Mills, the 1974 European 20 kilometres bronze medallist. On this occasion Roger’s presence certainly energised Julian and they enjoyed an animated trip down memory lane. In fact a photo of Roger, who often won the poll for the stylist of the year, adorned the cover of Julian’s outstanding 1976 book, ‘Race Walking’.

Here’s hoping that the New Year sees Julian back on his feet, talking ten to the dozen as his wont and present at one of our club races. We send him our very best wishes.