“ You have been President of the Middlesex Association in 2012 and the seeding officer this year and, have won Middlesex titles over 400, 800 and 1500 and to add to that, you won the Middlesex 800 12 times and have an all time best to your credit of 1:46.21 for 800 that you achieved in 1973. So, you would be able to give your opinion on the changes over the years in the Middlesex Track & Field Championships?”
“There is much less interest amongst the senior athletes. The younger athletes are still quite well supported. . Largely speaking I think that coaches particularly, don’t really take the County Championships as seriously as we did, at a time admittedly, when leagues were in their infancy and the main competition for athletes were County Championships, regional and National Championships and Trophy meetings. Obviously in those terms the County Championships were significant and led to the selection for the Inter-Counties, which was traditionally used as selection for the first International. The neat route to International competition. Everybody did them now people don’t. “
“ When you look back which races stood out for you. You won World Masters 800’s in the your 40’s and set World Masters records?”
“ They were very pleasing but I do remember they were extremely rewarding. My first World Masters competition in 1989 at Eugen Oregon and in the 800 there were 160 competitors. About 12 to 15 heats and the winners plus fastest losers went through. Quite a serious competition and difficult to win. “There some races that must stand out in your life over 800?
“There were a couple of races I did in the earlier days. I remember my first win in the Middlesex when I was only 19 which was unexpected so, that was a breakthrough for me. The 1971 AAA’s (1:47.5). I beat Noel Carroll who was a bit of a hero of mine at the time.”
“ You had a very tough race in the European Championship Final in Helsinki, which was a memory with such a strong field (First 6 1 Yevgeniy Arzhanov (SU) 1:45.9; 2 Dieter Fromm (EG) 1:46.0; 3 Andy Carter (GB) 1:46.2, 4 Hans Henning-Ohlert (EG) 1:46.9; 5 Peter Browne (GB) 1:47.0. 6. Joseph Plachy CSR) 1:47.3.” It took me a long time to recover from that, I was sitting on the bench unable to get up. The GB Admin were quite concerned. As I sat there the women’s final had gone bye’
“When you look back on that race now?
“Strictly speaking, If we are being frank about it, Andy Carter was 3rd should have won it and I would have got a medal; because the people who we were competing against were either East Germans or Russians and, to use a phrase, their track record with drugs is well known. It was only recently I have thought of the situation about it’, so it would have been a gold for Andy and a medal for me but that is the way it goes!
You and your wife Jean, who as President of Middlesex in 2002 (sprinter for Highgate and then her present club Harrow), have enjoyed athletics.
”We are still involved and try to put something back into the sport.”