I was chatting with my friend Colin last night, he is 85 and was a bit of an athletics star in the 60s and early 70s. He was junior national and international cross country champion in 1961, won the Yorkshire Three Peaks Race in 1969, won the senior international cross country team title in 1972 and had at least one British record on the track. He is a modest guy and doesn't talk about his successes much, I have known him 15 years, talk to him every week and only really know a few highlights of his career.
I asked him last night about representing England in the 60s and 70s. I found the tale very interesting and thought that one or two people on here might as well. In the 60s Lancashire was very strong at cross country, with not only Colin, but Ron Hill and a few others. They won the inter counties six years in a row. If you did well in the inter counties you would get invited to represent England in small international meets, often in Belgium or northern France.
Colin would travel to London from Rochdale, by bus and train, where he would meet the team manager and stay in a hotel paid for by the AAA. The next day they would fly to the race, in the early years in a de Havilland Dove, which he described as an unpleasant experience. He would race against primarily European opposition, fly back and take the train and bus back to Rochdale. At the start he was an apprentice fitter and had to take two days off work to represent his country, his employer docked his pay for this. However, his workmates were not happy about this and had a whip round to make up his lost pay, this sufficiently embarrassed his employer into paying him on future trips.
On one occasion he turned down an opportunity to represent England, because had committed to running for his club Rochdale Harriers in one of the local cross county league championships. The AAA couldn't understand it and he got a lot of stick in Athletics Weekly. Rochdale won the championship, in no small part due to Colin finishing second behind Ron Hill (Ron was national cross-country champion at the time but was focussed on the road at international level and one of the best marathon runners in the world, so not selected for the international that Colin was).
On a final note. I've been to many regional and national events (cross country, road relays) and people often seek him out to have a chat. At the Northern Road Relays a couple of years ago, a short little Geordie of a similar age to Colin comes over and speaks to him. Colin introducing me to him, he is called Jim. After about 15 minutes, I realise that Jim is Jim Alder, who won the marathon at the 1966 Commonwealth Games.
Post edited at 12:47
