A HISTORY 1890s TO THE 1950s
Hull Harriers Running in Anlaby in the later 19th Century
The Late Victorian and Edwardian Era
During the 1890s Hull Harriers also took more interest in the track. During the 1880s most Hull Harriers who ran on the track during the summer did so as members of Hull Athletic Club but from the middle of the 1890s they increasingly competed as members of Hull Harriers. Indeed, Hull Athletic Club seems to have declined in standing during the later 1890s. Charles Merrikin remained Club President until he resigned at the end of the 1892/3 season when J.H. Young took over the office. The Spring Bank Hotel remained club’s headquarters for much of the 1890s remained the Spring Bank Hotel and, during the months of the harrier season, committee meetings seem to have been held on almost a weekly basis. The club still retains a tenuous link with the pub in that it is occasionally a meeting place for members when they choose to sample the delights of the Spring Bank hostelries.
The three main club championships, which became established in the 1890s, were the broadly the three, five and eight mile handicap races, although these distances sometimes changed in the early years. The club also continued to compete in the Hull and District Cross Country Championships and the Monstre Meet. The latter proved especially popular, indeed, the 1893 Meet at the Locomotive Inn on Hessle Road produced a muster which completely dwarfed all previous efforts. All the Hull Clubs, together with Driffield and Grimsby Harriers were represented. All told, one hundred and eleven runners assembled and, as was the practice on such occasions, medals were not only presented to the fastest home in each pack but also to the club mustering the most runners. At the meet T.G. Martin of Hull Harriers secured the fast pack medal whilst A. Durham of Speedwell and A. Croft of Grimsby took the medals for the medium and slow packs respectively. A magnificent silver whistle was presented to Bethell Harriers for the largest muster of 26 runners and the tea after the run was attended by 88 of the athletes whose performance on the festive board "was fully as startling as that across country". A smoking concert "of the most approved order" followed, presided over by J.H. Young who was supported by a strong cohort of "Vice Presidents, friends, warblers and others".
The Yorkshire Cross-Country Championships were the main event that the club contested further afield and, after a trial, a strong team was assembled for the 1893 race. Prospects looked less rosy, when one of those selected, H. Barrett, fell ill before the race and had to be replaced by H. Dring, the first reserve. After the start Jackie Graham, a relatively new member, going strong at the front, was attacked by a stitch and the club’s efforts seemed likely to come to nought but J.H. Brown led the team in being seventh man home in the race. The plucky efforts of the older members, coupled with the remarkable form of two first season men, enabled the club to squeeze home in third place, seven points ahead of Halifax, enabling them to take team medals for the first time.
Extracts from the Fixture Card for the 1894/5 Season
Most Saturdays during the season in the 1890s were spent on paper chases organised from a range of different venues, usually public houses, around the outskirts of the town and occasionally somewhat further afield. Attendance levels waxed and waned: during the 1893/4 season they averaged almost 21 per meeting but during the 1894 season, the severe winter weather saw average attendance fall to less than twelve. The paper trail, was, of course, uncertain, sometimes erratic, and often took them well off the footpaths as the hares did everything they could to avoid being caught by throwing the packs of the scent, although on one occasion in November 1893 they were warned by the committee not to lay the trail along the railway lines again.
Headquarters of Hull Harriers 1890s
Though Hull Harriers had begun to dominate Hull and District winter events from the early 1890s - with captain Harry Hodgson winning the first race - it was not until the following decade that they really made their mark further afield. The 1902/3 and 1903/4 seasons seem to have been especially successful. In January 1903 a crowd of between three and four hundred spectators watched the eight mile championship race, held on a course from Dairycoates to Anlaby and back via Hessle. The Club Championship and gold medal was taken by C.G. Constable (off scratch) and the race also counted as the trial for the Senior Yorkshire Championship, won by the club for the first - and so far only - time in its history. The Championships were held on Ripon Race Course in March 1903. The individual winner was A.E. Barker of Leeds City but J.G. Constable took fifth position and behind him the Hull Harriers team packed well: H. Lee, J. R Bailey and J. Bailey taking sixth, seventh and eighth positions respectively. G. R. Tilllotson was the last counting man home in tenth position and this gave Hull Harriers the Yorkshire Cup and Championships. The final team positions were first Hull Harriers (36 points), second Leeds A.C (43 points) and third Rotherham (63 points). That season, the club also won the prestigious Northern Junior Championship - Junior referring to distance rather than age and was over five miles whilst the Senior Championships were usually over eight mile courses. Constable again led the club home in early April to take the Hull and District Cross-Country Championship. In this race, held on the Boulevard in wretched weather, the first four men were all Hull Harriers. They rounded off the season by holding a smoker and presentation at the White Horse Hotel on Carr Lane on the 15th April 1903 when formal presentations of the Yorkshire Cup, the Northern Shield and the Hull and District Cross-Country Championships Cup were made.
Hull Harriers 1897
Jacky Graham
These performances were all the more outstanding because they seem to have been secured without the services of Jacky Graham, one of the club's most outstanding runners of all time. However, the following year he was back in action and top form when he took the Northern Junior individual title. Jacky Graham had first come to prominence with Speedwell Harriers, winning the 1893 Hull and District Cross-Country Championship and followed this with victory in the Yorkshire Junior Cross-Country Championships at Rotherham in May of that year, beating a much fancied Sheffield runner. The following December he joined Hull Harriers and in March 1894 won the club’s three mile cross-country handicap from scratch in 15.43. He was again first in the 1894 Hull and District Cross-Country Championship and led Hull Harriers to the team prize. Graham was elected a Vice-Captain for the 1894/5 season and in 1895 took the Hull and District Championship for the third year in succession coming home almost a third of a mile in front of the second placed runner. Graham never seems to have run in these Championships again but competed on the track and in a few of the club Championship events before coming back for his epic runs in the Yorkshires and Northerns in 1903 and 1904.
The First Pavilion
Until 1908 the club continued to run from a different pub most Saturday afternoons during the season but that January it acquired its own pavilion. This was situated on Anlaby Road near to the tram terminus by the Hull and Barnsley Bridge adjacent to Blenkin's Farm which stood close to the present Gipsyville Estate, then a most rural area. In those days, what is now Calvert Lane was then known as Jameson’s Lane. Priory Road did not exist though it was possible to get through to Cottingham by farm tracks. A typical trail for the Three Mile Handicap race from the Pavilion at this period was along Jameson’s (Calvert) Lane, under the railway bridges where the route turned hard right towards Springhead, then across to Anlaby Road and back. It is perhaps hard to realise that the route was then open country. The trail for the five-mile handicap was generally across country to Cottingham and back. Various routes were used for the eight mile handicap. In 1910, for example, the course consisted of sixteen laps of "Mr Clark’s field". Not all runs were from the club-house and visits to outlying pubs were still a feature of the season. Paper chases remained a favourite and on one occasion before the First World War the pack found they had been joined by two escaped prisoners when running close to the construction site for King George Dock off Hedon Road.
Monstre Meet, Stoneferry 1913
Walter Barnes
Walter Barnes probably joined the club about 1904 and may well have initially been a summer track athlete. Although he was given a handicap for the three mile event held in November 1904, he does not seem to have actually raced. However, he was off scratch in the 1905 three mile handicap and came home tenth with the fastest time of 17.04, following it with the fastest time of 28.25 in the five mile Christmas Handicap. He was soon well established in the cross-country events, taking second place in the eight-mile handicap held in February 1907, repeating the performance a year later. He was also the fastest man in the 1908 Christmas handicap and looked set to do well in the club championship but sustained a serious ankle injury in the race. He returned to the country the following season and became Club Champion, winning the eight-mile handicap in February 1910 and again in 1911. He does not seem to have competed in the 1912 race but won the Championship event again in 1913 and February 1914. His final race for the club was the five miles Christmas handicap, held in December 1914 and he won in a time of 36.45. The Great War had started in August 1914 and this was the last official club race until the return of peace.
This photograph, taken in 1906 or 1907 probably includes Walter Barnes. The cups are the Hull & District Trophy and the Naylor Trophy for the Beverley and District Cross-Country Championships
Some time afterwards, Walter Barnes joined the East Yorkshire Regiment and was killed, in the Arras Offensive around the 4th May 1917. He probably died in the attack on Oppy Wood which claimed the lives of 209 men from the East Yorkshire Regiment and he has no known grave, his name being recorded on the Arras Memorial. This commemorates almost 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7th August 1918 who have no known graves. Walter Barnes died as Club Champion and after the war the club presented the original Eight Mile Championship to his widow in his memory. In the late 1980s his daughter wished to return the trophy to the club but unfortunately, someone, whom we can only assume was masquerading as a club member, turned up and collected the trophy from her. It has never been seen since.
Although it is not clear from the surviving records how many were killed, the Great War seems to have taken a heavy toll of club members. Of the nineteen runners who turned out in the February 1914 Eight Mile Championship it would appear that at least six, including, of course, Walter Barnes, perished before the Armistice. They included James Brocklehurst, Frank Simpkins, Sydney Wilburn, Percy Wright and George Henry Turner. Several appear to have been posted missing in action and have no known grave.
Details of the Club 8 Mile Championship event from February 1914
During the Great War the original pavilion was destroyed in one of the Zeppelin attacks on Hull but was rebuilt afterwards by the club. However, it took some time for the club and its members to recover. Only eight runners turned out in the eight-mile handicap held on the 14th February 1920, the first race entered in the official record book after the War. G. Thompson was first home in the handicap but the fastest time (49.06) was recorded by T.W. Ulliott.
Anlaby Park Road
The club was guided through many of these years by Will Hodgkinson who was Hon Secretary from 1899 to 1929. In 1924 the club were obliged to move from their base on the land adjacent to Blenkin's Farm to the White City grounds. The old pavilion was sold and a new one was purchased. The move seems to have taken place during the summer and several members of the Old Members Committee were present when the club opened the new cross-country season from its new pavilion with the First Run on the 4th October 1924. The stay on the new site, however, was quite brief. In April 1926 the Secretary reported to the committee that the White City grounds had been sold and an Emergency Committee was formed to deal with the issue. Early in the following year the club was given notice to move after the end of the season and the search for a new based intensified. By early March 1927 an agreement was made to purchase land off Anlaby Park Road being offered for sale by the Hull and District Allotments Association after the Club President, Arthur Burwell, agreed to loan the club the necessary money. In order to buy allotment land the club had to purchase shares in the Allotment Association and afterwards 325.5 square yards were purchased at the cost of 1/- per square yard. A team effort, supervised by the Club Captain, Jimmy Magee was required to carry out the work of dismantling, carting and re-erecting the pavilion over the summer.
Hull & District Cross Country Championship Programme 1921
Initially, conditions were quite primitive at the Anlaby Park Pavilion. Tommy R. Jackson, a stalwart of the club, who joined the same year, later dug a well but the water was not always that clear and the club at first relied on acetylene lights. Arthur Nendick, who joined the club in 1936 said that in those days the pavilion was a large wooden hut with an annexe containing three old baths filled by buckets of hot water from a copper boiler. Those who were first back from a club run got hot clean water but with three standing in each bath after a winter session over the country you can imagine the quality by the time sixty or more runners had been through the annexe. By 1938, conditions had improved and the club house boasted electric lighting as well as hot and cold water baths. The standard of running equipment was also quite poor with many members running in cheap plimsolls. Arthur Nendick said he never saw a track-suit until after the Second World War.
Although a few runners tackled track and field events at local Summer sports meetings during the inter-war period, the club was then essentially orientated towards cross-country. The season began as it had done since the 1880s on the first Saturday in October and ran through to the end of March. Although there were mid-week training sessions, the Saturday event was all-important and medals were awarded for 100% attendance. In the twenties and thirties there were a few inter-club runs with East Hull Harriers and Beverley Harriers but the two big away runs were the Grimsby and District Cross-Country Championships in January and an annual coach outing in February to the Yorkshire Cross-Country Championships.
Hull Harriers at the Pavilion, Anlaby Park Road
The mid-1920s were a time when Tommy H. Jackson was the club's leading runner. He seems to have joined the club around 1923/4 and on the 24th October 1924, with a handicap of thirty seconds was both first home and fastest runner in a net time of 14.45. He was also fastest man in the Christmas Handicap and took the club Championship with the fastest time in the Eight Mile Competition held on the 21st February 1925. He dominated club competitions over the next couple of years, winning the club Championship in both 1926 and 1927. Tommy H. Jackson was a fish merchant by trade and continued to turn out occasionally in club events into the 1930s but remained a major Patron and supporter of the club for many years afterwards. His namesake, Tommy R. Jackson joined around the same time and came through more slowly but made an important contribution to some of the club's wider successes in the late twenties and early thirties. He remained an active member of the club through to the 1960s and played an important part in helping to organise the "centenary" celebrations in 1989.
The Johnson Brothers
Whilst competition within the club was vigorous in the 1920s, members did not do so well in wider competition. Hull Harriers had last won the Hull and District Cross-Country Championship in 1908 and, in period immediately following the Great War, often played second fiddle to Hull Health and Strength Harriers. This popular club, founded during the first decade of the twentieth century, had its club house at Dairycoates on Hessle Road and in the early 1920s the Johnson Brothers, Alec and Frank, were amongst its best runners. In 1924 Hull Health and Strength Harriers were wound up but by this time Alec Johnson had joined the RAF where he became the mile and three mile champion. After demobilisation around 1928 he joined Hull Harriers and proved virtually unbeatable in local cross-country events. The Johnson brothers were great sportsmen and well-known in local athletic circles. Alec's brother George was another of the club stars and took the Grimsby and District title amongst other honours whilst Ted Johnson was a great swimmer and boxer. Cliff Johnson, another brother, played professional football with York City, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Port Vale and Torquay.
The Johnson Brothers
In 1927 the club had been placed amongst the medals in the Hull and District for the first time in some years and the following year took second team place in both the Hull and District and Grimsby and District Championships. The Johnsons played an important role in furthering this progress over the 1928/9 season when George took first place in the Hull and the Beverley and District Junior Cross-Country Championships whilst Alec won the senior races at Hull, Beverley and Grimsby Championships. In 1930, after a break of more than twenty years, the club once more won the Hull and District and Beverley and District Senior team Championships. The club had thus won two of the three principal local competitions. Only the Grimsby and District eluded them. The season ended on a high note and there was an air of confidence that even better things could be achieved next year.
Achieving the Triple
In early 1931 the Hull Harriers team, captained by Alec Johnson, won the Hull and District and Beverley and District in successive weekends. The final race of the series, the Beverley Championships, was over six miles for the Naylor Cup and on the following Saturday a huge crowd gathered on Beverley Westwood.
Hull Harriers being presented with the Naylor Trophy for the Beverley and District Cross-Country Championships during the 1930s
Five clubs fielded teams for the event which, after starting on the race course, consisted of a series of on one and a half mile laps before crossing the road for a three-quarters of a mile stretch across the rough pasture to the Black Mill and back. Alec Johnson established a lead from the start and by the end of the first lap he was 100 yards in front of his brother George who occupied second place. They were followed by Fred Midford, Guy Sanders and Frank Fenwick of Grimsby whilst G.Roberts, in sixth place, led the Beverley Harriers contingent. After crossing the road onto the pastures beyond, the sun shone down on the ribbon of club colours as the runners wound their way up to the Mill which they rounded before being lost to view in the hollow on the return leg. They soon reappeared after another stiff climb back to the Racecourse for another two laps. By this time Alec Johnson was two hundred yards in front still followed by his brother George. Roberts of Beverley had moved through into third position followed by Harold Owen of Hull Harriers. Into the final lap and Owen was caught by a number of runners but, led by Alec Johnson, who sprinted home in 32.22 an easy winner, Hull Harriers packed well enough to take the Naylor Cup, their third Championship in successive weeks. George Johnson took second place. This was the club's best local performance in the inter-war years by perhaps their finest team of the period.
The Second World War and its Aftermath
After the outbreak of war in September 1939 a large number of club members joined the armed forces. The three, five and eight mile handicaps were all run during the 1939/1940 season but the numbers of competitors were naturally down on the usual turnout. Seventeen runners finished the three miles handicap in November 1939 but only ten members ran in the eight mile handicap in April 1940. All three races were held again during the 1940/1941 season and the numbers of competitors were slightly higher with fourteen runners completing the Christmas Handicap on 14th December 1941.. Indeed, the Club's last official race during the war was a combined Eight Mile Club Championship and Christmas Handicap which took place from the Pavilion on 12th December 1942. The distance actually run was somewhat less than eight miles and the first man was K.Ventry whilst the fastest man, D.Mumby, finished in 36.09.
Shadows of War? Hull Harriers fixture card for the 1938/39 season
During Second World War the Anlaby Park Road Club-House was once again destroyed by enemy action. Perhaps no other English athletic club can match this unenviable record. With so many members away on active service the club seemed to be in dire straits but a small group of stalwarts led by Arthur Burwell, President for over forty years, kept it going by meeting for a run every week, the only club of its kind in the district to do so. Tommy Jackson and G. Askew, in spite of being fully engaged in war-time duties, salvaged as much as possible after the bombing. So successful were their efforts that a new if somewhat temporary pavilion was soon constructed from the wreckage which lasted until the end of the war, although it was damaged by hooligans during the winter of 1944/5 when all the windows were smashed and interior contents damaged. During that season, at least, the club managed to send a Senior team to the Yorkshire Championships held on Leeds University's grounds and the first Hull Harrier home was a new member Ken Claybourn.
With the ending of the war in 1945 and the gradual demobilisation of many of the members, Hull Harriers were keen to re-start their usual activities. The autumn 1945 season started with a very good turn out of runners and, although many members were not immediately released from the armed forces, attendance continued at a satisfactory level despite the temporary nature of the accommodation. Twenty-six members turned out when the three mile championship was resumed on the 24th November 1945, although only eight runners chanced their arm in the first post-war eight mile handicap held on 2nd February 1946. Despite the post-war austerity a new pavilion was obtained and transported to the site thanks to C. Turpin and then erected by Tommy Jackson, R. Dexter and Terry Stinson, assisted by many of the summer season runners. At first accommodation remained much inferior to the pre-war pavilion. It was lighted with Tilly Lamps and problems with obtaining water meant that bathing and washing facilities were even more restricted. Gradually improvements were made and Calor Gas was installed for lighting and then heating kettles for mugs of tea in the late 1940s. The Local Education Authority assisted the return of summer competition by allowing the Kingston High School playing fields to be used for training.
Hull Harriers at the temporary pavilion
30th December 1944. A.E. Burwell, President is third from the right
Frank Staniforth
A team mate of the Johnsons who joined the club in the 1930s was Frank Staniforth. He really established the club on the road-running scene. Frank was Club Champion in the late 1930s but during the Second World War experienced great hardship as a prisoner of war, along with two other club members, Stan Martin and W. Smelt. Whilst held in concentration camps Frank organised training for other POWs with circuits of the wire - on the inside of course. During the last months of the war Frank and his fellow prisoners were force-marched across Europe on starvation rations as the Germans retreated before the Allies. Afterwards, he built himself up, finishing second fastest in the five mile Christmas handicap held on 22nd December 1945 with a time of 32.33. After regaining full fitness he won the Club Championships once more during the 1946/7 season. Frank was noted for running from the front and on this occasion he set a scorching pace that only Ted Coggin could stand.
Frank Staniforth in the centre in action on Beverley Race Course
He made every post a winning post and came home first out of the field of fourteen, twenty-six seconds ahead of Ted. Frank and decided to take up Marathon running and was influential in creating an interest in road running amongst club members. Whilst training for a fast marathon and the suffered the ultimate irony of being knocked down and killed by a cycle whilst training on Skidby Hill in 1949. The 1939 Club Champion, Bob Coupland, father of Jeannie Coupland, also made a comeback afterwards, despite being blinded during the war and later turned out in the "centenary" relay at Costello in 1989.
Ted Coggin
Ted was another of the club’s outstanding runners and made his mark in the later 1940s and early 1950s. In 1946/7, after finishing second to Frank Staniforth in the Club Championship, he went on to win the Hull and District Cross-Country Championships with a brilliant dsplay of running. Emulating Stani’s tactics he tore away from the start and led all the way home. For a number of years Ted dominated the local cross-country scene. He won the Hull and District Championships on no less than five consecutive occasions and the Grimsby and Districts four times. Further afield, he was third in the Yorkshire Championships on two occasions and represented the County in the inter-counties at least twice, helping them to third place in both 1948/9 and 1950/1. His crowning achievement was finishing eighth in the National Cross-Country Championships and then representing England in Brussels in 1951. He was the first international from any Hull running club. During his career Ted also won the Club Championship on five consecutive occasions, finally losing by four seconds to Trevor Bailey after a wonderful battle in the 1951/2 Championships. The two runners stormed away from the rest of the field to finish one and a half minutes in front of Reg Darley in third place.
Ted was Treasurer of the club for many years and during the peak of his running career he did much of his training on Beverley Westwood, completing at least one circuit each morning before work. Although a superb cross-country runner he was quite small and wasn’t very good at getting over obstacles. On one occasion he was dithering over a barbed wire fence so Terry Stimson picked him up and passed him over to the runner already on the other side.
Arthur Nendick, Dave MacDonald and Ted Coggin – the First Run 1954
The 1950s
Frank Staniforth's road running legacy endured and within a few years Hull Harriers had the largest Road Section in the country, fielding fifteen competitors in the 1954 Doncaster to Sheffield Marathon. The club was guided through the 1950s by Arthur Nendick who - apart from being Hon Secretary throughout most of the decade - made a speciality out of longer distance racing as a veteran. Dennis Briggs joined after making a name for himself as a runner during National Service at the end of the 1940s. The decade also saw the rise of Dave Plewes, Peter Jarvis, Frank Lucop Fred Fussle and Harry Benson amongst others, many of whom went on to win Yorkshire Cross-Country Honours and captain the club. In 1958 Geoff Monaghan won the club's first Yorkshire Individual title and two years earlier the Ferriby '10' road race had been opened up to other clubs. Indeed, the 1950s really saw the club widen its activities in terms of track and field and road running as well as its traditional cross-country. However, the conflicting demands of such a wide spread of activities sometimes caused problems.
In earlier decades, when cross-country was the main raison d'etre, activities were quite clearly defined. Although the club still made a major event of opening the cross-country season with a first run in September and wrapped it up with a the final run the following March, an increasing number of club members ran on the road or competed in track and field events throughout the summer. Whilst many members competed in all three areas a sizeable number preferred to specialise in one or the other and the conflict of interest this generated was sometimes a source of friction. Moreover, during the 1950s the traditional Saturday afternoon paper-chases came under growing pressure for a number of reasons. The increasing number of road race fixtures took some runners elsewhere whilst the growing number of people working a five rather than five and a half day week meant that Saturday morning was sometimes a more practical time for people with young families to train. More and more houses were built across former agricultural land in West Hull and Haltemprice where many chases had traditionally taken place whilst the practice of hares laying the trail almost when and where they liked was difficult to maintain as landowners and farmers increasingly complained about trespassing. Paper-chases had to be planned more carefully in advance and this took away some of the spontaneity. The uncertainty surrounding the legality of laying traditional paper trails under the new Anti-Litter legislation of the late 1950s was probably the final straw and Hull Harriers ceased paper chasing in the early 1960s. As the working week became shorter the Saturday afternoon training session gradually faded in importance and many races are, of course, now run on Sundays. East Hull Harriers have remained true to the old tradition and have maintained Saturday afternoon paper chases into the New Millenium.
But during the 1950s, however, races were still run on a Saturday afternoon and, as many people still worked a five and a half day week, training had to be fitted in when and where possible. Most road running, and even racing, was done in ordinary canvas tennis shoes. A not untypical training schedule for one of the club's top distance road runners at that time would be either a race on a Saturday afternoon, usually after a morning at work and lunch, or else a twenty mile training run. This was followed by a ten-mile outing on a Sunday and eight or ten mile runs on Tuesday and Thursday club nights. Such outings were generally straightforward runs without the benefit of speedwork sessions such as intervals or fartlek.
Coronation Celebrations
Hearing of the Hull runners’ increasing interest in road racing, the Bridlington Coronation Festivities Committee approached Hull Harriers to see if they would organise a twenty-mile road race which would finish in Bridlington and coincide with the planned festivities there. The club were delighted to have an extra race sponsored locally and gladly agreed to organise it. Harry Benson arranged changing accommodation in Driffield and a route was planned to include a small lap around Driffield to make up the distance required and the route was then along the Hornsea Road to Beeford where it joined the main road to Bridlington. Arthur Nendick, Club Secretary, negotiated with the Bridlington Committee and all went well until he contacted the local police. He was told, quite bluntly, that they wouldn't allow the race to finish on the Promenade and cause chaos amongst the "madding throng". They agreed that the route in Bridlington could proceed to the Queensgate Football Ground where a sports meeting had been arranged and that cardboard arrows would be fixed to lamp posts along the route to point the route to Bridlington. Two leading international marathon runners, Eric Smith and Alan Lawton, from the Leeds Harehills Club were invited to compete to add extra "class" to the field. Large crowds were expected at the finish and all seemed ready as the great day approached. Even the best of glorious June weather was expected for the celebrations.
A Hull Harriers Squad 1950s
Unfortunately, the unpredictable English climate had other ideas. The race duly started on time but as the runners completed the first two miles, the heavens opened and those competing ran through torrential rain that turned into heavy hailstones as the field neared Barmston - quite painful for those in light racing gear. Entering Bridlington, the streets were almost completely empty. The "madding throng" were all indoors: countless numbers across the country got their first real glimpse of the new media in June 1953 watching the Coronation ceremonies on television. The cardboard arrows had not fared well in the rain and were all hanging down but even so the runners finally arrived at the football ground looking like drowned rats. The two internationals came first and second, followed by Arthur Nendick, the first Hull Harrier home.
Instead of large crowds, they were met by a small group of embarrassed officials. The weather had made everything a complete washout, the sports had been cancelled and everyone had gone home. As all the prizes were left they decided to give one to everyone completing the race. Eventually, after a bath and some light refreshments, the prize distribution began. The winner received a beautiful Rose Bowl, the second quite a nice trophy and Arthur Nendick stepped up for his prize. Fifty years on he still has a good chuckle at his souvenir of the historic day and what he had gone through organising and participating in the race. His prize for third place in this prestigious race? A two inch cup with the legendary inscription Coronation Day 1953 Bridlington, Egg and Spoon Race - First. The best laid plans of mice and men?
The Move to Costello
Many of those interested in road running were particularly keen on the marathon and other long-distance events and were behind moves to start their own club marathon in 1952. This became an open event in 1956 and although the fields were not large, attracted runners from across the north of England. Many Hull Harriers took part in the East Hull '20' after it became an open event in the 1950s whilst, as we shall see below, some teams travelled far afield from this decade and competed regularly in events such as the South London Harriers '30' and the 56 mile London to Brighton Road Race.
Four of the longest serving club members A.E. Burwell, Jimmy Magee, Will Hodgkinson and Joe Goodman
As road running activities blossomed, so too did track and field. In the early 1950s Hull lacked a suitable track and in the latter half of 1952 the club was supporting a local Athletic Development Committee that was trying to persuade those interested in athletics to write to councillors and the Lord mayor to provide a stadium as a permanent memorial to the forthcoming Coronation. The ground on which the Hull Harriers’ pavilion stood was not large enough for a track but attempts were made over the next few years to improve the surrounding land in order to promote field events such as the long jump. The opening of the running track at Hull University, however, highlighted the shortcomings at the pavilion and, as the Secretary noted in his 1954/5 report that although the track and field section had trained hard they had been largely held together by the "keeness and guidance of Club Captain, Ray Peirson". Unless better facilities could be offered for track and field, especially sprinting, it was clear Hull Harriers would have great difficulty holding its own against those rival clubs such as Hull Spartans who used the University track.
The Anlaby Park Road Pavilion was still being extended and improved as late as 1955 but its size and limited changing facilities made it difficult to form a section for women. The formation of a ladies section had been discussed by the committee back in 1934 but had come to nothing although a few women, including Dot Marshall a hundred yards sprint champion and Mrs Tanfield, did train with the club in the inter-war years. A Hull Ladies Athletic Club seems to have been a focus for developing Athletics for women in the early 1950s and, after its apparent demise, the idea of forming a Ladies Section of Hull Harriers was again considered in 1952. However, as a number former members of Hull Ladies were reported to joined Maybury Road Youth Club it was decided to defer taking a decision on forming a Ladies Section until any it could be ascertained if there was a sizeable demand.
In the summer of 1955 the club became aware of a couple of developments which brought the issue of facilities to a head. Firstly, Hull Corporation had decided to construct a running track on the nearby Costello Playing Fields and secondly it became public knowledge that the land on which the existing pavilion stood was scheduled as a development area for a housing estate. Even though the club owned its land it was likely to only a matter of time before they were forced to sell.
Over the next few months there were a series of discussions. On one side with the Parks Department of the Corporation who were anxious for the club to re-locate to Costello and on the other with a local builder, Stan Spruit, who was keen to buy the land. Len Bird and Arthur Nendick played a key role in these negotiations and the final proposals to sell the land to Spruit for £250 and move the pavilion on to Costello were put to an Extraordinary General Meeting held at the Church Institute on the 11th May 1956. The proposals were accepted and over the next few months put into action. Members swung into action and when the pavilion was dismantled Stan Pleasants provided a lorry to move the sections to Costello where Terry Stinson took charge of re-construction. Many club-members played a part and special thanks were later accorded to Keith Blades's horse which despite having only three shoes for its four feet still managed to pull all the remaining timber from the old site.
The £3000 cost of the new track had been forwarded to the City by the National Playing Fields Association from funds raised from the Butlin's Camps and after moving their pavilion onto the site Hull Harriers spent more than £80 to re-build and extend the pavilion so that it contained a tea room, small office and a committee room that could double as additional changing facilities. With better facilities the subsequent Annual General meeting held in September 1955 finally agreed to form a Ladies Section the following spring. In recognition of the higher profile now being accorded to track and field the post of track captain was created and the first incumbent was Dennis Briggs.
When the Costello Track was first opened it was simply a basic running track with a quarter-mile circuit. At first there were difficulties with drainage and it was sometimes almost unusable after heavy rain and some meetings had to be abandoned when the track surface became, in places, a waterlogged puddle of wet sand. Shower baths were available in some old army ablutions which stood near the club pavilion. These were sometimes a source of embarrassment, especially when other clubs were visiting as the water could sometimes run icy cold and fizzle out to a mere trickle. At first there were no adjacent toilet facilities so the warm up for a track race involved a trip across the park to use the toilets near the bowling greens by Pickering Road.
Mr A.E. Burwell presenting the new Marathon Trophy to the first winner, Norman Nielson
Though the first season's activities at Costello were had been hampered by re-building and unusually wet weather exposed some of the track’s initial shortcomings, the 1956/7 season saw the club's greatest period of expansion to date. Membership passed the 150 mark and the nucleus of a Ladies Section was finally formed. The wave of enthusiasm for track and field following the opening of the season at Easter stretched the club. Fortunately, Ray Peirson and Dennis Briggs had qualified as AAA coaches and their services, together with those of Terry Stinson and Cyril Taylor, were in constant demand. The move was adjudged by most as a remarkable success.
The first two women to officially join the club in the 1950s were Irene Wilson and Ann Wright and they were respectively appointed Captain and Vice-Captain when the Ladies Section was finally formed in the first half of 1959. By the end of that summer the club had sixteen women members - adults and teenagers who trained regularly out of a total membership of around one hundred and fifty and had collected six medals from competition. The youngest member of the section was twelve year old Susan Brocklehurst who took second place in the under fifteens 100 yards at Brodsworth returning 10.6 off 14 yards. The section trained two or three times a week either on the track or around the Park at Costello and the club financed the Section's first away match that summer. The 1962 AGM voted the Sportsman Cup to L. Bloom, the first time it was won by a woman but by the end of the following season it was proving difficult to fill any of the vacant offices in the Ladies Section. Membership again fell away and for a time the club suspended its affiliation to the women's athletic organisations.
There were a number of other runners who made their mark on the track before and after the Butlin Track was opened at Costello. Some, such as Trevor Bailey, did well on the track and the country. Trevor was the English Schools Mile Champion in 1952 with a time of 4.30 seconds and went on to become the Northern Counties Junior Champion. Others included Tony West, Terry Seanor, Ian Walters, George Davis and Reg Darley.
Contending With The Elements
With runners now regularly competing in different events throughout the year they had to compete with considerable variations in the weather. The 1959 Wakefield 20 Mile Road Race, for example, was run in a temperature of 85 degrees farenheit and, as tar bubbled up in the road, one-third of the runners failed to finish and only the winner managed less than 2 hours. However, Arthur Nendick recalls that, in terms of difficult conditions, Grimsby and District Cross-Country Championships held on the 2nd February 1953 - the time of the notorious East Coast Floods - takes some beating. In those days the teams from Hull Harriers and East Hull Harriers travelled to the event by way of the New Holland Ferry and then train onto Cleethorpes. That year, as a gale raged around them, the teams changed in concrete cubicles, devoid of any form of heating at the old Cleethorpes Open Air Bathing pool on the sea front and the teams were very cold before lining up for the start.
The course swept inland for about two miles and then swung back to Humberstone from where the runners ran back to Cleethorpes along the beach. For the first two miles the teams were almost uncontrollably pushed along by storm force winds but by the time they reached the beach they were running head on into a swirling storm of sand which filled their eyes and noses. Legs were being sand blasted as the runners gasped for breath. The runners then approached a beck which in normal years was knee deep as they splashed through. This year, the combination of a spring tide and Nor Easterly gale had raised water levels hours before high tide. Runners plunged through icy cold waters up to their waists and continued with soaking kit into the teeth of the gale until they reached Cleethorpes once more … and began the second lap. By the time they reached the beck for the second time a sensible official had diverted the course off the beach and onto the sea wall.
Afterwards, the sea continued to drive in and completely flooded the railway lines from Cleethorpes to Grimsby so the Hull teams were stranded for some time before the trains were restored and they could make their way home. By the time the reached New Holland the gale was blowing so strongly that the train was not allowed to proceed to the pier station and the teams alighted at New Holland. Linking arms, they walked head down along the long pier and onto the pontoon to board the ferry which was tossing violently at its moorings. When they finally crossed the river and reached their homes all thought they had been through a battle. Although the storm continued to rage for a few more days the worst damage actually occurred on the afternoon and evening of the 2nd February. Spurn Point was cut off, millions of pounds worth of damage was done to east coast towns and villages down to the Thames estuary and the loss of life was considerable.
Cyclists V Harriers
Hull has long had a strong fraternity of cycle clubs and an annual fixture which provided much fun for many years was the Cyclists Versus Harriers Five Mile Cross-Country Race which was held each autumn between Hull Harriers and their good friends, Hull Thursday Road Club. The first such race had been organised between the two clubs in 1927 and proved so enjoyable that, with the exception of the war years, it remained an annual event until the 1960s.
Cyclists and harriers would set off together over quite rough country and the cyclists would ride when possible but had to carry their bikes across ploughed fields and throw them over fences. The race results largely depended on how much rain had fallen. When conditions were better then the cyclists fared well and the harriers came into their own with the mud. Fred Fussle, also a keen cyclist as well as outstanding runner for the club often fared well in these events. Sadly, the building of new housing estates over the fields in Haltemprice and the natural resistance of farmers eventually killed off this race.
Hull Harriers and Hull Thursday co-operated in many ways with each other during this period. Hull Thursday's top cyclist after the War was Bill Holmes who rode for Britain in a number of international long-distance events, including the Olympic Games and the publicity this attracted encouraged a surge of interest in cycle road racing. The Local Authority promoted a long-distance event in the Elloughton/High Hunsley area and Hull Harriers gladly helped by providing marshalls around the difficult lap course. The Thursday Road Club reciprocated by providing marshalls and specialist timekeepers in the first few marathons organised by Hull Harriers.
Haltemprice Road Runners
The sometimes conflicting interests of track and field, road and country in the 1950s was sometimes the cause of tensions within the club. After some years a number of the keenest road runners, tired of the ramifications of the track and its users, broke away to form the Haltemprice Road Runners Club and for a number of years enjoyed considerable success. Former Hull, Harrier, Mike Kirkwood, for example won the South London ‘30’ and the London to Brighton in successive months. A few years later, Brian Cooke won the South London ‘30’. In more recent years this small club has organised the popular Haltemprice 10K Road Race.
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