HARRIERS 25TH ANNIVERSARY
Harriers present and past met to celebrate 25 years of Hailsham Harriers at the Tally Ho, Eastbourne.
There was a very good turnout and it was great to meet so many old friends. There was a disco and a fine buffet, a good time was had by all.
As the evening progressed there was an entertaining speech from one of Harriers stalwarts Paul Eccles (known thoughout Harriers as Peccles). Peccles Speech.
The evening in pictures (click to see larger)
A warm welcome to you all, guests, past and current members to this our 25th anniversary celebrations. Our club had it’s beginnings in 1983 when a group of social workers from the Lansdowne Children’s Centre, eager to get fit for the local fun run, formed the Lansdowne Striders. The following year in September 1984 (25 years to this very month) a public meeting brought about a merger with the already existing Hailsham AC to form Hailsham Harriers. Three members of that first committee are with us tonight, Kevin Delves became a committee member and a year later became treasurer, a post he would keep for 13 years and for that we have honoured him, quite deservedly, with life membership. Frances Diprose was the ladies captain and still runs for us to this very day (although she’s now married to Kevin and is called Delves of course) and the men’s captain was Mark Wells, a true Harriers legend who inspired many a harrier not least the person giving this speech. Subscriptions at the time were £5 for seniors and £1 for juniors and the first dinner dance was held at the Horshoe Inn on Saturday 9th February 1985. Karen Bowler was the first club secretary and one of her first jobs was to acquire club vests. She was in luck when a club from the north, Wigan Harriers had just returned a batch of vests to the suppliers. Their constitution stated that their black vest had a red diagonal stripe from left to right but the suppliers had printed the stripe the wrong way so the newly formed Hailsham Harriers acquired the vests at a knock down price.
I think it’s fair to say after talking to a few founder members that the driving force in those early days and right into the millennium was Mark’s father Derek Wells. He was appointed club coach in 1984 but quickly became president and remained so up until quite recently. His words and influence have been inspirational, humorous, philosophical, pragmatic and prophetic. He would write monthly for the club magazine, and I would like to you to give a couple of examples of his literary musings. On Craig Ivemy he said “The lad has red and black running through his veins”. The advice given to Rob Christie was “One mistake in the steeplechase can result in a vasectomy”. When winning the Today’s Runner Cross Country in 1997 he noted “The men have wrung their socks out”. Things didn’t always go to plan for Derek, he was for many years time keeper for the Grove Hill mile, and so he would set the runners off and then cycle to the top of the hill to be at the top before the runners. Unfortunately in 1996 his chain came off half way up the hill and all the runners passed him and finished without a timekeeper.
When I took part in this year’s Hellingly 10k a few weeks ago I was asked the question, who was John Faulds? John joined the club in 1989 and quickly became club secretary. In fact in his secretary’s report of 1996 he states that he was actually voted in as secretary before he was voted in as a member! He was secretary for nine years from 1989 to 1998. John was a Scotsman who had an innate charm and a ready smile, he was an intellectual and his knowledge of athletics was second to none. He was also a dedicated coach who, with Julie Chicken, would coach the juniors and seniors twice weekly, for 52 weeks, for many a year. He was also in charge of the club magazine for a period, was a leading light in the Hailsham & District Sports Federation and organised the Hailsham Town Ten. John also found the time to run for his beloved club and to show that the great man was human after all Frances recalls the time he went to France with the Harriers to take part in the La Touquet 10k. However John arrived with two odd shoes, luckily one was for the right foot and one for the left and so even though they were two different make of shoe he still had a good run. But John’s passion was for the Hellingly 10k and so it was only fitting that when John was taken from us on 5 May 2002 that we should rename our club event “The John Faulds Hellingly 10k” after such a great man. He takes his place in Harriers folklore and rightly so.
Within the last 25 years our main honours are with the Sussex Road Running Grand Prix. We have won the overall title more times than any other club in Sussex, a record seven times, in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000 & 2006. We have had five different lady champions in this competition, Libby Jones, Karen Bowler, Samantha Baines, Samantha Alvarez and Gill Wheeler. We have also won the local East Sussex X-C League seven times and the individual honours in this competition are too numerous to mention.
We have also had great success in what must be the club’s favourite event, the South Downs Relay. We have dominated this event at different levels right throughout its history. It was only in 2006 when we first put in a ladies team but since then the ladies have won it three times. In 2009 all three teams entered came back with medals, both the Ladies and B team came back with gold in their categories and the A team won silver, narrowly missing out on overall victory. But its not all about winning medals, I have personally took part in the SDR for 12 years and enjoyed every one, but I think 2009 was the most joyous occasion I have witnessed at the club.
When asked to write this speech I was given a free reign to pick out what I thought was the highlights in some of the last 25 years. One immediately sprung to mind. In 2002 at the end of the Sussex X-C League season we won a string of gold medals at all age levels. At U-15 Todd Leckie won gold. At U-17 Craig Ivemy won gold. At junior man level Ben Warren won gold and at senior man level Tom Sargant won gold. It would have been a clean sweep that day but I let the club down by only winning a silver medal at the veteran level. After that day all these runners went on to great things. Ben Warren went on to become the club’s first and only men’s senior cross country champion in 2006. Craig Ivemy became the first Harrier to represent his country in both cross country and track events and in 2004 was top of the national junior rankings for both 3,000m and 5,000m. Todd Leckie has since become a fine triathelete and in October 2007 at the National 10k Championships he ran a fantastic time of 31.53 and was 3rd in the County of Sussex. My favourite memory of Tom Sargant (who Derek nicknamed the “Prince of Pace”) was him winning the county U-17 cross country title. He won it in fine style at Stanmer Park in December 1996 and left the rest of the runners trailing in his wake. But the race was declared null and void as some of the back runners got lost in the woods. The race was re run in February 1997 and as Tom crossed the line victorious it was thought the runners had got lost once again because they were no where to be seen, such was his margin of victory. That year Tom was also Sussex schools x-c champion and a few years later became the Sussex junior x-c champion a title held by three Harriers in succession, the other two of course being Ben and Craig.
I described one of our guests earlier as a Harriers legend and I would now like to salute a few more. Gill Wheeler has to be mentioned for her marvellous achievements my favourite being on the cross country circuit in 2007 when she won a unique treble. She became the champion of the East Sussex League, the Sussex County Cross Country League and in January 2007 became the overall Sussex County x-c champion.
I feel a few words should be mentioned about Sam Alvarez. The effort she puts into both her training and racing is tremendous and she has represented her club with modesty and distinction, for over a decade. Her personal life mirrors her running life for she is a respected teacher (four of my firm’s staff are her past pupils) and she is also as a great mum to Mia. Her goals and ambitions have changed over the years. She first joined the club in 1998 and Derek did a profile on Sam for the July 1998 edition of the magazine, lets see what she had to say for herself back then.
Back in the old days, the club magazine used to be the only method of communication between the members and one of its regular contributors was a founder member, Bill Fraser who of course still runs for us to this day. If prizes were given for the wackiest excuse then Bill would win hands down. In 1987 he wrote that he had been in the form of his life and had the London Marathon been in its usual mid April slot, he was on for a 2-35 time. However that year the marathon was run in May and the date coincided with romance and walking for hours the previous day meant a time of 2-52! I have heard some excuses from runners in my time but being in love really takes the biscuit. Bill would also write a column every month entitled “Bill’s Blurtings”. In October 1998 I was joint editor at the time with Paul Guy and he celebrated our first year in office with the following.
The progress and enjoyment of our club would not be possible without a strong administration. I have already mentioned a few names from the early years but would also like to give huge credit to the following:-
Geoff Depper, for his sterling efforts as treasurer, magazine editor and the designer of what can only be described as a revolutionary web site. I don’t know of a club anywhere who has a better and up to date web site.
Doug Chant, not only for providing us with wonderful entertainment tonight, for which we are very grateful, but also for his incredible hard work in his six year stint as club secretary from 2000 to 2006.
Colin Burgess joined our club in 1986 and was quickly ensconced onto the committee and has been Chairman since 1997, half the time the club has been in existence. There is no doubt in my mind that the club is where it is today because of his excellent leadership. He is man who quietly goes about his business with great acumen, all the time making sure the club runs smoothly and everyone remains content. If there is a job that needs doing Colin will deal with it without any complaint or fuss. Throughout his chairmanship he has shown a rare talent, he always makes the correct decisions. We hope he will continue to lead us for many more years.
An athletics club can’t run without coaches and we have the best. For years now Julie Chicken, Norman Harris and my great friend Steve Avery have been turning up to Tuesday and Thursday training nights to take us through our paces. Steve has also organised for many years’ now extra training sessions at Whitbread Hollow at the weekends. I on behalf of us all would like to give our heartfelt thanks to the stamina shown by all three stalwarts.
I have dealt with the past and the present but what about the future. Rest assured the future is taken care of in the hands of other members here tonight, Andy Ruffell is a superb treasurer, Lesley Underdown, organised this event for us tonight, in fact she organises most things and we are forever in her debt as she goes about her business so efficiently as club Secretary. I have already mentioned Norman’s talents as a coach, but he also our president and there is no one better equipped than he to guide us through the next 25 years.
It’s impossible to mention everyone tonight and I apologise for the omissions. I would like to say a thank you to Frances and Kevin Delves for providing me with valuable snippets of information for my speech.
I would finally like to raise a toast. I think it fitting we should raise a toast to our original committee of September 1984 for without them we would not be here (See note below). Let us celebrate our past and hope this is a springboard for further success and enjoyment. I have a feeling the next 25 years will be just as special. Please raise your glasses to our Committee of 1984.
Note:
At the first meeting, held in September 1984 the first officers and members elected were:-
President Mr Paul Ebdersby
Vice President Dr Colin Tourle
Gen Secretary Mrs Karen Bowler
Hon Treasurer Mr James Cox
Club Captain Mr Mark Wells
Vice Captain Mr Tim Bowler
Ladies Representative Mrs Frances Diprose
Committee members Mr Kevin Delves
Mr Ken Fox
Club Coach Mr Derek Wells
Assistant Coaches Mr Andy Leckie
Mr Ted Creasey
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