Roy Langford - Article No.33 (09/06/2014)

The "Kempston Horticultural and Athletic Show, Addison Howard Park, Kempston, Bedford, Saturday 19th August 1961 start at 2.15pm

This 1961 Kempston Show would be my third visit to this annual event, and would be my best outdoor track race of a busy athletic season, from which I had faired pretty well for just the run of the mill athlete from Tipton Harriers, with my main sporting highlights being my fantastic spring treble at the "International Co-Operative Day Sports Meeting" at Oxford on July 1st and my superb spring double win at Aldersley Stadium in the "Express & Star Trophy Meeting" on 7th August, yes, very proud moments indeed for me in this 1961 track year.

I had sent off my entry form for this particular meeting about a month ago, which then gave the organising committee and race handicapping officials the chance to put the programme of events together before notifying all the competing athletes that their entry forms had been accepted, and this notification was done by sending each athlete a free copy of that said official programme, this gave each athlete the chance to eye up the opposition and see if the journey to this particular meeting was worth making, and I for one must say it was touch and go whether I had made this journey today, because looking through the two races lined up for me:- i.e. 100yds and 220yds races and with the handicapping system in operation, and the top class athletes I was pitched to run against off my low handicap marks that left me facing a daunting task and to be honest didn't think I stood a cat in hell's chance of qualifying for the final of any of my races, but it was a good day out amongst my fellow athletes and friends and I enjoyed the great atmosphere the Kempston Show served up.

We set off on our early morning excursion by coach to Kempston at about 10.30am. From outside the club headquarters in Sedgley Road East, Tipton. Today I had the company of my two great training friends Andy Fereday and the lovely Joy Gray, who had recently got engaged to her long time boyfriend Raymond Chambers a fellow Tipton Harrier, who was also travelling with us today but not competing in any races at this meeting. The main body of this coach load of passengers was made up by those true men of iron wil,l the long distance runners, with about 20 or so of them entered for the "Kempston 10 mile Road Race", which made up about 4 teams competing for the "Kempston Challenge Cup", with some strong contenders in our party good enough the win the individual 1st home prize of £7 :- namely Bert Harbach, Bob Bratt, Ron Franklin, Brian Boyce, John J Horneycroft or Alan Whittle to name but a few hopefuls for that honour. My other training mate John Brimble was missing from today's coach trip because of work commitments but very fortuitously his dad Mr Jim Brimble our club caretaker had still taken it upon himself to accompany us on our venture to Kempston, his decision to attend this meeting provided to be a very significant one for me and helped me to reiterate my fond memories of this meeting when I put pen to paper to write this story, why! You might well ask, because a few weeks ago I borrowed some old 8mm movie colour films from my old pal John Brimble which he and his father had taken dating back to 1959 to 1967, these films had been stored away in John's loft and hadn't seen the light of day for umpteen years, and were like a time capsule waiting for the right person to open them up and review them to appreciate their true sporting historical value, because on viewing these gems were various movie clips taken of Tipton Harriers in action at road races and the ever popular Boxing Morning Handicap races on Victoria Park, Tipton, and some brilliant training session shots taken of John Brimble and his mates Andy and Dave Fereday down the Vono Sports Ground taken roughly between 1960 to 1962, and now I come to the point of this story, because amongst those bits of nostalgic gold dust was about 3 minutes of which I recognised almost straight away was of the Kempston Show of 1961, which was as I remembered the day, bathed in brilliant sunshine with the crowd packed tightly around the edge of the running track, and the film was showing a few of the various sporting events from that magical day of 45 years ago, and it was quite obvious to me that Mr Brimble had taken this movie film, but who so sadly has long since entered the pearly gates of heaven and not able to accept my heart felt thanks for this glimpse back in time to 1961.

Kempston Show 1961

By the time our coach pulled up on the car park at Addison Howard Park, Kempston at about 12.30pm the Horticultural, floral and handicrafts section of the show was already in full swing having been opened up to the public at 11am, with due pomp and ceremony by the President of the Kempston Show "His Grace the Duke of Bedford".

Getting to the venue fairly early had its advantages which allowed our coach party a chance to soak up the atmosphere and look over the numerous side shows and stalls on offer inside this vast show ground, with the athletic and cycling track in splendid condition looking like an oasis in the centre of the show ground park, and to top it all, glorious sunshine to make it a perfect day or would it be from my running point of view, well with over 300 men and women athletes and cyclists taking part in today's events it was inheritable that changing room accommodation in two large marquees would be as per usual in short supply, but s with all athletic meeting you have to make do with the basic needs provided, so Andy and myself along with the rest of the competing athletes got changed into our running gear and left our unattended every day clothes and such like inside the marquee, and I might add to the mercy and honesty of our fellow athletes that they would still be intact when we finished running for the day, because you always at such meetings had to be on your guard against the opportunist sneak thief who often roamed the changing rooms unchallenged while the athletes were busy competing in their various sporting events, so the sensible option was not to leave anything of value behind in the changing rooms, but putting those unpleasant thoughts aside, I headed for the warm-up area of the track with my fellow sprinting pal Andy Fereday who was entered for the 220 yard open handicap race. We had hardly broken into a seat before we were joined by the lovely Joy Gray the only female from Tipton Harriers competing here today, her events the 100 yards and 220 yards open handicap races, we would share each others company throughout the afternoon and help each other prepare ourselves mentally and physically for each of our individual races, because all our races had the hallmark of being well contested races, because athletes from over 40 clubs from all parts of England had fathered here to compete at this meeting, and with the meeting getting underway at 2.15pm I was the first of our trio to face the starter's pistol in heat number 4 heats of the men's 100 yards open handicap race, I watched the first three heats with great interest which were won in mediocre times and I certainly wished I had been competing in them instead of the very competitive heat number 4 race because I was up against my nightmare from last year the 6ft 4 inches athlete I'd named "Goliath" alias Roger Slaughter (Bedford & County Athletic Club) and some how that surname was very apt because I felt a bit like a sacrificial lamb going to be slaughtered in this race, because I knew another athlete in this 5 man line up with a top class sprinting pedigree named E Moules (North Herts A.C.) who had run under 10 seconds many times off scratch for the 100 yards and here I was set to give this talented athlete a 3¼ yards start off his set handicap mark of 8½ yards, this only confirmed my impossible task of winning this race sandwiched between those two great athletes, because Roger also had a 2¼ yards handicap start over me, and the rules were only the winner of each heat and two fastest losers went into the final, so as the starter Mr W. T. Panter called us to get set on our handicap marks, my confidence wasn't at its highest, when we blasted down the track and as I expected made little or no impression on catching these two fine athletes and it was E. Moules who crossed the finishing line in first place clocking 9.7 seconds with Roger a couple of yards behind him with myself in a disappointing 3rd place . The winner of this 100 yards handicap final some ¾ hour later went as expected to E. Moules in 9.8 seconds with Roger Slaughter in runners-up spot.

Ladies 100 yards (Open) Flat Handicap Race

With my disappointing race over, I put my track suit back on, while the afternoon's proceedings continued with the opening heats of the ladies 100 yards (Open) handicap races, and it was Joy Fray who now contested Heat No. 1 of 4 heats, and with great aplomb she hid her nervous tendencies before each race she ran in, with a determined frown upon her face from her 4 rivals as she settled onto her generous handicap mark of 9½ yards, and at the off she sped like a proud gazelle down the track to a great two years victory over C. Harriss (Coleridge A.C.) in 11 seconds dead, which would be the fastest time of the 4 heats, but ¾ hour later Joy ws brought back down to earth, because it was the flying Hampstead Heath sprinter, D Dowsett, who took the honours in the ladies 100 yards handicap final beating Janet Simpson (Welwyn A.C.) in 10.7 seconds our gallant Tipton Harrier, Joy Gray, finished in third pace.

After our 100 yards races Joy and myself had a long wait before our next event the heats of the 200 yards handicap races, and these would see Andy Fereday in action for the first time this afternoon, and I might add a bit of that 8mm colour film I mentioned at the start of this story showed a few of those events before we took to the track again for those 220 yards races, those small snatches of film showed in brilliant colour the start and finish of the men's 2 mile handicap walk which was won by number 104 P.C. Stapleford (Leicester Walking Club) this but of film was followed with shots of the cycling events, they were just magic to see the start of some of those up to 9 man cycle races with a designated helper holding each rider stable in the saddle on their set handicap marks, before the starter sends them on their scary hell for leather race, with the crown some times being dangerously close to the edge of the track, I'm afraid there would be no chance of such events taking place under those conditions today, because of the strict health and safety regulations.

The Kempston 10 Mile Road Race

Another event to capture the interest of this massive crowd all dressed up in their summer attire and basking in the warm sunshine, was the Kempston 10 mile road race which got underway at approximately 4pm in which about 80 runners took par, some preferring the 10 miles handicap event and a first prize worth £7, with 10 teams going for the glory of winning the "Kempston Perpetual Challenge Cup", and the medals that go with it if your 4 man team finished in the first three, Tipton had gone over the top and entered 4 teams, it at this point with all the athletes lined up on the starting line that Mr Brimble again focuses his 8mm cinecamera on the start of this race, and with the trees inside the park shading them from the glorious sunshine the race gets underway with just one lap of the track, which was headed by two Vauxhall Motors Running Club athletes, A Layton, No. 249 and M. Boylen No. 253, followed closely by No. 125, R. C. Whittle (Stourbridge & Wordsly Harriers) and our great duo of Ron Franklin and Alan Whittle and it was all smiles for the camera as they competed their one lap of the track before they headed outside the park perimeter grounds on their gruelling 10 mile road race, that lingering shot of them taken by Mr Brimble would be the last he saw of them as they then pounded the highways and byways of the beautiful Bedfordshire countryside, with the race expected to be won in less than one hour, and true to form in under one hour Mr Brimble was in position at the finishing line to capture the dying seconds on film of the end of that now nostalgic 10 mile race, and very fortuitously the first man entering the park grounds and completing the winning lap was none other than our very own Tipton Harriers Welsh Wizard Ron Franklin who came steaming home like an express train, looking like he could run the race again without any trouble on this glorious sunny day, his winning time was a brilliant 53 minutes 49 seconds, which works out at 5 minutes 4 seconds per mile, WOW! With Mr Brimble's movie camera still rolling on Ron was closely followed across the finishing line by N. Clarke (Lincoln Wellington A.C.) and Alan Whittle (Tipton Harriers) with only just over one minute separating all three runners, there was then some intermittently snatches of colour film of the other Tipton road runners who finished in the top 30 of this race now immortalized on this film namely:- John Malpass 26th, Brian Boyce 29th and Peter Boxley 30th all with finishing times of only a fraction of seconds over the one hour mark.

Ladies 220 Yards Handicap Heats & Final

The next event scheduled up on the track was the ladies 220 yards handicap heats, and our top lady sprinter, Joy Gray, had been waiting patiently at track side for this race, she was contesting Heat No. 4 of 4 heats, her warm up session in the company of myself and Andy Fereday proved she was in prime sprinting condition for this race and just raring to compete in front of this fantastic crowd,, but she had 3 hears to hand around for before she took her position on the starting line, off her handicap mark of 21½ yards, she was pitched against 5 other good class young athletes, and on this warm sunny afternoon she knew she had to run her socks off to get into the final, because only the winner of each heat and the two fastest losers competed in the final, the starter calls them under orders then in a split second the group of six runners are away like young gazelles, this was Joy's moment of true and she didn't let her Tipton friends down, she just produced her best sprinting form which was just brilliant, she raced to victory by a couple of yards over a young athlete named Janet Simpson (Welwyn A.C.) handicap mark 19 yards, in the fastest heat time of 24.2 seconds, and befittingly the two fastest losers from this heat making it into the final, which was about one hour later and turned out to be a real cracker with Joy and this young slip of a girl named Janet Simpson having another repeat performance of their ding dong battle in the qualifying heat, but this time with a different outcome, because after being evenly matched over the first ¾ of the race Janet blazed clear of Joy to win the race by about 4 yards in 24.4 seconds, Joy was absolutely gutted at not repeating her victory from the heat race over this young athlete, but little did Joy or myself know that until putting pen to paper to write this story 45 years later that the name of Janet Simpson had some how struck a cord in my memory bank, so I searched through some of my old athletic sports books, and found out this young lady on the day of this meeting was still 14 days away fro her 17th birthday on 2nd September 1961, and it was also pleasing to find out Joy had shared the track and beaten a future sprinting prodigy of British athletics who would represent England with great distinction and one of her early proud moments was in the Olympic Games in 1964 in Tokyo, where she won a bronze medal in the 4 x 100 metre relay team, alongside the great Mary Rand, Daphne Arden and Dorothy Hyman, all a far cry from this meeting at Kempston today, but she had showed us a brief glimpse of her future undisputed sprinting talent that shone through the 1960's.

Mens 220 Yards Handicap Races

Event No. 16 was the men's 220 yards handicap heat races, and this race had been my banker race for the past two years, winning it in 1959 and last year just beaten on the finishing line by Goliath alias Roger Slaughter (Bedford & County A.C.) who was defending his title again this afternoon against some tough opposition.

At today's meeting 27 athletes contested the 5 heats of this top class 220 yards Handicap event, and it was befitting that the home crowd had the spectacle of watching their local home produced lad Roger sprint to glory in the opening heat No. 1 race of his good if not generous handicap mark of 16 yards in 21.8 seconds, this curtain raiser for the 220 yards had really got the crown buzzing by the time I stepped on the track for Heat No. 2, unlike last year I had no such aspirations of winning this race today, because I was beaten by the handicapping system before I set foot on the track off my low handicap mark of 10 yards an unusual defeatist attitude from me I know, but with sound reasoning, because when you know the sprinting quality of the athletes you face and to beat them even in a scratch race would have been great, but to give an athlete of the calibre of E. Moules (North Herts) a 8 yard start in my race was well beyond my best sprinting capability, and what made my task more difficult was that only the winner of each heat and one fastest loser went into the six man final, the desire and guts I put into a race was sadly lacking when the starter fired his pistol I just went through the half hearted motions of running this one sided race and true to form it was the very talented sprinter E. Moules who won the race in 21.7 seconds with yours truly trailing home in third place, with the lingering thoughts of the Olympic Games opening ceremony oath words ringing in my ears, which goes something like i.e. "The most important thing in sport is not winning, but to have taken part", somehow those four meaningful words of wisdom didn't in my book ring true for me today.

Heat No. 3 now it was time for Andy Fereday's long awaited first race of the afternoon, and he was in high spirits because he had a great handicap mark in his race off 19 yards, and as he settled on his mark he had a clear track ahead of him, as it was up to him to keep his 4 rivals at bay around the furlong track, with the crown at track side almost breathing down their necks the started sends off around the track, and entering the home straight Andy seems to be winning the race in a canter, but all of a sudden from the back depths of the field, off his low handicap mark of 9 yards came the fast finishing Coleridge A.C. athlete named R. W. Summerfield whose fighting spirit to et anywhere near winning this race put me to shame and those last few seconds of this great race was captured on 8mm colour film by Mr Brimble and show the Coleridge athlete losing the race by about 1 yard Andy's winning time a cool 21.7 seconds.

Even No. 23 the Men's 220 Yards Handicap Final, with my racing over the day I hung around with Andy and Joy while waiting for their final race which of course were the finals of the Ladies' 220 Yards which I have already dealt with and now the imminent Men's 220 yards handicap final, Andy had done himself proud and Tipton Harriers by qualifying for this very competitive final and knew he faced a tough task getting a place in the first three, and this race was indeed one of the many outstanding highlights of the afternoon's athletics and it was the brilliant sprinting form of E. Moules who streaked around that 220 yards handicap course to a devastating clear win over Roger Slaughter with our very own (would you believe it) Andy Fereday in the dazzling third place, Joy and myself were over the moon at his great performance against those top athletes, but then again we know Andy's no mug at this sprinting game. The winning time for E. Moules was an outstanding 20.9 seconds, didn't I say he was a pretty good athlete.

With my fellow Tipton Harriers racing over the afternoon the curtain came down on a memorable afternoon of athletics, when Joy and Andy's last remaining duty for them was to collect their prize winning vouchers which to Joy were worth £4 and Andy £1.

PS: This is one particular story when I didn't think there was anything of interest for me to write about as I failed so miserably in my two races, how wrong could I have been, but the unearthing of that magic few minutes of 8mm colour film of this day's events helped me recall another of those glorious athlete days of yore.

Yours in Sport once again

Roy Langford