Roy Langford - Article No.36 (08/09/2014)

My performance at R.A.F. Cosford on Saturday 13th January 1962, had given my winter's training a real boost, and woke up on that following Sunday morning in a better frame of mind, by just knowing that I had put in a worth while performance against the odds when clocking 10.7 seconds in my 100 yards race, but there was no immediate compulsion for me to even think about resorting to a training session on this cold winter's morning.

My work day at Ewarts on Monday 15th January was still filled with my thoughts about Cosford on Saturday night and I was eager to see the usual newspaper report about that meeting. So after work on Monday I called in on my local newsagent and purchased the "Express & Star" newspaper and turning to the inside back pages was the sports headlines about the Cosford meeting, which in big capital letters half-inch high quoted "PETER RADFORD HATES RUNNING INDOORS", this story was written by one of their reports columnists who went under the pseudonym of "Olympic". He reported that before Peter finished 5th out of 6 runners in the 60 yards match event for the Midlands against the South of England and a Manchester team, the Walsall born sprinter now based in Cardiff while on a physical training course had allegedly confessed "he hated running indoors", but he also added "It at least gives athletes a chance to exercise while the outdoor tracks are unfit to use", and then went on to say that, "he didn't pay too much attention to his form on indoor tracks". I'm quite sure these off the cuff remarks, just couldn't have been taken seriously from Peter, because on digesting these quotes they were to me a little contradictable to say the least from this great athlete because over the past three winter indoor seasons at Cosford, he has been the most outstanding athlete over these 60 yards short sprint races, clocking up the unofficial British record time of 6.3 seconds on more than a dozen occasions, but sometimes flippant talk like that comes form being out of sorts and not being tip-top form, because the true fact was that Peter Radford had only recently pronounced himself fit and well after breaking a couple of ribs some weeks ago.

Peter, I might add, wasn't adverse to adversity because as a child he had the misfortune to contract a very serious kidney disease and might well have been crippled for life, but happily, thank god, he recovered completely and he took up running at the age of 12, even in those early years he showed the making, and for example ran 10.4 seconds for the 100 yards when only 14 yards old, a few years later he won the Midlands Junior and English Schools Championships. He joined Birchfield Harriers in July 1957 and was taken under the wing by top Midlands area coach Bill Marlow, and up to this last Cosford meeting Peter was still being coached by that very same person.

Wow, what am I doing, this is supposed to be a life story and here I am giving you a synopsis on Peter Radford, but then again he was truly the supreme sprinter of my generation in Midlands athletics and beyond.

It would be many weeks before I stepped over the threshold of the Tipton Harriers Club House, because after my Cosford run on 13th January I felt in no immediate hurry to join my training mates Andy, John and Dave on those Sunday morning training excursions down the Vono or Victoria Park, Tipton, preferring to go it alone and train from my home base until my fitness levels were on par with theirs, in doing so I made extra good use of the road I lived in (Fairfield Road, Dudley) because it was up this fairly steep inclined roadway that nearly all my sprinting preparation was put into action for my next meeting at Cosford. My starting point for these sprint efforts started some 50 to 60 yards around the corner from my road, in Lister Road, from there I built up my speed to take in the gradient of Fiarfield Road, and my finishing point was just past my Gran's house where I lived at No. 5, the distance I covered on each leg sapping assaults was about 180 or so yards and my aim was to fit in at least 10 to 15 of these efforts during my 1½ hours start to finish training spells. I might just add that at that time in the early 1960's I could easily run in the middle of the road without the risk of being knocked down by a motor vehicle because in those bygone days only a handful of people out of 47 homes in Fairfield Road owned any form of motorized transport.

When I ventured to say I trained alone on those dark cold winter evenings in January 1962, it wasn't strictly true, because one of my neighbours at that time who lied at his parents' home at No. 9 was former West Bromwich Albion wing-half Billy Brookes, who was now playing local league soccer. My sprinting sessions up Fiarfield Road at this time always seemed to attract some attention and it was on one of those such evenings that Bill asked me if he could possibly join me in some training sessions. I said I had no obligations and would welcome some new input if possible into my training sessions, but sadly to say all didn't go to plan because we only shared a couple or so of well meant training sessions together before it became obvious our training methods for our two separate sports were as different as chalk and cheese. Bill on one hand was an enthusiastic plodder with bags of stamina, where I was just a crash bang wallop honest to goodness sprinter with only a limited amount of stamina and needless to say I had to regrettably call a half to our brief training sessions together.

I've thrown in this timely little reminiscence about Billy Brookes as a sort of epitaph to this past great sporting gentleman to pass on the sad news to his many foot-balling and cricketing friends in the Dudley and surrounding district that Bill passed away at his Lichfield home where had lived for man years, in January 2006, aged 74.

I must add at this junction in my winter's training that my allegiance with my young mates Andy Fereday and John Brimble had been well and truly broken during my sort of enforced spell of hermit like training sessions, and not that it would have made the slightest difference to them, I'd sent off my entry form for the next Cosford meeting which was scheduled for Saturday 10th February 1962 without ever giving them a second's thought, it really was as the old saying goes, "out of sight, out of mind", and now as that day dawned I made my accustomed journey by trolley-bus and train which got me to R.A.F. Cosford on that Saturday evening at just after 6.00pm, and yet once again I would be the only Tipton Athlete gracing this special evening of indoor athletics, on entering the R.A.F. base I found out there was still in progress an "Open Day" parents' visit on the camp, a proud and fulfilling moment in any young serviceman's life where he could show off to his parents what sort of life he was undertaking in the armed forces.

With all this extra activity going on around the R.A.F. base it was inheritable that it would have a knock-on effect by throwing out the usual efficient camp routine which resulted in the evening athletic meeting starting half an hour late at about 7.30pm.

During this delay I had gone through my usual ritual of collecting my vest numbers and checking the time of my event, which was the Open 60 yards sprint event which was due to take place at 8.45, which really suited me, but on reflection it seemed a hell of a lot of winter's training for under 7 seconds of running.

Meeting Blasts Into Life at 7.30pm

The main focus of tonight's meeting was the representative matches which comprised of a Midlands (A) team versus Manchester Training, Cardiff Training College and The R.A.F, also running in conjunction with this match was a midlands (B) team who faced Manchester University and Birmingham University.

I was running in one of 7 open events for men which ranged from 60 yards to 1 mile, the ladies had to be content with only 2 open events:- the 60 yards, 100 yards and 880 yards races.

The meeting blasted into life at 7.30pm with a brilliant 60 yards shock win for the 19 years old Dave England running for the Midlands (A) team he showed amazing sprint form by beating Danny Herman (Manchester Training College) and Peter Radford (Cardiff Training College) his winning time equalled the unofficial British record time of 6.3 seconds.

This race was closely followed by the ladies' 60 yards open event which saw Daphne Arden (Birchfield Harriers) set a new United Kingdom best time of 6.9 seconds and in the process beat the formidable Australian athlete Betty Moore (Salford Harriers) who clocked 7.00 seconds dead, in third place was Carole Bailey (Salford Harriers).

Another top notch race which kept the crowd's pulse racing was the men's 880 yards match (A) race in which the former European 800 metres champion (1958) Mike Rawson (Midlands) ran one of his best races for a long while when he beat a top class field in the ½ mile race, beating Ron Tutin (Midlands) and john Evison (R.A.F.) winning time 1 min 59 seconds.

Brenda Cook Wins Great Ladies' 880 yards Open Event

The ladies' open 880 yards race paired together two of Bilston Town's A.C. great ½ mile runners namely Brenda Cook, the school teacher from Coven, Wolverhampton and her young prodigy, Anita Webb, with Rita Dean (Lozells Harriers) making it an interesting three women grand final, but it was the more experienced Brenda who dominated this 3½ lap race (250 yards per lap) from start to finish with her powerful running, she won the race by about 8 yards from Anita Webb with Eita Dean some 25 yards back in third place, winning time an excellent 2 minutes 24.7 seconds.

½ lap race (250 yards per lap) from start to finish with her powerful running, she won the race by about 8 yards from Anita Webb with Eita Dean some 25 yards back in third place, winning time an excellent 2 minutes 24.7 seconds.

My 60 Yards Open Sprint Race

My one event ½ way through the evening's fixture list was the men's (A) 60 yards open sprint race and I just couldn't wait to get out on the track after watching with envy some sparkling performances out on the track this evening by my fellow athletes. I only hope my race will conjure up some excitement amongst the crowd, as I now step on the track to face my challenge against five other top class athletes, my warm up sessions went OK and felt ready to put my sprinting skills to the test again. The starter calls us up to take our positions on the starting line, a silence descends over the crowd as we then tentatively settle down into our starting blocks the hushed silence is broken by the sound of the starter's pistol erupting, we surge forward from our blocks, and with just one intake of breath the race is played out as I match the North of England runner, Ian Foster (Royston Harriers) stride for stride down the 60 yards straight with the chasing pack close to our heels, Ian and myself had got the race wrapped up as we cross the finishing line with only inches separating our surging bodies. Neither of us would claim a victory, so with baited breath we stood waiting for the track steward's verdict, and after a few minutes which seemed like an eternity, the booming voice of one of the officials read out the placing over the public loud speaker address system:- 1st Foster (Royston Harriers), 2nd Langford (Tipton Harriers), 3rd Trevor Nolan (Manchester A.C.) winning time 6.7 seconds, my time 6.8 seconds.

I was very disappointed at losing to my young rival, but it had been a rough ride for me over the past few weeks with my bad cold playing havoc with my preparation for this meeting and had to be proud of my meeting and had to be proud of my performance this evening.

Major Blunder By Track Officials

With over 24 events on tonight's athletic programme I can only skimp through just a few more of those races, and being a sprinter my main focus was of course centered on the 100 yards sprint events which always seem to thrown up some shock results, and intrigue and none more so than in the 1st of two (A) match 100 yards events, I which there was a sensational performance by the 19 years old Dave England (Midlands (A) Team) who was in devastating form, he blazed down the track to beat Danny Herman (Manchester Training College) and the immortal Peter Radford (Cardiff Training College) by a couple of yards in the stunning time for indoors, and on a concrete track of 9.8 seconds, surely a performance like that would go down as one of the best sprint races ever, at Cosford? But not so because within 5 minutes or so the runners in the second leg 100 yards match (A) race fled down the track and it was the Cardiff Training college athlete W Morris who stunned the crowd, with another winning time of 9.8 seconds from E Ryan (Manchester Training College) and J Deakin (Midlands) what was happening this was just fantastic indoor sprinting.

With the crowd and even the officials still buzzing with excitement over those races, it was the turn of the (B) match athletes to take up their positions on the 100 yards starting line, and to be honest no one really expected anything special from this 6 man line-up, but unbelievably R. Barry (Manchester University) came up trumps and jetted through the winning tape in yet another supersonic time of 9.8 seconds, what was going on at Cosford this evening? The answer was soon to be revealed.

With the crowd at almost fever pitch the ladies took to the track in the 100 yards open event and two main contenders for this race being the Australian international athlete Betty Moore (Salford Harriers) and Birchfield's Queen of the track Daphne Arden, these two ladies were in great for this evening, could we expect some brilliant times in this race, there was certainly an air of expectancy buzzing around the Arden and Betty Moore leading the charge down the track from their three opponents, but it was Daphne who crossed the finishing line first with a yard to spare over Betty Moore in a gallant third place was Carole Bailey (Salford Harriers) the shock wining time was a world class indoor time of 10.7 seconds, it was at this point in the evening's athletics when everything came to a full stop, when even the officials thought this race time of 10.7 seconds was too good to be true, which sent the R.A.F. promoters scurrying around to re-measure the supposedly 100 yards track, and low and behold to their utter dismay the track was only 94 yards long which accounted for all those fantastic 100 yards races being under the 10 seconds mark, I can now only surmise there must have been a few red faces amongst those official responsible for laying out that 100 yards track this evening, but on saying that it didn't take away the fact it had added a bit of extra spice to what had been a brilliant night of indoor athletics, I would go on and on but it's inheritable that some of my story will only finish up on the editing cutting room floor, so to wind up this particular story all that remains now is to report that the winners of the main athletic match was the Midlands (A) team with 84 points, runners up Manchester Training College 63 points, in third place the R.A.F. 33 points, trailing in last was Cardiff Training College with 29 points.

The (B) match won by Manchester University who topped the points poll with 95 points, with Birmingham University well behind with only 43 points, third and last was the dismal performance by the Midlands (B) team with 36 points.

Yours in sport

Roy Langford