Roy Langford - Article No.42 (09/03/2015)

When I signed off my last story about winning the Pontypool Perpetual Shield in deepest Wales on that warm summer’s Saturday afternoon of the 14th July 1962, I didn’t mention the drama behind the scenes as I limped with my hamstring muscle injury through the last winning 220 yards leg of that Mile Medley Relay Race. Well it seemed that John Brimble was so chuffed about passing on the relay baton to me with that overwhelming 6 yard lead, that in his euphoria of jumping up and down in the air, like a mad man, shouting and willing me home to our great relay victory, he inadvertently landed awkwardly and injured his left groin muscle, the outcome was that neither of us on that perfect day for sprinters knew those leg injuries would be so debilitating to end this chapter of our 1962 outdoor track season. John and myself cursed our bad luck, and I’m sure our sprinting input at the club would be sorely missed over the coming weeks, but life still goes on at the club, no athlete is bigger than Tipton Harriers even though the great Jack Holden came close to that title.

With John and myself on the sidelines it was up to our training mate Andy Fereday to keep the momentum going for the Flying Tipton Trio, but on saying that even during that 1962 track season we knew his training direction under his coach Stuart Williams, was in his own interests being coaxed away from sprinting i.e. 100 yards and 220 yards races to pursue this talent for middle distance running which was the club’s policy and to be honest our spring training wasn’t anywhere near compatible with the tough methods needed for top class middle distance running which was becoming Andy’s real forte, having over the past few weeks won the coveted Worcestershire County Junior 880 yards title, and some 2nd in the Midland Junior 880 yards championships, which in turn had qualified him for the honour of competing in the A.A.A. (Amateur Athletic Association) Junior Championships at the Welwyn Gosling Stadium, Stanborough Lane, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, North London, competing there in the 880 yards event on the 11th August 1962 would be a big leap forward in his athletic career.

A.A.A. Junior Championship 11th August 1962 at Welwyn Gosling Stadium, Stanborough Lane, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire

Early on that auspicious day of 11th August 1962, Andy would have been eager to start out on his bus and train journey to Welwyn Gosling Stadium, with a couple of pals in tow, namely John Brimble and another great athletic friend of ours Allan Rushmer who ran for Oldbury A.C. who was competing in the only metric event of those A.A.A. Junior Championships the 1500 metres Steeplechase.

I didn’t make the trip preferring to earn an honest crust at my place of employment at the Burnt Tree Work of Ewarts Ltd, Dudley on that Saturday morning, but one other keep member of Tipton Harriers making the journey there that day was our coach Stuart Williams, Andy’s mentor. Stuart’s form of transport was his trusty motor scooter, a brave man indeed for such a long journey, because he had to battle through some atrocious weather conditions of up to gale force winds which prevailed across certain parts of the country that day, which wrought havoc on a general standard of performances at these A.A.A.Championships.

I would like to go into all the meaningful results of this meeting, but I must keep my remarks at a minimum by just confining my story to how Allan and Andy fared from my research notes. Well true to form Andy reached the 10 man final of his 880 yards event in style, having recorded 1 minute 58.5 seconds in his heat race.

In the red hot 880 yards Final he was up against some great junior athletes such as Roger Dollimore of South London Harriers and a Scottish lad named Hugh Barrow (Victoria Park Harriers) those two exceptional talented athletes dominated Andy’s race with Dollimore having the edge, with an opening lap time of 56.4 seconds, and on the second lap managed to hold on to his lead to gain a narrow 2 yard victory over Hugh Barrow in 1 minute 56 seconds. Andy was way off this pace down in 9th place some 40 yards behind the winner, a competent performance for his first attempt at these championships, as for Allen Rushmer he showed some real class, but was up against a top seasoned performer over the steeplechase course named Fred Stebbings of Croydon A.C. who broke the A.A.A. Junior 1500 metres steeplechase record despite the breezy weather conditions with a time of 4 minutes 15.2 seconds, Allan Rushmer finished a gallant third in 4 minutes 20.9 seconds.

A Personal Tribute to My Dad (Benny the Boxer)

While haloed in an highly nostalgic writing mode I couldn’t let this part of my life during 1962 pass by without paying some kind of tribute to my father Benjamin John Langford alias Benny Plant the boxer, whose colourful boxing career heyday was between 1928 and 1934 and the sad news that my dad passed way on Wednesday 26th September 1962 aged 51 at this home in Saxmundham, Suffolk, from a heart problem he had suffered with for many years.

It’s still with proud respect I call him dad, even though I didn’t really know him very well, because I was only knee high to a grasshopper when Second World War broke out and our dad was torn away from his small family unit of our mother (Ellen) and sister Doreen and younger brother Raymond and myself and conscripted into the army aged 29 just before Christmas 1940 to this training base at Kinross in the Scottish Highlands.

This frightening period of history put each and everyone’s life on hold, not knowing where the next batch of German bombs may fall, many lives where indeed lost and changed during that war period from 1939 to 1945 and I’m happy to report our family did survive the war unscathed, only for our parent’s marriage to break up with our father making a new life for himself in far away Saxmundham in Suffolk and later on remarried a lady named Mabel Dalby and they in turn had two children Dorothy and Patricia. My contact with my dad ended at the end of the war period, which is now 17 long years ago, so when I was told the shock news of his untimely death by my grandmother (Susan Woodall) with whom I had lived with from the age of 7 or so, my feelings were nonplussed for a father I had almost forgotten and some how it never entered my misguided head to travel to Saxmundham with the large contingent of family mourners to his funeral that following week, and I must now state has been to my profound regret ever since that I didn’t attend his funeral, because in a letter I received from my sister Doreen a few days after dad’s funeral she went into great detail to tell me how proud she had been to attend our dad’s funeral, and from all accounts it seems that most of the townspeople of the village turned up to pay their last respects to our dad, and added she was upset I hadn’t attended his funeral because the church of St John the Baptist’s was full to the rafters from where our dad had been a regular church goer for many years, my sister also told me dad was a youth leader and even with that dicky heart of his ran a very successful Boxing club from the confines of the church hall, his Christian faith it seems had no bounds and was a prominent figure in church maters i.e. a sideman (officer who assists the churchwarden) and a church councillor and he even found time to serve on the local council of Saxmundham, and in my dear sister’s own words ‘our father was indeed someone to be proud of’ and hadn’t he done well for himself along the way, to earn the respect of the Suffolk people so very far away from his beloved Black Country Dudley roots.

I finish this tribute to our dad with ‘I wish to god I had really got to know him, but that’s life and we can do nothing to change the past, because after all we only have one shot at life and he lived his life to the full in his own way.’

Tipton Harriers Win Hereford 4 x 2¾ mile Relay Race

On the Saturday morning of 29th September 1962 following my dad’s untimely death, a coach load of carefree athletes, supporters, wives, and club officials made the pleasant journey out into the Welsh countryside to compete in the sponsored meeting of the 4 x 2¾ miles Hereford Road Relay Race, this event was always a priority date of the Harriers calendar list, having already won this event last year in great style and Tipton were expecting more of the same this year by entering two top class teams for this event with the ‘A’ team being Fred Rohleder, Geoff Wood, Doug Fownes and evergreen Ron Franklin, the ‘B’ team was Bert Harbach, Tony Thoneycroft, Tony Burkitt and Robert Bratt, plenty of strong determined personalities in the line up for both teams, in which must have been like a sprint race over this 2¾ mile course for these experienced long distance road runners.

In all 28 teams took part in this relay race, which included noted teams such as Birchfield Harriers, Hereford A.C., Worcester A.C. Newport Harriers etc one bug bear as always was the changing room accommodation for such events, when not enough room at the sponsoring club house, but where there’s a will there’s a way, because this is where the local schools or church halls in that close vicinity were always willing to lend a hand to accommodate the flurry of competing athletes.

Race Gets Underway

With all the stewards in place around the 2¾ mile course, the race was started at roughly about 2 pm, and the excitement prevailed from the first lap with only 5 seconds separating the first four runners with our star performer Fred Rohleder putting Tipton into a precarious lead just ahead of Ken Flowers of Hereford A.C. with Mick Rowland (Newport Harriers) and Bert Harbach (Tipton’s ‘B’ team) in close third and fourth position. On the second lap our Tipton lads took control of the race through Geoff Wood ‘A’ team with a lap time of 13 minutes 03 seconds with Dick Cooper putting the Worcester team into second place, our ‘B’ team runner Tony Thoneycroft was down in fourth place. On the third lap your Doug Fownes (Tipton ‘A’ team) shone like a beacon around the Welsh countryside to record a lap time of 13 minutes 12 seconds to take his ‘A’ team well clear, but the exciting tussle for the minor places was hotting up when our ‘B’ team runner Tony Birkett took them into second place with Derek Davies of Hereford hanging on for third place. On the fourth and last lap it was our ‘A’ team runner Ron Franklin who was giving the tantalising task of maintaining Tipton’s narrow lead, but there was no runner more befitting to take up that challenge, and even though Paddy Killen of Birchfield Harriers was hot on his heels over that 2¾ mile last lap Ron didn’t waver leading the ‘A’ team to a rousing victory from Birchfield Harriers, Robert Bratt completed a great afternoon for Tipton by guiding his ‘B’ team mates home into third place, just out of interest the winning Tipton ‘A’ team of Fred Rohleder, Geoff Wood, Doug Fownes and Ron Franklin ran the 4 x 2¾ mile relay race in 52 minutes 25 seconds.

What an outstanding day for Tipton Harriers, with our successful praiseworthy road runners enjoying the trip back home to Tipton with their grand haul of prizes, lets just hope this run of success will continue over the coming weeks and months of the year 1962.

Yours in Sport
Roy Langford, Tividale