Life on the Run

by Stan Eldon

  Camping became an important part of my life for the next few years. There was very good camp site in Windsor Great Park, Bears Rail, and many weekends in the summer we would pull our heavily-laden cart, loaded with tents and equipment, from Windsor to Old Windsor and camp for the weekend; a distance of at least three miles. I was lucky to get the opportunity to go to camps further afield with the other scout troops in the town. One of these was to Porlock in Somerset, where we used to go into Minehead and where we could buy baked beans on toast for about a shilling (5p). After camp food it always tasted so good, and I suppose that is why I still enjoy beans on toast today. Another camp took me across the water for the first time to the Isle of Wight.

  Between scout camps, there were occasional trips to the coast as choir outings, and as mentioned before, I had a great liking for ice cream, probably due to being deprived of it during the war, and the Lyons Corner House knickerbocker glories. Our trips were usually to Brighton or Southend, and I remember on one such trip eating something like thirty ices of various sorts during the one day. Maybe this contributed to my health problem later in life.

  In about 1950, the magic of electricity came to our road and we had electric light for the first time, but the tin bath in the kitchen continued for the rest of my time at home.

  I had a very happy childhood, even though we had very few comforts and six of my formative years were in the war. There was no bathroom, an outside loo, no electricity, no central heating and no washing machine or fridge; and a family income of just about £5. My parents must have done a great job of bringing up the family with so little money, because we always had enough to eat and had great Christmases. Our pillowcases that we used to hang up, were always full to overflowing with regular presents, like a toy post office, sweet shop, toys and a stocking filled with whatever small items were available; later fruit and chocolate, but not much of that during the war, unless my half-brother Leslie, who was in the Army, had brought some home. Even our holidays to Tisbury continued throughout the war.

  Christmas was always magic, and when I had my own family, we managed to keep the magic alive for our own children. They would go to bed on Christmas Eve and nothing would be done; there would be no tree, no decorations nor any other sign of Christmas. When they were all asleep, the work would start to transform the house, so that when they woke up, very early next morning, everything was there and ready for them. Frequently we would only get to bed about an hour or two before they were rising. Normally the first thing we did on Christmas morning was to go to church, and then the presents would be distributed on our return.

  By the time I was twelve years old, I was delivering groceries for a long-established family grocer in Windsor; Trudgeons. I remember my rate of pay, which was one shilling and three pence (6p) per hour, and I earned ten shillings (50p) a week for an hour after school on four days and four hours on Saturday morning.

  My main task was riding one of several ancient delivery bikes, which either had two wheels the same size, or one that had the small wheel at the front so that it could have an even bigger load. Whichever bicycle I was on, I was always carrying the maximum load, delivering mainly to the large houses in the better areas of Windsor. Although I say it myself, I was good at the job and never fell off or lost my loads, and worked faster than other delivery boys who came and went, while I soldiered on for the whole time I was at school.

  The only problem that my employer had with me, was that I did enjoy the biscuits, that in those days were weighed and put into open bags. Frequently the bag would be short of biscuits by the time I got them to their destination. The strange thing was, I never got told off about this, and I think the manager used to overweigh the biscuits in the first place to allow for those that he knew would disappear. I cannot have been too bad at the job as I collected many tips at Christmas, most of them around two shillings and sixpence, or the equivalent of two hours’ work.

  As well as the deliveries, I did carry out other work, including the weighing out of dried fruit (which I often sampled) and sugar. I also worked in the cellar of the shop, scraping the wax from the rind of the cheese and repairing the damage mice made to the cheese to make it presentable to the customers.

  There was a row of glass-top biscuit tins in front of the counter, so that customers could select what biscuits they liked.

  The owner of the shop was a dapper little man with a stiff winged collar, and he and his wife used to trust me with taking the money to the bank. I well remember those big white £5 notes, but I did deliver them all to the bank and did not do what I did with those biscuits. It was an interesting time and I think it probably helped to shape my future in retail trade.

  In those early days in Windsor, I had my only short-lived interest in playing football and ran my own team. I got all the lads in the street together, and we went off to play against other similar teams in the area where I lived. Although we only had small back yards, we never played in the street and always went off to find a field or recreation ground for our games.

  I enjoyed cycling and bought my first bike from the money I got for my grocery round. Sometimes alone, and sometimes with a friend from the scouts, I would cycle quite long distances. On one occasion with this friend, we cycled to Southampton and back; a total distance of over 100 miles in a day to see an aunt of mine. My lone trips took me to see other relatives in Wiltshire; about eighty-four miles away. Most of these trips were when I was twelve to thirteen years old; before I really got the running bug.

  I was good at saving my money from my grocer’s round, and when I wanted to buy my first running spikes, I went off to the Eton College sports shop. This was a shop that specialised in supplying the Eton boys with their sports clothing and equipment, so it was all top of the range kit. The sports at the college were always held before Easter, and as soon as they were over, boys would sell back to the shop those very expensive spikes bought for them by their wealthy fathers. They had probably only run one or two races in them, and so the shoes were virtually new but secondhand. I bought a pair of G. T. Laws handmade white snakeskin shoes for £3, and they remained my treasured possession for some years.

  I also saved up and paid for a ski trip out of my earnings, and we were due to travel out on a Christmas Eve, but at the very last minute it was cancelled, due I believe to lack of numbers after some of my school mates pulled out. I was very disappointed but I did get my money back.

  Chapter Two: The Start of Running

  My athletic career started in 1948 when I was twelve years old. I saw part of the Olympic cycle race held in the area of Windsor Great Park, and then I remember going to the Playhouse Cinema in Windsor with my school to see the film of the 1948 Wembley Olympics.

  I saw the marathon on the film, and at that ripe old age of twelve years I made up my mind that was what I wanted to do. Little did I know that someone in that film was to play a part in my future athletic career; Stan Jones, who finished seventeenth in that Olympic Marathon, helped me considerably in later years. It was the end of 1948 and I started running.

  My first race was a Windsor Scouts Cross-Country in the early part of 1949, which I won. At school I was playing for the Colts Under 15 rugby team, but at every opportunity I was running. My games master ‘Chick’ Evans, was fairly quick to recognise that I was a better athlete than rugby player, and gradually I got more and more into athletics.

  For a while I did follow my father and did some boxing at school. I only ever had one official fight, and that was very early on at school in an inter-house competition, which I did win quite easily. Official boxing contests were banned at school not long after this, but we had many unofficial fights in the school gym at lunch time with the supervision of a games master. I always matched up with the two biggest boys in my years because those of my size and weight were not much competition.

  One of the big events at school was the annual cross-country race; an inte
r-house competition that scored points towards the overall competition between the houses, that were named after four boys who lost their lives in the First World War. My housemaster wanted me to run for the house, but no boy under fifteen had ever been allowed to run.

  Appeals were made to the games master and eventually to the headmaster, and finally they decided that it would not hurt this thirteen-year-old boy to run three miles. I ran on Windsor racecourse alongside the river. I was running against boys from fifteen to eighteen years of age. I did not win but came third, only being beaten by two boys around four years older than myself, and it was well received by my housemaster and my house ‘Burnett’.

  The following year, although still ‘under age’, I ran away with the annual race and did so for the rest of my time at school.

  My early track successes came in 1950, when I won eight athletic events in the District Scout Sports. In 1950, I progressed through to the District School Sports and won the 880 yards in a new record time of 2:26.2.

  The following year 1951, I started to train with a purpose, and kept records of my training and races. I was only fourteen years old, but I ran against seniors in most club races and generally finished in the first three places. I was running 3.5 miles in about 19 minutes and up 4.75 miles in about 29 minutes. In March I won a schools cross-country race at Maidenhead, and recorded 13 minutes for the 2.5 miles, which was 51 seconds in front of the second boy.

  Shortly after this it was the annual school race again, and this time there were no arguments about me running, even though I was ‘still under age’. I won the 3.5 mile race in 19:18, which was 90 seconds faster than my nearest rival. I won the club road championship on 7th April with 12 minutes 40 seconds for the 2.3 miles. A win in the school sports 880 yards came next on 28th April; the winning time was 2:17, and then in May I won the District race in the same time, before moving on to the South East Berkshire 880 yards, which was won in the slower time of 2:22.8. It was slow, but was still a record for the under 15 age group.

  The Berkshire race was next, and I reduced my record of the previous year to 2:13.1, and went to Southampton for the All England Schools, representing Berkshire. I won my heat quite easily in 2:8.4, and went into the final next day very confident. I will always remember the superb grass track at Southampton and that race for two reasons. The first being that I realised how good runners were when you competed nationally, and I remembered the race because of what happened as we all fought for positions around the last bend. A shot-putter dropped the shot on his foot and fell onto the track, blocking the two inside lanes, and some of us saw the obstruction and others did not, and I got knocked to the outside lane. I could only finish seventh out of a field of nine in the much slower time of 2:12 against the winner’s 2:6.9. A time which I knew I could match. In my very next race, an 880 yards, running for Eton AC against Reading, I ran 2:8, in second place.

  I carried on with playing rugby until 1951, and I think it was that year when I went over the handlebars of my bike outside Windsor Police Station on my way to the grocers for my Saturday morning work. They had just freshly gravelled the road and I think I picked up most of it in my lips. I went to work and did my Saturday morning, before going off to school in the afternoon to play rugby. I did not play, as my headmaster saw me and the state of my face, and refused to let me play; probably just as well.

  In March 1952, I was invited to represent Berkshire in a special Olympic Fund Raising event; an indoor athletic meeting at Haringey Arena. This was my once only run indoors in my whole running career. The event I was running in was the 600 yards, and it was not easy. The track was flat with very small laps and no banking as they have today. I started on the outside virtually off the proper track, and could not get into the lead as I liked to in the first fifty yards. I had quite a good run though and enjoyed the experience. I remember the occasion, as on the same programme, were the big names of athletics in this country at the time, Arthur Wint and E. McDonald Bailey.

  I won the Berkshire Schools 15 to 17 years age group 880 yards in 2:1.6, and went to Bradford for the All England Schools again. It was a very windy day for the heats, and running from the front, I paid the price not for the last time in my career, and just failed to qualify for the final.

  Training in those early days consisted mainly of long steady runs; my favourite run was up the Long Walk in Windsor Great Park to the famous Copper Horse and then back again. Depending on where I started from, home or school, the return run was about six miles. I did a little training on the track, and when I was included in the Berkshire team for the All England, I had to travel to Reading by train and trolleybus to be coached at Palmer Park, Reading. The coaching here for the 880 yard runners was by Mike Dunhill, a runner from Oxford City AC. The school paid for my travel, which was just about four shillings (20p) for the train fare.

  In 1949, I had joined the then Eton AC (now Windsor, Slough and Eton), where we trained and raced on a recreation ground grass track, and the cross-country races were run along the Thames on the north side of the river. I remember athletics was real fun in those days; I enjoyed racing and I enjoyed training.

  The club was a very compact, small family, with the majority of members coming from two families; the Robsons and the Smiths. It also had a great secretary who became my mentor and guiding light, Len Runyard.

  The changing accommodation for cross-country was the British Restaurant in Eton High Street. In those days there were no showers, just a tin bath of normally cold water, unless someone poured in a jug of hot water. There was also a big advantage in being back first, as the water would still be reasonably clean. After a few very muddy runners had been through, you were more likely to come out dirtier than when you went in. This primitive washing facility was commonplace at all cross-country venues, including major championships like the Southern Counties and National races at Parliament Hill in London and elsewhere.

  Although the club track was marked out on the recreation ground at Eton, there was a cinder track at nearby Eton College, that was very little used and was frequently covered in weeds. I did occasionally go there for some training on my own. The site of this track is where the new Thames Valley Athletics Centre, the home of Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow AC is now situated. The new facilities are certainly one hundred per cent better than the old.

  While at school, I took part in various sporting activities including athletics, hockey, boxing and rugby. We had a strong ‘house’ structure and there was tough competition between the houses on a whole range of activities, including music and drama, as well as sport.

  I played my part and took part in the solo singing competition. I chose quite a tough piece for this solo effort; the largo from Handel’s Xerces. It was a very difficult piece and had been selected by the organist and choirmistress, who must have thought I could do it justice. I practised quite hard, singing it from the organ loft at All Saints’ Church, where I was still in the choir. I did not win but did get some points for my house, Burnett, by coming third.

  We had some interesting teachers at the Windsor County Boys’ School. There was just one lady teacher and she taught Latin, but it was reputed that she was well equipped to teach a few non-academic things as well; although I was not privileged to the special tuition and was only in her Latin class for one year. One of the masters had a reputation that went before him, and I remember stories from my brother about his behaviour in class. He was a great Maths master, but was a very strict disciplinarian, and had bouts of violent behaviour, supposedly breaking the arm of one boy, before my day. He did frequently throw the wooden-based blackboard wiper with extreme venom and accuracy at anyone who stepped out of line. Needless to say his reputation was enough to keep order, and every class of boys that ever came in contact with him behaved impeccably. I never had any trouble with him, but then Maths was my favourite and best subject.

  There were some great teachers and cha
racters at school. The Chemistry master was a very strong man and reputed to be an ex-wrestler. He could pick at least two boys, whatever their size, up at a time; one in each hand like weights, and if need be, literally bang heads together. I kept on the right side of him as I delivered his groceries, and his wife was always very generous with her tip at Christmas. The Physics master later became Mayor of Windsor, and in 1958 presented me with an Illuminated Address from the Royal Borough for my contribution to English Sport. My housemaster, who was also my History master and one time form master, wrote a special book on the history of Windsor later in his life, and I featured in his special book where I appeared in the index between the King Edwards and Queen Eleanor.

  I wonder how some of these very dedicated and splendid teachers would have dealt with teaching today, in a world of over protection, lack of discipline, liberalization and legal redress for the slightest assault, real or otherwise, on a pupil?

  Football with a round ball was banned at school, and no one was supposed to play soccer for a team in their own time. It came as a bit of a shock to Mr Fairhurst, the headmaster, when on one occasion boys from the Grammar School made up all but one of the schoolboy football team for the town of Windsor. To make matters worse for him, one senior prefect, who was also a very good rugby player, broke his arm playing in goal with this soccer team. The rule about playing this nasty game with a round ball outside of school, was then reinforced. Maybe some of this rubbed off on me, as I have never been able to get very passionate about the game either.

  The highlight of 1951 was going on the school trip by train to Waterloo from Windsor, and a day at the Festival of Britain. Although we did not meet then, and unknown to me, my wife Marion was on the train with the girls from Windsor Girls’ School, but of course boys and girls were segregated. Our only contact was by waving our trousers out of the carriage window!