by Stan Eldon
The media as well were difficult to please, although they were coming round to giving the event the support it deserved. We always had a battle with the local papers because they both said that only one could be officially involved with the event. This remained a problem throughout the history of the event. These problems were sent to try us, and we sometimes wondered why we were doing it. It was certainly not for the money, as none of us were being paid in the early years. It was something that I think the Town Hall mandarins could not understand in their cosy little world of well-paid jobs.
The hot and cold attitude of the local council built up from the time we moved to Rivermead, and came to a head in 1994 after a couple of difficult years. First of all they started to charge for the use of the facilities there, and the cooperation was almost nonexistent. Then the police brought in charges for their services, based on the fact that if we were paying the council, we could pay them. There were other ways in which they did not cooperate with the event, that made the task of keeping it going even harder. This was not the fault of the staff of the council, as the individuals I had dealt with over the years had always been friendly and cooperative. The problem was the policy makers and senior management, who resented the success of an event they could have controlled from day one, but chose not to. First of all they started to charge for the use of the facilities and many of the small things that they did around the event. Prior to the 1994 event, I had a lot of problems with the police. Instead of dealing with someone of senior rank, like a superintendent or above, the race came under the control for policing purposes of an inspector, who turned out to be not very stable and totally inadequate. He did not understand, or did not want to understand the event, but I did try to work with him, and everything possible was done to meet their requirements. Reading Leisure Services promised to supply marshals from their Over 50 Club and to give us other help, but this help did not materialise, and it became obvious that this was all part of their plan to grab the event. As a result of a public appeal, we did man all the crucial points of the route. In fact their whole attitude was to be very unhelpful to an event that was well established and brought credit to the town.
In spite of all the problems and lack of cooperation the race went off well, and as in all the twelve races I controlled, there were no hazardous incidents. The race was held on a difficult date; just one week before London; which did effect the entry quite considerably. Both the running entry and the wheelchair entry were well down on normal, and the event had an air of a local run like that first event in 1983.
The winner was not local though. Andrew Leach, a thirty-year-old from Bingley Harriers in Yorkshire, headed the field of 2,500 runners to the finish. His winning time of 66:46 was the slowest to date for the race, but that still gave him a two minute plus lead over second placed runner, John Matthews (Bracknell AC), who was running on this occasion for the Imperial Cancer Charity Team. Bob Treadwell (Redhill and Surrey Beagles) was third in the race and first veteran, in 69:42, to repeat his category win of the previous year, with Ian Van Locken (Burnham Joggers) fourth in 71:22. The winner of the ladies’ race at last was Tanya Ball (London Olympiads AC) in 84:40. It was her fifth attempt at winning the race, after finishing in the frustrating position of fourth in her previous four runs.
In 1988 we had set up a Reading Half Marathon Supporters’ Club, and the members of this exclusive club had helped to keep the event alive by their annual subscriptions and support each year. I was sorry when this club had to disappear with the changeover in the management of the race.
Things really came to a head after this race, even though the race went off well as usual. There had been increasing problems with both the police and Reading Borough Council from when we moved to Rivermead Leisure Complex at Caversham in 1991. First of all the council started charging for parts of the administration around the event that they had previously covered as part of their sponsorship. These costs included those related to the road closures, cleaning up after the event, and a charge for the use of the leisure facility. Somehow the problems snowballed, as the police found out that the council were paying for nothing, they did not see why they should provide their services free of charge, so they passed on a charge to the event of several thousand pounds. I don’t think that I even realised then what dirty tricks were being played, and I had no idea what was to follow.
After the race it was agreed that we would have the usual ‘wash-up’ meeting, and I duly went along to the Civic Offices to the meeting. Normally these meetings would have representatives from the police, Reading Transport, St John Ambulance, Reading Leisure Services, the chief marshal and myself. I duly arrived at the Civic Offices at the appointed time, only to be kept waiting quite some time. I then went into the room where we were due to meet, only to find people there I did not expect to see, and what was worse, it was very obvious that a meeting had already taken place. It was equally obvious then, as now, that the two main people responsible had only been involved in the town for a very short time, and both left within a few months of this meeting. They were the Chief Executive and the Chief Superintendent of Police. In fact the police chief had his own problems with his officers, when some of them complained to the local paper about poor morale, and he did not last long in the town after that. At this stage it was clear that the Reading Borough Council were going to get more involved with the event, and not necessarily to the advantage of the event. In the room was Roy Brown who ran the Reading Leisure Services, and the meeting concluded that I should talk to him about the future. I could still be involved and I could sort the details of how it was to work with him.
Over the next few months there were to be a lot of meetings between him and myself. The negotiations went well initially, and we had talks about a joint venture where I would carry out some of the work on the event for a set fee. Part of our negotiations were around the overdraft of the event, which I had guaranteed for around £15,000. I gave permission for Brown to speak to Barclays Bank, but instead of doing any good it actually made things worse. While these discussions were going on, I agreed to let him have a list of the previous year’s runners for a sum of £1,000. Promises were made by him but were not kept, and in the end I lost control of the event, and was left with a direct debt of around £18,000, and an indirect linked debt of around twice that amount. The loss of the event in this way cost me around £40,000; some of which was paid out by me over a period, and a sum of £18,000 that I had to pay Barclays Bank to clear my guarantee on the sale of my home in Caversham in 1998. The loss of this total sum was more than any money I had received for the administration of the event by me and my staff over the twelve years.
No satisfactory announcement was ever made about the change, and to this day I know that a lot of people think I still have a connection with the event that I set up and ran for twelve years, but my only connection in recent years has been as a columnist for the Reading Evening Post and writing for and about the event. The only money ever received from Reading Borough Council was that £1,000 for a list of runners which they could target for 1995, when Yellow Pages had been taken on as sponsor of the event. Something I have never understood till this day is, why they, Yellow Pages, could not have been part of the event in the really good days. The unsatisfactory situation was never resolved, they stole the event and left me with the bill. I was entitled to Legal Aid, and I tried to get some legal support and did spend money on legal advice as well, but it was all to no avail. Legal Aid would not touch the case, because they thought the chances of winning a case against a large council was not good, even though it was accepted there was a case. In fact on one occasion a prominent local councillor was heard to remark that they did not care what action I took, no one could win against them. I learned just how hard it is to get help and support when you hit hard times. Even my own solicitors, although sympathetic, would not help to pursue the matter, because they also had Barclays Bank as their clients.
; Within months of the chief superintendent disappearing from the scene, the Chief Executive of Reading Borough left for pastures new. This left just Roy Brown from that stitch-up squad, but in 1999 he finally disappeared from the ‘Reading Mafia’ as well. I think he was the unfortunate who was left to do the dirty work of the council.
Since the council took over the event, no accounts have ever been published and no one knows where the money goes, or how much the sponsors put into the race. With income each year of up to £80,000, without the sponsorship, there are some questions to be asked about the current structure of the event. The total income, with free services provided by support sponsors, must now be well in excess of £120,000. The costs of staging the event should not be any more than half that, as they still do not pay many of the volunteer helpers, and the prize money at the event has not increased. So where does the rest go? I believe that the sponsors share the responsibility for this, as they do not declare what resources they actually contribute to the event. They are not the same quality sponsors as Digital were in the first six years. They were very straightforward sponsors, and there was a very good working relationship with all levels of management in that company, and they worked hard with the organisers to build the foundations for the great success it was to become.
Chapter Eighteen: A Fresh Start
After a very difficult year following the 1994 Half Marathon, I started to rebuild my life and interests, and in March 1995 I took on a role with SportsAid Foundation (Southern) in Reading. I had carried out a little work for them before when I organised the Reading part of the National Children’s Fun Runs.
The Reading Half Marathon of 1995 was the first time that I had not been involved with the event. It was difficult in one way, as for twelve years the race had been my life and I had taken it from nowhere to a major event over that period. In another way I suppose it was a relief not to have all the worries of organising a major event, especially as it was with a hostile Borough Council.
The first three places went to runners from East Africa, who running as team Damji were on a three-month tour of Europe. The winner from Tanzania was a seventeen-year-old civil servant Baha Tulumbo, who won quite comfortably in a comparatively slow time of 64:49, from Robert Naali in 65:56, and Paul Sigei in 65:59. In the slower run race it gave many local runners the chance to make high finishing positions, and these were led home by Howard Grubb (Reading Roadrunners) in eighth place with 69:24, which was just one second ahead of Bracknell runner Paul Daly in ninth place with 69:25. Andy Neatham, a Reading AC runner, better known as a 1,500 metre man, was eleventh in 71:31, and Chris Mason (Reading Roadrunners) also made it in the top twenty, with eighteenth place and 74:09. The veteran prize for the forty to forty-nine year age group went to Robert Treadwell (Redhill Surrey Beagles), for the third successive year, who finished tenth in 70:39. The wheelchair race provided another spectacular time, when Chris Madden set new figures of 56:06. It was a good year for the green vests of Reading Roadrunners, as they collected team trophies for both the men and women.
The fourteenth Half Marathon was run on Sunday, 31st March 1996. There was only a modest entry that produced just 2,528 finishers. On this occasion it was good to see a victory for a British athlete over two Kenyans. The winner was Garry Staines (Belgrave Harriers) in 63:31, and he had two minutes to spare over the two Kenyans, Yatich and Kipchumba, who both finished in 65:38. Several of the top awards went to local clubs, including the first vet over forty, Dave Lancaster (Reading AC), with 74:01. In the ladies’ race, Caroline Horne (Crawley) received the trophy as first lady with 79:08, and second place went to Lesley Whiley (Reading Roadrunners) with 80:53. The first vet male fifty/fifty-four went to J. Sheridan (London Irish) with 74:42, and the next age group, fifty-five/fifty-nine, was another local win with Brian Fozard (Reading AC), the headmaster of a local special school, who recorded 84:37. The winner of the over sixty was Alf Toomer (Vets AC), a sports shop owner from Southampton, with 88:41; and the over sixty-five went to Paddy Phillips (Reading Roadrunners), with a time of 108:30. The first two in the ladies’ race were also the first two vets thirty-five plus to finish, and the other category winners were forty plus, Sue Ogilvy with 86:50, forty-five/forty-nine, D. Phillips (Angels RC) 93:39; fifty/fifty-four, Diane Stares (Reading Roadrunners) 99:14; fifty-five/fifty-nine, Pat Bonner (Finch Coasters) 109:47, and sixty plus, Christine Usher (Reading Roadrunners) 99:02.
In the team competitions local teams were dominant, with Reading AC winning the male team event with just thirty-five points for the first time since their back-to-back wins in the first two years - (Tom Munt tenth, Andy Neatham twelfth and Dave Lancaster thirteenth). Reading Roadrunners were the runners-up with sixty-five points and they also provided the third, fifth, sixth and seventh teams. The veteran male team winners were Reading Roadrunners with 307 points, and the same club won the female team award with just eight points (Whiley, Hartney and Bowker). The outstanding feature of the women’s race was that all six finishing teams were from the same club, Reading Roadrunners. The company team male went to Royal Mail, that was made up of their employees who were also members of the ‘Green Vests’ of Reading Roadrunners. The race was also used by the police as their Half Marathon Championship, and the winners were Sussex Police AC.
With all the technical support the race now had, it still had difficulty in producing the results for the presentations; a problem that persisted for several years, until they decided not to try and produce all the category winners immediately after the race.
The Reading Half Marathon 1997 moved a little earlier in the year, and this did produce a better entry with just over 3,600 finishers. There were no African runners in the men’s race this year, and the winner in a comparatively slow time for the event of 64:50 was Spencer Duval (Cannock and Staffs AC). He was chased home by two Blackheath Harriers, Mark Steinle 64:55 and William Foster 64:58. The only Kenyan in the race, Lucia Subano, won the women’s race in 75:44. Chris Madden took the wheelchair race with 58:13, which made up for his disappointment in 1996 when he had a puncture. I decided to run the race for the first time as I was nearly sixty-one years old, and I managed to finish in an official time of 1:57.58. My real time was a couple of minutes faster, but that did not matter, I had run the event that I started and it was very satisfying. I had run the full course several times in early years to check it out for problems from the runners’ point of view.
In April I ran the London Marathon for the second time; this time wearing the SportsAid vest and raising money for that organisation. On this occasion I had the advantage of starting from the special start with the older runners, as I was over sixty years of age. This was a lot easier than the mass start, as there were a lot less runners to battle against, at least until the three various start groups merged after three miles. I knew I had not done enough training, but I had prepared with my limited time available and I did survive, although I was suffering towards the end, and finished in just about four hours thirty minutes, after reaching halfway in just under two hours. I vowed I would not put myself through it again, and to date I have not done so, but there might still be time. It is a marvellous event to take part in, and wherever or whenever you finish there is a feeling of satisfaction.
At the same time as I started with SportsAid in 1995, I also started writing a column for the Reading Evening Post, and this took me back to my early days as an athlete, when I used to write that column for the Reading Standard at £3 a time and that free portable typewriter. In the early years of the Half Marathon I also had a column in the weekly Reading Chronicle. I have always enjoyed putting words on paper, and I suppose this is why I have put this book together in my latter years.
I did work for a number of years, both in a voluntary and professional capacity for Disability Sport. I still think that working with disabled people in sport is very worthwhile, and I have not been able to completely let go of my involvement with them. I enjoyed organising the L
ondon Wheelchair Marathon in the early 1990s, even though it was not easy having to fight with Chris Brasher over certain aspects of the event. The most publicised battle was in 1992, when there was an attempt to put restrictions on the racers in wheelchairs. There was always a limit on slower competitors taking part, because it was thought that they could interfere with the runners in the latter stages of the race, but in this particular year there was an attempt to introduce a time limit the other way. Because the wheelchair athletes were getting very much faster (the world best was down to under 1:30), there was a fear that anyone getting round in under 1:45 would cause serious problems at places like the Tower of London. We were therefore given instructions that all wheelchair athletes should finish between three hours and 1:45, with a threat that anyone going faster could be pulled out! Imagine saying this to the leading runners in the race. I was furious at this crazy suggestion, and there was a lot of media coverage surrounding this dispute. I think I won that battle, but it did not matter anyway as there was no way the top wheelchair athletes were going to go that fast on the twisting, fairly difficult, London course with the Tower of London cobbles. In the end the restriction was lifted, although I have a feeling that even as late as 2001, there may still be attempts to restrict wheelchairs in some way.
I enjoyed fund raising for BSAD, and I liked attending their various sports events. I met a lot of interesting people, including the late Denis Howell (Lord Howell) the former Minister of Sport at an athletic meeting in Birmingham. He was a great man, dedicated to sport in general, and we had something in common; we were both diabetic. Sadly I only met him on this one occasion, because he was a fascinating man to talk to and his knowledge on sport was unsurpassed. On the same day I hosted the then Heritage Minister Chris Smith, but they conveniently did not meet, as I understood Denis Howell did not have much sympathy for New Labour and wanted to be away from the stadium before the minister arrived.
