When I joined Clayton in 1959 as a 16 year old boy I looked up to the Senior men, 4 of whom became my heroes. They were legends with unbelievable performances to their names. These men were Stan Bradshaw, George Brass, Alan Heaton and Alistair Patten. Sadly last Sunday, 21st November, Alistair died, the last of my heroes to leave us.
Alistair was the first British counter in the World Orienteering Championship in 1966. In 1968, along with 2 others, he planned and organised the first Two Day Two Man Mt. Marathon. Over the years I have run with him on many occasions in Club Runs and Cross Country races. In the 3 Peaks, along with Stan, George, Alan and myself he was one of the first people to receive the special award for having completed 21 races. In 1974, he and I together with John Haworth completed the Bob Graham Round and became Nos. 20, 21 and 22 in the BG Club.
Sad news that Colin Shone, associate Clem member since 1994 has died at the age of 89. Although Colin was not an active member he was a keen supporter of the club, acting as a race marshal many times, and supporting his wife Monica who ran for Clayton on the fells from 1986 until her death in 2017
Saturday 25 September would have been Ron Hill’s 83rd birthday. On that day, Clayton is having a social club run starting at 3.00pm from Park View WMC in Clayton, (off Sparth Road near Woodlands traffic lights) from where Ron would have run in the 50’s when he was first a Clayton member The emphasis then, of Clayton-le-Moors Harriers, was on club runs from WMC’s and Cross Country.
This will be a steady run for everyone as in the ‘olden days’, of 4.2 miles on trails and fields, devised by Peter Browning.
Come and join us and remember one of our most famous members. Please wear your club vest. There may be photographs, possibly press.
Many of you will know the sad news that Ron Hill has died, aged 82, a legend in running circles and our club. Ron was born in Accrington in 1938 and joined Clayton when a pupil at Accrington Grammar School in 1953. Then, Clayton was mainly a Fell and Cross Country club and after a few years, in 1960 he joined Bolton Harriers where the standard of Road running was much higher. His achievements and records are so many to list, but include World Records at 10 miles, 15 miles and 25km, Marathon wins at European Games, Boston and the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1972. On that day Jill and I were in the stands with Richard and Valerie Lawson cheering him into the stadium in first place wearing his string vest. He also won many road, track and cross country races at local and national level.
His famous ‘streak’ lasted from 1964 to 2017, when he ran every day for 19,032 days or 52 years 39 days before heart problems along with Lancashire common sense caused him to stop.
He re-joined Clayton in 1976 as 2nd claim and the club made him an Honorary member in 2003.
Just a few memories of my own. I first came across Ron in the early 1960’s in the last 200 yards of a S.E.L.C.C. League race in Bury. I was trying hard, with no-one in front when I heard footsteps rapidly catching me up . Next moment a voice said ‘I bet I frightened you then!’ I looked and there was Ron, laughing, having seen my Clayton vest in front. He was running as a guest and had not been allowed to start with us until 10 minutes later.
I have run with him in the De Vere Relays in Blackpool where we won the Vets. race. The photo is pinned up on my cork board! – also in the National Vets Relays in Birmingham. Another photo I have is to celebrate his having run 200,000 kilometres. We are standing on top of the Weets in a gale holding a banner saying ‘200,000K’ having run up as group from Rolls Royce. In December 2007 he celebrated his 150,000th mile by finishing in the centre circle in Accrington Stanley’s football stadium accompanied by a group of us. Wonderful memories, along with many other races where we bumped into each other. My son, a very occasional runner, remembers being chuffed to meet, and run in the same race as the legend when we parked next to him at Ilkley Trail Race.
His love of racing was such, that whilst many top class runners give up racing when they are no longer competitive, Ron continued running in races although much further down the field. I like to believe that not only I, but many other runners, appreciated his presence. His stated wish was that he would wear his Clayton vest in his coffin.
Ron, Running will be so much easier now that you are breathing the same air as angels.
The Funeral of Dr Ron Hill, MBE will be taking place on Friday 11th June.
The Cortege is to leave the family home at Gee Cross, Hyde at 3pm. Mourners are requested to remain on Main Road & Street. The Cortege will then travel past Hyde Town Hall and on to Dukinfield Town Hall for Tributes by Dignitaries. Then to Dukinfield Crematorium for the service at 4pm.
Only 20 People at the Service. Mourners again are requested to stay on Main Road.
Ron will wear a Clayton vest in his coffin – his wish.
A JustGiving page has been set up in Ron’s memory for anyone who would like to contribute – donations will go towards Dementia UK
It is with great sadness that we report the loss of Albert Walker, a long time member of the club.
Albert died on 19th May aged 91, one of our early members. Stan Bradshaw encouraged Albert to join the club and he won the first Pendle Fell Race from Roughlee.
His son Steve remembers being taken to many cross country events and fell races at weekends. Albert won many medals and trophies during his love of running.
Albert will be missed and our thoughts go out to his friends and family
In line with the latest guidelines published by EA, outlining that organised outdoor athletics and running can resume in a Covid-secure manner from the 29th March, Summer training will be back underway over the next few weeks!
The new training schedule will be kept up to date on the training page, so see there for details!
Update 28/02/2021
The newest guildlines have been published by EA, outlining that organised outdoor athletics and running can resume in a covid-secure manner from the 29th March. This is great news and we can’t wait to get training back underway!
We’re currently in the process of confirming what training will be offered from this date, so stay tuned for an update.
England Athletics have release new training guidance that will apply from Wednesday 2nd December 2020.
That means that we can get back to putting on some of the sessions we started up before the second lockdown! We’re still finalising the sessions that are going to be coming back and getting all the details together. Once we know, the training page will be updated. We’ll hopefully have all that info soon, but until then, the training organisers should be contacted to confirm attendance and location.
Following Mondays committee meeting we were all very minded to come up with a Championships for the club for this year as mass start/open racing resumes in the Summer.
However… race calendars are still quite empty for many reasons you can all work out for yourselves, suffice to say although we would very much like to put on a Championships right now, we have no idea what it will look like!
We will have the usual Road, Trail, Fell, XC Champs and Parkrun Cup but how many races over what, when and where is still unclear.
It is anticipated that nothing will start before the end of June anyway in line with ‘the rules’ but hopefully by early June we should have a sense of what a ‘June to December’ (later for XC ) Championships might look like. Details will be posted here and on Facebook when announced.
Clayton-Le-Moors Juniors will be even more visible in their training and competing in the dark winter months, thanks to a £2000 grant from The Postcode Community Trust, which is supported by players of The Peoples Postcode Lottery.
The grant which was put towards new waterproof clothing, Hi-Visibility Jackets, Body Torches and tracksuits will enable Clayton Juniors to train safely both on road and off road during the winter months. – The addition of the body torches means that the Juniors can still train in fields, trails and hills in the evening, which is vital for training for the X-Country Season.
Without this grant from #PostcodeLottery the group would have had to stick to lit paths and roads during the dark winter months.
The High Visibility Jackets add to the safety, with the Juniors and run leaders wearing them. The High-Vis Jackets are also worn by marshals at Clayton Juniors organised races, making it easier for anyone to identify a marshal or organiser.
Marion Wilkinson, Clayton Juniors Co-ordinator said “I am very grateful to The Peoples Postcode Lottery for this grant. Our Juniors work hard week in week out to train and compete at the highest level both locally and nationally. – Our role as coaches is to help and assist by providing interesting, stimulating and challenging training, so that every junior can grow and develop in their running, their team skills, and general well-being. The purchase of the kit will help enable that”.
