exclusive road and track winners club. 5 Centurions joined the hat-trick club, 4 of them doing it in successive years, 1951, 52 & 53, the fifth being George Hall C107, who first qualified in 1936. One walker who had something to celebrate was Bill Falconer of Wibsey Park Harriers, he qualified on his 58th birthday. Another new feature of this race was an inter-club team competition which was won by Royal Sutton Coldfield with G. Hall, E.M. Wilde and P.G. Mallins. The race itself had two small problems. Firstly it had been established months before the start that it would be an exact 100 miles, but at the last moment the start had been set back some considerable distance and this, with many detours included, increased the total distance to 103 miles. Secondly, and perhaps more important, was the safety aspect. The road, with its constant stream of all night lorry traffic, was much too busy and dangerous for such an event and many competitors stumbled over the kerb on numerous occasions faced, as they were, with the glare of oncoming traffic. As a result of the problems encountered in the Birmingham race, it was decided that finishing in London might be too dangerous, therefore in 1954 the race went north. The route chosen and organised by the Northern Area R.W.A. was well known to distance men. The course was the Manchester to Blackpool, but started in the reverse direction as it was a double journey.


At 4.00pm on Friday 23rd July, the Mayor of Blackpool started 42 men on their journey to Manchester and back. In normal circumstances the first few miles along the seafront would have been very pleasant and the walkers would have been cheered along the way by crowds of holidaymakers, however on this occasion the seafront was deserted. Reporting on the race, Pat Reekie of the Sunday Dispatch said: “Relentless rain, which soaked competitors to the skin and chilled them to the marrow before they had covered fifty yards, bore in from the sea and continued throughout the first twelve hours of the race”. 20 of the competitors completed the journey, 9 of them for the first time. The first of the new Centurions was G.J. Birchall in the excellent time of 19 hours 32 minutes 27 seconds, he also created a Centurion first as he walked throughout with G.P Birchall C101, the first father and son combination to complete in the same race. R.A. Ditchfield C194, became the only new member of the hat-trick club and was followed home 7 minutes later by Tom Richardson who completed his 6th and final 100. The race winner was Vic Stone of Polytechnic Harriers in the near record time of 17 hours 22 minutes 26 seconds. It was thought at the time that this might be a new 100 miles road walking best, but an analysis of Baker’s 1926 record, after a remeasuring of the Brighton Road by Timber Woodcock, shows that Baker’s time at 100 miles was approximately 17 hours 17 minutes and 30 seconds. The intermediate times would support this view, i.e. Baker: 50m, 8h 10min - 85m, 14h 31min. Stone: 50m, 8h 24min - 84m, 14h 27 min.


Vic Stone would be the first to admit that much of his success was due to the excellent


attendance of Jill Shirley, who so often attended the ‘Poly’ boys, notably Percy Reading, on their long distance jaunts. Vic Stone was honoured for his performance by the Governors of the Polytechnic who presented him with the “Studd” trophy as the ‘best sportsman of the year’. Vic had been considered for the honour alongside other internationals from all other sports, not only athletics. The only other walker to have received this prestigious trophy was Jack Butler, the President and longest standing Centurion, more than 40 years earlier. In 1955 Charles J. Culling, C51, retired as Secretary after 33 years and was honoured with the position of Life Vice-President as was Billy Baker C66, Tom Richardson C100 was elected as the new Captain with A.D. McSweeney C94 being chosen to replace him as Vice Captain. The new Secretary was to be J. G. ‘Tod’ Slaughter C218 and for the first time an Assistant Secretary, L.H. King C224 was appointed. With 1955 being the year before the Olympic Games, it was once again the turn of Surrey


Walking Club to promote the event, as usual on the familiar Brighton Road, the date chosen 20


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