time it was held a few weeks earlier on 1st-2nd July. 45 started in perfect conditions that held up through the night and the second day. 30 finished, 14 of them becoming new Centurions. The time of 18h 02m 37s set up in the first race in 1958 was well beaten by the winner Frank O’Reilly, in fact he beat every expectation and every known time on road or track when he became the first man to walk 100 miles in under 17 hours. His time was 16 hours 54 minutes 15 seconds and it was his second win in successive years, a feat that had not been accomplished before unless you count Billy Baker’s wins in 1926 and 1929. However as road performances cannot be counted for record purposes, the 100 mile record still belonged to Tom Richardson for his 1936 effort. O’Reilly was so far in front of the expected schedule that he caught the Skegness reception committee off guard and the Mayor was not there to receive him when he arrived on the seafront. The most amazing feature of his performance was his consistency. His time for the first 50 miles was 8h 27m 20s and for the second 50 miles, although it was flatter, 8h 26m 55s. His pace had been just over 6mph throughout the race, and when he realised he might be able to get home in under 17 hours he pushed hard, covering the last 10 miles in 96 minutes 15 seconds! Finishing in 4th place was Hew Neilson, clocking up his 10th completion. At the back of the field, and finding it hard going, was Len Matthews of Surrey Walking Club, he was the oldest man in the field at almost 67 years of age and was falling behind schedule, but with true grit, determination and years of experience behind him, he managed to complete the race with just under 20 minutes to spare, thus becoming the oldest ever new Centurion. One month after this event, Frank O’Reilly had the honour of representing his country, Eire, at the Olympic Games in Rome, the first time a Centurion had achieved this distinction. For some time Centurions and other long distance specialists had wanted a 24 hour track race in order to match themselves against the performances of others over the previous 50 or more years. In order to meet this request a special invitation meeting was arranged by Walton A.C. at their headquarters at Stompond Lane, Walton-on-Thames. Apart from the long distance specialists, some of the fast men were also invited to attack records up to 4 hours and 50 Km. In the shorter event, Don Thompson, the recent winner of the 50 km gold medal at the Rome Olympics, broke his own National records at 20 miles, 3 hours, 25 miles, 4 hours, 30 miles and 50km. To return to the main event, which by coincidence, fell on exactly the same date as Henri Caron’s world record in 1950, i.e. 14th-15th October, 15 of the best long distance walkers in the country faced the starter. For the first 12 hours a thrilling race was in progress, but the record of E.C. Horton, C63, set up in 1914 remained intact. At this point some of the competitors began to fall by the wayside. One of the first to go was Frank O’Reilly, he was lying in third place at the time having dropped back from second. He had covered 70 miles in just over 12 hours, such was the quality of this race. He was feeling very unwell but struggled on to reach 78 miles in 14 hours. In the meantime, Hew Neilson was having a terrific race at the front with Colin Young, a consistent 2 miles adrift in second place.


Earnest Neville C7, Henry Swabey C13, who was visiting from Canada, Tommy Payne C18 and T.C. Habishaw C25. The 1960 race was the promised 2nd edition of the Leicester to Skegness 100 miles. This


At 13 hours Neilson claimed his first record of the race with 77m 30y as opposed to 76m


930y by Richardson in 1936, his second came at 80 miles in 13h 34m 37s as opposed to 13h 55m 12s. From here he broke records all the way up to 24 hours. Young was closing slightly but it would be a few more hours before he also started to better the previous British figures. The progress of the various records is shown in the next table:


24


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