after a long discussion it was decided to add the position of vice president, as opposed to Life Vice President to the list of officers. The newly elected vice presidents were Hew Neilson C145, Liewe Schol C291, and Jon van der Kwaak C365. Mention was also made of the continued delay in the reprinting of the handbook. Since the 1958 edition there were now 185 new names to be added, more than half as many again as previously recorded.
The Seventies – New Beginnings
The long awaited (7th edition) new handbook was finally published to coincide with the Diamond Jubilee dinner which was held on 1st May 1971 at the House of Commons. 37 Centurions and their guests attended this function which had been planned and arranged by the President, Earnest Neville C7, in his own inimitable style. It is a wonder where he got his enthusiasm from at the age of 88, especially when one considers that he had recently overcome a serious eye operation in the previous year, and the loss of his wife of more than 60 years, just a few weeks before this function, but then, 70 years of his life had been devoted to the sport of race walking in general and the Centurions in particular, he having promoted the first Brighton and Back time trial in 1902. The following week, Colin Young C317 was once again at Rouen, where he won with an incredible distance of 215.835 km, almost 14 miles ahead of his nearest rival. This win earned him a second selection for the gruelling Strasbourg-Paris race, in which he came a magnificent 3rd. The weekend of 25th-26th June saw the new Surrey Walking Club promotion, a 10 x 10 mile lap course at Ewhurst, Surrey. The event, which incorporated a 100 km race, attracted a field of 73, 40 of whom completed the 100 miles. The winner and first of 26 new Centurions was John Moullin of Belgrave, he became only the second man to beat 17 hours in Great Britain, his time being 16 hours 55 minutes 44 seconds, only 1 minutes behind the best recorded time of Frank O’Reilly C276 in 1960. This was his first and only 100 mile race. The event also saw the addition of 3 new countries to the ever growing list. The first being Belgium in the form of Emile Alomaine, who 2 weeks earlier had been classified 4th (35km short of the full distance) in the Strasbourg- Paris race. The other two being John Argo of Canada and Jim McGown of Eire. The result sheet showed C. Janssen of Holland in 30th position with a time of 22-23-34. A re-check of the results showed that an error had been made by the recorders and that he was in fact a lap short and would have been out of time at the full distance. And so an embarrassing mistake in the Centurion records was narrowly avoided. Shortly after the Ewhurst race, the President, E.H. Neville wrote to the secretary J.G. Slaughter, suggesting that a full report of the Jubilee dinner, the Ewhurst race and the revised history as written by the captain, should be produced in a new (?) publication to be called “The Centurion”. Unfortunately this was never produced, if it had been, it would have been a revised version of “Centurion Notes” and “The Centurion”, which were published in the late forties and early fifties. Perhaps Earnest Neville was getting a little forgetful in his old age. In November, news came from the USA of a rival organisation known as the “Centurions Club of America”. Two of the founders were John Argo C483 (US C5 in 1970) and Chris Clegg C135 (US C7 in 1971). US Centurion numbers 1, 2 and 3 were awarded to three amateur walkers who completed in an indoor track race against professionals in 1878. The American series of races started at Columbia, Missouri in 1967, but only one or two people managed to achieve the distance from an average of 30 starters. No doubt they will improve on this in the future.
32
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100