Pioneering Harrier will take the baton for Commonwealth Games 2022
Ultra-distance runner who put Tipton on the racing map will do lap of honour this summer
FORMER Tipton Harrier Tony Fern, now living in Southampton, has been selected to carry the baton in the Commonwealth Games Baton Relay, 2022.
Tony now 85, moved to Southampton in 1972, but remembers as though it was yesterday helping Tipton win the 1964 London to Brighton Road Race.
He said, “I knew I had run well because my friend George Johnson who was second scorer, usually beat me”.
Ron Bentley was the last scorer, and in spite of a stomach problem he managed to finish. After this they were joined by Mick Powell and Gordon Bentley and between them, they dominated ultra-distance running. from 1964 into 1970s.
Tony was in winning teams for the Liverpool to Blackpool, Exeter to Plymouth, Woodford to Southend, Isle of Man TT course and Two bridges race in Scotland! His best individual performances were second in the Liverpool to Blackpool, and third in Exeter to Plymouth, both in 1968.
As a boy, Tony ran to school and back from the other side of town, about a mile and half just to save bus fare. Tony tells of a bet he had when he was around ten years old that he could run up and down his street, Lee Gardens, and around an island in Manor Road a hundred times, this was a circuit of a quarter of a mile.
By the time he finished everyone had long gone home but he thought they might be watching through their windows so he persevered with the run until he met his target. He never got paid.
Tony and Pete Boxley decided to organise a novice race one Saturday and the race was won by Alan Richards. Mick Orton finished last, but the big-hearted organisers fixed things so that Mick got a prize. The two went on to help Tipton to many National Cross Country and Road Relay Titles. Mick also broke the Comrades Marathon record in South Africa.
A few years on while trembling with cold after helping Tipton win the National Cross Country at Sutton Park, Mick told Tony, “I have still got those spoons.” Tony often jokes, “We did more for Tipton as organisers than running.”
Shortly after moving down south Ian Burgess, a fine runner, convinced Tony to make up a team in the Isle of Wight Marathon. Tony did a few more races but the competitive urge had gone, and in 1972 a young lad asked Tony to coach him – that was the start. Fifty years later he is still doing a bit of coaching. He has produced 41 full internationals, and strangely enough the first was Kathy Taylor, who was World Modern Pentathlon Champion two years on the trot. Those internationals have included Commonwealth and European medalists. Tony also helped Dame Kelly Holmes back into running when she was at Marchwood before she moved to Catterick. Tony loved playing football, sometimes he would play three games in a weekend. The scene of his favourite memory when he scored a hat trick for his team Lee Star in a local derby with Smethwick Labour Club on Londonderry Playing Fields.
This has now been built on and is an Aquatic Centre for the Commonwealth Games this year. Tony has been honoured twice by Southampton City Council, he received the Bargate Medal in the 1980s for his services to the youth of the city. Then in 2005 he was selected joint citizen of the year for his services to the people of the city. Tony said, “It has been wonderful for me to meet so many lovely young people.”
Tony has run dances, discos and parties all over the city, and is a keen disc jockey. He also loves dancing, because, he says, “you forget all your cares.”
At ten years old Tony would run down his street and round the island ... a hundred times