CARDIFFREMEMBERED Slow runs and lead in sole of shoe – athletes’ tricks to beat bookies

BETWEEN 1903 and 1934, professional athletes from Canada, the US, South Africa and Australia would flock to South Wales to take part in the Welsh Powderhall Handicap.

The event was a 110-yard sprint billed as “The Greatest Foot Race Ever Held in Wales”.

It was held at Taff Vale Park in Pontypridd until 1930, when it was won by Treforest’s Les Thomas.

Another event, also billed as the Welsh Powderhall, took place that year at Caerphilly’s Virginia Park Stadium and was won by Cardiff’s Jackie Munn.

The remaining 1931, 1932, 1933 and 1934 races were all staged in Caerphilly.

The first Cardiffian to win the event was AJ Graham in 1905. A 19-year-old school teacher, he had only taken up sprinting six months earlier.

He vowed that if he won the £100 prize money he would use it to further his education.

One of the closest finishes in the history of the race was in 1911 when Newport-born Tommy Oldfield, 20, who lived in Cardiff, scored a narrow win over Alec Rowe.

A local newspaper reported: “To all appearances it looked a dead heat, but the general impression was that Rowe had won and the decision met with a mixed reception.”

The following year, 1912, Mike “Jake” Crowley, 22, was to claim he made the greatest killing in the history of the race.

In 1960, he revealed to the Echo’s Malcolm Thomas that: “I waited nine years for my chance. To give the idea that I couldn’t run fast enough, I entered races with a little piece of lead inserted in the sole of my running shoes.

“I also carried a piece in the black belt I wore around my waist.”

Of course, this slowed him down and the handicapper gave him a bigger handicap mark.

Surprisingly, the brains behind the deception was his promoter, the immortal boxer Jim Driscoll who won a huge amount over the race.

He gave Crowley £800 and a gold