Evolvement of club sport
Sport at club level was for many decades the foundation of all sports activity.
It was so simple — club first, followed by provincial and then national recognition.
Road running started out somewhat more gingerly, but as the early running boom developed, so too did running clubs, some attached to larger sporting clubs, others as stand-alone new ventures.
Professionalism has changed much of what was good in the club structures, and for those who grew up in the amateur era, the old camaraderie is missed.
Professionalism has delivered for the few, and racing standards, if anything, has dropped.
During the past week I was sitting at my desk early in the morning, which happens to be in my bedroom, on the smallholding we reside on, and my wife Pat received a daily call from her friend Bev Ball, who now lives in Cape Town.
Bev is obviously my friend too, but her husband Ken is closer still for obvious reasons — just as Bev and Pat ran together, so did Ken and I and we were darn competitive back in his East London days.
I was busy doing a race preview for the Xerox Lightning Fast and intending to move on to this weekly column, with no idea of what the theme might be.
Wife, still in bed, shared this with her friend, and by now husband Ken was part of their conversation.
Never one to diddle on topics, Mr Ball, the former headmaster of SACS in Cape Town and other schools along the way, suggested write on “the good old days at Oxford Striders.”
Now I had not been a part of this otherwise three-way conversation, but after taking a deep breath, and knowing my friend and fellow combatant in all things sport was deadly serious, I thought, why not?
I am happy to say that down the years I have been close to, if not a member of, many clubs inclusive of Buffalo Road Runners.
I worked with four of their members including the late Don Vickers and they by way of teasing me got my running career going.
East London Athletic Club, based at the Amalinda Track, welcomed me as a social member thanks to Trevor Gee, Gerald Land and their then leadership.
A small group of us started Old Selbornians, which became successful in marathon and ultra-marathon running.
Oxford Striders was formed when, as chair of Old Selbornian Road Runners I was told by the incoming executive of the main club that the leeway given the running section to admit members of colour, by the outgoing executive, would be terminated.
This was 1982 and amid apartheid, which many of us including the likes of Rob Chemaly, Simon Dawson, Nigel Belton, knew was thankfully dying.
The new club was planned to launch once the 1982 Comrades was behind us.
Bob de la Motte, who would go on to win numerous gold medals, ran in Old Boys colours and finished 16th.
He, too, moved across to the new nonracial club.
Not every member of the new venture understood the motivation, but a strong leadership emerged, and the club blossomed.
The dynamics of the nation were understood and when Real Gijimas emerged and were wanting to affiliate to Border Athletics, the two clubs motivated together.
Rivals they would become, but both would contribute to the sport in a meaningful way through the efforts of Kevin Flint and others.
When the Ball family moved to East London, Ken being of a winning disposition, suggested they join the people they knew to be of similar mind and Bev agreed.
A new partnership developed and led to years of “chasing excellence,” with Ken as club captain, surrounded by running icons inclusive of but not limited to household names: Masumpa, Lwana, Tshaka, Fokasi, Shaw, Sole, Mbenya, Monaghan, Blumrick, Holmes, Mcata, Mnyanda, Henry, Byron, Sandford and rather fortuitously the man who in 1991 came up with the new course for the Lightning Fast, Russell Thompson.
Most have moved on and are scattered across continents, but memories live on.