The election of Mr. T. H. Blair, of Wallasey, to be President of the Northern Counties Athletic Association, is interesting, because it is a quarter of a century since the honour last came to the Liverpool District, and Mr. Blair has held Presidential office in the titular club of the city of Liverpool for that period.
His preferment follows not only much spade work during 37 years active connection with the sport, but much variegated sporting endeavour, apart from a remarkably ubiquitous communal enterprise.
The last active member of the Fairfield Athletic Club (N. D. Morgan, the sprint champion, shared the club room until his retirement), Mr Blair has been most prominently identified with Liverpool Harriers & Athletic Club for 35 years, during which period he had held every office in that famous organisation. Indeed, during the war when the club suffered so sadly, he united all the offices in one personality. He was at one and the same time vice president also of the Sefton, Pembroke, and Wallasey Harriers, as well as of Salford Harriers and the Bohemians Athletic Club.
He was the last president of the Liverpool & District Cross-country Association ere it merged into the West Lancashire Cross-Country Association, whose first president he became. He was vice president of the Northern Cross-Country Association and hon. treasurer of the Northern Cross-Country Association.
Mr. Blair has represented West Cheshire, North Wales, and Isle of Man on the Liverpool & District committee of the N.C.A.A., for many years, and has also been a member of the Executive Committee. He succeeded Mr. J. Bennett as Chairman of the Liverpool Committee, an is also a member of the General Committee of the Amateur Athletic Association. He has officiated in every capacity of athletic sports throughout the country during his active athletic career and since he retired from the path, and was the earliest to exploit the use of the megaphone as an adjunct to the announcement of athletic events. In the capacity, he was the first provincial to act at the English Championships, and he has megaphoned the International and Olympic Athletic meetings, as well as the World Cycling Championships. His active connection with the famous Liverpool Police Sports is noteworthy as a long service record. As competitor and official he has been identified with them for 35 years, and is still the guiding spirit on the sports enclosure every year.
As vice president of the Wallasey Harriers & Athletic Club, he took active interest in their sporting and social efforts. On very many occasions he officiated at sports at New Brighton Tower. He was the first to introduce the use of the megaphone at local sports at a meeting of Sefton Harriers there. During his own career on the racing track he won the Wallasey Charity Spring Cup race, amongst many other events in the district.
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Source - Wallasey News - Saturday, 10/03/1928
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