It all started at boarding school where punishment for minor crimes was to be sent out to run two or three miles around the school. Once a year they held a cross-country' race and finally I finished 4th out of 200 boys. I was hooked.
Autumn 1939,1 somehow' joined WAC. How I did it I do not remember, but I recollect a jolly fellow with a big bag who was our first aid man (Tim O'Sullivan). I remember seeing a large pimple on my brother's back. I applied thumbs to it and burst it. My first aid man rushed up and stuck a plaster on it.
Also there was a secretary called Ron Hubbard.
Then there was a nice old man who lived in Penkett Road and forgot the committee meeting in his house one evening. He lit a fire with a bunch of spills.
Also a wee man who was captain. He always started slowly and ran up the whole field cheering on each WAC member as he passed them. He ran out front each time.
There was a tall and handsome man who never lost a discussion; if he trod on your toe, you apologised to him..
Denis and Tony Dickinson, Denis the younger brother is on the left and Tony on the right. Photo taken at Earlstown Viaduct meeting on 13th August 1949.
One day I was late attending a club run - something to do four girls in one photo and non-appearance of someone (it might have been the "nice old committee man"). I took a short cut to catch up the rest and tried to jump the Birkett. Sadly the take off point was a marsh and I landed full tilt in the very stagnant river. My dear wife wouldn't let me back in the house until 1 stopped stinking.
Most Saturday evenings my brother and Ron Bee joined us and we ate fried potato cakes and drank gallons of tea.
One Saturday, Cheshire County held a meeting on Port Sunlight track. It was a beautiful warm, sunny day and I was running in the 880 yds race. I should have been doing more important things and was trundling along at the back of the field. Suddenly 1 lost my temper with myself, doubled my pace of going , finished second and got a real silver medal for it.
I ran a few races when at the University and did a few half miles in the Army, in UK, in Brussels and in Hanover.
Then I started teaching in Downpatrick, Co Down in a school surrounded by grassy fields and acres of marshes. 1 started a cross-country club there, my daughter was girls' cross-country champ of the school and I produced several boy Champions of Northern Ireland, and at least two girl champions.
My own speed of going got slower and slower and the most I can do nowadays is Old Tyme dancing.
I was Club Treasurer at one time. I kept the books on a shelf piled on top of an electric toaster. One day I pushed the wrong plug into the socket and started up the toaster by mistake. Thus I cooked the books for the Athletic Club!
The photo shows Tony Dickinson at LCPT Sports - 1949 heats of the 880 yards