Jimmy Christie                                                             July 2013
 
It is with much regret that we have received the sad news that one of our longest standing members, Jimmy Christie, has passed away at the age of 82 years.  Jimmy had been in hospital for some

During his years of membership of Victoria Park, Jimmy was involved in most aspects of volunteering within the Club – Coaching, Team Managing, Officiating and sitting on the Committee as Vice President and President for a period of time in the late 60s-early 70s.  It was in the early 70s that Jimmy began competing as a Veteran athlete and clearly enjoyed representing his club in Pentathlon events and taking part in Glasgow Marathons and Half Marathons. 

He was also a long time member of the Scottish Veteran Harriers Club.  His boundless energy would have been a credit to people half his age and Victoria Park City of Glasgow will be made poorer by his passing.  He has been a true role-model.
 
Jimmy was a very recognisable figure pocket option demo account within the Scottish Athletics community and will be sadly missed by all who knew him.  Our sincere condolences go to his family and friends.
 
Jimmy’s funeral will be held at Craigton Cemetery, Berryknowes Road, Cardonald, Glasgow, G52 2DB on Monday 22nd July at 1.30pm.

Linda Innes

Ronnie Whitelock                                                             December 2012

Ronnie Whitelock, one of our best loved and respected life members passed away in Hospital late on Friday the 7th of December with his family around him.

Born in 1932, Ronnie joined Victoria Park at Scotstoun as a junior in 1947.  He was clearly an exceptionally talented sprinter and he was quickly promoted to the senior squad where he was coached by the late Willie McFarlane.

During his early years, he served his apprenticeship at John Browns shipyard before securing his long term future in the drawing office.  It was there that his colleagues fashioned a set of starting blocks from a 4”x4” block of wood and two off cuts of aluminium.  Those very starting blocks were used throughout what was to become a very illustrious career.

In his early career, he enjoyed success at the Rangers Sports, the Police Sports and a variety of Highland Games at the then venues of Ibrox Stadium, Hampden Park, Helenvale and Westerlands.

In 1956 he was part of the winning Victoria Park 4x110 yards relay team at the Scottish Championships in Meadowbank.  The team was Alan Dunbar, Bobby Quinn, Harry Quinn and Ronnie.  This group became lifelong friends and up until quite recently they would meet regularly and rib each other about past glories.

1957 was probably his best year on the track, winning gold at the Scottish Championships over 100 yards with a time of 9.8 seconds, winning gold in the 4x110 yards relay, competing for Scotland and competing for Great Britain against Russia at White City.  The latter earning him life membership of Victoria Park.

He went on to win two more Scottish sprint titles in 1959 and 1962.  He was a member of the winning Victoria Park 4x110 yards bonus pocket option relay teams on four occasions and represented Scotland in at least four international matches.

Once his successful career as an athlete was over he continued as a coach for many years and many younger athletes benefitted from his experience.  Ronnie had a great sense of humour and he was always popular with the youngsters.

Always keen to be involved in athletics he became a track referee, a track judge and a marksman.  He officiated over many years at all levels and made a name for himself as a track referee for disability athletics.  He was much sought after and for many years was the track referee at the Bute Highland Games.

He was still officiating last winter within the Kelvin Hall and he was present at Victoria Park Glasgow’s last but one agm.

His last trip to Scotstoun was in October this year to see the Club’s newly completed display cabinet.  Thanks to his generosity, the centre piece of the display is those very same starting blocks which were made for him in the 1950’s with his handmade leather running shoes in situ.

Everyone who knew Ronnie said he was a lovely kind man “a gentleman”.  He’ll be greatly missed by all.

His funeral will take place at 3pm on Thursday the 13th of December at Clydebank Crematorium.  All friends and club-mates are invited to join his wife Irene, son Donald and daughter Elspeth for the service.  The family have requested no black ties.  Club colours would be a nice touch.

Moira (O'Boyle) O'Neil                                                     1956 - 2012

The entire athletics community has been saddened to hear of the death on Wednesday of former Belfast and Dublin marathon winner Moira (O’Boyle) O'Neill who passed away at her home after a long struggle with cancer.  O’Neill only last week celebrated her 56th birthday. Daughter of famous Donegal athlete Cyril O’Boyle, Moira was prominent in the sport as a teenager in Scotland, to where the family had moved in the late sixties.  She won the Scottish Intermediate (U17) and Scottish Senior cross country titles in her first year in the grade.  Her father had been Irish mile champion on a number of occasions while her mother Noreen also took up the sport late in life.

The family returned home to Glenswilly in the 1980s and Moira took a job as a community worker in Belfast and through her work was well-known in the Markets area of the city.  She was also for a period the manager of the Whiterock Leisure Centre.

Despite being successful on the track and cross country, it was the marathon that brought the former Victoria Park, Glasgow athlete her greatest successes.  She made a winning debut over the 26.2 mile distance in Derry in 1982 before going on to claim victories in Belfast (1985 & 1986) and Dublin (1988). Her time in Dublin of two hours, 37 minutes and seven seconds is still the second fastest ever by a Northern Ireland athlete.

She had come to prominence in January 1972 when she was part of the Victoria Park Intermediate Girls team that won the Scottish Womens Road Relay and later that year became Victoria Park's Ladies Captain.

That same year, at only 16 years of age she won the Intermediate 1500m at the SWAAA Championships with a PB of 4:44.1 and followed that achievement with a bronze medal in the SWAAA 3,000m with a time of 10:21.6.

A major triumph for Moira came in 1973 when she won the SWCCU CC Championship in Edinburgh and was over a minute ahead of the rest of the field.

She represented NI at two Commonwealth Games taking eighth in Edinburgh in 1986 and twelfth in Auckland four years later.  Earlier she had also run for Scotland at the International Cross Country Championships in Monza, Italy.  She was a member of the British team that took gold medals at the World Student Games Cross Country.

Moira is survived by husband Gerry O’Neill from Portrush, a former marathon runner, her father Cyril, mother Noreen and sister Pat.
Thanks to information found on A Life In Athletics and the Inside Track Blogspot. 

Letter from Chris Steele                                                                  August 2010

Dear Members
 
It has been such a long time since I last thought about the club that saw me through a great time in my life and it was good to see some familiar faces on the club web site.  I am recalling things that I did every day since I looked at the website about ten days ago.
 
I remember my first night well, it was the club 400m Championships and I didn’t know it at the time, but that was all I was expected to do.  I later went on the 2 mile run with Graham and a group of boys the same age as me.  It was my PE teacher at Victoria Drive Secondary that pointed me in the right direction and to be honest I didn’t look back.  I was 12 at the time and I still do remember all the training runs that we went on, 2 miles (round the block), 2 ½ miles (up to crow road), 3 ½ miles (Mcandrew), 4 miles (up to Great Western Road), 6 miles (the canal run) as well as the odd run through the Clyde Tunnel when there was snow on the ground.  I remember the club races and time trials that we had throughout the winter season and the competition that we had (Speedo, Scott Queen, Colin Allison etc).  I still have trophies from the club to celebrate this.
 
I also remember the training sessions in the Kelvin Hall (20x200m with a 200m jog recovery) on a Monday night and the track sessions on the gravel track and the old saying that if you can run 60 seconds for 400m on this track you can run 58 seconds for 400m on any other track.  The changing rooms have obviously changed, but I remember giving my money in to a guy who sat with the big dog (sorry can’t remember their names) and then Wallace telling the group what he wanted them to do.  The Saturday morning runs in Milngavie in-between the track season and the cross country season were something else and I thoroughly enjoyed them.  I glad to see that the McAndrew Road Relays are still being held and I hope that the dance is still going strong.
 
In terms of the track season I remember Crown Point, Dam Park, Pitreavie, Grangemouth with its cycle track around the outside of it, Westlands and Dumfries.  Towards the end of my time at Victoria Park I remember that the West District Championships were always between three athletes, one from Ayr (I think Michael Gill), myself and one from another club and we always took it turn to win the races that we did.  The Young Athletes Athletics League was the best, having to do not only your best event (sometimes not even that) but also a range of other events.  I recently found a picture of me at Pitreavie receiving a plate which was for the, I believe, teams who just missed out on the Young Athletes League Final.  I remember the first time I broke 2 minutes for the 800m, a week after Graham gave me the biggest kick up the back side ever was at Dam Park in the West District Championships after coming back from about 6 months off with an Achilles injury.
 
During the cross country season I enjoyed myself the most.  My last Scottish national Championships was at Irvine where I finished 7th, I also remember all the other races that were held there, the Scottish Cross Country Relays and the Scottish Schools Cross Country Championships.  I will always remember the dragons back hill after you come off the beach.  The Glasgow Schools Championships was always held at Pollok Park and I had a good run there for many a year finishing in the top three on several occasions.  Other courses that I always remember when I come home is the one at Clydebank and the one in Arbroath at the end of the season.  The best time though was when I got selected to represent Scotland at the New Year race in Gateshead and then the week later running for Great Britain at a race in Lisbon.
 
When I went to University in Liverpool, I joined Liverpool Harriers and I soon became a regular in their British league team for the steeplechase, I was also University cross country champ as well as Merseyside Champion.  The training at Liverpool was just as hard with training sessions five days a week.
 
Since then I have been teaching in Milton Keynes where I continued to run, however not train, as the track that the club use is on the site where I taught.  Three years later I moved to Crewe where I am still based after ten long years.  I am still heavily involved in athletics and cross country being the Cheshire Schools Boys Cross Country team manager and my claim to fame is that every year I have been at school I have had either a county track and field champion or a student obtaining their county vest.  This year was the county vest at the North West Regional Multi Events Championships at the end of June.
 
I enjoyed my time immensely at Victoria Park and I always look out for athletes from the club at the UK trials every year.  A big hello to all who remember me especially to Graham who got me through each season with encouragement and hard work.  If only my local club was as friendly as Victoria Park was.
 
I wish the club all the best in the coming year and if I am still in Crewe in four years time I will be bringing a group of students up to the Commonwealth Games where I hope to see some of the clubs athletes representing Scotland.
 
PS – I can still remember some of my PB’s
200m – Kelvin Hall – 24.6 seconds
800m - Wavertree – 1min 56.8secs
1500m - ??? – 3min 54.6secs
 
Chris Steele

ctsteele01@googlemail.com
Member between 1987 and 1993