1885 Scottish Athletics Championships

Last updated

1885 Scottish Athletics Championships
Dates27 June
Host city Paisley, Scotland
Venue Westmarch Stadium
LevelSenior
TypeOutdoor
Events11
1884
1886


The 1885 Scottish Athletics Championships were the third national athletics championships to be held in Scotland. They were held under the auspices of the Scottish Amateur Athletic Association at Westmarch Stadium, the home of St Mirren FC in Paisley, on Saturday 27 June 1885. The track was described as being in very good condition but the weather was extremely hot and fewer than one thousand spectators turned out to see David Duncan win the 1 mile for the third successive year. He was President of SAAA at the time and remains the only man to have won a Scottish national athletics championship whilst President of the organising body. Kenneth Whitton (St George's FC) set Scottish Native and All-comers records in winning the hammer. This was thrown Scots' style, using a wooden handled hammer from a nine-foot square, wire handled hammers and the circle were not adopted until 1896.

Contents

1885 is also a notable landmark in Scottish athletics. Up to this point athletes had represented football clubs, rugby, cricket or rowing clubs, or their schools and universities. In 1885 actual athletic clubs were first formed in Scotland, the first two being Clydesdale Harriers in the West, formed in May 1885, closely followed in September by Edinburgh Harriers in the East. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Results summary

100 yards
PosAthleteTime
1.Robert A. Taylor (Edinburgh Un.)10 3/5
2.Maurice C. Wright (Edinburgh Un.)1 foot
3.Reginald H. Morrison (Edinburgh Un.)1 foot
440 yards
PosAthleteTime
1.Simon Henderson (Watson's Coll. AC)51 4/5
2.Reginald H. Morrison (Edinburgh Un.)1 yard
3.Maurice C. Wright (Edinburgh Un.)
880 yards
PosAthleteTime
1.James Logan (Vale of Leven FC)2:03 3/5
2.Reginald H. Morrison (Edinburgh Un.)1 yard
1 mile
PosAthleteTime
1.David S. Duncan (Royal High School FP)5:01 2/5
2.James M. Crawford (Edinburgh Un.)
120 yard hurdles
PosAthleteTime
1.Henry A. Watt (Glasgow Un.)17 4/5
3 miles walk
PosAthleteTime
1.James Caw (St Georges FC)24:54
2.A. Brown (Airdrieonians FC)50 yards
High jump
PosAthleteDist
1.James N. Macleod (Glasgow Un.)5 ft 8in (1.72m)
2.John W. Parsons (Fettes-Loretto)5 ft 6in (1.67m)
3.R. G. Taylor (Edinburgh North of England AC)5 ft 3in (1.60m)
Pole vault
PosAthleteDist
1. Augustus G. G. Asher (Fettes-Loretto)10 ft 1in (3.07m)
2.George Hodgson (Edinburgh North of England AC)9 ft 6in (2.89m)
Long jump
PosAthleteDist
1.John W. Parsons (London AC)21 ft 9 1/2in (6.64m)
2.R. G. Taylor (Edinburgh North of England AC)18 ft 6in (5.64m)
Shot put
PosAthleteDist
1.Kenneth Whitton (Ross County FC)41 ft 6in (12.65m)
2. Charles Reid (Edinburgh Academicals)38 ft 9in (11.81m)
Hammer
PosAthleteDist
1.Kenneth Whitton (St George FC)100 ft 5 3/4in (30.60m)
2.Charles Reid (Edinburgh Academicals FC)87 ft 8in (26.72m)

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cathkin Park</span> Municipal park in Glasgow, Scotland, UK

Cathkin Park is a municipal park in Glasgow, Scotland. The park is maintained by the city's parks department, and it is a public place where football is still played. The park contains the site of the second Hampden Park, previously home to the football clubs Queen's Park and Third Lanark. The site of the original Hampden Park is just to the west.

Abercorn Football Club was a football club based in Paisley, Scotland. The club were members of the Scottish Football League from 1890 until 1915 and folded in 1920. Abercorn were founder members of the Scottish Football League, but eventually could not compete with local rivals St Mirren. During their time in the SFL the club played at Underwood Park, Old Ralston Park and New Ralston Park. Their colours were blue and white stripes.

Scottish Athletics, stylised as scottishathletics, is the governing body for the sport of athletics in Scotland. As such it is responsible for organising annual championships, maintaining rules for competition and ratifying records. It also selects teams for international competition. Scottish Athletics is a member of the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland, and part of UK Athletics, the national governing body for the sport in the United Kingdom. It was established as a limited company on 1 April 2001, when it succeeded the Scottish Athletics Federation (SAF), which had in turn succeeded the Scottish Amateur Athletic Association that had organised the sport since its inception in February 1883.

Clydesdale Harriers are an athletics club, founded in 1885. It was Scotland's first amateur open athletics club with the object of promoting amateur athletics generally and cross country running in particular.

Carolina Port was a mult-sport stadium in Dundee, Scotland. It staged Scottish national championships in cycling and athletics, and as a football stadium it was an early home of Dundee F.C. and staged Dundee's first international match in 1896. It was the first sports stadium in Scotland to be wholly built and operated by a publicly owned company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships</span> Sports tournament

The USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships is an annual track and field competition organized by USA Track & Field, which serves as the American national championships for the sport. Since the year 1992, in the years which feature a Summer Olympics, World Athletics Championships, Pan American Games, NACAC Championships, or an IAAF Continental Cup, the championships serve as a way of selecting the best athletes for those competitions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Powderhall Stadium</span> Former stadium in Edinburgh, Scotland

Powderhall Stadium, formerly the Powderhall Grounds, was a multi-sports facility overlooking the Water of Leith on Beaverhall Road, in the Powderhall (Broughton) area of northern Edinburgh, Scotland. It opened in January 1870 at the height of professional pedestrianism and was modelled on the stadium at Stamford Bridge in London. It hosted professional sprint races, track and field athletics, including the Scottish Amateur Athletics Championships on a number of occasions, professional football, international rugby, cycling, and dog races as well as boxing, quoits and pigeon shooting. For 100 years it hosted the Powderhall Sprint, the most famous professional sprint handicap in the world. With the decline of pedestrianism as a spectator sport in the 1920s it was converted to a greyhound stadium, hosting the Scottish Grand National for over sixty five years, and it also hosted professional speedway. The stadium finally closed in 1995 and the site is now a housing estate.

Westmarch was a football stadium located on Greenhill Road in Ferguslie Park, Paisley, Scotland. It was the home ground of St Mirren from 1883 to 1894.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AAA Championships</span> Annual track and field competition

The AAA Championships was an annual track and field competition organised by the Amateur Athletic Association of England. It was the foremost domestic athletics event in the United Kingdom during its lifetime, despite the existence of the official UK Athletics Championships organised by the then governing body for British athletics, the British Athletics Federation between 1977 and 1993, and again in 1997. It was succeeded by the British Athletics Championships, organised by the BEF's replacement/successor, UK Athletics under its brand name British Athletics.

Events from the year 1885 in Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Association of Amateur Athletes of America</span> 19th century athletic organization

National Association of Amateur Athletes of America (NAAA) (1879 to 1888) was formed in 1879. This was the organized body for the Amateur Athletes before the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) took over in 1888.

The 1883 AAA Championships was an outdoor track and field competition organised by the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA), held on Saturday 30 June at Lillie Bridge Grounds, London, England.

The 1884 AAA Championships was an outdoor track and field competition organised by the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA), held on Saturday 21 June at Aston Lower Grounds, Birmingham, England.

The 1885 AAA Championships was an outdoor track and field competition organised by the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA), held on Saturday 27 June at the Southport Sports Ground, Southport, England.

Paisley Athletic Football Club was a Scottish football team located in the town of Paisley, Renfrewshire.

The Scottish Athletics Championships is an annual outdoor track and field competition organised by Scottish Athletics that serves as the Scottish national championship for the sport. The competition is usually held over two days in June, with the 10,000 metres and combined event championships being held separately. The event was first held, for men only, in 1883, when they were organised by the Scottish Amateur Athletics Association. Women's championships started in 1931. In 1992 the three organising bodies for the sport in Scotland merged to form the Scottish Athletics Federation, and they organised the championships until 2001 when they were superseded by Scottish Athletics.

The 1887 Scottish Athletics Championships were the fifth national athletics championships to be held in Scotland. They were held under the auspices of the Scottish Amateur Athletic Association at Hampden Park, Glasgow, on Saturday 25 June 1887. Very hot weather was blamed for the low attendance of "probably not more than a thousand," but the Glasgow Police Sports held the same afternoon attracted a crowd of over 3,000 spectators. At Hampden Park, Ernest Latimer Stones broke the Scottish record for the pole vault with his winning height of 11 feet (3.35m). Born at Ulverston in the English Lake District in 1865, he played football for Partick Thistle, tied with Tom Ray for the AAA pole vault title in 1888, and won it outright in 1889. At Southport in June 1888, he set a world record of 11 feet 7 inches (3.53m). He will eventually win the Scottish title three times, and his Scottish record for the event of 11 feet 4 inches (3.45m) will not be broken in Scotland until 1924, and not by a Scottish athlete until 1930. The half mile was won by John Braid who competed in the Olympic Games in 1900, playing cricket, for France. Alex Findlay won the inaugural 4 miles championship on the Saturday, and in the 10 miles championship, held at the same venue on the following Monday, set a Scottish All-comers record for 9 miles en route to defending the title he had won last year, and was less than five seconds outside his own record for 10 miles. The prizes were presented by Mrs A. M. Hunter, the wife of the Hon. Sec. Scottish AAA, who will serve as President of the association in 1890.

The 1888 Scottish Athletics Championships were the sixth national athletics championships to be held in Scotland. They were held under the auspices of the Scottish Amateur Athletic Association at Powderhall Grounds, Edinburgh, on Saturday 23 June 1888. The meet was held in "splendid" weather, and the track was reported to be "in first rate order," but a slight easterly wind affected performances. Ernest Stones set a Scottish All-comers record in defending his pole vault title. Three days after finishing second in the 4 miles at the championship Andrew Hannah set a Scottish All-comers record at the event running 21:02 2/5 at Ibrox Park, Glasgow. This was the first in a long list of almost three dozen records Hannah will set over the next seven years at all distances from 2 miles to 10 miles, becoming the dominant Scottish distance runner of the decade. For the first time the 10 miles championship was held separately, being held at the Powderhall Grounds on Saturday 7 April, and with twice as many entrants as any previous year the experiment was continued in the future. It didn't, however, affect the result with Alex Findlay easily retaining his title shortly before emigrating to the United States. The chief judge at the championships, in his year as President of the association, was M. P. Fraser of Glasgow University AC.

The 1889 Scottish Athletics Championships were the seventh national athletics championships to be held in Scotland. They were held under the auspices of the Scottish Amateur Athletic Association at Hampden Park, Glasgow, on Saturday 22 June 1889. The championship prizes were presented by Mrs M. P. Fraser, wife of the President of the association.

The 1890 Scottish Athletics Championships were the eighth national athletics championships to be held in Scotland. They were held under the auspices of the Scottish Amateur Athletic Association at Powderhall Grounds, Edinburgh, on Saturday 21 June 1890. The prizes were presented by A. M. Hunter, President of the association.

References

  1. Scottish Athletics 1883-1983, John W. Keddie (1982)
  2. Scottish Championship Results - Track
  3. Scottish Championship Results - Field
  4. Scottish Athletics Track Statisticians - Archive
  5. "Paisley & Renfrewshire Gazette", Sat 27 Jun 1885 p. 4
  6. "The Referee", Sun 28 Jun 1885 p. 5