1900-1920
History of Newport Harriers
| Chapter 3 1900-1920 |
History of Newport Harriers |
Prior to the formation of the Newport Harriers it was uncommon for a Newport man to win distance races on the track, but a reference to a list of track champions won by members of this club shows how much the position has altered. Many more names could be added if those members of Newport Harriers who entered and championships in other clubs names were included. Many members ran Cross Country in the winter and entered track races for clubs where better facilities were available for track training. In the early years because of traveling the club formed branch clubs in Castleton, Caerleon, Aberbeeg and also in Llanhilleth and through the efforts of our members, clubs were formed in Cwm, Pontypool, Chepstow and Bassaleg.
January. W.Palmer a novice won the Xmas Hunting medal, a competition run by the club, and a new club from Cardiff by the name of Cardiff Centrals paid a visit to Newport for a Cross Country match and were soundly beaten by 41 points.
January 31st, There was a meeting between Newport Harriers and Cardiff Harriers over 5 miles at Newport which Newport won with 29 to Cardiff’s 61, the winner was W.Palmer with support from J.Shore 3, A.C.Samuels 4, A.Rees 6, NTJ. Moses 7, and T.Wynn 8. The club followed this win with a visit to Roath on February 6th where there defeated Cardiff Harriers again this time by 12 points, which was the first time that Cardiff had been beaten at their HQ.
March 6th, the following team was put out by the Newport club for the Welsh Cross Country Championships held at Caerleon which Newport won, A.Palmer led the club home winning the title, his team-mates were J.Lee, A.Turner, H.Williams(capt), J.Shore, AC.Samuels, T.Baggs, NTJ.Moses, A.Rees, W.Palmer, F.Brittle, and T.Wynn.
The Harriers competed against Swansea over a distance of 7 miles in a road race which started at Swansea Baths then along Mumbles road to end at the Football ground, Newport had the first eight runners home, they were Palmer, Price, Pugh, Davies, Bradbury, Waite, Bailey and Coxon and thereby won easily with 21pts to Swansea’s 70.
The Welsh Junior Cross Country Championship winners were Castleton a branch of Newport Harriers so do we count this as Newport’s first win in the event or do we wait until 1907 when we also had the individual winner in L.Lloyd.
January saw the visit to Newport for a Cross Country match by South London who were beaten, Newports team was Davies, Price, Pugh, Arthur, Ace, Cooper, Taylor, Grail, Thomas, Marshall, Curran, Warren, Greenfield, Waite, Lloyd, O’Brien, and Phillips.
A.S.Wilson & J.Meyrick were selected to run for Wales in the International at Caerleon, Wilson was the first Welsh runner home. W.Emerson won the Welsh AAA one mile & four mile titles and E.G.Ace retained his 880yd title, note the results show Ace as Swansea C& FC.
The two mile inter-town race run on Cross Country principles, proved a most interesting event in which the Harriers club team representing the town defeated amongst others the present Welsh Cross Country title holders, Cwmbran(Penywain)Harriers.
Mr.E.Massey was placed 3rd in the English ten mile championships.
C.F.Price won the Welsh AAA championship title for the one mile and four miles, Ben Uzzell won the WAAA 440yds and also the English 220yd hurdle title. The Welsh Inter-Town contest for the Sir Thomas Dewrs Shield again took place at Newport and the club provided two members of the winning team, they were Ernie Marshall in the 880yds and Ben Uzzell in the 220yds. The annual club dinner took place at the Red Lion Hotel.Also in this year T.Arthur,C.F.Price,W.Millard and C.G.Hill represented Wales in March in the International in Paris, unfortunately Price had to withdraw.
C.F.Price set a new Welsh record in the one mile recording 4.31 in winning the title at the Welsh Championships.
Through the efforts of some of our older members now residing in the Chepstow and Aberbeeg districts, we have established branches at those places which have been much appreciated, and have already seen evidence of their ability in numerous races with the Chepstow branch gaining 2nd place in the Welsh Junior Cross Country championships.
At the Midland Counties Cross Country championships at Sutton-in-Ashfield, our club champion CF.Price was below par but one of our younger members S.Judd finished in the first six in his debut at the championships, later at the Welsh Junior Cross Country championships held at Pontnewydd he won the title vacated by Price who had become a senior.
In the Welsh Senior Cross Country championships we regained the title having been runners-up for the last three seasons. CF.Price gave us a fine lead by winning the individual honours with AS.Wilson 3rd, T.Arthur 4, W.Millard 5, TJ.Miles 7, E.Massey 8, all our scorers in the first eight.
In the International race the club supplied all but two of the team with CF.Price, AS.Wilson, T.Arthur, W.Millard, TJ.Miles, E.Massey, and S.Judd, a special feature of the race being the fact that AS.Wilson was the first Welsh runner to finish in seventh place, this was the third time that he has been the first Welshman to finish in the race.
Feeling that some members were worthy of competition in the English 10 mile championship, the club decided to send four athletes to compete and it was a great performance by CF.Price to finish 3rd in such company, seeing that this was the first time he had run on a cinder track. Veteran T.Arthur was placed 6th, whilst E.Massey although coming 11th helped us to gain the unprecedented honour of receiving three A.A.A. Time Standard Medals, a record unattained by any other club in UK. Following this success, CF.Price and AS.Wilson were entered for the AAA four mile championships at Stamford Bridge and both gained Standard Medals with CF.Price further enhancing his reputation by again finishing 3rd behind GW.Hutson (record holder) and AH.Nicholls (International champion), Price’s time was 19.57 which equaled A.Shrubbs best championship performance, being the only man to get placed in both English Distance championships a feat which was recognised by the A.A.A committee who selected him as one of two runners to represent England in the International Path contest at Glasgow, in which finishing second to Hutson he proved worthy of the selection defeating Scottish and Irish athletes.
In response to a special invitation from the Birmingham Charity Sports Committee, we competed in the two mile special team race and to our delight CF.Price came home the winner with the team finishing in third place. Owing to the International Championship being held on the same day as the Welsh A.A.A Path Championships, CF.Price was unable to defend his titles in the one and four mile races, but we had the Half-mile champion in F.H.Johnson who retained his title and was a member of the winning team which won the Welsh Inter-Town Relay race for Newport, further laurels were gained by AS.Wilson who won the four-mile Championship.
It was a happy thought on the part of our chairman to fix upon the visit of Prince Arthur of Connaught to Newport as a suitable date for our annual sports day. The Newport Athletic club again generously granted us the use of theirs grounds at Rodney Parade. Athletically the outstanding feature of the day was a brilliant performance by CF.Price in the Two Miles club championship race for the Sir Joseph Lawrence Cup in which he set a new Welsh record of 9.44, after a particularly trying journey back from the International in Glasgow.
From 1910 until 1923 the Harriers Headquarters were at the Isca Hotel, Clarence Place and moved to the GWR Institute, Mill Street in 1923.
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