• Article |
• Discussion |
• Edit |
• History

The 'Wagon and Horses' pub on Ashbourne Road, Derby, in 1910. In 1895 it had become the headquarters of the Derby and County Athletic and Cycling Club

Derby has produced some fine athletes over the years in both track and field and road racing. Today the club for the city is simply named DERBY ATHLETIC CLUB. It was formerly DERBY AND COUNTY ATHLETIC CLUB. Here is a potted history.

In 1887 five members of St John’s Church men’s bible class were introduced to cross-country running by the Reverend Canon Alfred Hall Prior, who was missing the type of running he had enjoyed at Cambridge University.

The activity proved immensely popular, and by the late 1890s the original group had grown to more than 200. It was then known as St John’s Harriers. Nor was it merely successful on the numbers front, for in 1892 St. John's won the Midland Counties Junior Cross Country Championship, showing that they had quality as well as quantity.

By 1895 the Club had already out-grown its parochial origins and a decision was taken by the more secular majority to move The Club headquarters to the Wagon and Horses public house on Ashbourne Road, where the landlord was known to be sympathetic to the needs of the athletic fraternity. At the same time the Club changed its name to DERBY AND COUNTY ATHLETIC AND CYCLING CLUB and almost immediately absorbed three other local Athletic clubs, making it easily the predominant club in the area.

Standards improved steadily, with Derby becoming a centre for the staging of major cross-country events, including the International Cross Country Championship of 1909. In 1910, the Club won the Midland Championship, defeating the all conquering Birmingham Club, Birchfield Harriers. The stars of the era were George Smith (a miler), W.H. (Dido) Day, and Ernest Barnes and Harry Sewell, who represented Britain in the 1908 Olympic Games. The road relay team of this period was almost unbeatable – a tradition that was to re-appear in the 1960s.

Between the wars The Club had many individual successes, but went off the boil as far as team results were concerned. Halland Britton won the AA 10 mile title in 1921,22 and 24; and was later emulated by Jack Winfield who won in 1930 and 31. They were also England cross-country internationals, as was Tommy Metcalf.

Much of the individual success during this period was attributed to the club's trainer Joe Farmer, of 159 Randolph Road, who held that key position from 1914 to 1945. For over 30 years he was 'Mr. Athletics' in Derby. Other members of the Farmer family were also leading figures in the club - Joe's brother John Thomas Farmer, landlord of the Travellers' Rest on Ashbourne Road, was vice-president. And Joe's son Sydney Farmer was a keen cyclist. See the article Farmer, Joseph - Derby's 'Mr. Athletics'.

During the 1930s the Club moved towards track and field and the cyclists drifted away - this resulted in the cycling part of the name being dropped.

After the Second World War the standards of distance running continued to improve, culminating in the Club winning three consecutive ECCU national senior titles in 1960, 61 and 62. The youths won in 1961, and the juniors in 1958 and 1962. The stars of this era were Mike Bullivant (European 6 mile record holder), Arthur Keily (who represented Britain in the Olympic games marathon) and Peter Wilkinson (who represented England in the 1958 Commonwealth Games marathon).

The Club again won the ECCU senior title in 1974 with a high quality team which had no weak links, but only one real star in the form of Mike Tagg, who was world cross country champion and who competed for Britain many times on the track, albeit representing his first claim track club, Norfolk Olympiads.

Harry Leeeming was another name from the 1970s - as at 2007 he is still the fourth fastest Briton ever over 20 miles, with a time of 1:39:18 achieved at the Finchley 20 mile race in 1974.

Since 1980 the Club has moved steadily towards track and field athletics, helped by the decision of the Derby City Council to upgrade Moorways Stadium to an eight lane synthetic track capable of staging top class athletics. The Club made the decision to move to the best facility, and eventually built the current HQ at Moorways, from where it operates teams in the UKA young Athletes League, the junior league and the Northern and British senior leagues.

The current Club captain, Phil Harries, has the unusual distinction of representing Great Britain at both a summer Olympic games (400m Hurdles) and a winter Olympic games (Bobsleigh).

It should be pointed out that historically field events were not totally alien to the club, as it provided the 1908 Olympic javelin representative, and in 1933 W.P. Abell won the AAAs javelin title.

In 2002 Derby and County AC amalgamated with Derby Ladies AC to form DERBY ATHLETIC CLUB. It continues to thrive, building on a fine long tradition and welcoming new members of both sexes and all ages.

• Derbyshire Athletics - Your Stories Wanted
• Derbyshire Pubs - Your Stories Wanted!
• Farmer, Joseph - Derby's 'Mr. Athletics'
• Faster, Higher, Stronger - Derbyshire Olympians
• Prior, Alfred Hall - The Running Reverend

FEEDBACK

Did you enjoy this article? If so, why not comment on it? Perhaps you disagree with something in it, or you know something the writer doesn't and can add some extra facts. You may want to ask a question about this article. Making a contribution is easy - either click 'edit' to insert more information or 'discussion' and then 'add comment.' This is your site. Please feel free to use it to the full and share your memories, thoughts and knowledge about Derbyshire with others.

If there is no 'edit' link showing it means the article has either previously been published in the Derby Evening Telegraph, or it has been protected by the site administrator and cannot be edited.'

County:  Derbyshire

Return to