RUNNING is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, sports in the area and certainly the first sport to reported in the Rochdale Observer – other than cricket – due to the exploits of one James Sanderson. 

Sanderson, nicknamed Treacle, started running in 1855, aged 18, and became one of the greatest distance runners the country has ever known. He became champion of England over one-and-a-quarter and one-and-a-half miles by the time he was 25 and was beaten only once in a recognised race, although he did lose in races run for a purse. That was in 1876 when the Whitworth blacksmith lost to James McLeavy of Dumbartonshire. Sanderson turned out only occasionally after that, and only in exhibition races. He was trained by Dr James Eastwood Taylor round the foot of Brown Wardle and over Ashworth Moor. Sanderson died in December 1905 and years later a framed list of all his performances, along with his picture, was hung in Whitworth Football and Cricket Club.

Eleven years before his death Rochdale Harriers had been formed, and in the year of his death Harriers’ junior men’s team were North of England cross-country champions. Observer reporting of athletics events was sparse in the early days, but in June 1921 it was recorded that sprint handicaps due to be held in Rochdale were cancelled when police said no betting could be allowed on the ground. The promoter abandoned the meeting as there was no prospect of a good crowd if bets could not be placed.

A month later a record crowd of 10,000 raised £1,249 for charities at the Rochdale Borough Police Sports held at the Athletic Grounds. The police sports were an important event on the Rochdale sporting calendar for many years, later being held at Balderstone and Dane Street. There was once a Rochdale Athletic Club, founded in 1894 and foundered in 1930 when the assets were split between Rochdale Harriers and Rochdale Playing Fields Association. Members of the club constructed the Athletic Grounds off Milnrow Road. The site opened in June 1894 and later became the home of Rochdale Hornets.

The demise of the Athletic Club left Rochdale Harriers in prominence, but it was not until after World War II that Harriers started to make a name for themselves on the county and national scene. Harriers, whose HQ was then at the Bonnie Dundee pub, resumed activities in 1946, and two years later the club sealed a move to a permanent base, Springfield Park, after being allowed temporary facilities at Firgrove.

A ladies’ section was also formed in 1948 with Lois Taylor as secretary.  Cross-country titles form the bulk of the club’s honours list, but there have been golden individual champions along the way, runners who competed in front of crowds of thousands such as Brian McOwen, Roger Carter, Colin Robinson, Neil Humphries – an AAA junior long-jump champion – Tony Hawker-Bond and Alan Hughes. Robinson, who is still actively involved with Harriers, won the invitation junior mile at the White City Stadium, London, way back in August 1959. That race was held during a senior match between Britain and Poland.

Robinson went on to win international cross-country honours and in March 1961 he won the national junior cross-country title at Parliament Hill Fields in London. In March 1962 he became the first Rochdale runner to compete in an England senior team which won an international cross-country title, and in June of that year he was invited by the AAA to compete in a three-mile event in Belfast. In August he finished fourth in the 5,000m invitation event during the match between GB and Poland in London.

As Robinson hit the national headlines Harriers had a whole crop of young male athletes representing Lancashire at schools and junior level. They were joined in May 1963 by Glynis Bartle who became the first Rochdale schoolgirl to win a full county cap and finished second in the javelin event of the Lancashire Women’s Championships in Blackpool.

Still at schools’ level, Philip Faulkner of Rochdale Grammar ran for England in a schools’ international at the Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh during July 1963. He finished fourth in the final of the 220-yard low hurdles. While Faulkner created a little bit of history with his run, Neil Humphries did likewise in 1965 when he became the first Rochdale Harrier to gain international recognition for a field event. He was chosen by England to contest the long jump in a match against Ireland in Dublin.

Teenager Jeff Adshead created an unofficial world record in January 1966 when he raced against the clock to cover six miles in 31 mins 50 secs. The previous best for a boy under 15 had been 32 mins. In July 1966 he created a new UK intermediate record of 2 mins 44.9 secs for the 1,000m steeplechase at a meeting in Wolverhampton.

Adshead was obviously one of the best for his age, and in July 1967 he was chosen to run for England in the 1,500m steeplechase of a junior international against France, in Portsmouth. That man Robinson was back at the top in 1968 when he became the Civil Service three-mile champion. He also set a new British all-comers record for 2,000m when he timed 5 mins 8.2 secs at an event in Stretford, and in 1971 he won an international 1,500 race in Stuttgart before gaining further England cross-country honours. Robinson was elected a life member of Rochdale Harriers in May 1980.

Alan Hughes was by then a “senior” member of the running fraternity and in 1981 he won a silver medal in the European Veterans Championships in Romania. He also broke two GB age group records at a meeting in Nottingham. A year later Hughes retained his over 50s title in the inter-counties 10,000m veterans’ championship, won the national 1,500m and 800m over-50s titles and grabbed the 50-55 age group 1,500m and 5,000m gold medals in the European Veterans’ Championships in Strasbourg.

Sisters Joanne and Louise Fraser stepped into the limelight in 1983, and a chap by the name of Jack Kirk started to take honours in the older age groups of European marathons. Joanne Fraser smashed the javelin record during the European Catholic Student Games in Dublin, while Louise won silver in the under 14s 80m. Joanne had earlier claimed a record as she won an English schools’ javelin title. She was chosen to represent England schools in an international.

Joanne won three golds in the 1984 European Catholic Student Games, in Ipswich, but it was Louise who went on to greater things. In March 1986 she was ranked in three events of the 1985 UK best performances list for junior women. International recognition came her way in August 1987 when she was chosen to run for GB under 20s against Germany and Switzerland.

The year of 1988 was a golden one for Louise, pictured above [to be added] . She was in the GB under 20s team to face Czechoslovakia in Prague, finished second in the 100m of the AAA junior championships in Stoke, won gold in the 100m hurdles of the English Schools’ track and field championships, and reached the semi-finals of the World Junior Athletics Championships in Ontario. In 1990 Louise qualified for the ladies’ 100m hurdles final of the Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand, but she dropped out of the big one after clipping the seventh hurdle when well placed.

Rochdalian Matthew Belsham was also at the Games and finished 10th in the pole vault. Later in the year Belsham finished second in the pole vault of an international between GB, Finland, West Germany and Russia. The Falinge Park student also won the national schools’ pole vault title. Belsham then became the British junior pole vault record holder with 5.30m during an under 23 international in Prague.

More honours came the way of Louise Fraser and Belsham, and in July 1992 Louise, already a GB runner, was chosen to compete in the 400m hurdles and the 4x100 relay squad for the Olympic Games in Barcelona. She finished fifth in her heat of the 400m but didn’t run in the relay.

Fast-track on to 1995 and Louise was called up to replace Sally Gunnell in the GB team for the 400m of a Europa Cup meeting in Lille, France. She finished seventh with a season’s best time. She was also chosen to compete for GB in the World Championships in Gothenburg. 

A new girl emerged in the 90s. Danielle Parkinson appeared in the UK under 15 pentathlon and high jump rankings. An older “girl” Glynda Cook won a silver medal in the 1997 English Fell Running Championship and gold in the veteran over-35 class. In 1998 she won the English and GB veterans’ fell running titles.

Matthew Belsham, by then with Sale Harriers, was chosen for the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. He was joined in the list of England internationals in 2001 when Danielle Parkinson gained under 23 honours in the heptathlon of a home international in Sheffield.

David Proctor joined the champions’ list by winning the under-20 80m title in the AAA indoor championships in Birmingham in 2004.

Champions, winners, Rochdale has had them all in the field of running, and most of them have been covered in this article. But no article about running would be complete without mention of two others. Joe Salt was a top cross-country man and road runner in his day and he has been involved with Rochdale Harriers more or less since those early days of glory. His services to athletics were marked when he was named Rochdale’s Man of the Year, and this year he received a Community Sports lifetime achiever award.

The other of the two, Andy O’Sullivan, has never broken any pots in actual races, but he has helped make pots of money for a host of charities by organising regular and popular road and track runs throughout the year.