BELGRAVE HARRIERS

The Melbourne city experience was wonderful for Eric. He loved Australia and revisited many times throughout the rest of his life. But the race was not a happy one. After rainy and cool conditions which had the British prematurely rubbing their hands with glee, race day proved to be hot and very humid. Eric lost over 3 kg in weight during the event (he was only just over 61 kg to start with) and went through a very bad patch in the second half when it was all that he could do to focus on the blue line marking the route and aim for each next drinking station. Several competitors ahead of him collapsed and Britain’s no. 1, Don Thompson, was so far gone that he walked into the back of a parked car and, dazed, then set off again in the wrong direction. Of twenty-one competitors, six failed to finish and two were disqualified. Thompson was hospitalised for three days. Eric was 9th and remembered nothing about the finish – except for Stan’s comment, “I had to persuade them to keep the stadium gates open for you!”

A most satisfying victory came in 1957 when Eric became the first Belgravian to win the R.W.A. National 20 miles title, but disappointment followed in ’58 when he was controversially omitted from Britain’s European Championship 20km team. The race winner – by nearly two minutes – was Stan Vickers. The two good friends trained and raced regularly together, with Eric never more than a few seconds behind on race days. He surely would have placed 2nd in Stockholm, making it a Belgrave and GBR 1-2.

Club life was always a family affair. Past President Tom Morrell was involved in many Belgrave activities, be it looking after the Club House or buying prizes, race numbers and pins, or selling Belgrave racing kit. Tom was helped in much of this by daughter Mavis, a keen athlete herself and as well known in Belgrave circles as she was in her own club –  Selsonia Ladies AC. Eric and Mavis got together in around 1957 when Eric first had to be accepted by her Belgrave ‘brothers’ Bob Taylor, George Flanagan and Bill Couzens, and ‘uncles’ Tom Carter and Charlie Jones. They were married in 1959.

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A further chance at Olympic glory ...

A further chance at Olympic glory came in 1960 when the Games visited another sultry city – Rome in September. This time, when many British distance athletes found themselves unduly affected by the humidity, Eric was able to produce a 20km performance that he was very happy with, placing 10th. Other British walkers were successful too, with Stan Vickers taking the bronze in Eric’s race and the diminutive Don Thompson of Metropolitan Walking Club winning the gold medal in the 50km with Tom Mission, also of Met. WC, 5th. Thompson had learned a lot from his exploits at Melbourne four years earlier; he had prepared by exercising in his own hot-house – a steam filled bathroom at home with radiators on at full blast.

Under the leadership of ‘The General,’ Jack Goswell, the Belgrave walking team had become one of, if not, the strongest in the land. By the end of the ‘50s and into the ‘60s a visit to an ordinary inter-club track & field event at Battersea Park on a Wednesday evening could allow one to observe international standard competition when the 2 miles walkers lined up on the cinders and set winning times that sometimes were not so far behind long-standing British Records.

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Eric’s career now took him away from London and what with the raising of a family and increasing seniority in the Civil Service, perhaps it was time to think about retiring from athletics. Nevertheless, a last-minute entry for the trial for the ‘64 Tokyo Olympic 50km saw him line up at Crystal Palace and with little preparation he placed 5th – a possible third Olympiad had been within his grasp.

Manchester, Leicester, Staines, Norwich: all at one time or another became home to the Hall family over the next two decades before, in retirement, they settled near Colchester – just about within striking distance of Belgrave Hall if the trains were on time. Having been unable to put as much as they’d have liked back into the Club during those working years, Eric and Mavis were now able to support the Harriers in all that they did, encouraging the team at British League matches, Road Relay and Cross-Country Races. And of course, at Race Walking events, where Eric competed as a veteran, there was always a crowd of familiar faces.

Eric was elected a Life Member of Belgrave Harriers way back in 1957, and in 1999 he was made President. But although the Club remained a huge part of his life, he had many other interests too:  local history, genealogy, and study with the Open University to obtain several degrees. For some time, he was the Treasurer of the British Olympians Society, and was an avid collector of athletics memorabilia. Looking back over the years, as was often done when he met up with his many old athletics friends, he regretted the gradual loss of popularity of Race Walking – at one time as much a part of club life as any other branch of our sport. But he had no regrets about what athletics and Club life had given him: comradeship, travel, a family, and the chance to represent his country at two Olympic Games.