While flicking through the TV channels looking for something to watch I happened upon an episode of ‘The Repair Shop’.The programme was part way through, but what caught my attention was a lady had brought a trophy she was wanting restored.
I had missed most of the story but gathered that the trophy, ‘The China Cup, had been won by her father, a sprinter with Herne Hill Harriers.
I then decided I would try to find out something about this trophy and what it represented. After following a host of spurious leads via Google, the best I could come up with was an entry made by the son of Charles Dickens in the Dickens Dictionary of London in 1879. The entry reads that London Athletics Club “possess seven handsome challenge cups…… There are also three other cups….. which may in the event of a certain number of victories be won by some fortunate athlete. These are….. and the 600 yard cup called the ‘China Cup’ from the fact of its having been presented to the club by some old members now resident in China.””
I wonder if this is the same cup?
When you first join an athletics club you soon find out, if you don’t already know, who are the better runners and what they have achieved. Then you find out about some of the older runners and what they achieved in the past. But this is all relatively recent history and there most be loads of cases in athletics clubs up and down the country where past achievements have been forgotten.
I stumbled across one such case with regards to my own club, Blaydon Harriers, while reading a book I have previously written a post about, ‘Sydney Wooderson A Very British Hero’ by Rob Hadgraft.
Matt Smith of Blaydon Harriers ran the 10 mile, English Cross Country Championship at Apsley, near Hemel Hempstead. In severe winter conditions to finish 2nd behind Bertie Robertson of Reading AC, with Sydney Wooderson finishing in 7th position.
The photo above shows Bertie Robertson in the lead at the end of the first of 4 two and a half mile laps with Blaydon’s Matt Smith in second.
As a result of finishing in the top 10 Smith was selected to represent England in the International Cross Country Championships held at Saint-Cloud in France where he finished in 27th position. The England team taking 3rd place behind France and Belgium.
- photos from Sport & General Photos
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