John Morgan
Track, Fell and Coal-Carrying
75-year-old John Morgan, a retired joiner from Kendal, has figured prominently in Lakeland sport for over fifty years, both as a competitor and official. Like Roger Ingham, who was profiled earlier this year, John has not been content to just turn up and run but has additionally put a tremendous amount of time and effort back into sport.
Born at South Shields in 1932, he was evacuated to Kendal in 1939. During the early '50s, he began fellwalking at weekends, taking the bus from Kendal to Ambleside, Langdale or Armboth Lane Ends at Thirlmere. This led him to enter the second Lake District Mountain Trial in 1953 when it was run over a 16-mile set course from the Old Dungeon Ghyll pub in Great Langdale, taking in Bowfell, Esk Pike, Scafell Pike , Great Gable, Esk Hause and Rossett Gill. John finished a highly creditable 9 th out of 15 starters in a time of 4 hours 28 minutes 6 seconds. It may be of interest to add that the 1919 Grasmere Guides Race winner, Jack Pooley of Hawkshead, had competed the previous year at the age of 59 and had come in 16 th out of 21 starters, while in 1954 Bill Teasdale was allowed to compete unofficially, running without a number, and was last to start and first to finish by half-an-hour.
John's other competitive long-distance run was achieved in the 1968 Fellsman Hike, an arduous course of almost 60 miles taking in eleven summits in the Yorkshire Dales, wearing boots and carrying a rucksack. John had turned up in his normal fellwalking garb and was surprised to note the ultra lightweight gear of some of the other entrants, including maps cut away to cover the event area only. At the kit check at Kingsdale Head, between Whernside and Gragareth, an over-zealous official seemed inclined to bar John from competing further as he recognised him as a professional but finally made do with just criticising some of his gear. John eventually finished a splendid 18 th in 19 hours 20 minutes out of 306 starters, of whom 130 failed to finish.
Track Racing
Meanwhile, back in 1954, John had discovered Lakeland village sports and shows and had begun to compete on the grass track over 880 yards, the Mile and Three Miles. There was no Two Miles event at that time, nor were any of the Shows held on a Sunday, the majority taking place on Saturdays; with the odd exceptions like Grasmere and Ambleside during the week. There was no need to travel to Scotland , recalls John, as there were enough events in the Lakes, though competitors from Yorkshire would keep quiet about their own events in the Dales.
John did his training on the Jubilee Field at Kendal on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. If a Sports had no track events, I would enter the fell race. Lupton and Lowgill were held on the same day, the second Saturday of June, and after competing at Lupton in the afternoon, I would cross the Lune Valley to run in the evening at Lowgill, on the northern flanks of the Bowland fells. The fell race at Lupton used to go up Scout Hill but this Sports is no longer held. I mainly raced on the track at these events but would sometimes do the fell race.
John competed regularly at Grasmere and Ambleside, contesting the Mile and Two Miles at the former and the Half Mile and Mile at the latter. After finishing 4 th and 3 rd in the Grasmere Mile in 1954 and '55 respectively, he eventually triumphed in 1956, while ten years later he ran a faster time to gain 2 nd place. He also placed 2 nd and 3 rd in the Two Miles during the early '60s, with two 4 th positions in the late '60s
.Like most professional Lakeland runners, John did eventually get around to competing in both Yorkshire and Scotland . One afternoon he placed 2 nd in both the Mile and Half Mile at Grassington in Wharfedale, then rode his motorbike over to Hawes in Wensleydale, where he deadheated in the Mile with Johnny Dawson, Appleby. North of the Border, he won the Mile at Annan on one occasion from a rival who cheated by running inside him off the track, his prize being £10. He also competed in middle distance events at the famous Powderhall Sprint at Edinburgh (now held at Musselburgh) but without achieving any success.
Another race which particularly stands out in John's memory took place at Egremont Crab Fair during the early '70s on the occasion of Geoff Tinnion's last event before emigrating to Australia: Because of this, the judges were keen to see him win, but with two of us going for the tape, I got there first and was afterwards impressed when Geoff's trainer, Fred Johnson, came over to me and shook my hand
and said, Well done!' He was a real sportsman. Tinnion was an outstanding runner who often ran from scratch; he won the Mile at Grasmere in 1963 and placed 2 nd in the 880 yards the following year. Coincidentally, John's last competitive event took place at Egremont five years ago when he was placed 3rd in the Mile (now 1600m) at the age of 70.
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