It is with great sadness that we have to announce the passing of John on the 27th January, at QA hospital, after a short illness and contracting covid. Our thoughts and condolences to Joan, Kevin, Christopher, Patrick and Emma, Jamie and Tom and family.
John was one of the original founders of the latest Havant Athletic Club in October 1978, when mostly parents of athletes all coughed up a fiver for the Club kitty. It has to be said that there is no independent evidence suggesting John complied, but for many years afterwards, he consistently claimed that he had done so.
John, a real character, was arguably one of the Clubs most influential figures, a key player in the club’s development, occupying all jobs on the Committee at some time, Treasurer, Membership Secretary including the Team manager for the Senior Men’s Track and Field and Cross-country teams, and Race Director of our main source of income, the Hayling 10 miler, and a coach for decades, even taking time out to coach Nick Western in maths, to ensure a workplace in the dockyard. Latterly posting out Track Records to older members and continuing to support LiverpoolFC.
John’s family share part of that influence, for his son Patrick was not only our best distance runner, from 800 to 10 miles, but a member of Portsmouth Polytechnic (now Portsmouth Uni) and managed to recruit some top athletes from his fellow students there, some 20 of them including David Ng from Japan who still holds the long and triple jump Club records, Olympian Tom Buckner and Pat’s future wife Emma. John’s wife, Joan, adopted the role of timekeeper, only retiring a few years ago, and was also a member of the previous Havant AC which ran between 1930 and 1955. She also took the current Club’s flexibility sessions in the winter. Their twins, Christopher and Kevin, older than Pat, also competed and trained at the club for many years.
As Senior Men’s Team Manager there was none better than Gus/John for persuading athletes over the telephone, from their Saturday jobs, romantic entanglements, perceived injuries or illnesses. Did he really say, “if it’s only a stress fracture how about the relay?”. Ok, so the last one is unconfirmed, but distance runner Tom, our Olympian, out with an ankle injury, was pressured into filling a place in the javelin. In those cases of initial reluctance to abandon their Saturdays, say something like 5 minutes conversation, when most managers would have given up hope, John would be at the stage of “that’s not a ‘no’ then”. But he surely had everyone’s interests at heart.
As track and field manager he wouldn’t miss a trick, and would be urging on our long distance athletes on every lap, subtly letting them know that they looked as though they could pick up the pace. His favourite anecdote was when Pat was asked by a fellow 800m runner in a league match what his pb was. Pat told him 1m 50s. Pat was then asked what the B runner’s pb was, and Pat informed him he was the B runner, Tom the A.