Retro reports part 4: Muswell Hill Runners

Not all Heathsiders will be aware that London Heathside is the result of the merging of two clubs, North London AC and Muswell Hill Runners. Over the past few weeks we have had a few articles on how North London AC grew and developed, and now Steve Woolf gives an affectionate and potted history of the formation and growth of Muswell Hill Runners. He’s captured the heady days of the 80s when marathon fever hit and the running boom exploded, and the article continues up to the merger and the formation of London Heathside in 2000.

“With not quite the same historical roots as North London AC, Muswell Hill Runners was set up as one of the first of the ‘new breed’ of clubs which sprang up all over the country in the early 1980s in response to the staging of the first London Marathon (which was in 1981). As is usually the case with such groups, it wasn’t set up as a club at all, but emerged from a running group formed by Andy Marks, a local Highgate accountant who had a place in the inaugural London Marathon and, if my memory serves me correctly, placed a message in Time Out (at that time still a proper listing and events magazine) asking for running partners to train with.

Steve, Barbara, Lei Eng, Nigel and fellow Muswell Hill Runners

There are no active members of London Heathside who were in that initial group, but a very early recruit was David Robertson, the current Heathside Secretary, who at the time was oscillating between the newly formed club and the rather more traditional Highgate Harriers. Another ex-Heathsider who many people will know from his marshalling, cheering and regular pub and party attendances was Alan Gibson, who joined Muswell Hill very soon after its inception as a running club. At this stage, the training runs were solely steady runs, no mention of warm-ups. And not very beginner-friendly either. It was almost assumed when you joined that you were training for a marathon, or at least a half-marathon.

Club runs were on Thursdays and Sundays. The Thursday run started in Highgate station car park with up to 40-50 runners arriving in their shorts or hastily changing in the open air  (to the bemusement of the commuters emerging from the Tube station – running in public was quite unusual in the early 80s), then immediately left for a couple of laps round Muswell Hill which took in the very steep Wood Vale before heading out for laps around Highgate Village. After the run virtually everyone went to the Woodman pub on the corner of Muswell Hill Road for post-run beers – you were even expected to sign your attendance in a book and if you attended without running, write “Pub only” next to your name. Meanwhile someone would come around with a large display model Refreshers tube into which you put £2 for your run fee.

Of course, before going to the pub people did try to put on a modicum of non-sweaty, clean clothing, which necessitated a car park strip in front of the aforementioned commuters. One of our more (ahem…) unusual members used to have a Volvo estate car with a large tank of water in the back so that at the end of the run he could put the tank on the top of the rear hatchback, strip down to his speedos and have a makeshift shower – this even in the middle of winter!

Sunday runs were pretty tough as I recall – I didn’t dare go on one for over a year after joining even though I already had two marathons under my belt – I’d just heard about tough runs through Waterlow Park, various difficult bits of Hampstead Heath and the Heath Extension – I think they were about 13 miles each Sunday!

For the first couple of years the club was run by a small conclave – I never did find out exactly who, but not that long after I joined there was a democratic rebellion and a committee was set up to run the club, which by now had a regular presence in several road race fixtures and was beginning to dip its toes into cross-country. An annual subscription was introduced, and the club kit was standardised with a club vest, red on top and white at the bottom, separated by a middle black band with “Muswell Hill” printed across in white. The club logo was a running shoe with wings…

We carried on like this for a number of years until our equilibrium was shattered by the Woodman closing for refurbishment. We then decamped to the Shepherds pub (now Boogaloo) just down Archway Road from the Woodman. They were very grateful for our patronage as I think they hadn’t been doing that well. The Shepherds took full advantage of their increased custom and made sure they retained our loyalty by making sure we’d drunk enough to earn our reward that appeared at about 10 o’clock – some rather soggy sandwiches, and some bits of fried something, possibly chicken or possibly something else, which became known to one and all as ‘the greasy bits’.

By this time, the club runs had expanded to take in a Tuesday night run more aimed at beginners and a shorter Sunday run at 11am while the traditional tougher run started at 10am.

It became clear by now that, if we were to be genuinely attractive to new runners, rather than the beery clientele thus far, that we needed a club base, so it was decided to take up the offer of moving to the Hornsey Cricket Club, where there were (gasp!) changing rooms and showers – sometimes even hot showers! Also, of course, a bar! The move was not without opposition I have to say: some people were firmly wedded to the idea of changing in a cold car park in Highgate… By this time the most popular training session was Tuesday night, with a regular turnout of 50-60.

By this time, the club was beginning to see itself as a semi-serious athletics, cross-country and road-running club.  We had started competing in the Chingford XC League which was a mixture of cross-country and road races. Bizarrely at that time, women were permitted to run in the Chingford League but did not score! There was also a Summer League which had a format of a 10K race followed by a 6 x 800m relay, often on grass. There were regular large club attendances at various road runs, including the Bishops Stortford 10, the Cabbage Patch 10, the Canterbury 10, the Watford half-marathon, the midweek Tring 10K and the Pitsea 5. Lots of foreign jaunts were organised with mass excursions to Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels, and to Hardelot in France, near Boulogne,where there were very friendly 10K and 20K races which used to attract large numbers of runners from England happy to combine a foreign race with a ‘booze cruise’.

Cross-country races became well-supported by large numbers of members of all abilities. Time Out did a piece on cross-country running around London which ended with “...they finish up in the pub, glowing with beer and bonhomie. A friendlier bunch you couldn’t hope to meet” and then gave contact details for our club and only our club! So that was where we got our strapline: “North London’s friendliest running club”. And already the tradition had started which has carried on into London Heathside, of having a very strong women’s cross-country squad.

By this time, we had entered a team in the men’s Southern League in 1988 at the behest of one of our faster members with a bit of a track and field background. The women’s equivalent launched later, partly because any club that didn’t have juniors (we didn’t then) was always penalised as fixtures included girls’ events (juniors weren’t required in the men’s competitions).  Again, men and women of all standards used to roll up to compete. The line that was constantly trotted out before you did any event was “it doesn’t matter if you’re no good at that, just do it and at least get a point for us!” So, I ended up doing long jump while Barbara’s specialisms were javelin, discus and 3000m. Seems like a very long time ago…”

Paula, Pam, Barbara and Caroline warming up before Cheshunt XC - October 1998

By this time the club was well established as a regular competitor in the Chingford League, took part regularly in the English National and Southern XC championships and had a firm footing in the Summer League, which brought together all the ‘new breed’ running clubs.

The club consolidated with a steady flow of new members into the early and mid-1990s, but without many signs of athletic progress in either cross-country or track and field. Meanwhile the marathon boom which had brought about the club’s formation and early growth had passed its peak. Shorter races, 10K and 5K, were becoming more popular and this coincided with a second running boom with many charity races springing up and fewer races organised in the traditional way by clubs.  A new junior section coached by Kabir Kemp and Roy Laws was thriving. But towards the end of the decade, it was clear that some of the more ambitious athletes were becoming a little frustrated by what was perceived by many as an aging and perhaps unambitious membership. There was more and more liaising between Muswell Hill Runners and our near neighbours,North London AC and a few members had a foot in both clubs. North London AC also had issues around recruitment and had lost its former base in the British League. It seemed to make sense to pool resources, so we began the talks and consultations which would eventually lead to the formation of London Heathside.

At its formation the new club, briefly called Muswell Hill/North London, had just over 150 paid-up members. London Heathside now has probably between 650 and 700 members, juniors and seniors. I’m no longer a member having moved out of London, But I’m proud to have been a member of both MHR and London Heathside. I think it worked out OK…

Notable dates

February 1981: Muswell Hill Runners founded

June 1982: First club handicap race in Highgate Wood (2 circuits, later changed to 3 circuits for men, 2 for women, then the current distance of 5K for all runners)

October 1984: MHR enters Chingford League (mix of XC and road)

February 1986: First MHR Anniversary 5M race using Parkland Walk, forerunner of the Heathside 5

February 1986: MHR competes in South of England XC Championships

May 1988: MHR men compete in Southern League

July 1988: Move from Highgate station car park to Hornsey Cricket Club

April 1990: MHR men compete in Southern 12-stage relay

May 1991: MHR organises first inter-club London to Brighton mixed gender relay, won by Mornington Chasers. 16 legs of 4 miles each, teams of 8. Eventually abandoned because increased traffic levels rendered it unsafe

April 1993: MHR women join Women’s Southern League

January 1996: First proposals emerge to join with Mornington Chasers or North London AC

September 1996 – 1997: Junior section coached by Kabir Kemp more than doubles in size

June 1999: Juniors compete in McDonald’s Young Athletes League

October 1999: Merger talks with North London AC begin

1st April 2000: New Club formed – temporary name Muswell Hill/North London

3rd September 2000: New club officially becomes London Heathside