Welcome to Hot Spikes

In this section the aim is to show case, Inspirational Athletes, Coaches, Volunteers and Officials.

Who we hope will inspire and motivate others on to greater achievement.

Hosted here are also our club statistics and records.

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The Cyril Elliott Open a short history
The majority of the comments below come from these two founder members plus a few snippets from others who knew him. Out of the shadow of Tom Flory, Coach to the Boys and Colts section at the time, came a man who was destined to have such a long lasting effect on our club. Cyril Elliott had been Tom's right hand man and when Tom left, Cyril stepped in to take over the coaching of the younger athletes until his untimely death in 1986. The Club used Stockton's Tilery Sports Centre as its base but moved to Clairville in the early 80's.

From the comments of all our contributors, Cyril possessed many good qualities. He had a calm disposition and treated everyone equally. He was cheerful, always encouraging, a father figure to many of his athletes and his sessions reflected his character. Cyril was there to develop fitness, enjoyment and a level of discipline. If he thought an athlete too good for his group and with prospects, he encouraged them to move on. Some evenings he would have up to 50 athletes using the gym at Tilery. (Long since demolished by Stockton Council) He had many successful athletes over the years with at least 2 of our young! Ladies still members of the club and competing under the name of Middlesbrough Athletic Club (Mandale)

After Cyril died, to our surprise, he had left a legacy to be used as we saw fit for the benefit of the club.

So why an open meeting?

Both Roy and Mike as administrators of the trust and as coaches decided that it would be useful to initiate an Open meeting using Cyril's money to fund the venue etc. but more importantly to have a standards meeting early in the Track & Field season. The first was held on April 3 rd 1988 and has continued to take place successfully every year since.

As you athletes and parents read this about Cyril, a man dedicated, enthusiastic, cheerful, positive and prepared to put a lot of time and effort into all his athletes, think about your own coaches and Club Committee and what they do for you. Never take them for granted!

Contributions from Mike Starford, Roy Bradley, Brian Davison, Andy Ward and Jill King

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2009 Club Awards presented by Chris Tomlinson, British Long Jump Record Holder 2002 to 2009, and 2008 World Indoor Champion Silver Medallist, Bronze Medalist at the 2010 European Championships in Barcelona.

On the evening Chris gave a short talk about his career. He started off by saying, to a packed room, that his dad had brought him down to Clarville at 11 years old. He was an enthusiastic child but wasn't that fast, adding in his early years he got beaten repeatedly in events by a Daniel Angus, at 11, 12, and 13 years. When Chris turned 14 he was still loosing to Daniel who was very dedicated, Chris said to himself that one day he would beat Daniel. Chris thought he'd try some other event and decided to push sprinting to one side and do the triple jump, he was only a short guy at the time and it was pretty scary, but he managed to compete well and got inspired at the English School Championships where he won and was very proud to have competed for Teesside.

At 19 he had to change his allegiances to a southern club for better competition. He ate, slept, breathed athletics, trained twice a day, at 20 he made it onto the world stage and has traveled the world since and met great people. Chris reiterated that at the start of his career, he wasn't the most talented, wasn't the best, however he was enthusiastic, he owed everything to his start on the Tuesdays and Thursdays training at Clarville. He never lost site of his roots in the area. Chris said that he had been fortunate to have started at a brilliant fantastic warm club, which helped him keep focused and disciplined, coupled this with hard work it had aloud him to develop, he noted that there were new faces at the club since his time but recognised in the audience Brian Walsh, who was his first long jump coach and went on to acknowledge Jean Simmons also present, from the time he was with the club.

Questions then came from the floor;

Chris when you were growing up which was more important training or homework?
You should really ask me mam!, Chris' mum laughed and answered athletics!, Chris said he always put athletics first he was keen on it, but stressed education is very important and that the children should always do their homework and concentrate on their school work, however this was said with smile on his face and a glint in his eye and caused a lot of laughter in the room.

What does it feel like to travel with and be part of team GB?
Representing your country is one of the best feelings ever, he said. He went on to say that when he had won the Schools Championships he got such a great feeling from that, that he didn't think he could ever better that feeling, but he was encouraged and told that if he kept on working hard he could attain a much better feeling, as he has gone on to represent his country he realised that this was true and hopes that it will only get better.

At the end of his speech Charles Stuart thanked Chris for taking the time to come along and had the honour to bestow on Chris Life Member Middlesbrough AC (Mandale). Charles introduced each of the awards with a short explanation to how the award was won, full transcript of this can be found here. more>>

2009 Awards Recipients

2008/2009 Cross Country

U13 Girl Hannah McClean

U15 Girl Jessica Wilkinson

U15 Boy Matthew Rhodes

U17 Women Stephanie Allison

U17 Men Nick Woolley

Senior Men Mehari Habteab

Vet Women Andrea Rhodes

Vet Men Paul Kitson

Special mention of Phillipa Stone in U11 girls XC Races

Track & Field

U13 Girl
Track - Emma Wortley 800/1500m
Field - Chyna Wood Shot Putt

U13 Boy
Track - Ben Spencer 800m U13 Boy
Field - Sam Day Long Jump + NYSD Match 6 Man of the Match

U13 Girls
Annabel Blott - 1500m + NYSD Match 6 Female of the Match

U15 Girl
Track - Eleanor Mullen and Rachel Highfield 100m & 200m,
Field - Emelia Mack Long Jump

U15 Boy
Track - Bradley Wright 800m,
Field - Patrick O'Connor High Jump

U17 Ladies
Track - Kate Welford 300m,
Field - Sarah Parsons Discuss

U17 Men
Track - Ben Stephenson 200m,
Field - Ben Daley Hammer

U20 Lady
Track - Ashleigh Wood 100mH,
Field - Chloe Gill Triple Jump

U20 Men
Track - Nick Phelps 400mH,
Field - Charlie Dryden Long jump

Senior Lady
Track - Faye Winspear 100m,
Field - Keighley Sullivan Hammer

Senior Men
Track - Richard Blake Smith 400m Hurdles,
Field - Adebayo (Ade) Babatunde Triple Jump

YAL Team Player of the Year - nominated by Team Managers
U15 Girl Club Athlete - Jessica Wilkinson - nominated by Jean Simmons
U17 Man - Club Athlete Christian Carson - nominated by Andrew Maguire
Junior Club athlete Team Player of the Year Elliott Hills - nominated by Michele Sullivan

Overall Outstanding Male Performances to go to Ben Stephenson for his Silver Medal 200m at the UK School Games + 200m Bronze Medal at the U17 National Championships & Yorkshire AA. Champion.

Overall Woman's performance goes to Ashleigh Wood for her ESAA Championship Silver Medal in the Senior Ladies 100m Hurdles Competition plus 4th place and Heptathlon pb of 4249 points at the England Athletics Combined Events Championships.

Senior Men Outstanding Performance goes to Adebayo (Ade) Babatunde - Triple Jump, Ade had a great season winning the BUCS Championships Triple Jump. Also winning all his NoE League match events, topping the NE Po10 ranked UK 4th - U23.

Although athletics competition is in general personal, being a member of a team gives an edge to performance and by doing helps improve the athlete not just as an athlete but in life. To our victorious NJL Northern Championship Playoff (U20) team members, including all involved during the 2009 season, the Club are most happy to provide an individual awards in recognition of their success, they included:

Christian Carson, Jack Chapman, Joe Corrigan, Joe Cox, Ben Daley, Charlie Dryden, Jordan Gill, Alex Grundmann, Harry Harris, Lewis Harvey, Grant Hawkins, Karl Hawkins, Phil Hay, Elliot Hills, Elliot Jackson, Rob Longstaff, Shaun McCartney, Tom Murphy, Nick Phelps, Matthew Potts, Iain Swall, Ben Stephenson, Stephanie Allison, Kate, Laylock, Helen Corrigan, Emily Fields, Kristina Grant, Courtney Frost, Chloe Gill, Rachel Goodier, Lorna Goldsmith, Heather Johnson, Jess Kennedy, Leah Kennedy, Rebecca Maguire, Catherine Maynell, Rachel Mitchinson, Jayme, Norton Christina O'Connor, Sarah Parsons, Sofiya Pela-Aliu, Jenny Phelps, Abbie Smith, Emma Stokes, Kate Welford, Ashleigh Stone, Jess Wilkinson, Ashleigh Wood, Team Manager Michele Sullivan.

Closing the awards Charles Stuart gave a “Big thank you ” to all the Club Coaches and Officials, who by their actions enable the Club to succeed, with their endeavour anything is possible and athletes dreams are made real.

Marino Rea Danilowicz

Note, an award should have been given to Pat for the best pose taken with Chris and for kicking off the karaoke, check the gallery!!! plus further photos of the night. more>>

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Lillian Board
Sport has a special capacity to mourn. To miss dreadfully, and in perpetuity, outstanding talents that were never allowed to blossom fully. A gaping hole may be left in the record books but over the years the memory of admirers and supporters gradually fills the vacuum.

Lillian Board is one such individual, struck down at the age of 22 by bowel cancer with athletics and the world at her feet. It is difficult to think of a more glamorous figure in British sport, nor a more hard-core dedicated athletics talent. A golden girl not so much touched by stardust as smothered in the stuff but also a sensationally talented athlete who had barely scratched the surface.

It is over 39 years now since she died in a Munich hospital one snowy Boxing Day evening having travelled to Germany to receive intensive treatment with Dr Josef Issels at the Ringberg Cancer clinic. The BBC interrupted the evening festivities with a sombre newsflash. I remember it to this day. Just about every sports fan of a certain age dose.

The previous year she had been enjoying the week of her life at the European Championships in Athens. Disappointed with a silver in the 400 metres at the Mexico Olympics in 1968 — although everybody else in the British camp was thrilled at the 20 year old's performance — Board set out to re-launch her career.

photo' reproduced from the biography 'Lillian' taken at an Intentional meet held at Clairville Stadium August 16th 1969 where Lillian won the 400m in 53.7secs.

Nagging lower back pains — possibly an ominous precursor to her eventual illness — saw Board switch from 400 m to 800 m that season and she romped home gloriously in the longer event to win her first major European Championship gold medal. But she wasn't finished yet. Though no longer able to train specifically for the 400 m she fully intended to take her place in Britain's 4 x 400 m squad and as luck would have it she lined up on the last leg opposite France's Colette Besson, the girl who had beaten her for gold in Mexico.

There is a photo by Ed Lacey in her biography which captures the precise moment Board took the baton from Janet Simpson two metres adrift of Besson. There is a piercing look of such concentration and determination in her eyes that you instantly know something special is about to happen. And it did. There was no force on earth that was going to stop Board overhauling the Olympic champion and bringing home a second gold for Britain that night. It was her last meaningful race before her illness took a grip the following spring.

Gone but not forgotten. Rebecca Lyne, who transformed herself from a promising middle distance athlete into a genuine Olympic prospect, dedicated her hard-fought bronze medal in the women's 800 m at the 2006 European Championships in Gothenburg, to Board. Lyne had stumbled on a copy of her biography — written by Board's boyfriend, journalist David Emery — and was blown away by the story, and had felt inspired ever since.

Taken from 'Snooker now joins a list of sports which mourn the loss of their bright young stars'
By Brendan Gallagher, telegraph.co.uk, 13 Oct 2006 more>>

Lillian Board biography Wikipedia. more>>

Video of Lillian Board, competing in the 400m final at the 1968 Olympics. more>>

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2008 Club Awards Recipients
Awards this year were presented by Brian Davison - Life Member Middlesbrough AC (Mandale).

Cross Country
U13 Girl Faye McClusky, U13 Boy Matthew Rhodes

U15 Girl Stephanie Allison, U15 Boy Nick Woolley

U17 Men Grant Hawkins

U20 Men Adam Mitchell

Outstanding Performance went to Kayleigh Mills for her ESAA Championship Gold performance in the U17 Ladies Hammer Competition.

Athlete of the Year went to Ashleigh Wood UK Top 10 ranked in 4 Events.

Track and Field
U13 Girls - Track Rachel Highfield 75/150m (100+200m), Field Hannah McLaren - High Jump

U13 Boys - Track Patrick O'Connor - 75mH, Field Patrick O'Connor - High Jump

U15 Girls - Track Emily Fields - 800m, Field Vanessa Jacques - Discus

U15 Boys - Track Richard Hodgson - 200m, Field Matthew Potts - Hammer and Iain Swall - Discuss.

U17 Ladies - Track Kate Welford - 100m/200m, Field Ashleigh Wood – Long Jump, Chloe Gill- Triple Jump

U17 Men's - Track Joe Cox - 400mH, Field Ben Daley - Hammer

U20 Ladies - Track Kirsty Legg - 800m, Field Kayleigh Sullivan - Hammer

U20 Men's - Track - Nick Phelps - 400mH, Field Charlie Dryden - Long jump

Senior Ladies - Track Emma Payne - 100mH, Field Rachel Fairless - Pole Vault

Senior Men's - Track Glen Blenkinsop - 110mHurdles, Field Adebayo (Ade) Babatunde - Triple Jump

Club Athlete Team Players of the Year
Courtney Frost and James Diedrick

In addition Nick Phelps and Ashleigh Wood received awards from the NYSD league.

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Coaches and athletes were honoured at the 2008 North East Regional Athletics Awards.

One of the main winners was our own coach Jean Simmons who was nominated for the Services to Athletics Award.

Jean who has been involved in athletics for over 50 years. Was rewarded for her tireless work within Local, Regional and National athletics both as an administrator and as the areas leading coach in the Hurdles, Jumps and sprints.

In previous years Jean has coached athletes such as Alison Curbishley and Anthony Borsumato to Olympic and international level in the 400m hurdles. As well as internationals such as Joss Harwood and sprinter Jon Stewart. She continues the excellent work to this day with young athletes such as Charlie Dryden, Ashleigh Wood and Nick Phelps.

Another popular winner was in the female young athletes section was Hartlepool and Middlesbrough AC (mandale) athlete Kayleigh Mills. The 16 year old Hammer thrower has had an exceptional season winning the English Schools title and finishing third in both the UK and British Schools Championships. The latter when representing England.

Rick Betts

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Dick Ripley : The “Forgotten Chariot”
Richar d N Ripley (Dick) ran in the 1924 Olympic Games, along with Abrahams & Liddell. He was not mentioned in the film Chariots of Fire but was a very great athlete in his own right. From 1924 to 1926 Dick represented the AAA in all the representative matches, being the only runner to have done so, and he never failed to count for his team.

Dick was the Northumberland and Durham Champion at 440 yards for six consecutive years, an achievement that has never been beaten. In addition although he moved back to his native Hartlepool by the age of five, Dick used his birth in North Ormesby to enable him to qualify for the Yorkshire title and he became the Yorkshire 440 yards Champion for at least one year.

The fact that Dick was selected for the Olympic team in 1924 was undoubtedly an outstanding achievement. In those days athletes were usually wealthy or connected to a University. Dick was just a normal working lad from the North East and a member of West Hartlepool Harriers (later to become Hartlepool Burn Road Harriers).  He ran in the 4 x 400m relay team and obtained a Bronze medal. He found this a disappointment because the team that ran that day was not the one originally selected and the correct team should have taken Gold.

The original team included Eric Liddell. Liddell had strong religious beliefs and would not run on Sunday. Although the film Chariots of Fire, made it clear that Liddell changed his distance from 100m to 400m because the heats for the 100m individual race were to take place on Sunday, it did not mention that Liddell pulled out of the relay as well. The final of the relay also fell on Sunday. Two weeks later, the British Team, but this time including Liddell, beat the USA Olympic Gold winners in the Empire Games at Stamford Bridge. This photo shows that team, left to right Eric Liddell, E Toms, G Butler and Dick Ripley.

Following the Olympics, Dick beat the French Olympic 400m runners, Teneveaux and Galtier, in an Amateur Athletic Association match against France. The following year he again won the same race with the fastest time in Europe. In 1925 he was English 440 yards champion and was the fastest English 400m/440yards runner. Altogether he achieved 17 individual titles and won 44 first prizes in open competition.

Despite all the titles Dick held, he always counted one of his greatest honours as being part of the Guard of honour to His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales, during his official tour of Paris, during the 1924 Olympics in Paris. Dick is on the left of the Prince in picture.
          
Dick's career did end with a degree of tragedy when he tore a ligament not long before the 1928 Olympics. He used to say that after that he had a lot of luck, the trouble was it was all bad! His first wife died of cancer, leaving him to bring up three small children alone. His eldest son was murdered in Australia, whilst serving in the Merchant Navy. His second wife was involved in a bad accident and left for dead at the side of the road. She eventually recovered but was never quite the same and his youngest daughter got measles at a very early age, leaving her with a chest problems. Despite all this Dick was not a bitter or miserable man. He had a fantastic outlook on life and, although he never had much money he lived life to the full. He died at the age of 95, on 14th July 1996 .

Dick's dedication to athletics was unprecedented and his achievements, even by today's standards were outstanding. If you would like to read more about this incredible athlete, I have written a historical novel, based very closely on Dick's life.

The book is called The Forgotten Chariot (ISBN 978-0-9558593-6-6) price £7.99. The publisher is Cormorant Publishing Hartlepool Tel: 01429 865066 or e-mail www.riddlewrites.co.uk. Anyone living in the Hartlepool area can purchase the novel from W H Smiths, Middleton Grange Shopping Centre or Pocket Papers, The Marina. Otherwise the book can be ordered directly from Mr Ripleys daughter and book author Jennie Shurmer. Tel: 01429 291039 or Mobile 07895177863.

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2006 Club Award Winners.

To enlarge click on a Photograph