Club history

 

Blaydon Harriers formed originally in 1908 and was active until it disbanded in 1952 (for want of administrators!). Its headquarters was the Bisley Hotel, Blaydon. The club took part in competitive events, mainly cross country and road racing almost weekly throughout this long period of time interrupted only by the years of the Great War and the Second World War.
One achievement of note was the triumph of J McCluskey who took first place for Blaydon in the Morpeth to Newcastle Road Race on January 1st 1914; the field for that race comprised teams from the length and breadth of the country (plus Scotland) and the distance was 13 miles and six furlongs.

At the end of this period of suspended animation, the club was re-formed as Blaydon Harrier and Athletics Club in October 1963. For the next five years, the club was to all intents homeless, seeking out venues and training facilities wherever it could at such places as Blaydon Rugby Club and Axwell Park School playing fields. There was great rejoicing when changing and training facilities were finally secured at Blaydon Grammar School in 1968.
Ever since then, there has been an ongoing campaign to establish a permanent headquarters for the club on the site which has recently been redeveloped to provide a Leisure and NHS Medical Facility. Throughout this time, the club has kept a tenuous presence on the site and thus protected the land occupied by the sports facilities from being sold off to developers.
The several sections of the club membership are now reunited on the site after a period of some six or seven years separation.

Since 1963, the club has thrived in competition in road, cross country and track and field.
We have had two Great Britain Olympic representatives in Kirstie Wade (also Commonwealth Games Champion at 800 and 1500metres) and our own Jill Hunter who was a member from her early teens. Perhaps, the most significant feature of our club is that it ‘invented’ The Blaydon Race in 1981. Run every 9th June, the race has grown from a field of 212 on its first running with a limit of 400 entries to the present when the limit of 4000 is exceeded by several hundreds each year.

The iSee Gateshead Local History web site has some interesting pictures here