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Pre-~Race ~Dinner and Cabaret |
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Written by Eric Hardwick
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Tuesday, 11 November 2008 13:21 |
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Pre-Race Dinner, Talk and 'OldTime Music Hall Show' SIX TICKETS LEFT !! but e.mail
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to check. The Italian Way Restaurant 25 Castle St. Hastings. (Seafront by Roundabout) Dinner from 6.30p.m. Talk and Cabaret 9.p.m. Choice of five Main Courses and five Sweets. Plenty to Eat! £15. Apply in advance, Cheques to Hastings Lions Club to 219 Harley Shute Road, St. Leonards on Sea, East Sussex, TN38 9JJ. e.maiil for more info. to
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1908 Attire Optional, but welcome! Should be a Great Night! The Hastings 100 Anniversary Marathon Race (1908-2008) th PRE-RACE DINNER, TALK and CABARET Saturday 13 December 2008 th Talk by Celebrated Author John Bryant about 1908 and Marathons. Special 'Old Time Music Hall Show' (1908) Performance. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 09 December 2008 15:40 )
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Written by Eric Hardwick
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Thursday, 28 August 2008 10:50 |
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Seven Post Cards, taken from original unique Photos of the 1908 Hastings Marathon Race,in a celephane presentation pack, are now available for Sale. This limited edition Pack, is a 'Must' Memento of this exciting and historic Event,which you can either keep, or use as postcards, and make your friends and family jealous! Link one of these photos with a 2008 photo of you coming out of Battle High St.,at the same point as postcard shows W.T. Clarke leading in 1908 They are priced at £3.50 per pack, but you can have three for just £10. Plus £1 for P & P. Only available by post, with payment by cheque to Hastings Lions Club, 219 Harley Shute Road, St. Leonards on Sea, East Sussex, TN38 9JJ. Or can be purchased on Race Day at Reception in Town Hall. Any enquiries to
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Last Updated ( Monday, 15 December 2008 11:57 )
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Entry News as at 8th November |
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Written by Eric Hardwick
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Sunday, 31 August 2008 23:35 |
Entry News as at 8th NovemberWe have sent out Race Numbers and information and Race Souvenir Programme for the first 1700 plus entrants on 6th November. It is advised to book early for accommodation for the Saturday Night and Sunday Night,and there will be special pre-race entertainment arranged at venues. The White Rock Hotel, Lansdowne Hotel, Chatsworth Hotel, Hotel Lindum, Castle Hill Guest House, Castleview Guest House,are ideal for Town Centre, and not far away is Grand Hotel. Or you can go to www.accommodationinhastings.co.uk for more detail. Or Tel. 08452741001 If you entered after 27th October, you will not be listed in Souvenir Programme,as we have gone to print with this at end of October. If you are unable to take part and would like to swap your number officially with someone else, go to www.sportsystems.net/hastingsmarathon and follow instructions. If your race pack has not arrived by race day,please arrive early at race reception in Hastings Town Hall to obtain a replacement number. You can order the set of Postcards and T.Shirts in advance. Hope your training is going well. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 09 December 2008 15:37 )
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History of Marathon 1908. |
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Written by Alexander Wilson
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Friday, 31 October 2008 10:15 |
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The Hastings Centennial Marathon Race1908 - 2008 On Sunday 14th December 2008, the town of Hastings in Sussex will play host to a unique, once-in-a lifetime event that no tradition-minded Marathon runner will want to miss. The Hastings Lions Club under the aegis of Eric Hardwick M.B.E. will be promoting a special race to commemorate the centennial of the historic Hastings Marathon Race on 16th December 1908. Entries have already been flooding in for the historic event, which promises to be a great nostalgic occasion – the first organised race of its kind in the United Kingdom. Race Director Eric Hardwick is well known in distance-running circles as the mastermind behind the popular Hastings Half Marathon. The 100th anniversary Marathon race is something of a dream comes true for Hardwick, who first learned of the 1908 event 27 years ago. An effort has also been made, where possible, to retrace the route of the old Marathon course so competitors will have the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of their forerunners a century ago. For some it will simply be a case of getting round and helping to make history. picture This photograph kindly supplied by John Hodges shows the winner, William T Clark, racing along the crowded Hastings sea front towards the finish Life in Britain in 1908 and the Olympic Games in LondonLife in Britain was very different in the bygone days when the Hastings Marathon was first run. Edward VII was on the throne, old age pensions were about to be introduced for the first time, Asquith had just become Prime Minister and London was returning to normality after the Olympic Games had run for a record six months. The Great War was still six years away, and work had just begun on the unsinkable Titanic. The 1908 Hastings Marathon Race was held less than five months after the now legendary London Olympic Marathon, made famous by Dorando Pietri. It will be remembered that on 24th July 1908 Pietri was first to arrive at the White City Stadium after running a distance of some 26 miles from Windsor Castle in terribly hot conditions. The little Italian collapsed five times before finally tottering across the finishing line to the deafening cheers of a capacity 70,000 crowd. Of course, he was subsequently disqualified for receiving assistance as he lay flat out on the cinder track, and the gold medal was awarded to the second runner to finish, Johnny Hayes (USA), after the American delegation successfully lodged a protest. Hayes’ victory under these circumstances was always going to be controversial, and Pietri was widely hailed as the real champion. In fact, Queen Alexandra even took the unprecedented step of awarding the Italian a special engraved gilded silver cup as a memento of his valiant failure. picture The incident that triggered the Marathon Craze after the 1908 Olympics – officials are seen here adminstering stimulant salts to Italy’s Dorando Pietri near the finish of the Olympic Marathon. He won but was later disqualified. The Marathon Craze in BritainThe winning time in the Olympic Marathon was not all that impressive though, and soon the first challengers who thought they could run faster emerged from the woodwork. On 29th August 1908, Robert Bugg (24), of the Salford Harriers, covered 26 miles 385 yards from Watton to Norwich in 3hrs. 7min., beating the time of the first Briton in the Olympic Marathon by some nine minutes but failing to better Hayes’ time in heavy conditions. The professionals were not to be outdone either. On 10th October 1908, a professional Marathon race promoted by the London Evening News was run over a more or less identical course to the Olympic Marathon. There were 89 entries, Frenchman Henri Siret taking full advantage of the favourable conditions to win in a time almost 18 minutes faster than amateur champion Hayes (2hrs. 37min. 23sec.). Three weeks later, bad roads forced the organisers of the Bristol Marathon to make a last-minute change of route, so that the distance run was actually about 23 miles. There were 79 entries and Olympians occupied the first three places, Jack Price (Small Heath Harriers) winning by 200 yards from Fred Lord (Wibsey Park AC) and Harry Barrett (Polytechnic Harriers) in 2hrs. 20min. 22.8sec. Then, on 2nd December 1908, a so-called ‘Marathon’ race promoted by the Reading Observer over a 23¼ mile course attracted an unprecedented level of local interest. 29 of the 60 entrants completed the race, won by Lewis Southwell of the organising club Reading AC in 2hrs. 19min. 15sec. At the time, however, the accepted Marathon distance was 25 miles or 40km, although, strictly speaking, no standard had yet been set in stone. That was the distance covered in the Hastings Marathon, as it was the original distance of the Olympic Marathon before the course was extended to 26 miles 385 yards. At about this time, both Hayes and Dorando turned professional in order to stage a rerun of the contentious Olympic race. Dorando emerged the winner of the match, conducted amid great media hype before a packed house at Madison Square Garden, New York, on 25th November 1908. Of course, Dorando and Hayes raced one another several times after that, as promoters milked their new-found cash cow for all it was worth. Marathon running had suddenly become a lucrative proposition, and so not surprisingly other top professionals of the period, including England’s Alf Shrubb, also got in on the act. And so the stage was set for an international Marathon Craze of unusual proportions. About a dozen post-Olympic Marathon races were run world-wide in 1908, and well over eighty in 1909. Chronologically, the 1908 Hastings Marathon was right in the vanguard of the new fascination with long-distance running. The Hastings Marathon Race Of the 51 men who entered, 41 runners were sent on their way by Hastings M.P. Mr. Arthur du Cros. Covered shoulders and knee length drawers were essential attire for competitors, and local people turned out in vast numbers to cheer them on. The 25-mile course started and finished on the Central Cricket Ground next to the Town Hall (now Priory Meadow Shopping Centre), the route taking in the surrounding villages and towns of East Sussex. After three laps of the cricket ground, the competitors made their way to Silver Hill junction, and from there to Battle via Telham, then on to Catsfield, Ninfield, Sidley and Bexhill, returning to Hastings via Bulverhythe and St. Leonards. The townsfolk along the way, including the inmates of the Battle Workhouse, turned out in full force to watch the first Marathon race they had ever seen. In these pre-television days, the spectators at the finish in Hastings were kept abreast of the race by pigeon post. Incidentally, the starting and finishing point was actually at the birthplace of television, being opposite where John Logie Baird broadcast the first television pictures in 1925. The event was sponsored by OXO, and the OXO vans accompanied the runners, carrying, besides OXO, rice pudding, raisins, bananas, soda, milk, stimulants (!), and 'Eau de Cologne’ with sponges in case of collapse. Each runner was accompanied by a bicyclist, whilst a number of motor cars supervised the race. A number of Olympic runners took part, and the winner was William T Clarke, of Sefton Harriers, who led from start to finish in 2:37:16.8. The Liverpool runner received the Harvey du Cros cup worth £25. Clarke, it will be remembered, had been the first representative of the United Kingdom to finish in the Olympic Marathon, in which he had occupied 12th position. Fred Lord, of Wibsey Park AC, was second in 2:38:13.2 and Harry Barrett, of Polytechnic Harriers, third in 2:38:39.4. Four of the first five finishers were Olympians anxious to atone for their bad showing in London several months earlier. Indeed, the leading men returned excellent times considering the hilly nature of the course. The first six finished the course in the following order: 1......... William T Clarke.. Sefton Harriers 2:37:16.82......... Fred T Lord........... Wibsey Park AC....... 2:38:13.23......... Harry F Barrett. Polytechnic Harriers 2:38:39.44......... Edmund Catt........... Eastbourne AC....... 2:38:58.85......... Jack Price........... Small Heath Harriers 2:40:33.06......... George White........... Eastbourne AC....... 2:50:09.8 In addition to firing the starting pistol, Arthur du Cros supplied and presented the Hastings Cup to the first local runner home – George White. Silver medals were awarded to the competitors who finished within the standard time of 3hrs. 15min. The organisers of this year’s centennial Marathon succeeded in tracking down a relative of W T Clarke, but alas the winner’s trophy could not be found. Hardwick reckons that it has probably been melted down. The valuable solid silver double-handed cup of fluted design weighed over 5 pounds and was nearly two feet tall. Race Director Hardwick had the original cup costed in modern by a jeweller at a price of £75,000! The 1908 event was staged for the welfare of Hastings and the encouragement of two deserving bodies – Hastings Football Club and the Distress Committee for the Relief of the Unemployed. picture The beautiful silver trophy awarded to the winner of the 1908 Marathon race In keeping with the spirit of the original race, the Hastings Lions Club is putting on the 2008 event to promote Hastings and to raise monies for those less fortunate. Starting outside Hastings Town Hall close to the original start in 1908, Hastings M.P. Michael Foster will be sending off the runners as his predecessor Arthur du Cros did in 1908. The 2008 race organisers will also be offering souvenir postcards taken from unique surviving photos of the 1908 race. In addition a special commemorative T-shirt, Hardwick has another surprise in store for competitors: “We are offering to runners the opportunity of a 2008 photo of them also coming out of Battle at the same point, which can be linked with the postcard and photo of finishing.” Marathon field nearly fullOriginally, the organisers had only expected a couple of hundred entries, then due to the event touching the imagination of so many (without advertising), increased the entry limit to 500, then 1000, then 1500, then 1800, and have now decided to close at 1908 entries!!This means that a few more places may be available, as the entry is currently standing at near 1700.Race numbers and information, and a souvenir programme will be sent to entrants on 6th November.For more information visit http://www.hastings-marathon.org.uk/ |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 01 November 2008 13:20 )
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