R.A.F. Cardington on Saturday 05/03/1955 (Senior Men)

PIRIE WINS NATIONAL WITHOUT HIS SHOES!

SOUTH LONDON HARRIERS FIRST TEAM TITLE

The sixty eighth English Cross-Country Championship took place at RAF Cardington in Bedfordshire. The start was in the shadow of the two huge airship hangers and the runners changed in the wooden RAF huts in the dining block with a bugle sounding 15 munites before the start. The flat nine-mile course consisted of three laps of rough grass, stubble, very heavy plough and deep ditches, the weather conditions were cold with a bitter wind.

Gordon Pirie (South London Harriers), looking for a hattrick of victories, made his customary rapid start leaving the mass of club runners in his wake. Pirie was 20 yards ahead a furlong into the race.

After the first lap the lead was 70 yards with E. Kirkup (Rotherham Harriers), Pat Ranger (Eastbourne Rovers), Ken Norris (Thames Valley Harriers), Frank Sando (Aylesford Paper Mills), H. V. Foord (Brighton AC) and E. L. Hardy (Derby and County AC) close up. Pirie had to contend with an encroaching crowd to such a degree that the following group caught up some of the ground, Kirkup then closed the gap but could not live with the pace and stamina of Pirie and fell back.

At the end of the second Pirie still led, but soon after the start of the third lap Pirie lost a shoe, he was however undeterred, removed the other and went on to win by 26 seconds in 51mins. 44sec. from Ranger, the R.A.F. corporal, with Norris third.

Hardy, M. R. Maynard (Herne Hill Harriers) and Sando had a tussle for fourth place with Hardy just edging out the other two. Afterwards Pirie said 'It was no use running with only one on, so I took the other off'.

Pirie also led South London Harriers to their first senior team title. It an exciting race, South London won by 63 points from Birchfield Harriers, who had hoped to add to their twenty-eight victories in the event to date. Bolton United who had won the previous year at Birkenhead were third.