[Girls records coming soon!]

Everyone has a Mastermind subject and mine is Worksop College athletics. I don't know why, but I have always just had a bit of a thing for remembering athletics stats. I am conscious that the College athletics records aren't officially published anywhere so I thought I would do the decent thing and get them up on the OW site as a permanent record. They always provide a bit of a talking point and seeing as it is summer term, what better time to get them out there.

Athletics started at Worksop in 1895 and over the last 126 years we have produced some excellent athletes and performances. We've had 3 National Junior Champions (4 titles), 2 England Schools Champions (3 titles), AAA senior champions, European, Commonwealth and World Championship medallists; needless to say some of our records reflect that! Here's a few other stats/facts that may be of interest:

• Worksop has been amongst the top athletics schools in the country a number of times during its history
• In the 1930s, Worksop suddenly started producing a whole host of quality schoolboy athletes - this could have possibly been down to the improvement in rugby standards at the time - Worksop were the best rugby school in the north of England at the time. In 1938 J.S Pinkney (more famous for his rugby) jumped over 21 feet in the long jump and set College records of 10.2 100y, 23.0 220y and 53.4 440y
• In 1948 P.S. Southcott ran evens (10.0) for the 100y at Cranwell - for a schoolboy this was rather exceptional - he was one of many athletes who started competing in external events such at the Notts Champs - Worksop started winning plenty of cups!
• In the 1950s we'd compete against Olympians in the annual Achilles Club fixture, they'd often run in handicap matches to ensure there wasn't a mismatch but some athletes were of such quality that handicaps were scrapped
• W.B. Thompson won a AAA junior title over 200y hurdles in 1954 and came second over 120y hurdles on the same day
• P.R. Brunyee set an England Schools championship best performance in the 120y hurdles in 1956 (when in the lower VIth) - this remains a record
• Worksop regularaly produced hurdlers that were ranked in the top 20 in the UK and during a 6 year period lost only one hurdles race (when Brunyee was beaten by Hind of Lancing who was AAA junior champion at the time)
• In summer 1959, fourteen Worksop boys could run sub 2:10 in the 880y, with six bettering 2:06 and two sub 2 minutes
• In 1960 the College team defeated all-comers including Marlborough, Lancing and Manchester Grammar School, who were consistently the best schools in the UK for athletics at the time
• In 1963 two College boys went sub 23.0 in the 220y
• 30 years later two College boys went sub 22.0 in the 200m!
• Such is the quality of our 126 year old athletics records, there are some rather good athletes who no don't hold any best performances, including:
  • William Heath - AAA junior champion 100y & 220y (1931) and Public Schools 100y champion
  • David Griffiths - Commonwealth Games 1962 over 880y and mile, army champion 440y, 880y and mile
  • Bill Foster - 2:15 marathon PB and competed for GB at the 1994 European Champs
  • Tom Buckner - 5th place at the 1994 Commonwealth Games over 3000m steeplechase, Olympian and World Champs in the 3000m steeplechase

Senior boys (under 19)

Intermediate boys (under 17)

Junior boys (under 15)

Record-breaking performances omitted due to wind-assistance etc