Robert's (Bob's) Reflections
Robert (Bob) Hunter. I’m 55 married to Dianne (31 years – longer than a life sentence) and have a son Jeremy (30) unattached (any takers) and a daughter Melissa (28) married to John and they have 2 children Jessica (6) and Harrison (3).
I am a life member of Enfield Harriers (granted 30 yrs ago) and am a Merit Award holder with Athletics SA. With Enfield Harriers I have been a Junior Social Chairman, President, President/Secretary, Committee member, Track Captain and gained many awards – mainly top point scorer.
With ASA I have been Summer Track representative on the ASA board as well as Development Director. I have been an Official at the World Juniors (Sydney 1996), Olympics (Sydney 2000), Commonwealth Games (Melbourne 2006), and I was Competition Manager of the World Police and Fireman’s Games (Adelaide 2007). From this you can see that I am deeply involved in athletics. I love the sport and enjoy the friendships of other’s involved in the sport.
I, along with Trevor Wiseman, also a Enfield stalwart, have been responsible for organising the Secondary track and field and cross-country carnivals for the last 30 years. I have been manager of the Secondary Schools state cross-country teams for the last 6 years and also the PSG team in 2005
My involvement in the sport began when I was at Nailsworth Tech in Yr 9.
My PE teacher was desperate and needed someone to run in a 800m event in a competition against Enfield High and Strathmont Tech at St Albans Reserve. I didn’t live far from it and I played tennis on the courts next door to the track so I knew where it was. The Oct before I was riding my bike around the district and had stopped at the side of the track. I decided to try my skills on the outside of the runners as they went past me. A voice over the loudspeaker politely told me to leave – not. The guy was Gary Adair.
On the evening got to the track and lined up for the race On your marks, bang. I was left standing waiting for the set. Sprinted off caught the field – sprinted past them – lead by 20m – a lap to go. Finished last by 50m! The next week the same thing at Strathmont Tech. This time knew there was no set, but decided to save myself and ran at the back of the field and tried to sprint past with 100m to go and finished mid field – an improvement. I also noticed that the same guy has won both races. The next week – back to St Albans – lined up and this time I ran right behind the guy who had won both races before. Sprinted past him with 50 m to go and won. Made the school team as a result and ran on Adelaide oval in the interschool Competition. Hopelessly outclassed by 2 guys named Chris Fisher (future Olympian) and Kevin Francis (many times state champion). Played footy that winter and come summer I was bored with cricket and thought of tennis. The Clearview Tennis club had a picnic which I went to and there was a 400m (marathon race) which I romped in.
A parent at the picnic suggested I try athletics instead and was told that training was at 4.30 at St Albans on the Tuesday. I rode my bike to the track and as I lived on Hampstead road the closest activity was the old clubrooms end (BIG MISTAKE). Wandered on to the track and this guy comes up “hello little boy have you come to run”. No need to second guess as it was JP (this was 1966).
So I ended up in JP’s squad. If I had gone to the other end of the track I would have been amongst the sprinters which were nearly all GIRLS.
That began a love affair with athletics that shaped my whole life. Out at the track was also the guy from the school meets and his name was Darryl Mellon and he was to become a good friend.
In the 60’s
We competed at Olympic Sportsfield, Kensington and it was a black tar and rubber mix that as soon as it got warm would get sticky and emit sickening fumes. Often after events longer than 200m you would be coughing and spluttering. This was a time that you trained on grass twice during the week and on Sundays and competed Saturdays. We hardly had injuries and many of the times set then are still state or club records. A few stand out athletes were Phil Hollis – National junior walk champion, Knut Cudarins high Jump champion and in particular a lady called Rae Thompson. She came into the sport as a mature lady and trained with Keith Mellon and his squad of men. She trained so hard with the men (not the norm then) that she rewrote the 1500m and up record books. She was the first female athlete granted permission to run with the men in competition as she was in a class on her own. I believe she also made the National team. The late 60’s saw Enfield begin to dominate Junior distance running and began to have a great number of distance runners. We came to be called the green machine and as Juniors we adopted the Road Runner as our Mascot. This is still the case. One memory in particular stands out. I was a Junior and a member of an Enfield team in the Victor Habor to Adelaide Relay. As fourth leg I handed the baton to Darryl Mellon who sprinted of. Not 5 Minutes later it began to hail the size of golf balls. This lasted about 30 mins. We were waiting at the next changeover not expecting Darryl for 25 mins when a sole competitor in green and black emerged from the hail to hand the baton over. Everyone else had stopped and he had put the Junior team 20 mins in front of ALL teams including the seniors. Darryl still had bruises a month later. We ended up 3rd Overall at the end of the run as our last athlete Peter Jordan also starred running two successive sub 4 min miles going down O’Hallaron Hill to the finish.
The late 60’s and early 70’s were a boom time in athletics and the sport prospered. Later came the Road Runners, Little Athletics, Fun runs which became alternatives.
To be continued
Bob Hunter