Athletics in the UK: The Rise and Fall of the BAF

16 The Turner Committee line by seceding from a position within the Women’s AAA some years before. One of the more interesting, and illuminating, of the consultations was that with the IAAF as here was a chance to discover how athletics in Britain was seen from outside. The then General Secretary of the IAAF, John Holt, had taken the trouble to prepare a discussion paper in advance of the meeting. The paper underlined that Great Britain was seen as a very important athletic nation but that “The greatest difficulty facing the BAAB is one of identity. IAAF members are confused at the roles of the BAAB, AAA, SAAA (Scotland), separate organisations for cross country, road running, and race walking and the various women‟s equivalents.” As I have already mentioned, an important issue facing the IAAF at the time was the advent of official money payments to athletes and how to manage them. A system of athletes’ trust funds was being introduced but, “we await details of the British system; however it is apparent that the fact that multiple associations exist has created a difficulty.....” . The meetings with the existing 19 (and more) UK organisations, however, left the clear impression that they did not see the confusion described by the IAAF and, by and large, felt that the present system did not need fundamental change although conceding (who wouldn’t?) that there could be improvements. The attitude of the BAAB itself was more positive. Chairman Bill Evans (who was to play a leading role in the eventual formation of the British Athletic Federation) stated quite clearly that he favoured the single governing body being worked out by the Turner Committee although, revealingly, rather assumed that it would be “an extension of the BAAB”. It was, of course, essential that the committee met the officers of the AAA itself. The Chairman, Arthur McAllister, Treasurer John Martell and General Secretary Mike Farrell took pains to stress that they were expressing their personal views only, which seemed rather at odds with the reason for consulting them. Indeed, bearing in mind the strength of feeling expressed by the member clubs at the fateful 1982 AGM, Mike Farrell, in a letter to Mike Turner commenting on the notes of the meeting, concluded preposterously by saying that “ John Martell, Arthur McAllister and myself feel that we should be looking to the working party to convince us and the AAA that a UK body is wholly needed, and this has not yet been