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

22 The baton is passed to the BAAB As we have seen, clubs were entitled to attend and speak at General Meetings of the BAAB but had no votes. It was no wonder that the BAAB was not held in high regard. The Evans committee proceeded at a snail’s pace. At the 1985 AGM of the AAA, Bill Evans was able to say only that “ he was not discouraged but it was not an easy task to persuade some people to become more flexible in their approach ”. But, “ he believed that one governing body would come about because of the athletic clubs‟ support for the idea ”. Astonishingly, the minutes of the 1985 AGM of the BAAB itself, held three weeks later, did not even mention the subject. To be fair to Bill Evans, he was always a believer in the concept and strove valiantly and ultimately successfully to see the dream achieved. No doubt sensing which way the Evans wind was blowing, the International Athletes’ Club (IAC) entered the debate in February 1986 and suggested the setting up of an entirely new UK governing body with a “club-based constitution”. This had been drafted by Derek Johnson and, in an indication of battles to come, argued for direct representation on the body’s executive board from the area associations of England. The year 1985 had, however, marked a turning point for athletics in Britain in a different way. The finances of the sport were transformed by lucrative new television and marketing agreements that saw income soar but, as will be seen, this bonanza placed even more strain on the fragmented administration of the sport and underlined the need for strong central management more than ever. A further year passed and, to the amazement of many, the Annual Report of the AAA for 1986 contained not a single word about the one governing body project; except for an addendum slip added at the last minute which said, without comment, that the Evans Committee “ had produced a report that could be obtained from the AAA on request ”. There was one item on the agenda of that AGM, however, that might turn out to influence matters; the election of a new Honorary Treasurer. The Southern Counties AAA had long been one of the more entrepreneurial and politically active of the Area Associations of the AAA and, amongst its supporters, former athletic stars David Bedford and Derek Johnson were flexing their muscles. David and Derek effectively ran the