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

24 The baton is passed to the BAAB My election as Honorary Treasurer brought together in key positions in the sport two who had known each other and worked together for years. Bill Evans and I were Welsh, we both lived in Cardiff and were both long standing members and officials of the same athletic club, Cardiff AAC. Bill Evans was a university academic, head of the Zoology Department at the University of Wales, Cardiff, and something of an expert on exotic insects. He had got involved in athletics when his son, a good sprinter, joined Cardiff AAC and he, together with his wife Kath, became more and more involved in the administration of the club, where they were both highly regarded. After stints as Secretary and Chairman of his club, Bill Evans moved on to become a long serving Honorary Secretary of the Welsh AAA. This position gave him an automatic place on the General Committee of the AAA where he quickly made his mark as a quietly efficient administrator. As Honorary Secretary of the Welsh association, he also had an automatic place on the Council of the BAAB and progressed to be its chairman for four years from 1980 to 1984. I had competed as an athlete for Wales over a long period and had been one of a group of like minded athletes who, in the late 1960s, had pushed through the amalgamation of two Cardiff clubs to form Cardiff AAC, a club that was to dominate British club athletics for a number of years. I had also been involved in the formation and early development of the British Athletic League and, having had an interest in the administrative side of athletics from an early age, had been treasurer of the Cardiff club since 1968 as well as taking on the chair for a second time in 1981. I was well aware that my sudden elevation directly from a club base to one of the most responsible positions in the sport in Britain was, to say the least, unusual and caused a few raised eyebrows. Having been elected Honorary Treasurer on the Saturday, I made my first visit to the London offices of the AAA the following Monday for an introductory tour by General Secretary Mike Farrell and left rather shocked by what I encountered – but more of that later.