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

2 FOREWORD When I was elected as the Honorary Treasurer of the AAA in 1986, I did not anticipate that what would follow would be ten years of organisational upheaval that would leave lasting changes in the way that athletics in Britain is run. When I finally relinquished my position in 1996, I had accumulated a mass of records, including virtually complete sets of all the minutes of the key meetings as well as voluminous correspondence, memoranda, press cuttings, etc. that covered the period. Taken together, all these papers represented a record of the process of administrative reform as well as of the management of the commercial business of the sport that kept the show on the road. With the advent of UK Athletics following the demise of the British Athletic Federation, it gradually dawned on me that it might be important that these momentous changes should be written down and not left to moulder in old files. I decided to have a go, realising that, to a large extent, however impartial I tried to be, my own experiences and point of view would inevitably show through. Others involved at the time will have their own perspectives on the period and, indeed, my own part in it. I often felt that I was in the eye of a storm and readily acknowledge that many colleagues and others played different, but important, roles in steering athletics through a period that, in many ways, was an administrative failure but, simultaneously, achieved a consolidation of the sport that was necessary to modernise it and provide a firm foundation for the future. At the same time that the management was wrestling with often controversial change, the athletes were going through a golden period of great success and a generation of superstars kept the British flag flying at the top of the mast. I have tried to describe all these elements and apologise in advance for any errors or omissions, which are all my responsibility. I would also like to thank those who were kind enough to look at my drafts and to offer valuable suggestions for improvement.