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

84 A chief executive at last An undoubted weakness of the BAF constitution was that all the officers were subject to annual election. This had been the same under the former AAA and a kind of competitive culture had grown up, centred on the annual election of officers at the AGM. Peter Radford, experiencing this at first hand, was concerned at the serious effects of this culture. He believes that it became a battle between rival groupings, not to elect the best person but to get “their man” into position. Winning at the AGM became an end in itself and the interests of the sport took second place. This attitude was evidenced at the 1994 AGM when both Greenoak and Bedford were ousted in favour of Eric Shirley and Matt Frazer. During his brief tenure, David Bedford took his responsibilities as Honorary Secretary extremely seriously and was an excellent officer and ambassador for British athletics. In a spirit of goodwill, both he and I put past differences behind us and forged an amicable and effective working relationship. It was a pity that Bedford himself became a victim of political manoeuvring but his successor, Matt Frazer, a solid northerner, brought different qualities to the position and also did a good job. Coincidentally, Derek Johnson had given up as Honorary Secretary of the AAA of England a few months before after only two years in the position so both his and Bedford’s periods in key positions had turned out to be equally short. Following Malcolm Jones’ resignation as chief executive, a replacement was sought. The advertisement attracted numerous candidates and a short list was identified. These were interviewed by the interviewing panel but none quite matched what was needed. Radford, as the BAF chairman, had been one of the panel and left the final interview session to return home to Glasgow. After Radford had left, the interviewing group continued deliberating over what to do next and the idea was floated to ask Radford himself if he would be interested in taking the post. He had been toying with the idea of a move from Glasgow and, although surprised to be asked, said that he would be interested and would think on it. However, he immediately realised that as he had been part of the interviewing panel his appointment might be seen as a “put up job”.