Header image: Photograph of Sutton Harriers Athletics club c.1910

History of Sutton in St.Helens, Lancashire
Sutton Beauty's History & Heritage Pages

Part 14) The Story of Sutton Harriers Athletics Club

Written and researched by S.R.Wainwright for Sutton Beauty & Heritage © MMVIII

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Sutton Harriers Athletics Club were in their day as high profile sporting ambassadors for the town of St.Helens as Saints rugby league team are today, achieving remarkable national and international success within just eight years of their formation. By 1906 the Harriers had won the National Cross Country Championships and their members accrued 13 sets of medals during their first 14 competitive championships.

This was at a time when athletics essentially meant competitive cross-country running, rather than track and field sports. It had enormous appeal with spectactors standing in the streets applauding the runners even when they were out on training runs. For the athletes themselves, running in the country for their club was a means of escaping their humdrum life and often hazardous working conditions. Although their runs in all weathers during the winter months on uneven roads and through woods and over streams and stone walls could be quite dangerous too. There were frequent reports of athletes collapsing or being injured with fatalities occasionally occurring.

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Sutton Harriers at the Northern Cross Country Championship at Haydock Park - 16/02/1907

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, healthy exercise was being encouraged and young men formed athletics clubs with each district and church parish having its own. St.Helens had quite a number including Parr A.C., Rainford A.C., Ravenhead A.C., Pilkingtons A.C., Prescot A.C., St.Josephs A.C., Gerrards Bridge A.C., Pembroke A.C. and St.Helens Parish Church A.C. Many of these were well established with some outstanding runners, not to mention those in clubs from farther afield. So into this competitive world in 1899 entered the young pretender, Sutton Harriers.

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They used to meet in The Red Lion at the corner of Robins Lane and New Street (later Glassmakers Arms), then practice running down Bold Road and past Neills Foundry, circle round to Clock Face and Marshalls Cross and then back home to the pub. Just how many replenishing pints they sunk on their return is not recorded! Facilities were extremely basic with just a bucket of cold water and scrubbing brush for bathing. If they were very lucky there might be a block of soap to share between them.

From the year of Sutton Harriers formation, smoking concerts - live performances before an audience of men who'd smoke and talk of politics - were seen as an important means of raising funds for the club. The St.Helens Newspaper & Advertiser of October 24th, 1899 reported that "a very interesting programme of songs was gone through" during the Harrier's first annual smoking concert, held inevitably at the Red Lion.

On December 16th, 1899 their inaugural Christmas handicap was held with fifteen athletes running 6½ miles through Bold and Clockface, then back to the pub. The winner was revealed by the St.Helens Newspaper as "Genial" George Southward who they predicted would become "the pride of Sutton in the athletics world with a little care and perseverance".

In 1904 Sammy Welding (1884 - 1928), a 19-year-old, 5'7" tall collier who worked down Southport pit in Parr, joined the club paying his membership fee of two shillings. Although the Harriers already had some talented runners, such as F.W. Webber, Herbert Wilcox (1880 - 1970), and Jimmy Morris, the addition of Sammy soon made them into a formidable force. On February 18th, 1905 Sammy came second in the Northern Senior Championship held at Haydock Park Racecourse over 10½ miles. This was run in gale force winds and heavy rain and the course included hundreds of yards over ploughed land. As a result of this performance Sammy was selected to run for England in Dublin, the first of his five international appearances.

From about this time Sutton Harriers were nicknamed the 'red and blacks' as they began to wear red and black vests. On April 17th, 1905 the annual Sutton Harriers club championship was held and Sammy won the first of his many club trophies.

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At the start of the 1905-6 season, rising star C.J. Straw (1876 - ?) was persuaded to join the club from Warrington Athletics Club. He was profoundly deaf after suffering meningitis as a child and so was unable to hear the starter's gun and the encouragement of spectators. Despite this handicap, Straw was well thought of within the athletics community and during the previous three years he'd won the Northern Junior title. Sutton Harriers were developing quite a reputation in the athletics world and young, talented athletes like C.J. were becoming interested in joining them to further their own career.

The club came second in that season's Northern Cross-Country Championship with Straw 1st and Welding 2nd. On March 3rd, 1906 in the National Cross-Country Championship, Sutton won the team title for the first time, a quite remarkable achievement for a club only created some seven years earlier.

However, two weeks later disaster struck as C.J. Straw was alleged to have thrown a race at the behest of bookies and was disqualified for two years. He was accused of resting on a fence when well in the lead, waiting for other runners to catch up with him, so he could be seen just losing. This was a big blow to Sutton Harriers who unsuccessfully fought the suspension, although they still had their star Sammy Welding who was appointed club captain for the new season.

The highlight of Sutton Harrier's remarkable rise to success came on January 20th, 1907 when the red and blacks as English champions competed against the French national champions Stade Francais and the Parisian champions Club Amical Sportif de Saint Mande. Over ten thousand spectators lined the course at St.Cloud, Paris to watch Sutton Harriers beat the French teams and take the Vie au Grande Air Cup with Sam Welding coming 1st and Joe Bailey 2nd.

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A trip to Paris via London was quite something for the English lads, used to poor living and working conditions and somewhat rudimentary facilities at the Red Lion or Glassmaker's Arms. So Captain Michael Hughes, Sutton Harrier's proud president, paid for a horse-drawn wagonette to take the party on a sight-seeing tour of the French capital, which included a visit to the Louvre. The language barrier was overcome in a Parisian restaurant when one of the athletes ordered a glass of milk by imitating the milking of a cow, much to the amusement of a waitress!

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When the Harriers arrived back in St.Helens after a sightseeing tour of London, they were met at the station by hundreds of supporters waving flags and hats. Sutton's popular medic, Dr. H. B. Bates, who was vice-president of the Harriers, was given a rousing reception when he came out of the station and the crowd cheered when captain Sammy Welding exited holding his bronze statuette.

Like Saints rugby league stars returning from victory at Wembley, the team were taken on a tour of the town but on horse-drawn wagonettes accompanied by Sutton Road Prize Band. As might be expected, a very enthusiastic reception was given to the team by the people of Sutton as they made their way to the Glassmakers Arms where sandwiches were devoured by the hungry athletes.

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Sutton Harriers vs. Lancaster Districts at Sutton Commercial Grounds 28/11/1908
Sammy Welding - pictured front row, 6th from right - won the event

In the following months the Harriers competed in the Northern Championships again at Haydock, which was won by Sammy Welding although the team came second. For the following season talented athlete F.J. Whittle of Farnworth A.C. and T. Greenall of St. Joseph's A.C. were also recruited.

Sutton Harriers in The Times newspaper 1951
Throughout the twentieth century, Sutton Harriers continued to be successful, particularly in the post-WW11 years when they won the national title four years out of five between 1947 and 1951. Billy McMinnis, the current president of the club, is the last surviving member of that great team.

However, track and field athletics events and the growth of team sports were eclipsing the popularity of cross-country running. Spending your day off running in torrential rain through muddy fields and across snowdrifts and barbed wire after hacking coal down the pit all week, as Sammy Welding did, was no longer attractive and membership of the Harriers declined. So in 1990 the Sutton Harriers merged with St.Helens A.C. and they were renamed St.Helens-Sutton Athletic Club. However, they continue to be based in Sutton at Eltonhead Road's Sutton Sports Centre where an all-weather track had been laid and schools compete for the Sam Welding Trophy, C.J. Straw Trophy and the Morris Trophy.

Sutton Beauty & Heritage is grateful to the family of the late Ron Welding from whose biography of his father 'Sam Welding - Sutton Harrier Parr Excellence', part of this page's content has been sourced.

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