Last updated 18 March 2017
Nick Brooks, President for 2017/18
I
was born in Bromley in 1958, my father was a policeman and my mother worked at
the Bank of England. I have a brother who lives with his family in Hong Kong. I
have been married to my wife Jacqueline for 28 years and with two sons Alex aged
24, and Peter aged 21 who is studying at Bill my predecessors’ alma mata at
Newcastle University.
My father Gordon is a club member and Vice President and
former club Chairman and my brother Andy was a club member during his teenage
years. My grandfather George Brooks who was known to many was Club President in
1972, he would have been so proud to see me in this role.
I had an active childhood playing rugby for the school, and
also basketball where I went on to gain county honours. I was also an
all-rounder at athletics until I joined Blackheath in 1973 where I focused on
middle distance. Back in those days Graham Botley would visit the local schools
looking for athletic talent and he went on to form the initial young athletes
teams of which I was a team member often running the 200m, 800m, both relays and
the high jump. On several occasions Graham took a lot of us youngsters to cross
country races in Belgium where had great success often winning electronic
products with European plugs!
Despite my focus on middle distance I had a pb in the high
jump of 1.89m often beating Gordon Hickey to the club high jump championship,
100m best of 11.22 dating back to 17, and many reasonable middle distance pbs.
During my time at Langley Park Boys School in Beckenham I ran
In numerous Kent and England Schools cross country events, finished second in
the county events and no better than 74th in the England Schools. However, on
the track I fared a lot better and after finishing 8th in the 800m as junior boy
I went onto win the intermediate boys 800m in 1975, the same weekend being
picked for the schools international which I also won. The following year I won
the senior boys 800m breaking the record at that time ahead of Garry Cook.
By this time I was attracting a lot of interest from US
universities and following the southern 800m race which was shown on TV where I
finished 2nd to Peter Browne and broke 1.50 for the first time, David Hemery
called me and got me interested in attending Boston University. I met with him
and several of his athletes including David Jenkins to see what it was all about
but nothing came of it and other better offers came along. After a lot of
correspondence with Coach Glenn Hayes and one of his UK athletes Paul Bannon I
decided to give life a go as a 19-year-old in the US and I went to Memphis State
University in January 1978, and having such a great time tempted my training
partner and good friend Julian Spooner to go to Richmond University the
following year.
That summer before I went to the US I had a mixed season as I
had glandular fever and got beaten narrowly in the England Schools by Colin
Szwed, but I did represent GB against France and ran a pb at that time of 1.49.8
as an 18 old, and only a 0.1 improvement from the previous year. 1978 saw me
clip by best 800m time a little further but the races were mainly local and
running to win was more important than chasing times, winning all my races
except the most important conference race but did manage another pb in a slow
race. In 1979 I ran well on the college circuit and lowered my pb to 1.48.53 and
won the conference meeting which is what my scholarship was based on. 1980 was
Moscow Olympic year I ran well that winter on the country with a large
contingent of UK athletes at Memphis like Steve Anders, Geoff Cooper, Tony
Blackwell, Gerry Helme, Jim Wise and Garry Nurse. I remember once running 5
miles on a golf course in 24.12 and came in more than half way down the field
with all of those runners in front of me.
I did win the Tennessee state 800m for the third consecutive
year and after running an indoor pb I made the NCAA Champs indoors in Detroit.
Having been an athlete that ran from the back all my life as I had a good
finish, running on a 160-yard tight board track indoors meant new tactics were
needed and after winning my heat with a front run I made the televised final and
finished 2nd behind reigning champion Evans White having led until the final
stride. I did beat Agberto Guimaraes who went onto finish 4th in the Moscow
Olympic 800m behind Ovett and Coe. This gained me an All American honour and
then in 1998 the Univeristy of Memphis inducted me onto their Hall of Fame. I
still hold the university 800m record after 37 years!
Myself in action with John Walker AAA Champs 1979
Following that success, I did get invited to some of the
bigger college meetings and twice I ran in Knoxville, once in a college race and
once in an open race with US Olympic athletes lowering my pb to 1.47.01 and more
importantly inside the Olympic qualifying standard. That particular day at the
Dogwood Relays I also ran a 1.49 800m only 45 minutes later. My 400m pb had come
down a lot to 48.22 and most weeks I ran on the 4x400m relay team, I even ran a
4.10 indoor mile and 4.06.4 outdoor mile that year. Of course I did not make the
GB Olympic team for Moscow as a certain duo of Ovett and Coe took gold and
silver.
In 1981 I had pulled my hamstring playing rugby for Memphis
Old No 7, so I “redshirted” meaning I did not compete for the school, but I did
run 1.49 late on and 48.32 before having one last cross country season before
graduating in December 1981. I earned a BA in Geography. Having returned to the
UK in early in 1982 I picked up my beloved rugby at Beccs and broke my leg and
ankle pretty much putting an end to my running days. After almost 7 weeks in
hospital they said I would never walk without a limp after all the pins and
plates were put in, and a punctured lung did not help, but I proved them wrong
and trained hard with Botley that year for the 1983 New York marathon where I
limped around in 3.26.
I did run again for the national league team but mainly as a
400m and relay runner but I never did get back to my best form. I had competed
for the club in the southern league from 1975 and had helped them get back into
the national league, one time I flew back from the US for the club to compete in
a qualifying match which we won to get promotion to the national league.
Once the broken leg had mended I returned to playing rugby
for Beccehamian RFC at Sparrows Den as 1983 was their 50th year. I made the
first team for the next 19 years and used rugby fitness to run for the club
without training for the track. Eventually I could not keep this up with a new
job and a girlfriend who went onto be my wife. I did come out of running
retirement to run the 1991 London marathon and I did win the closing 5 handicap
in 1990, having taken a year away from rugby to run half marathons. However, I
missed the rugby and the club convinced me to go back and play before retiring
in 1994 to take on coaching mini rugby, writing match reports, coaching the
first team and then becoming Chairman in 2005, a role I still hold today.
The knowledge that experienced athletes pass on to younger
club members is a key factor in the success of our sport and many people at
Blackheath gave me good advice in my early years at the club, including Bob
Taylor, Ian Wilson, John Baldwin, Chris Haines and Graham Botley and a little
later Les Roberts who always gave 110%. I also drew great inspiration from team
mates Mike Winch and Buster Watson not to mention great competitive spirit from
Julian Spooner who always pushed me hard in training. I was also very fortunate
to have had two great coaches as a youngster in Charles Elliott and Dennis
Watts, and Glenn Hayes in Memphis, and of course my best friend Graham Botley as
a mentor. Mike Peel and Andy Frankish were also great support ferrying me around
when they could as we lived near each other at that time, and Bob Richardson was
always our standout distance runner who I have got to know in recent years.
When I look back on my athletics career even though it was
cut short by my broken leg I had a great time. I won two England Schools 800m
and had a 2nd place too, schoolboy international, senior international and 4
great years studying, running and travelling in the US. I raced against the
likes of Steve Ovett, John Walker, Mike Boit, Harald Schmid, Nick Rose and Garry
Cook and my contemporaries from the school days included GB legends like Daley
Thomson, Eamonn Martin, Tim Hutchings and Olympic bronze medallist Gary Oakes.
I live locally in Orpington and have always maintained my
membership at BBHAC. I did the communications and sponsorship role for a few
years and more recently I have taken on the role of writing the reports for the
press following the success of our athletes every weekend. This is a difficult
task as it has to be done on a Sunday night to make press deadlines, often
results are not available and with only one or two faithful club members
providing me with any data a lot of good performances probably go unreported.
Blackheath and Bromley Harriers AC has been (and will
continue to be) a big part of my life for the last 44 years and it is an honour
to be asked by Bill to be the new Club President. I hope club members will
accept me as President! I'm really keen to do all I can in the coming year to
help in the continued success of our great club and build on the great
foundations that have been laid down over the years! I have a tough act to
follow after Bill’s fantastic year as President.
