Aldershot, Farnham and District Athletic Club is an athletics club based in

Aldershot, Hampshire Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alders ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The club are based at the

Aldershot Military Stadium Aldershot Military Stadium is a sports complex in Aldershot, England comprising a combined football and athletics stadium and a smaller adjoined rugby stadium. It is the home ground of the British Army's football and rugby teams, Aldershot, Farn ...

. AFD competes in the Youth Development League (YDL),

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

and

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

Leagues, various

relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switch ...

events including the Southern Road Relays and National Road and Cross Country Relays. The current president is Steve Smith and the current chairman is Michael Neighbour. The middle/long distance coaching is currently led by former international athlete

Mick Woods Michael 'Mick' Woods (born 15 February 1949 in Great Britain) is a former long-distance runner and a middle/long-distance running coach. He is currently a coach at Aldershot, Farnham & District AC and sports lecturer at St Mary's University ...

and the club trains its middle and long distance athletes at various locations including the polo fields opposite the Military Stadium on Queen's Avenue and The Wellington Statue, Aldershot. The sprint section is led by various coaches and the race walking teams are run and trained by former Commonwealth Games athlete

Verity Snook-Larby Verity Beatrice Snook-Larby (born November 13, 1970) is a retired female race walker from Scotland, who also represented Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. ...

. AFD was ranked number one statistically by Jegmar, making it the number one running club in the country for 2018.

History

The founding of Aldershot, Farnham and District Athletic Club on 7 August 1966. Formally known as Aldershot and District A.C., the club eventually merged with

Farnham Farnham ( /ˈfɑːnəm/) is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a trib ...

A.C. The negotiations between

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

and

Godalming Godalming is a market town and civil parish in southwest Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, at the confluence of the Rivers Wey and Ock. The civil parish covers and includes the settleme ...

A.C. stumbled over the inclusion of Godalming in the name. As the Guildford and Godalming clubs had previously merged about a decade before, they wished to include their name in full while Farnham thought the name in full would be 'too much of a mouthful'. At the time, the

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alders ...

Club, whose colours were white with green hoops (the same as existing colours of AFD, minus the red of Farnham), were mainly a very strong ladies club with a newly emerging boys and youths section, which had just competed with distinction for the first time in the ECCU National at Graves Park, Sheffield. The ladies through Sheena Fitzmaurice, Pat Card and Margaret Bram had made an effective climb to the top of women's cross country. At the time the club had just received permission to organise its Sunday morning training at th
Mons track
at the back of the Military Stadium. Aldershot, for the first time, got permission to put on the annual Trophies Meetings at the Military Stadium and used the grass track a
Aldershot Park
for other matches. Much of the club foundation came with the magnificent organisation of events for youngsters. In the early days of the club, AFD (as they are more commonly known) organised a

Track and Field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

League and a Cross Country League for local school boys which was a great recruiting basis. They had indoor training at

North Camp North Camp is a suburb of Farnborough, Hampshire. It covers most of the southern part of the town, adjoining Aldershot Military Town as part of the Farnborough/Aldershot_Built-up_Area . History North Camp has been closely linked to both Aldersh ...

for the girls and St Michael's School for the boys under the superb direction of

Tim Carroll Timothy E. Carroll (born January 17, 1951) is a Canadian politician and educator. He represented 5th Queens in the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island from 1986 to 1996 as a Liberal. Carroll was born in 1951 in Charlottetown, Prince Edw ...

. Visits from men who were to become world-famous but were

AAA AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to: Airports * Anaa Airport in French Polynesia (IATA airport code AAA) * Logan County Airport (Illinois) (FAA airport code AAA) Arts, entertainment, and me ...

National coaches at the time –

Ron Pickering Ronald James Pickering (4 May 1930 – 13 February 1991) was an athletics coach and BBC sports commentator. Biography Pickering was born in Hackney. His father was a sign fixer. He became head boy at West Ham Secondary School (later to become ...

, Tom McNab and John Anderson to name but a few were made. AFD organised women's and youths and boys road relays in

which attracted huge entries and were the most popular in the country. As well as the schools they got great help from, the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

helped and the club used Army Junior Units as venues for the Cross Country Leagues. In conjunction with the former Aldershot Borough Council, evening sports meeting were arranged which was often the introduction for young school children and young servicemen to the sport. The Aldershot Council also helped to buy an old

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

hut which we re-erected in

Aldershot Park Aldershot Park is an urban park in the town of Aldershot in Hampshire. The park is located on Guildford Road near Aldershot Cricket Club and the Lido and is owned and maintained by Rushmoor Borough Council.Farnham Farnham ( /ˈfɑːnəm/) is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a trib ...

Club, whose colours were red, were mainly a harriers club based at the Memorial Ground in Farnham with its unique grass 300 yards track. The club organised a very popula
Paarlauf
each year, which always attracted International athletes. They also organised a very popular Cross Country Relay in Farnham Park which had a very good entry. The club was made up mainly of seniors with most of the administration undertaken by Alan Mason, who was one of the first coaches to go through the Loughborough Summer School under the legendary founder of the coaching system in Britain, Geoff Dyson. The leading athlete was Ron Stonehouse, who had the misfortune to be a contemporary of Brasher, Shirley, Disley, Chataway, Norris, Pirie and Driver and would in any other era have been one of the greats of the sport. Ron ran in the curtain up to the legendar
Kuts/Chataway race
which was run at

White City White City may refer to: Places Australia * White City, Perth, an amusement park on the Perth foreshore * White City railway station, a former railway station * White City Stadium (Sydney), a tennis centre in Sydney * White City FC, a football clu ...

. The marriage was perfect with the merging of the young and enthusiastic

lads with the experienced

seniors and in

middle distance running Middle-distance running events are track races longer than sprints, up to 3000 metres. The standard middle distances are the 800 metres, 1500 metres and mile run, although the 3000 metres may also be classified as a middle-distance event. The 15 ...

our record in Southern Cross Country and

Road Running Road running is the sport of running on a measured course over an established road. This differs from track and field on a regular track and cross country running over natural terrain. These events are usually classified as long-distance ac ...

since 1966 speaks for itself. AFD were the first club in the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

to be equally strong in both women's and men's athletics. In the sixties and seventies the club developed an enormous amount of talent and with the founding of the League system, were soon to become a force in

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

as well as cross country and

road running Road running is the sport of running on a measured course over an established road. This differs from track and field on a regular track and cross country running over natural terrain. These events are usually classified as long-distance ac ...

. With the formation of the

Rushmoor Borough Council Rushmoor is a local government district and borough in Hampshire, England. It covers the towns of Aldershot and Farnborough as well as Cove and North Camp. It was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the borough of Aldershot and the Farnbor ...

from the former

and

Farnborough Farnborough may refer to: Australia * Farnborough, Queensland, a locality in the Shire of Livingstone United Kingdom * Farnborough, Hampshire, a town in the Rushmoor district of Hampshire, England ** Farnborough (Main) railway station, a railw ...

Councils, they were later to get the financial support which enabled them to use the Military Stadium for training. In 1966 it cost committee members 2 shillings (10 pence) per week to keep the club going, and the members also paid 1 shilling (5 pence) for training. It was not unusual for AFD to fill a coach on a Sunday morning to visit

Elvetham Hartley Wintney is a large village and civil parish in the Hart district of Hampshire, England. It lies about northwest of Fleet and east of Basingstoke. The parish includes the smaller contiguous village of Phoenix Green as well as the haml ...

or Frensham for organised training.

Club links

2016 Tragedy

On the night of 8 November 2016 at around 7:10pm, two promising young athletes, Lucy Pygott, 17, and Stacey Burrows, 16, were killed by a drunk driver whilst crossing Queen's Avenue as they jogged from the stadium to begin their evening training session. Despite the best efforts of paramedics and the air ambulance crews to save the two girls, they were pronounced dead at the scene. Lucy Pygott, who was from Hartley Wintney, represented

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

in July at the

2016 European Athletics Youth Championships The 2016 European Athletics Youth Championships was the first edition of the biennial, continental athletics competition for European athletes aged fifteen to seventeen. It was held in Tbilisi, Georgia from 14–17 July and was established follow ...

Tbilisi, Georgia Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million peo ...

, where she won a bronze medal in the Under 18

3000 metres The 3000 metres or 3000-metre run is a track running event, also commonly known as the "3K" or "3K run", where 7.5 laps are run around an outdoor 400 m track, or 15 laps around a 200 m indoor track. It is debated whether the 3000m shoul ...

. Stacey Burrows, who was from

, was the

Under 17

champion. In a statement, the club said: Tributes were paid across the World, with most races including the

Cross Country League match in

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

, the Start Fitness Metropolitan Cross Country League match in

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a large town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevena ...

and the British Athletics Cross Challenge fixture in

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...

, the following weekend being preceded by a minutes silence and runners wearing black or AFD-coloured ribbons on their vests. In

, despite no longer running himself, AFD head coach

completed a lap of the course in memory of his two athletes, while many AFD athletes ran and finished their races together. A minute's silence was also held at the

Cross de Atapuerca The Cross Internacional de Atapuerca is an annual cross country running competition that takes place in Atapuerca, Spain. Established in 2004, it takes place in early November and is among the first major competitions of the cross country season. ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, where Pygott had been due to race for

. In

many runners ran with black ribbons on their wrists and vests and a minute's silence was held. As well as this, athletics events in the summer held minute silences despite happening months after the tragic event. The 24-year-old driver, later named as serving soldier, Michael Casey, who was found to be over the drink-drive limit, the speed limit and drove through red lights, admitted to death by dangerous driving by driving through red lights and was subsequently jailed for six years, disqualified from driving for 10 years and dismissed from the

. Athletes nominated for the 2016

Athletics Weekly ''AW'' (formerly ''Athletics Weekly'') is a monthly track and field magazine published in the United Kingdom by Athletics Weekly Limited. The magazine covers news, results, fixtures, coaching and product advice for all aspects of track and field, ...

British Under 18 athlete of the year award paid further tribute to Stacey Burrows and Lucy Pygott by requesting that the award be made to the two talented teenage runners. Following the tragedy,

was contacted by European youth

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletic ...

silver medallist, Sabrina Sinha on behalf of her fellow award nominees who had come to the collective decision that they wished to see the honour jointly awarded to the two girls. On 20 October 2018, a memorial bench and plaque dedicated to the memory of the girls were presented at the

Competition placings

National Cross Country Championships

Winners

Senior men - 1983, 1984, 1985, 2010 Junior men - 1972, 1988, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017 Under 17 men - 1994, 2001, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012 Under 15 boys - 2003, 2009, 2013, 2018 Senior women - 1979, 1984, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 Junior women - 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017 Under 17 women - 1994, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016 Under 15 girls - 1997, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015 Under 13 girls - 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009 (updated = 6 March 2018)

European Club Champions Cup Cross Country

Men - 1984 ( Gold_medal_icon_(G_initial)

), 1985 (

), 1986 (

) Women - 1980 ( Gold_medal_icon_(G_initial)

), 1985 (

), 2015 (

), 2017 (

) (updated = 6 March 2017)

National Cross Country Relays

Winners

Senior men - 2013, 2016 Under 20 men - 2010 Under 17 men - 2014, 2017 Under 15 boys - 2007, 2016, 2018 Under 13 boys - 2007, 2015, 2016 Senior women - 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017 Under 20 women - 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014 Under 17 women - 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2015, 2016 Under 15 girls - 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 Under 13 girls - 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 (updated = 5 November 2018)

National Road Relays

Winners

Senior men (12 stage) - 1982, 2004 Senior women (6 stage) - 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 Senior men (6 stage) - 1981, 2011, 2014 Senior women (4 stage) - 1971, 1972, 1981, 1986, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 Under 17 women - 1971, 1972, 1999, 2000, 2009, 2010, 2015, 2016 Under 15 girls - 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2009, 2010, 2011 Under 13 girls - 1972, 1974, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2009 Under 17 men - 2017 Under 15 boys - 2001, 2018 Under 13 boys - 1999, 2000, 2001, 2017 (updated = 24 October 2018)

Race Walking Champions Cup 20km

Winners

Senior Ladies - 2013

Notable athletes

Olympians

(updated = 3 October 2016)

Commonwealth Games

(updated = 3 October 2016)

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official club website

Thames Valley Athletics Centre
Athletics clubs in England 1966 establishments in England