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50                                                                 Club News

   Pat Calnan revives the Courier

For over 40 years the Courier    quit due to professional and      events and forthcoming
or its predecessors provided a   personal commitments there        fixtures, just as the old Courier
valuable source of information   then followed a period during     did in its previous incarnation
about the performances           which various attempts were       but with a different layout. One
of the club’s athletes in all    made to recruit a new editor      feature which was incorporated
competitions and at all levels.  but without success and in        from the old Gazettes are the
But after its editor produced    2013 the committee decided        news flashbacks going back 25
his last issue in September      to discontinue the publication    years, and makes for interesting
2010 no further issues were      due to lack of a need for it.     reading if you wish to trace the
produced for five years and                                        beginnings of current major
for a while the magazine was     However Pat Calnan, having        athletes or the exploits of senior
discontinued due to the use      stood down as Press Officer,      figures in the club, and there
of alternative methods of        decided that such a need          are plenty of archival photos to
recording results. So it was     still existed, especially as the  jog the memory.
with some relief that last       internet could not be relied      As someone has commented
year the Courier re-emerged      upon to find results easily.      on the issues which have so
in a new format and style,       They might be found on the        far come out “They make for
thanks to the enthusiasm and     website but not in one place      very entertaining reading, as well
willingness of PP Pat Calnan.    and finding races might           as giving us results.”
                                 involve a fiddly process of       The new Courier was
There had always been a          opening up large numbers of       produced in October 2015.
means of recording the results   files. “The older the event, the  When it was last produced the
and achievements of the          more chance that the link to a    Courier came out every two
club’s athletes and from the     website won’t work” and athletic  months but Pat’s aim is that it
late 1970s this was primarily    press reports might not give      should be published monthly.
done by the Courier through      the results of grass roots level  so, after a long established club
its successive editors. The      races. It seemed therefore        institution was deemed to be
September issue, however,        to Pat that the revival of the    unnecessary in this digital age,
proved to be the last one        Courier was necessary because     it has been proved that with a
produced for five years as its   it would bring all club results   certain amount of drive and
editor relinquished the role     together, including something     enthusiasm there is still a place
to take on editorship of the     it has in the past done well,     in the club for a publication
Gazette. After the new editor    reporting on obscure results      that covers the progress of
                                 from those members of the         its members at the grass
                                 club such as older members        roots level and remembers
                                 whose performances do not         with affection the exploits of
                                 get the coverage from the         athletes in past days.
                                 athletic press.
                                                                                        Ferdinand Alf
                                 Bearing these things in mind
                                 Pat has set out to revive the
                                 Courier and the result is, on
                                 the whole, a well produced
                                 magazine full of useful
                                 information including social
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