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Enfield and Haringey Athletic Club
Background: Enfield AC was founded 1920 and Ponders End AC in 1922, these two clubs amalgamated to form the Borough of Enfield Harriers in 1965. A breakaway group from Southgate & Wood Green Sports Association formed Southgate Harriers in 1933 which, following a move from Broomfield Park to White Hart Lane, became Haringey AC in 1974.
Southgate/Haringey's first international was Bernard Eeles who competed for England in 1934 against France over 1500m. Southgate/Haringey's first Olympian was John Giles (1948 Shot) swiftly followed by Stan Cox (Marathon), John Wrighton (400m), Mike MacFarlane (sprints), Gary Oakes (Olympic 400mH bronze 1980), Heather (Hunte) Oakes (sprints), Seb Coe (1984 Olympic 1500m champion), Dalton Grant (High Jump), Anthony Jarrett (110m Hurdles) and John Herbert (Triple Jump).
Paul Valle was an early Enfield AC international (200m in 1946) while Gerry McIntyre (Ponders End AC) represented Ireland in the 1960 Olympic marathon. Another PEAC member, Frank Seal ran for England in the International CC Championships, the forerunner of the World CC Championships. More international vests followed: Roald Bradstock (Javelin), Geoff Capes (Shot), Charlie Fogg (50km walk), Ron Jones (100m), Roy Mitchell and Alan Lerwill (Long Jump), Carole Mathers (Saunders) (High Jump and Pentathlon), Sue Morley (Chick) (400mH), Linda Peck (Sprints and 400m), Amos Seddon (20km walk), Hugh Teape (110m Hurdles), Lynda Whiteley (Discus) and Simon Williams (Discus and Shot). In 1978 Rosemary Cox (Harrold) set a UK marathon record while in 2003, Leon Baptiste won the European Junior 100m championship.
The 1999 merger of Borough of Enfield Harriers and Haringey AC produced a club that rapidly rose to the top echelon of British athletics in all departments. The club's Boys team won an unprecedented fifth successive national Young Athletes title in 2003 and since then the combined Girls and Boys team has won the National Young Athletes Auxilliary Final twice (2004 and 2008), finished second in the main Final three times (2005, 2007 and 2009) and triumphed in 2006.
In 2005 the Junior (U20) Men's team had a magnificent win in the National Junior League Final to claim their fourth successive title. In 2006, when the Junior League combined the men's and women's competitions, the EHAC squad finished second although the men came out top once again, an achievement they repeated in the next two seasons, gaining automatic selection to the European Junior Champion Clubs Cup Final to notch up a total of nine consecutive appearances in this competition.
The Ladies section continues to make great progress, at the end of the 2005 season they won promotion from the Southern Women's League to the UK Women's League and by 2008 had progressed up to Division 2 where in 2009 they just failed to be promoted to the top division. The Men's senior team only dropped one point in National Division 1 of the British Athletics League during 2007 and were promoted to the Premier Division for 2008 where, despite a slow start, they finished fourth. Starting the 2009 season full of confidence, the senior men's team was rocked by injuries and bad luck and only showed its true worth in the final match where they finished second to national champions Newham & Essex Beagles for a final league placing at fifth.
Mid-September 2008, saw the junior Men's squad - representing Great Britain - finish third in Serbia in the European Junior Champion Clubs Cup Final, only five points behind the winning Russian team, possibly the club's best performance in this competition and without a couple of mishaps a real upset of form could have been achieved
The club's male Master's (Veterans) section came out top in the Herts and North Middlesex Division of the Southern Counties Vets AC League in 2008 and 2009. The Race Walking section organises the highly successful Enfield Race Walking League. During the winter months Enfield & Haringey AC provides a full programme for all ages with competitions on road and cross country, in local leagues and in County, Area and National Championships.
Individually the club continues to win medals at World, European and National level; Leon Baptiste (200m) and Matt Brown (discus) both finished third in the 2008 Olympic Trials and Leon repeated this placing in the 2009 World Trials. At the close of the 2008 T&F season Enfield & Haringey AC was presented with the UK Speed award and 47 members were placed in the top ten of the UK national ranking lists, two of them at number one. 2009 saw EHAC members gain three national titles: Desiree Henry - who had dominated UK under-15 sprinting - took the G15 200m title, Ben Nagy upset form to win the M20 3km steeplechase championship and Jordan Arthur also surprised with his M17 100m victory after winning the English Schools 200m. At the end of the year, and out of season, Jordan won the World Schools Games 100m in a personal best time which took him to No 1 in the UK.
Enfield & Haringey AC is based at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre (61 Meridian Way, Picketts Lock, London N9 0AR. Tel: 020 8344 7230), an eight lane outdoor and six lane indoor facility. Club nights: Tuesday and Thursday, 6.00pm to 9.30pm.
Also at: New River Centre (White Hart Lane, Wood Green, London N22. Tel: 020 8881 2323). Club nights: Tuesday and Thursday, 5pm onwards.
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