This information was passed to Athletics Weekly in September 2006 to help them write an article about the club. Thanks to Len Reilly who compiled the information.

Kent AC is Lewisham’s athletics club. It has been based in that part of south London since its formation over a hundred years ago. The club’s name is something of a handicap, though one which is enthusiastically retained for reasons of consistency and nostalgia, though hardly accuracy, as at its foundation in 1898 Lewisham hadn’t been in Kent for over a decade. The club has it origins in two older organisations, Lewisham Hare and Hounds, founded in c. 1885 and West Kent Harriers, founded c. 1887. They amalgamated in the summer of 1898 and Kent AC is first heard of by that name in July of that year.

At this time Kent AC and its peers were very much on the periphery of London and so could enjoy access to true countryside runs at Bellingham, Beckenham and Kidbrooke. Competition in the early years was largely informal and against other familiar clubs such as Herne Hill and Highgate Harriers. It was not until the early 20th century that Kent A.C. got involved with formal competition arranged through district and regional associations. The winter cross-country season was of 8 – 10 events and featured still contested competitions such as the South of the Thames championship. The club’s leading runner was Albert Aldridge, who was second in the Southern Counties Cross County Championship in 1903; an achievement yet to be equalled. The summer saw competitions over shorter distances and the emergence of Ladywell as the summer head quarters, even before the track was built. In the 1920s the club mile record was a very creditable 4.19, run by AJ Lock. There was regular competition against Corinthian, St Brides, Metrogas and Victoria Park Harriers. (Only the last named still survives.)

The club had an active social life, including cycling, billiards, garden parties and concerts. A coming of age dinner was held in March 1920.

The club had no fixed base in its early years. Venues used for meeting and cleaning up were scattered through south-east London and north Kent. However a major turning point was the building of Ladywell track in 1936 (at the same time the London County Council built Tooting) which has been the club’s headquarters ever since, firmly rooting it to inner London and scuppering the aspirations of some members of following local rivals Blackheath Harriers to the outer suburbs.

A generation ago readers of the athletics press would hardly have registered Kent AC as an active club, let alone a successful one. In 1983 the club was in division 7 of the Southern League, and while it made a point of closing a team at the National Cross Country Championships, it usually finished in the 80s. It first contested the Southern 12 stage relay in 1990 finishing a lowly 43rd. The club had declining membership and even more rapidly diminishing finances. Now however its senior men’s teams are in the top dozen or so clubs in the UK in all disciplines (track, road and cross-country), membership is buoyant and finances stable.

Through the 1980s and 1990s the club ground its way up through the Southern League, spending six frustrating years in division 2 but seized its moment in 2001 and got promotion to the British League at its first attempt. It was promoted from division four to three in its first season. The B track team has also steadily progressed. August 5th 2006 saw a remarkable double when the A team gained promotion to British League Division 1 (old division 2), thus achieving a remarkable seven promotions in 15 years, and the B team to Southern League division 1.

The club has a small women's section that competes in local road, cross-country and veteran track and field leagues. Back in the 1960s, however, the women's side was much bigger and competed at national level.

The club is active all year round. Traditional winter targets are the South of the Thames (the junior was won four years in succession from 2001-2005) the Kent County championships and the national. The club won the county for the first time in 2005 and achieved its best ever showing in the national in 2005 with 10th place [Note: this has subsequently been superceded by an 8th team position at the 2007 National XC]. Similar progress has been made with he regional and national road relays. The club first qualified the for the national 6 stage in 1995 and the national 12 stage in 2001 and has been at both ever since, regularly finishing in the top 20.

This marvellous progress has been made at a time when numbers and standards in athletics have been declining. This progress has been far from accidental, though the most important factor has been the club’s character: though small (there are still barely 200 members) Kent AC is a friendly and inspiring outfit that very quickly generates loyalty and team spirit. It is still essentially local in its focus drawing on the huge pool of talent from the south east London area and with a skill at both nurturing it and retaining it. The club has deliberately focused on developing talented youngsters in the16-21 age bracket and then encouraging them to continue as active seniors; that more than 70% of the U17s have done so shows the success of this approach. The second priority is to support senior athletes to a level of excellence that they and Kent AC can be proud of and a large portion of the club’s resources (especially by assisting injured athletes or subsidising travel costs to national level competition) are targeted to this.

A major factor was the centenary present from the Sports Lottery Fund and Lewisham Council who replaced the poorly maintained cinder surface at Laydwell with an all weather surface. The final feature has been leadership in terms of team management and coaching. Larry Garnham brought on a talented sprints and throws group in the 1990s and was the first to nurture Conrad Williams, now UK Challenge and Scottish 400m champion. His peer with a distance group was Ken Pike, who turned to coaching in 2000 after 10 years of managing the A track team. As a manager he did more than anybody to nurture the strong team spirit, is a walking database of team members’ and opponents’ pbs, developments and form and is one of the most enthusiastic, fairest and knowledgeable supporting spectators in athletics. He’s also most certainly the loudest; no cross-country course is too big, the only certain sanctuary is the turn on a long leg at the national 12 stage. As a coach he has a loyal and dedicated group of top class athletes, which includes Jermaine Mays, AAA steeplechase champion and UK representative at the 2006 European Championships.

The club does more than just compete. It has a healthy social life and in addition to the expected club championships puts on the annual Sidcup 10 mile road race – an event that is growing as its reputation as a flat, fast, friendly and well organised event spreads - in February each year.

The club is far from complacent. While it offers coaching and competition for boys over 15, it as yet has little for younger age groups and as yet has no women’s track team. The club is entirely voluntarily run, which is always a fragile base, and is grateful to financial support from Lewisham Council, for whom it organises school’s track and cross country events. Its ambitions are to be consistently in the top dozen clubs in the country in all disciplines; to build on its position as the most successful club south of the River Thames with a genuinely local identity that uses and retains home-grown talent, and to do this without diluting the local focus and friendly character that has characterised it for over a century.