Running club duo’s lifetime achievement awards

John Buckby, 83, has been a member of the club for 64 years, while Dave Heeley OBE holds the record for representing the club in the most races, which stands at a total of 115 in the Birmingham League, and increases to 170 overall.

West Bromwich Harriers are the only existing founding member of the Birmingham League from 1925, and were formed five years earlier in 1920.

Buckby has been a member for roughly two thirds of the club's existence, and competed in 16 English Cross-Country Championships between 1960 and 1980.

He remarkably still participates in sessions at the age of 83, and fellow member Pete Donnelly revealed that Buckby has been instrumental to keeping the club afloat for many years.

"In the 1970s especially, John was the one man band and he was the one keeping the club afloat," Donnelly reveals.

"We are in fact the only club with our original name. There's still clubs that have amalgamated with other clubs, who were part of that 1925 gang.

"But we are still the original club with our original name and our original colours, whereas other clubs have merged and have been made bigger.

"John is an inspiration to the whole club. He turns up every Wednesday and he goes to these park runs most Saturdays.

"He will listen to what the session is and adapt it to his level. To see him take part at 83 years of age is a real inspiration, and I was unaware that at his prime in his 20s and 30s, he was a very good runner.

"He wasn't elite as such but a very fast club runner. Doing it 60 years later, he joined in 1959, he is 83 now, so 64 years. He has been a member for two thirds of the club's life."

Heeley was diagnosed as blind at the age of 10 but has tried his hand at virtually everything from skiing and horse riding to cliff jumping in Corfu and indoor sky diving.

'Blind Dave' also loves his running, and famously completed seven marathons across seven days in seven different continents in 2008: Falklands (Antarctica), Rio, Brazil (South America), Los Angeles (North America), Sydney (Australasia), Dubai (Asia), Tunisia (Africa), and London (Europe).

Heeley has also raised over £3 million for various charities, and was awarded with an OBE in 2020 for his services to charitable fundraising.

Donnelly adds: "Dave was a really elite runner club wise. He deserved to be in a bigger club, but he always felt he loved it at West Brom so much that he didn't get a transfer.

"His times were outstanding as well during the 1980s and 90s. Dave holds our record for the most cross country races. He has taken part in 115, and when you think we only hold four a year, so that's nearly 30 years worth of races.

"He has actually represented the club 170 times in different races, but in the Birmingham League, he has competed 115 times.

"Dave is in his 70s now. I would say he is the best club runner ever consistently over 30 years."

If you would like to become a member of West Bromwich Harriers Running Club then email petedonnelly6@gmail.com or visit their website westbromwichharriers.wordpress.com.