Members: V

Keith Velda

After many years far away at sea, Keith swapped the mountainous breakers of the Pacific for the gentle hills of Llandaff. Having failed to be corrupted by the temptations of the Far East, he then fell into the clutches of Barry Johnston who has led him astray and introduced him to The Halfway Tavern and our club.

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Dave Walsh

Much-maligned former Chairman and founder member of the club (sometimes with good cause: that was the kind bit, some would say invariably with good cause!)

However, it’s true to record that Dave was the driving force behind the setting up of Les Croupiers Running Club, he wrote the club constitution and was the Chairperson for many years.

57 words submitted by Mick

Nigel Webb

Better known for his excellent performances over the Welsh Mountains, injuries have kept Nigel out of competitive sport for a few seasons. However, this year [2004] he made a very successful return as a ‘middle distance’ track athlete, and just weeks before his 45th birthday ran sub 2.10 for an 800m.

Nigel intends to concentrate on a range between 400m and 1,500m, but at present [Dec. 2004] is recovering from minor fractures to an ankle. He is still targeting the 800m o/45 at the British Masters Indoors, in Cardiff Feb. 2005, for yet another comeback!

95 words submitted by Clive James

Dave Weeden

My proudest running moment was being ‘phoned by David Lloyd when I got home from London in 1997 and being called a ‘bastard’ because I’d run 5 seconds quicker than his PB. Dave had run 2:51:39 in Manchester when he was a student. London has a more congested start, and the pack start well behind the line, but it is downhill, the support is better, and I knew the course.

The picture was taken in some church in Salt Lake City (hence the musical instrument) by a guy called Steve whom I met on a night train out of San Francisco,

and dates from my pre-running past. Those who think my hair is unruly now are welcome to examine it carefully. Some might think I look rather like Jesus. That, at least, was the first thing I said when I discovered the photo.

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Dave Williams

David likes to remind us how fast he is; he prefers to forget how in London 99 he was passed by a BBC commentator, talking on a mobile.

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Derek Williams

If you don’t know Derek, your best reference point may be Brendan Foster. Once, there was a slim version, which moved like lightning. Then, after a mental fight worthy of Soren Kierkegaard, Derek’s other great desire - a love of fine wines and Guinness, took control, and, contrary to George Orwell’s much quoted remark in ‘Coming Up For Air’, the fat man struggled to get out of the thin one. Derek’s running career, like his subsequent coaching and administrative gigs, was characterised by never doing anything by halves. Gutsy never came into it. Derek hurt for Wales.

Today, Derek throws his not inconsiderable energies and intelligence at every committee going, and at coaching anyone who asks.

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Geoff Wright

The club’s resident impressionist (his Prince Charles is very good) and Welsh tutor. Geoff is a former actor who played the baddie in the Welsh soap opera Dinas. He was good enough to be handbagged in a supermarket by an indignant chapel-goer when his on-screen character had an affair behind his wife’s back.

Club members were shocked when Geoff recently had to have treatment for varicose veins, largely because so few of us have ever spent enough time behind him to notice the state his calves were in.

Although Geoff will never be with the elite, his perseverence with a sport that God did not intend him for proves that, in this game at least, the near horizons are as hard to reach but as dearly sort as the far ones.

131 words submitted by Peter Bradley