Over the past 120 years Anniesland has seen many great and talented sportsmen use the playing fields to hone their fitness and skills most on an official basis but some on an unofficial basis Ian Binnie fell into the latter category--until recently he was still seen lapping the perimeter

Ian Binnie Athlete; Born July 15, 1929; Died July 26, 2007.

IAN Binnie, who has died suddenly aged 78, was the greatest Scottish endurance runner of his generation with a ferocious work ethic which to his death he played down.

In 1953 Britain had just lost the six miles in the 1953 match against Germany when Norris McWhirter, of Guinness Book of Records fame, told the London crowd at White City that a man who had turned down the chance to represent his country in that event had that very afternoon broken two British records: the Empire record, UK all-comers' record, plus six Scottish records, in the same race: "...running, if you please, at some place called Cowal."

That man was Ian Binnie, who always used to insist: "I was just a very lucky boy." So "lucky" that he broke 21 Scottish records during his career. He held the course record in virtually every Scottish road race.

Binnie was certainly blessed with talent. Brought up in Oxfordshire by his grandparents because his father, John, was in India with the Foreign Office, Binnie excelled at cricket and had trials for the county before he moved north when the family returned to his parents' native Glasgow.

He came late to athletics but soon made a prodigious impact. He borrowed from the harsh regime of the Czech master Emil Zatopek, who had won three Olympic titles in 1952. Binnie would run 40 laps, sprinting for up to 300 metres, then jogging 100. No Scottish athlete had tried anything so extreme, and it soon paid dividends.

The Scottish all-comers' mark for six miles had stood to the legendary Alf Shrubb since 1904 when Binnie wrote it out in 1953. Then he paced Gordon Pirie to a world record in the six-miles at the AAA Championships, setting a Scottish best of 28min 53.4sec. Apart from Andrew Lemoncello, who runs in the World Championships this month, no Scot has run that fast this century.

On the Cowal cinders that day in the summer of 1953, Binnie broke Scottish records at seven, eight, nine, 10, and 11 miles, plus one hour (he covered 11 miles 1571 yards, narrowly missing the world best with the third furthest ever). His 10-mile time was a British record, and his one-hour mark was an Empire and UK all-comers' one.

Binnie went to the Empire Games in Vancouver, finishing seventh in the three miles, and sixth in the six miles. He was the first Scot to break 29 minutes for six miles, 14 minutes for three, and nine minutes for two. He won the three and six-mile double at the Scottish championship for three successive years. This gained him the prime Scottish trophy, the Crabbie Cup. The last person to have won it thrice consecutively had been the 1924 Olympic champion Eric Liddell.

Binnie was fiercely proud of his club, Victoria Park, and helped them to a unique record. In 1952 he was a member of the Scotstoun side's team which became the first from outside England to win the English national cross-country title. The team of nine who travelled to Birmingham included Empire Games medallist Andy Forbes and his brother Chick, Ronnie Kane, Ronnie Calderwood and Alex Breckinridge, who later served two tours as major in the US Marines in Vietnam. The whole trip, including the railway return, cost £65, including one guinea a head bed and breakfast, for all nine athletes.

These stalwarts monopolised the Edinburgh to Glasgow relay in the 1950s. One year, Binnie arrived with the trophy, which had a silver running figure on the top. He had knitted kit for the figure in his club's blue and white. They duly won again.

Binnie was a man who kept his promises, no matter what. Bill Struth, the Rangers manager, invited him to compete in the Ibrox sports, and he'd accepted. The phone rang one evening. It was Jack Crump, secretary of the AAA. He rebuked Binnie for turning down selection: "England needs you." For a GB international, no less. Forty years on, Binnie recounted the conversation with glee: "I told him I was Scottish, and that my mince was getting cold."

Binnie duly raced at Ibrox, and was leaving the ground when Struth appeared on the stairway. "He complimented me on keeping my promise, and presented me with a key to the ground. He said I could use the track any time, provided the players weren't training on it. It was the best track in Scotland then, and the greatest gift any athlete could have had."

Binnie was as an engineering draughtsman, mainly for Babcocks. A non-smoker, he ran regularly until a year ago, always with a stopwatch. But lung cancer, apparently asbestos-related, was diagnosed and he died at his home last week.

He is survived by his wife Barbara, daughters Shelley, Serena and Sheona, and two grandchildren, Jessica and Jack. The funeral service is at Corrie Church, Arran, at noon on Monday, and thereafter at Sannox cemetery at 1pm.

This article was posted on 3-Aug-2007, 22:08 by Hugh Barrow.