Athletic accomplishment

Regular observers of our Twitter account will know all the facts and figures behind each new day at Cliftonville FC – and this weekend provides yet another significant anniversary.

For, while the Athletics section of the Club has not been active for more than a century, tomorrow marks 130 years since Cliftonville’s seventh annual Athletic Sports Day at Solitude.

An occasion understood to have been well attended, Heritage Development Officer Paul Treanor notes that the programme of events involved a full day of Bicycle and Track races of varying lengths, all around the ground’s cinder track.

Proceedings started with a half-mile flat race for Club Members, where the prizes on offer were a case of fruit spoons, a Gilt carriage clock and a case of brushes, while 32 schoolboys made up the next 440-yard race, competing for a silver watch, opera glasses and a football.

With thanks to Peter Sammut for unearthing the information, the Club produced a 32-page programme for the day when Athletic and Bicycle clubs – mainly from Ireland but with some English entrants included – competed for a range of prizes, with the final event being a three-mile Bicycle handicap.

What makes little programmes like this of extra interest are the adverts it contains, demonstrating a very different world to today.

Steel & Sons Ltd of Royal Avenue advertises watches and wedding presents; the Empire and Alhambra promised a ‘theatre of Varieties’ each evening all year round; W Henderson of Cavendish Terrace Antrim Road promoted the ‘Cliftonville mixture’ and other tobacco products ‘without rival’; while Lowry and Officer promised the best outdoor sports gear ‘Cellular Clothing – clothed with air’ to ensure players kept warm or cool as needed, and Robinsons Hairdressing of Donegall Place proudly proclaimed you could get your hair done in a business ‘lighted by electricity’.

Best of all, though, was Robinson and Cleaver of Royal Avenue advertising football gear; Flannelette shirts for 2 shillings 3 pence, or all wool for 4/6; Knickers (or shorts to us) were 2/3, while stockings (socks) in black, navy or heather cost 2/6; boots were 7/11 or 8/9 per pair, a football would run you 4/11 or 7/11 for the very best, and shin-guards were 1 shilling or 1/6 a pair.