WG in Berlin - 50 years on

In June 1964 Track and Field Captain, Tony Maxwell, led a Woodford Green AC to West Berlin for a four-sided international inter-club match which after 18 events, the hosts Olympischer Sport Club, Berlin and Woodford Green were locked on 67 points, ahead of teams from Stockholm and Berne. Our hosts from OSC very kindly awarded the match to WGAC as we had 7 victories to their 6.

The team stayed in the 1936 Olympic stadium and on returning there after the match in Schonenberg saw Jesse Owens, four times Olympic gold medallist in 1936, being filmed in the middle of the track and talking to a film crew about the 1936 Games which were dominated politically by Adolf Hitler. The Woodford boys persuaded Jesse to join them in their team photograph. In 1964 of course the Berlin Wall had been standing for two years.

 
On Wednesday 16th July the Woodford team met up again after 50 years in The Spying Room at The Morpeth Arms, Pimlico. They were joined by the OSC 800m runner, Dieter Tabatt, who had flown over from Berlin for the event.

The top photo shows team with Jesse Owens. The next photo down shows Dieter Tabatt presenting the winning shield showing the Brandenburg Gate to Tony, and the final photograph shows the team last week, with their wives.

 
Each of the team spoke for 2/3 minutes each recalling different aspects of a memorable trip.