HISTORY
 
 
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The club was formed in 1967 by some of the locals in Law Village as there was no athletics for the children once they had left the local Boys Brigade. At the time they had to travel to the local YMCA, the closest being at Motherwell, if they wished to continue in athletics. With transport being very difficult in those early days, some of the parents got together and decided that the village should have its own athletics club. A meeting was held in the village hall where a large number of locals turned out to discuss the idea. It was unanimously decided that an athletics club should be formed and as a result the first committee was elected. Jimmy Gibson, who only recently sadly passed away , was elected the first ever President. The first decision which had to me made by the committee was what to call the club. After lengthy discussion it was decided that the club would not be restricted to athletes from Law Village, but also the surrounding areas. As a result of this decision, Law & District Amateur Athletic Club was officially founded on 25th August 1967. The next topic on the agenda was what the club colours should be, and after lengthy debate it was decided that it would be an amber vest with two red and white chest bands, with red shorts. To this day the official colours still remain the same and are easily spotted at many athletic meetings. The club also designed a club badge which was worn with pride on vests, tracksuits and blazers. Unfortunately this is a thing of the past and only a few of the badges still remain. In order to kit out the new members that were expected to join, much needed funds had to be raised. This was done by a door to door collection around the Village, a very different approach from today. The following week a further meeting was held to allow people to come and join and pay their membership fees. It is interesting to note that there is only one member who joined back in 1967, who is still an active member, Robert Benyon.

Training in the early days took place in the public park and on the roads around Law Village. With no track in the area it was once again down the members of the club to raise funds. Various fund raising events were arranged until enough funds were available to build a cinder track. Moving on from this a small club house was built which gave the athletes some shelter and showering facilities. This served to be the base for Law & District for many years with athletes from Carluke and Wishaw converging on it on training nights. The local Firs and Fishermans also proved to be very popular training areas with our own Ian McCafferty swearing by them. Sunday mornings saw virtually the whole club, young and old, fast and slow, joining together for the traditional "pack run". This involved everyone starting off at the slowest groups pace until they cut off, the pace would then increase until the next group broke off. This carried off until it was left with the so called "stars" left to battle it out. This proved very popular and according to some of the older athletes of the club, is sadly missed in today’s training environment. It gave the youngsters and the slower athletes the chance to train with the "stars", giving them encouragement and the chance to aspire to them. As years passed by a new track was built at Loch Park stadium in Carluke, the best of its kind in those days. As a result most people started to drift away from the cinder track at law Village to use the modern facilities in Carluke, thus the track in Law Village became neglected and is now virtually in a state of disrepair.

The club’s base then moved permanently to Carluke which resulted in a large influx of youngsters from the local schools. This combined with the marathon boom in the mid 80’s resulted in the club having its largest ever membership. The base remained in Carluke until the new all weather synthetic track and Sports Centre was opened at Wishaw. As before, athletes moved to make use of the much improved facilities on offer. The main base is now at Wishaw Sports Centre, however, there still remains a very active Road Running section at Carluke, and with the emphasis still on recruitment, there also still remains a small squad of youngsters.

 

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