SEVENOAKS ATHLETICS CLUB IS 50 YEARS OLD! Or if we were to go by the oldest reference found in the Chronicle archives, there's been an athletics club in the town since at least 1885, which would make the club over a 140 years old!! We have a lot of history which can be found here.
Sevenoaks Athletics Club was reborn in 1976 and has grown significantly since, with membership of over 200, comprising around 100 junior and 100 senior members.
One of the major issues for the club down the years - see this article - has been lack of facilities, in particular and HQ and running track. With this in mind, Chris Birch and the club set about raising funds by launching the Sevenoaks Half Marathon, ten years later in 1986. There were also fun runs for under 11s and over 11s on courses of one and two miles respectively. Together with great publicity from the Sevenoaks Chronicle and local sponsors Baffles Exhausts, Sevenoaks Hi-Fi, United House et al, the race was a highly regarded fixture in the local running scene, was later BARR accredited and there were up to a 1000 runners each year that tackled the half marathon route that started and finished at Sevenoaks School for Girls in Bradbourne Road (now Knole Academy).
The event raised the club between two and a half and three thousand pounds a year between then and the final race in 1993, when the first 7oaks7 race was held, which presumably continued to add to this pot. More about the Half Marathon here. So much so that the club amassed significant funds by the end of the 1990s; there was a proposal put together to share the facilities at Sevenoaks School by Chris Rowley as follows from his recent letter to the club:
"I was on the SAC Committee for 15-20 years from about 1984 – 2004. The Club was keen to have a running track and I spent two years working on a scheme to have one on the playing fields at the school at the bottom of Seal Hollow Road, working at national and local level to raise funds and obtain permissions. At the last minute, the national athletic authorities pointed out that Sevenoaks School had a track and suggested fairly formally that the Club and the Sevenoaks area should aim to make use of the shared track as part of the community.
"...we reached a practical agreement for the Club to use the track on at least one evening a week plus at other times for special occasions. The Club agreed the we would help provide equipment and I personally:
Bought the two large container units and arranged, after liaison with Knole, that they be delivered and placed at an agreed position. I also arranged for the paint and volunteers to paint the containers an acceptable colour.
Obtained funding for full pole vault equipment; and later for long jump and I think high jump equipment..."
Chris doesn't state what year this all happened but presumably this was after the club moved its regular meeting location from Knole Paddock then Sevenoaks Leisure Centre, sometime before the rubberised surface was laid in 1998, as a number of our older members recall running on the cinder track (from Google AI):
The running track at Sevenoaks School, located near the Sennocke Centre and bordering Knole Park, originally began as a 440-yard cinder track. It was later completely upgraded to a modern 400-metre synthetic surface and officially opened by Olympic champion Kelly Holmes on 1 July 1998.
Track Evolution & Timeline
Original Cinder Track: Formed as a traditional 440-yard cinder surface used by students and local groups.1998 Synthetic Upgrade: Converted into a 400-metre synthetic all-weather facility, opened by Dame Kelly Holmes.2002 Expansion: Enhanced with painted javelin runway markings in March 2002, complementing the nearby throwing circles.