Club History...

Swinton Running Club began life on 18th October 1976 as Swinton Jog Fit Club. It was the brainchild of Swinton Rugby League Club Director Brian Cooper and coaches Eddie Cheetham and Rees Thomas.
Sixty people of all ages, shapes and sizes turned up for the first formal session on Monday 25th October, completing the warm-up, run around the rugby pitch and warm down.
Membership was £1.50 and session fees were 50p. Sessions were held 4 times a week, with rigorous exercises thrown in.  Each week an extra minute was added to the running time in order to build up stamina; measured each month by the “12 minute” test. Performances, taking into account age, sex and effort were analysed by the coaches and each quarter awards for the “Most Improved Jogger’ for men and women were given.
1977 saw the introduction of club events such as the 3-mile handicap, 4-2-3-1 relay. The following year a coach load of joggers set off for London for the National Fun Run. Next on the list was the first Swinton Half Marathon.
In 1980 the club moved to its location at Swinton Moorside Cricket Club and in the same year the first Mince Pie Run was held; a 3-mile run, traditionally run together, as a club, followed by Christmas leftovers. In 1982, the present club colours of red, white and black were introduced.
In 1983, a club member, Alan Roughley died while out training.  The cause was not connected to his running and in his memory, the Alan Roughley award was introduced.  This is awarded to the club member who epitomises the spirit of the club, as Alan did. Rees Thomas also died the following year and his memory lives on every quarter with the Rees Thomas Runner of the Quarter awards.
The development of the Club continued and in 1985 we hosted the Women’s Own 10km and continued to do so over the next five years.  The discos every 3 months allow club members to relax, as do a series of internal competitions.
In 1988 we entered into the ‘Swinton Challenge’ with Burnden Road Runners, competing over a series of local Road Races. The following year we were joined by Radcliffe AC who also won the challenge. In 1992 the opposition changed to Belle Vue Racers, run by Eddie Cheetham was President of Swinton Joggers and who have won the trophy for two years.

In 1991 we organised a 24-hour Charity Run which raised over £1000 for two local charities.  Our Half Marathon, renamed the Swinton Jog Fit Pendlebury Children’s Hospital Half Marathon raises in the region of £3000 each year for the hospital and is now established as a quality race within the area. Runners continue to raise thousands of pounds for various charities through the participation in the London Marathon - in 1994 we had some 14 runners take part in the event.
In 1991, we introduced a club championship, incorporating club runs and local road races to encourage competition between club members.
In 1992 we awarded the very first ‘Honorary Life Membership’ to Hubert Irwin, our oldest member. Hubert at 76 completed the London Marathon in 5 1/2 hours, was the Salford Senior Citizen of the Year and ranked in the top ten for his age group in 10-mile and Half Marathons in the UK. The award was a very special one, agreed unanimously by the club members.
1993 saw the club invited to take part in the North West Road Running League and we now compete in the Central Lancs Grand Prix League (see separate page).  This provides the opportunity for good competition with other clubs and ensures that we encourage other runners to take part in our Half Marathon.  1993 also saw a small but significant change to the constitution of the club. The position of President was changed to an honorary position and the first President under this new rule, was one of the founding members of the club - Eddie Cheetham.  Although Eddie now runs another club, we had wanted to find a way to celebrate his past achievements with the club and to cement our continued relationship.
The club will continue to change and evolve, taking part in different events, locally regionally and nationally.  We still have many difficult decisions to make to ensure that we can provide the best possible facilities for the club and we need to be able to provide the level of support required by members of all abilities and we need to recruit new members into the club.  Running a club of any description is not easy but ultimately a club is only what its members make it and everyone can and should have their own view of just what that is for them.
In 1997 the club changed it's name to Swinton Running Club; an indication that the club was a 'looking forward' and professionally run club with like-minded members.