Look what I found...Carl unearths a little bit of family and Advertiser history

Carl Luckock was going through some cupboards during lockdown at his home in Wickersley when he chanced across an old sports trophy. 

Sponsored by the Rotherham Advertiser, it belonged to his late dad, Edgar, who won it for coming first in a walking race at Kimberworth and District Hospital Sports in 1937.

Carl has a picture  of young Edgar, posing in his running shorts next to  a  table of his cups with the trophy taking pride of place in the middle.

It was one of many cups Edgar won during his youth for walking and running races.

“If you looked at him you wouldn't think. He just looks like a little skeleton. There was nothing on him, he was very small,” said Carl.

“He must have been a good runner. It wouldn't happen now, but in his school dinner hour he'd run from South Grove School to Parkgate to give a fellow his dinner who worked there and then go back to school. I think he got two shillings a week for that.

“He also used to run from his house in Eastwood, past Thrybergh Park golf course. There was a road to the left and he'd do a loop right around and come back to Eastwood. That was his training most nights.

“He wouldn't have a trainer, he did it himself.”

Old snap...Edgar Luckock with his trophies. 

Carl is well known locally as a former director of Rotherham United and his current involvement with the Ingle Boxing Gym at Wincobank.

Recently he gleaned even more information on his father when his niece, Jemma ,showed him an old cigarette case.

“Inside it was cuttings from the Advertiser containing all the results from my dad's races and the numbers he used to pin to his vest,” explained Carl.

“One of the races was run around Millmoor. He actually won. My dad told me when he was a kid that someone bet sixpence on him and won six shillings, which was a lot of money.

“My dad's all-time hero was Alan Simpson, from Rotherham, who of course ran at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. When he was racing Alan would scream and jump about in front of the telly.”

As for the old Rotherham Advertiser trophy, Carl has kindly donated it to the newspaper where it will be kept in our new town centre office.

“I would rather you have it than me. It's a nice trophy, it just needs a clean.”