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Overview
This scrap book was compiled by Dave Gunton of the Auckland Baptist Harrier Club from 1961 to 1962. He collected newspaper cuttings about club races and harrier events, programmes and photographs, and club social events.
The scrapbook includes many newspaper cuttings about the achievements of Peter Snell and Murray Halberg, and their coach Arthur Lydiard who was responsible for the finest era in New Zealand athletics from 1951 to 1966. Other significant Lydiard-trained runners included in the scrapbook are Bill Baillie and Barry Magee. Two double-page spreads are devoted to Peter Snell's world record one mile run in Whanganui on 27 January 1962.
The scrapbook speaks to the popularity of middle and long distance running in New Zealand during the 1950s-60s period, and the foundation such grassroots clubs laid from the 1920s onwards, contributing to New Zealand’s successes on the world stage in the 1950s and 1960s.