John Toy

John Gordon Toy was born in Shirley, Birmingham on 28th February 1936. It is fair to say that his venture into roller skating, moreover, speed skating came late in life when compared to many others who had embraced the sport in their early teens. He was 20 years old when he first donned a pair of skates.

In his youth Toy was a keen table tennis player but an accident that resulted in a broken bone in his hand meant that for a short period he needed to find an alternative form of exercise. Whilst roller skating wasn’t really at the forefront of his mind, an impromptu visit to the Embassy rink in the Birmingham suburb of Sparkbrook, grabbed his interest. In fact, he enjoyed it so much that almost immediately he joined the local Birmingham club.

Toy’s first race was 25th May 1957, the Davis Cup handicap on his home track. Whilst he would not progress through his heat it was evident that he had found something not only that he liked but also wasn’t too bad at. In those early days he recognised that his technical ability was somewhat lacking (not helped by the fact he was using dance skates!) but his sheer strength allowed him to hurtle around the rink at speed and it was this feeling that Toy fell in love with.

Toy quickly struck up a friendship with fellow Birmingham skater, Les Woodley. Woodley was a British international and world medallist and prior to the start of the 1958-59 season decided to switch allegiances to the rival Midland club. The Midland club had formed a few years earlier by a small breakaway group of skaters from the Birmingham club and now had the likes of Ray Roberts and world medallist Danny Kelly amongst their ranks. A young Ricky May also decided to follow Woodley as did Toy, however, just a few weeks later Toy would return to Birmingham, a decision he would forever regret. This is how he tells the story:

“Woodley and May had made their mind up to leave and go to Midland and I thought I’d join them. Ray Roberts was the coach but rather than blast around the rink he had us doing technical drills and such like. I didn’t like this type of training, I just wanted to skate as hard and as fast as I could, so I returned to the Birmingham club before the start of the racing season. It was the biggest mistake of my skating career. Shortly afterwards the Midland club were dominating British speed skating. They were unstoppable in the relay with Kelly, Woodley and May being the backbone and the fourth man invariably being Ray Roberts or Graham Stead. If I’d stayed, I could have been part of that and who knows how things may have turned out?”

Toy continued to race regularly and naturally got better with each event. On 29th November 1958 he thought he had won his first gold medal. He was in the Birmingham team that was competing in the Chambers Trophy and with the likes of British internationals Dennis Stafford, Pat Eason and Leo Eason, victory was all but assured. However, the last event was the relay and whilst Birmingham would cross the line first, they would be disqualified. The result was that Birmingham only amassed enough points to finish second overall. Although Toy had his first medal it was not the colour he wanted or expected.

Twelve months later on 7th November 1959, Toy would win his first individual medal, a gold in the North London Trophy one mile handicap at the Alexandra Palace. A week later and still on a high he was again victorious, this time in the Davis Cup one mile handicap at the Embassy. Like buses, he hadn’t won an individual medal of any colour in the two years he had been competing and now he had won two in a row.

For some time, the Birmingham club had been suggesting that they had enough skilled skaters to try and obtain a number of metric world records at the Embassy rink. In the early 1950’s the club had achieved a number of imperial records with the likes of Bunny Bennett, Jack Struggles, Doreen Aspley, Pat Kirkham and Pat Eason (nee Harris). Now the club wanted to try their hand at metric records. On 29th November 1959, two weeks after Toy’s Davis Cup win, the club stepped onto the track to try and make history. Pat Eason was first up and she set a new 500 metre world record becoming the first British skater to set a metric record in the process. Next up was Dennis Stafford. It had been decided that he would try and break the 5000 metre record which had stood for 35 years, which he duly did. Next to go was Toy. Recognising Toy’s strength and sustained speed it was agreed he would attempt the 10000 metre record. Toy set a new record of 18 minutes 29.6 seconds, a full 13 seconds faster than the record World Champion, Luciano Cavallini, had set just 18 months earlier. In fact, although it was never recognised as a record, Toy’s split time for 5000 metres was actually four seconds faster than the world record time set by Stafford earlier that day.

On 9th April 1960 Toy was again in the Birmingham team competing in the Chambers Trophy. This time there was to be no disqualification and the disappointment of a year earlier would be remedied.

Around this time Toy was working at the Post Office whose depot was in the King’s Norton area of Birmingham. Whilst there he came across a road circuit that he felt would benefit his training. The circuit was a smooth road around a factory centre, roughly three laps to the mile. He told team mate, Leo Eason, about the circuit and they would train together to get some road miles under their belt. Toy was never more at home than when he was on a big sweeping road circuit. His strength was evident and he would frequently get the better of Eason, now a regular British team member.  Unfortunately for Toy, racing in Britain was confined to rinks. He knew his technical ability and limited track skills would always disadvantage him when it came to getting noticed during races. Les Woodey once commented to him “if you could just get round the bends we will all be in trouble!”

In September 1960 the World Championships were held in Wetteren, Belgium. Toy, along with many other British skaters, went along to cheer on the British team. In the build up to the championships there were a number of club races held on the circuit. One such race was a 20000 metres and Toy entered his first international event. As the race unfolded Toy attacked and he found himself off the front, the gap getting bigger with every lap. Then, with just a few laps to go his wooden wheels gave up the ghost. Suddenly he found himself trying to skate on wheels that were rapidly going out of ‘true’ and getting worse with every stride. As the finish line neared, he was caught and passed by former international and World medallist, Graham Stead (Midland), and fellow British skater Ray Tomasi (North London). Toy would still cross the line third but his disappointment was evident. Notably, in the 20000 metres World Championship, Mervyn Wybrott (New Zealand) would employ exactly the same tactic as Toy at an almost identical time within the race. Wybrott, who had spent a year in England training with Toy and the rest of the Birmingham club, would win the world title, but it did not go unnoticed by Toy that Wybrott’s time was some sixteen seconds slower than his own.

Back home racing resumed on the rinks and for the next couple of years Toy rarely, if ever, featured on the rostrum. In fact, Toy’s next medal would be gold once again in the Davis Cup on 26th October 1963. This was followed a couple of weeks later by a silver medal in the Clore Cup, just a tenth behind the winner, a young Mick McGeough (Alexandra Palace) winning his first senior gold medal on his home rink. Incidentally, the race would see a massive 101 entries, a record that still stands to this day as the most entries for a domestic race event.

In January 1964, Toy would win his first British Championship medal when he helped Birmingham to second place in the relay, but another medal drought soon followed. By the summer of 1965 the King’s Norton Factory Centre circuit was now widely known about. Leo Eason had trained on it in the build up to the 1960 World Championships and had used it to good effect to help him win his world title in 1963. In the summer of 1965, the National Skating Association (NSA) decided to hold their British team trials on the circuit and Toy was amongst the skaters. The team was announced and although Toy was not on the team sheet for Wetteren, he was named as reserve. Shortly afterwards and despite this recognition Toy made the decision that he needed a break from skating. Between February 1965 and January 1967, he would compete only once.

On 14th January 1967 Toy returned to the track for a Birmingham club race. A month later, his first domestic event in almost twelve months would see him enter the Five Mile Championship, but again Toy was having niggling doubts. By the end of the season Toy had decided that he would finally join the Midland club (now known as Midland Olympic). The Embassy had closed its doors and the new Mecca Olympic rink was now open for business. His old pals of Les Woodley, Ricky May and Danny Kelly had retired some years earlier and the Midland club now had other new talent with the likes of John Fry (senior), John Mullane and Steve Collins.

Toy’s first medal in new club colours, a bronze, came in the Clore Cup at Alexandra Palace on 9th November 1968. His next was a gold in the North London Trophy on 31st January 1970, a trophy he had first won in 1959. A few other medals ensued but then on 28th June 1970 at Mallory Park, Leicester, he produced a result that he would personally rate as his most memorable. This is how he remembers it:

“I was always very good on a road circuit but we never really raced on them, then we had an event at Mallory Park in Leicester. The race was over six laps and at one lap to the mile it suited me down to the ground. I kicked for home off the last bend and for anyone who knows Mallory the distance between the last bend and the finish line is around 200 metres. Bill Sharman was right on my shoulder and we sprinted neck and neck all the way to the finish line. We crossed the line and I believed I had won but the officials had Sharman down as first. Regardless, Sharman was just back from Argentina where he had won a world medal and I had given him a run for his money. I was 34 years old by then and whilst I believed this to be my best ever result, I knew my best days were behind me. I just wish we had raced more on roads back then and who knows what I could have done”.

It was Toy’s last race for Midland Olympic. For the start of the next season, he had returned to the Birmingham club. He once again teamed up with Leo Eason, now retired from international competition, and Geoff Mattock who was knocking on the door of an international call up. Toy would continue to race for Birmingham for the next few seasons and again would take home the odd medal, mostly in team events, however, it seemed that the days of his individual medal achievements were now gone. Then in the summer of 1974 a new opportunity presented itself.

The Midland Olympic club, now homeless since the Mecca Olympic rink had closed a few years earlier, decided they needed a refresh. The club decided to change its name to Mercia and with it some new club colours were introduced. Toy was invited to join the new club and so ditching the Birmingham colours one last time joined a club that would enjoy a period of dominance over the next few years. Once more teamed up with Fry and Mullane the following years would arguably be Toy’s most successful.

By now pretty much all of the indoor rinks had closed and skating had shifted outdoors. In May 1974 Tatem Park was introduced to the skating world for the first time and Toy thoroughly enjoyed the track with its big sweeping bends. In 1975 the British Championships were held on the track as were the Northern and Midland Counties Championships. Amongst the starters was Peter Howe (Southern) who was being regarded as a potential international (he would eventually get his call up in 1977). Howe had his sights set on the win but with some excellent team skating by Fry and Mullane it was Toy who would come home victorious. Fry and Mullane crossed the finish line second and third making it a Merica 1-2-3. Although now aged 39 it was Toy’s first scratch gold medal.

In 1976 Toy thought he thought he had helped Mercia win the British Relay Championship for the first time. Together with Fry, Mullane and Steve Collins they crossed the line first only to find out that the team were declassified to second place. Toy would even compete in the famous Heverlee (Belgium) 50km race that year experiencing newfound vigour in his skating.

The following years would arguably be Toy’s most successful. For the start of the 1976-77 season Mercia were joined by other internationals Patrick Feetham and Gerrard Bissett. If it wasn’t before, the Mercia club was certainly now an indomitable force. Very much skating as a team, Toy was regularly amongst the medals in handicap events and even managed to win the odd scratch race, most notably the 5000 metres at Battersea Park in 1977. Such was his form that in September he was invited to join Team Manager Bob Moore and fellow skaters Eddie Bradbrook and Alan Vial as a GB ‘B’ team to compete in Saint Philbert, France. Whilst his results were not of note, he thoroughly enjoyed the experience of putting on a GB shirt for the first time.

In 1978 Toy was part of the Mercia team that eventually won the British Relay Championships at Southampton ahead of arch-rivals Alexandra Palace. The following year, again helped by Fry and Mullane, he would once more be crowned Northern and Midland Counties Champion. This victory was even more notable as he had to also fend off the likes of European medallist Jerry McGrath (Birmingham) and the talented teenager John Downing (Birmingham). This was quickly followed by another victory in the British Relay Championships where he helped Mercia retain their title. Despite these performances time was definitely starting to catch up with Toy. His medal in the relay would be his last for three years.

Despite his ageing years Toy was still a very strong road skater and was a great support and training partner to Fry and Mullane in their quest to be international champions. This is how Fry (senior) recalls those days:

“John (Toy) would usually come and pick me after work and we would go off together to have our training session. Some days I would come home shattered after a hard day’s graft and pray that just once he wouldn’t be there waiting for me, but he always was. I’d come round the corner and there he’d be, sat in his old blue VW Beetle waiting patiently for me and my heart would sink. Of course, I couldn’t let him down so I would get myself ready and off we would go, rain or shine. He never once let me down and, in those years, where I enjoyed a degree of success I would say that John Toy was one of, if not the biggest influence on making that happen”.

In 1982 the Roller Speed Committee agreed to recognise races solely for veterans (now known as Masters). On 5th September, hosted by the Wisbech club, the very first veteran event was held in Peterborough. The race was over 1500 metres and Toy would finish first ahead of Wilf Smallman (Wolverhampton Eagles) and Peter Hawksworth (Leeds). It was to be a milestone in the sport of roller speed skating and Toy had paved the way.

On 9th October 1983 Toy would win his last senior medal, a silver in the North London Trophy handicap at the Moselle Leavers Centre in North London. Ahead of him was sixteen year old club mate John Fry (junior) winning his first senior medal. It was a poignant moment for Toy who had helped train and nurture young Fry and who over the course of many years he had nicknamed “Little Monster”. The moment was probably lost on the teenager at the time but not on Toy who would reflect and feel that it was a changing of the guard.

With the introduction of veteran racing Toy once again found himself regularly on the top step, then in 1987 another race format was introduced which would also have an impact on Toy’s successes, category racing. Now in his 50’s, flitting between categories three and four, Toy would continue to win races and medals, but on 25th September 1988 all that came to an abrupt halt.

It was a run of the mill veterans race at Tatem Park hosted by the Southend club and the last club race of a relatively packed season. Toy had already raced and finished fourth in his category event and was now looking to get on the podium in the veteran’s event. The distance was 3000 metres and Toy fancied himself to do well. Towards the end of the race as the pace was hotting up Dave Greenwald (Alexandra Palace) fell. Toy went over the top of him and immediately he knew he had done some damage to his shoulder. Toy was a carpenter by trade and this injury would impact his ability to work. In fact, the fall was so heavy that he would have to be off work for eleven weeks!

Of course, Toy recovered but he had time to evaluate his skating career. Mentally he didn’t think he would ever be able to race and put the same amount of effort in that he had done for all these years. He knew that even though he had physically recovered, the nervousness he would feel whilst racing would always be a barrier for him, and so at the age of 53, John Toy retired from skating.

Toy’s next venture would be to take up running. He joined a local running club and very quickly found he had a knack for it. In fact, within a relatively short period of time he found himself fairly successful and considered to be a very decent athlete within his age group. Trophies and medals would again come his way. He would later comment that he wished he had taken up running sooner, although even he would admit that it could never compete with the enjoyment and fun he found with roller skating.

When talking about legends within the sport, or any sport for that matter, one readily looks at the successes that were achieved, whether that be in terms of national titles, international titles or making the national team. What tends to be overlooked is the impact and influence on others, and John Toy did just that, in spades. He may never have won any individual British Championship medals or indeed obtain his full GB badge, but in each and every British, world or European medal won by the likes of Leo Eason, John Mullane and John Fry (senior), even John Fry (junior) if the truth be told, John Toy had a hand in it. It is impossible to measure just how much influence he had, but one can safely say that it was there.

Some might initially question Toy’s inclusion as a British skating legend, not least of all Toy himself. However, by definition, a legend is “a famous or notorious person in a particular field” and in British roller speed skating it is fair to say that John Toy fits that bill just perfectly.