By an unfortunate coincidence, all the executive posts in the British Association of Sports and Exercise Medicine (BASEM) expired at the 2002 AGM and led to retirement of most of the old guard. Since 1992 all the donkey work for the Association had been performed by John Clegg, a retired dentist, who since then had thrown himself into the role of Honorary Secretary of the Association.

Following schooling in Bolton he had graduated from Liverpool University in Dentistry in 1959 and spent some time in the Facio-Maxillary Unit at Broadgreen Hospital before entering General practice in St Helens. Sport had always been a major part …