For an athlete whose initial fame in Sussex was probably as much for his Cross-country achievements it is strange to realise that Hugh Foord did not really enjoy cross-country running, but track or road racing was more to his liking.
“I really did not enjoy the mud and particularly plough fields and there were plenty of them when I was at my peak in the 1950s and 60,” said 91 year old Foord, who is still managing to get in a five mile run each day.
My first memory of Hugh was spring 1943 when a fair haired 14 year Connaught Road schoolboy came to our house, my father John was Secretary of the Brighton & County Harriers at the time, to join the club.
He was primarily a speed skater, and held the Stadium ½ mile record at the S.S. Brighton and also a keen Boys Brigade member and they did cross-country running.
He made steady progress but it was not really until he was on National Service as a Radio mechanic/Wireless Operator with the Royal Corps of Signals and the Parachute Brigade in Germany. Following a victory in the Hamburg District 1500m championships and a second place in the British Army of the Rhine. “I was given a three week trip back to England to run in the Inter-services Cross-country championships said Hugh”.
The Sussex Athletic Stadium at Hove was the venue in 1950 for his first Sussex victory and was the result of a great battle with Lancing College’s Phil Richards over the half-mile, a title that he retained a year later and from then on, for more than a decade, there was not a year when the name of Hugh Foord did not appear on the list of Sussex Champions.
In 1951 Hugh married Peggy (Lake).
A third place in the Southern 3-mile championship in 1953 caught the eye of John Le Masurier, the National Coach for the South, and he suggested he should talk to Vic Bratley and this proved an excellent partnership as he was able to discuss his training and racing with him for the rest of his competitive career, he may well say that he is still in his competitive career.
In 1955 he won the one mile, 3-mile, both in record times in a space of little more than one hour, 6-mile and the senior cross-country as well as winning a gold medal for the half-mile mile leg in the relay.
Indeed 1955 was probably Hugh’s most successful year with a bronze medal in the Southern Cross-country 
championship at Stanmer Park, ninth place in the National Championship and a place in the England team for the International Cross County championships and then a wonderful second place, behind Frank Sando over a fast course at San Sebastian.
A broken toe just before the Inter-counties ruined what was promising to be a probable medal and put paid to the rest of the Cross-Country season but by no means the rest of the year as he added the Southern three and six-mile titles as well as another three County titles.
1957 saw another ninth place in the National Cross-country champs and another international vest.
However he was unwell during the international race and for the only time in his career he failed to finish the course.
In 1958 Hugh was one of the favourites for the Empire and Commonwealth Games 6-mile at Cardiff but it was not his day. Hugh did not like hot sunny days and the six-mile was on the only sunny and dry day of the Games and although he started as one of the favourites he did not cope well with the conditions and finished down the field.
This was by no means the end of Hugh’s winning ways and he continued to notch up gold medals, although no more at international level.
Two more Sussex titles in 1958, three in 1959, four in 1960, four in 1961, including the 20-mile crown in in a record time of 1:52:08s. The 20-mile is no longer held and the race was held from, Tongdean Lane straight up the A23 (London Road) to turn, in the road just short of Bolney Cross Roads and back to Brighton.
Hugh won eight Sussex Senior Cross-country titles, a total that only club mate Peter Standing has matched while in the South of Thames senior cross-country, which in his day was a stepping stone to International representation, he notched up five titles between 1955 and 1962 plus two second places. In 2020 I believe, this is still the most any athlete has achieved. He bettered the total of four titles that the Royal Corps of Signals, Joe Cotterell, notched up in the 1920s and he also had links with Sussex.
With a total of twenty seven track golds including relays and eight Cross-country crowns Hugh has won 35 Sussex gold medals and were it not were it not for the prodigious Worthing all-rounder Debbie Woolgar Hugh would be the athlete who has won more Sussex Gold medals than any other Sussex athlete.
With Hugh he has never finished running and though he eased his racing for a few years, during which he and Peggy produced Roger, and to complete his Accountancy qualifications he has never stopped racing and in 1979 he turned his attention to the World Masters championships winning the M50 10km title, a title in Bolton and he successfully defended it in Glasgow 1980.
Come 2000 he was still fit enough to celebrate his Golden anniversary of County championships when he ran in the Sussex 5,000m championship at Crawley.
With best times in his day of 1.57s for the half-mile = 1:56.3s for 800 metres and 4:15s for the mile = 3:56m for 1500m would suggest that 70 years on he would be amongst the best in Sussex on the 2019 Sussex Rankings lists while his best three mile time converts to 14:04.4s for 5000 metres which it the fourteenth best time ever by a Sussex running while best 6-mile time of 1958 amazingly converts to 29:16.4s which has still only been bettered by Andrew Bristow (Brighton & Hove), Tim Hutchings (Crawley), Peter Standing (Windsor) and Gavin Thompson (Crawley) on the Sussex 
All time lists.
Now Hugh still runs at least five-miles a day accompanied by wife Mary (Heath) who he married in 1993 and is eagerly waiting the return of the Hove Park Runs where he already holds a the M80 and M90 where he is sometimes accompanied by wife Mary, son Roger, step daughter and granddaughter.