Athletics can only exist with untiring help from many people, most of whom were not involved with athletic competition in their younger days.
We have already featured Janis Long and Chris Carter in this series of outstanding Sussex athletes who have continued to work behind the scenes to ensure that the sport thrives.
Maurice John Luxford was born in Horsham on 6th August 1933 and made his first steps into athletics when he joined the Horsham Blue Star Harriers in 1950 as a runner.
Not much happened for a few years as he was soon to be away on National Service for two years in the R.A.F. However, he made certain he was always at home for Christmas for the Sussex Senior Cross Championships which are always held on the first Saturday of the New Year, and he was determined to run.
He was able to join his fellow Blue Star runners and help them win the team event and take home the silver statuette of the god Mercury, that was presented to the Sussex County A.A.A in 1925 when they were at Camp near Crowborough. From 1946 till 1954 Horsham strung together 19 successive team championships.
In 1959 John chased home Brighton A.Cs Hugh Foord to take the silver medal ahead of his club mate, Maurice Baker, but they were not able to wrest the tea
m title back to Horsham.
In 1962 it was John’s turn to take gold though not in the senior championship but in the ‘Intermediate’ (by standard, not age) 5-mile race which was always held in December.
This was John’s only cross-country gold medal until he moved into the Veterans Age group in 1973. But he was to make many appearances for the Sussex cross-country team at the Inter-counties championships, by the time that appeared and by then he had already taken on the mantle of responsibility of club Captain and indeed County team manager.
The bad winter of 1963 possibly saw John probably at his best, and he reminisced in 2010 with Steve Hollis of the Argus. The snow was knee-deep in Stanmer Park, on the first Saturday in January, for the Sussex Senior cross-country Championship and the course had been reduced to six miles.
The course had been prepared before the race and Vic Bratley, the county's leading officer and official, led a small team to pace out the course through the snow to make a path. I am probably the only one of that team still with us. It was a severe winter and my wife Pat and I moved into our first house at the end of February, and we had to get some builders to clear the snow from the front of the house before we could move in.
We had cleared a narrow path for the runners and Luxford said: “I sprinted away at the start, not my usual tactics and defied anyone to come past.
"Hugh Foord had retired at the end of 1962, and my club mate Maurice Baker had already won one Sussex Senior title, but I was determined to keep my nose in front.
“He was right behind at the finish and tried to sprint past me in the deep snow, but I was on hard trodden snow and managed to hold on to win for a few seconds. And we won the team race again.
“I ran in the Inter-counties championships a couple of weeks later, and it was even worse in Lancashire. There they had to get a local farmer to clear the course of large patches of solid ice”.
John was to win many Sussex Veterans (Master) titles and won more Sussex Veterans titles than any other runner until Brighton & Hove’s Keith Newton came along this century.
John was also a regular winner of the Sussex six-mile (10,000m) track championship and the odd 5,000m crown.
He became an active member of the Blue Star Management in 1956, and from 1960 – 1995 he was the Men’s captain and Team manager and from 1984 – 2011 became the Young Athletes and senior men’s team manager.
From the 1980s he was also a club coach and field and cross-country official, helping out throughout the county. He spent an amazing 25 years as a Sussex team manager.
And that was not all. When Denne Park was one of the major Sussex cross-country courses, it was John who would lead the team marking the course as well as helping out on other courses throughout the county, and he has undertaken this for more than forty years. Until the last couple of years, John was also responsible for measuring and marking the Road Relay championship course at Christ’s Hospital as well as marshalling on the day.
In 1987 John had become the President of the Sussex County Association, and in 1989 he was made a life member.
In 2003 he was the Sussex Sports Partnership “Coach of the Year”, and the following year he was back at annual Presentations to receive an award for “Outstanding contribution”.
In 2000 he received, from Chris Carter who was then the Secretary of the South of England Amateur Athletics Association his Long Service badge. John is a Life Vice President of his club Horsham Blue Star Harriers.