RON Stonehouse, athlete and former coach at Aldershot, Farnham & District AC, died this week at the age of 89.

As well as being a top-class athlete himself – good enough to record 1-54.2 for the 880 yards at White City in 1954 and 9-16.06 for the 3000m steeplechase at the same venue in 1955 and 4-11.0 for the mile – Ron coached AFD’s double Olympian Bernie Ford and triple Olympians Chris Boxer and Roger Hackney, and many other less-talented athletes.

Ron was voted Farnham’s Sports Personality of the Year in 1981, when his citation described him as a leading AFD coach since the amalgamation of the Aldershot and Farnham clubs in 1966.

He was also involved in local football at a reasonable level in the late 1950s and early 1960s, playing for Farnham Town Reserves in the Surrey Senior League in 1962 and being a member of Martonair’s winning Runwick Cup team in 1958.