ATHLETICS INTERNATIONAL VOL 17 NO 1
JANUARY 13, 2009
EDITED BY PETER MATTHEWS & MEL WATMAN

"Dream to Reality: The Ray Roseman Story,by David Cocksedge. British athletics fans of a certain age will carry affectionate memories of Ray Roseman, the tall, thin South London Harrier (later of Brighton & Hove AC) who enlivened many a mile race with his uninhibited running - on one occasion zipping through a 54.8 third quarter. His dream was to break four minutes but for year after year he fell frustratingly short of that goal. Britain's third fastest miler of 1963 at 4:01.6, he clocked 4:00.2 and 4:01.4 in 1965, 4:02.2 twice in 1966, 4:02.3 twice in 19067, 4:00.7, 4:00.8 and 4:00.9 in 1968, and 4:01.0 in June 1969. At last, in July 1969, he made it with 3:59.8, ranking him no 20 in the world that year and becoming, incidentally, the first Jewish runner to break through that barrier. This well illustrated 98 page booklet, documenting Roseman's track career, has been written by my old "Athletics Weekly" colleague David Cocksedge (assistant editor 1969-1973) who, like Roseman, now lives in Thailand. Roseman, whose grandparents fled from Russia to Britain at the start of the last century, became a British international but missed out on Olympic selec-tion in 1964 and 1968 although he did attend the 1948 Games as a nine year-old. Another special occasion was when, at 14, he sat on the infield at Motspur Park during the Surrey Schools Championships while Roger Bannister came so close to the world mile record with an illegally paced 4:02.0. It would be on that famous cinder track, the scene of Sydney Wooderson's pre-war 800m, 880y and mile world records, that Roseman would run his dream mile 16 years later. The book is available in the UK for £10.00 (payment by cheque or postal order, payable to Ray Roseman) from Flat 4, 26 Holland Road, Hove BN3 1JJ. Signed copy on request. Overseas readers should contact him at rayroseman@yahoo.co.uk for details. (MW)