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When Barrie Stuart-King introduced himself as the new How's That? editor, he wrote of the well-known British athlete turned coach, Mike Winch, as his colleague with whom he collaborated in producing a specialist quarterly sports coaching journal / newsletter.

Out of curiosity, I looked up Mike Winch and found that he had quite recently taken over from Mr Eddie Kulukundis as Vice-President of British Athletics. As his e-mail address was given, I thought I would see whether he remembered his former colleague. To my surprise, I received a reply the very next day!

(Mr Winch said he was happy to give permission for it to be published as it was, he said, all true).

From: MikeWinch@..............
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2006 07:10:53 EST
Subject: Re: Barrie Stuart-King
To: peter_f_ray@yahoo.co.uk

Dear Peter

I do indeed remember Mr stuart-King.

Believing him to be genuine, I provided office space, IT support and my own support for him to start up projects we were mutually interested in, namely the Coaches Association and the Company.

Nothing materialised and the Company ceased trading after a year having performed no specific tasks in that time. The Coaches Association I withdrew from, since Mr King appeared to be all promises and no action, and with no finance it could not function. No magazine was ever produced, quality or otherwise. He did seem to have a good ability to speak to companies, but as in your case nothing was produced at a cost to myself and business.

Since that time (1998) I have not seen or heard from him. He left owing for IT equipment and had in fact produced nothing for the year or so free office space.

It strikes me that he used me and my business to perform his own tasks and bolster his credibility in other areas. You have confirmed that this was indeed the case.

I hope this helps. Please feel free to contact me again should you need to do so.

Regards

Mike Winch
National Athletics Event Coach