Maureen Smith also pointed out that something is missing when athletes are not competing or even encouraged to compete in their County or Area championships. She feels athletes in the early days had the competition to progress right through from club to National Championships. That was available to them. It was beneficial, important and necessary for selection to be able to run heats, semi-finals and finals, all in one day and be able to combine middle distance track with road and cross-country in the year. All that gave them the special ingredient to handle Major Championships and be able then to make the finals. Very few are able to do that now.
    She also remarked that athletes should be taught to be loyal to their clubs who gave them the opportunity to compete; to their counties who gave them the opportunity to be good Team athletes. In the high echelons of the sport, they don't appear to be interested in that. Another thing Maureen remarked on was that the National Cross Country Championships was the epitome everybody wanted to do because it was from the National you were selected.
    Maureen Smith was born in London on the 10th of July 1935 in Middlesex and her Father Lawrence Bonanno had been in the Merchant Navy. Her mother Ivy was always supportive when she competed, making sure she had good meals and her clothes were all in good condition for competition, despite money being scarce in those days. Maureen Smith worked in the Midland Bank Overseas Branch in the City of London in the early 50's and then for a firm of solicitors in  St. Albans since 1975 and now her only paid job is three long mornings working in that office.
    Maureen Bonanno-Smith, as she is known in the City since she became Freeman of the City of London to perpetuate her father's name, received the South of England long service Award for 50 years Voluntary work in the sport and the London Federation of Sports and Recreation Gold Award for 50 years of Voluntary service to athletics and, was the only woman from England to be chosen to officiate at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane. She was also part of the Team Management in Yokohama when the English women won the famous "Ekiden" Road Relay over the marathon distance.
    Maureen Smith concludes about what she feels about, the South of England Cross Country Committee giving her the opportunity to wear the Great Seal of Office of the English Cross Country Association as the new President, after many years of work within the
National Association.
    ' To me athletics has been my life and an absolute joy and this is the icing on the cake, that I have been President of my club Highgate Harriers, Middlesex County twice, President of the South of England CC Association. When I first started with the Women's Cross Country Association, it was actually the Women's Cross Country, Road Running and Walking Association, all three discipline's We have progressed from those early days to the Amalgamation of the Men and Women's Association into the English Cross Country Association'.
    ' All through my athletics- track, Field, Cross-Country and Road, I have been one of the few to cover all those disciplines, to compete, Officiate and be a Team Manager in all of them. It has been hard work but I have loved every moment of it. Would I do it again? I certainly would. I have made so many friends with competitors, athletes and officials and I certainly hold them in high regard as friends that will always remain with me.'