I used to watch cram train when i was a kid and he ran 3.42 not 3.47 at 16. My dad was the Physical Ed. teacher at his school so had the opportunity to see him develop at a young age. He started off running 400 metres at school and was very very good at it, but he did not have it all his own way, he had a younger brother Kevin who was his equal up to the age of about 15 when he drifted away from teh sport, there was only 10 months between them, sadly he died last year from some kind of anuerism whilst out jogging. There was also another guy in his year at school, who packed up on leaving school who won run him close. Of course when he did start to make it theer were other great very young British milers on the scene, Tim Hutchings and Graham Williamson being almost as good, Williamson never seemed to get the breaks of Crammy but was nonetheless very taleneted.
He trained at my local track and I remember him training very very hard, he was naturally gifted but had a tremendous work effort. Watching him in full flight was one of the most impressive sights in sport, his stride was supposedly 12/13 feet in full flow. I remember him doing sessions of 400 metre turn arounds at the track with maybe 20 secs recoveryin 57/58. Interesting thing was his protege David Sharpe, World Cup winner, European silver medallsit and 1.43 guy used to be able to match him in sessions and would often run away on the last lap. Sharpey was world junior champion and had atendency to run like Borzokovsky, I honestly think he had more talent that Crammy but he was nuts. his training revolved around teh odd 4 mile spin about 7 minute mile pace with a park session and a track session per week. He drove fast cars, liked to party and was not particularly bright but he was a great runner. 1 hour before the European 800 final nobody could find hima nd teh team management were searching everywhere for him, he was found eating a roast dinner in the athletes canteen, 50 minutes later he was on the track and ran 1.45 for a silver medal to Tom McKean. he stopped racing around the time Crammy packed up and yet he was only about 26, a real waste of talent.
The good thing about Crammy was that in teh winter he raced on the road and country, he was very good over 10 miles, 48 minutes and was an accomplished Xc runner, winning the NE county champs, no mean feat in those days, consideringa lot of teh guys were world class. Never fulfilled his 5k potential.