29 October 2007: Dublin Marathon Debut (by Emma Felton)

Ireland’s October Bank Holiday saw the city of Dublin close its roads to accommodate a very international group of 12,000 runners for the Adidas Marathon. The weather was perfect and organisation superb, as everyone enjoyed a good start as we headed through the city, over the river Liffey and out to the beautiful Phoenix Park. The course is undulating and it takes you around the edge of the city, through Crumlin and Milltown, before heading back to the centre of town, for a lap around Trinity College to the finish.  Water and energy drinks where a plenty en-route; with energy gels handed out (a nice touch!) and the Irish crowds really kept you going.
The Russian’s dominated the race, as they’ve done in previous years.  Retaining his Adidas Dublin Marathon title and setting a new Dublin Marathon record, Aleksey Sokolov came home in 2:09:07. While Fellow Russian and 2006 title holder Alina Ivanova also retained her title in the ladies race with a time of 2:29:20.  For Great Britain, Thomas Abyu came second in 2:10:37, while Susan Partridge, the first female home in 2:38:33 and fourth overall in her category.
Not sure how many club runners crossed the Irish Sea for the event, but unfortunately I didn’t finish. With an upset stomach the day before, I knew my legs at mile 3 were no good !! I struggled to mile 17 before retiring.  But I will be back to tackle those inclines – a great event!

28 October 2007: Sportshall well supported by boys as well as girls

Round 2 of the Sportshall Athletics League took place in the warmth of Wigan's Robin Park Arena although on a fine Autumn day the weather outside was very pleasant.  Warrington have dropped out of the League and Prestatyn didn't send a team but there is a resurgence in Sportshall Athletics in Southport Waterloo with over 20 youngsters taking part today, several of them having run cross country at Leyland the day before!
Overall, Southport Waterloo were 6th in the Under 11 boys and girls, 5th in the Under 13 girls, 2nd in the Under 13 boys and 3rd in the Under 15 girls.  So not a bad performance with several competitors experiencing their events for the first time and the Under 13 boys doing particularly well.
Our Under 11 girls were Alice Cribb, Lauren Deane, Lucy Hunter, Ashleigh Jackson, Amy Sinclair and Rebecca Sinclair.  It was November 2004 since we had 6 girls in this age group so excellent to see so many taking part.  Lauren, Lucy, Ashleigh and Amy were making their debut appearance and hopefully they all enjoyed it and we'll see them back at the 3rd fixture.  All the girls did the 2-lap with Rebecca Sinclair recording the best time.  Alice had the fastest time in the 4-lap.
In the Under 13 girls, Ellon Hart and Sally Wareing were our entire team.  Both girls still has Saturday's cross country in their legs and did remarkably well to score 63 points between the two of them, mainly in the 2-lap, 6-lap, long jump, triple jump and shot.
We had 5 girls in the Under 15 age group where a holiday kept Jane Ingram from sportshall for the first time in 3 years. Competing today were Catherine Hulme, Beth McBride, Katy Morris, Sarah Murphy and Laura Riley.  Three of them - Catherine, Katy and Laura - also competed in the cross country on Saturday and so were not on fresh legs today.  Despite that, Katy Morris still managed to be our fastest 6-lapper and, with Beth McBride, fastest in the 2-lap.  With 111 points in 3rd place, they were only 5 1/5 points off the mighty Sale Harriers in 2nd spot.  Well done girls!

Boys' Team Manager Robby Clark reports:
When I took over the role of Team Manager I thought “Oh it won’t be hard we only get 2 or 3 lads at a meeting”.  How wrong I was, but with a team of 6 in the Under 13s and the 4 Under 11s the boys must be nearly as well represented as the girls.
We fielded a team of 4 boys in the Under 11s, and for two of them it was their first competition, let alone Sportshall Athletics.
First debutante was Callum Lang who ran the two lap and the four lap and in between found time to record a creditable 38 in the speed bounce.  Our other “newie” was Moses Longdon who ran the 4 Lap, 43 in the speed bounce and 4.75 in the 1 Kilo Chest Push.  Scott Rhodes was our other competitor in the 4 lap.  He leapt 31 cms in the Vertical Jump and also competed in the Long Jump.  Keiran Andrew, who is now the more experienced member of the boys' team, ran another good leg in the 2 lap, equalled his distance from Macclesfield in the Chest Push (4.0 mtrs) and also recorded 15 cm in a new event for him in the Vertical Jump.
In the Under 13 boys there were again two new runners here today both, from Norman Marshall's beginners' group in Southport.  They were Jack Longdon and Nathaniel Brown.  Jack ran in the 6 lap, bounced 61 reps in the speed bounce and threw 4.24 metres in the shot. Nathaniel ran a good 2 lap, 64 in the speed bounce and rounded off his individual efforts with 1.72 in the long jump.  Jordan Angell ran the 6 lap, completed 66 in the speed bounce, then surprised everyone including himself when he launched himself 42 cms up the vertical jump board!
Owen Williams increased his shot put distance by another 4 cms to 4.79 mtrs, was our highest scorer in the speed bound with 67 and also ran in the 2 lap.  Gary Clark, who ran in the x-country the day before, still ran in the 6 lap, vertical jumped 35 cms and standing long jumped 1.82 mtrs.  Our final point scorer was Alex Roome with a good run in the 2 lap, leaped 31 cms in the Vertical Jump and rounded his efforts off with 4.54 in the shot.
We also had a 4 x 2 lap relay team running for the second meeting on the trot with GC, AR, NB and JA.

Thanks to team managers Brian Kelly and Robby Clark, to Lesley Scott who officiated and to all the parents who brought the athletes along.  Hopefully your hearing will have returned to normal by now!
Individiual results.

27 October 2007: On the Standish Trail (by Richard Cary)

Once again, on the Standish Hall Trail with all it's twists and turns, hills, hollows, woods and water.
Conflict with the local cross-country league unfortunately kept the numbers just below 100 this time for a race that has justifiably grown in popularity since it's inception a few years ago. Race regulars enthuse about it, and those that have completed for the first time are similarly won over.  A tough but rewarding 10K. And the Southport Waterloo veterans came away handsomely rewarded.
In 92nd place with 61:22 was Sheila Marshall taking first lady over 60 years.  A little further up in 84th was Margot Bowker, 55:23, first lady over 50. Carole James, looking deceptively relaxed and finishing with a smile cross her face, in 78th place with 54:11 for first lady over 40. You might not be too surprised to read that these ladies also came home with bottles of wine as winners of the ladies team prize.
Andy Bowker had a terrific run, finding time to enjoy the scenery through the woods, with 46:09 for 27th place. I managed to sneak into 9th place, pleased that my Achilles tendon held out after 5 months of injury frustration with 41:43, and took a vets prize as well. A grand day out for a bunch of the regular off-road (if not quite over-the-hill) vets.
Full Results:

27 October 2007: SWAC solo in Snowdonia

Andy Stevens-Olsen ran the Snowdonia Marathon in rather miserable, cold and wet/windy conditions in a time of 3 hrs 47 mins.  A good run but Andy was surprised that no other SWAC runners were at this event.  If anyone fancies doing it next year, Andy would like to hear from you.

Ed: Andy's comments about the Snowdonia Marathon bring back memories, some good and some not so good.  Some of you may recall that your correspondent and Club Secretary used to run up to marathon distance in a Southport Waterloo vest.   The scenery around this course is stunning and for three quarters of the race the greatest danger to a fast time is the temptation to stop and simply admire the view.   Then you hit the wall!  Not the wall you read about in marathon training but the vertical climb up Snowdonia.  It is a series of summits, each one presenting a top which. when reached, just brings the next summit into view.  You know the sort of thing!  Most people walked but I managed a short stride run for most of the way.
The problem came on the other side when it was time to descend down to Llanberis. Nothing in my past had prepared me for this.  Just placing one leg in front of the other was exquisite agony with pain shooting up each leg in turn.  Never before or after have I experienced pain quite like this but amazingly I did get to the bottom and, back on flat ground, I was even able to accelerate, passing a number of people I had passed on the way up and who had breezed past me on the way down.  I even finished the last mile or so at a fast pace.  In all the circumstances, I was proud to record a time of 3 hrs 22 mins 44 secs.  That was in 1993 and although I continued running distance races until July 1994 I am convinced it was Snowdonia that did the irrevocable damage that brought my running career to an end.  So beware!
Don't get me wrong! The Snowdonia Marathon is a great event but you must treat it with respect and prepare for it carefully, making sure you do a fair amount of fell running, both up hill and down dale.  Put in the right preparation and there is no race I have experienced that compares with Snowdonia.

27 October 2007:  Boys show the way at first cross country
 

The cross country season got under way today when the Mid Lancs League visited Worden Park in Leyland.  Hosted by Red Rose Runners, the course was the same as last year, offering straightforward parkland for the most part with rougher, wooded areas for the under 17 men and senior men and women, including a testing stream crossing.
With winter training now well under way, I think a lot of our runners have been looking forward to taking part in the first cross country race of the season and there was a tangible sense of excitement as race time approached. Judging by the number and quality of runners from other clubs, they weren't alone.
The weather was kind too - warm with just an occasion spit of rain - making for a very pleasant afternoon's sport.
Although it was the end of half term week, there was an excellent turnout by member clubs, and Southport Waterloo was well represented, particularly in the senior men's race where we had 14 runners.  The Club finished teams in 7 races, something I don't think we achieved at any cross country last season. The senior men won the Division 2 team battle and our girls had the winning team in the under 17 women.
Best performances in a Southport Waterloo vest were by 1st year under 13 Liam Ellis who joined the leaders early on and held on for a great finish in 2nd place.  With sister Rhea a class distance runner, I don't know if its in the genes or what mum Chris feeds them but it looks like we have another winner in the family!  And Joe Vis had a great race, reeling in David Forrester of LPS in the second half of the race and slipping past him with just 15 metres to go, to finish 3rd in the Under 17 men's race.
We had no under 11 girls but Luke Spencer and Matthew Lawson donned the blue and gold vest for the first time in the Under 11 Boys' race.  Luke Spencer did well to run the 2.2K in 10:23 to finish 23rd and Matthew Lawson was 29th in 11:22.
Five of our girls toed the line in the Under 13 Girls' race over 2.3K. Last year, this race missed a turning and ran the Under 15 Girls' course; but there were no such problems today.  Ellon Hart got off to a good start and led our girls right to the end when Sally Wareing's final burst brought her across the line first.  In fact, 5 girls were given the same time, with Sally 16th overall in 10:24, and Ellon 19th in the same time.  Lauren Clarehugh kept in touch with her team-mates in front, finishing 22nd in 10:27, with Patricia Irizar 25th in 10:34.  In her first cross country race for the club, Victoria Mawer - 3rd in the 2007 Year 7 School Mile Races in Victoria Park behind Ellon Hart - ran a good, controlled race, with a powerful finish to take 36th spot in 11:10.  The girls finished 5th team, 4th in their division.
The Under 13 Boys' race produced one of the surprises of the day. With 2K of the 3K course to run, Liam Ellis was firmly established in the top 3, easing into 2nd spot, and held on to that position, finishing 2nd in 11:38.  Liam did well to win the Sefton Schools Cross Country a couple of weeks ago, but in this quality of field, today's run was of the highest quality and his best result to date.  Chris Lawson also ran well for a 10th place finish in 12:33.  Graham Boreham was 26th in 13:30, Sean Vis 29th in 13:40 and Gary Clark 30th in 14:07.  With Liam and Chris in the top ten, the boys finished 3rd team.
Again, we had 5 runners in the Under 15 Girls' race where Jenny Girdler led the girls home.  Jenny was 8th in 13:02 for 3K.  Catherine Hulme has been getting stronger in training and put in a great effort today to finish our 2nd counter, 15th overall in 13:23, ahead of team-mates Sophie Kelly, 21st in 13:35, Katie Morris, 24th in 13:53, and Laura Riley, suffering from a painful knee, was 36th in 15:58. The girls finished 4th team, although Barrow have the same points in 5th.
I guess the Under 15 Boys' race was the most disappointing of the day with Jai Vernon-McGuigan our only runner.  This is our weakest middle and distance age group so there is plenty of opportunity for wannabe distance runners to come along and have a go.  Without any team support, Jai finished 6th in 15:49, a one place and 10 secs improvement over his run on this course last year.
The Under 17 Women's race had its highs and lows. The good news was that we finished a team in this age group and I cannot remember when we managed that before!  The bad news was that cross country expert Rhea Ellis didn't have a good race by her standards, finishing 5th in 17:00.  Putting that into perspective, however, Rhea's time was 11 secs faster than last year; but the quality of the field in the Under 17 girls just gets better and better each year.  Steph James was 12th in 18:26 and Louise Leek, moving up an age group this year, had a solid run to finish 20th in 19:52.  The girls won the team event, just one point ahead of Liverpool Harriers.
The Under 17 Men also managed a team but it was the individual performances of the Vis brothers that were impressive.  Joe and Patrick were always in touch with the leading group and Joe kept up the challenge, right to the end where he surprised Dave Forrester by slipping past him just a few metres from the line.  Joe was 3rd in 23:07 for the 6.4K and Patrick was 6th in 23:31.  David Gough was the third team counter, 22nd in 25:53, giving the lads 2nd team spot behind Preston Harriers.
In the Senior Women's race, some of our top class runners were injured or unavailable but we still managed a team finish.  Stephanie May led Sue Cooper and Tracey Peters around the first half lap but then Tracey worked her way through to lead the trio before having to give way to veteran Sue Cooper, finishing 42nd - 8th L45 - in 28:53 for 6.4K.  In her first cross country for the club, Tracey Peters was next, 44th in 29:03, with Stephanie May 58th in 30:46.   Karen Faloon was 63rd in 31:09, Michelle Spencer (nee Mercer), 77th in 32:57, and Christine Cutner 86th in 33:47.  We finished as 5th team in the women's Premier Division and 14th team overall but will need to do better to avoid relegation.
Again, there were a number of names missing as our Senior Men lined up for their 9.7K race but, nonetheless, team manager Steve James had 15 runners along to Worden Park- enabling up to finish an 'A' and a 'B' team!   New member Richard Shearer led our 'A' team home, 19th in 36:07.  The next three had their own battle, swapping position, but it was David Hamilton who was 2nd counter, 36th in 36:58, ahead of Steve Wilkinson, 38th in 37:08, and Rob Ashworth, 40th in 37:11.  Jay Tartt was 59th in 38:40 and Peter Roome was the final first team counter, 83rd in 39:44.
New member Steve McLean, an orienteering coach who ran for the club many years ago, was 119th in 41:27, followed by Brian Davey and Mike Cunningham who finished together, 130th and 131st in 42:17, Brian O'Reilly - another new member - 146th in 43:10, Steve James 148th and 1st Vet 60, 43:13, Phil Dean, a Mid Lancs cross country debut runner, 155th in 43:39, Gareth Williams - yet another new member - 180th in 45:34 and Carlos Irizar, on his way back to race fitness, 211th in 48:26.
So our first cross country ends.  Some runners did better than expected, others were a bit disappointed; but most runners went home satisfied with a good start to the season and having enjoyed not just their race but the camaraderie of the team-mates and other competitors.  Bring on the next one!
Thanks to all the team managers and parents who got so many runners out at Worden Park.  Thanks too to Steve Boreham for his help and to Carlos for yet more excellent photography.
Full results.
The next Mid Lancs cross country fixture is at Burnley's Towneley Park on Saturday 11th November.  Unfortunately, this clashes with the L&D fixture at Skem's Beacon Park so it is likely that our senior men will prefer the Skem race.
 

21 October 2007:  3 Top 10 finishers in Seaside 10K (by Brian Grice)

Victoria Park at its Autumn best provided a splendid setting for another great Southport Seaside 10K which attracted a big field of 483 finishers including 157 women. The new course, including a section over grass, was much appreciated and avoided most of the congestion that occurred in last year’s race.
Birchfield Harrier, Robert Deakin (32.39) took the men’s race with Liverpool Harrier Jenny Clague (36.43) prevailing over Candice Leah (37.42), Clayton-le-Moors, in the good quality women’s race. An interesting runner in the women’s race was 6th placed Sue Crehan (42.10) who has posted some exceptional times in previous races at Victoria Park, notably her 33.41 run in 1988. She also ran 16.05 in the Town Centre 5K in 1986.
Southport Waterloo members turned out in force to support the event with 26 runners and many others assisting with the race organisation. Newcomer Richard Shearer was first for the club but, having picked up a slight injury when running 33.20 in 6th place the Liverpool 10k had to be content with 5th place this time (34.05) just one second behind former Southport Waterloo junior Adam Clansey. Richard is looking forward to making his cross country debut for the club at Leyland in the Mid Lancs League next week and use the cross country season as the base for a 2.30 London Marathon next year. Next club counter was David Hamilton (34.44) who had his own close battle to secure 8th place. And Southport Waterloo had four runners in the top dozen with Mark Clarehugh 10th (35.21) and Rick Bowker 12th (35.57). We will have a very strong cross country team this winter if we can get our best runners out.
Peter Roome had another good run finishing 25th (38.20). Next for the club was Ian Dodds who has not raced much this year but ran his usual predictable time (39.00) and took 32nd place ahead of Steve James 49th (39.53), yet another sub-40 finish. In fact Steve’s age-adjusted time of 29 minutes 52 seconds would have seen him win the race by a almost a kilometre! Brian O’Reilly 71st (41.16) seems to run faster each time he races despite his lack of mileage in training and will be ducking under the 40 minute barrier very soon.
Paul Ashby ran every Grand Prix race two years ago but has been more restrained this year. After cheering on his family in the 3K Fun Run, he ran a comfortable 41.57 in 86th place. He was followed by five more of our runners in very close contention: Phil Dean 96th (42.19), Boyd Park 98th (42.25), Ian Kilshaw (42.28), Andy Stevens-Olsen 100th (42.28) and Gareth Williams 106th (42.55). Alan Gray 124th (44.14) got a much better start than in the Liverpool 10K while Carlos Irizar who had stopped three times in the Liverpool 10K had a better run this time finishing 156th (45.43) having just watched his daughter have an impressive run in the 3K Fun Run. Anthony Norbury 181st (46.49) and Brian Grice 248th (51.08) were our other counters.
Brian Grice can confirm runners ran the full 10K and claims the grass section just took the edge of the times!
Tracey Peters 8th (42.30) ran her best race yet for the club and can surely get close to 40 minutes and challenge the likes of Sue Cooper next year. Victoria Harvey is one of our most consistent runners and was pleased with her time (43.58) in 10th place ahead of Karen Faloon 14th (45.17), another excellent performance. Marie Hornby was next for the club 19th (47.38) ahead of Rachel Thomas 63rd (54.46). Sheila Marshall 71st (55.29) finished very strongly and looked like she could go round again, perhaps all that training in the Lake District is paying dividends. Gill Gillison 89th (57.19) and Audrey Copeland 138th (64.05) were our other counters.
Ann and Darrell are to be congratulated for promoting another superb event and there has been a great deal of positive feedback from many who took part in the race. The median time for the race was 50.50 about 4 minutes faster than the Liverpool 10k median time with 10.5% of the runners under 40 minutes compared with only 3.5% under 40 minutes at Liverpool. How times have changed! In the eighties, over half the field broke 40 minutes around Victoria Park.
Full results available on the Natterjack Running Centre website and more than a thousand photographs of the race can be viewed using this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davepinno/sets/72157602588922676/

The Club Grand Prix table has been updated showing that 89 seniors (35 women + 54 men) have made 235 appearances in this year’s event with the final stage, the Preston Ten to be held next month.

Ed: In the 3K fun run, several good times were returned by Southport Waterloo juniors.  U13 Gary Clark ran 12:22 for 6th place overall with Lauren Clarehugh following him home in 12:24 and 13 year old Patsy Irizar 10th in 12:45.  11 year old Matthew Ashby was 25th in 14:44, 10 year old Dylon Norbury was 27th in 14:52 and 8 year old Hannah Ashby was 41st of 143 finishers in 16:50.

20 October 2007: Kate Howgego in car accident

17-year old Kate Howgego was involved in a serious road accident last Wednesday.  On her way to King George V Sixth Form College, Kate was knocked down in Haig Ave, Southport, by a minibus and has suffered serious head injuries.  Her condition is still described as 'critical' in the Walton Hospital Neurological Unit.  It will be some time before the extent of her injuries is known but we wish her a full and speedy recovery.
Kate ran for the club as an under 13, under 15 and under 17, from 2002 to 2005, and was a regular member of the club's middle distance squad, based then at Edge Hill College in Ormskirk.  Everyone who came into contact with her will instantly recall an intelligent, friendly personality who got on so well with everyone and always had a smile, even when training in the driving rain at Orsmkirk.
Kate's mum, Ann, also runs for the Club and is our Child Protection Officer and Vice Chairman.   Our thoughts are with Kate, mum and dad Ann and Richard, and Kate's younger brother Andrew at this difficult time.

14 October 2007: Southport 10K previewed (by Brian Grice)

The Club Grand Prix rankings have been updated. The next Grand Prix race is the Southport Seaside 10K next Sunday (October 21st) starting at 11am which is being held in conjunction with the Southport Visiter 3K Fun Run which starts at 10am.
There have been eighteen runnings of the Southport 10K at Victoria Park since 1986. The record field was 709 in 2001 when the race was won by Rob Berry. The course records are held by Martin McLoughlin (29.25) and Ann Williams (33.25). The table of SWAC Southport 10K performances shows that 251 SWAC runners (200 men + 51 women) have made 658 appearances in the race. Four SWAC runners have ducked under 32 minutes: Rob Berry (31.16), Kevin Taylor (31.36), Rob Seddon (31.46) and Robin Watkinson (31.54). Four SWAC women have broken the 40 minute barrier: Sue Cooper (38.29), Amanda Crook (39.04), Kate Harrison (39.16) and Samantha Dean-Howard (39.22). Following his excellent run in the Liverpool 10K, Richard Shearer (33.20) looks set to join the elite band of 12 SWAC runners to have beaten 33 minutes at Victoria Park.

7 October 2007: 18 SWAC runners at Liverpool 10K (by Sue Cooper)

On a perfect autumn day, over 2000 runners lined up to compete in the Liverpool 10K.  The course was the same as last year, starting and finishing in Sefton Park and taking in Princes Park along the way.  It works well and, although the surface and the many twists and turns don’t make for fast times, it’s much pleasanter than running through the streets and the trees provide shade and shelter from the wind when required.  The race was won by Altrincham AC athlete Andy Norman, in a time of 31:10 and the first lady was Emma Phillips from Birchfield Harriers, finishing in 35:27.
‘Human interest’ stories are a bit difficult to come by in a big city race as you don’t even come across many of your club mates on the day, let alone swap post-race stories.  There were 18 of us taking part, including a number of our newer recruits, three members of the Marray family and Emma Felton who, after a ghastly experience at the Great North Run last week, will have really appreciated being able to run freely and without being bumped and jostled along the entire route.  She has vowed never to go up to Newcastle again!
Richard Shearer was our first man home, finishing 6th in an impressive time of 33:20 and Peter Roome was 36th in 37:18.  Other finishers were Ian Kilshaw (40:51), Chris Dunn (41:00), Brian O’Reilly, knocking nearly a minute off his last 10K time, (41:32), Derek Farrington (42:25), Carlos Irizar, (45:27), Nick Sinclair (45:35), Alan Gray (44:31), Patrick Marray (49:35) and Steven Gellett (50:59).  I was first home for our women, finishing 7th in 39:57.  Carole James, who was convinced she’d gone over 50 minutes, will be pleased with her time of 48:40.  Liz Stanfield ran 49:20, Kathleen Marray, beating her father by 2 seconds, ran 49:33, Rachel Thomas, 55:12, Emma Felton 56:14 and Anne Marray 58:29.
Times given are chip times.
Full results

7 October 2007: David Ashby

I am sad to report that long time member Dave Ashby died last Thursday, 4th October 2007.  He ran for the club from about 1987 until he retired from running around 1999 but he continued to help out at races.  Many runners will remember him and his family providing that very welcome drink at the end of a race.  He ran many local races and completed the London Marathon four times as a vet 60 and vet 65.  He ran his PB of 3 hours 55 in 1994 at the age of 66.
The funeral will be at Southport crematorium at 1.30 pm on Thursday 11th October.

7 October 2007: Sportshall Athletics kick off in Macclesfield

October sees the start of the Sportshall Athletics season and, perhaps a little earlier than we would have wanted, the North West league season got under way today in Macclesfield Sports Centre.  It should have been a fixture of 6 teams but Warrington didn't show; so Southport Waterloo was up against West Cheshire, hosts Macclesfield, Dash Athletics - a Stockport local authority development team - and Deeside.  These teams are all strong in sportshall athletics so competition was tough across all the age groups!
The best team performances were by our under 13 boys and under 15 girls, both of whom finished 2nd in their mini leagues.  The under 15 boys was the only age group where we didn't manage any competitors at all but we clearly need more athletes in all the age groups, with sprinters in particular being poorly represented.  I can only think they don't know what they are missing!
Rebecca Sinclair and Alice Cribb were our Under 11 Girls.  Rebecca made a promising debut running a 2-lap race, winning her time trial in the 4-lap and doing well in the speed bounce.  I think Alice ran much the same time in the 4-lap and also picked up good points in the standing long jump and the speed bounce.  Between them the two girls amassed 68 points. The scores here were West Cheshire 162, Macclesfield 151, DASH 77, SWAC 68 and Deeside 62.
Our Under 13 Girls were Ellon Hart and Sally Wareing.  What a pity two superb young athletes had no support from other under 13s!  Scores here were West Cheshire - with a small army of girls! - 162, Macclesfield 145, Deeside 134, DASH 109 and SWAC 69.  In the 2-lap, both girls were non-scorers but won their separate time trials in 24.2 secs.  In fact (and unofficially) there was only 1/100th of a second between the girls' times.  In the 6-lap, Ellon was 2nd in her race in 78.7, slightly faster than Sally's winning time of 83.1 in her race.  The margin shows the difficulty in running time trials where the runners are in different races.  Both girls also accumulated points in the standing long jump and the speed bounce.
Numbers were noticeably better in our Under 15 Girls' team were 6 girls achieved a 2nd place finish.  The scores here were DASH 160, SWAC 137, West Cheshire 137, Macclesfield 123 and Deeside 114.  After winning all her 6-lap races as a 1st year under 15 last winter, Jane Ingram had to settle for 2nd today behind a very good DASH runner.  Katie Morris was 1/10th of a second faster in her 6-lap where she came from a long way back to produce an exciting finish, very nearly catching the winning girl 2/10th of a second in front.  In the 2-lap races, Katie ran the fastest time of all our girls, 23.6 secs, with Beth McBride the next fastest, winning her time trial in 24.2. The 4 x 2 lap relay produced another exciting finish with the girls running the same time as the 2nd placed team but placed 3rd by the judges.
Laura Riley scored in the 2-lap and did well in the standing long jump, speed bounce and the shot.  Sarah Murphy did the 2-lap, 6-lap and the shot and Catherine Hulme contributed good team points in the 2-lap, 6-lap and the speed bounce.
We had 6 young lads competing today, 5 making their debut in this form of athletics.  Few boys have competed in Sportshall in recent years and so this was a good beginning for new boys' team manager Rob Clark.
In the Under 11 Boys, Scott Rhodes and Kieran Andrew represented their Club.  Scott ran in the 2-lap, achieved 1m 70 in the standing long jump and 4m 98 in the standing triple jump.  Kieran also ran in the 2-lap, long jumped 0.8 metres and recorded 4 metres in the chest push. The scores in this age group were West Cheshire 163, DASH 153, Macclesfield 141 and SWAC 64 so Scott and Kieran did well against mightier competition.
In the Under 13 Boys, we had Gary Clark, Alex Roome, Jordan Angell and Owen Williams.  Experienced competitor Gary ran in the 6-lap, put the shot 3m 80 and recorded 1m 88 in the standing long jump.  Owen was 2nd in his 2-lap time trial and put the shot 4m 75.  Both Alex and Jordan ran in both the 2-lap and the 6-lap races and also picked up points in the field events.
Full results will appear on the Sportshall Athletics web site and details for Southport Waterloo athletes will be extracted and posted here early next week.
Thanks to our team managers Brian Kelly and Rob Clark and to Norman Marshall and Chris Henders who spent the afternoon supporting our athletes when not officiating on the vertical jump.
So the season has started.  Round 2 is at Wigan's Robin Park Sports Hall on Sunday 28th October and, being a nearer venue, hopefully more athletes and parents will come along and experience the fun and excitement of Sportshall Athletics.  You won't regret it!
Individual results.

6 October 2007: Trail leads from Canada to Windermere (by Norman Marshall)

On Friday morning, Sheila and Norman arrived back from Toronto, and caught the train from Manchester to Windermere, for the Coniston Trail Race on the Saturday morning.
With a distance of just over 14K, the first 1K is flat, then there's anther 4K running up, or walking up, another 4k - I walked too much! -  it then becomes less difficult, until you get to Walner Scar. Then it’s up again for another 1K. The descent is not too bad.   I knew I wasn’t going to beat last year's time, because I was passed before I got to Torver Village by the trail race leader, who started an hour after me! I finished in 2 hrs 10 mins.   I could blame a lot of things for the time, but I can’t as Sheila finished in 1:53 after finishing last year with a time of 1:58.  So the holiday didn’t effect her run. But all the hill work we did before our holiday, must have been worthwhile.  And daughter Lynda beat her last year's time - and she’s only run a few times since the Hawkshead trail race a few months ago.
Gina Bellhouse finished behind Norman, but only because she had hurt her leg. Then it was Lucy, age 5 yrs, turn running in the u8s; aprox. 400 metres and was 7th. girl so  she has two more chances to win this race. Then the grandson's race and he finished 3rd, so we might have another runner there.   Lucy also won a spot prize - a family ride on a Lakeland Steamer - and when we got home, we found we had won the bonus ball competition!

Back in Canada, Ann Eggington ran a marathon in Toronto on 30th September in a time of 3:23.  There is another Toronto Marathon this coming Sunday and Andy Hudson and Vicky Harvey are running a half marathon - I think on the 21st October - at Niagara Falls.