Dear all,

Hopefully, we will finally move north sometime week beginning 5th May. We expect to be at the Waterloo 15 on Monday. Afterwards, we'll be at the Park pub near Birkdale station from 4pm onwards. Anyone who would like to come along to say goodbye will be most welcome.

Cheers, Margot & Andy

T&F Officials & Helpers

The sport of athletics needs many volunteers, and track & field meetings simply cannot be held with many technical officials, typically 40 or more for a single match. These officials come from the clubs and, like many other clubs, Southport Waterloo needs more - to help meet our league obligations, to help us put on our own meetings and to share the burden borne by our existing officials.
To become a qualified technical official, a new system has been introduced by UK Athletics and applicants first of all attend a Level 2 Officials course. The first such course to be held in Merseyside will be at Wavertree on Wednesday 7th May from 6.30 to 8.30 pm.
Anyone interested in attending should speak to Ron Scott to find out how to book a place. We do need people to come forward so please give this some thought!

SWAC Grand Prix Series 2008

Subject to some uncertainty about the dates in the second half of the year, the Grand Prix series of races for 2008 is listed below. This year, a cross country is included; the UKA Cross Challenge inc SWAC cross country championships. There are 14 races in the series this year, with the best 6 to count.

* date change

London Marathon
13th April 2008

We will once again be arranging travel and accommodation for those lucky enough to be taking part in the London Marathon on 13th April. We will be staying in the Premier Inn at London Euston and have a block booking of twin rooms available. The cost is expected to be around £100 per room (£50 for those sharing) per night. This has increased since last year and is due to Premier Inn policy of charging more during key events. It does still represent good value for central London though and is ideally situated. We have rooms booked for both Friday 11th April and Saturday 12th April so if you are interested please contact Mark Ashby on 07976 745938 or email him on mark.ashby@virgin.net Please let him know if you want to book both nights or just Saturday.
Members and non members are welcome
Nick Sinclair will again be arranging rail travel and further details will follow.

In Case of Emergency

We all carry our mobile phones with names & numbers stored in its memory but nobody, other than ourselves, knows which of these numbers belong to our closest family or friends.
If we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill, the people attending us would have our mobile phone but wouldn't know who to call. Yes, there are hundreds of numbers stored but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency?
Hence this " ICE" (In Case of Emergency) Campaign
The concept of "ICE" is catching on quickly. It is a method of contact during emergency situations. As cell phones are carried by the majority of the population, all you need to do is store the number of a contact person or persons who should be contacted during emergency under the name "ICE" ( In Case Of Emergency).
The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when he went to the scenes of accidents, there were always mobile phones with patients, but they didn't know which number to call. He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized name for this purpose. In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialing the number you have stored as "ICE".
It really could save your life, or put a loved one's mind at rest . For more than one contact name simply enter ICE1, ICE2 and ICE3, etc.
A great idea that will make a difference!

What do you do with cross country and track spikes that you've grown out of?

Are they lying at the bottom of the wardrobe? Why not give someone else the benefit of them? At cross country and track meetings there are always some runners who forget their spikes or maybe it is their first outing and they don't have spikes yet. I would like to build up a small stock to lend out so if you have some old ones tucked away please pass them on to me - Ron Scott. Thanks.

ADVICE FOR BLUEYONDER USERS

Several people in recent weeks have asked if there was a problem with this site as they couldn't access it. There was, of course, nothing wrong with either the web site or the servers it runs on which have up-time of over 99%. With a little detective work, it turned out that all those having problems have something in common. Their ISP is BlueYonder.

Blueyonder have themselves suggested a solution so if you use Blueyonder copy the following just in case!!! My thanks to Sam Moran for this.

Suggested solution: "You can try to specify a different cache server to see if your browsing improves. This can be done in internet explorer. Click TOOLS > INTERNET OPTIONS from the main menu. Click CONNECTIONS > LAN Settings > Put a Tick in use a proxy server. Enter webcache.blueyonder.co.uk address in the first box and enter the corresponding port number of 8080."

According to IAAF rules, the use of asthma inhalers Salbutamol (Ventolin), Terbutaline (Bricanyl) and Salmeterol (Serevent) must be registered with the medical officer. There are substances in these inhalers that are PROHIBITEDunless you have prior clearance from the Medical Officer, Dr Brown. If you need an inhaler for a genuine medical purpose you must continue to use it, but you must get clearance from Dr Brown.

The use of corticosteroids by inhaler, eg Becotide, Pulmicort) does not require prior permission but should, of course, be declared if you are ever subjected to any doping control.

Registration needs to be renewed periodically - and in any event if your prescription changes.

GET REGISTERED NOW. See Ron Scott for an application form.