Today at Blackpool teams from far afield in the North and Midlands will race round Stanley Park for the Blackpool and Fylde Memorial Trophy, which is valued at £800 and at which the Wallasey Athletic Club road racing team are directing covetous eyes.
The Wallasey team have had a great run of success since winning the classic Waterloo 7 last autumn but this race today will certainly be their most exacting race as, unlike open road races where the leading three or four of a team are the scoring runners, today's event is a six-man relay in which one weak leg can prove disastrous.
Each of the six legs is over two laps of the park which total rather more than 4½ miles, and with the Wallasey team in great form a most exciting race seems certain.
A few Wallasey A.C. runners kept in racing trim over the Easter holidays by taking part in races in the Manchester area. On Good Friday, Brian Woolford finished fourth behind three internationals in the Salford seven mile race. On Easter Monday, Kevin Mather ran in the Fallowfield Mile, which was won by international Brian Hall, and being engaged still engaged in road and hill training with virtually no track running, Kevin can be well pleased with his fourth place just behind Derek Ibbotson in a time of 4 minutes 16 seconds, with lap times of 63, 67, 64 and 62 secs.
In the 8-mile race at the same meeting Brian Chalton also ran extremely well in achieving a time of 14 minutes 36 secs. On a very soft track so early in the season this gives promise of good things to come when the track season really get under way.
Ends
Source - Wallasey News - Saturday, 20/04/1963 by R.M.C.
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