One of the oldest established cross-country championships, the Liverpool & District will be competed for next Saturday on the home course of the Wallasey Athletic Club in Leasowe Road.
Having already topped the league by a comfortable margin Wirral A.C. must be regarded as favourites for the senior titles of which they are the holders. Yet it cannot be overlooked that while many other clubs run under strength in the league fixtures they make special efforts to bring in all their outside runners who for business or educational reasons are temporarily residing many miles from home. Of course, Wirral also present a stronger team, but this year they will feel the absence of one of their top men, Bill Bennett, who has faithfully made the long journey for many seasons from R.A.F. camps in the south, but who, as a preliminary to settling in that region, has resigned from Wirral A.C. and become a first-claim member of Surrey A.C.
Liverpool Harriers, who this season are experiencing something of a revival amongst their senior ranks will be strengthened by the running of their international Mike Turner, recently returned from the acclimatisation tests in Mexico. Running to-day in the Lancashire championships at Blackburn, Mike will be back on Merseyside next week to help his club team, and Ron Barlow (Wallasey A.C.) otherwise the outstanding cross-country runner on Merseyside and who is likely to gain his England vest this season, will be up against the opposition he most needs. Both runners will regard this as a valuable warm up for the Inter-Counties championship at Blackpool the following week.
The senior race will, in fact, have a number of runners who will have been chosen to represent Lancashire or Cheshire and who will be getting a taste from Turner and Barlow of what the following week's pace will be like. Sutton Harriers and Wigan will be strongly challenging Wirral, with such county candidates at Roy Wood, Cyril Leigh, John McLoughlin and Brian Renshall in their teams and the Prenton club with its many Cheshire county representatives, will be on the defensive.
There has been quite a spate of runners this season wishing to change their clubs and applying for exemption from the application of the 14 months rule which governs open team competition. In genuine cases, where the applicant has moved completely out of the former district and has a hardship in travelling to his former club, the application is invariably granted, but it should be noted that where the new club is over 20 miles away from the applicants new address, then he will never be allowed to compete in the Northern cross-country championship whatever he may be allowed to do on the track or in road racing.
This long standing clause, struck out by some associations, is still retained by the N.C.C.A, and there has been at least one recent case where a noted runner has changed his club in order to join a stronger cross-country team, and has found that because his home is more than 20 miles away from his new dub he has cut himself off from the very race which he aspired to win.
Ends
Source - Liverpool Echo - Saturday, 01/01/1966 by J. C. RICE
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