Wallasey Athletic Club's team of senior men athletes finished eighth in the H. S. Finney four times three miles relay race at Blackpool's Victoria Park last Saturday. A total of 25 teams took part in the race,
Dave Lockley ran the first leg superbly in 15 mins and 50 sec. the fifth fastest lap of the afternoon, and only 30 seconds slower than Peter Morris of Blackpool with the fastest lap. He handed over to Bob Brimage in third place, fractionally behind the second team.
Bob's lap of 17 minutes 22 seconds brought him to the takeover in fifth place. Roy Hanna ran the third leg in 18 minutes 35 seconds, and came back seventh, and Phil Wealthy's lap of 18 minutes four seconds resulted in a final eighth position - a very encouraging team effort in a high class field.
At the same time in Bolton, the last of the women's Northern Cross-Country league races was taking place. The course was extremely 'interesting' if not actually in very muddy conditions, hazardous, and the streams to be forded were swollen considerably by the recent rain. Undeterred, the juniors braved the elements first, and Helen Taylor was the first to put it all behind her, finishing strongly in seven minutes 53 seconds, 52 seconds behind the winner and in 22nd place.
Lynn Carter finished 35th in eight minutes 11 seconds, Hilary Upton was 55th in eight minutes 41 seconds. Julie Halfpenny was again the sole intermediate competitor. Over a slightly longed course she finished 31st in a time of 13 minutes and 21 seconds.
In the senior race, Janice Watts ran extremely well for the first part of the race, and had just got the better of Christine Baskett of Stretford for second place, when she hit a bad patch and was passed by Christine and team mate Barbara Banks. After a great deal of confusion resulting from a mix-up over numbers, it emerged that Wallasey had won this team race and had managed to pull up to second in the overall result. All effort is to be put into retaining the Northern title in the February championship.
This weekend a group of athletes are again going to R.A.F. Cosford to take part in an open indoor meeting.
Ends
Source - Wallasey News - Saturday, 09/12/1972
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