On Saturday, Wallasey finished third in the third Northern League meeting, despite having to use track athletes to compete in the field events between races.
This meant that Wallasey finished the season joint winners of their division in the league, but must wait to see if they will be promoted. Wallasey's athletes showed real determination on the track and were leading by one point with three field events to be decided, but lost out to two of the other five clubs through not having athletes to compete with the events specialists from other clubs. Pete Smith showed real determination in his 400-metres hurdles, finishing third in 62.3 seconds and he was backed up by Dave Ashton finishing second in his race 62.4. Pete followed this race by winning the pole vault, our only success in the 16 field events. In the 800 metres, Pete Jones had another great race. Pete finished third in 2-01-2, a fine time and one he had produced so consistently this season. Pete lead for the first lap and, after being dropped, chased the leader home and nearly snatching second place. Pete was backed up by Rob Heap, who also finished third. He had another consistent run himself.
In the 100 metres, Ian Mcleod, a 15-year-old, finished second to Pilkington's England international Brian Green and followed this with second in the 200 metres in 23.4, a fantastic performance by Ian, who was on Brian Green's shoulder up until the halfway mark.
Ian was backed by Mark Bollard who, despite injury, finished second in his 200 metres, running a great race to come from behind. He finished fifth in the 100 metres. The 3000 metres steeplechase came next and Bob Brimage put in another good performance. Bob came second in this gruelling race where a group of four slowly dispersed over the last half of the race. Bob's time was a very fast 10.19 seconds. Bob was backed up by Tommy Bond, who also managed to finish second in 11.43.
At this stage in the meeting, Wallasey were leading but only seven points divided five teams. In the 100 metres hurdles, Neil Tunstall ran a fine race in the A race and finished 4th. In the B race, Doug Hanna, who had competed in the shot, hammer, discus and javelin came 2nd in a creditable time. The 400 metres followed and again Pete Jones shone. Pete ran a superb race finishing very strongly 2nd in 52.7.
Ends
Source - Wallasey News - Saturday, 09/09/1978
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