Despite missing promotion by the agonisingly narrow margin of one point out of 700, Wallasey Athletic Club will still compete in a higher division of the Northern Counties League next summer.
Reorganisation of the 66 competing teams means that Wallasey move into division five where they will again face their track rivals of last season, Darlington Harriers and Border A.C. of Carlisle. It was Border A.C. who finished just one point ahead in this summer's competition.
Airedale, Blackpool & Fylde, Durham City, Mandale and Sale provide the rest of Wallasey's opposition. But club track captain, Peter Jones, is confident that the new found strength and enthusiasm shown in the three 1982 fixtures will carry the club through to promotion on merit next year.
Jones could be forgiven, though, for having mixed feelings at the prospect. If Wallasey do go up in 1983, it could mean that Jones - whose main events are 400 and 800 metres - will face no less a rival than Sebastian Coe, the following season! Coe's club, Hallamshire Harriers, are currently in division four.
Good news for Wallasey is that Kevin McGee, who missed all but one meeting this summer through Injury, is again showing excellent form in training and running well in university competition. McGee, who has run three minutes 56.8 seconds for 1,500 metres is benefiting from training regularly with Stuart Crossman, who has covered the distance in three minutes 45 seconds.
Cross-country captain Bob Brimage, who took part in the recent Northern Counties Centenary Cross-Country Race at Middlesbrough, followed this up with an impressive second place behind Liverpool's outstanding veteran, Peter Malcolmson; in a Civil Service event at Timperley.
Both McGee and Brimage, if he shakes of injury problems, could be challenging for a place in Cheshire's team for the Inter-Counties Cross-Country championship to be held at Arrowe Park in January.
Jones produced an impressive double in the opening indoor meeting of the winter at Cosford, near Wolverhampton, running 53 seconds for 400 metres and one minute 58 seconds for 800 metres. Peter Doyle put together an excellent run in the youths' 1,500 metres, leading most of the way and finishing third in a personal best four minutes 20.2 seconds, while another of Wallasey's promising middle distance squad, James Roberts, produced encouraging times at both 800 and 1,500 metres.
Francesca Phillips took a break from 400 metres hurdling to finish a worthy fourth at 60 metres. All these athletes, plus Wallasey's two other outstanding teenage girl runners, Janet McGee and Lynne Kennedy, will be in action again at the next Cosford, meeting on December 11.
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Source - Wallasey News - Saturday, 04/12/1982 by R. PHILLIPS.
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