On Saturday, March 10, a large group of athletes from Wallasey AC competed in the TSB road races in Sefton Park with a four-stage relay held for the senior men, and individual races for other age-groups.
The three scorers in the under-13 girls' race were Joanne Johnson, Liesel Phillips and Jayne McCoy, who finished 30th, 34th and 39th, respectively.
Having won the team race in the under-11 age group last year, the three were all in their first year in the new age group, and so did very well to gain such positions in a good quality field of 103, and to finish 10th out of 19 teams. Also running well in the same race were Vicky Duckworth, in 44th, and Emma Derwent, in 37th.
The under-15 boys' race saw another close race between Mark Cooper and Andy Pennington for the first scoring position, with Andy passing Mark in the closing stages to finish 26th to Mark's 27th. As usual, there was a good team performance from the Wallasey runners in this age group, though the finishing posi-tions of Nigel Thompson, Hugh Samuels, Timmy Carr and Rob Howarth and the overall team position were not available on the day.
Lynn Kennedy and Francesca Phillips, both representing Merseyside in the English Schools Cross-Country Championships in two weeks, took part in the intermediate and senior ladies' race. Lynn had a good run, to finish 14th, though Fran was less-pleased with her 35th.
The under-13 boys' race saw a fine run by Michael King in finishing fourth. This is one of a number of impressive performances which Mike, who is coached by Doug Hanna, has produced during the winter.
Dave Pendleton, who, the previous weekend, had produced an outstanding performance to finish 156th out of 556 in the youths' race at the National Cross-Country Championships, ran
the opening leg for the Wallasey 'A' team in the relay event. Though appearing to be struggling at the end, he recorded the third fastest leg for the club, with a time of 23:12 for just over four miles. The two fastest legs were run by Bob Brimage and Andy Skinner, who, the previous week, had finished 810th and 1,301st respectively, in the National, run on a flat course at Newark. Despite this near 500-place difference, they both recorded the same time of 22:40 in the relay. Andy, though not managing to emulate his road-running form at cross-country, will be looking to do so on the track this summer, where he is aiming towards 5,000 metres.
The next fastest legs between the three Wallasey teams competing were 23:18 by James Downey, 23:21 by Pete Lonsdale; 23:31 by Dave Baker; 23:36 by Bob Phillips, and 23.54 by John Wright.
The Wallasey senior team's position in the National was 164th, out of the 243 clubs taking part, and the 192 who finished complete teams. The other Wallasey positions in this race were Pete Lonsdale in 908th, Dave Baker in 1,098th, Bob Phillips in 1,369th, Alan Johnson in 1,502nd, and Tommy Cooper in 1,523rd. The massive field created some degree of confusion at the finish, and it is not certain that all these positions are accurate.
Ends
Source - Wallasey News - Saturday, 17/03/1984 by J. DOWNEY
Ref 2003