Three half-mile time trials were held under cloudless skies last Saturday at the Lingham Park track. The conditions were ideal with the temperature in the high sixties, and a gentle cooling wind.
SPEED AND STRENGTH
In the first trial Mel Schless made full use of his natural speed and the strength gained by months of hard cross-country running. He led from start to finish in a personal-best time of 2 mins. 14 secs., with a fast 65-second first lap.
He was followed home by Les Watcham, 2nd in 2:16.5, with Pete Lewis and Gary Little joint 3rd in 2:18. Pete Lewis ran a very well judged race with two 69-second laps.
Mike Potter was 5th in 2:22 ' and Dave Caw 7th in 2:32.
ORGANISED
The tactics of the 2nd 880 were arranged before the start; Mike McNamee was to lead for the first lap in as near to 65 seconds as possible and then it was to be every man for himself.
At the 440-yard mark the order was Mike McNamee, Barrie Smith, Dave Lockley and Doug Hanna but on the next bend Barrie Smith took the lead with a very decisive sweep and Doug Hanna, who was running to test his injured ankle, surprised everybody by striding out after him.
Barrie opened the gap further to win in 2:08, whilst Doug Hanna and Mike McNamee battled it out for second place. Doug was given the verdict but the stop watch could not separate them and 2:10.5, a personal-best for both runners.
Dave Lockley was 4th in 2:14 and Ian Wilson laboured home 5th in 2:20.5. Ian complained that he did not have any strength left in his legs. This was not really surprising, as on the night before, in a series of 26 weight training exercises, he lifted a total of 12,561 lbs.
CHIVALRY
Yvonne Bloomhead, who normally sprints for the club, decided to run the 880 yards, and Carl Gee, to prove that the Age of Chivalry is not yet dead, stepped in and offered to pace-make for her.
After an extremely fast first 220, Yvonne settled down and ran three very even pace furlongs and crossed the line in 2:57.5. Carl Gee's time 2:28.8.
JONES WINS MILE
Johnny Jones arrived at the time trials to be told that he was running the mile for his school in 15 minutes' time. The news came as a complete surprise to Johnny, who had been off sick, but, completely undaunted, he rushed back to school and dashed round the track equally quickly to win the race in 4:52.
MORE TRIALS
There will be more time trials today, at Lingham Park, starting at 2.15 p. m., when a 4 x 880 yards relay will be run with teams of runners matched from times set in recent events.
Ends
Source - Wallasey News - Saturday, 07/05/1966 by M.A.C.
Ref 2306