The scrutiny meeting of the Liverpool & District Cross-Country Union, for the purpose of passing entries for the championships to be held at Port Sunlight on Saturday next, was held during the past week, and passed off very amicably although the delegates proved to be strangely argumentative when discussing matter of finance and general arrangement, and the meeting was prolonged to a late hour.
Accepted entries are as follow. - Boundary Harriers, Liverpool H. & A.C. Liverpool Pembroke A. & C.C., North Liverpool Gym. Harriers, Sefton Harriers, University A.C., Wallasey H. & A.C., and Wirral A.C. All have entered teams in both senior and junior events with the exception of Boundary Harriers (senior only) and Wallasey Harriers (junior only).
The junior race is timed to commence at 3 p.m. and will be over a course approximating seven miles, and the senior race (distance between nine and ten miles.) will follow as soon as the first is completed. Three sets of team medals will be awarded in the senior event, with special awards for the individual winner, and the first man home of an unplaced club, while two sets of medals are offered in the junior race, and the two special awards.
In both cases, it will be remembered that the team honours have been held by the same clubs for two successive years (Boundary in the seniors and Liverpool Harriers, in the juniors), and speculation is rife as to whether either or both will win for the third successive year. So far as the individual race is concerned, and remembering the results in the West Lancashire championship a fortnight ago. Boardman should not have any difficulty in the senior race, barring accidents, and the real interest in this part of the proceedings will be concerned with the later placings. Swift, the holder of the junior championship, has now become a senior, so that that honour is fairly open, but Sefton Harriers have another aspirant in Weston, and there are others, of course, who will watch him closely.
Competitors and officials are requested to attend in good time.
N.C.A.A. "ANNUAL."
It is unfortunate that the annual meeting of the N.C.A.A. should clash with the district championships, but I venture to express the hope that clubs, will find at least one of their interested members willing to forego the pleasures of Port Sunlight for the business at Manchester. The preliminary agenda was of a purely routine character, but one Liverpool club has tabled a motion which should command support from all West Lancashire representatives. The executive, following the precedent set last year (against which a protest was expressed through this column), has recommended that Mr. J. Knight be once more elected president of the association. Mr. Knight has rendered good service to both the track and cross-country branches of athletics, as the writer has on many occasions testified; and therefore any protest that is made against the executive committee's action implies no reflection at all upon him. By making a recommendation of this character, however, the executive does not assist clubs or districts who might be inclined to put their nominations forward, and to long as the election of president has to be decided by the delegates then the nominating of candidates and the ultimate selection should be free and unfettered. That it cannot be when executives make recommendations of the kind under notice, and the motion that has been sent in will ask the annual meeting to express its disapprobation.
A WEST LANCASHIRE OMISSION.
In my anxiety to condole with the Liverpool clubs over their poor showing in the West Lancashire Championships. I omitted one very important item, namely to express appreciation of the generosity and hospitality of the United Alkali Company. The championships were decided from their very fine ground at Ditton, and the arrangements for the comfort of the runners, and for the convenience of the officials, were all that could be desired. Mr .Smith was present to welcome the runners, on behalf of the company, and to him Mr. A. G. Nicholson, president of the West Lancashire Association, expressed due appreciation, but it is only fitting that the expression should be echoed in as public a manner as possible. Hence this note, which, though rather belated, lacks nothing on that account in sincerity.
Ends
Source - Liverpool Echo - Saturday, 26/02/1927
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