The first county cross-country championships of the season are to be held at Winnington Park, Northwich, on Saturday next when Cheshire County stage their senior and youths' team championships.
Eight teams will be competing in the senior event which last year was won by East Cheshire Harriers, which club is likely to retain the title. Johnny Green, of Wirral A.C., is the individual champion and won very easily last year. The diminutive J. Wild of East Cheshire Harriers, however, has put in some very good early season running and Green will find him a most aggressive and determined challenger.
Merseyside clubs competing are Wirral AC. and Wallasey A.C. the other clubs being Crewe AC.. Macclesfield H., Stockport H., Winnington Park H. and Sale H. Wallasey A C. are the youths' team champions, and as there have been no reports of "discoveries" in the rest of the county, the holders may be expected to retain the honour.
The Lancashire County championships are being held at Worsley near Manchester, on January 5. This is the same course over which the county team staged their most spectacular success in 1949 by providing the first man home in Roy Williams, who is on top form again this season, and then proceeding to win the team race with a remarkably low score.
The course is notoriously heavy, and stamina is severely tested. The two races, senior and junior, are at seven and three miles, and competitors must enter individually. Club secretaries now have a supply of entry forms and others can be obtained direct from the county secretary to whom entry forms must be returned before December 15.
When P. J. Robinson won the London A.C. Schools Mile in 1949, wearing one shoe and in a new record time, the fifth to finish was Keith Marsden, the former Quarry Bank pupil and Liverpool Harrier. Since then Keith has completed his National Service and is now at Cambridge. Last Saturday in the Oxford versus Cambridge Freshers match, Keith finished second in the mile, the winner, as you can guess, being P. J. Robinson, also of Cambridge. who established a new record for the match of 4 minutes 23.2 seconds!
Keith then completed a double second by being placed in the javelin. Cambridge have secured a versatile athlete here, for he is also a grand rugby player, and was a first-class schoolboy cricketer. In the same match, another Lancastrian, R. D. Shaw who is the A.A.A. junior champion, won both the hurdle events and the discus, competing for Oxford.
There are 40 teachers and club coaches now attending the coaches' course being run in Liverpool, which is very satisfactory. Inevitably, I suppose, junior athletes are now asking why a course for them cannot be arranged in Liverpool on the same lines as the "Young Athletes' Course" which is held in the South.
There are many difficulties in the way, not the least being the finding of a venue suitable for practical work in the winter. A short two-day course could perhaps be held during the Christmas vacation as a "pilot scheme" if the services of Mr. Watts, the national coach, can be secured.
Young athletes who would like to attend such a course should write to the District Coaching Secretary. 42 Mimosa Road, Liverpool 15. Please state your age and the events in which you would like to be coached. You should, in any case, be over 15 years of age, and remember, please, that this is only an inquiry.
Yet another of our Olympic candidates is on the sick list. Derek Pugh, the A.A.A. 440 yards and European 400 metres champion. Pugh is one of our best prospects, and has a real chance of getting through to the final of the 400 metres at Helsinki. Infantile paralysis is suspected and all athletes will share anxiety, hoping against confirmation.
Ends
Source - Liverpool Echo - Saturday, 01/12/1951
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