The thirty-third National Cross-Country Championship, which was decided on Saturday at Haydock Park Racecourse, was run under the most trying of atmospherical conditions.
The course was covered with snow, and for three-quarters of the distance round the competitors were lost to view in the mist and the snow which fell throughout the race. In spite of this depressing circumstances, however, no fewer than 164 harriers braved the elements, and only two out of the nineteen clubs entered failed to bring a team to the scratch, the absentees being Sefton H. and Cheshire Tally-Ho. All through the contest for premier individual honours rested between J. Murphy, Hallamshire H., and A. J. Robertson, Birchfield H., the former eventually winning by twenty yards in 62 min. 25 secs, - a minute slower than the Northern Championship. Only eleven teams finished, the winners being Birchfield H., with 61 points. Hallamshire H., who filled the second position, totalling 113 points, and Sutton H (third) 175 points. E. H. Loney, Birchfield H., was the seventh man home, and will be recollected as the winner of the harriers' team race promoted by the Wallasey Carnival Committee at the Tower Grounds some few seasons ago, J. T, Straw, the Sutton H. crack, could get no nearer than eleventh.
Ends
Source - Wallasey News - Saturday, 13/03/1909
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