Club Race Reports Season 1965-1966
Liverpool & District XC Union
Championships - Wallasey - 08/01/1966 - Seniors
Showing no ill effects from his stay in Mexico City, Liverpool Harrier's Mike Turner, who was one of six British middle-distance runners who underwent a series of endurance tests at high altitude whilst there, inflicted a rare defeat on Wallasey's Ron Barlow in the Liverpool & District Championships held at Leasowe last Saturday.
The 7½ mile flat course took in four laps of Bidston Marshes and the adjoining golf club's cinder path. This was ideally suited to Turner's relaxed, controlled style, which gave him a 100 yard lead at the halfway mark, an advantage he had doubled at the finish.
Barlow held off a strong challenge from Wigan's Cyril Leigh another eight seconds to the rear.
John Wright had a good race, placing 10th in 38:19, with Brian Woolford 13th in 38:36, then Len Durkin and Mike Teahan completed Wallasey Athletic Club's runners with 45th and 54th placings respectively. Len was timed at 43:11 and Mike at 44:34, and it appears ridiculous that with 15 entries on paper the home club could only turn out runners thereby not completing the required six for a team.
The boys' team added 3rd place bronze medals to the previous week's silver when they placed their first six runners.
Once again Lockley was edged out of premier position by Buckley (Warrington) and the 10 seconds deficit was in keeping with his previous tussles with the English champion.
Steve Walker was again 2nd man up in 14th place with an improved Paul Barrie 17th, beating Les Watcham (19th) by only three seconds.
Mel Schless 25th, and Philip Wealthy 33rd made up the team of six counters, with Dave Adair 36th, John Warrilow 37th and young Pete Lewis 44th out of the counters.
A surprise was created by Liverpool Harriers, who scored an easy win with 41 points Warrington were 2nd with 89 points and Wallasey 3rd, 110 points.
With only two clubs finishing full teams in the junior event, Wallasey again 'missed the boat' by starting with only two runners, i.e. Barrie Smith and Doug Hanna.
In this 5-mile event which covered three laps of the senior course, the Waterloo runner D. Hindley scored quite an upset when he defeated the favourite R. McAndrew 3rd.
Barrie Smith ran well to finish in 4th place and has the advantage of being able to compete in this age-group again next year, whilst Doug Hanna can be pleased with an improved performance which carried him into 12th place.
Unfortunate injuries depleted a sound youths' team when Mike Whiteside returned with a sprained ankle before the race. Almost immediately after the start David Jackson pulled up with a leg injury, and this left Wallasey with four men in the race; two short for a team.
Despite this setback, a heartening run from Mike McNamee 10th in 15 mins. 43 secs., and Ken Roscoe 14th who lost four places in as many seconds, due to in part to his wearing the wrong type of shoes for this course, would have laid a good foundation to a team place.
Bobby McCaig ran steadily and was 33rd , with Robin Tarrant - who ran from sheer loyalty to the club, as he is well short of training - bringing up the rear in 36th place.
Christmas Handicap
Christmas Handicap - Leasowe - 18/12/1965 - Seniors
Melvin Schless wins Athletic Club's Christmas handicap
Running in his first Christmas handicap race, young Melvin Schless off a 4 mins. 55 secs. handicap, ran a well-judged race to win Wallasey Athletic Club's annual event in 19 mins. 31 secs.
This proved to be the 9th fastest time of the day. Second man home; and creating something of a surprise, was John Warrilow who turned in an excellent 19:27. He was closely followed by Dave Lockley, who had the second fastest actual time of 17:41, which was a personal best for the 3¼ mile lap.
Ken Roscoe ran the 4th fastest time, 18:24, and also filled 4th position in the field. Club captain Brian Woolford confirmed his recent return to complete fitness by returning the best time of the day, 17:09, which gave him 5th place, just one ahead of Dave Adair, 6th in 19:47.
Newcomer David Jackson showed good form in 7th place with 19:09 and this was three seconds faster than Mike Teahan, who started with him.
At this point the first eight runners had passed the finishing line in 19 seconds, a triumph for the handicappers, and Paul Barrie, 9th despite a fall in Telegraph Lane, pipped Watcham by one second, with Doug Hanna a further 5 seconds behind.
Only 2 secs later was Barrie Smith, whose 18:02 was the 3rd fastest time of the day, and he led home Mike Whiteside with Pete Lewis and Carl Gee close at hand.
Len Durkin was 16th with 19:54 then Robert Brimage, the first of the junior boys, crossed the line at 21:25. He was only one second ahead of Paul Holdsworth, with Ian Wilson another second behind in 21:02.
Peter Banks returned 24 mins. to take 20th place, with Derek Roberts 14 secs. to the rear, then tail-enders John Young (20:44), Barbara Banks (25:59) and Robin Tarrant (22:27) completed the 24 runners.
Congratulations must go to all the runners in most inclement weather, and sincere thanks to the officials who got a soaking for their efforts with stop watch and pen.
