Club Race Reports Season 1984-1985
Liverpool & District XC Union
Championships - Clarkes Garden - 12/01/1985 - Senior Men
Wallasey Athletic Club took part in the Liverpool & District Cross-Country Championships, run over an ice-covered course at Clarkes Garden.
Entering the home straight in the boy's race, Geoff Nuttall looked set to repeat the fourth place he had gained in the Cheshire Championships, but he produced a spirited sprint along the uphill finish, to gain a well deserved third place. Behind him Nigel Thompson was also running well to gain ninth place.
Andy Pennington was, as usual, first home for Wallasey in the youths' race producing another good performance to finish 14th. Ian Wiggins showed a substantial advance in fitness on his early season races by finishing 20th, while Rob Howarth was third in for the club in 25th.
Alek Boughey, who has tended to do his best running in road races, found the generally unwelcomed conditions to his liking and had his best cross-country race to date by finishing 30th.
Bob Brimage continued to move towards peak form as he claimed an impressive 60th place, thus ending the tremendous run of Pete Lonsdale in 64th place who had made the first two scorers in each of his previous 20 races.
Dave Baker made his first cross-country appearance of the season to claim 81st place.
Cross Country Championships
National - Birkenhead - 16/02/1985 - Girls
The Women's National Cross-Country Championships held in Arrowe Park on Saturday was marred by anti-apartheid demonstrators who forced South African-born runner Zola Budd off the course after one-and-a-half miles.
Angela Tooby, of Cardiff, who was leading the senior race at the time, went on to win by five seconds from Ruth Smeeth of Aldershot.
Paula Fudge, of Hounslow, came in third, with Jill Rothwell of Liverpool finishing in sixth place.
The outstanding Wirral performance was the run of Joanne Forrester who finished in 23rd place.
Joanne has been showing great potential over the past two years. If she could get enough competition at northern and national level, she could develop into a potential national champion.
Other Wirral finishers were C. King 257, G. Bassnett 269, J. Hodgins 399, K. Hawkins 439, S. Kemp 522, and J. White 563.
Competing for Wallasey A.C. - Joanne Johnson 98th position, L. Phillips 102, C. Winstanley 200, and E. Derwent 212, enabled Wallasey to finish 19th in the team race.
The intermediate race was won by C. Kellor of Sale A.C. Amanda Holmes of Liverpool A.C. won the junior girls race in fine style from N. Watts of Swindon. Annette McGinn of Wallasey A.C. finished 86th.
National - Campbell Park - 02/03/1985 - Senior Men
Wallasey Athletic Club competed in the National Cross-Country Championships, at Milton Keynes.
Rob Howarth completed a good season by finishing 477th in the youths' race.
In the senior race, Pete Lonsdale pulled out one more good race to lead the team home, finishing 715th. Bob Brimage had a close battle with Alec Boughey for most of the race, but pulled well clear of him in the final straight, to finish 802nd. Alec came in 838th. Gordon Rowe had probably his best run of the season as he finished 948th.
The team score of 5,461 points was the best for a great many years.
