I have been a member of Wallasey Athletic Club on two occasions; the first time as a schoolboy in the mid-1960s; and the second time as a much un-fitter veteran in the late1990s; and I have remained a member, although not always active, until today.
I have always been able to run, and it has always come as a second nature to me.
I was brought up in the pre-TV era when children were let out of the house early in the morning and only returned for food and bed. We spent our time messing around, playing street games such as Hopscotch, Hide and Seek, Japs and Commandos, and the like. We also played football in the winter and cricket in the summer, either in the back entries, empty streets, on the sand or promenade as well as in the local Central Park. There was always a continuous game of football going on in the park with lads joining and leaving, and the number of players varying from as few as 3 a side to up to 20 a side, depending on who was available.
I also thought I was a fast runner until being entered by Church Street to represent the School in what must have been the Wallasey Schools Championships.
My memories are going to the Delft Playing Fields (between Withens Lane and Rake Lane) and being lined up in heats of sixes before racing down a straight to the finish. I don.t know what happened after that as I never qualified for what must have been the next round.
I was always expected to pass the 11 plus and go to the Wallasey Grammar School in Withens Lane. As it turned out, my best mate.s parents, at the time, decided to put his name down for Oldershaw Grammar School. I cannot recollect knowing that there was an Oldershaw Grammar School but persuaded my mum to put my name down for there anyway.
After passing the 11 plus I qualified for Oldershaw GS where the Games master was a Mr Wright, or Moggy Wright to the pupils. I only learned later that Moggy was an outstanding athlete and a member of Wallasey Athletic Club.
As well as introducing us to Rugby Union, he also got us involved with Cross Country Running in the winter terms and Athletics in the summer term.
The school was small by today.s standards; the total number in each year was about 60 boys and the total number of pupils in the school was about 350. Consequently, it was relatively easy to get into the school reams.
There are always stories of lads bunking off cross country, taking short cuts and having a fag on the way around. That didn.t apply to me as I enjoyed it and was always competing at the front.
In the summer, when we took part in athletics, it became obvious that I was not the fast runner as I had once thought, but realised that I was pretty good at what was described as middle distance.
Whilst at Oldershaw I did a paper round for Harry Gee newsagents on King Street. Harry.s son Carl lived over the shop and basically ran it. I can vaguely remember my dad telling me that Harry Gee had been a well-known footballer who had played for Burnley and later New Brighton, and that Carl was a famous shot putter and discus thrower.
The photo shows a young Mel Schless.
When it came to Carl.s notice that I enjoyed running and wasn.t too bad at it, he invited me to try out at the Club. Fortunately for me Carl had a little green mini, and would regularly take me to the Club and to the various meetings and races in the area.
My first recollection was being taken, one summer.s evening, by Carl to the Club.s headquarters in Leasowe Road, in the brick fields at the back of St Georges Secondary Modern School. I was probably about fourteen at the time.
After being introduced to the other 'athletes', all of whom were older than me, I was informed that the evening.s run was a slow 9 miles over the marshes to Bidston Hill, around Noctorum and back; and did I think that I could manage it. Of course, I had to say that I would be able to manage and set off with the pack. I did well for a while and managed to keep up. However at some point I began to struggle and fell behind. Carl stayed with me, and chivvied me along, although at some stage he began to wonder if we would get back before dark. Eventually I made it, and after a shower, Carl took me home. He dropped me off at the bottom of Church Street as I lived in Wright Street. However, it was obvious that I had stiffened up and was unable to get out of the car, and consequently Carl had to take me right to my front door and help me into the house.
That experience didn.t put me off, and I soon became a regular at the Club.
I was very fortunate in a number of ways. First and foremost was that Carl Gee ferried me backwards and forwards to training sessions and events making it very easy for me to take part; the second was that Ian Wilson and Pete Lewis, who were in my form at Oldershaw GS were also members of the Club; and the third was that for part of my short time at the Club I was a junior member of a group of lads that were very competitive, and as a consequence I won several medals in the local and district championships as part of the Youth XC team.
Although I did well as a team member I was a bit of a 'bottler' when it came to individual events. I was second in the Wallasey Schools Championships, beaten by a good runner from Moreton Secondary Modern School who I had well beaten on several occasions during inter school races. I was second in the County School.s Championships although I then went on to be Cheshire.s first counter in the National School.s Championships. Then when I was expected to medal in my second year as a Youth runner, I failed to do so, finishing fourth on more than one occasion.
I did run several mile races in 4min 40sec and as a far as I am aware am still the 1mile and 3mile record holder at Oldershaw School. I do have a recollection of running 4min 32sec for the 1mile and am trying to find the substantiation. I also have recollections of being within a couple of seconds of breaking the two minute barrier for the 880 yards, but again am unable to substantiate it.
Although I didn.t realise it at the time, Wallasey AC had a fantastic set up in Leasowe Road. They had their own headquarters, albeit a second hand, war time hut, but it did have hot showers, weight training equipment and tea making facilities. The Club also had its own cross country course across the marshes to Bidston; and the playing fields at the back of St Georges School had a grass athletics track complete with jumping pits.
The Club took part in cross country in the winter, athletics in the summer and road racing in the Spring and Autumn. The mantra was to run hard over the country in the winter to give strength and stamina for the track season.
I can recall many nine mile 'gentle' runs over the marshes and Bidston Hill on a Sunday after racing on the Saturday, hill sessions between St Georges Road and Claremount Road in midweek, together with interval sessions at the Lingham Lane track in the summer. When I went off to university in 1968, Carl said that he hoped that I would continue with my running, and possibly represent the Club in the future; but he wasn.t hopeful, as he said that he had seen keener athletes than me go away to college not to run again. He was spot on, as I did lapse.
The photo shows Mel competing at Lingham Lane Track.
I re-joined the Wallasey Athletic Club again in 1998.
Although I had intended to keep up the running when I went off to university I soon stopped. I did join the Athletics Society, and did start training with them, but it wasn.t for me. I went to the University of Aston in Birmingham, and the university was sited literally in the centre of the city. My recollections are that, for training, we used to change in the Students Union and then run along the main streets, through traffic and crowds of shoppers until we reached the outskirts of town, before turning around and running back again. On reflection this is probably a complete excuse, and I have often regretted not making more of an effort.
I did keep reasonably fit both at university, and later by regularly playing football, squash, a little bit of rugby, swimming and later golf. I participated in these other sports not to keep fit but for something to do and because I enjoyed them.
I also had quite an active job, which was not physical but required plenty of walking about. I moved around quite a lot both location wise and within the jobs that I had.
In the mid-1990s I was sent to work in Leeds for a period of about three years. It was then that I was given a desk job, and being away from home, I became quite sedentary and unfit. It was only when the job was over and I returned to Wallasey and started to play some sport again that I realised just how unfit I had become; although it must be acknowledged that I was not getting any younger.
My son who was about thirteen at the time had passed the audition to join the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth choir, and rehearsals were on a Saturday lunch time between 1200hrs and 1400hrs. I would drive him over to Liverpool and rather than going back home, to kill time I would park up at Sefton Park to eat my lunch, read the paper and listen to the radio. Over time I noticed that quite a number of joggers were running laps of the park and decided that I would give it a go. One lap became two, and then three as they do. Then I saw a flier for the Liverpool 10k race which started at Garston Sports Centre and thought that I would give it a go. The date of the race is easy to remember as it was Sunday 31 August 1997, the day that Princess Diana died.
Although I was nervous, as it was some time since I had been in a race, the run went well and I enjoyed it. I cannot remember the time but it was about 48min which I was pleased with and thought that I could improve upon. When I went back to the car there were a number of fliers tucked under the windscreen wipers advertising future races; one being the Chester 10k which I entered.
After the enjoyment of the Liverpool 10k, and a bit more training under my belt, I went to the Chester 10k much more confident and determined to better my time. As a consequence, I did learn a lesson about pacing. It soon became obvious, after the quick start that I had gone off too fast and as a result suffered for the rest of the race. Besides struggling physically, it was psychologically depressing to have such a lot of runners overtaking me and not being able to respond. My time was much better, about 44 minutes, but I did not enjoy the experience at all.
The training regime increased from the one run a week, and I entered several more and longer races, until thinking that I should try for the marathon. Disappointingly, I was not accepted for the London Marathon, and this deflated me somewhat. The answer was to join an athletic/running club. The obvious club to join was Wallasey, but in the number of races I had taken part in I had seen many runners wearing club colours, but nobody wearing a Wallasey vest. I did make some enquiries and the general consensus was that Wallasey had probably folded as they had not been involved in races for some time. It then occurred to me that in the days when I was playing football with the Wallasey Round Table at the Bebington Oval on Monday evenings, people were using the athletics track. One evening I went along to the track to make some enquiries and realised that Wirral Athletic Club.s headquarters were based at the Oval. The plan was then to join Wirral AC if Wallasey AC was defunct. The first person that I first spoke to thought that Wallasey had folded and introduced me to an official at Wirral who "would know". The official turned out to be Doug Hanna who I ran with as a member of Wallasey AC in the 1960s. After the usual greetings and reminiscences, Doug explained how he had left Wallasey sometime in the 1980s and had joined Wirral. He also thought that Wallasey were probably no more but suggested that I try calling at Harrison Hall in Wallasey Village on a Tuesday evening, where he knew that the club used to meet. This I did, and the Club was still in existence, although only just. I also met Bob Brimage again, who I ran with at the Club in the 1960s, together with Ramsey Hewson, a person I knew of in the 1960s, but not somebody that I knew to talk to. Bob explained the Club.s position to me which was that the Club had been struggling for a number of years, not having a permanent headquarters, but with the help of Derek Isherwood and Gus McGregor, he, his wife Ann together with Ramsey were endeavouring to grow the Club, concentrating on youth. There were several older members around although not many who were active.
Anyway, I re-joined and have been a member ever since. In my second stint at the Club, I have seen it, from humble beginnings, progress from strength to strength. Thanks to Bob and Ann Brimage.s utter commitment, assisted along the way by others, including Ramsey Hewson, Rolf Westrum, John and Louise Merivale, Dave Walton and a number of others, too many to mention, the Club has thrived, and at the time of writing has in the region of 140 members.
The photo shows Mel competing in the Centenary Handicap Race.
The gratitude that the Club owes to Bob and Ann Brimage cannot be emphasised enough. With their total dedication they have grown the Club from not being able to raise a team to a club that is regarded as competitive as any club in the area.
The Ladies section has grown out of all recognition. Back in the late 1990s, early 2000s the Club particularly struggled to attract and keep female members. For some time there was a chair by the door which I regarded as the fertile chair. When a new female member sat on it she would normally have to take time out to have a baby, never to be seen again. The exception was Louise Merivale, who returned with her daughter Sophie, became Ladies captain, and broke the curse. Our Ladies section is now thriving both in numbers and quality and is an integral part of the Club.
I have fond memories of the Centenary Celebrations, particularly piecing together the history of the Club. We knew that the Club was founded in 1906 because the date was included on the Club.s letter heads. However, that was as far as it went as we were advised by past General Secretaries that majority of the Club.s records had been destroyed by a fire at Doug Hanna.s house. The original thought was to visit Earlston Road Library and see if we could find anything about the origins of the Club in the local newspapers at the time. Bingo, we struck gold! There was an article dated 3 October 1906 that recorded the first Annual General Meeting of the Club and included such information as the founder members and committee members. To our surprise and indebtedness, we unearthed articles that were reported regularly in the papers over many years which basically recorded the history of the Club.
We advertised in the local Wirral Globe that the Centenary of the Club was going to be celebrated in a number of events and asked any ex-members of the Club to send in their memories of being members of the Club. We also wrote to as many ex-members, who had moved out of the area and who we could track down, to inform them of the Centenary celebrations, asking them for their memories.
For me, ironically and disappointingly, we received quite a few responses from ex-members who had been in the Club in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s but none from ex-members in more recent times. We are grateful to those that did contribute as this helped to paint a picture of how the Club developed. I don.t think people appreciate that the Club has been in existence for so long. It is a fantastic achievement and members past and present have a right to be extremely proud of their legacy.
The photo shows Mel chatting at the Centenary Celebrations.
Today we are grateful to Tony Barbat, who as part of his role as publicity officer, administers the Wallasey Athletic Club website, which keeps everybody informed of the affairs of the Club as well as keeping records of all the activities of the Club and its members.
I am still a member of Wallasey AC, although not what could be described as an Active member. I still manage to do a bit of running however, although not too far, and not too fast, and generally at the one pace. It.s not really running, nor jogging, but more like a shuffle. I am finding it harder to get out as I generally run on my own. I understand that it would make sense to go down to the club - and that.s the paradox.
Although not running with the Club, I have served on the committee since I re-joined. In the late 1990s, if you were a paid-up member, and of a certain age, you were automatically expected to serve on the committee. The Club is thriving now, and there are increasing numbers of younger members with plenty of energy and enthusiasm, who want to contribute by serving on the committee. It is about time that I stepped aside and left it to the newer generation.
A little advice to anybody just taking up running, "pace yourself."
There is an adage "Start fast and finish slow, or start slow and finish fast"
Your times will probably be similar, but I can assure you that you will enjoy the race/run a whole lot better if you do the latter.
Many a personal best is a result of negative splits; that is having a quicker second half of a race than the first.
The photo shows Mel competing in the Borders League at Shotton in 2008.
