COMMITTEE REPORTS

chairman’s report

THE VIEW THROUGH MY OLD EYES

I will start with our 10k on the 28^th November and the present situation is that we do have the car park and use of the bowling club for the results compilation. This, of course, means that much of the organisation is going to require an early start with as many helpers as possible to erect tents, set up no go areas and control all traffic entering the site. What I am trying to say is, please get in touch with either myself, Keith Rhead or John Whiteman, to confirm your availability on that day including, most importantly, the times you are available. As a guide I would be hoping to start the tent erection at 0730 hours with some form of traffic control in place at that time.

This may all sound a little drastic but we need to be more planned than ever before as the future of the race probably depends on it. Obviously the lack of facilities means that the early working party would not have access to a warm drink or shelter so I will try to get the key for the bowling hut and set up a hot drink area in there. That will be for those who have committed to the work parties and it will not be available to those who are only participating in the race so do not ask, as the area is out of bounds to all other people on the day.

Thanks to John Whiteman we will be at the Hand and Dagger for the presentations and refreshments after the race. This could be an organisational nightmare, but, with your help again, I am sure we can sort it. Of course, again, names are needed with times if you are available to look after this part of the programme. Portaloos have been ordered and these will attract long queues which could create a sight and neighbour problem which again we will have to police.

After all this we have our Presentation Evening at Ribby Hall which, as you may recall, was an excellent venue two years ago and I am sure will be even better this time around. I need to ask you to commit to this event early rather than later as we have to guarantee a certain number attending otherwise we have financial penalties imposed and we really need to avoid these at all costs. Derek Goodenough will be coming to the club on Monday nights shortly, for you to buy your tickets. You can invite friends along and seating will be arranged so that you would all be together. All you need do is let Derek know.

So what else is happening? Well most important is the fact that we are now getting into the darker nights which affect us on a Monday nights. Most importantly is your safety so please start wearing the high visibility vests. We will have some spare ones at the club for you to borrow but the onus is on you providing one and not relying on the few we have for emergency use.

The Summer Handicaps are now over with Bernadette Dickinson and Alan Taylor very worthy winners of the trophies this year, and, as usual, we now start the winter ones. These will still be held on the first Monday of the month, unless a Bank Holiday clashes.

This year’s inaugural Interclub Fell Race team and individual championships have now been completed and first signs are that Wesham as excelled. But, until the last race results are in, I do not want to pre-empt the final championship result.

Well the Cross Country Season is once again with us and a full programme is to be found in the Forthcoming Events Section within this magazine so, look at the dates, and, if you fancy having a go, either have a word with one of the team captains or just turn up at the venue and we will sort you out.

The Rudolf Race is on the 20^th December this year and will be as good again as it was last year so get those Santa suits out and come along and enjoy, what I believe, is a true Christmas race with lots of fun and frolics thrown in for good measure. Don’t forget that I always need my Santa’s helpers so get it in the diary and let me know you are available as soon as you can in December.

That is all the club itinerary dealt with and again I hope it is useful to you. Now I will tell you a little of what is happening in 2010. First of all we have committed, as a club, to the Central Lancashire Grand Prix Series which is a group of races, one a month from Feb. to Oct. inc. involving nine clubs at present, (10 is the maximum), and, much like the present I/C series, your club’s runners are put into teams by virtue of their position in a race taking into account only runners from each of the participating nine clubs.

Central Lancashire Grand Prix Series 2010 The races for next year 2010 provisionally are:
28^th Feb.	Lostock 6	6^th June	Smithills Serpent 5
21^st March	St. Annes 10	14^th July	Horwich 5
18^th April	Radcliffe 10k	4^th August	Chorley 4.4 Trail
12^th May	Haigh Hall 4	26^th Sept.	Swinton Half
	Oct. 10^th	Gin Pit 5

Teams are of 10, (A team), next 8 (B team). 6 for the Vet’s team and 4 for Ladies team were both include runners from the A and B team. Some of these dates and races may be changed but everyone will be notified in good time so all I ask of you is please support the races and let’s see if we can be, yet again, successful in another series.

Another venture we have got involved with is the Badger Runs in the Cuerden Valley which in 2010 we have agreed to help organise and which our reward will be a 40% share of the profits which, if on a par with this year, would be in the region of £1,500 for the three races. The involvement does include provision of marshals and officials. I would like in the near future to find out who would be prepared to help at these races. They are on the Thursday nights of:

3^rd June 2010	1^st July 2010	5^th August 2010
Starting at 7.30pm. They are all 10k’s so not long periods from start to finish time.

So lets move on to the members who are sadly having to sit out most of the running events at this time and sadly it is the ladies who seem to have born the brunt of it. Both Joanna Goorney and Carmel Sullivan both having injuries which have kept them unavailable to race for the last few weeks but there does appear to be some light at the end of the tunnel so watch this space. Norman’s foot problem appears to have eased a little enough to allow him to race again so that’s one more bit of good news. However Anne, his partner, is still not fully recovered but there are signs that a comeback may be on the way. Mike Walsh has also started the long road to recovery but he is realistically not going to be racing again much sooner than Christmas. It was good to see Sue Jones back in a race with Dave, her hubby. There is a good chance Alan Hudson could soon be back challenging me in the V60 category at long last. Rumour also has it that Barry Peatfield is just about ready to join the team which may be up for the challenge that awaits out there. I am sure you will all be glad to hear that Steve Littler is now back racing and winning, at least on the shorter races, and we can only hope there are no further setbacks and that he is soon back as the Champion once more of the Marathon and the Dales races. I know there are some I have missed, so please allow me to apologise, and assure you the members and I do wish all of you a swift recovery.

I have to mention the very tragic accident which led to the death of a friend and colleague from the former North Fylde club, Bob Fairclough who many of you will remember as the organiser of the Kirkham 10k. Yes, ‘he of the voice that never needed a megaphone’, who was laid to rest on Thursday 3^rd September in a service, attended by members of all the Fylde coast athletic clubs.

On a brighter note we welcome back Alan Taylor, on a permanent basis this time and he has rejoined us, so welcome back Alan

Well that is it again for now and all I hope is that in the next magazine I can tell you how successful the Wesham 10k was yet again.

Written by: Dave Waywell

Submitted: 9^th September 2009

Secretary’s Summary of the past four

Committee Meetings

May and June Committee Meetings

• As with all Committee meetings, members are circulated with details of items discussed at these Committee Meetings. There were no points debated at these two meetings that necessitate repeating for the magazine.

July Committee Meeting

• The Club has agreed to take on the shared responsibility for the organisation of the Badger Series of races.
• The Club has agreed to provide at least five marshals for the NW Counties Road Relays.
• A representative of BARR was in attendance at our hosting of the Inter Club to assess the organisation and etc.of the race His report was very satisfactory and complementary.

August Committee Meeting

• It was thought to be a good plan to start at this early stage encouraging members to commit to attending the Club presentation evening in November.

Brian Wilkinson, Secretary.

LADIES CAPTAIN’S REPORT

It’s that time of the year and I thought I better do a piece for the magazine as Lady Captain but I’m not really sure what it should be about this time. Should it be about myself or the lady runners from the club? Truthfully, I think we have more invalids that actual runners at the moment as we seem to be carrying an awful lot at the moment. Mine seems to be the longest, as I haven’t raced since the Blackpool fun run in the middle of May..................will I ever get back running? I sincerely hope so as the cross country season is looming and that I don’t want to miss.

The last few months have not been kind to me but I decided from the ‘off’ if I couldn’t run I would help and support the club by marshalling as long as I was not on one of my many holidays. This is so that when I am running again I won’t feel guilty about racing and not helping. The weather has provided a mixed array of pleasure for this task, from being lonely at the corner by Green Drive at the Freckleton Half Marathon to having a spa morning at the Granny’s Bay race courtesy of the wind and sand at the finish. The rewards though were plenty at Granny’s Bay as our Chairman excelled himself with the goodie bags and the chocolates were still in date...yippee!

We have this year managed to raise a team for the relays at Sutton Park and my thanks go to Tracey who helped organise this because, as per usual, I was on holiday. My next challenge was to raise teams for the North West Counties Relays at Blackpool’s Stanley Park. This is home ground for us so thanks girls for turning out; I am with you on the side lines cheering you all on. Hopefully next year we will get teams in more of these relays throughout the season!

The Interclub’s have now finished and thanks girls for running on such a regular basis and because you did. We have finished Third in the tables. I must give a special mention to Angela Colby and to Helen Lawrenson who took part in their first Interclub at Chorley and Helen on making 5^th position in Wesham Ladies Team, well done to you both.

One lady who has had some fantastic runs before she got injured was Carmel smashing PB’s like it was going out of fashion. So well done to you and I look forward to seeing you smash many more when the training restarts.

On a positive note we have got some new lady members so a big welcome to Lisa, Ruth, Helen, Angela and Angela, (that could get confusing), I am sure you will find us all really friendly and I look forward to running/training with you in the future.

So from your Lady Captain, goodbye till the next magazine and over to Julie for the winter season in the mud.

Written by: Kerry Eccles, Ladies Captain

Submitted: 16^th August 2009

Men’s Captain’s Report

It’s great to see so many Wesham folk travelling far and wide on their search for an Autumn marathon. I know that Mark Midgeley, Russ Mabbett, and Finlay are going to the world record course in Berlin.

§ Mark has impressed me and has shown how dedicated he is, religiously working to a training plan, a plan that worked so well in New York last November lets hope he reaps rewards in Berlin, fingers crossed for another PB.

§ Russell is the King of the sub 3hr marathons, and once again he says its going to be close, but only a fool would bet against him when it comes to sub 3hrs, he always seems to dig deep when it matters and pulls the time out of the hat!

§ Finlay’s training plan is some what different, usually it involves running round Stanley Park 10 times with Peter Cooke, whilst perusing the Argos catalogue, I wonder if they made it through the entire catalogue or stopped at the treadmills!

§ There are many bound for Budapest this October; George Kennedy, Martin Bates, Michaela Dempsey, Simon Eaton and Jason Barlow. I said during one of my rare drunken occasions, that I too would go and run the marathon, the following day. When a little more sober, I thought enough was enough, especially as I had recently completed two marathons in 3 weeks.

§ Alex Rowe and Finlay are off to Dublin. Yes, that’s right; Finlay is running two marathons in a month!

Good luck to every single one hope you get the times you want, but more importantly enjoy the event.

This year Wesham has welcomed many new and old faces into the friendly club. There was Brian Yates, who burst on the scenes with some blistering fast times, Chisco setting the pace on the Message Board. He is giving Captain Jack a run for his treasures.

Although I must admit I did think I was seeing things, at the start of Lytham’s Interclub; all I saw was an Aussie in Blue! The one and only Alan Taylor was back from down under, with his ‘larger than life’ character stamping his authority. We have missed him, a big, big welcome back!

And then, there is old father time, Gary Pendlebury back from injury. Steve Littler is also back and on song; winning the recent Bispham 10 miler. Let’s hope he makes it to the start of the New York Marathon this November.

A big well done must go out to John Collier who came 3^rd in the Isle of Man Marathon, finishing in a fantastic 3hours 3 minutes, on a course that is not considered fast by any stretch of the imagination and the time must be one of the fastest marathon times for a V55. Many went over the day before on the ferry and completed the Half Marathon; they won that many trophies the ferry was close to sinking on the way back!

The weather forecasters got it wrong again, the summer never appeared, but the sun shone on the one, most important, special day in August, when our very own righteous Steve Myerscough got married to the lovely Debbie. What a fantastic day was had by all. Hopefully now that Steve is married he will slow down and give me a better chance of beating him, especially as we’re in the same age category.

Looking forward, the Northern Relays are being held at Stanley Park in September, hopefully we can get several teams out. In October, there is the Rotherham 50. I know Pete Waywell is doing the full 50. Yes; he is completely bonkers after last year’s event suffered with horrendous weather, forcing Graham Vickers to pull out of the event and Pete although he completed, looked like a ghost. Both were brave to even attempt this arduous race, I, (assuming I was mad enough to contemplate this race), would have turned round, and gone back home before I reached the M55! To try and avoid the weather the organisers have brought this race forward a couple of months. Let’s hope the sun will be cracking the pavements, (just need to let Thor, the thunder god know too!). Wesham is looking to organising a relay event for the Rotherham 50, and are looking for runners, distances are varied. If you are interested in taking part as a fun event, armed with plenty of abuse, oops, that should have been ENCOURAGEMENT for Pete, please let me know.

Cheers

Lee

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY’S REPORT

Currently we have a total membership of 158 members of which 138 are first claim runners, (this included 9 members who have still not paid their 2009 subscription). I would like to welcome the following new members who have joined during 2009 as first claim:

Nigel Paul	Atkinson	Helen	Lawrenson
Anthony John	Barlow	David	Robb
Stephen	Coe	Alan	Taylor
Angela	Colby	Lisa Jayne	Tomlinson
Charles	Colby	Troy	Watson
Angela	Cruse	Sonya	Whaites
Andrew	Flanagan	Brian	Yates
Neil	Kitchen	Sean	Yates

Also could I welcome the following who have joined as second claim:

Andrew Paul

McAllister

Stephen Matthew

Shanks

We have gained new members either because they have seen Wesham members at races, (blue vests), and have found them to be ‘friendly’, or they have found us through our website.

Peter Earnshaw

Membership Secretary.