Two storms at the weekend, Eunice and Franklin, had some effect on running last week but there were few events in the calendar in the North West for Wesham members, and a time to consider some DIY perhaps!

In the Great North West Half Marathon along the Blackpool Promenade Ugis Datavs stretched his legs with a time of 1:24:17 for the 13.1 miles to return a finish position of 15^th in a race with 479 participants. He finished 4^th M40. Stuart Mulrooney finished 153^rd battling the high winds and rain to clock 1:51:08, M35 position not available.

Martin Bates ran in the Waterson’s Hale 10K in Cheshire’s Ashley Park part of the 2022 Hale & Ashley Race Series, placing 145^th in 46:21 with a 5k split of 23:01 for 1^st M65 (credited as 4^th Over-60). There were 711 runners in this popular run.

There was quite some action last week in the athletics world to give Fylde athletes plenty to have a go at, and Wesham members were out there.

The main action of the weekend was the fifth round of the Mid Lancs Cross Country League staged at the leigh Sports Village on a course running out onto the neighbouring Pennington Flash. In the Senior Women’s 6km over one small lap and two large ones Kay Twist finished 61^st and 11^th W50 in 27:35. Anne Mayers-Smith, also competing in the incorporated Northern Masters Championship was 66^th and 12^th W40 in 28:24, with Lucy Neighbour placing 95^th and 14^th W40 in 31:25. 95^th was Louise Lord in 16^th W45 position with her time 31:34. Clare Bellfield was 103^rd and 15^th W35 in 35:09. In the overall placings for the season after 5 matches with one to go the Wesham ladies are 9^th in Division 3, with the W35 team 10^th. The W45s are 11^th, with no W55 or 65 teams. In the accompanying M70 race over the 6km Dave Young finished 10^th in 31:59 with Peter Bartlett 15^th in 39:33. Wesham were 3^rd M70 team behind Clayton and Kendal. In the Senior Men’s 10km of 3 large laps Andrew Harling ran a blinder to finish 41^st and 8^th M40 in 41:34, ahead of David Taylor who was 44^th in 42:25.  Tom Crabtree placed 53^rd in 43:22; Mark Belfield was 57^th in 43:44, with Lee Barlow was 93^rd and 18^th M45 in 46:21. Carl Groome made his cross country debut after running the Lytham Hall parkrun earlier, coming in 108^th and 7^th M50 to close in the men’s team with 47:03. Steve Myerscough finished 131^st and 24^th M45 in 49:03; Damien Ings was 148^th and 27^th M45 in 50:19; Nigel Shepherd 6^th M60 and 160^th overall in 52:37 with John Collier 4^th M65 and 173^rd in 54:54. Training partners James Danson and Stephen Twist battled it out over the last few metres to finish 199^th and 202^nd for 24^th M55 and 19^th M50 in 1:01:43 and 1:02:08. Colin Gibson came in 13^th M60 and 207^th overall in 1:02:30. The Senior Men are now 3^rd in Division 1 after an excellent season with the “B” team 3^rd in Division 3. The M40 team are also in good stead in 4^th place in Division 1, with the M50 team 7^th and the M60s 2^nd, both good results. The M70 season is very close race behind Kendal and Clayton.

The weather may have been rough towards the end of last week but the worst of it held off during the weekend apart from the wind to enable Wesham members to get out racing.   Following up his parkrun of the previous day, Martin Bates ran the Blackburn Winter Warmer 10k from Witton Park on Sunday, finishing 176^th in a big field of 675 runners in 48:08 to place 3^rd M65. Ian Garrod ran his recent best for 10km with 50:27 in 230^th and 22^nd M55. Peter Rooney finished 276^th and 15^th M60 in 52:38; Finlay McCalman 402^nd in 57:52 (35^th M55); and Paul Carter 460^th in 60:36 for 43^rd M50. In the Junior 2km race Maggie Belfield, daughter of the great Mark and Claire, finished 49^th in 11:59 to place 11^th under-9 with a forceful finish on the track.

Sunday was a popular day for Wesham members with the local St Annes 10-mile road race in the morning, and the club had 16 runners with three of these ladies. First for the club in an excellent 7^th place with a cracking time of 57:28 was John Macdougall, placing 4^th M40, just outside the medals. James Green was next club member across the line in 1:04:04 in 27^th placing 12^th M40. Chris Hastwell finished 33^rd in 1:04:57 for an uncredited M35 position. Neil Gregson was 53^rd in 1:10:01 to bring the men’s team in 3^rd place with 66 points, behind Todmorden Harriers (54) and Lytham (53) in a close fought inter-club battle. Chris Haines came in 56^th in 1:10:57, and Stuart Mulrooney 60^th in 1:11:41 to complete the all-senior Wesham B team. Damian Ings had a good run for a time of 1:13:29 in 76^th place, and Martin Bates placed 4^th M-Over-60 [sic] having undoubtedly placed much higher in the M65s with 1:13:42 for 77^th place overall. Ian Garrod Ironman made short work of the 10 miles in 1:14:41 in 81^st place, with Peter Rooney 6^th Over-60 in 1:19:58 finishing 117^th overall. Tanya Shaw was the first Wesham soman to finish, in 140^th place overall, 33^rd woman and 15^th W-Over-40 with a personal best time of 1:23:20. Stephen Twist was 145^th in 1:23:49 just ahead of Kay who was 37^th woman and 146^th overall in 1:23:50 placing 7^th W50. The older Rob Danson finished 163^rd in 1:25:58 and Dave Young placed 3^rd M70 in 1:31:15 in 197^th overall. Anne Berry was 70^th woman and 6^th W60 in 1:33:47 finishing 208^th overall in a fine showing from the club. This was a popular good quality locally organised race.

Louise Lord followed up her Saturday morning parkrun trail walking with a run in the Morecambe Festival of Running 10-mile race, finishing 46^th in 1:29:34, 10^th woman. Andrew Wilkinson was 44^th in 1:28:12, 2^nd M50.

It was a quiet weekend for Fylde athletes with no local competition and little on further afield as this month has five full weekends, unusual for a month and created a spare weekend in the athletics calendar.

There was a Power of 5k on a floodlit Friday evening round the cycle track at the Salt Ayre centre, creating an exciting evening of competition. Out of the 62 competitors there were new male and female course records of 14:11 and 16:59, and 53 competitors under 20 minutes.

In the first race in the Pilling 10k Spring Season on Saturday afternoon at 2pm, the winning times were 32:12 (male) and 41:45 (female) for race 1 of the series of 5, with a field of 45 runners.

This week was dominated by the main action for Wesham being the fourth fixture of the Mid Lancs cross country season at Blackpool’s Lawsons Ground, where the club were assisting with setting up the course and officiating as well as fielding two quality teams of runners. In fine weather after a cold start to the day Wesham had nine ladies running in the Senior Women’s 6km three lap course with Kay Twist leading the way and finishing 64^th and 8^th W50 in 30:16. Suzanne Leonard was 9^th W50 and 72^nd overall with 30:54 and Anne Mayers-Smith 10^th W40 and 84^th in 32:35. The ladies placed 21^st team and. Sharon Cooper was close behind in 86^th place and 14^th W45 timed at 32:45. Julie Paton was 93^rd and 15^th W45 in 33:56 to close in the “B” team in 25^th place. Louise Lord was 97^th and 16^th W45 with 34:18; Lucy Neighbour 99^th and 12^th W40 in 34:25; Claire Belfield 102^nd and 15^th W36 with 35:09; and Jo McCaffery 109^th in 36:49 for 14^th W40. The women overall were 12^th W35s team and 5^th in the W45s. Dave Young placed 4^th and 3^rd M70 in the accompanying Over-70 race over the same course, and Peter Bartlett 9^th overall and 6^th M70 in 40:17, with the pair finishing 3^rd M70 team with stiff competition from Clayton-le-Moors and Kendal AC. The Wesham M70s look set to win the series but must turn out at the next fixtures.