Alex’s Newspaper Report.

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 15th in a race with 479 participants. He finished 4th M40. Stuart Mulrooney finished 153rd 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 145th in 46:21 with a 5k split of 23:01 for 1st M65 (credited as 4th Over-60). There were 711 runners in this popular run.

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Alex’s Newspaper Report.

Helen Lawrenson and Nicola Unsworth great friends at Muddy Bottoms in Caldervale

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

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Alex’s Newspaper Report.

Very proud young recruit Maggie Belfield

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 176th in a big field of 675 runners in 48:08 to place 3rd M65. Ian Garrod ran his recent best for 10km with 50:27 in 230th and 22nd M55. Peter Rooney finished 276th and 15th M60 in 52:38; Finlay McCalman 402nd in 57:52 (35th M55); and Paul Carter 460th in 60:36 for 43rd M50. In the Junior 2km race Maggie Belfield, daughter of the great Mark and Claire, finished 49th in 11:59 to place 11th under-9 with a forceful finish on the track.

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Alex’s Newspaper Report.

Wesham team at the Hunters 10k in Preston on Sunday in 2017

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 7th place with a cracking time of 57:28 was John Macdougall, placing 4th M40, just outside the medals. James Green was next club member across the line in 1:04:04 in 27th placing 12th M40. Chris Hastwell finished 33rd in 1:04:57 for an uncredited M35 position. Neil Gregson was 53rd in 1:10:01 to bring the men’s team in 3rd place with 66 points, behind Todmorden Harriers (54) and Lytham (53) in a close fought inter-club battle. Chris Haines came in 56th in 1:10:57, and Stuart Mulrooney 60th 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 76th place, and Martin Bates placed 4th M-Over-60 [sic] having undoubtedly placed much higher in the M65s with 1:13:42 for 77th place overall. Ian Garrod Ironman made short work of the 10 miles in 1:14:41 in 81st place, with Peter Rooney 6th Over-60 in 1:19:58 finishing 117th overall. Tanya Shaw was the first Wesham soman to finish, in 140th place overall, 33rd woman and 15th W-Over-40 with a personal best time of 1:23:20. Stephen Twist was 145th in 1:23:49 just ahead of Kay who was 37th woman and 146th overall in 1:23:50 placing 7th W50. The older Rob Danson finished 163rd in 1:25:58 and Dave Young placed 3rd M70 in 1:31:15 in 197th overall. Anne Berry was 70th woman and 6th W60 in 1:33:47 finishing 208th 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 46th in 1:29:34, 10th woman. Andrew Wilkinson was 44th in 1:28:12, 2nd M50.

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Alex’s Newspaper Report.

Wesham ladies at the Mid Lancs at Hyndburn in 2016 before the white-out

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.

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Alex’s Newspaper Report.

Nigel Shepherd, Martin Bates and John Collier in the Mid-Lancs in Blackpool

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 64th and 8th W50 in 30:16. Suzanne Leonard was 9th W50 and 72nd overall with 30:54 and Anne Mayers-Smith 10th W40 and 84th in 32:35. The ladies placed 21st team and. Sharon Cooper was close behind in 86th place and 14th W45 timed at 32:45. Julie Paton was 93rd and 15th W45 in 33:56 to close in the “B” team in 25th place. Louise Lord was 97th and 16th W45 with 34:18; Lucy Neighbour 99th and 12th W40 in 34:25; Claire Belfield 102nd and 15th W36 with 35:09; and Jo McCaffery 109th in 36:49 for 14th W40. The women overall were 12th W35s team and 5th in the W45s. Dave Young placed 4th and 3rd M70 in the accompanying Over-70 race over the same course, and Peter Bartlett 9th overall and 6th M70 in 40:17, with the pair finishing 3rd 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.

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