It was a day at the races for Wesham with three teams entered in the Northern Athletics 12- and 6-Stage Road Relays for men and women respectively, held on the coast road in Redcar. Wesham were last here 18 months ago for the 6- and 4-Stage relays in barmy late summer weather but last Saturday it  was damp and windy with a strong swell on the sea just adjacent to the race route. The day kicked off with junior 5km Northern Championships, and then the senior men were off on 4 alternate long stages of 9.6km and 8 short stages of 5.2km. Dan Bolton was off to a great start with 34:53 for the opening long stage, returning 41^st on the out and back two laps. Elliot Costello was on Stage 2 with 21:16 for the first short stage, and David Taylor 35:12 on Stage 3. Steve Myerscough retained 40^th place with 18:37, followed by Rob Danson with the fastest long stage of 31:07, 50^th fastest long stage of the day out of 182. Stuart Grice ran 20:48; Adam Wilding second fastest for the team in 32:07 (long stage) taking the team to 32^nd, with Chris Haines 19:35; Will Parkinson 20:11; Mark Bellfield an excellent 17:52; James Remnant 21:46; and Peter Rooney 25:25 to give the team 34^th place in  cumulative time of 4:58:51, and although 3:17 short of qualification for the English national road relays in two weeks’ time only 30 seconds separated the four teams that just missed out.55:34. Wesham’s men’s “B” team was incomplete but not lacking in commitment and enthusiasm as Stephen Twist (47:50); Andy Moore (25:56); John Collier (35:31); Dave young (26:18); James Danson (51;29) and Andrew Wilkinson (34:21) brought the team 43^rd place at halfway. The Senior Women set off five minutes after the men on two long and four short stages with Kay Twist first off completing 45:51 for 35^th place, backed up by Debbie Myerscough (33:08); Michelle Pitt (33:22); Kirsty Holland 54:03 (long stage); Claire Belfield (28:270 and Bev wilding (27:46), bringing the team in 35^th in 3:42:37. There was an abundance of North East clubs competing, Wesham and Blackburn were the only Lancashire clubs present with a handful of Merseyside and Manchester clubs.