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News reports - October 2023

28th October 2023: Just two seniors at L&D XC in Arrowe Park

16 of our Senior Men travelled up to Kendal for the first of the Mid Lancs XC fixtures of the season.  For the more local fixture of the Liverpool & District XC Union fixture in Arrowe Park on the Wirral only 2 of our runners took part.  Often, the two leagues clash for dates with the club favouring the Mid Lancs League where the seniors, particularly the vet men, have done so well in recent year; but there was no clash on Saturday.

In truth, the Arrowe Park fixture was not well attended generally.  There were 142 finishers, but the numbers were bolstered by 45 female runners.

Our two runners were Mike Cunningham and Graham Cuddy. MIke was 86th in 43:10 for the 3-lap 5.4 mile course on ground that benefitted from a lack of rainfall in the preceding week  Graham was not far behind; 98th in 44:23. The race was won by Joe Buckley of St Helens Sutton in 29:42 with Liverpool Harrier Matt Leahy 2nd in 29:46. Kirsty Longley, LPS, won the Women's race - 19th overll - in 35:02.

Thanks to team manager Steve James. The next league XC fixture is the BA Cross Challenge in Sefton Park Liverpool where both the Mid Lancs and the L&D compete, our senior runners couning in both leagues.

15th October 2023: NW Sportshall Athletics returns for the 2023 season

A number of Southport Waterloo U11, U13, U15 juniors travelled to the Kingsway Stadium in Widnes on Sunday with team manager Chris Henders for the first round in the North West Sportshall Athletics League.  Further details will be posted when I have them.
Update: 15th November.  Now that results are available, I can reporet that our Under 13 Boys won their competition at Widnes.  A very good result indeed.
Our Under 11 Girls were Emelia Henders, Sasha McNabb, Minnie McNally, Elouise Payne, Amelia Salkeld, April Thompson, Caitlin Webste and  Esme Wilkinson,  A good solid performance brought the girls a 4th place of 8 teams on the day.  Scores were Crewe & Nantwich 207 pts, Liverpool 194, Wirral 176.5, S'port Waterloo 153.5, Halton & Frodsham 73.5, Macclesfield 73.5, Warrington 67 and Handforth 38.5.
We had no Under 11 Boys competing.
Our Under 13 Girls were Lucy Delamere, Alice Dobson, Elisa Dobson, Joni Dunne and Millie Milligan.  Just 5 girls but they put up a good show finishing 5th of 7 teams; Wirral, Liverpool and Crewe being particularly strong.  The scores were Wirral 182.5 pts, Liverpool 169.5, Crewe & Nantwich 153, Macclesfield 122.5, S'port Waterloo 108, Warrington 97 and Handforth 57.5.
Our Under 13 Boys were Jude Brotherton, Isaac Butler, George Craig, Jake Edwards and Jimmy McGrory.  With event wins by Jake Edwards (vertical jump), and Issac Butler (shot put) and strong supporting performances from the others, the boys won their competition.  Scores were S'port Waterloo 138 pts, Wirral 93.5, Warrington 91.5, Liverpool 84.5, Halton & Frodsham 50 and Handforth 42.5.
Results for Southport Waterloo athletes.

14th October 2023: Mid Lancs XC season gets under way in the Lake District

 

The first of this season's Mid Lancs cross country fixtures was held on Saturday at the Westmorland county showground, Crooklands, near Kendal in South Lakeland.  It was a fair way to travel up the M6 but the venue provded a beautiful setting for cross country running, an undulating grassland course with several long inclines and a an uphill finish.  It also provded good spectator views of the runners.

We were expecting the couple of blustery rain showers that hit but apart from that most of the time it was bright and sunny albeit not nearly as warm as it has been recently.

Southport Waterloo senior runners attended in good numbers - 6 senior women and 16 senior men - but once again disappointing numbers of juniors were tempted by the endurance experience.  That said, the juniors had 5 top ten finishes with Will Delamere winning the Under 15 Boys' race in some style.  In the senior race, Rachael Jacks ran well for 13th place and Ben Johnson was 14th overall in the Senior Men's race.  

We had only one Under 11 runner, an age group where we might expect runners to 'have a go'.  Perhaps we will see more when the BA Cross Challenge returns to Liverpool next month.  At Kendal, Caden Walker was 18th of 52 Under 11 Boys running 7.36 for the 1.9 km course.    

Next up were the Under 13 Girls where we managed a team finish with Grace Veevers, Lauren Silcox and Lucy Delamere all running.  All good endurance runners, Grace was 5th of 47 finishers in 8:30 for the 2-lap 2.2 km.  Lauren was 15th in 8:59 and Lucy, last year's Under 11 champion, was 16th in 9:02.  The team were 2nd behind Liverpool Harriers  

We had no Under 13 Boys or Under 15 Girls running. 

The Under 15 Boys' race saw William Delamere take an early lead  which he held and probably extended as he raced around the course, clearly the runner to beat!  He finished nearly a 100m ahead of the 2nd placed runner, in 12:44 for his 2-lap 3.7 kms.  We didn't have enough boys this time for a team finish but Eddy Clark also ran, 11th of 37 finishers in 14:10.  We have the runners in this age group to medal this season.   Blackburn Harriers have already put a marker down for the gold!

It was good to see two girls in Southport Waterloo colours in the Under 17 Women's race.   A team might be stretching it here but well done to Emily Dean finishing 6th of 15 in 15:58 for the 3.7 kms with Amelie Scott just one place behind, 7th in 16:44.

The final Junior runner was Under 17 Man Reuben Donnelly, another regular cross country runner finishing 9th of 30 runners today in 23:35 for the 6.2 kms.  Coach Graham Boreham reckons that was just about his best. ever cross country run  He certainly looked strong and confident.  

Turning then to the Senior Women, our ladies were led home by Rachael Jacks, 2nd LV35 and 13th overall of 146 runners in 27:38 for the 6.2 kms.  Andrea Scaborough  was our 2nd counter, 36th in 30:19, and Carole James anchored the team, our 3rd finisher in 61st place in 32:28.  The team finished 5th in Division 1 but were beaten by 8 teams from lower divisions. Michelle Spencer completed the hilly course in 33:34, Katy Coupland in 36:20 and Gemma Delamere in 39:01.

In the Senior Men's race,  2 hrs 17 marathon runner Ben Johnson hasn't raced a lot this year  but his presence in cross country gives a real boost to team prospects.  He finished 14th of a large field of 257 at Kendal running 38:08 for the 4-lap 9.9 km course.  Then in the space of just 30 seconds the rest of the scoring team finished.  Rob Chesters was 46th in 41:34, Alex Vernon, 47th and 3rd MV45, in 41:39, James Paybody, 48th in 41:41, Andrew Veevers, 50th in 41:48, and John Delamere, 52nd in 42:05. The team finished 4th overall, 2nd in Division 1. Our other finishers were Peter Roome, 3rd MV55, in 44:41, Mark Singer, 45:08, Ken Lennon, 3rd MV60 in 46:00, David Hemmings, 51:22, Michael Cunningham, 52:35, Richard Talbot, 53:16, Paul Warrington, 53:45, Lee Coupland, 57:11, Clive James, 58:00, and Ian Pike, 64:55.

A 2nd place team finish was a good start to this season and they are nicely placed in the Vet categories.

Thanks to team managers Lee Coupland, Steve James and Michelle Spencer.

Full results 

Elsewhere, Francois Rafferty was racing too - in Derby, I think.  On a hilly course he made the top 3 in his age category and so is selected for the England team for the British & Irish Masters International Cross Country in Glasgow on 11th November. 

8th October 2023: England podium finish for Mike Walker at Chester Marathon

 

Mike Walker was honoured to represent England Masters at the Chester Marathon on Sunday.  The race incorporated an International age group competition.  

Mike tells us that the race was going well until the three H's - hill, heat and humidity - kicked in towards the finish.  Nonetheless, 3:31:53  was a very respectable time, especially for a Vet70!  Mike  was running 2:58 / 2:59 1   years or so ago.  And 3:31 was certainly good enough to take silver in the international race at Chester;  And 3rd place MV70 overall.  An excellent result.

Several other Southport Waterloo runners took part in the 13th running of this event which started in the streets of historic Chester city centre then headed out into the Cheshire and North Wales countryside before returning along the banks of the River Dee.

Rob McGrath was 3rd MV55 with a run in 2:48:24, almost exactly the same time he ran in London this year.  Mike was our 2nd finisher, then Mohammed Jabbar came home in a chip time of 3:23:58.  Mohammed ran 3:04 in London so maybe the heat got to him as well.  James Brooker ran 4:49 and Simon Clarke 4:54.

Our ladies were represented as well with Catherine McElhinney finishing in 4:23 and Jane Blacklin 5:08. 

 

 

 

7th October 2023: U15 Boys earn top 10 finish at Nat'l Road Relays

 After success at the North West Road Relays and the Northern Road Relays two weeks ago at Birtkenhead Park, Will Delamere, Liam McCormick and Caleb Still decided to test themselves against the best in England at Saturday's English National Road Relays at Birmingham's Sutton Park.  And a top 10 finish recognised that they deserve to be in this class of competition.

Will set off on the first leg of this undulating 1-lap course and came home 6th of 84 runners in 12:12 for the 3.88 leg.  Liam ran the 2nd leg, in 13:26, for 9h place before handing over to Caleb, 13:16 his time and anchoring the team in 9th place overall of the 73 complete teams. An excellent result which  coach Graham Boreham advises has turned their thoughts to the Northern and National cross country relays in Sheffield and Mansefield this Autumn.  Perhaps some of our other runners might be tempted too.  The club regularly competed at the Mansfield XC relays in the '90s.   

 Finally, a word about the weather at Sutton Park. As forecast, the afternoon turned unseasonably warm with temperatures in the low 20s.  I guess several runners would have been affected by the heat and indeed two senior men found their legs giving way at the end.  One managed into the finish funnel before collapsing.  The other lost the use of his legs about 6 metres from the line and only pure will power got him across the line on hands and knees to release the outgoing runner.  Such is team competition but a reminder to all to take account of the conditions on the day.

Photos courtesy of Graham B.