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News reports - February 2024
28th February 2024: 12 club runners in M'side Inter Counties XC team
Selection is an ever-changinmg feast with non-availability constantly changing the team. However, as of now, we seem to have 12 runners in Merseyside's team for the Inter Counties Cross Country Championships at Nottingham on 9th March. In the female team we have Rachel Jacks, Emily Dean, Amelie Scott, Sydney Monahan Clarkson, Grace Veevers and Lucy Delamere.  There may be an odd 'reserve' in there as the teams I have seen are that that explicit. In the male team we have Francois Rafferty, Reuben Donnelly, Wiliam Delamere and Liam McCormick; with Luke Ward and Caleb Still named reserves. Congratulations to all winning a Merseyside vest and good luck at Woolaston Park.
24th February 2024: New club records set in university indoor champs (by Lee Coupland)
Bill Steel and Sam Coupland were both in action this week for their respective universities, both achieving milestone measures. Bill is studying in Sheffield and competed in the BUCS Championships at EIS, Sheffield, in the shot put. He qualified for the final with ease with a put of 14m 76. In the final Bill’s best effort was a new club record of 15m .10, the first time any club member has broken the 15m mark. Bill finished 4th overall in the competition. Sam is a student at Lindenwood University in Missouri and earlier this week was at the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) finals competing in the Indoor Heptathlon. Sam set an overall points total of 4,651 a new club record for this event. In doing so he pole vaulted 4.00m a new club record for this event too. Sam finished 5th overall in this event. Both of Sam's and Bill's new club records replace significantly long standing records. The previous shot record was set in 1991 and the previous best pole vault was set in 1995.
10th February 2024: Snr Men vets win again at Burnley XC
The 5th Mid Lancs XC fixture of the season was held at Towneley Park in Burnley on Saturday. After the snow earlier in the week affecting higher ground in the North West, weather conditions on the day were pleasantly warm and dry with little if any wind but the snow and rain had left their mark with the ground fairly wet and muddy. It was probably worse around the start / finish with several areas water-logged;but generally the ground held up well to the pounding of hundreds of cross country runners. By the final race of the day, however, the mud was becoming slippery and difficult to avoid. At least there were no challenging hills to contend with in the circumstances. As the season draws towards a close in March, the Burnley fixture was an opportunity to improve or confirm League standing and so the popular venue was busy with just over 500 runners. Southport Waterloo was well represented, particularly by our Senior Men who favoured today's Mid Lancs and the challenge for end-of-season positions over Sunday's Liverpool & District XC Championships in Clarkes Gardens, Liverpool. There were one or two junior absentees due to winter bugs and at least two dropped out after falling unwell in their race. Overall, the club had 7 top 10 finishers and 3 team wins by our vet men.  There was no-one in Southport Waterloo colours in the Under 11 Girls' race or the Under 11 Boys' race and just one Under 13 Girl finisher, Both Under 13s Grace Veevers and Lauren Silcox started but Grace was a casualty of a winter virus leaving Lauren to finish our only runner, an impressive 4th of 40 girls in 9:45 for her 2.7 kms. In this season, Lauren was 15th at Westmorland, 11th in Lancaster, 6th at Blackpool and 4th today. A very satisfying progression for her. Once again, we had no Under 13 Boys or Under 15 Girls competing and with William Delamere unwell at home, it was left to Liam McCormick to lead our won the Under 15 Boys' home. We did start with a team of three: Caleb Still, Liam McCormick and Eddy Clark. But Caleb was another victim of a winter bug and didn't complete the race. Liam was 3rd of 29 boys in 13:04 and Eddy Clark 7th in 14:00 over the 3.2 kms.  Both Emily Dean and Amelie Scott were our  Under 17 Woman at Towneley Park.  Emily was 4th in 16:05 for 4 kms and Amelie 6th in 16:41. And again just one Under 17 Man in blue and gold.  Reuben Donnelly was 6th of 16 runners over 5.8 kms in a time of 19:29.  Rachel Jacks again led our Senior Women team home at Towneley Park, with an individual 11th place finish, and 2nd LV35, in 23.24 for the 5.8 kms.  Andrea Scarborough was our 2nd team counter, 19th overall in 24.21, and Michelle Spencer finished 54th of 109 ladies, in 27:25.  The team were 7th overall 43rd in Div'n 1 which I think keeps them 4th in the Table.  They were also 4th team in the LV35 category today, and 4th in the league to date.   Finally, our Senior Men had 17 runners competing at Burnley, an excellent turnout.  Once again, Francois Rafferty led the team home, 10th overall and 1st MV55, in 34:26 for his 9.8 kms, ahead of Ben Johnson, 18th in 35:21. David Hamilton was 2nd LV55 and 25th overall in 36:17 and then Alex Vernon, 31st in 37:00, Andy Veevers, 32nd in 37:03, and James Paybody our final 'A' team counter, 37th in 37:30. Others were John Delamere, 37:42, Peter Roome, 3rd MV55 in 39:48, Marc Singer, 40:11, John Sprackland, 1st MV60 in 40:27, Neil Adshead, 3rd MV60 in 43:02, Graham Cuddy, 44:47, Mike Cunningham, 46:28, Andy McKenzie, 47:00, David Hemmings, 47:10, Lee Coupland, 54:02, and Ian Pike, 59:33. Francois continues to lead the League individual rankings for MV50 The 'A' team were 2nd on the day behind Blackburn, 1s   in Div'n 1, and we were 1st 'B' team.  Again, we won all three vet team categories. The MV40 and MV50 team trophies are assured again this season but we will need to win at Skelmersdale to take the MV60 team title. Its very close with Red Rose.  Thanks to all team managers.  The next and final Mid Lancs fixture is Beacon Park in Skelmersdale, on 2nd March but before that we have the National Cross Country Championships at a new venue in Shropshire; Weston Park, on Saturday 24th February. Results
4th February 2024: 16 club runners at Mad Dog 10K
The popular Mad Dog 10K was held in Southport on Sunday, again attracting a big field of over 1200 runners. The race was won by Blackpool's Luke Minns in 34:08 with Southport's Francois Rafferty 2nd in 35:22 and Red Rose Runner Simon Croft 3rd in 35:25. Nicola Jackson from Keswick won the Women's race in 36:26 - 6th overall - with Caroline Brook from Steel City Striders 2nd in 39:31 and Dominique Searle, unattached, 3rd in 40:30. The local event attached 16 Southport Waterloo runners with Francois Rafferty finishing on the podium, 2nd in 35:22.  In fact, the club had 5 runners in the top 20.  David Hamilton was an impressive 5th in 36:16, Matthew Halsall 11th in 37:55, Marc Singer 14th in 38:09, and Boyd Park 16th in 38:13.  Just outside the top 20, Alex Vernon was 21st in 38:48 and other male finishers were David Wright in 40:25, Sam Moran, 43:06, Keith Swift, 44:39, Paul Warrington, 48:05, and Lee Coupland, 51:17.  Five of our female runners were there, led home by Susan Cooper, 103rd in the Women's race.  Interestingly, Southport Strollers had 5 runners in the top 100 women.  Other Southport Waterloo women were Jane Blacklin, 57:16, Sue Stewart, 58:03, Laura Park, 59:58, and Ruth Sargent, 1:23:24. Update: Becca Burns advises she runs for Southport Waterloo not Strollers, so we did have a runner in the top 100 women - Becca Burns 13th Woman in 48:40 (48:34). Full results
4th February 2024: 4 medals taken at Northern indoor junior championships

On Sunday, Northern Athletics held their Indoor Championships for Under 13 and Under 15 boys and girls at the EIS indoor stadium in Sheffield. To compete in this arena can be daunting but its an experience they will savour and remember. With nearly a hundred track races and three Field disciplines it was a busy day and eleven Southport Waterloo juniors were there to show their skill and ability to compete against the best young athletes from all over the North of England. How did they do? Well ... their numerous PBs and 4 Northern medals speak for themselves,

Competition can be fierce even at this young age and three of the events featuring Southport Waterloo athletes were particularly memorable; and not just for the medal outcome!. First, the Under 15 Boys' 800m which was  run as a straight final. As the boys came out onto the track we could see that of the 7 runners 3 were from Southport Waterloo. I stand to be corrected but I doubt the club has ever had 3 runners in a Northern 800m final in any age group! As the race got under way, Caleb Still came off the first bend at the front of the pack and his intention to lead this race was clear.  Will Delamere was hard on his heels and the two of them swept around the 4 laps with Caleb holding the lead to win in 2:08.61. Will was a close 2nd in a new PB time of 2:08.97 and Eddy Clark, further back in the field, was 4th, his time of 2:15.44 another Personal Best.

Two time trials were scheduled to decide the Under 13 Boys' 800m title but in the end it, too, was run as a straight final of 7. Time trials are not ideal for deciding championships but Under 13s are not asked to run two 800m races in one day. We had one runner in this race, James McGrory, who had only ever run one track race previously, and that one week earlier at Sportcity when he was DQd. As the race got under way, James and a North Shields boy break away and they ran the race of their lives, all the way to the Finish line - and beyond. It took a photograph to separate them but James was 2nd by just 2 hundredths of a second! It was a most impressive run by James and as he gets more training and competition under his belt the potential is enormous. His 2:17.19 is only just outside Will Delamere's club record and coach Graham Boreham thinks Michael Rimmer's 1500m record could also go this year!

My third memorable event was the Under 13 Boys' 200m Final shortly before 5pm. Henry Summers had run a 60m in 9.26 and had qualified for the 200m final by finishing 3rd in his heat in 30.71, not quite a PB as he ran 30.7 at the Southport Waterloo open meeting last year in his only previous 200m race. In the final, in became clear he wasn't settling for being a finalist and was going flat out for a medal. And he was rewarded with a silver in 30.95.

But there were lots of other highlights of course. Under 15 Girls Amelia and Charlotte Tyrer and Phoebe Mangan were competing in the heats of the 60m sprints. They didn't progress to the semis but Amela and Charlotte set new PBs of 9.27 and 9.38 and Phoebe ran 9.32 for her first indoor sprint. Amelia also ran 11.97 for the 60m hurdles and long jumped 3m 95; and Phoebe ran 31.05 for 200m

Under 13 Alice and Eliza Dobson were competing. Alice ran 31.47 for 200m, put the shot 6m 91 for 5th place and her 3m 49 long jump was a new PB. Eliza's best shot put of 5m 23 was also a PB.

Finally, Matthew Nuttall finished just outside the medals in the Under 15 Boys' shot. Matthew has competed at all the Sale indoor open meetings this winter and his improved his best for the 4Kg shot each time; from 9m 37 to 9m 45 in December, then 9m 69 early January and 9m 85 late January to finally break through 10 metres with 10m 14 in Sheffield.

Medalists added to the club's HonoursBoard.

Thanks to Graham Boreham for the podium photos used here.

Full results

3rd February 2024: Snr Men surprise with silver team medal at Merseyside XC Champs

 

The re-arranged Merseyside Cross Country Championships were held on Saturday in Croxteth Park, Liverpool. The event was originally scheduled for 6th January but heavy rain left the course flooded. Merseyside were not the only county to have the January fixture cancelled.

These championships were last held in Croxteth Park 17 years ago, in 2007 when the start and finish were close to Croxteth Park. Today's course was located out towards the West Derby end of the park on fairly flat (and not very interesting) grassland, muddy in places. The County was praised by many for re-arranging the championships but it was impossible to find a date to suit everyone that still came organisers time to select teams for the Inter Counties championships in March.  So numbers across the board were well down on normal.  With a total of just 217 runners finishing, this was tway he lowest ever turnout for a Merseyside Championships; but arguably better to have a smaller turnout than have to cancel altogether.

15 Southport Waterloo runners made it to Croxteth Park and we had an outright winner in the Under 15 Boys' race, 9 top 10 finishes and a happy surprise for our Senior Men to win the team silver medals. Several received letters of selection for the Inter Counties and one or two others may also be included when selectors meet on Saturday evening. 

We had three girls in the Under 13 Girls' race; Grace Veevers, Lucy Delamere and Millie Milligan. Unfortunately, Grace became unwell in the latter stages and so didn't finish. Lucy was 8th overall in 12:24 for the 3.1 kms and Millie Milligan completed in 15:40. I can report, however, that Grace's circumstances have been taken into account and she had now received an Inter Counties selection letter.

I believe Sydney Monahan Clarkson was our only Under 15 Girl. She was 5th in 18:14 for the 4.7 kms and has won a place in the Inter Counties team.

Despite running an indoor 800m the day after, Under 15 Boy William Delamere was keen to run cross country and was never seriously challenged on this course, winning in 14:47 for the 4.7 kms. Liam McCormick took the 3rd place medal, finish in 16:05. Both boys have won Inter Counties selection.

Emily Dean was 7th in the combined U17 and Under 20 Women's race, 5th Under 17 Woman  I believe and so she has had her Inter Counties invitation. She ran 26:33 for the 6.1 kms, possibly the further she has ever run in cross country, and considerably further than in MId Lancs.

Reuben Donnelly was our only Under 17 Man. He was 5th in 21.59 for his 6.1 kms. I think Reuben may well have won Inter Counties selection too.

Both Rachel Jacks and Andrea Scarborough ran in the Senior Women's race. In a field of 41, both did well to finish in the top ten, Rachel 7th in 32:25 for her 7.6 kms and Andrea 9th in 33:28.  We will need to wait to see if one or both are included in the Inter Counties team.

Finally, despite some last minute drop out, we managed a full team in the Senior Men's race. In-form runner Francois Rafferty led the team home, finishing 7th in 37:52 for the 10.9 kms. Next was James Tartt, great to see him back cross country running for the first time since the 2022 championships. Mark Dunham was next in, 14th in 40:20, then John Delamere, 16th in 40:40, Peter Roome, 28th in 42:52, and Graham Cuddy, 50th in 50:49. The team placed 2nd behind Wirral and ahead of Pensby and Wallasey.

No vet awards were made on the day but I expect some Southport Waterloo vet medallists to show when these results are announced.

Full results