LSARRC Press Report 15th May 2012

A sunny evening on the St Annes seafront

After over a decade of competing in the annual inter-club grand prix series on Thursday Lytham St Annes Road Runners celebrated their best set of results to date. In the open competition the club achieved it’s highest ever placing of second. The club also won an age category for the first time, the vet 60s.

Graham & Roy

The occasion was the second of this season’s inter-club races and Lytham were the hosts. The vet 60 stars were Graham Webster and Roy Stevens who were the first and third respectively in the category. But the team is made up of three and they couldn’t have won without Elspeth MacPherson, making a surprise return to the club to finish twelfth.


The first in for Lytham was club champion Andy Draper in fourth, achieving a personal best over the accurate five-mile course. This was despite the strong wind and rain on the St Annes promenade course. Half a minute behind Andy counting eighth was Joe Greenwood, with Tom Howarth and junior Alex Stanier a second apart in 18th and 19th respectively. Tony Croft was the first veteran for Lytham.


Lytham Results for the IC: Andy Draper 28:41, 4th; Joe Greenwood 29:12, 10th; Tom Howarth 30:43, 18th; Alex Stanier 30:44, 19th; Tony Croft 31:10, 22nd; Mark Willett 31:14, 23rd; Simon Denye 31:32, 28th; Graham Webster 32:26, 44th; Willie Richmond 32:58, 50th; Roy Upton 33:00, 51st; Terry Hellings 34:00, 61st; Mel Koth 34:32, 67th & 9th woman; Dave Dunn 34:41, 71st; Colin Nelson 35:33, 6th; Colin Laidlaw 36:12, 96th; Laura Ashworth 36:22, 99th; Roy Stevens 36:25, 100th; Katherine Hoyland 36:39, 105th.


Elsewhere two of the club’s juniors competed in the Lancashire Track & Field championships at Stanley Park over the weekend. Ella Moulding ran in the U13 girls 1500m and, despite having never raced the distance before and being at the lower end of the age group, she produced a superb performance to finish fourth in 5:27.5.
Camryn Spector, competing in the U15G 800m, defied her lack of track experience to run a very strong race and claim fourth in her heat with a personal best time of 2:47.3.


Alexander Stanier ran in the Blackpool 10k fun run and in challenging blustery conditions he ran superbly to finish first in his 13 to 15 age group and seventeenth overall in a time of 37:27.

In the same race Elspeth MacPherson also excelled. Despite being a vet 60 she won the female age 55 and over category by over five minutes.



The Blacksticks Blue 10k took place on Sunday and three runners from Lytham earned the complimentary Blacksticks Blue cheese given to all competitors. And they were earned after the slog up the side of Beacon Fell during mile three. Steve Quarmby and Bec Willetts tackled this race for the first time to finish 57th and 97th respectively while Laura Ashworth ran a course pb to win a bottle of wine for being the first FV35. Should go well with the cheese.