LSARRC News 26th November 2019

Lytham ladies at Liverpool XC

The main event in a busy weekend for Lytham St Anne’s RRC athletes was the 3rd fixture of the Mid Lancashire Cross Country league, which took place on Saturday 2019.  This fixture was held at Sefton Park, Liverpool, and was incorporated into the British Athletics Cross Challenge and used as a selection trial for the England team for the European Cross-Country Championships.

A perfect day for cross country, and with perfect muddy conditions, saw 7 Lytham ladies and 15 men turn up to represent their club at this prestigious and exciting event.  With the event being combined with the European Cross-Country Championship Trials this gave the everyday club runner a chance to compete alongside the elite athletes.

Lytham men at Liverpool XC

The ladies were first up to tackle their 8.1km course. Joanna Goorney was first back for Lytham in a time of 36m33s, closely followed by Catherine Carrdus (37m04s) and Mel Koth (37m47s) to make up the first team of Lytham runners, finishing 3rd overall, along with securing a fantastic 1st place in the V35 and V45 Ladies categories. Next home was Barbara Holmes (38m49s), Claire Markham (42m01s) and Julia Rolfe (45m13s) seeing the second team of Lytham Ladies home in 21st position overall. Well done ladies.

The final event of the day saw the 15 Lytham men take to the mud over a distance of 9.8km. First Lytham runner to finish was Mike Toft, continuing his fine running form, finishing in a time of 37m30s. Next home for Lytham was Andy Draper (40m30s) closely followed by Jo Greenwood (40m59s). Jonathon Tuck (41m14s), Paul Veevers (41m43s) and Thomas Howarth (41m52s) crossed the finish line to make up the first team of 6 Lytham runners, finishing 10th overall.

Dominic Garrett (42m46s), Neil Tate (43m36s), Ross McKelvie (45m51s), Chris Bowker (47m19s), John Bertenshaw (53m06s) and Ian Tate (55m50s) were the next 6 Lytham runners to secure a team finish, finishing 30th overall.  Tuck, Veevers, Neil Tate and Bertenshaw also secured a 12th place finish in the V40 category.  Mark Hughes (58m17s), Peter Thomson (58m24s) and Jason Sheridan (58m47s) were the final three Lytham runners’ home in a closely contested finish.


With the cross-country season well and truly under way there wasn’t as many park runners as usual.  But the highlights are as follows.  Alistair Leivers was first to finish the Lytham Hall parkrun in 18:04.  Mark Selby finished in the top 10 (7th) in 20:39.  Gill Draper was first female in 21:24.  There were 2 pb’s for Lytham runners Simon Smith (24:23) and Andrew Mullaney (24:24).  Jen Trohear travelled to the Portrush parkrun and was 8th female in 27:43.

Ull boys at Liverpool XC

There were lots to report on regarding junior news this week. Lytham were well represented in the under 11 boy’s race with Archie Belfield leading the team home completing the 2k race in 8:10 for 24th place.  Freddie Markham was next home for Lytham finishing 33rd in 8:30 closely followed by Bobby Hastwell (37th in 8:44) and Adam Jackson (38th in 8:46).  Nicholas Houlton completed the Lytham contingent (61st in 11:44) with the under 11 boys finishing as 8th team.  Oliver Thomson led the Lytham team home in the under 13 boy’s race completing the 3k course in 13:20 for 49th position.  Bringing the team home in 10th place was Finlay Hughes (63rd in 14:46) and Eric Wrigley (74th in 18:10). In the under 15 girls race Sophie Bohannon ran well to complete the 3k course in 12:28 for 15th place.  Completing the team were Brogane Murphy (39th in 13:54) and Evie Houlihan (49th in 14:42) bringing the team home in 8th place.   Lytham’s only representative in the under 15 boy’s race was James Andrews who competed the 3k course in 13:11 for 58th place.  Maddy Markham ran well in the under 17 women’s race to complete the 4.4k course in 19:14 for 16th place.

Lytham juniors at the Best 5k and 1 mile fun run

Lytham’s junior athletes were also well represented at the Best 5k and 1-mile fun run held in Moor Park, Preston.  In the 5k race under 17 boy Ben Gregson ran well finishing 24th in 21:55. Lytham had 7 athletes in the Fun Run and finished with the first 3 boys and first 2 girls.   Jayden Richardson finished  1st in 4:58, Archie Belfield, in his 2nd race of the weekend, finished 2nd in 5:21 and Joe Alker 3rd in 5:35.  Georgina Andrews finished 4th overall and 1st girl in 6:15 and Evie Alker 8th overall and 2nd girl in 7:05. In his 1st race for Lytham Kiefer Richardson ran well to finish 6th in 6:20.

3 of Lytham’s junior athletes took part in the Lytham Hall’s 5k parkrun with Charlie Ormerod first home  in 12th place overall and 2nd in his JM11-14 age group in a personal best time of 21:15.  Lytham’s Oscar Holmes and Morgan Pritchard finished 3rd and 4th in the JM11-14 age groups in 22:39 and 23:38 respectively.

Sunday saw 5 of Lytham’s junior athletes take part in the Park View 2k junior parkrun.  Finlay Hughes and Adam Jackson both in their 2nd race of the weekend finished 2 and 3rd in 8:22 and 8:37 respectively.  James McAfee finished 9th in a personal best time of 10:37 with brother Joshua 30th in 12:38.