LSARRC News 12th February 2019

Liz Abbott of Lytham shines at Leigh.

 This weekend it was the 5th fixture in the Mid Lancs Cross Country league held at Leigh Sports Village, Liz Abbott led the way for the ladies’ team.

The ladies’ cross-country team has been performing very strongly so far this season, with only one more event remaining at Cuerden valley. The course at Leigh sports village was relatively flat with a few gravel/mud paths and running around a grassy sports field. The weather was mild, so not too many challenges compared with the usual cross-country events.

Liz Abbott running superbly came in as first lady and first L35. A comment overheard from the side lines was, “Who is that runner?”

The ladies who took part; Liz Abbott, Cath Carrdus, Claire Markham, Pam Hardman, Julia Rolfe, Julie Wiseman, Debbie Francis and Michelle Sheridan.

Team results were 6th positions for the ladies’ team, consisting of Abbott, Carrdus and Markham.  2nd position for the LV 35 team, 3rd position for the LV 45 team and 4th position for the LV 55 team.
There were a couple of newcomers to the event Julie Wiseman and Michelle Sheridan, both seemed to enjoy taking part for their first ever cross country and hopefully they will come back for more.
With only one event remaining our standings in the league are as follows:
Division 2- 2nd place team, separated by 1 point.
Overall LV35 1st team, LV45 1st place team.

The Senior men’s team finished 6th overall, the team consisted of, Mike Toft (10th), Thomas Howarth (53rd), Joe Greenwood (63rd), Paul Veevers (66th), Johnathon Tuck (68th) and Dominic Garett (71st).   The second team came 27th overall and consisted of Ross McKelvie (117th), Graham Webster (162nd), Chris Bowler (171st), Terry Hellings (172nd), John Bertenshaw ( 226th) and Jason Sheridan (230th).   In the V60 category the men’s team finished 4th with Graham Webster coming (8th), Terry Hellings (9th) and John Bertenshaw (24th).

The wind was at its strongest when five junior Lytham athletes lined up for the first event of the day, the 2.3k under 11 girls’ race.  In a close finish the first three home for Lytham finished within 3 seconds of each other with Ellie Francis (42nd in 9:42) just getting the better of Isabel Tuck (45th in 9:43) and Clemmie Tierney (46th in 9:46).  Also competing for Lytham in the under 11s were Rose McIntyre (67th in 10:42) making her first competitive appearance in a Lytham vest with Rosa Gill (78th in 12:16) completing the Lytham contingent and bringing the team home in 12th place. 

The under 11 boys were next where the Lytham team of Lewis Bentley (26th in 8:40), Eric Wrigley (39th in 8:53) and Archie Belfield (51st in 9:14) all ran well to finish as 9th team.  In a competitive under 13 girls race Sophie Bohannon, despite just recovering from a chest infection ran well to finish in a time of 8:03 taking 7th place.  Lytham had two representatives in the under 15 girls race with Maddy Markham first home in 15th place in a time of 10:37 and the improving Brogan Murphy just 15 seconds behind and  17th in 10:52. Under 13 boy Oliver Thomson was the final Lytham junior to compete finishing 32nd in 11:00 for the 3k race.

Twelve-year-old Morgan Pritchard was Lytham’s only junior at Blackpool parkrun finishing 55th in 24:40 in his 90th parkrun.

Parkruns
At the Stanley Park, parkrun on Saturday 9th February 7 Lytham members completed the course.  Susan Samme was the first female to finish, 9th overall in 20:38.  Other finishers from Lytham were Darran Ames, Graham Webster, James Buckley, Gavin Stansfield, Morgan Pritchard and Sue Henry. Kirsten Burnett attended the Hyndburn parkrun and Jennifer Hill attended the Victoria Dock parkrun.

In Sunday’s junior parkrun Jayden Richardson was first home for Lytham finishing 2nd overall in 8:01.  Archie Belfield in his second race of the weekend finished 4th in 8:28 with Max Walker not far behind and 5th in 8:30 improving his personal best by 21 seconds.  Also representing Lytham were James McAfee (41st in 12:18), Sophie Tate (52nd in 13:35) and Joshua McAfee (55th in 13:47).