The latest Inter Club race was hosted excellently by Thornton and Cleveleys in blistering heat on the sea front. Simon Croft once again showed he is one of the best runners in the local clubs with a third place finish in 27.50, and Philip Marsden proved we have gained another excellent talent with tenth place in a time of 29.29. A brilliant run from V50 Frank Nightingale was one of our highlights of the evening in 28th place and fifth V50 in 31.02. Excellent grouping and competition lead to good placings for Gareth Case,32.14, Steve Woodruffe,32.38, Mike Hall,32.48, John Naylor,32.50, Manolo Mendoza,33.05, Barry Wheeler,33.08 and Joe Swarbrick 33.28. Although Red Rose only managed 4th place in the team event, most of these runners qualified for the Vets team which came second as did the V50 team.
The Ladies team fared well in the open race finishing in third place with performances from Hannah McCusker,36.46, Laura Houghton,37.54, Sam Edwards,38.29, Emily Ingham, 39.54,(First Junior Female)and Ann Cleave, 40.09. The F 40 team were 4th with Ann Cleave, Rachel Robinson 41.44, Judi Ingham 42.42, Alicia Croft 44.34, and Kelly White 44.58.
Max Croft was our only Junior Male runner, gaining valuable experience, finished in 44.13. As a club we had in the region of 80 runners accounting for about 30% of the total field .
We thank the Thornton Cleveleys club for an excellently organised race in extreme weather conditions and wonderful hospitality at the after race buffet. Full results appear on the Inter Club series facebook page.
The weekend saw the heatwave continue with the Southport 10k and Half Marathon being the main event for the club. The 10k event was probably the wise choice with Matt Ashton leading the Red Rose contingent home in 54.48 with Roger De Nobrega almost matching his chip time with 54.51. Steve Worswick’s 57.07 was nearly matched by Katrin Elbag’s time of 57.32. Jo Worswick and Natalie Barber narrowly missed the hour with times of 61.02 and 61.18. Catie Morris finished in 67.16 and Nikki Bentley 77.30.
In the Half Marathon race our first three runners were in the top 15 in the race. Simon Croft had another impressive run with a time of 1.16.59 to finish 6th. Strong performances saw a close race between Phil Marsden who finished in 1.20.10 in 12th followed by Dan Hughes in 1.20.55 in 15th.Many runners find these temperatures difficult but plenty more good times came with Manolo Mendoza recording 1.32.06 with another close finish between Scott Jackson 1.36.32 and John Allen, returning to great form, 1.36.53.
Sam Edwards was our first lady in a great time of 1.49.52. A competitive group of five more Red Rose ladies broke the two hour target. Laura Houghton 1.53.13, Ann Cleeve 1.54.11, Pauline Moorcroft 1.56.07, Emily Ingham 1.57.26 and Natalie Moore 1.59.09. A brilliant showing of club vests ensured the Club Championship continues to build into a great competition. Chip times:Ben Smithers 1.40.08, Stuart Smith 1.42.18, Stephen Murphy 1.48.40,Jon Royle 1.51.00, Chris Corrigan 1.51.09, Richard Ward 1.54.12, Gary Turner 1.58.37, Claire Shaw 2.03.50, Alison Mercer 2.06.22,David Bayliss 2.07.15, John Carruthers 2.07.18, John Suffield 2.07.19,Judi Ingham 2.08.17, Anthony Barnes 2.09.04, Louise Withnell 2.09.33, Paula Plowman 2.10.16, Ian Wharton 2.11.02, Mary Conway 2.11.49, Kathryn Abbott 2.11.58, Allan Howard 2.15.52, Debbie Porter 2.17.34, Davina Bowling 2.19.43,John Plowman 2.23.48, Wendy Ward 2.25.44, Katy Cleece 2.25.45, Gareth Fairey 2.26.54, Louise Walsh 2.38.42, Carole Williams 2.42.43, Faisal Ali 3.05.05.