Wallasey Athletic Club beat the famous midland club Birchfield Harriers last Saturday in the most important road race held in the North in the last few months, Blackpool were placed third.
Following upon their great victories in the Derwentwater (10) & Waterloo (7), the Wallasey team started as favourites and although the winning margin was only by 13 pts. to Birchfield's 19 and Blackpool's 34, they were in control from the time they had four in the first ten after only a mile had been covered.
Ron Barlow ran his usual aggressive race and was soon following Blackpool's international Brian Craig, who despite having only just returned from running on indoor tracks in the U.S.A. and Canada, ran magnificently to break the course record by 45 seconds in a new time of 32 minutes 57 seconds for the 6½ miles course.
With John Wright running more like his old self and Brian Woolford obviously delighted to be back on the road, Wallasey soon had their counting three firmly established in the first eight places and thoroughly justifying their increasing reputation in the world of road running.
Although Brian Chalton had now 'blown up' to eventually finish 29th the three leading Wallasey runners never lost their grip on the race and their final placing were Barlow third in 34 minutes 28 seconds, Woolford fifth in 34 minutes 45 seconds and Wright sixth in 34 minutes 52 seconds.
Today sees the Northern cross Country championships at Witton Park, Blackburn, where the large field will face a hilly gruelling course of 9 miles. Wallasey hope to field a full senior team and will also one hopes have quite an interest in the leading positions in the youth race in which peter meldrum will tackle his toughest race yet following his great wins in the Liverpool & District and West Lancashire Championships.
Ends
Source - Wallasey News - Saturday, 16/02/1963 by R.M.C.
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