At Huddersfield last Saturday, Wallasey Athletic Club successfully defended their team title in the Longwood 10 when the old firm of Wright, Woolford and Barlow all finished in the first ten places to win the team race by 5 points with 20 points as compared with 25 by Clayton-le-Moors, with Middlesbrough and Cleveland in third position.
Wallasey's aspirant for the Olympic marathon in Tokio later this year, Brian Woolford, showed his strength and fitness over this most grueling course by finishing second to North Staffs's Don Shelley in a time of 51 minutes 12 seconds with John Wright showing himself still a force to be reckoned with in 8th place after a typically well judged race.
Ron Barlow was evidently feeling the effects of his run in the Winderemere to Kendal the previous Saturday as after running prominently in the early stages, he faded considerably but when the pressure was on over the last mile with the team race wide open he stormed past half a dozen runners to give Wallasey victory.
Close behind was Brian Chalton in 18th place, who followed up his fine running at Warrington with another great effort in recording a personal best for 10 miles of 54 minutes 23 seconds while John Young also ran well, finishing in 42nd place.
Wallasey's only other runner, Kevin Mather, had one of those unfortunate races as after running close behind Ron Barlow for the first five miles he had to retire with blistered feet to avoid further damage which may have affected his training and forthcoming races.
Today Wallasey travel to Rotherham to compete in a 6 x 4 mile road relay race when they will face a tremendous field of runners drawn from the Midlands and North of England, They hope to field their strongest possible team of Woolford, Wright, Barlow, Chalton, Parry, and Mather and the race will certainly be a real test of Wallasey's undoubted road racing ability.
Ends
Source - Wallasey News - Saturday, 28/03/1964 by R.M.C.
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