Some great running was seen at Leasowe last Saturday, when despite atrocious conditions, nearly 200 runners from Wallasey, Wirral, Chester and Liverpool braved the rain and windswept course that served for the inaugural cross-country races for schoolgirls sponsored by Wallasey Athletic Club.
There were nearly 100 starters in the first race, a one mile circuit for first and second year girls, and it showed much for their tenacity, when 86 finished the course.
Kirklands School from Rock Ferry, the English champions had a strong runner in M. McShane and she set the initial pace until the foot of the sandhills, when Julie Halfpenny of Oldershaw High School and Wallasey Athletic Club took the lead.
But Julie was not to have it all her own way, and the Kirklands' runner passed her again on the sea front with only 600 yards to go. It was here that the Wallasey girl showed her fighting spirit and with only 100 yards to the finish she sprinted ahead to win by 3 seconds from McShane with the fast finishing Susan Lloyd of Wallasey High School just two seconds behind.
Team positions were: 1st, Kirklands (13 pts.); 2nd, Park High School, Birkenhead (29 pts.) and 3rd, Woodchurch Secondary School (36 pts.).
There was no holding the Wallasey High School runner Sylvia Brimage in the 3rd year girls championships for Wallasey A.C., she turned the 1½-mile event into a one horse race, which, after the first quarter mile was just formality.
Team results were; 1st, City High, Chester (15 pts.); 2nd, Blessed Ambrose Barlow, Liverpool (21 pts,), and 3rd Wallasey High School (22 pts,), and for the record books, Sylvia won by 58 seconds.
The final race was a combined event over a two-mile course and 4th and fifth year girls ran together with separate awards for each age group. Kirklands had a field day in this race with their 'A' and 'B' teams taking first and third places, whilst the individual title went to their strong G. Wellman, who had 16 seconds to spare over the second runner.
Carol Huston a club member from Oldershaw High School, and Catherine Henrey a fifth year from Wallasey High, led at the half-mile tage, but had gone off a little too fast and could not hold their pace throughout the race.
The results of the fourth year races were; 1st, Kirklands 'A' (12 pts.); 2nd, Woodchurch 'A' (15 pts.), and 3rd, Kirklands 'B' (33 pts.), whilst in the fifth year, Wallasey High 'stole' first place by a solitary point (15) to the Ursuline Convent, Chester's (16 pts.), with City High of Chester on 16 pts., but relegated to third position by virtue of a poorer third counter.
The Cheshire schools make their second attempt to decide their championships today following a postponement due to inclement weather conditions last week and the club will be well represented, , through the schools, whilst Dave Lockley, Mike Teahan and Dave Lindsay travel to Parliament Hill, London, for the National Cross-Country Championships.
Ends
Source - Wallasey News - Friday, 28/02/1969 by Discobolus
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