Wallasey Athletic Club's visit to Blackpool for the West Lancashire Cross-Country Championship last Saturday resulted in a great victory for Dave Lockley in the junior 6 miles race.
Settling into fourth place after the initial opening sprint down the 200 yard straight of the 'Show Ground', Dave moved steadily through to second place after four miles, and as the leader, J. Hogg of Barrow, came back to him, the Wallasey runner sensed that the race was his and strode away to win by nearly 100 yards from Hogg with Maguire (Blackpool) third and Wood (Waterloo) fourth.
Waterloo had made sure of the team win by packing their four country runners into the first 10 places, and Wallasey had to be content with silver medals as Johnny Jones (6th), Philip Wealthy (17th) and Ray Kay (21st) gave them a points total of 45 - just four points better than third placed Blackpool.
Earlier, the boys event over two laps of one mile had gone to Pembroke (Liverpool), Wallasey, who had promised so much in the early stages of the race, fell away to fifth team place.
Their country four were Gary Fair (10th), Bob Warburton (18th) , a much improved Phil Keating (20th) and Bob Brimage, who never really got to grips with the race a disappointing 30th.
There is no doubt that they have the talent to improve on this performance, but changes are needed in their approach to the event as a race.
In the Senior, 9-mile competition, Wallasey had three competitors, and the best of these was Dave Lindsay (20th), with Alan Keating dropped out at five miles, and Mike Teahan improved from 68th in 1968 to 39th this year.
Ladies' Captain, Barbara Banks leads a senior team (Wallasey's first) in the Women's Northern Counties Championship today, whilst her younger counterpart (and 'find' of the season), Sylvia Brimage, heads a team in the junior section.
Meanwhile the senior men travel into Wales for the 6½ mile St. Asaph to Rhyl road race.
Near veteran John Wright has trained recently with this event in mind and may surprise some of the new boys over, what for him will be a happy hunting ground, having helped Wallasey to a team win in former years. On this occasion, he should be able to add a 'bronze' to his collection.
Ends
Source - Wallasey News - Friday, 31/01/1969 by Discobolus
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