Lingham Park, Moreton, was the venue of the first Wallasey Athletic Club Pentathlon Championships. The two outstanding performances of the day were by Alan Cheers and Susan Carter, both showing tremendous versatility in the five event competition.
The Ladies' intermediate and juniors girls' competitions consisted of the 80 yds. hurdles, the shot, 220 yds., long jump and 880 yds.
This wide variety saw everyone attempting events to which they were quite unaccustomed with varying degrees of success.
The first event saw Susan Carter recording the fastest time of 13 secs, for the 80 yards hurdles, thereby gaining an early lead from another intermediate girl, Lindsey Mutch.
Margaret Ashcroft 'putt' herself right in the competition with a 7.54 metre shot putt, over a metre ahead of her nearest rival, in the event, Barbara Banks.
In the junior girls' section Julie Halfpenny was establishing a good lead over Susan Lloyd.
Susan Carter regained the overall lead with a fine 29.5 seconds 220 yds., just beating Margaret Ashcroft and Lindsey Mutch. With Lindsey and Susan contesting the intermediate girls title, the senior title looked safely in Margaret Ashcroft's hands, but a good long jump by Barbara Banks gave her the lead bya slender 82 pts., with Barbara's No. 1 event, the 880 yds., to come.
Barbara ran well, recording 2 rnins. 23 secs. to gain the senior title, with Suzanne Kew taking third place with the 220 yds., her best event.
Barbara's total score of 2,863 points was however, below Susan Carter's total with Lindsey Mutch and Gillian King producing good long jumps Susan pulled out all the stops in the 880 yds., eventually finishing with 2,895 points.
Third place in the section went to Gillian King, just ahead of Sylvia Brimage.
Julie Halfpenny won, the junior girls' section proving just a little better than Susan Lloyd despite the latter's fine 880 yds., and Christine Horobin, was third.
The men's section proved equally close, the events 100 yds, long jump, 440 yds. hurdles, shot and mile appeared to favour the faster, stronger athletes, but while a long jumper, sprinter Alan Cheers won, two middle distance runners took second and third places.
Alan ran a brilliant 100 metres of 10.7 secs. into a strong headwind to take an early lead, and he followed this up with a good long jump in his best event.
But with Alan's best events over it was anyone's competition, especially with Barrie Smith and Doug Hanna still very close.
Alan then ran a good 440 yards hurdles at his first attempt (63.1 secs.), while Ian Wilson moves into second place, recording 60.5 seconds.
In the junior section Bob Warburton and Bob Brimage, and in the youths' section Andy Fulton and Peter Martin were neck and neck.
The final events, the shot and mile, caused no major changes although by virtue of a 11.42 metre shot putt Andy Fulton moved up quickly, Alan Cheers held on to win running the mile in 5 mins. 19.2 secs. with Doug Hanna and Barrie Smith finishing second and third respectively.
Andy took the youths' title, Bob Warburton the junior and Neil Simpson won the boys in very convincing fashion.
Our thanks are extended to the Supporters Association, without whose help it would not have been possible to organise the event.
A meeting at Chester College saw Bob Warburton streak away from a good 800 metre . field to win a perfectly-judged vase in 2 mins. 1.3 secs.
At the same meeting a team took third place in the 3000 metre race.
Today there is no competition, but a party, are travelling to Edinburgh for the Commonwealth Games.
RESULTS
CLUB PENTATHLON CHAMPIONSHIPS
Mens: 1st A. Cheers 2848 pts.; 2nd D. Hanna 2770 pts.; 3rd B. Smith 2768 pts.; 4th I. Wilson 2682 pts.; 5th R. Warburton 2523 pts.; 6th A. Fulton 2469 pts.; 7th R. Brimage 2400 pts.; 8th D. Lockley 2390 pts.; 9th P. Martin 2389 pts.; 10th C. Gee. 2167 pts.; 11th P. Wealthy 1955 pts.; 12th D. Hughes 1918 pts,; 13th R.Tarrant 1740 pts.; 14th T. Fleming 1684 pts.; 15th M. Teahan 1290 pts.; 16th N. Simpson 1068 pts.; 17th A. Reed 924 pts.; 18th D. Jones 480 pts.; 19th S. Kelly 290 pts.; 20th R. Dixon 177 pts.
Womens: 1st S. Carter 2895 pts.; 2nd B. Banks 2863 pts.; 3rd L. Mutch 2808 pts.; 4th M. Ashcroft 2807 pts.; 5th G. King 2622 pts.; 6th S. Brimage 2490 pts.; 7th J. Halfpenny 2347 pts.; 8th S. Lloyd 2041 pts.; 9th S. Kew 1988 pts.; 10th E. Hewson 1597 pts.; 11th C. Horobin 1571 pts.; 12th L. Hewson 1524 pts.
Ends
Source - Wallasey News - Saturday, 18/07/1970 by P.M.W.
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