West Lancashire runners carried off five of the first six places in the Northern Senior Cross-Country Championship, held over a 9 miles course at Newcastle-on-Tyne last Saturday.
J. Barry, the Irish international of Wirral A.C. was in grand form and won by about 100 yards from Norman Jones, of Liverpool Pembroke A.C., who first ran for England as far back as 1934, with T. Fillingham some distance behind third. The positions of these three runners in the recent West Lancashire Championship were 2, 4 and 1 respectively. Matt Smith, of Blaydon Harriers, last year's winner, was fourth and A. E. Tyrer, of Sutton Harriers, the English international, found some of his old form to finish fifth, his club, with four of their counting six in the first nine, winning the team title. There were over 300 starters.
D. Haw, the phenomenal Leeds University athlete, easily won the junior (under 21) race whilst Liverpool Harriers scored the easiest team success of the day winning the youths' championship with 35 points to spare.
Liverpool University visited Wallasey last Saturday for a re-arranged fixture with Wallasey A.C. and found the home club seriously depleted in strength and numbers. Varsity, led by their champion, A. B. Parker, placed the first five to score a comfortable victory. W. R. Bee and D. Dickinson ran remarkably well, both beating their personal times for the course, the latter by over 2 minutes. J. E. Edwards, J. S. Arkless and A. Dickinson all ran well below their best and Varsity had nine men in before the sixth Wallasey counter.
To-day, the Liverpool & District Championships are being held at Woolton, when Barry and N. Jones will have another great fight for the senior individual title. A. B. Parker, of the Varsity, may surprise them both however, but last year's winner, J. Edwards, of Wallasey A.C., has not been running well enough to suggest he is any danger. Wallasey runners and supporters meet Landing Stage at 1-45 p.m.
Ends
Source - Wallasey News - Saturday, 01/03/1947
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