I joined the Club in time for the 1946/7 season. I had been demobbed in June of that year and my brother Tony Dickinson suggested I join the club, which he had joined a little time before me.
At that time I was w orking for the National Provincial Bank in the Wallasey Branch. I only stayed with the Bank for a few years then did a couple of other jobs. 32, 'til I ended up as a Primary School Teacher in Oxfordshire. I am now' retired and living in Somerset.
I had a great time while I was running with the Club. One of the highlights of my first year 1946. We entered a team for the Novice Championships in the West Lancashire Cross Country Association meeting. I'm not sure where I finished but we were high enough up in the scores to gain first place.
I can't remember any other great successes but we always did quite well and ran every week on Saturday for a Club run or a meeting with another club locally. Some of us also met midweek for training.
Denis and Tony Dickinson, Denis the younger brother is on the left and Tony on the right. Photo taken at Earlstown Viaduct meeting on 13th August 1949.
When I first joined we met in the Guide Headquarters on Leasowe Road but eventually we acquired a field of our own off Leasowe Road. How we came by this I am not sure but what we lacked was a pavilion. At this time there were lots of army huts to be bought cheaply but they had to be dismantled on sight and transported.
Mr Humphrey got us organised with a truck and some tools and a group of us went to an army camp in St Helens, dismantled a hut, and took it down to Wallasey and, with the great help of the members who knew what they were doing, we built ourselves a new Headquarters. Running water and a shower room were a great luxury.
We also laid out a running track and dug jump pits.
Eventually my job took me away from Wallasey and my running days ended.
The photo shows Tony and Denis Dickinson in the 880 yds at Port Sunlight in 1949 in the Cheshire County championships on Whit Saturday.