wrc

Seasons Greetings from Provence

Seasons Greetings from Provence

Hello everybody, I hope you all are fit and well. I guess by the time you read this you’ll be on/doing ‘cold turkey’ (in both senses of the term). Anyway, for those interested in athletics proceed to the next article. Otherwise read on…….

Cross Country Tuesday 28th Dec

On Tuesday 28th we will be competing in the Cheshire League Cross Country at Frodsham, and there will be NO EVENING RUN (except for the people who are bound to turn up anyway!).

All invited to the Cross Country which starts at 1:00pm for Ladies and 2:30pm for men.  Location is Castle Park, easiest access is via the Leisure Centre which is signposted from the main road (A56) through Frodsham.

Deep and Crisp and Even

Club Handicap
Boxing Day

Snow, ice and below freezing temperatures and not a lady in sight. 13 men seek to burn off the Christmas Day excess, mainly by moaning at the new computerised handicapping system.

Tony deemed the normal route too dangerous and an off-road variation was quickly devised. This involved calf deep semi-frozen mud in the farm between Styal Mill and Altrincham Road. The shorter distance also threw out the finely calculated handicap system as did the fact that 4 of the 13 runners did not in any of the four races used in the calculation.

Paul Saunders, standing for an hour in the freezing cold, counted them out and counted them back in. He was rewarded with an exciting finish as Mike (Cooper) took Trevor over Twinnies Bridge to sprint home in first place.

1 Mike Cooper 51:34
2 Trevor Faulkner 51:57
3 Stephen Feber 53:27
4 John Porteus 54:18
5 Roy Pownall 54:53
6 Richard Parris 56:15
7 Peter Carne 56:19
8 Tony Hulme 56:57
9 Rob Downes 58:21
10 Graham Taylor 58:24
11 James Smith 58:26
12 Rod Coombs 60:50
13 Michael Halman 62:01

Running Bear generously donated the prizes. Two pairs of socks to the winner, one to all other competitors. The advantage of finishing higher up the field was getting a pair of your own size.

A unique feature of the race was hanging-around waiting for Mike Halman to cross the line in last place. However if we strip out the handicap, he started 21mins. 9 secs. after Trevor, he did a little better. The fastest time over the course, however, went to Rob, 37:38

Club Handicap

Usual course. Down to the Moat House via Styal Mill, Norcliffe Chapel, Altrincham Road and runway 2. Back through Styal Woods and The Steps and past the Mill.

Boxing Day, Sunday December 26th at 9:30 a.m.

I’m trying to persuade Tony to change the algorithm that he’s used in previous years for determining the starting times (I think it’s the linkage to the square of the number of beers you’ve bought him in the previous year that throws it). The start times below average performance in the last three Summer Series races (the Pendalinos have electricity sockets opening-up a whole new range of things to do during signalling failures). I’ve also included in the list those of you who ran the Handicap last year but didn’t appear at Birchwood, Chester Zoo or Langley (if there is anyone else thinking of running please let me know). Looking through the starting order there are clear flaws in the method and I can’t guarantee that on the day Tony won’t revert to the tried and tested approach.

Ken Smart 0 : 0
Ron Reed 1 : 3
Trevor Faulkner 1 : 41
Sally Maddock 1 : 41
Amanda Bradbury 3 : 7
Kate Sutton 4 : 26
Julie Lucas 5 : 25
Bill Staniard 5 : 54
Roy Pownall 6 : 35
Rod Coombs 7 : 27
Kim Simpson 8 : 13
Gareth Trimble 10 : 4
Simon Fenton
John Porteus
Paul Ayres
Katy Green 10 : 39
Mike Cooper 10 : 47
Ian Ashcroft 11 : 1
Linda Ely 11 : 4
Kate Ayres 13 : 16
Jane Clarke 13 : 21
Steve Smith 13 : 24
James Smith 13 : 43
Sally Gilliver 14 : 26
Gavin Mendham 14 : 52
Andy Watts 15 : 48
Tony Hulme 16 : 3
Richard Parris 16 : 10
Mick Fairs 18 : 11
Ray Noble 18 : 43
Nick Bishop 20 : 19
Ian Smallwood
Graham Taylor 20 : 43
Jim Pendrill 20 : 53
Tom McGaff 21 : 42
Stuart Parrott 22 : 2
Michael Halman 22 : 50

Ian Ashcroft

Club Christmas Party

The Club 'Do' was a successful and enjoyable event.  Tony took the opportunity to present the Club Summer Series prizes, and also the shields for the Cheshire Grand Prix (in which of course we won both Mens and Ladies events).  The pictures show some of this (click on the pic to see a bigger version) - apologies for the quality of these shots - if anyone took better examples please forward them to me and I'll put them on the site.

The Belfry Hotel exceeded expectations, and produced a very good buffet meal in double-quick time.  Then the Band, with our very own Rod and Paul on guitar/vocal and drums respectively.  And even a few who had completed the Stockport 10 earlier in the day were seen to grace the dance floor - perhaps a little stiffly!

An excellent evening, and thanks to Charlotte, assisted by Kate and Ken, for putting in the hard work to organise it.

Andy

Stockport 10 miles

Several runners turned out for the event. The mens team won. There were several star performances over the new improved course

Pos	Name	Cat	Cat Pos	Time
8	Mike Haliman			55:18:00
9	Tom McGaff	V50	1	57:05:00
16	Graham Taylor	V40	4	58:56:00
20	Jim Pendrill			59:14:00
58	Ian Smallwood	V40	12	01:05:26
68	Tony Hulme	V55	3	01:05:50
72	Jane Clarke	L35	1	01:05:57
131	Peter Carne	V40	26	01:09:54
213	Daniel Black			01:14:38
224	Michael Cooper	V40	44	01:14:57
232	Sally Gilliver	L40	3	01:15:04
338	Sean Barry			01:20:13
423	Trevr Faulkner	V60	15	01:24:03

Sandstone Trail Race

The 28^th Sand Stone Trail races 17.5 Miles & 1,800.00 feet of ascent approx.
By Jim Yearsley

Race Date 3^rd October 2004

Result: Race A

First runner Martin Crosby) home in 01:57:10 (Beeston Split 00:46:00)
Mark Wrigley 17^th runner home in 02:14:14 (Beeston Split 00:52:00)
Jim Yearsley 43^rd runner home in 02:24:47(Beeston Split 00:58:00)
Ian Paden 66^th runner back in 02:36:16 (Beeston Split 01:00:00)
Last runner 123 = 03:40:05 (Beeston Split 01:15:00)

Race B

First:  Paul Frodsham & Ken Begley equal in 01:05:56
Bill Heaton came 8^th runner home in 01:14:01
Last runner 138^th  in 02:17:53

Salford Ladies 5

Sunday 28^th November

Report by Julie Lucas, and see also the photos, taken by Amanda's husband.

For the second successive year the Wilmslow ladies turned out for this 5.25 mile all women’s race in sunny, but very cold Salford. The race had grown from 170 finishers in 2003 to 254 in 2004.