November 2002

Second Pace at Beacon Park 30 November
It was a very wet Beacon Park for the final match of the Liverpool and District Cross Country Bernie Murphy heads Paul Cadwallader up the hill at Beacon Park

Bernie Murphy heads Paul Cadwallader up the hill at Beacon Park

League was held at a rain swept Beacon Park. Local club Skelmersdale Boundary Harriers hosted the event providing a testing course over six miles. Liverpool Pembroke Sefton seniors have had a disappointing season to date in spite of their potential depth of talent but it was nice to see some signs of recovery on this occasion. This was aided by a healthy influx of Juniors, Henry Stewart, Mark Donoghue and Steve Donegan. Bernie Murphy led the way in fifth place followed immediately by Paul Cadwallader in 6th and Stewart an excellent seventh. Donoghue(23), Donegan(39) and super-vet Jeff Mason closed in at 41st. Mason`s performance is astonishing given he is 30 years older than LPS`s youngest counter.
Overall the club were 2nd to a strong Liverpool Harriers team, led home by individual winner Mark Keeley, and remain comfortably in the Division 1 for the next season. However, Captain Bernie Murphy will be making some urgent phone calls to members as the post-Christmas Championships approach. There is no doubt that at full strength the club is still a powerful force. Congratulations go to Skelemersdale Boundary Harriers though who took the Division 2 title. They have no `stars' but show great determination. Among the women competitors Skem`s veteran Carol Quirk was 3rd and LPS`s Gill Darby was 5th. Results Report Charles Gains, photo Ron Scott

Paul Pudney tops Rankings 25 November

After a difficult and some times disappointing season which saw Paul miss out on a medal in the European Vets he was still able to top the UK Vets Rankings. Paul's best time of 8:45:7 was just enough to keep him ahead of another local (ish) runner Bernie Jones of Wrexham who recently joined Knowsley MBC and now can occasional be seen at local road races. Paul was also ranked 10th in the 5000 with a best of 15:28:1, and 9th in the 1500 with 4:08.89, now living in Bedford has retained his links with the club and regularly corresponds via email. Rankings

Young ones enjoy the winter 24 November

The Under 17 performances of Liverpool Pembroke Sefton's Michael Rimmer and Ben Jones have tended to obscure the rise of two other local stars. Rob Stocks, a Burscough Priory School pupil, has produced some excellent results in recent weeks. After collecting a silver medal along with Michael and Ben, in the National Cross Country relays, Rob finished second in an open Merseyside Schools League cross country race. This enabled him to go forward as a League representative to an Inter-Counties event at Coventry. After being pushed over at the start of the Under 16 race he recovered to race through most of the field and finished 6th. Without that incident he clearly would have got among the individual medals. There was a consolation though as the Merseyside squad collected the team award.

Chris Melling of Up Holland High School is experiencing similar success. Still a relative newcomer to the sport and facing his first winter season Chris finished 16th in the same event as Rob and as fifth counter for Merseyside also collected a gold medal. Both these youngsters are benefiting from the rigorous training programme run by coach John Bradshaw at Edge Hill College on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Their next big event will be the full County Championships in the early New Year.

Silver Medals at Mansfield 9 November Ben Jones

The National Cross Country Relays are traditionally held at Mansfield and are the first indication of how clubs are likely to perform in the following Spring championships. The Liverpool Pembroke Sefton Under 13 squad of Rob McLaughlin, Andrew Livesey and Andrew Bowen were a solid 14th as were the Under 15s in 17th spot comprised of David Furlong, Robert Bland and Joe McKenna. The under 20s(Henry Stewart, Mark Donoghue and Tom Wade) were also 17th.
The star performance came from the Under 17s. Rob Stocks ran valiantly to finish 10th on the first stage, handing over to Michael Rimmer. Michael tore through the field to second place, a position held by Ben Jones in an even faster time, but failing to catch the powerful Stretford team. These three with the support of several others look good enough to take medals in the major cross country championships once again.
This is a time of the year when the track and field athletes anxiously await the gradual release of the national rankings. To make the top 20 is outstanding and to date four local athletes occupy prominent positions. Kiera Vogel is in 14th place in the 3000m(10.19.57), while Mark Donoghue lies in 15th spot in the 2000m Steeplechase(6.11.39). Star sprinter, Phil Taylor, is 13th in the 400m in a very respectable 48.37, closely followed by Michael Rimmer(19th) in 48.9. Rimmer is the highest placed, 5th in the 800m in 1.50.56. It is a salutary thought that all these have at least another year in this age group. The outstanding Michael Rimmer is still only 16 and will easily top the Under 17 list when it is produced.
The full benefits of the equipment acquired under the Awards for All grant are being felt and the Sunday morning sessions at Edge Hill College are proving very popular, even attracting top athletes from other clubs. Results Report Charles Gains

Paul Cadwallader runs away with L&D at Stadt Mores 6 November

It was the first time in over five years that the L&D returned to Huyton for a fixture. After the problems last time Knowsley MBC put on an excellent event for the league and provided a high visible profile. Despite the driving rain all afternoon most came away with positive comments and would welcome a return next season. Paul Cadwallader run away from the field straight from the gun and won his first L&D of the season after being beaten into second place at Sefton Park two weeks ago. After that it was a poor afternoon for LPS senior men who only managed to finish forth and look unlikely to overall the leaders in the last race. Results

Massive leap in traffic to LPS web site 1 November
In a busy month due to the re-commencement of the cross country season, the LPS web site received 11,009 requests for pages which proves what a vital information tool the web site is. An increase in traffic was to be expected due to the delay in Liverpool & District results but to pass through the five figurer barrier for the first time is a landmark. The week following the Reebok fixture at Sefton Park saw us receive 3,362 requests for pages again a new weekly record.
Since it's inception back in November 1998 when we received 75 requests for pages in the first month the graph has shown a steady increase. An average of 314 request for pages each day for October 2002 is a pleasing sign.
Plans to have an on-line entry service for the spring road races are just one of the plans to help develop and expand on the already sizable site (235 pages) LPS web.