| Chapter 4 1969 to 1989 (page 48)
"wastage" element was high. Nevertheless, some of those
new members stayed with us for some time, to some effect, and a few are
still with us to present day
Robbie Wood, Steve O'Keefe. Paul Cave, Ronnie Williams, Malcolm
McInyre and George Bate have all made their mark in Sefton, and were
part of the initial batch of new recruits. There were still a few
established members around to welcome the newcomers and make them feel
at home.
During our 100 years existence, there have from time to
time b members whose contribution has been particularly outstanding, and
who deserve a special mention when the story is being told.
One such person is Bart Woods. Bart, a young Irishman who was
following his profession as a teacher on Merseyside, joined Sefton
during the latter half of the 1960s, and during the next 10 years he
served as Captain 7 times, and was Secretary for 3 years, and was Club
Cross-Country Champion on 8 occasions. His dedication to the continuing existence,
and re-establishment of Sefton was enormous. He truly was the right
person in the right place at the right time.
Although of a serious nature in some respects, and not suffering
fools gladly; his kindliness and sense of humour inspired a re-kindling
of self-confidence in his fellow members, which helped us so much on the
road to recovery.
One of the features of the early 1970s was the encouraging
numbers of youngest who joined the Club. We were able to field Colts and
Boys teams for a few years; something that we had not been able to do
since the early 1950s. Despite the efforts of our senior members in
general, and Club Coach Jim McCaffery in particular, we were able to
unable to retain the majority of this promising talent. there were
several reasons for this. Being in a weakened position, we were unable
to provide adequate organisation which is so vital to running and
developing a successful youth section. Added to this was the usual
percentage of new runners who lose interest when the initial enthusiasm
wears off; and unfortunately a certain amount of enticement from other
local clubs who were in a stronger position than ourselves, and tempted
a few promising young runners over to their ranks.
Not all of these boys were lost, Robbie Wood, George Bate, Steve
O'Keefe, Malcolm McIntyre, Mike Travis and Kevin Patrick all
|