On the 23rd November 1990 while cycling to work former Sefton Harriers secretary Dennis Stitt aged 42 was killed in a road traffic accident. A native of Northern Ireland Dennis came to Liverpool University as an eighteen year old, it was while at university he met and then later married a Crosby girl Rosie, they had two daughters Jenny and Kerry. Dennis settled in Crosby and found employment in the catalogue arm of Littlewood and was based in the John Moore’s center in Old Hall Street in Liverpool.
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A keen sportsman Dennis played in goal for Waterloo Grammar old boys as well as being their secretary. Dennis got caught up in the running boom of the early 1980s and run in one of the early London marathons. He would run from his home in Crosby to work in Liverpool most days and while on one of these runs he met Brian Flanagan who promptly signed him up for Sefton Harriers in 1981. It wasn’t long before Dennis became a regular face at club events and his love of music and football (albeit he supported Manchester United) made him an extremely popular guy. Within a year of joining the club Dennis was on the committee and was elected our first press officer. He later progressed to assistant secretary then becoming club secretary in the mid 1980s. Dennis regularly ran over 80 miles a week in training and was also a good standard club runner. He had best times of 54 minutes for ten miles, 1.56 for twenty miles and 2.44 for the marathon.
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In 1998 Dennis decided to move Holmfirth in West Yorkshire to take up a new post with a different company. I remember Dennis breaking the news to a group of us over a pint after a race. We were all surprised at this news and Alan Cadwallader asked Dennis to consider the implications of leaving such a large organisation like Littlewoods and the security it offered, however Dennis said he had already given his notice in and that was it.
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Dennis moved to Holmfirth later that year but unfortunately the job he took in Holmfirth never worked out as he imagined he did however find a new job working in Manchester for a catalogue company. This involved a daily commute of cycling and train travel and it was while cycling to work on that Friday morning he was involved in an accident with a heavy goods vehicle and was killed.
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In his short time in Holmfirth Dennis had once again got himself fully involved in his new club and had organised an annual fell race called the Victoria fell run this was later changed to the Dennis Stitt memorial fell race and is still run today.
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Although Dennis only spent a relatively short time at Sefton he mad a lasting impact and is still fondly remembered
