Disappointing turn out for Port Runner at Borders The 5th round of this seasons Borders League took place at Christleton High school last Sunday with a poor turn out on the men’s side which threatened EPRC Division one status for next season. Thankfully after a few late phone calls a full team of 10 was present at the start of the 9.3 kilometre course which followed the same route as the fast Christleton 5K held each May. For the second round in a row the race was run by Buckley AC’s ever improving Clive West with West Cheshire’s Graham MacNEIL second.

First runner home for Ellesmere Port was Steve Crowe who finished 11th for the second time in the series in a time of 31.52. Ian Cooper was the second runner home for EPRC after finishing in 17th position.

Next home came Tony Hyland who’s strong finish lead him to 23rd position.

Danny Legg was the fourth finisher for the club securing 67th position. Dave Nalder was soon to follow after crossing the line in 71st position.

John Jennings showed signs of a comeback after finishing 93rd with his MP3 blasting out his ears during the race. Les Fleetwood was the 7th counter for the club after finishing in 105th position.

Making his Borders League debut was Paul Welsh who was a bit concerned before the race of the length of the course as Paul is usually use to longer distances, however Paul finished in a respectable 120th.

Another Paul making his debut was Paul Pinkham who gave an excellent account of himself finishing in 130th position for our 9th counter. Paul then jogged home 9 miles with our all important 10th counter Steve Blaylock (145th) as part of their London Marathon Training.

On the ladies team it was great to see a full team present thanks to two debut girls Karen Pearce and P Pulfryman who put on their orange vests for the first time and worked around the course well together finishing in 223rd and 224th position respectively. Alison Macdonald made up the team finishing 144th overall.