Alison MacDonald at Castle Park

Happy New Year!!! The festive period saw Ellesmere Port RC runners in action on three occasions with the first outing on Boxing Day being the hugely popular Round the Wall’s race in Chester hosted by West Cheshire AC. With icy conditions present the course was altered for safety reasons to 4 laps of the famous Racecourse. The race was won by Stockport veteran Bashir Hussain followed by another veteran Andrew Green of Warrington AC (2nd), Mike Proudlove, City of Stoke AC (3rd) and Clive West, Buckley RC (4th). First EPRC runner home was Chris Marshall who tackled the course in 23.02 to secure 36th position. Mike Burns was the next runner home finishing in 23.49 to secure 55th position, Mike was followed by John Jennings 25.52 (103rd), Alison Macdonald 25.55 (106th) and finally Eric Corker 29.22 (206th).

Tuesday 28th December saw the start of the Cheshire Cross Country league kick off with a challenging course at Castle Park, Frodsham.

The ladies race was first to get underway with West Cheshire’s Laura Bestow winning the 4K race in 14.10 followed by Karen Elison of Vale Royal 14.41 and Claire Davies of Spectrum Striders 14.44

EPRC’s Nicky Bird was next runner home in the race finishing in a time of 14.54 to secure 4th position. Nicky was supported by Alison Macdonald who negotiated the course in 17.27 for 30th position.

On the men’s race that was raced over an increased distance of 7 kilometres Anthony Morgan of Trafford AC was the winner finishing in 22.07 with Tom Carter of Vale Royal 2nd and Michael Buntin of Wirral AC 3rd.

Danny Legg was first Ellesmere Port runner home after completing the muddy course in 28.32 to secure 58th position. Chris Marshall was next runner home for the club finishing in 29.10 for 66th position and Mike Burns with a few races now under his belt after a lengthy lay off through injury finished in 31.27 for 81st position.

New Years day saw six EPRC runners take part in the annual Thornton Hough to Willaston race which saw Buckley RC’s Clive West as the overall winner.

First EPRC runner home was Steve Crowe who negotiated the 3.5 mile course in 19.42 to secure 4th position. Next runner home for the club was Tony Hyland finishing 6th in 20.53, Tony was followed by Nicky Bird who finished 7th overall and 1st lady in a time of 21.00.

The other Ellesmere Port runners who completed the course were John Jennings, Matt Whitfield and Les Fleetwood.