Port Runner on start line for Cheshire in Inter-Counties Ellesmere Port RC ace Nicky Bird once again put on the Black & Gold colours of Cheshire at this years inter counties cross-country championships that was staged in Nottingham last Saturday. The race aired live on Sky Sports was won by Middlesex and GB runner Hayley Yelling in 28.06 followed by Kent’s Charlotte Dale (28.12) and last years winner Kathy Butler (28.24) representing Scotland East.

Nicky finished the race in an impressive 76th position and was the 4th runner home for Cheshire in 32.10 behind Vale Royal’s Karen Ellison 59th (31.45), West Cheshire’s Laura Bestow 65th (31.55) and Vale Royal’s Olivia Renshaw 67th (31.58).

An early start on Sunday morning saw a strong field of runners present at the Trafford 10K in Carrington including two from Ellesmere Port.

The race was won in a speedy 29.28 by Salford Harriers ace Andi Jones who averaged 4.44 per mile. Second place went to Altrincham’s Andy Norman 29.45 with Fiachra Lombard of Woodford Green 3rd in a time of 29.53. There won’t be too many 10K road races in the UK this year that have a winning time of under 30 minutes so Tipton’s Matt Shaw finishing 4th in 29.54 confirms the quality of the runners at the race.

Steve Crowe was the first EPRC runner home in 21st place after dipping under 35 minutes for the first time in a personal best 34.57.

Twenty seconds behind Steve came Ian Cooper who has been struggling with a slight injury of recent but still managed a quick time of 35.17 to secure 24th position.

On Sunday afternoon five Ellesmere Port runners made their way to the Alfred Platt memorial Farndon 10K.

The race was run by ex Wrexham runner Luke Northall now representing Tipton AC in a time of 33.01 with Wrexham AC duo Mike Robins 2nd (35.00) and Clive Rowlands 3rd (35.09).

John Jennings was the first runner home for Ellesmere Port in a good time of 40.45 securing 34th position and 5th in the Vet 40 age category.

Les Fleetwood was the next runner home for the club in 42.12 for 47th position and was followed by Eric Corker who finished the race in 48.20 for 130th position.

Following on from their Border’s League debuts last week Pam Palphreyman and Karen Pearce both impressed again breaking the hour with Pam finishing in 57.16 for 205th and Karen just behind in 57.22 for 206th position.