Les Fleetwood (left) and Danny Legg (right) in action at Borders League race.

Border’s League Resumes at Prestatyn This seasons Border League series kicked off last Sunday with 12 Ellesmere Port Runners making the trip along the North Wales coast to Prestatyn for the first of seven races that will be held at various locations on each side of the English and Welsh Border and raced by local clubs including Abergele, Wirral, Eryri, West Cheshire, Wrexham, Helsby and Buckley. Sundays race was an out and back promenade course measured to a distance of 10 kilometres, 6.2 miles in old money. The field consisted of 210 club runners. First runner home for Ellesmere Port RC was Ian Cooper who continued his excellent form from victory in Wigan last weekend by finishing 9th overall in a time of 35.06 just 2 minutes behind yesterdays winner Simon Shiels of Abergele who finished the race in 33.02.

Only seconds behind Ian came Steve Crowe who claimed his first Borders Top 10 finish by finishing 10th after a late surge saw Steve overtake veteran West Cheshire runner Gary Withers in the final few 100 metres to complete the race in a time of 35.11.

Denis Duret produced a fine run to become the third runner home for EPRC and claim an impressive 17th position in a time of 36.22. Tony Hyland was the fourth runner home for the Port in a very respectable 25th position in a time of 37.21. Paul Robertson is being to show signs of his true class by finishing in 30th position in 37.46 to become the 5th runner home for Eport in a league where each teams first 10 runners count in the points tally that determines the clubs league positions.

Club captain Matt Whitfield produced his quickest time over the 10K distance for a few years by finishing in a time of 39.15 for 53rd position and 6th counter for EPRC.
Matt was followed in shortly after by Chris Marshall who completed the course in 39.34 to take 60th position.

Club chairman Dave Nalder was the 8th counter for the club after tackling the course in a time of 40.39 for 80th position. Next runner home was Danny Legg who struggled slightly on the day to finish in 84th place in 40.51.

Les Fleetwood was next back for the club and the all important 10th counter finishing in a satisfactory time of 42.18 for 101st position. Next runner home for the club was Steve Blaylock who negotiated the course in a time of 43.00 to claim 109th place. Finally Alan Durston produced a gutsy run to finish in a time of 43.42 and 117th overall.

The results mean that Ellesmere Port is lying third in Division 1 behind West Cheshire and Wirral respectively. The other clubs in our Division are Buckley, Wrexham and Abergele.

The next round of the Borders League is hosted by us on 14th November and will be centred at Capenhurst Electricity Club.

The day before (Saturday 23) Chris Marshall took part in the Moel Pen-y-Bryn fell race in the Snowdonia National Park. Starting in the village of Penmachno and climbing 1250 ft in only 1.25 miles this race is short but extremely testing. Chris finished the 2.5 mile course in 29.05 to finish in third place.

Finally, Paul Robertson showed he’s returning to fitness by running the Great Cumbrian Run half marathon in Carlisle on Sunday 17th October and finishing in a time of 1.23.17 taking 50th position (8th Vet 40) in a quality field of some 996 runners.