News

After 4 races the road club championship is coming to the boil, with only Guys 10 left on 1st December in Garstang nr Preston. The overall road champion for Clayton Harries in 2013 is likely to come from one of three men; Jonny McKenna who currently holds the advantage over Breton Holdsworth and Tom Brewster.

The V40 championship is being led by Paul Hesketh who looks unstoppable this year with a number of runners lining up for podium places including John Roche, Jason Pier, Steve Biscomb and John Wilcock.

The V50 champion is a 4 horse race and you can throw a blanket over all 4 men: John Roche, Steve Biscomb, John Wilcock & John Rusius.

Steve Biscomb is nailed on for the V60 prize as long as he completes Guys 10 with Ron Chappell & Jeff Pickup fighting the podium places.

The Ladies championship is a three way race between Irene Roche, Vicky Heys and Georgina Slater.

Guys 10 is going to be a belter so get your pre-entry in early and watch this space to see who is crowned road champion of Clayton Harriers 2013.

Clayton Harriers on the up!!! – Ron Hill 75th 5k (Littlebrough)

Wednesday night saw race 4 in the Clayton Harriers club championship and our members joined the legend that is Dr Ron Hill in celebrating his 75th birthday in style by competing in the Andy ‘o’ Sullivan organised 5k race at Littleborough.

The evening started with our captains Dave Motley & Tom Brewster being interviewed live on Radio Lancashire as part of the celebrations, followed by Ron Hill MBE. Lots of other members were being photographed, interviewed and filmed by the TV crews.

The race itself saw near to 400 runners competing in what now are regular Andy O’Sullivan 5k races from Littlebrough with the proceeds going to charity.

Team Clayton!

The route which is a twisty undulating route where runners have to navigate the roads of Littlebrough including a railway underpass and a flight of stairs. On the night I.Mcbride won the race in a time of 15:51. Clayton’s very own Jonny McKenna was not far behind in 4th, Capt.Brewster followed in 10th, Breton Holdsworth (13th), Nick Gaskell (18th), Dave Motley (27th). In addition it was a great night for the juniors with Leon Passco finishing 2nd U17 and Isaac Wilkinson 1st U11 in a fantastic 22 minutes! A number of other juniors posted new pb’s.

In total 39 members competed in Clayton colours and 8 out of the first 10 counters were senior members, this shows we are a club on the rise and we have a bright future.

The next races in the Club Championship are the Full Tour of Pendle in November followed by Guys 10mile in December.

The full results are available HERE and a selection of pictures can be found HERE

Saturday 21^st September saw the Northern 6 Stage Road Relays taking place at Stanley Park in Blackpool, 115 teams from clubs all over the North gathered in the picturesque park to complete 6 legs of 6.6km – racing against some of the best club athletes the North, our lads had a serious challenge on their hands!

As 2pm chimed the first leg runners lined up on the track to begin the event; first off for Clayton Harriers was Captain Tom Brewster, after a faster-than-usual start and subsequent drop-off he finished the leg with a typical sprint finish to regain some places lost on the way round.

Standing by to take over for the second leg was Lee Smith, taking up the challenge with enthusiasm to complete his first 6 stage relay.

Taking the “baton” from Lee was Terry O’Leary, never seen without a smile on his face despite the toughness of the fast 6k course.

 Running the 4^th Leg for Clayton was David Hogan, giving it his all in an excellent comeback to competitive running having not raced since the Hameldon Hill Fell Race at the start of May!

 With the clouds having moved on the temperature started to really ramp up, Richard Briscoe took to the course having no problem dealing with the excessive heat to complete the penultimate leg.

Clayton newcomer Adam Shaw completed the final leg taking the relay and the day to a close, voicing everyone’s feelings that it had been a very enjoyable day overall.

A pack of Haribo was produced as the Captains reward to the lads who each put in a sterling effort on their individual legs, after the dust had settled the team compared notes and comments such as “Did you see how fast that lad was running?!” and “He made me feel like I was stood still!” were rife as we’d faced off against some of the elite of the North. The results were released, Clayton were revealed to have achieved 71^st place overall; an excellent result and well done to the lads who represented their club!

Given that this competition includes 4 junior categories and a Ladies relay, more efforts will be made to enter as many teams in as many categories for the 2014 relays.

Full results for the event can be found HERE

Thanks to Road Captain Tom Brewster for this excellent report.