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The under 13 girls team of 43 Leanne Garrett, 42 Nicola Cooil, 44 Bronwen Kaneen, 45 Sophie Knox just missed another set of medals (Picture by Graham Davies)

and below, Leanne, Bronwen and Sophie in action (Murray Lambden)

Dear Murray

Just a short note to congratulate Manx Harriers on your show on the Senior Mens event at Blackburn. May I also add that I was very impressed by Keith Gerrard who looks as though he will have a promising future in Athletics. I watched the races on Saturday, I am am very poor cross country runner and pitifully stick to the roads. My club is Wesham Road Runners and I am the Press & PR person , I have attached a photograph of Keith if it can be of any use to you. We must be one of your closest club neighbours so best of luck to you all for 2004.

Best Regards,

George Kennedy

More pictures by Chris Quine of the Manx Harriers team that surprised themselves when they won the Lancashire Cross Country title on Saturday

22 year old Darren Gray set the team up well with a great 11th placing. His previous best place was 34th in 2002.

Preparing for a four hour cycle ride with Christian Varley the next day! Gianni Efipani is only able to run three times a week because of his back but he makes up for it with a huge amount of cross training including rowing and cycling. His 15th place on Saturday followed his 12th last year and backs up a 7th and two 10th place finishes.

Mr Cross Country. Andy Fox organised the North Wales v Shropshire v Isle of Man events in the late 80s and early 90s, the last 11 visits to the Lancashire Championships, plus numerous national, northern, Liverpool League and other events. Oh, and he runs a bit too! Apart from anything else he has run in 10 out of 11 of the Lancashire Champs (only missing out last year through illness) and his 16th place this year, although valuable to the club, was his lowest ever placing!

Murray Lambden waited a year for this day (after missing last year through injury not running for several months afterwards) and the 47 year admitted to a sleepless night before the race, partly because he thought he was developing a cold and partly through excitement at aiming for a top 30 place. His reward was 27th just two places below his best ever result in these championships.

Mike Garrett’s chances if getting even higher than a very creditable debut of 28th on his debut were destroyed on New Year’s Eve when he went down with a cold. He suffered before, during and after the run (15 hours sleep the following night!) but without him there would have been no gold medals.

The same can be said of Nick Percival who through injury and personal circumstances was not the runner we’ve seen during the past year. But he was no quitter and his 38th place was only 3 places worse than last year when a disappointing Manx Harriers performance had seen him as the third Manx Harriers scorer compared to the sixth this time out. Note Glenn Butterworth in the picture (clapping). Glenn was drafted into the squad as a last minute replacement for the extra training in the evening!

And 50 year old Dave Newton extended the winning margin by a further point over Clayton Le Moors. By finishing 52nd he pushed their final scorer down a further position to 59th. There were concerns that Dave, who had been on holiday the previous week, would not make it to the venue on time. We need not have worried as Dave, who is renowned for his impeccable personal organisation, arrived more than 20 minutes before the start of the race – suitcase in hand!

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