Welcome to St Helens Sutton Athletic Club

August Results 2006

Whalley Nab 6.5 Mile Road Race : 29 August

Sarah Charnock was second lady in this event which took place near Clitheroe but took first prize in the open section with a time of 50.55

Northern Plate Final - Cudworth - 27 August

The club took second place behind Holmfirth Harriers in the Plate Final held at the Dorothy Hyman Track at Cudworth near Barnsley. It was an excellent day with all those who replied to the invitation to compete arriving in plenty of time and the club's field event competitors putting us in the frame from the outset.

Steve Knowles cleared 1.85 to win the high jump, later setting a personal best 12.08 in the triple jump (second), Emma McClatchey equalled the club senior pole vault record with 2.40 for second place, Natalie Mullineux was over 20 metres in the hammer and Phil Robinson came within a fraction of 10m in the shot putt.

There were some last minutes swaps, Holly Keenaghan recording a personal best 9.30 in the triple jump before winning the high jump (1.45), Emma McClatchey set a junior ladies record in the javelin (25.15) and Vicky Davies  made 7.80 metres in the shot. Ben Fisher won the javelin (55.09) and Richard Atherton the long jump (6.13) before retiring with a pulled hamstring.

Ian Hayburn took fifth place in the 10,000m behind former Northern cross country champion Bashir Hussain, Craig Knight made a welcome return in 100 (2nd) after injury, Steve Moran's season ended with a splendid effort in the 200m while Greg Williams had a busy afternoon in the 800, 5000 and 110 hurdles, gaining one third and two fourths.

For the ladies Anna Howard made her usual sterling contribution, stepping up for the 100m and running two relay legs, Rachael Price ran brilliant bends in the 200 and 4x100 while Julia Eccleston set a season's best in the 800m. Although we had no hurdlers available Gill Laithwaite (1st - 3000) and Gemma Connolly (1500m - 3rd) pulled in the points while the relay teams both had the distinction of beating one of the pre-event hot favourites Spenborough.

All credit to the Yorkshire side they produced a solid 44 year old lady who hadn't competed for 30 years but pluckily got round the 400m hurdles in 114.2 without falling over  - as she proudly said later while recording 3.10m in the long jump. The spirit of having a go is not yet dead.

For once Phil Robinson wasn't doing seven events so the Decathlon Master threw in a leg of the 4x400 at the end recording a respectable 57.8 as all four athletes were within 1.2 secs of each other. Dave Twigg was fastest with 56.6 following his 10.32.96 win in the steeplechase only three seconds outside Greg Williams' existing junior record.

Ray Vose took on the 400 hurdles, though they looked to have fought back given the way he made his way gingerly to his car afterwards. Nevertheless he had a superb race sprinting over the final barrier to earn an extra point. John Appleton was third in the 1500m with a sprint finish while Tom Rigby, who won the non-counting 400m, ran splendidly in the relay. Tony Raffle, who also came to support. was third in the non-counting 400m

There was excellent support from The Fishers, The Keenaghans, Mr Connolly, George Mullineux (between night shifts!!!) and transport was provided by Emma McClatchey, Julia "Motorway Queen" Eccleston, Ray Vose, Phil Robinson (who had a couple of poles for company), The Morans, Mr Atherton and there were several young ladies in attendance. Phil Thomas was team manager. Results.

Birchwood 10K - Warrington 20 August

Five club members competed at Birchwood with Gill Laithwaite ( 37: 35.50) leading them home followed by Ian Costello (44: 36.17), who has begun a period of rest, Rob Marsh (68: 37.56), Gemma Connolly (97 : 38.48) and Joanne Marsh (433: 49.20). Results.

Open Track and Field Meeting - Warrington 20 August

Arnold Seddon Memorial Meeting - Wigan 13 August

The Club's youngsters turned out in far from perfect weather conditions to compete and achieve some excellent performances. Jonathan Causer made his debut in the under 9 age group recording 13.2(75), 2.28(600) and 2.57 (long jump). Brother Michael won the under 13 shot putt (6.13), long jump (4.18) and was second in the 100m final (13.7). Mike Jukes won the under 15 event in 12.3.

Other winners included Adam Fackey in the 800 (2.21.3) with Danny Hughes 2.22.9 second, to add to his second place in the 200 (27.8) and 8.60 (shot putt). Adam was fourth in the discus (22.92). Chelsea Jarvis took the Under 11 600 (1.52.8) and was second in the long jump (3.39) and threw the cricket ball 24.70. Other long jumpers included Chelsea Jukes (3.06) and Lucy Renshaw (3.35). Lucy also competed in the 600 (2.15.7).

Samantha Fraser (9.42 shot putt) and 1.55 (high jump) was second in both events with Josie Barrow (1.55) third in the latter. John Ashcroft cleared 1.35 and recorded 5.20 in the 1500m.

Kathryn Wilson (3.03.8) contested the 800 and 200 (34.0), Ellie Shacklady threw the cricket ball 14.58, ran the 600 in 2.50.7 with Sister Sally, competing in the next age group up, recording 2.19.7. Ellie also recorded 30.4 in the Under 11 150 and 15.0 in the 75m. Tricia Spark competed in  the shot putt (6.93), 100 (15.1) and 200 (31.8) showing the combination of speed and skill required of all athletes.

Phil Thomas came to watch and ended up as the high jump judge before disappearing to attend Austin and Margaret Tipping's 50th wedding anniversary where he proceeded to try and talk the entire family out of retirement and into competing for the club next season. If successful a whole host of new discus and shot putt records could be set!!

Many congratulations to Austin and Margaret on their Golden Anniversary. Austin and Margaret first came out of retirement in the 1970's to help the club's early forays into the Northern League, Margaret setting a British Veterans' discus record in the process and, on one famous occasion, there were five Tippings representing the club during the same weekend

AAA Under 15/17 Championships - Birmingham 5/6 August

David Forrester became St Helens-Sutton's first AAA's Champion by defeating arch-rival, Ross Millington (Stockport), by one one hundredth of a second in another classic 1500m encounter between the two, David edging to victory in 3.57.74. David joins Club President Billy McMinnis (Marathon : 1955), Lynton Boardman (Junior Long Jump : 1984), Sue Crehan (10,000 : 1987) and Margaret Astell (60yards and 100 yards : 1952) as a AAA's Champion. The club does not expect to wait as long for our next visit to the podium given the rapid development which is currently taking place across all areas of the club.

Thaddeus Anim-Somuah competed on both days, recording 11.4. in his heat to qualify for the semi-final where he recorded the same time, narrowly missing a place in the final. The following day Thaddeus competed in the 200m recording 23.9 in his heat. Josie Barrow took part in the high jump, one of the first events on Saturday morning, clearing 1.53 for equal thirteenth, the same height as that cleared by the eighth placed competitor. All three athletes intend to return for future championships.

Northern League Warrington 6 Aug

A weakened club team pulled out all the stops to clinch the division three championship with second place at Victoria Park, Warrington. It was a team effort with excellent individual contributions from high jumpers Steve Knowles ( a club record 1.93), Ben Fisher (winning with 1.80), Holly Keenaghan equalling her lifetime best and defeating Wirral's Vicky Milne with 1.50 and Emma McClatchey also equalling her own junior record with 1.40. Holly's effort in all three jumps was particularly brave as she is suffering from a burst eardrum but still came to compete.

Natalie Mullineux and Julia Hayes benefited from recent sprints training to set new hammer bests of 23.57 and 22.21 respectively. Alverty Chirwa won the B javelin (22.19) and was second in the shot with a pb of 7.21.

Emma McClatchey (2.20) won the pole vault, Jessica Cretu was splendid in the sprints and second in the discus, Chris Dickinson and later Tony Raffle took the burden of the A string 400 to allow youngsters Helen Grady and Tom Rigby the chance to compete at senior level without strain, Tom producing close to a personal best in the 800m.

Julia Eccleston produced a couple of fine sprint finishes to defeat Altrincham's Lucy Hickey, while Gemma Connolly ran an excellent 3000 (10.55.8), Sarah Charnock returning to competition to win the B string (11.35.5). Rachael Price provided excellent support in the sprints as did Anna Howard in both relays and the long jump.

Richard Atherton and David Griffiths contested the sprints, Richard joining Matt Shillabeer for maximum points in the long jump. John Appleton had a very busy afternoon including two second places in the hurdles in which Greg Williams reduced his personal best yet again with 21.2.

Phil Robinson won the hammer, B javelin, was second in the pole vault and discus while Ray Vose won the B discus and collected second place in the hammer. Michael Hughes completed a fine debut season by taking second in the shot (8.10). Steve Mayers tested the waters with the last leg of the 4x400m.

Ben Fisher completed a memorable afternoon with victory in the javelin before being dumped in the water jump in his capacity as team captain (it used to be the team manager but new Health and Safety Guidelines mean that people over a certain age cannot be dumped in the water jump without first being provided with goggles, flippers, oxygen cylinders and the air ambulance rescue service on immediate standby and on this occasion John Irwin refused to sanction the expenditure).

The team manager was the unusually quiet Phil Thomas and our officials were (variously) John Irwin, Dave Morley, Julia Hayes, Tony Raffle, Sam Fraser, Clare Fraser, Michael Hughes, Janet Holmes and George Mullineux with excellent parental support from Mrs Keenaghan and Willow, Mrs Cretu and Meggy, The Fishers, The Hughes' and Danny, Richard's law student girlfriend and others to whom apologies if I haven't mentioned them.

The final senior match of the season will be the Plate Final on 27 August at Cudworth where we will be hoping for a full turn our so we can give it a good go as champions of division three. Results  Pictures
Club Results