Handforth Wilmslow Alderley Athletics Club

Clara Edler - North West Fun in Athletics festival

Mark Norman [M] caught up with Clara Edler [C] a couple of weeks after the event ..

M: What is a Fun in Athletics Festival?

C: It’s indoors, a bit like a Sports Hall match but with different events like obstacle relay, over and under relay and high-stepper.

M: Which teams took part?

C: Well, Cheshire, obviously but also Cumbria, Greater Manchester,  two teams from Lancashire, two from Merseyside and even one from the Isle of Man.

M: A big regional event then.  Which events were you in?

C: I was in the hurdles relay, there were four of us in the team.  I also did the 2 X 1 relay and the high-stepper.  In the high-stepper there were three of us in our team.  (Clara was too modest to say, but I later found out she was the fastest Cheshire girl in this event.)

M: Did you know other members of your team?

C: No, they were all from other clubs, but we soon made friends.  I met a lot of them again at the Sports Hall match at Crewe.

M: Did you learn anything new?

C: I’ve only ever done hurdles in training, so this was the first time I’d really competed over hurdles.

M: How did the Cheshire teams do in the event?

C: The boys did really well they were second and the girls came fourth out of eight.

M: Any favourite bits?

C: I loved the running.  It was also fun at the end when we sat in rows while the results were announced.

M: Thank you, Clara.

 

Sporthall - Regional Final

 The finale to the Sportshall athletics season is a UK final at the NEC Birmingham between teams representing the regions of England and the other countries of the UK.  Before that county teams contest regional finals for the honour of representing their region. This year, two Handforth athletes, James Grannan and Joel Norman, were selected for the Cheshire team that gathered for the North West Final at Robin Park, Wigan on 22^nd February. 

James and his under-15s team-mates faced rivals from Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside, with Joel’s age group (under 13s) also including a team from Cumbria. The schedule contained most of the events familiar from the NW League with the addition of high jump and obstacle relay for the under-13s and paarlauf races in both age groups. There were girls team in both age groups too.

 

 

Joel with first up, having the dubious honour of being the first Cheshire boy to compete as he led off the obstacle relay.  His lightning start immediately put him in a good position and he handed over in 2^nd place to his team-mate, a placing that the Cheshire team held to the finishing line. His next event was speed bounce where, despite a couple of slips, he earned 6^th place with 71 bounces.  Joel’s final event was his least favourite, the 6-lap relay time trial, where he again came in 6^th out of the 12 runners.

 

 

James was also picked for speed bounce where his 77 bounces earned him a respectable 6^th place.  Next came the standing long jump where he achieved a best jump of 2.24m. Then it was on to his preferred track events, starting with the 4-lap time trial race. James’s sportshall experience showed here as he paced himself perfectly in the more competitive of the two heats allowing him to take fourth place overall for the event.  Finally there was the 8-lap Paarlauf, an interesting really in which 2 runners for each team run 4 laps each but in any combination of their own choice. The event turned out to be a stand-off between just two teams with Lancashire just beating the Cheshire pair to take maximum points.

 

And the final outcome?  With so many events and no team with an obvious clear advantage, it was impossible for the spectators to keep track of scores, so there was an excited buzz as the athletes assembled for the presentations.  In the end it turned out to be an extraordinarily successful day for Cheshire who took first place in three out of the four categories, and narrowly missed out in the under-15 boys event as there 635 points was just 9 behind the winners, Lancashire.  A shame for James, after his fantastic contribution to sportshall for Handforth, but an exciting day at the NEC in prospect for Joel.

 

Altogether this was a superb event.  The Cheshire team managers were positive and supportive. The final was extremely well-organised and conducted in a great atmosphere. And a final thought for our other athletes - compete in the league next season and you may be noticed by our county selectors!

 

Mark Norman

MAXCL - Match 5, Wythenshawe Park - 7th Feb 2009

Todays last race of the series clashed with the Manchester Schools Championships so this gave our runners the opportunity to gain a high placement for a final position. And didn't they just!

Wythenshawe is a flat course but the woods section holds a few very wet ditches ditches to catch the unwary runner out. Hannah u13Gs had a fantastic race settling in to 3rd place almost from the start. She held that position to the finish line never looking threatened, an excellent run.

Next was Kevin u13B, with perhaps too fast a start he soon dropped down to 6th place and a gap started to open up infront of him. Kevin percevered and made sure that gap wasn't too much. With 100m to go he had a huge effort to put in to gain another place. Yet again he kicked for the finish not only overtaking the runner in front but clinching 4th place at the finish line!

James u15B had a strong feild in front of him. He worked really hard keeping pace with 2 Warrington AC runners. Dropping back a little in the woods he nevertheless came out of the woods in 9th place with a strong sprint finish. He even jogged away from the finish line. Terrific run.

Full results and photos can be found here: Results and a few photos of my own here: Photos

The final series placements in the MAXCL are:

Hannah Cusworth u13G   10th

Kevin Acton u13B            2nd

James Grannan u15B       11th

These are great results. Terrific work by our three regulars.

N.W. Sportshall League Result - Round 4 – Widnes, 18/1/09

It was good to see so many new faces at our final Sportshall event of the season. Out of the ten athletes seven had not been to any of the earlier events of the season, even better, for the first time we were able to field a relay team in one age group.

 

In the Under 11 Girls age group we have to congratulate Cloe Atkins & Sophie Emsley who on their very first outing for the club produced some excellent results, Sophie recording the forth highest overall score in her age group.

 

Ewan McWalter had newcomer Daniel Bundred for company on this occasion and both had a good afternoon with Ewan taking second place in the 4 Lap Race and whilst he could not manage to equal his club record in the Chest Push (CP), he did beat the opposition to take first place with an excellent throw of 6.25m.   Daniel who has only been with the club for a few weeks also did very well and was placed forth in both the 2 Lap Race and the Standing Long Jump (SLJ).

 

The five strong Under 15 Girls team had a super day with Abigail Acton and Katie Wharton both setting two P.B.s, Abigail with 2.05m in the SLJ and 5.72m in the Standing Triple Jump (STJ), and Katie with 2.00m in the SLJ and 7.00m in the Shot Putt (SP).  Imogen and Emily Taylor (not related) both tried new events setting good marks for the future, Imogen recording 65 in the speed bounce to take 3^rd place.  However one of the best performances of the day came from April Gardner being the only member of the squad to take on the 6 Lap Race who after a real gutsy run in a very competitive race was placed 3^rd with a time of 1:44.2, so great was her effort and determination that she finished too exhausted to take her place in the relay team (the team did however manage a 3^rd place in the race).  On the day the Girls were the second highest scoring team in the league.

 

Not to be out done by the girls, James Grannan (U.15 Boy) once again put in a terrific performance taking first place in the 6 Lap Race and the Speed Bounce (equalling his club record) and third place in both the Standing Long Jump and Vertical Jump to finish off a cracking Sportshall season.

 

Our congratulations to all our athletes for supporting the club and on an excellent performance.

 

Mike Bullock

Indoor Athletics - Round 3

  30th November 2008 - Hazel Grove

     Jim has just dropped an official copy of the results round and I am glad to say that they tally with the ones our athletes reported at the time. 

Considering that we only had 5 boys and 2 girls competing they all put in some very commendable performances particularly our U.11 Boys. First Harry Sumner equalled the club Chest Push record of 5.50m only to have Ewan McWalter smash it by a mile with a massive throw of 7.0m and just to prove it was not a fluke he did it again with his third throw, great throwing by both boys to take maximum points in the event being 1st A and 1st B competitors.

All in all a pleasing day, pity we did not have a full team.

 

Full results can be found here: Results

 

Mike Bullock

 

Indoor Athletics - Round 4 - Results

27th January 2008, Kingsway Leisure Centre, Widnes

Unfortunately we had no girls representing Handforth! However there were some excellent results by the Boys as can be seen below. Full results can be found here: www.northwestleague.org

Age	Pos	Athlete	2LR	4LR	6LR	CP	SB	SLJ	STJ	VJ
U11 Boys	2	Fergus Taylor	29.2			5.0				43
U11 Boys	6	Callum McGerty		1:09.4			46			31
U11 Boys	10	Ewan McGerty	29.5				42	1.55
U13 Boys	3	Jamie Scobbie	28.6				76			38
U13 Boys	11	Harry Stobart	29.8					1.69		36
U15 Boys	2	James Grannan			1:29.1		75	2.16	5.89
U15 Boys	5	Jack Sleath	29.3		1:48.4		53	1.61

Graham Taylor

NW Sports Hall League Widnes 27th Jan

At Kingsway Leisure Centre, Kingsway, Widnes. For a map click here
Final match of the season starts at 12:00 noon, but please be at the centre by 11:30