AS the cross-country season starts to draw to a close some St Helens Striders have started to mix both road races and cross-country.

Dennis Wharton ran a good race at the Four Villages Helsby half-marathon and finished in 78 minutes 30 seconds.

Brian Banawich, running 88 minutes 30 seconds, was the first of a pack of Striders only minutes apart. Les Abbott ran 89 minutes 12 seconds, closely followed by Ste Pickavance who ran a well-paced race to finish 90 minutes 10 seconds with Ken Bold running the 13-mile course in 91 minutes 10 seconds. Days later it was back to the country and four Striders made the long trip to South Shields for the North of England cross-country championships at Temple Park. In gale force conditions Ian White found his best form of the season to finish the three lap 11.7km course in 44 minutes 50 seconds and placed 232nd in a field of over 550 runners. Dennis Wharton finished 14 places back in 45 minutes 20 seconds, Brian Banawich was placed 371st with Leslie Abbott 454th.

To end a busy fortnight's racing Paul Demore and Dennis Wharton ran in the very popular Alsager five-mile road race and Paul was delighted with his personal best time of 27 minutes 30 seconds which is also a Striders club record for his distance. Dennis ran 28 minutes 50 seconds and is now ready for a well earned break.

Striders train at Ruskin Leisure on Monday and Wednesday evenings anyone wanting to train with Striders contact Les Abbott on 23160.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.