Mid Lancs League

[petercrook]

Well done to everyone who turned out in the first meeting at Leyland.

We had a really good turn out at all levels and it was encouraging to see more athletes in the younger end of the juniors, particularly in the under 13 girls (7 athletes) and under 15 girls (9 athletes). We also had a team for the first time I can remember, in the under 11 girls (4) and had 2 under 11 boys running.

Well done to Rob Gillies and Tom Balshaw for turning out youngsters from their Wednesday evening group.

That said, the numbers being turned out from other clubs at under 11 (43 girls) far outweighs our own. I'm not sure if Pete Hancock, Aidan or Dave Tate, read the cross country section of the message board, but if they do perhaps we could discuss whether they think we should encourage more of the children who attend sports hall, to either come to the Avenham Park's Saturday morning training session, or compete in the Mid Lancs League.

My view is that the children have only one opportunity to train over the winter, and a number may welcome the chance to run in the mud at Avenham and compete for the club in the league. It may also keep more children interested over the winter. Ella Roberts and Tom Booth to name two, ran really well and thoroughly enjoyed their first cross countries on Saturday, having only recently decided to do an extra session a week.

Cross Country is a good introduction to competition. Although the distance may appear tough, the large course area and high number of competitors, make for a less pressurred environment than a track, were a less talented athlete, or one who has only recently started training may become isolated in front of a couple of hundred people in a stand and subsequently be put off athletics for good.

I will happily bring details of training times and dates of meetings to the sports hall if need be.

[SteveJ]

We did have a good turn out and there were a large number of seniors too, who ran for the first time - male & female. Well done, especially to Claire, Caroline & Kari from our Wed Group who ran and, I suspect thoroughly enjoyed it. There was also plenty of support out there on the course for all the races and that was good to see & hear. There was a good atmosphere around the tent and everyone was supportive of each other. I can only but encourage people to have a go and I`m sure Steve Mort & Dave Large who were positivey beaming afterwards realise now how enjoyable (and beneficial) it can be.
Well done to all of the youngsters too and there were some terrific efforts.
Pics have been sent in to the website

[Richard Blackburn Harriers]

Hi Steve

Thanks for the encouragement on Saturday - I missed the start waiting for the wife to get in and needed a little breather mid race.
Apologies for not responding as you passed me!

[SteveJ]

Next race is at BURNLEY on Sat 10th November so it would be great to have another good showing from all within the Club and if you fancy a run and didn`t do the first one at Leyland, then there are links etc on our own site under Cross Country and Mid Lancs League

[SteveJ]

Well done to all who ran @ Burnley - another good turn out, although some were missing...wonder why? Wind & rain = cross country, hey?
Next one at Liverpool is on 24th Nov and timings are earlier becuase it`s also a UKA Cross Challenge event - note has been sent in to web site advising of race times and this should be "up" soon. You will also need to collect DIFFERENT numbers for this race.

[davejroberts]

On the official entry form for Saturdays races at Sefton it says that 'no entries will be accepted on the day'.

Does this mean for all the different age group races are just particular ones???

Thanks
Dave

[Emma Deakin]

The usual procedure is that if you are entered for the Mid Lancs league then you are automatically entered in the race but your position wouldn't count for the Reebok series, just the Mid Lancs. Therefore, you don't have to worry about the reebok entry form if you are just taking part in it as a normal league cross-country event. Does that help?
Emma

[andy]

Any one can run on Saturday at Liverpool, dont bring your mid-lancs number you get a new one just for this race, please look for the harriers tent and we will have a number for you. The race times are different than normal they are as follows. Race 1 11.00am Boys and Girls U11 (9&10)
1.9 km One short lap plus start and finish straight
Race 2 11.15am Girls U13 (11&12)
3.0 km One medium lap plus start and finish straight
Race 3 11.30am Boys U13 (11&12)
3.0 km One medium lap plus start and finish straight
Race 4 11.45am Boys U15 (13&14)
3.0 km One medium lap plus start and finish straight
Race 5 12 noon Girls U15 (13&14)
3.0 km One medium lap plus start and finish straight
Race 6 12.15pm Girls U17 (15&16) and IAAF Juniors
4.4 km One short lap and one medium lap plus start and
finish straight
Race 7 12.35pm Boys U17 (15&16)
5.5 km Two medium laps plus start and finish straight
Race 8 12.55pm Junior Men (IAAF age group U20 on 31.12.05)
6.7 km Two long laps plus start and finish straight
Race 9 1.20pm Senior Women
8.1 km One short lap and two long laps plus start and
finish straight
Race 10 2.00pm Senior Men
9.8 km Three long laps plus start and finish straight
Hope this helps. There will be hand outs Tuesday at the track.

[aidan]

Pete,

I know it is a while since your post of 29th October, but I wanted to pick up on one of your comments.

The club also had a very low turn out for the recent 1st sports hall athletics match of the season. Overall we only had 17 athletes across all age groups (5 x u15 girls and 5 x u11 girls). We came 2nd overall behind Blackpool, which was remarkable considering we had so few athletes.

The club did well because we had some very good athletes competing (we won 3 athlete-of-the-match awards and secured virtually all the points in the U15 girls and most of them in U11's). But I am concerned that other clubs seem to be growing in the u11 - u13 age groups, whilst we are seeing a drop in U11 - U13 numbers. I am not involved actively with the u11's at the moment, because of work commitments and my involvement with Emily's football and so you will probably have a better idea than me as to what is happening with this group. I do know we have very few U13's in the club - especially boys - which is very worrying for next year's young athletes league.

- Aidan.

[davejroberts]

Thanks Emma & Andy. That was very helpful info.

Dave.

[petercrook]

Aidan

I completely agree that the lack of under 13's we currently have at the club is alarming.

I noticed over the summer the number of athletes Blackpool had compared with ourselves. The under 11's meeting at Burnley also highlighted our weakness in the even younger age groups, as have the cross country's with Wigan, Blackburn and Southport appearing to be increasing their numbers.

I honestly don't know what we do to encourage youngsters to get involved and in saying that I am not being critical of anyone, I just don't know.

If the trend continues we will be struggling to turn teams out in a couple of years time.

[petehancock]

Of interest, maybe?
We had 62 paid up u13's last season - 36 girls, 26 boys
I only have performances recorded for 14 girls and 13 boys.

In u15's 66 paid up members - 40 girls, 26 boys.
performances for 37 of them - 25 girls and 12 boys.

We have athletes who do not ever compete. Some have been coming for years!!
The notable thing is that once the youngsters start competing, and become part of a group that does so, they love it!

BUT they are scared to start. And we need to spend more time chatting to them and their parents so that they can be encouraged to do so. The middle distance group has a team of coaches involved, and I get the impresssion they are doing a good job of encouraging the youngsters to get out there!
In other areas (u11 and u15 general sessions) we are under so much pressure we have limited opportunity to talk to newcomers or their parents.
Hopefully our new greeters team may make a difference - we need to get the athletes we have competing, because we can barely cope with existing numbers coaching wise! (Although we do need more boys)

Pete H

[mackers]

I honestly don't know what we do to encourage youngsters to get involved

word of mouth is best ,the kids that enjoy it will be talking about it at school. other kids will go home, tell their parents and before you know it ,you'll be snowed under with new recruits.
. one of the first things mums n dads will do, is check out 'preston harriers' web site to get more info. and lets be honest ,its not the most up to date . other clubs have events on their web site the day after they happen .8 days later and i still can't find anything about the preston 10m ,a harriers event. the 1st cross country was 21st of oct and a report has only just gone on today. wheres all the pics showing what fun/athletics are about??
you've gotta be quicker if you want more members
daz

[SteveJ]

Yes, it`s about that first step - once involved they love it. We are competing against football, for eg which starts youngsters off at a very early age in team events. There are usually masses of youngsters playing on Penwortham Holme for eg on Sat ams as we head to XC training at Avenham. Some from the Club are helping out at a Preston Primary Schools event in a weeks time & the club will have some of our younger ones from sen school to talk about the Club, give out info, have some demonstrations too
Your point about the website is accepted. Bill knows this and he has had real issues with pressure of work...we`re all volunteers, but the message is valid Darren. Bill has a lot of contributions, news and reports etc (that should include Preston 10 and XC too) to get on the site and he hopes to have this done by weekend.
Any thoughts you (and anyone else?) have to improve would be welcomed

[Neil Mc Donald]

Start by saying what a good day was had, covered in mud,blood & sweat & having a great time! Must be mad, but then again I don't think anybody would doubt that of me!Looking at the results on the Mid Lancs Site there appears to be some names missing! Individuals who I know crossed the line before I did but are not recorded and would make a difference to team scores. Unless there is something I've missed could anybody explain this one to me? I think somebody has mislaid a time sheet?

Regards
Neil Mc D ;D