Newsletter as word document

 

Report on County AGM

As a result of the County AGM held on 23 February, the Officers of the Association are :

 

President : George Bunner MBE (Halton & Frodsham)

Chairman : vacant

Vice Chairman : Peter Allen (Halton & Frodsham)

Secretary : Brian Warren (Halton & Frodsham)

Treasurer : Bill Smith (Halton & Frodsham)

Permit Secretary (all events) : Adrian Thiemicke (City of Stoke) - for all events up to December 2006 or until new information becomes available.

Officials Secretary : Joe Shellhorn (West Cheshire)

Coaching Co-ordinator : Eddie Gore (West Cheshire)

Track & Field Championship Secretary : John Ashton (West Cheshire AC)

Cross Country Championship Secretary : Bob Lynch (Macclesfield)

Multi-events : J Lethbridge (Handforth)

Web site Master : Ashley Pritchard (Macclesfield)

 

Julie Hicken (Warrington) and Shaun McGrath (Vale Royal) are regular attenders at County committee meetings and take on jobs on behalf of the Association.  Tony Hulme (Wilmslow) looks after Fell running and along with Julie, Shaun and Adrian, Richard Mitchell and Marcus Walker have acted as Team Managers during the year and will be doing so for the imminent (and probably very muddy) Inter Counties Cross country championships.

 

Each club is invited to send a representative to our committee meetings - details at the end of this Newsletter.  We would like to see some new faces.  If anyone wishes to consider acting as Chairman would they please contact the Secretary.

 

The Future :

Hopefully the following accurately summarises what is likely to happen in the next few  weeks and months.

 

1.   AAA of England AGM, 18th March :  clubs will have received details and also a statement from the NoEAA in their Newsletter, reinforced by a letter from Charles Gains (Interim Chair NW Region) to exercise their votes preferably for George Bunner as Chairman; Graham Jessop as Treasurer and John Temperton as Chairman of the English Cross Country Association.  These suggestions were endorsed at the County AGM.  If votring by Proxy you can use the name of Mr B Parker as your proxy.  Proxy votes need to be at the AAAofE Offices in Birmingham by 1pm on Thursday next (March 16th).

 

2.   England Athletics : the secretaries of all clubs, leagues and associations will have very recently received a short letter from England Athletics indicating that they become responsible for athletics in England from 1st April this year.  All clubs etc are automatically affiliated to this new body, but can if they so wish, disaffiliate in writing to athletics before 1st April.  Our advice is NOT to do so.

 

3.   North of England AA : in the new structure it is expected that the North of England AA will become a competition-only provider (e.g. Northern championships, Northern T&F League.  However, there will be a transition period up to the end of 2006, during which the North of England will carry on its administrative role that it has done since its inception in 1992.  The main part of that for clubs is the issue of Permits for events which is carried out on their behalf by Counties (in our case, by Adrian Thiemicke).  As agreed at a NoEAA General committee meeting in November 2005, it is the intention of the NoEAA to collect affiliation and membership fees for 2006/07 which will take the sport up to the start of the English Athletics membership scheme in 2007.

 

4.   North West Region (based on information from Charles Gains, the North West Chairman) : at present the North West Region has not appointed a Regional Manager; the post has been re-advertised.  Nevertheless the North West is commencing on the process of arranging elections to the North West Council in line with the other 8 Regions in England.  The time table is as follows : from April 1st to 21st May nominations will be invited from clubs and member organisations for the Council.  Voting will take place between 21st May and 24th June organised by The Electoral Reform Society.  The NW Council will probably consist of at least 6 elected members with up to 5 co-opted members.  This will be the clubs opportunity to influence who they wish to be on the NW Council which in its first year will probably have a budget of £200,000 to allocate to athletics in the North West.  Charles Gains has already indicated what he sees as priorities (coaching, communication, competition) but it will be up to the elected council to decide probably within a broad framework set by England Athletics.  Charles has listed a number of additional items which he has asked his advisory group to comment on - if you have any comments, or wishes for the future please let me know and I can then feed them back to Charles.  This is a substantial change of approach from the present way of doing things and you, the clubs, have the opportunity to become involved and influence the direction and development of the sport.  It is expected that further details will be provided to clubs either by England Athletics and/or the NW Region.

 

Successes.

In the National Cross Country championships at Parliament Hill fields on Hampstead Heath, North London, the Warrington Under 15 Boys team returned home with bronze medals, with S Broadhurst first home for the team in 11th position.  The best individual position was 10th achieved by Hannah Weedall of Vale Royal in the Under 17th Ladies race (the Vale Royal team were just outside the medals in 4th team place).  The Warrington Under 15 girls team were 6th in their event.

Hannah Weedall’s performance gave her selection for the English Schools Girls team in Italy in April where she will join the Helsby High Schools Boys team (see last month) in a festival of schools international cross country races.  I suspect her grandfather, Brian Hall, one of our Vice Presidents and a former international athlete, will be very pleased.  Brian has worked very hard to obtain improved athletic facilities in the middle of the County and moves to get a synthetic surfaced track at Knight’s Grange, Winsford are progressing well thanks to Brian’s efforts.

The National Junior Indoor championships produced a silver medal for Hannah Hewitson of Vale Royal in the Under 17 Ladies triple jump.  It was also pleasing to note a return to good form for Craig France (West Cheshire) in the Under 20 60m Hurdles with 7th place in the final, after some time out with injuries.

 

Awards

Congratulations to Bill Consterdine(formerly Chairman of Cheshire County Schools AA and a well known starter) for being awarded some Oscars!  Seriously Bill collected four awards at the Crewe & Nantwich Mayor’s Oscars night which included one for his “tireless work in the Cumberland Regeneration Action Group, set up to return the sporting venue to former glory”.  Bill was at the forefront of ensuring that the athletics track at Crewe did not disappear when it needed substantial refurbishment a few years ago and recently returned to use with an improved infield.

 

Forthcoming County Championships

 

Track & Field Championships 2006 - Warrington, 13/14 May (Championship Secretary ;  John Ashton)

 

Track Relay Championships 2006 - Macclesfield on SATURDAY 1st July. (Championship Secretary : John Driscoll - we have had 2 suggestions for these, namely to make all of the 800 metre relay events 3 legs and to introduce medley relays.  Your comments would be appreciated as we will probably have to cut out some events if we include medley relays).

 

Young Athletes Combined Events : 10 September at Macclesfield

 

NoEAA Inter-county T&F Championships : although in previous years held at Cudworth, South Yorkshire, this year they have been moved to Gateshead, on Sunday , 30 July.  The County is looking into travel logistics,

 

North West Counties Road Relays : 16th september at Stockport (Hosts ; greater Manchester).

 

Cross Country 2007 - recommended dates are 6/7 January - any course offers??

 

Dates for Inter County and English National CC Championships in 2007 have been reversed compared to recent years :  Inter County 24 February (venue?) and National on March 10th (at Sunderland)

 

Road Running Championships 2006.  10km at Guilden Sutton, nr Chester, 24 September 2006 and Half marathon at Macclesfield on 1st October 2006

 

To ensure that all organisers get a chance to offer their event in good time, we are still inviting offers to host these road running championships in 2007 (we have had one offer so far for the 10K)!

 

Cheshire Schools Championship Dates :

 

English Schools CC championships at Mansfield on 25 March.

 

Cheshire Schools T&F Championships : June 10th at Macclesfield.

Cheshire Schools Minors : provisionally 27 June at Ellesmere Port (Stanney Oaks track).

 

Cheshire Road Running Grand Prix.

Adrian is still struggling to set dates/events for the remainder of the GP series (after Wilmslow) which take note of comments from organisers about changes of event and to spread events round the County a bit more, try to avoid evening races, etc.  Having had a go myself to make some suggestions at the request of Adrian I then realised what a limited distribution of events we have in Cheshire both in terms of location (mostly round the edge), in date and distance distribution (where are the 10 milers we used to have?).  So let us be patient while Adrian deliberates.  [I am also keen to learn the venues as we will be using these events to pilot the National Handicap Scheme which has produced some very interesting results in the first 2 races]

.

Contact details for the co-ordinator, Adrian Thiemicke  (e-mail : roadracegp@cheshireaa.com  Tel : 01270 569012)

 

Road Race Fixtures (in Cheshire).

Forthcoming road races in Cheshire which have been notified to Adrian Thiemicke and Permits have been/will be applied for are :

 

19 Mar   Wilmlsow ½ marathon (M Fowler  01625 434235) Cheshire GP race

26 Mar   Cholmondeley Castle 10K (Crewe & Nantwich BC 01270 537232)

5 Apr      Chester Spring 5 mile (NOTE date/day change)

16 Apr    Runcorn-Hale Bridge 5 mile (W Sergeant  0151 724 3171)

16 Apr    South Cheshire 10K (Simon Walker 07722 605362)

23 Apr    NSPCC Sandstone Trail 10k, Beeston (Andrea Beaumont 01829 732994)

30 Apr    Whitley 10K (C Straw  01925 730419)

12 May   Christleton 5K (R Bailey, 01244 300571)

21-May  South Cheshire 20 mile, near Crewe  (D McGrath  01270 841351)

21 May   Chester ½ marathon (Chester City Council 01244 402273)  ALMOST FULL UP

3 Jun     Pete Lowe Mem 5K (J Spencer 01925 818807)

23 Jun  Tattenhall Tough Team Race (L Woodley 01829 770770)

24 Jun  Lymm 5K (Dr J Spencer  01925 818807)

29 Jun   Warrington RR 10K (M Molloy 01925 243993)

5 Jul  Forest Park Ladies 5K  (A Garnett 01606 888319)

2 Aug     Pie & Peas 5 mile MT (Vale Royal AC)

20 Aug  Birchwood 10K  (A Garnett 01606 888319)

23 Aug  Capenhurst 5K (S Blaylock  0151 356 4299)

24 Sep  Antrobus 10K (Rosie Harris  01565 733487)

24 Sep Sutton 6 10K, nr Chester County Champs  (R Batterham  01244 300107)

1 Oct  Macclesfield ½ marathon County Champs (R Lynch 01625 829229)

8 Oct  Congleton ½ & ¼ marathons  (P Doyle  01270 270160)

15 Oct  D Lloyd 10K, Ellesmere Port  (R Knight  0151 200 3943)

4 Nov  Langley 7 mile, nr Macclesfield  (R Pleeth  01625 502939)

 

Cheshire Cross Country League

Although not part of the Cheshire County AA organisation, (but a Cheshire club or Association), the League does provide for much needed cross country competition for those Cheshire clubs which choose to take part.  Over the past 12 months there has been a move to rationalise cross country leagues with the creation of a “Manchester Area” League by merging the Manchester & District, North West Women’s and Cheshire Cross Country Leagues.  The AGM of the Cheshire League is being held on Tuesday 11 April at the Community Centre, Fluin Lane, Frodsham.  This meeting will decide the future of the Cheshire CC League

 

Pole Vault Day

We have had notice of a day of Pole Vaulting at Sports City, Manchester on Saturday, 25 March - novices to Internationals (Britain vs France) will be present.  Further details : dave.allister@googlemail.com

 

UKA Coaching Courses :

Below are local ones to Cheshire.

Level 1

1/4/06               Wavertree  (NW087)

08/04/06            Cumberland Arena, Crewe (NW083)

29/07/06            Sportcity, Manchester (NW082)

27/01/07            Widnes  (NW086)

 

Children in Athletics

2/4/06               Stanney, Ellesmere Port (NWCiA36)

8/4/06               Wavertree (NWCiA32)

4/11/06             Widnes (NWCiA037)

 

Fitness in Running & Walking

8/10/06             SportCity          (NWFIRW05)

 

Level 2Core

03-04/06/06       Cumberland Arena, Crewe (NW228)

 

Level 2 Event

22/04/06  Speed/Throws            SportCity, Manchester

23/04/06  Endurance/Jumps       SportCity, Manchester

 

Level 3 (phase 1)

 

Level 3 (Phase 2)

25-26/03/06                   Sport City  (NW3C2004)

 

Level 4

29/30/04/06  Ph2           SportCity, Manchester (NW4C2002)

 

Strength & Conditioning Module,

 

Please book your place with Tony Airnes (Tel : 01253 358168 or e-mail : tairnes@ukathletics.org.uk) well before the date of the course.

Details of courses at other venues can be found on www.ukathletics.net

 

 

Eddie Gore (Tel : 0151 513 5606), is he Cheshire County AA Coaching Co-ordinator

 

 

 

TRACK and FIELD OFFICIALS COURSES

The courses planned for 4 March did not take place, but have been rearranged for Thursday 20 April at the community Centre, Fluin Lane, Frodsham starting at 7pm.

The County Officials Secretary has notified those who had signed-up to the March 4th courses.  Any additional persons who are interested should book with : joseph.shellhorn@tesco.net  or  01244 679196)  There is a nominal charge of £5 which is returnable on passing the written examination

PLEASE advertise to those in your club who might be interested.

 

 

 

Last time in the NEWSLETTER I asked some questions of readers :

Is it of use?? Is it of interest??  Is it widely read??  Could you get by without it??  Would County Athletics suffer if there wasn’t a Newsletter??

I had only one response; presumably that tells me something about the questions. 

I am still hoping that some one else will be willing to take on the editorship.

 

Contacts

Michael Hunt, Regional Development Co-ordinator for NW England.  He is based at Sports City, Gate 13, Rowsley Street, Manchester  M11 3FF. Tel : 0161 230 8184; Mobile : 07968 498710; e-mail : mhunt@englandathletics.org 

 

Communications

Please ensure your club members see this Newsletter.

The next County committee meeting is : April 26th at Frodsham Community Centre, Fluin Lane at 7:30pm.

Subsequent meetings will be :

17th May, 14th June and 19th July at Knights Grange, Winsford all at 7:30pm

ALL clubs are entitled to a representative at these meetings.

 

Editor - John Driscoll (0151 339 5341 or, preferably, jld@sunnyfield.co.uk). 

 

Remember to look at :    www.cheshireaa.com 

 

Ójohndriscoll (10/3/06)